“That game was awesome!” “The dinner was amazing!” These may be words we often use to describe
something we appreciate or enjoy.
However, through overuse of such words, when that which is truly awesome
comes along, we run out of adjectives that capture the moment with sufficient
potency.
In his second letter to the Christians
in Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul praised them saying, “We ought always to
thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is
growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is
increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3, NIV).
In his expression of gratitude, Paul used a word containing such potency
that it can be found only here in all of Scripture. It is a word that leaves me challenged.
What is translated concerning their
faith as “growing more and more” may more literally be rendered hyper-growth. The word describes a level of development
that surpasses the typical and ordinary; it describes a growth that even moves
beyond the perceived potential of an object.
In other words, Paul was affirming the Thessalonians as maintaining a
faith that continually grew at immeasurable rates far beyond what seemed
possible, reaching the extreme limits.
Faith is not a mere set of beliefs, nor
a stagnant state of being or abstract way of looking at things. Faith ought to exist as an ever-maturing,
extreme trust in the person of Jesus Christ that compels us to action. Such trust does not passively develop in isolation and
inactivity, but with intentionality and in community.
