1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

3. Timothy having brought good tidings, Paul is full of joy and thankfulness to God, to whom he at the same time says without ceasing, that he may be enabled to come unto them, and supply the deficiencies of their faith.

6But now, when Timotheus came [But Timothy having just now come, ἄρτι δέ ἐλθόντος Τιμοθέου] from you unto us [to us from, you, πρὸς ἡμᾶς ʼ ὑμῶν], and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity [love, ἀγάπην],17 and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly [longing]18 to see us, as 7[even as]19 we also to see you; therefore, brethren, we were comforted [for this cause we were comforted, brethren,]20 over you in all our affliction and distress 8[distress and affliction]21 by your faith: for now we live, if ye stand fast22 in the Lord. 9For what thanks can we render to God again [render to God, τῷ θεῷ ] for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; 10night and day praying exceedingly [very exceedingly]23 that we might see [that we may see, εἰς τὸ ἰδεῖν] your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith [and make up the deficiencies of your faith].24 11Now God Himself and our Father [But may He Himself, our God and Father]25 and our Lord Jesus Christ,26 direct our way unto you: 12and the Lord make you [but you, may the Lord make]27 to increase and abound in love one toward another [toward one another, εἰς ], and toward all men [all], even as we [we also, καὶ ἡμεῖς] do toward you; 13to the end He may stablish [establish] your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father [our God and Father],28 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ29 with all His saints [holy ones].30

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. (1 Thessalonians 3:6) But, Timothy having just now, &c.—Casual, resumed afterwards in διὰ τοῦτο.—Ἄρτι, just, at present (Matthew 9:18; 1 Corinthians 16:7), is best referred, with Grotius, Bengel, Pelt, Ewald, Hofmann, [Alford, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Ellicott in the Commentary; his Translation follows the Common Version.—J. L.] to the participle; the Epistle was written immediately after Timothy’s return, and hence the fresh joy and gushing love. De Wette and Lünemann [Jowett] would connect ἄρτι with (the somewhat remote) παρεκλήθημεν, 1 Thessalonians 5:7, thus making the main thought to consist in the prominence given to the consolation in opposition to the sending of Timothy. But we should then be compelled unnecessarily to find an anacoluthon in διὰ τοῦτο. To us, that is, Paul; possibly even, Paul and Silas, if the latter had already arrived before Timothy.

2. And brought us good tidings, &c.—εὐαγγ., Hebr. בִּשֵּׂר (1 Samuel 31:9, Septuagint); here in its original signification, as at Luke 1:19 of the birth of the Baptist; elsewhere, throughout the New Testament, of the good tidings κατʼ ἐξοχήν, the tidings of redemption. The birth of John, moreover, is a part of these tidings of salvation. And here too there is something peculiarly earnest, an expression of his great joy, in the fact that Paul uses this word. It is to him a sort of gospel, a fruit of the gospel in the specific sense, the announcement of a Divine work, when he hears a good account of their faith (the root, without which love were merely a work of nature), and of their love (the fruit, the evidence of the living existence of faith; comprehensive love, as 1 Corinthians 13:0; comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:3). Chrysostom: So great a good does he consider their confirmation to be. And thus he, the bringer of glad tidings, himself receives the glad tidings of the Divine work, the fruit of his gospel.

3. And that ye have (retain) a good (a truly loving, thankful, prayerful) remembrance of us; that they had thus not even been misled in regard to their teachers (Hofmann). Not: ye make honorable mention of us (Grotius; that were frigid, and would require ποιεῖσθε, Lünemann). This personal interest is connected with the main topic. If they continue in faith and love, the natural result of that is attachment to the Apostle. The πάντοτε, always, and so immovably, we most naturally refer to the preceding ἔχετε μνείαν (not, as Hofmann, to what follows); the further explanation, as to how the remembrance shows itself, is given by ἐπιποθοῦντες: in that ye earnestly long, or, if the word is equivalent to the simple verb (Koch, 252, after Fritzsche):31 for this ye long, to see us. Bengel: A sign of their good conscience.

4. (1 Thessalonians 3:7.) For this cause—embracing the contents of the participial construction in 1 Thessalonians 3:6; as the Greeks sometimes elsewhere use οὕτως for resumption; we were comforted over you, on your account,32 not superfluous even with διὰ τοῦτο; the persons are named in whom he finds comfort; then special mention is made of that quality of theirs, that is comforting to him: by your faith (the medium of the comfort); it was their faith about which he had been anxious. Between the two is a second ἐπί, denoting the situation in which he found himself: in33 (2 Corinthians 7:4) all, our whole; the distress, taken together as a totality; not: every, which would have required πάσῃ without the article. Ἀνάγκη denotes the distress from without, the evil condition; θλῖψις, its inward operation, affliction, anguish.34 It would be improper to ascribe to the former any special reference to pecuniary need.35 Altogether to be rejected is the idea of anxiety about the Thessalonians; for this would now certainly have been removed; whereas the ἐπί shows that he intends a distress that still continues, but in which he was comforted by the faith of the Thessalonians (Lünemann).

5. (1 Thessalonians 3:8.) For now we live, &c.; comp. Psalms 22:27 [26. Webster and Wilkinson refer to Genesis 44:30; 1 Samuel 18:1; Galatians 4:19]. He thus explains his having been comforted. Life in the full sense, opposed to distress and anguish, which is a death, a dying daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). Calvin: Here we see, how Paul almost forgot himself for the sake of the Thessalonians. Romans 7:9, where he speaks of a death by sin, goes yet deeper. Seldom does Paul use ζῆν of the mere bodily life. If ye (emphatic) stand fast, remain steadfast; στήκειν, a later verbal form, derived from ἕστηκα, frequently employed by Paul: Romans 14:4; Philippians 4:1; in the Lord, as your life-element, most intimately united to Him, rooted and sheltered in Him. He again employs ἐάν for the future as wanting confirmation; not, however, as doubting them, but merely as a stimulus: It depends on you, to help in preparing for me death or life. Calvin: Hæc gratulatio vim exhortationis habet. He thereby precludes all rising of vanity in himself and the Thessalonians; but especially by means of the thanksgiving that follows.—Hofmann, it is true, finds it impossible that the Apostle should make his present life depend on a condition, the occurrence of which only the future could show. He would therefore refer the words διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν πίστεως to what follows, so that we should have to assume an inversion at ὅτι;—unnecessary, for even in the strongly emphatic νῦν there lies a sufficient expression of the present condition for present life: “now (just because ye believe);”36 and if the words, in Hofmann’s construction of them, support the addition, as to the sense, of: and shall continue to live, if ye continue to believe, then so they do also in the ordinary construction. On the whole, Hofmann’s division of the clauses in 1 Thessalonians 3:7-10 is extremely artificial and cumbersome.

6. (1 Thessalonians 3:9.) For what thanks, &c.—Thereby Paul confirms the weighty ζῶμεν [Alford: “accounts for, and specifies the action of, the ζωή just mentioned.”—J. L.]: What greater blessing could we have, for which to give thanks? The ἀνταποδοῦναι (שִׁלַּם, Joel 4 [3, in the English arrangement.—J. L.] 4, Septuagint) marks the thanksgiving as a return, requited for what was received; in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 it is used of primitive retribution. In the sphere of free, spiritual love it is thanksgiving, Psalms 116:12. For the third time, and this time most emphatically, he expresses his thanks (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:13); this time also for the ascertained stability of the Thessalonians.—Περί, on your account; ἐπί, on occasion of all the joy (the article marks the joy as a whole), wherewith we joy. [Webster and Wilkinson: he has two subjects of thankfulness, their fidelity, and his own satisfaction therein.—J. L.]; ἧ by attraction for ἥν, since the accusative should have stood (Matthew 2:10; Winer, § 32. 2). The dative, indeed, occurs also without attraction, John 3:29; comp. Luke 22:15; Winer, § 54. 3. But in these places the dative of a substantive cognate to the verb goes to strengthen the verbal idea, like the Hebrew infinitive absolute. We might, therefore, rather compare such texts as Acts 2:30; Acts 16:28, where the dative is to be understood instrumentally.—Δἰ ὑμᾶς belongs to χαίρομεν, not to what follows, which is already sufficiently defined; likewise ἔμπροσθεν &c. (before our God, who is ours and we His) still belongs to what precedes; for, referred to what follows, it would make the sentence drag, whereas, connected with χαίρομεν, it is by no means superfluous (Ewald, Hofmann); rather is the import already given quite correctly by Calvin: vere et absque simulatione ulla; Lünemann: with a pure joy, therefore, to which nothing earthly adheres (Alford: one which will bear, and does bear, the searching eye of God, and is His joy (John 15:11).—J. L.]

7. (1 Thessalonians 3:10.) Night and day, &c.—Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:9; as according to that place his manual labor, so according to the present his fervent supplications also (2 Timothy 1:3) are prolonged into the night; very exceedingly, above measure exceedingly; a lively Pauline climax (1 Thessalonians 5:13 (var.); Ephesians 3:20 (var.); comp. Mark 6:51).—According to Lünemann [Alford: praying as we do, Ellicott, &c.] the participle δεόμενοι should depend on δυνάμεθα, 1 Thessalonians 5:9. Not only, however, does that lie too far off, but, as regards the sense also, it is little suitable, since that δυνάμ, has an interrogative force, and presupposes the answer: We cannot indeed say what thanks would suffice. Luther and Von Gerlach take 1 Thessalonians 5:10 as the answer to 1Th 1 Thessalonians 5:9 : What thanks? in that we pray; the thanks, that is, that we pray;—a fair sense, but too artificial. We do better, therefore, to take δεόμ. as in apposition to χαίρομεν (De Wette): wherewith we joy, while we (at the same time) unceasingly pray.

8. That we may see, &c.—The object of the prayer is expressed in the form of a purpose: We pray, in order to see; as 1Th 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:2.—Your face, as 1 Thessalonians 2:17. Not merely, however, to luxuriate in sensibilities, but with the holy aim of redressing, supplying, completing; καταρτίζειν, from ἄρτιος, integer, to mend, restore what has been damaged; the nets, Matthew 4:21; spiritually, 1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 6:1; but also to complete what has not been damaged; the creation, Hebrews 10:5; Hebrews 11:3. Nor in this case is it meant to convey a reproach of degeneracy; synonymous with προσαναπληροῦν, 2 Corinthians 9:12.—Τὰ ὑστερήματα, the deficiencies, that wherein one is behindhand; of poverty in external things, 2 Corinthians 9:12; what is still outstanding of sufferings, Colossians 1:24. We may distinguish, but not separate, deficiencies in the insight of faith from deficiencies in the power of faith in the life. They need instruction, exhortation, intercession. The ἐάν of 1 Thessalonians 3:8 had already reminded them that no one, so long as he lives in the flesh, must imagine that he stands and cannot fall; 1 Thessalonians 4:0 shows, that Paul exhorts the Thessalonians in matters of practice, as well as instructs them in those of theory (Lünemann, against Olshausen).

9. (1 Thessalonians 3:11.) But37 may He Himself, &c.—Lünemann: But may God Himself, our Father—refers ἡμῶν without reason to πατήρ only [and so Alford, Ellicott, &c.]. We understand (against De Wette) that there is here a contrast with the Apostle, who prays that God Himself would do His work, and that in a twofold respect: 1. when he directs, smooths, expressly guides, our way to you (Luke 1:79, the feet; 2 Thessalonians 3:5, hearts; comp. Romans 1:10 [Sept. Psalms 5:8]), only so do we escape from empty places of our own, which Satan thwarts (1 Thessalonians 2:18); 2. but you (1 Thessalonians 3:12), whether we come or not (Bengel), the Lord alone can duly confirm; we are, indeed, merely instruments for the καπαρτίσαι, which proceeds from God.

10. Our God and Father arid our Lord Jesus Christ: God gives only through Jesus; Christ also is invoked with the Father, comp. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 1:2; the verb in the singular shows, that the two are yet not two, but one Divine essence.38

11. (1 Thessalonians 3:12.) But you, may the Lord make, &c.—Πλεονάσαι and περισσεύσαι, as previously κατευθύναι, are three singulars of the optative aorist active, not infinitives (that would require the accent περισσεῦσαι, and could only be understood as an arbitrary ellipsis); πλεονάζειν occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only as an intransitive, here transitive (like the hiphil), and so in the Septuagint (of things, not persons), Numbers 26:54; Psalms 71:21; περισσεύειν, generally intransitive, but also transitive: of things, 2 Corinthians 9:8; and the passive (Matthew 13:12) implies a transitive active. So then: May He make you perfect39 (not: through increase of numbers, but, as no doubt connected with that,) in love (dative, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:17), and richly to abound; toward one another, therefore in brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 4:9), and toward all (who are not yet brethren); not merely: toward all other Christians, so that the first member should mean only; toward you Thessalonians one with another; still less is the second member merely epexegetical: and that indeed all (Thessalonians). A groundless narrowing of the comprehensive sense.—Even as we also do toward you. Since the word is ἡμεῖς, not ἡμᾶς, we cannot supply an optative, but only περισσεύομεν (intransitive) τῇ . (Grotius: ἐσμέν.) We are in fact your model, as was said already, 1Th 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; and that (Hofmann) in love even to those who are not yet brethren; otherwise, indeed, we should not have come to you. Had we not loved you, before you were Christians, you would never have become such.

12. (1 Thessalonians 3:13.) To the end He, &c.—The final aim and effect of being perfected in love is the establishment of the heart; to become unblamable is the result of the στηρίζειν; on the day, not to the day, because the end is regarded as attained; breviloquence, for εἰς τὸ εἶναι , 1 Corinthians 1:8, and often. Winer, § 66. 3. The negative (ἀμ.) stands in the positive: in holiness (belongs to ἀμέμπτους). That should be the issue with the Thessalonians, as with the Apostle (1 Thessalonians 2:10). Holiness, the result of sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3), comprehends the whole life in and from the Spirit. The unblamableness in holiness has place before God’s scrutinizing glance at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Μετά &c. leans closely on παρουσίᾳ; it does not belong to the more remote ἀμέμπτους. Therefore: when He comes (πάρεστι) with all His holy ones; His, Acts 9:13, that is, Christ’s (not, as Lünemann would have it, contrary to the arrangement of the words, God’s). In that lies the stimulus: see to it, that ye come along with them.—But who are the ἅγιοι? The angels, His angels, are Christ’s attendants at the judgment (Matthew 25:31; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 16:27; 2 Thessalonians 1:7); they are called in the Old Testament קְדשִׁים, Septuagint simply ἅγιοι, Psalms 89:6 [ Psalms 89:5] (?); Daniel 4:10 [Daniel 4:13]; Daniel 8:13; at Zechariah 14:5 it might be doubted whether angels only are meant. In the New Testament, on the contrary, ἅγιοι without any addition never elsewhere denotes the angels, always Christians, Colossians 3:12, and how often! At Colossians 1:26 one might possibly (comp. Ephesians 3:10) think of holy men and angels together. But do holy men come with the Lord? Rather, to Him, to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), says Pelt. In the meanwhile, however, they are with Him immediately after death (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8), and He will bring them with Himself (1 Thessalonians 4:14); rising before the living [before the rapture of the living.—J. L.], they may be described as coming with Him [caught up to meet the Lord in the air, they then do come with Him.—J. L.]; and with this must be compared 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; 1Co 15:23; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Thus, in favor of the reference to the angels (De Wette, Lünemann, and others) is what is said of them elsewhere, and the Old Testament phraseology; against it is that of the New Testament (on which account Von Gerlach, Hofmann and others, understand by the word the sleeping believers). We should then perhaps have to suppose, that the style of Daniel prevails in our Epistle, as likewise in 2 Thessalonians 2:0—Bengel and Starke [Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.] understand by ἁγίων angels and glorified men together, and in favor of this very view reference might be made to Daniel, where besides angels men also, members of the people of God, who take the kingdom, are called קַדִּישִׁין (Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22). Moreover, Hebrews 12:22-23 puts the angels in company with the Church of the perfected first-born, who indeed have become ἰσάγγελο, (Luke 20:36). The Lord is Head of the Church, as of principalities and powers (Eph., Col.).—Ἀμήν, which is added by A. D.1 E. Sin. It. Vulg., suits the devotional strain, but for that very reason may have been of liturgical origin, or added by the copyist.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. (1 Thessalonians 3:6.) Faithfulness to the gospel is naturally connected with thankful love to those who publish it. Roos: It is well, when after some time matters stand thus between teachers and their former hearers, whose spiritual fathers they are. Backsliders cannot think kindly of their former spiritual fathers, and have no longing desire to see them again, since shame and fear, or even a malignant bitterness, do preclude this.—The Apostle is far from fostering a false dependence, that leans on men rather than on the Lord Himself (1 Corinthians 1:13 sqq.; 1 Thessalonians 3:4 sqq.). When a separation is necessary to a proper independence, the Lord brings it about for the upright in due time.

[Burkitt: Christian love doth earnestly long to evidence itself in Christian fellowship, and passionately desire the communion of saints, for the mutual comfort and spiritual advantage of each other.—J. L.]

2. (1 Thessalonians 3:7.) A man of faith, like Paul, needs comfort, and says so without disguise (Romans 1:10); he takes no such high stand, as if he had no need of it. We scarcely form to ourselves an adequate idea of the agony of his soul for all his churches, and easily mistake in thinking generally of highly endowed and advanced Christians, forgetting that in the conflict they are most exposed and harassed.

3. In 1 Thessalonians 3:7 Paul speaks only of the faith of the Thessalonians, the root; whereas at 1 Thessalonians 5:12, the root being firm, his desire is turned simply to their increase in love, that expression of faith in the life, whose growth then again reacts to the strengthening of faith. Happy he, to whom the faith of others is a comfort, that enables him to disregard, yea, to vanquish, his own troubles. Only then, indeed, is there life (1 Thessalonians 3:8) full, blessed, worthy of the name, when such love finds its occasions of thankfulness.

4. (1 Thessalonians 3:10.) What we could not allow grammatically, that the prayer is the answer to the question, What thanks can we render? is yet perfectly true in reality. Prayer is the chief part of thanksgiving (Heidelberg Catechism, Qu. 116), according to the riches, that is, of God’s goodness, which we honor by receiving out of its fulness grace for grace. Supplication is thus thanksgiving, and leads to thankfulness for what has been already received, as on the other hand thanksgiving is supplication for the continuance of the blessing, and impels to further and unceasing supplication.

5. Paul has to touch on the deficiencies of the Thessalonians; and how affectionately does he do so; with as much fatherly frankness as tenderness, and in a manner remote from all pedantry; not until he has testified his greatest joy. And they certainly agree with him—are in this also sensible of his pure love—say not: Have we any deficiencies?—Stähelin: A true faith is still always defective. Frequently there is wanting a really convincing knowledge, whence doubts afterwards arise; frequently an assurance of the truth and sincerity of faith, and this arouses a struggle of self-denial; frequently growth in the same, when for many reasons a man is compelled for a long time to exercise himself in expedients alone; frequently the strength to do all things duly in faith. Through the word and prayer these deficiencies are supplied.—Berlenburger Bibel: Faith is a thing that can (and should) grow. We are not to stand still and become careless, as if we thought: Now the Church is planted. For the Church has enemies, and those planted are still novices.

6. (1 Thessalonians 3:11.) That, even when the matter on hand concerns the promotion of outward arrangements, as of a missionary journey, Jesus also is invoked, though not so prominently, almost exclusively, as the Saviour is among the Moravians,—this shows how the Apostles understand Matthew 23:0 :[18]: all power in heaven and in earth. Not merely, therefore, in the heart, by means of the truth; that were to be a Prophet without being King. But this can be nothing else but the return of the glory, which He had before the world was (John 17:5). The Socinian theory, favored also by later writers, of the glorification, deification, of a man, who was not God from the beginning, is irreconcilable therewith. Gess: If for God to become man is something miraculous, for a man to become God is something monstrous. To make a creature Mediator between God and the creatures is to change the Mediator into a partition wall. If New Testament believers are not to be put in a lower position than those of the Old Testament, who depended on Jehovah Himself,40 then must Jesus not be a mere man.

7. The Apostle’s desire and prayer was first granted years after (Acts 20:0). How much higher, then, truly are God’s thoughts than even an Apostle’s thoughts, and His ways higher than an Apostle’s ways! His object, the confirmation of the Thessalonians, was attained through other means, especially even by means of his letters.

8. (1 Thessalonians 3:12.) Brotherly love and universal love are concentric circles—the centre, Christ. The narrower circle is not an occasion of bigoted exclusiveness, but a focus of, refreshment for the wider one (2 Peter 1:7). All, indeed, are called to be brethren. Between such as are so already, and such as have yet to become so, there exists before God an essential difference; before the eyes of men the transition is often imperceptible; no guild; no see here, see there. Where God really fills the heart, there also does love. But God only can give proficiency in this fulfilling of the law, as well as a beginning in it. He requires from us what exceeds our powers, that we may learn to obtain from Him by prayer the power to perform it (Calvin). To become perfect in love imparts to the heart a steadfastness in willing nothing that is contrary to the will of God, Romans 13:8; Romans 13:10 (Hofmann).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1 Thessalonians 3:6. Chrysostom: Who is like Paul, who regards the salvation of his neighbors as his own, feeling toward all as the body toward its members?—Rieger: What love to the sheep, that good news of them could so vivify him!—Diedrich: So does the shepherd’s love identify him with the flock. This is the difference between the shepherd and the hireling.—Jacob revives on hearing that Joseph is alive; still more blessed is his joy, who has a faculty for hearing good in the highest sense of another (3 John 1:4; Luke 15:7).

Chrysostom: Hear, how scholars are admired, who have a good remembrance of their teachers; how they are esteemed happy!—Rieger: The Apostle regards the remembrance of him and the longing after him as in themselves good impulses, and as a proof of the value which they put on the gospel, and so likewise on strenuous laborers therein.

1 Thessalonians 3:7-8. Heubner: The steadfastness of others strengthens ourselves.—In God’s gift and work we find life. Without that, it deserves not the name.—Seneca: Etiam in longissima vita minimum est, quod vivitur.—[The spiritual welfare of the Church, and the strength and joy of her ministers, alike depend on the Church’s faith.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:9. We cannot sufficiently give thanks! It were often more true to say: We do not sufficiently give thanks, even as we might. God’s kindnesses, however, are in any case greater than that we should be able to repay them.—[Matthew Henry: When We are most cheerful, we should be most thankful. What we rejoice in, we should give thanks for.—Adam Clarke: How near his heart did the success of his ministry lie!—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:10. The calm collecting of holy thoughts in the night season—intercessory prayer in times of sleeplessness—is a good imitation of the Apostle.

Heubner: The more prosperous the beginning, with so much the greater zeal prosecute the work.—Along with joy over a good condition, two things are always needed to save us from falling into conceit, ostentation, presumption, self-sufficiency, and vain glorying in men: that the honor be given to God, and that we do not lose the recollection of actual deficiencies.—Calvin: Even those, who are far ahead of others, are still far from having reached the goal.—No standing still; faith would be, not merely once established, but ever newly cherished and promoted.—[Matthew Henry: When we are most thankful, we should also give ourselves to prayer; and those we give thanks for, yet have need to be prayed for.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:11. The Apostle’s fervent spirit overflows in prayer, not merely in his chamber, but in the Epistle itself.

Heubner: All our steps and ways are in God’s hand; to everything He must give His consent (Genesis 24:40; Jeremiah 10:23; James 4:13-15).—[To commit our way unto the Lord, the grand secret of a safe, contented, happy, and truly prosperous life.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:12.—Heubner: Love should not be scanty, poor, but rich, exuberant.—Chrysostom: Love after God’s kind embraces all. If thou lovest this man, and that man not at all, this is nothing but a friendship after a human sort.—[Matthew Henry: We are beholden to God not only for the stock put into our hands at first, but for the improvement of it also.—The more we are beloved, the more loving we should be.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:13. Roos: Establishment of the heart comes through growth in holiness, and this consists especially in love.—Chrysostom: By it the heart becomes unblamable, from which otherwise proceed evil thoughts, that cannot be there without outward act. There is no sin that is not consumed by the power of love, as by fire.—Love, feeding on the hope of heaven (Colossians 1:4-5), can only confirm, not prejudice, the salvation of souls.—[Benson: Before God—it is a small matter to be accounted holy among men.—J. L.]

Footnotes:

[17][Sin., as B., has ὐμῶν before πίστιν as well as after ἀγάπην.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:6.—[ἐπιποθοῦντες. Comp. Rom 1:11; 2 Corinthians 9:14; Philippians 1:8; Philippians 2:26; and the Exegetical Notes, 3.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:6.—[καθάπερ, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:11. The English Version retains the emphasis, as above, at 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Romans 4:6; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 3:18.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:7.—[διὰ τοῦτο—as in 1 Thessalonians 3:5—παρεκλήθημεν, ἀδελφοί. Here, as in the preceding verse, and so often elsewhere, the Greek order is quite needlessly changed by our Translators.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:7.—Ἀνάγκῃ καὶ θλίψει is given by the oldest authorities [including Sin.], instead of the inverse order. [And so many of the modern editors, including Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth (though he lays stress on the fact that Tertullian, in quoting this Epistle, has Christi here, as well as Christo at 1 Thessalonians 2:19), Ellicott.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:8.—On the reading στήκετε after ἐάν, comp. Winer, Exodus 6:0, p. 264. The Sinaiticus, however, reads στήκητε [a prima manu; for there is a correction of it into στήκετε, with A. F. G. &c.—In 1 Thessalonians 3:9, for θεῷ, Sin.1 reads κυρίῳ with D.1 F. G., and, for θεοῦ, it has κυρίου.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:10.—[ὐπερεκπερισσοῦ=more than superabundantly; Webster and Wilkinson: with more than excess. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:13; Ephesians 3:20.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:10.—[καί καταρτίσαι τὰ ὑστερήματα τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν. See Exegetical Notes, 8.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—[Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν. For the double reference of ἡμῶν, see p. 49, Note †; and, for the various constructions of αὐτός, see my Revision of this verse, Note a. The above translation corresponds to that of our author: Er selbst aber, unser Gott und Vater. Strictly speaking, however, I prefer to regard αὐτός as merely emphasizing ὁ θεὸ;—Ιησοῦς χριστός), and to make these latter words themselves the immediate compound subject of the verbs.—J. L].

1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—[Χριστός is wanting in the oldest authorities including Sin. It is bracketed by Schott and Riggenbach, and cancelled by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:12.—[ὐμᾶς δὲ ὁ κύριος. Revision: “Such is our prayer for ourselves; but you, whether we come or not (Bengel sive nos veniemus, sive minus) &c.”—J. L.] Only a few scattered authorities here omit κύριος, or add ̓Ιησοῦς, or change it into θεός.

1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—[As in 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—Here Χριστοῦ is wanting in still more authorities [including Sin., and is rejected by Riggenbach, as well as by Schott, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott.—J. L.]; at the end of the verse some (few; also the Sinaiticus [a prima manu.—J. L.]) have ἀμήν.

1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—[ἀγίων. See the Exegetical Notes, 12.—J. L.]

[31][ And so likewise Alford and Ellicott make the ἐπί directive, not intensive.—J. L.]

[32][ἐφ̓ ὑμῖν—the basis of the παράκλησις. Schott, Ellicott.—J. L.]

[33][German: bei. Ellicott describes this ἐπί as having what he calls a semilocal force, and as carrying the idea of “ethical contact.” Webster and Wilkinson: “with all. The ideas of succession and coexistence are involved in ἐπί thus used, principally the latter: comfort came after sorrow, but while the sorrow was still felt—came as a remedy or alleviation. Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:4, and the exactly parallel circumstances and expressions in 2 Corinthians 7:4-7.”—J. L.]

[34][An altogether untenable distinction. De Wette refers both words to the Apostle’s inward anxieties; Lünemann (followed by Alford and Ellicott), to his outward troubles.—J. L.]

[35][A suggestion of Macknight, and allowed by Schott.—J. L.]

[36][Alford: νῦν—“implying the fulfilment of the condition (ἐάν) which follows;”—Ellicott: “logical and argumentative, approaching in meaning to in hoc rerum statu, rebus sic se habentibus”—J. L.]

[37][δέ—not simply μεταβατικόν (Ellicott: Now), but with its proper adversative force: But—in spite of all Satan’s hindrances, and notwithstanding the failure hithertc of our own repeated attempts and ceaseless longings.—J. L.]

[38][Athanasius, Orat. contra Arianos III. 11.: τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐφύλαξεν.—J. L.]

[39][German: er mache euch vollkommen;—a needless departure from the strict meaning of πλεονάσαι, and one no4 justified by the parenthesis.—J. L.]

[40][But not without the blood of sacrifice, and priestly intercession, and both as types of Him who was to come.—J. L.]