2 Thessalonians 3:1
“Request for Prayer and Divine Guidance”2 Thessalonians 3:1–5
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- ΤὸTo[the]G3588T-ASNDefinite article Accusative Singular Neuter
- λοιπόνloiponFinallyG3063A-ASNAdjective Accusative Singular Neuter
- προσεύχεσθεproseuchesthedo prayG4336V-PNM-2PVerb Present Middle Or Passive Deponent Imperative 2nd Plural
- ἀδελφοίadelphoibrothersG80N-VPMNoun Vocative Plural Masculine
- περὶperiforG4012PREPPreposition
- ἡμῶνhēmōnusG3165P-1GPPersonal pronoun Genitive 1st Plural
- ἵναinathatG2443CONJConjunction
- ὁhotheG3588T-NSMDefinite article Nominative Singular Masculine
- λόγοςlogoswordG3056N-NSMNoun Nominative Singular Masculine
- τοῦtouof theG3588T-GSMDefinite article Genitive Singular Masculine
- κυρίουkuriouLordG2962N-GSM-TNoun Genitive Singular Masculine Title
- τρέχῃtrechēmay spread quicklyG5143V-PAS-3SVerb Present Active Subjunctive 3rd Singular
- καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
- δοξάζηταιdoxazētaimay be glorifiedG1392V-PPS-3SVerb Present Passive Subjunctive 3rd Singular
- καθὼςkathōseven asG2531CONJConjunction
- καὶkaialsoG2532CONJConjunction
- πρὸςproswithG4314PREPPreposition
- ὑμᾶςhumasyouG4771P-2APPersonal pronoun Accusative 2nd Plural
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers 2 Thessalonians 3:1–5. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
In these words observe,
I.The apostle desires the prayers of his friends:
Finally, brethren, pray for us, 2 Thessalonians 3:1. He always remembered them in his prayers, and would not have them forget him and his fellow-labourers, but bear them on their hearts at the throne of grace. Note,
1.This is one way by which the communion of saints is kept us, not only by their praying together, or with one another, but by their praying for one another when they are absent one from another. And thus those who are at great distance may meet together at the throne of grace; and thus those who are not capable of doing or receiving any other kindness may yet this way do and receive real and very great kindness.
2.It is the duty of people to pray for their ministers; and not only for their own pastors, but also for all good and faithful ministers. And,
3.Ministers need, and therefore should desire, the prayers of their people. How remarkable is the humility, and how engaging the example, of this great apostle, who was so mighty in prayer himself, and yet despised not the prayers of the meanest Christian, but desired an interest in them. Observe, further, what they are desired and directed to pray for; namely,
(1.)For the success of the gospel ministry: That the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, 2 Thessalonians 3:1. This was the great thing that Paul was most solicitous about. He was more solicitous that God's name might be sanctified, his kingdom advanced, and his will done, than he was about his own daily bread. He desired that the word of the Lord might run (so it is in the original), that it might get ground, that the interest of religion in the world might go forward and not backward, and not only go forward, but go apace. All the forces of hell were then, and still are, more or less, raised and mustered to oppose the word of the Lord, to hinder its publication and success. We should pray, therefore, that oppositions may be removed, that so the gospel, may have free course to the ears, the hearts, and the consciences of men, that it may be glorified in the conviction and conversion of sinners, the confutation, of gainsayers, and the holy conversation of the saints. God, who magnified the law, and made it honourable, will glorify the gospel, and make that honourable, and so will glorify his own name; and good ministers and good Christians may very well be contented to be little, to be any thing, to be nothing, if Christ be magnified and his gospel be glorified. Paul was now at Athens, or, as some think, at Corinth, and would have the Thessalonians pray that he might have as good success there as he had at Thessalonica, that it might be as well with others even as it was with them. Note, If ministers have been successful in one place, they should desire to be successful in every place where they may preach the gospel.
(2.)For the safety of gospel ministers. He asks their prayers, nor for preferment, but for preservation: That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, 2 Thessalonians 3:2. Note, Those who are enemies to the preaching of the gospel, and persecutors of the faithful preachers of it, are unreasonable and wicked men. They act against all the rules and laws of reason and religion, and are guilty of the greatest absurdity and impiety. Not only in the principles of atheism and infidelity, but also in the practice of the vice and immorality, and especially in persecution, there is the greatest absurdity in the world, as well as impiety. There is need of the spiritual protection, as well as the assistance, of godly and faithful ministers, for these are as the standard-bearers, who are most struck at; and therefore all who wish well to the interest of Christ in the world should pray for them. For all men have not faith; that is, many do not believe the gospel; they will not embrace it themselves, and no wonder if such are restless and malicious in their endeavours to oppose the gospel, decry the ministry, and disgrace the ministers of the word; and too many have not common faith or honesty; there is no confidence that we can safely put in them, and we should pray to be delivered from those who have no conscience nor honour, who never regard what they say or do. We may sometimes be in as much or more danger from false and pretended friends as from open and avowed enemies.
II.He encourages them to trust in God.
We should not only pray to God for his grace, but also place our trust and confidence in his grace, and humbly expect what we pray for. Observe,
1.What the good is which we may expect from the grace of God - establishment, and preservation from evil; and the best Christians stand in need of these benefits.
(1.)That God would establish them. This the apostle had prayed for on their behalf (2 Thessalonians 2:17), and now he encourages them to expect this favour. We stand no longer than God holds us up; unless he hold up our goings in his paths, our feet will slide, and we shall fall.
(2.)That God will keep them from evil. We have as much need of the grace of God for our perseverance to the end as for the beginning of the good work. The evil of sin is the greatest evil, but there are other evils which God will also preserve his saints from - the evil that is in the world, yea, from all evil, to his heavenly kingdom.
2.What encouragement we have to depend upon the grace of God: The Lord is faithful. He is faithful to his promises, and is the Lord who cannot lie, who will not alter the thing that has gone out of his mouth. When once the promise therefore is made, performance is sure and certain. He is faithful to his relation, a faithful God and a faithful friend; we may depend upon his filling up all the relations he stands in to his people. Let it be our care to be true and faithful in our promises, and to the relations we stand in to this faithful God. He adds,
3.A further ground of hope that God would do this for them, seeing they did and would do the things they were commanded, 2 Thessalonians 3:4. The apostle had this confidence in them, and this was founded upon his confidence in God; for there is otherwise no confidence in man. Their obedience is described by doing what he and his fellow-labourers had commanded them, which was no other thing than the commandments of the Lord; for the apostles themselves had no further commission than to teach men to observe and to do what the Lord had commanded, Matthew 28:20. And as the experience the apostle had of their obedience for the time past was one ground of his confidence that they would do the things commanded them for the time to come, so this is one ground to hope that whatsoever we ask of God we shall receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight, 1 John 3:22.
III.He makes a short prayer for them, 2 Thessalonians 3:5.
It is a prayer for spiritual blessings. Two things of the greatest importance the apostle prays for: - 1. That their hearts may be brought into the love of God, to be in love with God as the most excellent and amiable Being, the best of all beings; and this is not only most reasonable and necessary in order to our happiness, but is our happiness itself; it is a great part of the happiness of heaven itself, where this love shall be made perfect. We can never attain to this unless God by his grace direct our hearts aright, for our love is apt to go astray after other things. Note, We sustain a great deal of damage by misplacing our affections; it is our sin and our misery that we place our affections upon wrong objects. If God directs our love aright upon himself, the rest of the affections will thereby be rectified. 2. That a patient waiting for Christ may be joined with this love of God. There is no true love of God without faith in Jesus Christ. We must wait for Christ, which supposes our faith in him, that we believe he came once in flesh and will come again in glory: and we must expect this second coming of Christ, and be careful to get ready for it; there must be a patient waiting, enduring with courage and constancy all that we may meet with in the mean time: and we have need of patience, and need of divine grace to exercise Christian patience, the patience of Christ (as some read the word), patience for Christ's sake and after Christ's example.
Historical interpretation
Seven Centuries of Reception
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"Knowledge is not in all," says the apostle. "And pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith."
"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil."
Indeed, there is good wisdom, but sweet mercy. Few attain the former, while the latter reaches everyone. Because of this, he says, souls renewed by the spirit love you. Hence, it is also said to the soul: Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's. For he was speaking to the soul, saying: Bless the Lord, O my soul. And therefore it hurries to the Word, and asks to be drawn, lest it be left behind; for the Word of God runs and is not hindered.
"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, even as also it is with you."
He indeed had prayed for them, that they might be stablished; and now he asks of them, entreating them to pray for him, not that he may not incur danger, for to this he was appointed, but that "the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, even as also it is with you." And the request is accompanied with commendation. "Even as also it is with you."
He also says to the Thessalonians, “For the rest, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run and may be glorified even as among you; that we may be delivered from troublesome and evil men, for not all men have faith.” How else could the word of God run and be glorified except by the conversion to the faith of those to whom it is preached, when Paul says to present believers, “Even as among you”? Surely he knows that this is accomplished by him to whom he wishes prayer to be made that this may be so, and also that he may be delivered through their prayers from troublesome and evil men. It is for this reason that he adds, “For not all men have faith,” as if to say, “The word of God will not be glorified among all, even though you are praying” because those who were likely to believe were the ones “who were ordained to life everlasting,” predestined “to the adoption of children through Jesus Christ to himself” and chosen “in him before the foundation of the world.” No one is so unlearned, so carnal, so slow of wit as not to see that God does what he commands us to ask him to do.
With this in mind, dearly beloved, let us always look forward with longing toward our everlasting joy. Let us always pray for fortitude in our temporal labors and trials. Let us offer prayers for one another. Let my prayers be offered for you, and yours for me. And, brothers, do not think that you need my prayers, but that I have no need of yours. We have mutual need of one another’s prayers, for those reciprocal prayers are enkindled by charity and—like a sacrifice offered on the altar of piety—are fragrant and pleasing to the Lord. If the apostles used to ask for prayers on their own behalf, how much more does it behoove me to do so? For I am far from being their equal, although I long to follow their footsteps as closely as possible. But I have neither the wisdom to know nor the rashness to say what progress I have made.
Through the operation of these millstones—the new and the old covenants—the holy church, then, acts with unceasing care so as to draw out the fine flour of a clean heart from hidden thoughts, once the roughness of sins has been scattered, and to produce spiritual food from their kernels when they have been cleansed by the heavenly commandments. The apostle Paul says about this food, “I gave you milk to drink, not food,” and again, “Solid food is for the perfect, who have their faculties trained by habit,” and so forth. Purifying our hearts from all that is human, the faithful soul strives to offer God as it were the finest wheat, as holy David says, “A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God.” The gospel rushes forward with such speed, however, that only the wise know of its movement. About this speed the blessed Paul says with understanding, “May the word of God speed on and be made glorious in us.” But in the eyes of the foolish the gospel seems to stand still, I say, because they neglect its commands, for they do not believe that what has been written will come to pass.
Just as it is expedient for us to implore God’s mercy for the salvation of your souls, so you ought to pour forth prayers to the Lord on our behalf. We should not consider the apostle’s actions inappropriate. To so great an extent did he long to be commended to God through prayer that he himself implored the people and said, “Pray for us.” Therefore we ought to say what can both encourage ourselves and instruct you. Just as we must reflect with great fear and anxiety on how we may fulfill the office of bishop without reproach, so you should observe that you ought to strive to practice humble obedience in everything that has been commanded you. So let us pray, dearly beloved, that my episcopacy may be profitable for both you and me.
Concerning other things, brothers, pray for us
In this act of humility he leaves us an example.
so that the Word of God may advance
That is, be completed and become acceptable.
and be glorified, just as it is among you
As if he were to say, because I cannot prevail with my eloquence and merits, pray that the word of the Lord may be glorified at least by your prayers. To such a degree the word of the Lord was glorified among them, that they might show that they understood their teaching was God's.
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This verse
Paul asks the believers to pray that the gospel may run swiftly and be honoured everywhere, as it already had been among them.
“Finally, brethren,”
The start of the letter’s closing section. “Brethren” speaks of the family bond the Thessalonians share with Paul in Christ.
“pray for us,”
“Us” is Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. Even apostles depend on the prayers of the church.
“that the word of the Lord may have free course,”
tréchō, “to run”: the gospel as a runner on an open course.
“and be glorified,”
doxázō, to be honoured and esteemed, as people receive the word in faith and God is praised.
“even as it is with you:”
The Thessalonians’ own conversion is the example, and their reason to pray for the same elsewhere.
Passage study2 Thessalonians 3:1–5
Pray for the Word, Trust the Faithful Lord
Summary
As his letter nears its end, Paul makes a request and gives a promise. He asks the believers at Thessalonica to pray that the word of the Lord may run its course and be glorified, as it had been among them, and that he and his companions may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, “for all men have not faith”. Then he turns from faithless men to the faithful Lord, who will establish the Thessalonians and keep them from evil. Trusting in that same Lord, Paul is confident that they are obeying what he taught them and will go on doing so, and he prays that the Lord will direct their hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. In these verses an apostle and a young church pray for each other, and the Lord’s faithfulness holds up both.
Pray that the word of the Lord may run
“Finally” opens the last part of the letter. Paul, writing with Silvanus and Timothy, has dealt with the day of the Lord and the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, and now he turns to personal requests, as his letters often do at their close. He calls the Thessalonians “brethren”, members of one family in Christ, and he asks them to pray for him. An apostle leans on the prayers of a young church, and he says so gladly, drawing them into partnership in his work.
The first thing he asks them to pray for is the message he carries. “The word of the Lord” is the gospel. The Greek lógos covers a spoken word together with the thought behind it, and here it is the message about Jesus Christ and his saving work. kýrios, “Lord”, is a title of supreme authority, and here it names Jesus Christ, who is both the source of the message and its subject.
“May have free course” translates one Greek verb, tréchō, which means “to run”. Paul pictures the word as a runner on a clear track, moving swiftly from place to place with nothing in its way. He had watched it run. Acts tells how the word of God increased (Acts 6:7) and how the word of the Lord grew mightily (Acts 19:20). Paul makes the same kind of request in other letters, asking for prayer that he would have boldness to make the gospel known (Ephesians 6:19–20) and that God would open a door for the word (Colossians 4:3–4). Such prayer rests on God’s own promise: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). The spread of the gospel is God’s work, and he is pleased to do it in answer to his people’s prayers.
“And be glorified” asks for something further. The verb doxázō, from dóxa, “glory”, means to render or esteem something glorious, to honour it. The word is glorified when people receive it with faith, when their lives are changed by it, and when its divine origin and authority are plain to see. The honour goes to God himself, for whom Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify his name (John 12:28).
“Even as it is with you”
The Thessalonians had seen this happen in their own city. Paul had written to them before about how they received the gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:5–6) and welcomed it as the word of God at work in them (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Their own conversion was proof of what the word can do, and it gave them every reason to pray for the same thing elsewhere. They also knew how fiercely the word could be opposed, because in Thessalonica a hostile crowd had forced Paul and his companions to leave early (Acts 17:1–9).
The word that runs is the message of Christ
The word Paul wants to run is the message of the one John calls the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). His life, death and resurrection are what the gospel carries, and the Holy Spirit gives power to those who bear witness to him (Acts 1:8). When the word is glorified, Christ is glorified as people come to own him as Lord. The gospel runs toward the day when every knee bows to Jesus and every tongue confesses him (Philippians 2:9–11), and the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15).
Who were the unreasonable and wicked men?
“And that we may be delivered” carries the same request on. The verb rhýomai means to rescue, to draw someone away from danger, and Paul asks for God to step in and protect him and his companions from men who meant them harm.
Two words describe these men. átopos, “unreasonable”, literally means “out of place”. It describes conduct that is improper, injurious and perverse, out of keeping with what is right and fitting. ponērós, “wicked”, means evil, and it points to the harm such men do to others, an active malice that injures. Together the words picture men whose hostility was both absurd and dangerous.
Paul leaves them unnamed. They likely included opponents like those he had met in Thessalonica, where Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah stirred up a mob against him, and also Gentiles whose conduct was harmful to the believers. On his travels Paul was exposed to danger from both, so this request came out of daily experience. Scripture prepares God’s people for this. A psalm says that the righteous have many afflictions and that the LORD delivers them out of them all (Psalm 34:19), and Jesus told his disciples that the world would hate them because it hated him first (John 15:18–19).
What does “for all men have not faith” mean?
The word “for”, gár, gives the reason behind the request. In older English, “all men have not faith” means that faith is found in some people and missing in others. pístis, “faith”, means persuasion or conviction, and in Paul’s use it is reliance on Christ for salvation and constancy in that trust. Where it is missing, a person’s heart is turned away from God, and that can come out as open hostility to the gospel and its messengers. Jesus said that “men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19–20).
So Paul traces the opposition to its root. The men who threatened him were acting out the unbelief of their hearts, which calls for prayer for protection and also for compassion toward those who oppose the truth. Faith itself is God’s gift, for we are saved by grace through faith, and that faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9). Jesus is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), and he gives the very thing these men lacked.
Jesus himself met the fullest opposition of those who had no faith. He came to his own people and they refused him (John 1:11), and he bore the worst that wicked men could do at the cross. God raised him from the dead, and he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15). He told his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The deliverance Paul asks for rests on that victory.
The Lord is faithful
“But the Lord is faithful.” The small word dé, “but”, sets the Lord against the men of the verse before. pistós, “faithful”, describes one who is trustworthy, reliable and true to his word, and when it is said of God it means he will always do what he has declared. The English makes the turn plain: some men “have not faith”, “but the Lord is faithful”. Paul moves from his own danger to the Thessalonians’ need and grounds everything in God’s character. Moses told Israel that the LORD is the faithful God who keeps his covenant (Deuteronomy 7:9), and Paul told the Corinthians that God, who is faithful, would confirm them to the end (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).
The Thessalonians needed this assurance. They were a young church that had endured persecution (2 Thessalonians 1:4) from their own countrymen and from the Jews (1 Thessalonians 2:14–16), and they had been unsettled by teaching about the day of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:1–12). Some, perhaps thinking the day had already come or was so near that daily work no longer mattered, had stopped working. Into that hostility and confusion Paul sets the steady faithfulness of the Lord.
The Lord’s faithfulness shows itself in two promises. “Who shall stablish you” uses stērízō, which means to set fast, make stable, strengthen or confirm. The Lord makes his people firm in their faith, convictions and conduct, so that they stand when trials, false teaching and doubt press on them. “And keep you from evil” uses phylássō, to watch over, guard and preserve. The Lord who makes them stand also stands guard over them.
Does “evil” mean the evil one?
The word for “evil” is ponērós, the same word translated “wicked” in verse 2. Here the Greek has the article, tou ponērou, “the evil”, and in the New Testament that form often names the evil one, Satan. Jesus prayed that the Father would keep his disciples from the evil one (John 17:15), and Paul tells believers to put on the whole armour of God so that they can stand against the schemes of the devil, since our fight is with spiritual powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:10–18). So Paul most likely promises that the Lord will guard his people from the devil’s temptations, schemes and attacks. The word also covers evil of every kind, moral corruption and harmful things, and the promise reaches all of it. The wicked men of verse 2 and the evil one of verse 3 are named with one word, and the same faithful Lord answers both.
Christ the faithful one
God’s faithfulness is seen most fully in Jesus, “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14). He has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into his kingdom (Colossians 1:13–14), and he was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:25), which is the ground on which we stand firm. He prays for his people, and he says of his sheep, “neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28–29). The one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
God’s keeping and our own obedience
The Lord’s establishing work gives believers firm ground to stand on, and it goes hand in hand with what he calls them to do. In this same letter Paul tells them to “stand fast” (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and to work quietly with their own hands (2 Thessalonians 3:6–12). They are able to do both because the Lord is faithful. As we strive to obey and grow, he is at work in us, giving the strength and protection we need to persevere.
Paul’s confidence in the Lord about them
“We have confidence” translates peíthō, which means to persuade or convince, and in its perfect form, as here, to trust, rely on, be convinced. Paul is convinced about the Thessalonians, and “in the Lord” gives the ground of it. His assurance rests on the power and faithfulness of the Lord at work in them, the same faithfulness he has just declared, and it looks past their own strength and their record. “Touching you” means “concerning you”.
“That ye both do and will do” covers the present and the future. The Thessalonians were already, on the whole, living by what they had been taught, and Paul expects them to keep on. The Christian life is a continuing walk of obedience, and perseverance is God’s work as well as ours. He who began a good work in them will carry it on to the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6), and God equips his people to do his will (Hebrews 13:20–21). Jesus put it plainly: “I am the vine, ye are the branches … for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
“The things which we command you” uses parangéllō, which means to transmit a message, and so to order or command. These are the instructions that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy had passed on in person and in their letters: sound teaching about the Lord’s return, moral conduct, brotherly love and the practical matters of daily life. Paul had already taught the Thessalonians to receive his message as the word of God, and they had done so (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The most pressing command in this letter comes next, the charge to work diligently and to withdraw from those who live disorderly lives at others’ expense (2 Thessalonians 3:6–12). Paul states his confidence in them before he gives that hard instruction, and the verse forms a bridge from the Lord’s faithfulness in verse 3 to the commands that follow.
The Lord direct your hearts
Paul ends this part of the letter with a prayer. The verb kateuthýnō means to straighten fully, and so figuratively to direct. Paul asks the Lord to set their hearts on a straight road, correcting, steadying and aiming them toward the right end. The heart, kardía, a word Strong’s traces to a root kár, means the heart and figuratively the thoughts or feelings, the mind, and also the middle of a thing. In Scripture the heart is the centre of the whole person, where we think, choose, love and decide what is right. So Paul prays for the Lord to take hold of the Thessalonians’ deepest motives and affections.
“The Lord” here may be Jesus Christ, as so often in Paul’s letters, or the Father, or both together, and the prayer holds on any of these readings, for the Father and the Son are one in this work.
“Into the love of God”
The phrase carries two senses, and both are true. The Lord directs our hearts into God’s love for us, his own agape, given freely and at great cost. God so loved the world that he gave his Son (John 3:16), and he showed his love toward us in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). The Lord also directs our hearts into our own love for God, the answering love of people who have been loved first (1 John 4:19). Paul writes elsewhere that all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). This love is the deepest motive for obedience and the strength that keeps believers going.
“Into the patient waiting for Christ”
“Patient waiting” translates hypomonḗ, which means cheerful or hopeful endurance, constancy. It is courageous bearing up under trial and delay, kept alive by hope. The one waited for is Christós, Christ himself, and Paul has his coming in view. For a church that had been shaken about the day of the Lord, and in which some had stopped working, this is the right way to wait: steady, hopeful and busy. Jesus told his followers to be ready (Matthew 24:44), and in his parable the master told his servants, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). Scripture says that we have need of patience so that after doing the will of God we may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:36), and that tribulation works patience in us (Romans 5:3–4).
Christ is the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) of his people, and the Bible closes with the prayer that he would come (Revelation 22:20). His finished work makes the waiting confident, and his promised return will complete God’s kingdom and free his people from all suffering. With the faith of verses 2 and 3, the love and the hopeful endurance of verse 5 bring together the three things Paul says abide, faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Does the Lord’s directing leave room for our own will?
The Lord directs the heart by working in it, and that work makes a willing response possible. Paul says that it is God who works in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). We pray for him to direct us because our hearts wander and our understanding is limited, and his grace moves us to choose freely what pleases him. Believers are still called to strive for holiness and obedience, and the prayer puts that striving in the hands of the Lord.
A faithful Lord behind a praying church
These five verses show prayer going both ways. The church prays for the apostle and the gospel he carries, and the apostle prays for the church. The word of the Lord runs because God sends it and his people ask him to clear its road. Opposition is real, and Paul names it honestly, but he never leaves the matter there. Some men “have not faith”, “but the Lord is faithful”, and every request in the passage leans on that.
The passage gives us the Lord who makes his people firm, stands guard over them against the evil one, works obedience in them today and tomorrow, and turns their hearts toward his own love and toward the coming of his Son. When Paul prays that the Lord will direct your heart, he names where it is being led: into the love of God, and into a patient, hopeful waiting for Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:1 This verse
“Finally, brethren,”
The start of the letter’s closing section. “Brethren” speaks of the family bond the Thessalonians share with Paul in Christ.
“pray for us,”
“Us” is Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. Even apostles depend on the prayers of the church.
“that the word of the Lord may have free course,”
tréchō, “to run”: the gospel as a runner on an open course.
“and be glorified,”
doxázō, to be honoured and esteemed, as people receive the word in faith and God is praised.
“even as it is with you:”
The Thessalonians’ own conversion is the example, and their reason to pray for the same elsewhere.
2 Thessalonians 3:2
“And that we may be delivered”
The second part of the same request. rhýomai is to rescue or draw away from danger.
“from unreasonable and wicked men:”
átopos, “out of place”, improper and perverse, and ponērós, evil and harmful.
“for all men have not faith.”
gár, “for”, gives the reason. pístis, faith, is found in some and missing in others, and unbelief lies at the root of the hostility.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
“But the Lord is faithful,”
dé, “but”, turns from faithless men to the faithful Lord. pistós means trustworthy, true to his word.
“who shall stablish you,”
hós, “who”, ties the work to the Lord himself. stērízō is to set fast, strengthen and confirm.
“and keep you from evil.”
kaí, “and”, joins the second promise. phylássō is to guard and preserve, and apó, “from”, speaks of separation. The Greek reads “the evil”, most likely the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:4
“And we have confidence in the Lord touching you,”
peíthō, to be persuaded and to trust. The ground of Paul’s confidence is the Lord, and its subject is the Thessalonians.
“that ye both do and will do”
Present obedience and continuing obedience, which the Lord sustains.
“the things which we command you.”
parangéllō, to pass on a message and so to command. The instructions on work and disorderly living follow from verse 6.
2 Thessalonians 3:5
“And the Lord direct your hearts”
A prayer. kateuthýnō is to straighten fully, and kardía is the heart as the centre of the person.
“into the love of God,”
God’s love for them, and their love for God in return.
“and into the patient waiting for Christ.”
hypomonḗ, hopeful endurance, with Christós and his coming as its goal.
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