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1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonianschapter 3

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Speaks with:1 Thessalonians 2×4Colossians 1×2Acts 14×2Acts 17×11 Thessalonians 3×1Ephesians 6×1

Summary

Chapter summary

No longer able to forbear, Paul sent Timothy to establish them, that none should be moved by afflictions. Timothy has returned with good news of their faith and charity. Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. What thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy before God? Paul prays night and day that he may see their face, and perfect that which is lacking in their faith. May the Lord increase their love. Henry reads the chapter as the gospel's relational economy.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 1 Thessalonians overview

  • A. 1–5 Timothy Sent, Lest the Tempter Had Won
  • B. 6–10 Timothy's Good Report Brought Paul Back to Life
  • C. 11–13 May the Lord Make You Overflow in Love

The outline

  1. A.Timothy Sent, Lest the Tempter Had Wonvv. 1 to 5

    Read vv. 1 to 5 →

  2. B.Timothy's Good Report Brought Paul Back to Lifevv. 6 to 10

    Read vv. 6 to 10 →

  3. C.May the Lord Make You Overflow in Lovevv. 11 to 13

    Read vv. 11 to 13 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The coming of the Lord closes every chapter

Pattern

Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends on the coming of the Lord: waiting for his Son from heaven, the crown of rejoicing at his coming, hearts stablished unblameable at his coming, the dead raised and the living caught up, and the whole person preserved blameless unto the coming.

A church a few weeks old was taught to live with this horizon. The letter's frame makes the coming of the Lord the ordinary hope of ordinary believers, and 4:15-17 gives the fullest account of the catching up in Scripture.

  1. 1 Thessalonians 1:10

    To wait for his Son from heaven

    The model church turned to God from idols to serve, and to wait for his Son from heaven.

  2. 1 Thessalonians 2:19

    The crown of rejoicing at his coming

    Paul's hope and joy is the Thessalonians themselves, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.

  3. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 you are here

    Unblameable in holiness at the coming

    Hearts stablished unblameable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

  4. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

    Caught up together to meet the Lord

    The Lord himself descends, the dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up together with them in the clouds.

  5. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

    Preserved blameless unto the coming

    Spirit and soul and body preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The world behind this chapter

1 Thessalonians 3
When
The second missionary journey · c. AD 50–51
Where
Athens and Corinth, from where Timothy was sent north and later returned with news
Who first heard it
A church that had not known whether its founders were alive or had given up on them

The history

There was no postal service for private people. A letter or a message traveled with someone who happened to be going, which is why churches sent trusted men as carriers and why Timothy's journey is such a large event in this chapter.

The distance mattered. From Athens or Corinth up to Thessalonica was several hundred miles of road and coastal sailing, and the sea lanes closed in winter. A round trip with a stay in the city could easily eat two or three months, and during that stretch neither end knew anything about the other.

Sending Timothy meant Paul deliberately stayed alone in a strange city. In that world, a teacher's standing rested partly on the entourage around him, so being left by himself was a real cost, not a figure of speech.

The word he uses for their trouble is the word for pressure — the squeeze of a crowd or a weight. It describes what a small unpopular group felt every day at the market and the guild hall, not one dramatic event.

What it meant to them

For the hearers, the news that their teacher had been sleepless over them answered the accusation that he had used them and left. He had sent his closest helper at real cost to get word.

And Timothy's report becomes their evidence too: they had held. The letter hands them back a picture of themselves standing, which is worth a great deal to people who have been told daily that they made a fool's choice.

Sources cited

  • Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
  • Sir William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 1 Thessalonians 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on James Denney, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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