1 Thessalonians 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul explains why he sent Timothy to the believers in Thessalonica: he could not stand the uncertainty any longer and wanted them strengthened so that the troubles they faced would not shake them. Timothy has now returned with a good report of their faith and love, which has encouraged Paul in his own hardship. Paul closes by praying that he may see them again, that God will make their love grow, and that their hearts will be made firm and blameless when the Lord Jesus comes.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • When the writers could no longer endure the suspense, they consented to be left behind at Athens alone.
2. 3:2
   • The writers sent Timothy to the Thessalonians.
   • Timothy is the writers' brother.
   • Timothy is a servant of God in the gospel of Christ.
   • Timothy is the writers' fellow worker in the gospel of Christ.
   • Timothy was sent to strengthen the Thessalonians.
   • Timothy was sent to encourage the Thessalonians concerning their faith.
3. 3:3
   • The purpose was that no one should be shaken by these afflictions.
   • The Thessalonians themselves know that the writers are appointed to this.
4. 3:4
   • When the writers were with the Thessalonians, they told them beforehand that they were going to suffer affliction.
   • The affliction did come to pass.
   • The Thessalonians know that it came to pass.
5. 3:5
   • For this reason, when the writer could no longer endure it, he sent to learn about their faith.
   • He was afraid that the tempter had somehow tempted them.
   • He was afraid that the writers' labor would turn out to be in vain.
6. 3:6
   • Timothy has now come to the writers from the Thessalonians.
   • Timothy brought good news of the Thessalonians' faith and love.
   • Timothy reported that the Thessalonians always hold a good remembrance of the writers.
   • Timothy reported that the Thessalonians long to see the writers.
   • The writers likewise long to see the Thessalonians.
7. 3:7
   • For this reason the writers were comforted about the Thessalonians.
   • The writers address them as brothers.
   • The writers were comforted in all their distress and affliction.
   • The comfort came through the Thessalonians' faith.
8. 3:8
   • The writers now live, if the Thessalonians stand firm in the Lord.
9. 3:9
   • The writers ask what thanks they can render back to God for the Thessalonians.
   • The writers rejoice with all this joy on account of the Thessalonians.
   • That joy is before their God.
10. 3:10
    • The writers pray exceedingly night and day.
    • They pray that they may see the Thessalonians' face.
    • They pray that they may supply what is lacking in the Thessalonians' faith.
11. 3:11
    • The writers ask that God himself, who is their Father, and their Lord Jesus Christ, direct their way to the Thessalonians.
12. 3:12
    • The writers ask that the Lord make the Thessalonians increase and abound in love toward one another.
    • The writers ask that the Thessalonians abound in love toward all.
    • The writers' own love toward the Thessalonians is the pattern for this.
13. 3:13
    • The purpose is that he may establish the Thessalonians' hearts blameless in holiness.
    • This is to be before God, who is their Father.
    • This is at the coming of their Lord Jesus Christ.
    • The Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his holy ones.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"Forbear" here means to hold out or put up with something, not to refrain from acting. The background is a journey: Paul and his companions had been forced out of Thessalonica and had traveled south through Macedonia into Greece, ending up in Athens, roughly three hundred miles away. Sending Timothy back meant Paul lost his only remaining coworker and was left on his own in a city where he had no established church.

3:2

"Timotheus" is the Greek form of the name Timothy. "Minister" in 1611 English meant simply a servant or attendant, with no sense of an ordained clergyman; "fellowlabourer" means a workmate, someone doing the same job alongside you. "Establish" translates a word for propping something up or bracing it so it will not collapse.

3:3

"Moved" here does not mean emotionally touched. The Greek word pictures a dog wagging its tail, and by extension anything being shaken, wobbled or drawn off course. "Appointed thereunto" means set in place for exactly this; the wording says the hardship is part of the arrangement, not an accident in it.

3:4

"Verily" means truly, and "we told you before" means we told you in advance, not merely at some earlier time. "Tribulation" translates a Greek word whose root sense is pressure or crushing weight, and in the King James New Testament it normally means outside persecution rather than inner unhappiness. "Came to pass" simply means happened.

3:5

Note the switch from "we" to "I": Paul drops the plural he has been using and speaks for himself. "The tempter" is a title, a standard way of referring to Satan by what he does rather than by name. "In vain" means empty, producing nothing, the way a harvest fails.

3:6

"Charity" in the King James Bible always means love. It comes through the Latin caritas and carries no sense of giving money to the poor, a meaning the English word picked up later. "Good tidings" translates a verb that everywhere else in Paul's letters means to preach the gospel; this is the one place he uses that solemn word for ordinary good news from a friend.

3:7

"Comforted" in 1611 was a stronger word than it is now. It came from the Latin for strength and meant to be braced or put back on your feet, not soothed. "Distress" translates a word meaning constraint or a tight place with no room to move.

3:8

"Now we live" is an idiom, roughly "now I can breathe again". "Stand fast" is a military picture: holding the position you were placed in rather than breaking ranks.

3:9

"Render to God again" means pay back in return. The question assumes an exchange in which Paul owes God something for the joy received and cannot find a payment large enough.

3:10

"Night and day" in that order reflects the Jewish way of counting a day, which began at sunset rather than at midnight. "Perfect that which is lacking" uses a verb applied to mending torn fishing nets and setting broken bones; it means supplying and repairing what is missing, not criticizing a defect.

3:11

The King James "God himself and our Father" can be misread as two parties. The Greek is a single phrase, "our God and Father himself". "Direct our way" translates a word meaning to make a road straight, that is, to clear the obstacles from a journey Paul has already tried twice to make.

3:13

"Stablish" is the older form of establish and means to make firm or fix in place. "The coming" translates parousia, the word used for the formal arrival of a king or emperor at a city, when the citizens would go out to meet him on the road. "Saints" renders a word meaning simply "holy ones", and readers have long divided over whether it means angels here or Christians who have already died; the Greek leaves it open.