1 Thessalonians 3:8 - Exposition

For now we live. Not to be referred to the eternal and future life (Chrysostom); or to be weakened as if it merely signified, "We relish and enjoy life notwithstanding our affliction and distress" (Pelt); but the meaning is the good tidings which Timothy has brought have imparted new life unto us; "we are in the full strength and freshness of life, we do not feel the sorrows and tribulations which the outer world prepares for us" (Lunemann). The apostle considers his condition of affliction and distress as a kind of death: so, elsewhere he says, "I die daily" ( 1 Corinthians 15:31 ); and from which death he was now again raised to life. If ; provided—a hypothetical assumption. Ye stand fast ; continue firm in the faith of the gospel. In the Lord ; the element of true life.