1 Thessalonians 3:5

For this cause. — “Because I knew that temptation was sure to overtake you, I sent to see whether our work still lived, and was likely to live, in spite of it.”

To know your faith. — “To ascertain whether you still believed:” only the form courteously implies that the faith was certainly there, and St. Paul only sent to “make assurance doubly sure.”

The tempter. — See Matthew 4:3. The word and the tense in the Greek imply, not only that it is his character to tempt, but that it is his constant occupation.

Have tempted you.... — The original implies no doubt on the writer’s part that the Thessalonians had been tempted; the only doubt was, how they had borne it. The striking out of the comma after “tempted you,” and reading the clauses quickly together, will give a fair notion of the purport. It might be paraphrased, “Lest, in consequence of the temptations which the tempter brought against you, our toil should prove in vain.” The “temptations” were those of persecution, and the time at which they befell, the same as in 1 Thessalonians 3:4, “it came to pass.”