I Thessalonians 3:9-13
Once again Paul
speaks of his fundamental admiration for the Thessalonian church. Timothy’s report had shown his great fear
that his work among them “had been a waste of time” was baseless. As we will see, the church wasn’t perfect but
the problems could be dealt with by promoting sound theology and morality
rooted in their identity as God’s People.
I Thess. 3:9
For how can we thank
God enough for you, for all the joy we feel because of you before our God
God was at work in
the Thessalonian situation, creating a body of believers whose very lifestyle
brought joy to the apostle. The thanks ultimately went to God.
This is a reminder
that any church making a difference in the lives of people, reaching the lost
for Christ, enriching the pilgrimages of believers, and showing God’s love in
practical ways is doing so because of God’s enablement. No church can claim to have done these things
in its own power and ability.
We are also
reminded that leaders may properly feel joy as those churches demonstrate their
commitment to Christ. No, not every
church brings joy to the hearts of their leaders but, by God’s grace, many
do. Some of those churches are new; some
are older (reminding us that the tendency to discount the value of older churches
is hardly wise). Some are small; some
are large. Some are in affluent
communities; some are in storefronts in distressed neighborhoods.
I Thess. 3:10
We
pray very hard night and day that we may see you again face to face, so that we
may equip you with whatever is lacking in your faith
Consider the
Amplified Bible’s rendering of this verse.
It underscores the feeling behind Paul’s words: “[And we] continue to pray especially and
with most intense earnestness night and day that we may see you face to face
and mend and make good whatever may be imperfect and lacking in
your faith.”
My wife and I love
“face-timing” with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Skype and FaceTime are wonderful gifts for
families that must be separated by hundreds of miles. But however enjoyable these experiences are,
it just isn’t the same as being able to actually sit on the floor and play
Legos with our grandson. In the same
way, Paul still longed for a face-to-face encounter with these believers. He could and did do much good with his
letters but being able to sit with the congregation or have a personal moment
with a church leader or grieving believer offered something a letter didn’t
offer. In those circumstances, he could
correct anything that might be amiss with their faith, he could pray with the
confused widow or widower; he could answer questions he might not easily
address in a letter.
But for now,
though he had heard of their commitment, he also knew they were not without
problems. Confusion and error had wormed
its way into the church. This letter
would have to substitute for a visit.
There was
intensity behind Paul’s praying. One
translation even suggests they were “beseeching” (Young’s) for an opportunity
to return to Thessalonica. This was
important to Paul and his team. Though
their list of “prayer concerns” may have changed each day, an opportunity to
return to this city always had a place on the list. Was this prayer answered? So far as the record shows, there is no
unambiguous reference to Paul’s returning to Thessalonica. However, Acts mentions other occasions when he
returned to Macedonia (20:1,3). It may
be inferred that he visited the Thessalonian church on those occasions. But these appear to have been as long as four
or five years after he wrote this letter.
Notice that Paul
left the answer to his prayer with God.
He says, “Now may God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our
way to you.” The New Jerusalem Bible has
an interesting translation: "May
God...ease our path to you."
Perhaps this was written from weariness, Paul longed for an opportunity
to see them but was weary of the struggle.
While this was Paul’s personal desire, his overriding desire was to do
God’s will. So, his prayer leaves the
matter in God's hands.
The implication is
clear: Paul was leaving the when and how
concerning his return to Thessalonica with God.
He trusted God’s providence. That
trust involved the recognition that God knew what was best for Paul and the
Thessalonians.
While Paul longed
to be among the Thessalonian believers, that desire was temporarily
denied. God had other work for him. For the time being that work did not include
personal ministry among the Thessalonians. But God didn’t need Paul to take
care of the church in Thessalonica. If
Paul wasn’t in Thessalonica the Spirit was.
And the Spirit could correct and comfort the believers there—using, no
doubt, Paul’s letters along with the work and words of other lesser-known
Spirit-inspired leaders (cf I Thess. 5:12-23). According to M. N. Tod the
Christians there would eventually earn Thessalonica the title “the Orthodox
city” and would be a powerful force in converting the barbarians who would
invade the area in the coming centuries.
Here’s a lesson
for all of us. Although Paul was praying
for all the right reasons, his prayer was
not quickly answered; as time passed we would understand should he have
wondered if his prayer would forever go unanswered. We sometimes experience that. When we do, we may either enter into a time a
guilty introspection, trying to find some sin we’ve overlooked that is keeping
God from answering our prayer; or we begin to doubt the efficacy of
prayer. Neither response is especially
healthy. (Yes, we sometimes do need to
examine our lives but unanswered prayer isn’t always evidence of unconfessed
sin.) When those prayers seem to go
unanswered, we need to remember that as much as we love those we are praying
for, God loves them more. As much as we
long to be somewhere to fix a problem, God is already there and can fix it
better than we can.
I Thess. 3:12
May
the Lord greatly increase your love a for each other and for all people, just
as we love you.
Of course, Paul
didn’t merely pray for himself. He
prayed for the Thessalonians.
His prayer was that
they might have an abounding love. Weymouth
renders it as "a growing and glowing love." The notion of this love increasing to the
point of overflowing is picked up by several translations. The Message pictures Paul’s request this
way: “may the Master pour on the love so
it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you.” The word translated "abound" is
from perisseuo which Strong sees as "to superabound (in quantity and
quality)". The Greek suggests “more than enough” and
“above and beyond.” In short, Paul was
praying that the Thessalonians might have more than enough love to go around.
The focus of this
love would be twofold:
--Love
demonstrated toward one another within the fellowship.
--Love
demonstrated toward those outside the fellowship. ("toward all men"
or "for all people").
Later
in the letter, Paul will elaborate on this twofold love even further.
Both loves are
needed for a church to be successful.
Something is wrong when a church has love only for its own fellowship; it
becomes inward and insular. It is
spiritually truncated.
Yet, when a church
professes love for the whole world but demonstrates no love within the
"fellowship," the impact of its witness is crippled. Its claims to represent Christ are
invalidated by its behavior.
Paul doesn't seem
to be suggesting that the Thessalonians had fallen prey to either one of these
problems but he must know the danger any church faces, especially when it
struggles for its very existence.
Was this prayer
answered? Centuries later the
Thessalonian church was still strong. It
was especially effective in reaching out to the barbarian hordes that invaded
Greece. Tod writes, “For centuries the
city remained one of the chief strongholds of Christianity…not only by the
tenacity and vigor of its resistance to the successive attacks of various
barbarous races, but also by being largely responsible for their conversion
to Christianity.” Such success could
not have been the work of a church filled with division and strife.
As important as
strategy and programs may be in the work of evangelism, without love no church
will reach unbelievers with the gospel.
In the United States, Christians have a special opportunity to interact
with people from all over the world. In
some cases, these individuals are from nations that forbid the open preaching
of the gospel; others among these visitors are from cultures that are rabidly
secular, where any religion but especially Christianity is looked upon with
disdain. The church needs the
double-barreled love Paul prayed for the
I Thess. 3:13
Then your hearts will be strong, blameless,
and holy in the presence of God, who is our Father, when our Lord Jesus appears
with all his saints.
Such love has the
effect of making the congregation stronger to the degree that it will become
more and more holy, faultless, and without in God's eyes. The linking of holiness and love is
important. Holiness goes beyond do's and
don'ts; holiness is manifested in our attitudes toward others, both inside the
church and outside.
Jesus linked his
famed call to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" to the
demonstration of love. (Matthew
5:43-48) God's love blesses the good and
the evil; our love ought to extend to the good and the evil, to our friends and
to our enemies. If it doesn't, we're in
no way different from the world around us.
Such love cannot
be self-generated. It is the fruit of
the Spirit’s work within us (Gal. 5:22).
This is why Paul makes this broad love the subject of his prayer for the
Thessalonians. Only God could have
produced this love within them and us.
The presence of
such holy love prepares us for the coming of Jesus when we will join with
"all his saints." In fact, the
"communion of saints" would be impossible without love that transcends
race, nationality, and social status.
In the remainder
of the letter Paul will discuss several themes raised in these verses. For now, it’s good for every church and every
Christian to hope that somewhere, someone is praying for them.
