Readers who are more familiar with Paul’s negative uses of the word “boasting” (kauchēsis) may be taken aback by this description of a boast at the Lord’s return. On other occasions Paul teaches that no one should boast because everything we have is a gift from God (1 Cor 4:7; see also Rom 3:27), and yet here he is looking forward to the day when he will boast in the presence of Jesus. The English word “boast” has an almost exclusively negative connotation. In contrast, the word Paul uses, kauchēsis, sometimes means “boasting” in the negative sense, but for Paul it can also mean the source of one’s confidence or joy. We frequently find Paul claiming that his “boast” is based on Christ: “But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14; see also Rom 5:11; 1 Cor 1:31; Phil 3:3). This confidence in Christ extended to confidence in the mission to which Paul was called. In his letter to the Romans he says that he has reason to boast in his ministry to the Gentiles because it is based on the power of God (15:15–21; see also 2 Thess 1:4). Though Paul does not make it explicit in 1 Thess 2:19–20, he has already said that the Thessalonians’ faith, hope, and love are the work of God in them.
Reflection and Application (2:17–20)
Paul was desperate to return to the church in Thessalonica, but his attempts were repeatedly thwarted. One might expect him to conclude from his inability to return that it was not God’s will for him to rejoin the Thessalonian church. Many Christians are quick to assume that whatever unfortunate events occur must be God’s will for their lives. Paul, however, does not equate the way things are with the will of God. To be sure, he believes that God is able to tear down whatever barriers stand between him and the Thessalonians, and he prays that God will do this (3:11). Nevertheless, he does not consider his current inability to return to Thessalonica evidence that God does not want him to return. On the contrary, he interprets the obstacles that keep him in Achaia as diabolical opposition. Paul reminds us that Christians believe God is supreme, but that we do not need to see everything that happens as the direct result of God’s will—indeed, we must not. Paul taught that creation is in bondage to decay (Rom 8:21–22) and that the god of this age—that is, Satan—is still at work (2 Cor 4:4). As the Catechism puts it, the world is in the power of the evil one, and as a result our life is a battle (409). Facile equations of the way things are with the will of God do not belong to a Christian view of reality.16
1. Or rather with the archaic adverb “holily.”
2. Homiliae in epistulam i ad Thessalonicenses (PG 62:406 [my translation]).
3. The Trinity, trans. Stephen McKenna, FC 45 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1963), 478.
4. Note the Douay-Rheims Bible: “You received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God, who worketh in you that have believed.”
5. See the discussion in John M. G. Barclay, “Conflict in Thessalonica,” CBQ 55 (1993): 512–30.
6. For a defense of this view, see Birger A. Pearson, “1 Thessalonians 2:13–16: A Deutero-Pauline Interpolation,” HTR 64 (1971): 79–94; Earl J. Richard, First and Second Thessalonians, SP 11 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995), 17–19.
7. Markus Bockmuehl, “1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 and the Church in Jerusalem,” TynBul 52 (2001): 1–31, here 7.
8. For a more complete argument, see Bockmuehl, “1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 and the Church in Jerusalem.”
9. Bockmuehl, “1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 and the Church in Jerusalem,” 11.
10. See Frank D. Gilliard, “The Problem of the Antisemitic Comma between 1 Thessalonians 2.14 and 15,” NTS 35 (1989): 481–502.
11. The Greek for the phrase “persecuted us” could be translated as “drove us out.” Some see here a reference to Paul’s hasty exit from Thessalonica (see Acts 17:5–8).
12. Possibilities include the death of thousands of Jews in Jerusalem during Passover in AD 49 or the death of Herod Agrippa I in AD 44. See the discussion in Bockmuehl, “1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 and the Church in Jerusalem,” 25–29.
13. Epistulae ad Olympiadem 8.12 (my translation).
14. Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity, LEC 5 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 58.
15. Regulae morales 31.825 (my translation).
16. For a helpful discussion of this issue, see David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).
Paul’s Relief at the Return of Timothy
1 Thessalonians 3:1–13
While working in Athens, Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to encourage the new church, lest their suffering and the devil’s influence cause them to fall away. When Timothy returned with the good news that they endured in the faith, Paul was overwhelmed with relief, but he continued to pray that God would allow him to return to Thessalonica and that God would increase their love and so prepare them for the return of the Lord Jesus.
Timothy Returns to Thessalonica (3:1–5)
1That is why, when we could bear it no longer, we decided to remain alone in Athens 2and sent Timothy, our brother and co-worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3so that no one be disturbed in these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4For even when we were among you, we used to warn you in advance that we would undergo affliction, just as has happened, as you know. 5For this reason, when I too could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had put you to the test and our toil might come to nothing.
NT: Mark 4:1–20
Paul continues retelling the story of his relationship with the Thessalonian church. Here he recounts how he sent Timothy in his stead to strengthen their faith. Paul was worried that they had been disturbed by the afflictions they were suffering (3:3). He also feared that Satan, whom he calls the tempter, had tempted them and brought Paul’s work to nothing (3:5). Paul knew that suffering sometimes causes people to abandon their beliefs, and he assumed that Satan would be working to take advantage of this period of vulnerability, just as Satan had prevented him from returning to encourage the Thessalonians. Though Paul does not cite it, the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1–20 and parallels) is a good illustration of Paul’s concern. It compares the preaching of the word to sowing seed. Some seed is eaten by birds before it can grow, which represents Satan stealing the word away. Other seed is sown on rocky ground, which represents those who receive the word with joy, but who quickly fall away in times of “tribulation or persecution” because they have no root. Paul was worried that the word would be snatched away from the Thessalonians before it could grow. After all, the Thessalonians were only recent followers of Jesus. Paul did not know what kind of “soil” they were.
[3:1–2]
Since Paul was unable to return, he decided to remain . . . in Athens and send Timothy to discover whether their faith was intact (3:5) and to strengthen and encourage them in their faith (3:2). He hoped that Timothy’s presence and counsel would bolster their faith if it was wavering. This is a good example of how Paul’s use of the word “faith” (pistis) is not limited to belief. It is not that Paul wondered if they had come to accept some new doctrine, but rather he wondered if they had remained faithful to the gospel in the midst of suffering.
[3:3]
When Paul was in Thessalonica he was careful to tell them ahead of time that we are destined for suffering. The Greek verb translated as “we are destined” could be rendered as “we are set up for.” It’s the same word Simeon uses when he tells Mary that the infant Jesus is “destined” for the falling and rising of many (Luke 2:34). Why would Paul tell the Thessalonians that God had appointed them to suffer? Jewish †apocalyptic writers frequently alluded to a time of great suffering that would precede God’s decisive action in history (e.g., Dan 12:1). Paul believed that all who are in Christ would share in Christ’s suffering as well as his resurrection
. For Paul, the Thessalonians’ reception of the gospel in the midst of suffering was clear evidence that the Holy Spirit was empowering them to become like Jesus (1 Thess 1:6). As he put it in his letter to the Thessalonians’ neighbors in Philippi, God graciously allows Christians “not only to believe in [Christ], but also to suffer for him” because suffering leads to our salvation (Phil 1:28–29; see also 3:10–11; Rom 8:18).
[3:4–5]
The NABRE’s translation we used to warn you correctly suggests that suffering was a central part of Paul’s message. In their relatively short time together, Paul taught them repeatedly that suffering is basic to the life of those in Christ. Yet, the word “warn” sounds too negative. A more wooden rendering of the Greek would be “we were telling you ahead of time.” For Paul, faithful suffering was evidence that God was working to bring someone to salvation (2 Thess 1:3–12; Phil 1:28). It is not that Paul thought that suffering is good in itself, but rather he thought that God uses suffering to unite us with Christ so we will also share in his resurrection (Rom 5:3–5; Phil 3:10). Almost four centuries later, St. John Chrysostom would quote Paul’s reminder to the Thessalonians that we are destined to suffer and quip, “And, as if we were destined for relaxation, we think it strange.”1
What sort of “affliction” had the Thessalonians undergone? Paul does not specify the nature of their suffering—it was known well enough to them. Readers of Acts will think of how an angry mob attacked the house of one of the Thessalonian converts and dragged some of them before the city authorities, accusing them of what amounts to insurrection (Acts 17:5–9). It is almost inevitable that the Thessalonians would have experienced some personal turmoil. They had rejected the gods of their city and families as dead idols (1 Thess 1:9) and surely would have experienced the pain of strained or broken relationships and perhaps persecution. It is also likely that some of them had died (see commentary on 1 Thess 4:13–18).2
LIVING TRADITION
Salvian the Presbyter (Early Fifth Century) on 1 Thessalonians 3:3
Since the Apostle says that we are placed by God in this world to bear hardships, miseries and sorrows, what is strange about it if we who fight for the sake of sustaining all adversities should suffer all manner of evil? Many do not understand this and think that Christian men should receive these things [i.e., freedom from hardship] from God as tribute, as it were, for their faith.a
a. The Writings of Salvian, the Presbyter, trans. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, FC 3 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1947), 69–70.
Timothy’s Good News (3:6–10)
6But just now Timothy has returned to us from you, bringing us the good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us and long to see us as we long to see you. 7Because of this, we have been reassured about you, brothers, in our every distress and affliction, through your faith. 8For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
9What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God? 10Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
[3:6]
The story of Paul’s relationship with the Thessalonians, which Paul has been telling since 1:2, finally comes to an end here as Paul describes the joy he experienced when Timothy returned with the good news that the Thessalonians had remained unshaken by their suffering. There are two main parts to Timothy’s report as Paul describes it. First, Timothy reported that the Thessalonians continued in their faith and love. Their sufferings had not caused them to abandon their new life of loyalty to Christ and work on behalf of his kingdom (see 1:2–3). Paul spends most of the rest of the letter seeking to reinforce their faith, their love, and also their hope. The second part of Timothy’s report was that the Thessalonians always think kindly of us and long to see us as we long to see you. In other words, the Thessalonians still hold Paul in high esteem and wish to deepen their relationship.
The talk of “longing” sounds rather overheated by our standards. To modern ears, this is the language of romance, not ecclesial correspondence. For Greek letter writers of Paul’s day, however, it was conventional to speak of one’s longing for the recipient. Indeed, 3:6–10 is filled with language that sounds effusive to us but that was standard in its own context. The mention of happy memories (3:6), the welfare of the other being a matter of life and death (3:8), and thanksgiving to God or gods (3:9)—all of this was common in letters between friends. This does not mean that 1 Thessalonians would have sounded stale or cliché when it was read aloud to the assembled Thessalonians—far from it. It bursts with arresting images and creativity. But Paul’s description of his longing for the Thessalonians is quite conventional.
[3:7–8]
Paul is consoled in his distress and affliction because of the Thessalonians’ enduring faith. His relief at hearing Timothy’s good news is so great that he says we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord. St. John Chrysostom interprets this to mean that Paul’s eternal life depends on the Thessalonians remaining steadfast: “What is equal to Paul, who thought the salvation of his neighbors was his own salvation, as a body toward its parts? . . . He has said not ‘we rejoice’ but rather ‘we live,’ referring to the life to come.”3 On another occasion Chrysostom cites this verse alongside Moses’s prayer that God blot him out if God would not forgive his fellow Israelites (Exod 32:32).4 Most modern commentators object that Paul is simply using hyperbole to express his relief.5 As noted above, letters between friends frequently expressed this sort of sentiment, including the claim that the writer will die if he or she doesn’t see the recipient (see sidebar, “Strong Emotions in Ancient Letters,” above). At the same time, Paul did expect to be rewarded when Jesus returned, on the basis of the Thessalonian church (1 Thess 2:19–20), so Chrysostom’s interpretation may not be too far off the mark. Paul needs the Thessalonians to “stand firm in the Lord” in order to fulfill his calling bring the gospel to the nations.
BIBLICAL BACKGROUND
Strong Emotions in Ancient Letters
Paul’s expressions of intense longing were not uncommon among letter writers in his day. In this letter from the early second century AD, a woman named Taus tells her master that she “dies” because she cannot see him:
Taus to Apollonius her lord, many greetings. First of all, I greet you, master, and I pray always for your health. I was in no small amount of agony, lord, to hear that you weren’t feeling well, but thanks be to all the gods that they kept you free from harm. I appeal to you, lord, if it please you, also that you send for us. Otherwise, we die because we do not see you daily. Would that we were able to fly and come and make obeisance to you, for we are in agony not seeing you. So be reconciled with us and send for us.a
In addition to expressions of longing similar to Paul’s, Taus prays “always” for her master’s health and thanks the gods for keeping him from harm. This is similar to Paul’s declarations of constant prayer for his churches and his thanks to God.
a. P.Giss. I 17 (my translation). Cited by Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 32B (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 202.
[3:9]
Since the beginning of the letter Paul has been retelling the story of his time with the Thessalonians, their separation, his anxiety, the mission of Timothy, and finally Paul’s great relief upon learning that they continue to stand firm “in the Lord.” The story was punctuated with thanksgiving to God in 1:2 and 2:13. In 3:9–10 Paul finally brings the story and his thanksgiving to a close with this question: What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God? This rhetorical question is similar to the English “How can I thank you?” Paul feels that it is appropriate for him to return thanks to God, but he knows that it is impossible for him to give thanks adequately for such a great gift. A similar question appears in Sir 7:28: “What can you give [your parents] for all
they gave you?” One should honor one’s parents by caring for them in their old age, but a child will never really repay her parents for all she has received. Similarly, Paul is searching for a way to thank God for this gift, even though he knows he never will.
The word translated as “render” (antapodidōmi) means “repay” or “pay back.” To people today, it seems almost inappropriate to speak of paying God back with thanksgiving. We tend to imagine that payment and thanksgiving belong to completely separate categories, but in Paul’s day it was not at all unusual to speak of repaying thanks to God or humans (see commentary on 2 Thess 1:3). The language of repaying thanks to God is found frequently in the Psalms. In LXX Psalm 115:3 (ET 116:12) the psalmist asks, “What shall I pay [antapodidōmi] to the Lord for all the things which he has paid [antapodidōmi] me?” (my translation). The Psalms frequently speak of vows to “repay” God with thanksgiving if God delivers one from distress.6 In the psalm the temple is the ideal location to repay one’s vows. Paul, however, sees himself already standing “before our God,” in the presence of God in his current location.
First and Second Thessalonians Page 9