First Thessalonians 3:11-13
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Introduction
This prayer in First Thessalonians caught my attention last week when I heard a sermon preached on it. The prayer is interesting in how it tied "increase and abound in love" to "establishing (strengthening) our hearts" to "blameless in holiness" to the "coming of our Lord Jesus." From my commentaries, I was hoping some scholar would trace the connections between love, holiness, strengthening, and the parousia. The search was encouraging. Here are some notes I gathered some from some commentaries.
On “clear the way” or “direct your way”
The fact that Jesus is God is further highlighted by Paul’s use of singular verb (trans. “clear”) with a plural subject: “may He clear the way, even the Father and Jesus,” and “may They clear the way.”” One can hardly conceive of a stronger way for Paul to indicate his unquestioning acceptance of the lordship of Jesus and His oneness with the Father” (D. Emond Hiebert, The Thessalonian Epistles, p. 154)
(Thomas L. Constable, Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 699)
On “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love”
The Thessalonians were already noted for their love, but Paul prayed that it might abound—increase (pleonasai) and overflow (perisseusai)—even more. “Genuine Christian love … is the one thing in the Christian life which cannot be carried to excess” (Hiebert, The Thessalonian Epistles, p. 155). The image of love overflowing its container suggests that Christian love is something that wells up from within a person naturally. (Thomas L. Constable, Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 700)
On “establish your hearts” or “strengthen your hearts”
The abounding for which he prays is in order that the Thessalonians may be unshaken even at the second coming … The prayer here is that God will so supply the needed buttress that the Thessalonians will remain firm and unmoved whatever the future may hold … Paul longs to see his converts delivered from all such instability. He prays that they may have such a sure basis in love that they will be delivered from all this sort of thing. If God gives them this good gift, he will establish their whole personality.
(Leon Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, p. 110)
On “blameless in holiness”
But the thought is not exclusively ethical. The apostle goes on to bring in the notion of holiness, in which the basic idea is that of being set apart for God. Paul’s word is one that signifies the state rather than the process. In the Greek Old Testament it is used only of God himself, and in the New Testament it is applied to people in only one other passage (2. Cor. 7:1). Paul leaves no doubt as the wholeheartedness with which the Christian is given over to his Lord. The most usual designation of Christians in the New Testament is simply “the holy ones,” or, as we usually translate it, “the saints,” the word being from this same root. Believers do simply live uprightly; they belong to God and thus are set apart entirely for God’s services. Paul’s pray is that this may be fully realized among the Thessalonians.
(Leon Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, p. 110)
