"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?"


BIBLE READING: 1 Thessalonians 2

The tender heart of Paul suffered keenly in his forced absence from those beloved converts.  He had cherished them as a nurse cares for her children.  He would have gladly imparted to them his own soul.  He sought to see them again but was hindered by hurtful spiritual forces that were very real to him.  He found comfort, however, in the thought that at the Lord's coming he would be reunited with them, and they would be his joy as now they were his hope. 
There is a further thought.  The souls he had won for Jesus were to constitute his crown.  It was as though they would be woven into a wreath like that given to the ancient athletes and placed on his head as he emerged from the terrific conflict of his life.  He looked forward to the time he could cast the wreath before the feet of Jesus.  What an incentive this was.  Each soul plucked from the enemy would be another jewel for the Master's crown and within it a fresh source of heavenly blessedness to him.
On this verse, Adam Clarke said, "I can have no prospects from earth; I have forsaken all for the Gospel; and esteem everything it can afford as dross and dung, that I may gain Christ. Why then should I continually labor at the risk of my life, preaching the Gospel? Is it not to get your souls saved, that ye may be my crown of rejoicing in the day of Christ? For this I labor; and, having planted the Gospel among you, I wish to take every opportunity of watering it, that it may grow up unto eternal life."

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