This idea that God trusts, as presented in my most recent book review, and that he believes in me has returned over and over in my mind. I find it so encouraging! Today I wanted to look at some of the Bible accounts that may help shine light on this idea. Instead, when I opened my drafts document, my eyes fell on this verse, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, ‘On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.’

That word trust jumped off the page at me. To be entrusted with the gospel. In the post where I jotted down this verse, it referenced this ‘approved’ part of the verse. It seems to say that God approves us to then give us the gospel and we work to please God who tests us. Wait, we were approved and now we are tested?

This idea of approved and tested now makes sense. I only hope I can explain why this doesn’t seem so outlandish or contradictory anymore.

Tested and Approved

First, let’s look at the Greek word for approved, from the HELPS Word-studies of the Bible Hub:

Cognate: 1381 dokimázō (from 1384 /dókimos, "approved") – properly, to try (test) to show something is acceptable (real, approved); put to the test to reveal what is good (genuine).

1381 /dokimázō ("to approve by testing") is done to demonstrate what is good, i.e. passes the necessary test. 1381 (dokimázō) does not focus on disproving something (i.e. to show it is bad).

The word approved, as it turns out, has the same root word as what we translate as ‘tested’. It is exactly the same as the above. So, when we consider the verse again, ‘On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts,’ we find that we have been tested and found authentic and genuine. That testing, according to the definition, is not done to show that something or someone will fail, but to demonstrate that that someone passes the test. It is more a confirmation than a 50-50 chance of something.

If we meet our best friend for coffee every week and every week ask what they want to drink and she orders the same thing every time, you are fairly certain what she will order. It seems that is the kind of testing this is, I’m pretty sure I know how this is going to go, but I want to affirm it or approve you.

God says, I know you and I trust you, how you will respond to the test. God is fairly certain that you will pass the test with flying colors. If he wasn’t certain, he probably would keep working his Spirit in you and try you in some other way, to build you up. See, his testing builds us up; it doesn’t tear us down. He wants us to grow and move forward, he helps us to do it, through the indwelling of his Spirit. He affirms you.

Entrusted

The next word that we should look at is ‘entrusted’ in Greek .

4100 pisteúō (from 4102 /pístis, "faith," derived from 3982 /peíthō, "persuade, be persuaded") – believe (affirm, have confidence)

From this, we see the root is believe, affirm and have confidence. The specific use for the verse in 1 Thessalonians actually says, ‘to intrust a thing to one’. So, here I want to consider the definition of the word in English, just be sure I understand the word.

Cambridge Dictionary says the verb means ‘to give someone a thing or a duty for which they are responsible’. So the gospel is given into our care, under our responsibility, because we have been tested and approved and will be again tested and found authentic.

God trusts us

It seems that all of these words, tested, approved, entrusted, say that God trusts us to do as he wills and so he does indeed trust us to carry out part of his plan, the gospel. He trusts us. He trusts you.

That may seem scary. He trusts me? Yes, he does. But he does not leave us alone in the doing. He has filled us with his Spirit to guide and work alongside us, co-laboring with us in what he has entrusted to us, living the gospel life. Paul was part of the original ‘we’ who was entrusted the gospel as a job – evangelizing. All of us are entrusted with living out the gospel in our lives and being the salt of the earth. However, each of us may have a different primary work entrusted to us by God, with the salt and light of Christ shining through by living the Spirit-led gospel life while doctoring, mothering, cleaning, teaching, etc.

Consider Job

This account begins with an introduction into the kind of man Job is, then cuts to the heavenly scene with God on his throne. He encourages Satan to consider Job. He goes on to state, ‘There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil,’ (Job 1:8). If I hear these words, I hear God is confident in Job. Could we say God even trusts him to be a man who shuns evil and fears God? I think the dialogue gives us that impression.

Satan then asks to test Job, predicting Job will not respond as a God-fearing man. God permits this trial but tells Satan not to harm Job himself. (Job 1)

If we consider the above verse from the New Testament, we might concede that Job is approved and going through another trial which will affirm God’s trust in him.

Job ‘passes’ the test and is affirmed, as perhaps God expected. Satan is none too happy about it and challenges saying that a man will behave differently if his body are harmed. God permits this as well, again limiting Satan’s acts, this time to sparing Job’s life. (Job 2)

The trial increases, but God had confidence in how things would turn out. God affirms Job’s responses to his trials (Job 42:7) and admonished the friends who had spoken ill of God.

The dialogue in this account helps us see that God demonstrates confidence in Job and is perhaps easier to see that God trusts him.

Consider Abraham

Let’s consider a difficult story. At least, I find it a difficult story when we speak of child sacrifice. But what if we consider the relationship that Abraham had with God form the beginning? Already in Genesis 12, we find that God spoke to Abraham, and he obeyed. He challenged God that maybe he could find righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:16-33), showing that Abraham was a thinking person and not just a simpleton.

Yet we also know that Abraham lied about who his wife was (Gen. 12 and 20), calling her his sister – twice! Abraham also had a child with his wife’s servant rather than waiting for God’s plans to unfold with his own wife (Gen. 16).

God had reason to believe in and also to doubt Abraham. But perhaps God had enough trust in Abraham to test him in this way – such trust that he was fairly certain how it would go, but there was still that small bit of doubt.

Is it still a cruel and difficult passage if we consider that God trusted and believed in Abraham’s faith? Abraham responds to God’s call to sacrifice his son. The next day. He does not dally or try to convince God to change his mind. I think I would have done both, and so perhaps my faith is not the faith of Abraham. Increase my faith, Lord!

Perhaps this is the faith of a relationship, they both trust the other immensely. God is about to entrust the entire Israelite family line to this man – he trusted. Abraham is about to sacrifice that line – he trusted.

We don’t have the benefit of the dialogue we had in Job’s story. Who was approved in the end? Was it a test only for Abraham? It seems that Abraham’s trust in God (faith) was also affirmed. God was affirmed by Abraham and Abraham was affirmed by God as I see it now.

God approved Abraham and entrusted the life of Isaac and the future Israelite nation to him. Abraham also demonstrated that he entrusted his life and the life of his child to God.

God approves you

God approved you and has entrusted you with his plans. He trusts you and believes in you to carry them out and has sent his Spirit as a seal of his presence as you co-labor. 1 Thessalonians 2:4 implies that the approval is on-going, yet also testing is perhaps on-going. But knowing that he tests and approves and has sealed me with his Spirit gives me the courage and enthusiasm to reach for the Spirit’s hand and go forth to do his will. Trust the Lord and do good (Ps. 37:3).

This article is a bit longer than usual, but wow it gets me excited about God! What do you think of God trusting you and believing in you? Drop a line in the comments and share what you think.