Robertson's Word Pictures of the NT

2 Thessalonians 1:3

We are bound

(οφειλομεν). Paul feels a sense of obligation to keep on giving thanks to God (ευχαριστειν τω θεω, present infinitive with dative case) because of God's continued blessings on the Thessalonians. He uses the same idiom again in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and nowhere else in his thanksgivings. It is not necessity (δε) that Paul here notes, but a sense of personal obligation as in 1 John 2:6 (Milligan).Even as it is meet

(καθως αξιον εστιν). Οφειλομεν points to the divine, αξιον to the human side of the obligation (Lightfoot), perhaps to cheer the fainthearted in a possible letter to him in reply to Paul's First Thessalonian epistle (Milligan). This adjective αξιος is from αγω, to drag down the scales, and so weighty, worthy, worthwhile, old word and appropriate here.For that your faith groweth exceedingly

(οτ υπεραυξανε η πιστις υμων). Causal use of οτ referring to the obligation stated in οφειλομεν. The verb υπεραυξανω is one of Paul's frequent compounds in υπερ (υπερ-βαινω, 1 Thessalonians 4:6; υπερ-εκ-τεινω, 2 Corinthians 10:14; υπερ-εν-τυγχανω, Romans 8:26; υπερ-νικαω, Romans 8:37; υπερ-πλεοναζω, 1 Timothy 1:14) and occurs only here in N.T. and rare elsewhere (Galen, Dio Cass.). Figure of the tree of faith growing above (υπερ) measure. Cf. parable of Jesus about faith-like a grain of mustard seed (Matthew 13:31).Aboundeth

(πλεοναζε). Same verb in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, here a fulfilment of the prayer made there. Milligan finds diffusive growth of love in this word because of "each one" (ενος εκαστου). Frame finds in this fulfilment of the prayer of 1 Thessalonians 3:12 one proof that II Thessalonians is later than I Thessalonians.

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Robertson's Word Pictures of the NT

2 Thessalonians 1:3

Old Testament

New Testament