1 Thessalonians 3:13

αμεμπ-τως, for -τους, BL: perhaps due to 1 Thessalonians 2:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23. See Expository Note.

αγιοσυνῃ: this unusual spelling in B*DG—a frequent itacism (ο for ω). So DG in 2 Corinthians 7:1.

The closing αμην (WH, margin) is found in א*AD 37 43 d e vg cop: a strong combination of evidence; and transcriptional probability tells in support of the reading, for the “Amen” would seem premature in the middle of the Epistle. “Videtur αμην hoc loco offendisse” (Tisch.). BG and the Syrian witnesses, with some Latins, omit.

13. εἰς τὸ στηρίξαι ὑμῶν τὰς καρδίας� κ.τ.λ., to the end He may establish your hearts, (made) unblamable in holiness, &c.: the ultimate end (see note on εἰς τό with infin. 1 Thessalonians 3:10) of the prayer for increased love in 1 Thessalonians 3:12; such love will lead to confidence of heart in view of the coming of Christ in judgement. A like connexion of thought appears in 1 John 3:18-21; 1 John 4:16 f.: “Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement.… Perfect love casts out fear.” The prayer for improved faith (1 Thessalonians 3:10), leads to prayer for increased love (1 Thessalonians 3:12), and now for assured hope (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:3). “Love” prepares for judgement as it imparts “holiness”; in this Christian perfection lies (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23). Love and holiness are associated in the apostolic prayer, as (with reversed order) in the apostolic homily of 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12. Ἀμέμπτους is attached, proleptically, as an objective complement to στηρίξαι τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, “found unblamable”: cf. for the construction, 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21 (σύμμορφον). Clearly some of those addressed in the exhortations immediately following (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8) were not yet ἄμεμπτοι ἐν ἁγιωσύνῃ, as they must be ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ.

ἀμέμπτους … ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἡμῶν imports freedom from blame in God’s eyes, before whom believers in Christ will be presented at His coming: see Colossians 1:22; Colossians 1:28; 1 Corinthians 15:24; and cf. Philippians 2:15; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Peter 3:14. “Our God and Father” listens to the Apostles’ prayers for the welfare of His chosen (1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:4), and will delight hereafter to recognize them as His holy children. While ἁγιότης (2 Corinthians 1:12; Hebrews 12:10) denotes the abstract quality of “holiness,” ἁγιασμός the process, and then the result, of “making holy” (1 Thessalonians 4:3; frequent in St Paul), ἁγιωσύνη is the state or condition of the ἅγιος (see note on this word below): cf. Romans 1:4; 2 Corinthians 7:1. This holy state is that toward which the love now vigorously active in the Thessalonians must grow and tend, so that their holiness may at Christ’s coming win God’s approval, the anticipation of which will give them a calm strength of heart in prospect of that tremendous advent (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7 ff.).

On στηρίζω, see note to 1 Thessalonians 3:2. The phrase στηρίζειν καρδίαν is found in James 5:8, and in the O.T. (LXX) in Psalms 103:15; Sir 6:37 : it means not the strengthening of character, but the giving of conscious security, of a steady, settled assurance—the opposite of the condition deprecated in 1 Thessalonians 3:3, or in 2 Thessalonians 2:2. On καρδία, see note to 1 Thessalonians 2:17.

The last clause, ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ κ.τ.λ., might be attached grammatically to στηρίξαι, as by Bornemann, the whole sentence being thus rendered: “so as to give you steadfast hearts—hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father—in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints”; the words implying that the desired assurance is to be realized at the hour of the Lord’s appearing. But this is somewhat forced in construction; and the στηρίζειν thought of in 1 Thessalonians 3:2, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:17, relates to no future and prospective assurance of heart, but to that which is needed now, in the midst of present trials and alarms (1 Thessalonians 3:3 ff.; 2 Thessalonians 2:2, &c.). “The coming” of the Judge will reveal the blamelessness in question—ἀμέμπτους … ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ (cf. Romans 8:18 f.; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Colossians 3:4), unblamable … in the appearing, &c.; but the holy character then disclosed exists already in the saints, who thus prepared joyfully await their Lord’s return (see Luke 12:35-46). St Paul was sensible of such readiness in his own case (2 Corinthians 1:12; Philippians 1:19-21; 2 Timothy 4:7 f.; cf. 2 Peter 3:14). The παρουσία is the goal of all Christian expectation in the N.T.—the crisis at which character is assayed, and destiny decided; see, in particular, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13 f.; and our Lord’s parables of the Wedding Feast and Robe, and of the Lighted or Unlit Lamps (Matthew 22:11-13; Matthew 25:1-13).

That “our Lord Jesus comes (attended) with all His saints”—μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ—is explained in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16. These are not the “angels” of 2 Thessalonians 1:7 (see note); οἱ ἅγιοι denotes always with St Paul holy men (2 Thessalonians 1:10, and passim): here the holy dead, who will “rise first” and whom “God will bring with Him”—with Jesus—when He returns to His people upon earth. To be fit for this meeting (ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγή, 2 Thessalonians 2:1), Christians must be “blameless in holiness”; only the holy can join the holy. Hofmann, and a few others, connect μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων with ἀμέμπτους ἐν ἁγιωσύνῃ instead of παρουσίᾳ—“blameless in holiness … along with His holy ones”; but this construction appears artificial, and misses the thought developed in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which is already in the writer’s mind, viz. that Christ will be attended in His παρουσία by the sainted Christian dead. For the word παρουσία, see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:19; and for the name “Lord Jesus,” see 1 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:19.