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Expanded Comments | Additional Comments |
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| 1 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; |
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| 2 And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
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To comfort you – Signifies and implies establishment in the faith once delivered to the saints. All the terms and conditions of our covenant should be held in mind, and the promises of reward at the end of the journey. R2665:2
"Comfort all that mourn," (Isa. 61:2) "Through patience and comfe another with these words," (1 Thess. 4:18) not only with respect to sympathy of him who promises them. R2665:1
Faith – Faith, like steam in an engine, is a power either for good or for evil. Hence, the importance of a correct faith, grounded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, rooted and built up in Christ. R1719:6
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| 3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. |
Appointed thereunto – The prophets foresaw and foretold "the sufferings of Christ (Head and Body) and the glory that should follow." (1 Peter 1:11) R147:5
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| 4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know. |
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| 5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain. |
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| 6 But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and love, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you: |
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| 7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith: |
Our affliction – Paul was apparently considerably cast down with discouragement and possibly sickness. R4416:1
And distress – If Paul needed such experiences to bring out the best that was in him and to make his epistles the more useful to the Church, possibly the Lord's dealings with us at times may be with the same end in view--our preparation for further usefulness in his service. R4416:2
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| 8 For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. |
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| 9 For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; |
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| 10 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith? |
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| 11 Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. |
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| 12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: |
The Lord make you – Not to sinners are these words addressed, but to saints. Not those who have not the spirit of love does the Apostle exhort, but those who have been begotten of the spirit of love. Who are the "you"? Members of the true Church. R4662:2, 4663:2
It is not what we can do, but what the Lord can do in us and for us. It is the Lord's doing; we can accomplish very little for ourselves. He has various agencies through which he is pleased to increase our love--the word of God, divine providence, fellowship of the saints. R4662:5
Increase – Signifies love already has attained an ascendency in the heart, and is progressing, conquering and bringing into subjection all the thoughts and conduct of life. R4662:2
Approaching more and more and attaining and maintaining the "mark" which God hath set before us as the standard of character for which he will be pleased to award the prize. R4662:2
And abound – The Lord's people are to increase in love continually, until the love abounds or overflows in all the thoughts and words and conduct of life. R4662:2
One reason why love does not abound more thoroughly amongst God's people, is that so many of them have been blinded by the Adversary to the real character of God. R4662:3
In love – We began to receive of God's spirit of love from the time we made our consecration to him, and began to live unto him, and not unto the flesh. R4662:5
One toward another – The Apostles exhort fellow Christians to follow after them in the same way of self-sacrificing, loving obedience, as imitators of Jesus. R4662:5
Toward all men – This presupposes the love which, first of all, is due to God our Father. Nor is it to be expected that any man will love his fellow-creatures to the extent indicated, unless he has first learned to love his Creator. R4662:2
Even as we do – They were exemplifying in their daily course of life this very abounding love which, overflowing, was leading them to sacrifice their own interests and rights and privileges for the sake of the Lord's people everywhere. R4662:3
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| 13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. |
To the end – With the object in view. R4663:5
He may stablish – Fixed, settled, rooted, grounded, thoroughly established, firmly fixed in love for righteousness; so that all unrighteousness would be an abomination to them. R4663:5
Your hearts – To have a heart that is blameless is a very different thing from having flesh that is blameless. The heart, standing for the will, the intention, the desire; represents the new creature. R4663:6
At – In. R4662:4
The coming – Greek: parousia; presence. B159; R4664:1, 2979:1, 1693:1, 223:2
From this the Thessalonian brethren seem to have drawn a wrong conclusion, supposing the Apostle to intimate that the Day of the Lord would surely come in their day. To meet their difficulty, Paul wrote them the second epistle, in which the main thought is the correcting of this error. R665:3
We are now in this time of Christ's presence, and it behooves us to inquire carefully of our hearts to what extent we are established in righteousness, in love for it. R4664:4
Do we find that with the brighter shining truth our hearts are being established, our faith well founded and settled? If so, it is just what Paul expected. R349:1
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