1 Thessalonians 2:19

Heaven is a home, a place of company. The blessed Lord who has prepared that home of love will always have the first thought and the first place. Yet He Himself will connect the brightest scenes in glory with the darkest days of the wilderness. At the very moment when Satan was stopping him from visiting his beloved Thessalonians, who were badly persecuted, he looked beyond those troubled times. He saw his children in the faith around him in the glory.

It is called the "crown of rejoicing" (1 Thess. 2:19). The apostle looks forward again to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He looks on to those Thessalonians, converted through his preaching, standing before Him in His glory on that day. They were his glory and joy now, and his crown then, a crown he could rejoice or boast in, for that is the sense of it. We may well ask ourselves this: can we look forward to the coming of Christ with the same gladness, thinking of anyone God has used us to bring to conversion, standing before Him in that day?

Notice here that the special fruits of our labours are not lost. They are found again at the coming of Christ. Our chief personal joy is to see the Lord Himself and to be like Him. That is the portion of all saints. But there are also particular fruits tied to the work of the Spirit in us and through us... So God would crown the apostle's work. He would bear striking testimony to its faithfulness in front of all these saints in glory. And the love that had worked in Paul's heart would find its satisfaction: it would see the people it loved in glory, in the presence of Jesus.

All you Thessalonians will be there; I shall see you there, you among whom I have laboured... People sometimes ask, Shall we know one another? Clearly Paul had no doubt about it: then he would know these loved Thessalonians. Paul saw the Lord as his Light and his Hope, and it was not inconsistent for him to think as well of meeting those among whom he had laboured. How this thought makes the scene a home scene.

Reward is for our labour: as to our place, we all get the same glory as Christ... The Thessalonians will be Paul's crown, but they will not be ours; that is clear. We do not know how this will happen. But in glory Paul will have them as his crown, and he will not take away Christ's crown. Grace did it all. Still, Christ is pleased to reward faithful labour — owning not me, but the grace of God that is in me.

And further, when the believer receives a crown or crowns at the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no flesh to be puffed up. The crowns will be cast at the feet of Him who awarded them — the One whose grace worked this fruit in the believer for His praise.

What encourages love that suffers and toils along the road? "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?" Circumstances matter little to true ministry in the grace of Christ. Trial shows how far above circumstances it stands. Afflictions only prove its strength... One comfort never fails, and nothing else is enough: those who serve and those they serve will certainly meet again, in the day when all opposition will vanish.