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Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT)

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

May he who is our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. May the Lord increase you and make you to abound in love to each other and to all men, even as we do towards you, in order that he may strengthen your hearts so that you may be blameless in holiness before the God who is our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

It is in a simple passage like this that the instinctive turn of Paul's mind is best seen. For him everything was of God.

(i) He prays to God to open a way for him whereby he may come to Thessalonica. It was to God that he turned for guidance in the ordinary day to day problems of life. One of the great mistakes of life is to turn to God only in the overpowering emergencies and the shattering crises.

I remember once talking to three young men who had just completed a yachting expedition up the west coast of Scotland. One said to me, "You know, when we are at home we hardly ever listen to the weather forecasts, but when we were on that yacht we listened to them with all our ears." It is quite possible to do without the weather forecasts when life is comfortably safe; it is essential to listen when life might depend on them.

We are apt to try to do the same with God. In ordinary things we disregard him, thinking that we can manage well enough by ourselves; in the emergency we clutch at him, knowing that we cannot get through without him. It was not so with Paul. Even in an ordinary routine thing like a journey from Athens to Thessalonica it was to God that he looked for guidance. We use him to try to achieve a God-rescued life; Paul companied with him to achieve a God-directed life.

(ii) He prays to God that he will enable the Thessalonians to fulfil the law of love in their daily lives. We often wonder why the Christian life is so difficult, especially in the ordinary everyday relationships. The answer may very well be that we are trying to live it by ourselves. The man who goes out in the morning without prayer is, in effect, saying, "I can quite well tackle today on my own." The man who lays himself to rest without speaking to God, is, in effect, saying, "I can bear on my own whatever consequences today has brought." John Buchan once described an atheist as "a man who has no invisible means of support." It may well be that our failure to live the Christian life well is due to our trying to live it without the help of God--which is an impossible assignment.

(iii) Paul prays to God for the ultimate safety. At this time his mind was full of thoughts of the Second Coming of Christ when men would stand before the judgment seat of God. It was his prayer that God would so preserve his people in righteousness that on that day they would not be ashamed. The only way to prepare to meet God is to live daily with him. The shock of that day will be not for those who have so lived that they have become God's friends but for those who meet him as a terrible stranger.

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See also 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 in other biblical comments:

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  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

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  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

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  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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  • Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges Commentary

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  • Concordant Commentary on the New Testament by A. E. Knoch

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  • Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

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  • John Darby's Synopsis

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  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

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  • Manly Luscombe Commentary on New Testament

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  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

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  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

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  • McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries

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  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

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  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

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  • Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary on the NT (4 vols)

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  • Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary on the NT (4 vols)

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  • Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament

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  • Sermon Bible Commentary

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  • Summarized Bible Commentary

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  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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  • The Bible Study New Testament

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  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

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  • The Pulpit Commentaries

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  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    WHEREFORE when we could no longer forbear, we thought it would be good to be left at Athens alone; And we sent Timothy, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 John 3:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:16;...

  • Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament (4 Volume Set)

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  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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  • William Burkitt's Expository Notes

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Old Testament