The somber note on which the previous section ended now gives way to joy at the news brought to Paul at Corinth by Timothy. The Thessalonians were standing firm in the faith and still held the missionaries dear. In view of the missionaries’ intense longing for the Thessalonians (2:17), this news is like a breath of life to them—“now we really live” (vv. 6–9). On the strength of it, Paul reports, they pray night and day that they may see them again (v. 10). An actual prayer to that end follows in verses 11 to 13, with prayer also for the Thessalonians that they may grow in love and in holiness. This is “the first of the two main wish-prayers to be found in the epistle,” the second being in 5:23 (G. P Wiles, Paul’s Intercessory Prayers [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974], p. 52; see also 2 Thess. 2:16f. and 3:16). It is called a wish-prayer because it is expressed in the optative (may it be …) rather than in the imperative mood (let it be …). The distinction between these two forms of expression is one of style only (cf. also 2 Thess. 2:16f.; 3:16).
3:6–8 At the center of these verses stands the statement, we were encouraged (cf. 3:2). All the rest is added by way of explanation, starting with Timothy’s report. Timothy, says Paul, has just now come to us from you and has brought good news. Evidently this letter was written soon after his arrival. In the NT, euangelizō especially refers to preaching the gospel, but here it describes good news in a more general sense (cf. Luke 1:19). It touches on three things: their faith, again in the sense of their trust in God (see disc. on 3:2); their love, the outworking of that faith which had been evident in them from the outset (cf. 1:3; Gal. 5:6); and their pleasant memories of the missionaries. “Pleasant” captures well what Paul means here by agathē. It means “good,” not in the sense that the Thessalonians had a good recall of events, but that what they recalled of the past, when the missionaries were with them, was good. So much so that the longing the Thessalonians experienced for the missionaries matched the missionaries’ own intense longing to return (cf. 2:17). The verb, epipotheō, is a strong one, and the present tense of the participle (ongoing action), and the adverb, pantote, “always,” further strengthen it. The Thessalonians’ longing was no less intense than that of the missionaries.
In verse 5, the phrase dia touto, “for this reason,” points to what follows. Here, in verse 7, it looks back to what was just said. Addressing them again as brothers (see disc. on 1:4), and with their faith, love, and longing for the missionaries in mind (“for this reason” NIV therefore), Paul tells them that he and his colleagues are encouraged, adding four more points to fill out that statement. First, their encouragement came during all their own distress and persecution. The preposition epi with the dative has a range of meanings but is best understood here (with NIV) as having a temporal sense. Of the two nouns in this phrase, we have already met the second, thlipsis (see disc. on 1:6). Like thlipsis, anankē implies pressure from without, so that there is no clear distinction between the two, and together they simply underscore the point. In the earlier references, the context showed that thlipsis meant persecution, but that meaning is less certain here. Rather, it may describe the missionaries’ mental state—their anxiety for the Thessalonians as well as their anxiety for themselves and for their mission generally (cf. Acts 18:9f.; 1 Cor. 2:3). Persecution, of course, cannot be ruled out of this reference. Acts suggests that Paul did suffer persecution in Corinth (Acts 18:6, 12ff.).
Second, the encouragement, he says, was about you. The preposition is again epi with the dative, but in the sense now of “resting upon”—the Thessalonians were the basis of their encouragement (cf. 3:9). This phrase resumes the thought of verse 6. So too does the third qualification, because of your faith, which expresses more explicitly what was so encouraging about the Thessalonians. The preposition dia with the genitive strictly denotes “through.” The thought is, then, that their faith—and what Paul really means is the news of their faith—was the means through which the encouragement came to them.
The fourth qualification, comprising verse 8, builds upon that last point. It is added as an explanation and is structured as a conditional sentence. “We were encouraged,” he says, “because (hoti, NIV for) if you stand … we live.” They were, of course, “standing,” otherwise none of this would have been written, and this explains the construction of the Greek. Ean, “if,” would normally be used with the verb in the subjunctive mood, but here it occurs with the indicative. The difference is between what might be and what is the case—they were in fact standing. The verb stēkō is a late form developed from the perfect of histēmi, serving better than histēmi to express the thought of standing firm, which they did, says Paul, in the Lord (en kyriō, cf. 4:1 and see note on 1:1). There may be no difference of meaning between this phrase and the more common “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus” (cf. 2:14), although C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 58–62, does discern a tendency for the latter to be “associated with the fait accompli of God’s saving work,” and the former “with its implementation and its working out in human conduct.” If that distinction does indeed hold true, the thought expressed in the statement that the Thessalonians were standing firm in the Lord would sit well with Paul’s earlier remembrance of their work produced by faith (1:3).
On the condition that the Thessalonians were standing firm, the missionaries lived. The verb is in the present tense, we … live, and the adverb now (nyn) probably refers to the time of writing. Clearly, there was a lot at stake for Paul in Thessalonica. Part of the explanation may be that he saw the mission there as something of a test case. It was the first large city in which he had worked since he left Antioch in Syria (Acts 13:1ff.) and certainly the first large city in Grecian lands. Athens seems not to have produced many converts, and now he had come to Corinth. Would there be converts there? Could a church be established in a city like Corinth? If the Thessalonians were standing firm, the chances were that it could, and in that sense the missionaries “lived”—their ministry in Corinth was potentially viable. But this is only part of the explanation. Surely they “lived” not simply in terms of the ongoing mission, but because of the Thessalonians themselves. What happens to the Thessalonians matters intensely to Paul, and if they fall, something in him and the others would die. It is no accident that this passage leads into prayer, for the more we care for others, the more we pray.
3:9 Paul’s immediate response to the news from Thessalonica is to ask, “How can we thank God enough?” Timothy’s report confirmed that the work had been well done, much had been achieved, and this might easily have become for Paul a source of pride. But he knew that, whatever he and his colleagues had done, it was God who had opened the hearts (see disc. on 3:2). It is to God, therefore, that thanks must be returned. The Greek reads literally, “What thanks can we pay back to God?” where the verb antapodidomi, here in the aorist infinitive (cf. 2 Thess. 1:6), has the sense, “to pay back what is due.” His thanks are peri hymōn, “in reference to you,” i.e., the Thessalonians (NIV for you) and are offered “on the basis of (epi with the dat., see disc. on 3:7) all the joy” (NIV for all the joy). But now, having introduced the theme of joy, Paul cannot let it pass without comment. This is the joy, he explains, that we have (lit. the joy that we rejoice) in the presence of our God because of you, and with this the verse returns full cycle to where it began. For it is thanks to God that they have something to rejoice in, and the phrase, “in the presence of our God,” is Paul’s recognition of that fact (cf. 2:19 and 3:13 where the same or a similar phrase has an eschatological reference). Throughout this letter, there is a consciousness of God, which in this instance leads naturally to prayer (cf. 1:3 and see on 5:18).
3:10 Paul and the others express their joy in the context of prayer (note the present participle, we rejoice … praying) night and day (for the order of the words, see disc. on 2:9). This phrase emphasizes the centrality of prayer in their lives; hyper-ekperissou intensifies this even more. This adverb is a double compound of an already strong word, creating what Findlay described as “a triple Pauline intensive” with the sense “beyond—exceedingly—abundantly” (cf. 5:13). Pauline style typically features such compounds (cf. Rom. 5:20; 2 Cor. 7:4), but he almost certainly uses it deliberately here “to express a feeling too deep for words” (Morris). Paul poured out his heart in prayer most earnestly for the Thessalonian Christians. Of a number of verbs that he might have chosen to relay the idea, “to pray,” Paul adopts one in particular, deomai, that conveys his sense of dependence on God. What follows relates both the content and the purpose (see disc. on 2:12) of his prayer. It was twofold: First, that we may see you again—the longing for the Thessalonians already mentioned several times in this epistle (cf. 2:17f.; 3:5f.)—and second, that we may supply what is lacking in your faith. That is, Paul has a pastoral as well as a personal interest in his prayer. “Notice how Paul understands ministry as a mutual act between pastor and people. It is a giving and receiving on both sides, a ministering and a being ministered to. What comfort and joy they had given him (vv. 7, 9); what new strength he wants to give them (v. 10)” (Saunders). Nothing in the letter thus far suggests that there is any serious problem within the church. On the contrary, in the fundamentals of faith and love, the Thessalonians are a model for others (cf. 1:3, 7; 3:6). But clearly, there are some areas of the faith—in the sense of the body of Christian teaching (see disc. on 3:2)—in which they do need further instruction (katartizō means “to make complete”). The nature of these areas emerges from chapters 4 and 5. Paul must have realized that he would not be able to come to them in the short term and decided, therefore, that his written instructions must substitute for face-to-face teaching. Notice how he emphasizes the positive, giving thanks for what has been achieved before mentioning what remains to be done.
3:11 From a rhetorical question about prayer, which in the Greek includes both verse 9 and verse 10, Paul turns to an actual prayer (cf. 5:23, where he prays again for the Thessalonians). Broadly there are two petitions: one for the missionaries, the other for the Thessalonians. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. The emphatic pronoun, “himself” (autos), which in the Greek stands at the beginning of the prayer as also in the other wish-prayers of 5:23 and 2 Thessalonians 2:16f. and 3:16, is not easy to explain. Some see it as marking a contrast with their own attempts at returning or with Satan’s hindrance of those attempts, while others regard it as simply marking a new section of the letter. In view of the similar construction elsewhere, Bruce may be right to see it as an echo of “the language of the synagogue liturgy, where the address would be in the second person; this goes back in turn to the language of the Psalter, as for example in Ps. 22:19, ‘But thou, O Lord.’ ” Particularly striking is the coupling of Jesus with the Father both in the address and in the ascription of the right to determine in what way they should go (cf. 1:1 and Ps. 32:8; 37:23; 40:2; Prov. 3:6; 4:26; 16:9). Nowhere more plainly than in these early Christian prayers do we see how high a status Jesus had in the minds of his followers as a result of their experience of him, especially of his resurrection (see disc. on 1:1). People like Paul were nurtured on the truth that there is one God (Deut. 6:4). Without ceasing to believe that truth, they now prayed to him as Father and Son. The singular verb could be taken as further evidence of Paul’s belief that Father and Son are one. However, Greek regularly requires the verb to take its number from the first or the nearest of its subjects if there is more than one. Thus the evidence is inconclusive. The fact remains, however, that Jesus is petitioned, no less than God, and indeed, as God, “to clear the way,” i.e., to remove the hindrances to their return (kateuthynō, strictly, “to make or keep straight,” also “to direct,” cf. 2 Thess. 3:5; see note on 1:1 for God as Father and Jesus as Lord, and the further disc. on 2 Thess. 2:16f. of the significance of prayer addressed to Jesus and to God).
3:12 The second petition, for the Thessalonians, is as follows: May the Lord make your love increase and overflow. The two petitions of verses 11 and 12 are united by “but” (de), and the Greek word order in the second has “you” (the direct object of the verbs) at the beginning for emphasis. This shows that whatever God has in store for the missionaries—whether to clear the way for them or not (cf. “not what I will, but what you will,” Mark 14:36)—the Thessalonians are foremost in their mind, and this remains their prayer for them. Because Jesus is called “Lord” in verse 11, we must assume that he is the Lord of this verse (see note on 1:1). Thus the prayer is now addressed to him alone. It is for the enlargement of the Thessalonians’ love, love being the hallmark of true Christianity (pleonazō, “to abound,” or “to make to abound,” cf. 2 Thess. 1:3; perisseuō, “to abound,” “to excel,” or “to make to excel,” cf. 1 Thess. 4:1, 10, also 2 Cor. 6:11, 13). The prayer is that it might extend beyond the love that they have for each other (church members) to everyone else (those outside the church; JB, “the whole human race”; cf. 5:15 and Luke 6:32–36, Gal. 6:10, etc. for the same universality). That Paul so prays reminds us that love is a gift of God: he gives both the motive and the model in his own love for us, and he provides the means—the ability to love—by his Spirit. Since God loves everyone (John 3:16), his gift of love to us is to the same end. That end (in some measure at least) had been realized in Paul’s own and his colleagues’ lives, for he adds, just as ours i.e., our love, overflows for you. Paul not only practiced what he preached, but he practiced what he prayed!
3:13 NIV presents this verse as a separate petition, but in fact, in the Greek it is part of the petition of verse 12, expressing what is the goal of this enlargement of their love (see disc. on 2:12); namely, that their “hearts might be established blameless in holiness” (NIV, that he may strengthen [their] hearts so that [they] will be blameless and holy). For “heart,” see disc. on 2:4. What Paul is getting at is that love (agapē) is unselfish, and its practice develops the unselfishness which is the basis of holiness. He can, therefore, speak of love as the means to that end. Hagiosynē, “holiness,” refers exclusively to God in the Greek OT (cf. Rom. 1:4 where it concerns the Spirit of God). Against this background, Paul’s use implies that the holiness of God must be the measure of whether a believer is “blameless in holiness”—“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). This implication is reinforced by the addition of the words: in the presence of our God and Father (see disc. on 3:9). In Christ, believers are already holy in terms of status. God accepts them as blameless (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30). But this prayer has to do with practice. Their practice should match their status—that they might “be who they are” (see J. F. Kilner, “A Pauline Approach to Ethical Decision-Making,” Interp 43 [4, 1989] p. 373)—and that, in fact, they might be “blameless in holiness” when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones (see note on 1:1 for the titles and the disc. on 2:19 for the Parousia). The Parousia is both the goal of our Christian life, for only then will God’s work of salvation be completed, and an incentive for us to work (God being our helper) towards that goal (see disc. on 4:3ff. and 2 Thess. 2:13f. for hagiasmos, the process of becoming holy). The identity of his holy ones (hoi hagioi), who accompany Jesus, is uncertain. A number of OT passages suggest angels are in view (cf. Deut. 33:2; Ps. 89:5, 7; Dan. 7:10; Zech. 14:5; cf. also Matt. 13:41; 25:31; Mark 8:38; 13:26f.; Luke 9:26; 2 Thess. 1:7; Jude 14f.; Rev. 19:14). But in the NT, “the holy ones,” does not appear to be used of angels. Rather, the term is commonly applied to believers. In 2 Thessalonians 1:10, “holy ones” (NIV “his holy people”) and “those who have believed” are synonymous. In the light of this and 4:14 (see also Rom. 8:19; 1 Cor. 6:2), we should understand Paul to be at least including believers who have died, even he is not exclusively referring to them (note that Paul speaks of all his holy ones).
Additional Notes
3:13 When our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones: One scenario of the end time embraced by many Christians today sees a twofold return of Jesus: the first in secret to gather up the church, the second openly, following the tribulation (which, on this theory, only the world will endure) to judge the world. The first return is called the Rapture, the second the Revelation. The Greek word from whose Latin equivalent (rapere) our word “rapture” is derived, is actually used by Paul in 4:17, “we … will be caught up” (but not, we believe in the sense of the modern theory; see disc. on 4:17 and 2 Thess. 2:1). The theory rests largely on a conclusion drawn from the verse before us. If Jesus is to come with his saints, it is argued, as this verse says he will, he must first have come for them. A number of other passages are enlisted to corroborate this scenario (e.g., Mark 13:27; Rev. 11:11f.), but none of them, and least of all 1 Thessalonians 3:13, can bear the weight of this interpretation.
Some would even doubt that the holy ones refers to his saints; but allowing that it does (see the disc.), what more is Paul saying here than he says, for example, in 4:14? Paul wants to assure the Thessalonians that their dead will not be disadvantaged. They will be raised, the living will be transformed, and together, the living and the dead will “meet the Lord” and be “with the Lord forever” (4:16f.). The “all” of 3:13 is important. In anticipation of his fuller treatment in chapter 4, Paul casually indicates that all will be involved in the Parousia, but he says nothing more than that. Besides reading too much into a passage dealing with other matters, the whole idea of the Rapture founders (1) on the fact that the church’s hope—based, we may believe, on Jesus’ own teaching—has from the outset been fixed upon his visible return (cf. 1 Cor. 1:7; Titus 2:13); and (2) on the language of 2 Thessalonians 2:1, where Paul speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.” Paul used two nouns governed by the one definite article, which shows beyond question that he thought of the “coming” and the “gathering” as two facets of the one event. In short, Christ’s Revelation is at one and the same time our Rapture (see Williams, Promise, pp. 112–14).
