Paul’s concern
1 As I could no longer bear it, I decided to go alone to Athens,
2 and send you Timothy, our brother and co-worker of God in the Gospel of Christ. I wanted him to encourage you in the faith and strengthen you
3 so that none of you might turn back because of the trials you are now enduring. You know that such is our destiny.
4 I warned you of this when I was there: “We shall have to face persecution”; and so it was, as you have seen.
5 There fore I could not stand it any longer and sent Timothy to appraise your faith and see if the Tempter had tempted you and made our work useless.
6 But now Timothy has just re turned with good news of your faith and love. He told us that you re member us kindly and that you long to see us as much as we long to see you.
7 What a consolation for us, brothers and sisters, in the midst of our troubles and trials, this faith of yours!
8 It is a breath of life for us when you stand firm in the Lord.
9 How can we thank God enough for all the joy that we feel before God because of you?
10 Day and night we beg of him to let us see you again, that we may complete the instruction of the believers.
11 May God our Father and Jesus our Lord prepare the way for us to visit you.
12 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all people, as he in creases our love for you.
13 May he strengthen you internally to be holy and blameless before God, our Father, on the day that Jesus, our Lord, will come with all his saints.
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Comments 1 Letter to the Thessalonians, Chapter 3
• 3.1 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all people (v. 12). Love manifests itself first within the community and then it must be expanded to all people.
Note also Paul’s constant preoccupation: his apostolic mission does not allow him to remain in any community. He is always moving, leaving his work unfinished, but he entrusts his converts to the grace of God that does not suppress the freedom of the recent converts nor the work of the Tempter in the world.
You know that such is our destiny (v. 3). There is no church, nor Christian life, without trials and persecutions.