2 Thessalonians 1:3

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren The case is put in the same way in ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ("we are bound to give thanks"), and nowhere else in St Paul. The Apostle feels himself under a special debtof gratitude to God for that which His grace had wrought in the Thessalonians. This is explained by 1 Thessalonians 3:6-9 (see notes), where it appears that the faithfulness of this Church had cheered and sustained the Apostle in a season of peculiar trial, perhaps even of discouragement to himself; comp. Acts 18:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:3: "Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord!"

even as it is meet] For this thanksgiving is matter of intrinsic fitness, not due from personal feeling only. "Your growth in grace deservessuch acknowledgement to God." Comp. Philippians 1:7, "even as it is right for me to think this of you all;" and the pleonasm of the Liturgy, "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty."

because that your faith groweth exceedingly This was the essential point, about which St Paul was anxious when he sent Timothy "to establish you and exhort you about your faith," and on which Timothy had brought back reassuring news (see notes on 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:6); subsequent tidings confirmed Timothy's report, and testified to an extraordinary growth in Thessalonian faith. This was due to two causes: (1) to the practical and energetic character of their faith from the beginning (see note on "work of faith," 1 Thessalonians 1:3); and (2) to the persecution they had undergone. Great trials, if they do not destroy faith, strengthen it, as storms make the oak take deeper root.

"So fed by each strife won, each strenuous hour,

The strong soul grows, its patience ends in power."

We are not surprised that the Apostle adds: and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth (R. V.). This is at once a consequence and cause of growth in faith. Faith and Love are the chief, sister graces of St Paul's theology; and Hope appears in the next verse, under the guise of "patience," to complete the trio; comp. notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; also 1 Corinthians 13:13, and Galatians 5:5-6.

In this fundamental quality of Love the Thessalonian Church excelled; see 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, where the Apostle, acknowledging their excellence, had exhorted them to "abound yet more in love." This they are doing, and he is "bound to thank God" for it. He dwells on the universal prevalence of mutual love in this admirable Church "the love of each one of you all!"