⁴ Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:4 CSB)

Throughout our lives we seek approval and trust. However, these things cannot be manifest without first being examined.

But what is true in life is not always true with God.

You see, in life we are examined first, so that we may be approved and it is only then that we are given trust.

But with God, we are approved first through acceptance of Christ salvation through the cross. If God were to examine us first we would never make it into His saving grace. No, God approves first and we are then entrusted with Christ message to the world. Only then our lives, thought and action, are examined through the conviction of the Spirit.

It is always interesting to me how God takes worldly standards and turns them upside down.