Paul seeks to inspire the Thessalonians with a vision of God’s kingdom and glory. This is powerfully illustrated in the life of Augustine, who became bishop of Hippo in North Africa in AD 396 and served in that capacity for thirty-four years. In the years before his conversion, Augustine lived a sexually immoral life and felt unable to give up his immoral pleasures in order to serve God. Ultimately, it was a sense of the beauty and glory of God which liberated him and set his life on its memorable course. He writes the following of his experience:
How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy...You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves...O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.1
12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.