Don’t you love those sideline interviews with coaches right before halftime at football games? The reporter will say, “Coach, your team is behind, what do you need to do differently in the second half?” Invariably he will respond with some version of, “Well, we need to stop them from scoring, and score more points.” No duh, right? The fact is, though, the game really does come down to just a few fundamentals. More advanced teams don’t do more stuff, they just do the same basic stuff better. This verse in 1 Thessalonians has the same idea. Paul had only a few weeks to teach this new church before persecution ran him out of the city. But he doesn’t write to them with a whole bunch of new rules and commands. He says, in essence, “remember the basics of what we taught you—faith in Jesus, love for one another—and just keep getting better at those things.” The Christian life isn’t complicated, it’s really just more of the same—more faith in Jesus, more love for people, every single day.
– Ken Roach