Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 1 Thessalonians 2:9 (NIV)
The gospel will not travel far on the shoulders of Christians who are motivated by their own comfort.
If comfort had been Paul’s criteria for success, he would have abandoned the first missionary journey when they were thrown into prison in Philippi. The gospel would never have come to Thessalonica, and you wouldn’t be reading this today.
How would you know if you are motivated by comfort? The person who is motivated by comfort is always asking: “What am I getting out of this. Am I enjoying this ministry? Is it fun? Do I like the other people? Do they like me?” When you ask these kinds of questions, you are asking “Is it comfortable?” You are working with a false definition of success: Success = comfort.
The whole point of what Paul is saying here is that comfort is a false measure of success. So if this has become your measure of success, what would repentance look like? It means ditching these questions and embracing a new definition of success.
What matters is not the comfort of your life, but the advance of the gospel through your life and ministry. Those who are bearing the greatest pain right now are a runaway success in the eyes of God. Loving while bearing pain is a reflection of the glory of Christ, and that’s success.
In order to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, you have to overcome the desire for comfort.
What are some new questions you could start asking?
