Paul¡¯s concern
1 As I could no longer bear it, I decided to go alone to Athens,
2 and send you Timothy, our brother and co-worker of God in the Gospel of
Christ. I wanted him to encourage you in the faith and strengthen you
3 so that none of you might turn back because of the trials you are now
enduring. You know that such is our destiny.
4 I warned you of this when I was there: ¡°We shall have to face
persecution¡±; and so it was, as you have seen.
5 There fore I could not stand it any longer and sent Timothy to appraise
your faith and see if the Tempter had tempted you and made our work useless.
6 But now Timothy has just re turned with good news of your faith and love.
He told us that you re member us kindly and that you long to see us as much
as we long to see you.
7 What a consolation for us, brothers and sisters, in the midst of our
troubles and trials, this faith of yours!
8 It is a breath of life for us when you stand firm in the Lord.
9 How can we thank God enough for all the joy that we feel before God
because of you?
10 Day and night we beg of him to let us see you again, that we may complete
the instruction of the believers.
11 May God our Father and Jesus our Lord prepare the way for us to visit
you.
12 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all
people, as he in creases our love for you.
13 May he strengthen you internally to be holy and blameless before God, our
Father, on the day that Jesus, our Lord, will come with all his saints.
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Comments 1 Letter to the Thessalonians, Chapter 3
• 3.1 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for
all people (v. 12). Love manifests itself first within the community and
then it must be expanded to all people.
Note also Paul¡¯s constant preoccupation: his apostolic mission does not
allow him to remain in any community. He is always moving, leaving his work
unfinished, but he entrusts his converts to the grace of God that does not
suppress the freedom of the recent converts nor the work of the Tempter in
the world.
You know that such is our destiny (v. 3). There is no church, nor Christian
life, without trials and persecutions.