[3:10]
In the NABRE, verse 10 is a new sentence, but in the Greek text Paul rambles on excitedly with the same sentence begun in verse 9. Though Timothy brought a good report, Paul still seems desperate to return to Thessalonica himself. He still feels that there are deficiencies in their faith that he needs to remedy. Though they have remained steadfast “in the Lord” (3:8) and Timothy was able to “strengthen” them in the faith (3:2), there is still progress to be made. At first glance it could seem as if Paul is contradicting himself here. If their faith is deficient, why is Paul elated? We tend to speak of faith as if it is something that one simply has or not, but faith language in the Bible is more complicated. One thinks of the distressed father who cried out to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 [my translation]). He was confident that Jesus could do what he promised, and yet the man knew that his faith was still lacking something. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul describes faith as something that can be built up and strengthened, or weakened and lost (3:2, 5). Faith is operative in works (1:3) and is closely associated with love (1:3; 3:6; 5:8). Faith must grow, as Paul reminds the Corinthian church (2 Cor 10:15). Thus, it is not a question of whether the Thessalonians had faith. They clearly did. But, as Chrysostom puts it while commenting on this verse, “They had not yet enjoyed the benefit of all his teaching, nor had they learned all that was necessary for them to learn.”7 Chapters 4 and 5 show us the main things that Paul probably had in mind.
Prayer for Reunification and Holiness (3:11–13)
11Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, 12and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, 13so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. [Amen.]
OT: Zech 14:5
NT: Matt 25:31–46
Lectionary: 1 Thess 3:12–4:2; First Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Paul has finally finished retelling the story of his relationship with the Thessalonian church. He concludes this first section of the letter with a prayer that he would see them again and that they would be sanctified. In addition to concluding his account of prior events, this prayer also anticipates many of the main issues that Paul will raise in the following section devoted to explaining what kind of lives they should live (4:1–5:22). He prays that they increase in their love, which anticipates 4:9–12, and expresses concern for their preparedness for the return of Jesus, which anticipates 4:13–5:11. As noted in the introduction, these verses are an excellent summary of the letter as a whole, drawing together Paul’s desire to see the Thessalonians again and his hope that they would grow in love and be ready for the return of the Lord.
[3:11]
The first part of the prayer is for God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus to make it possible for Paul to return to Thessalonica. Though Satan has prevented Paul’s reunification with the Thessalonians up to this point (2:18), Paul believes that God and Jesus can overcome this obstacle. Scholars disagree on the question of when Christians first came to see Jesus as fully divine. As a prayer to both Jesus and God in the oldest book of the New Testament, this verse has attracted a good deal of attention. Some have seen great significance in Paul’s use of the Greek verb for direct in the singular, which in Greek presupposes a singular subject. What is more significant is that Paul addresses his prayer to both God the Father and Jesus and assumes that they will hear his prayer and answer. He sees Jesus and God as acting together in answering his request.
LIVING TRADITION
St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose on the Unity of the Father and the Son in 1 Thessalonians 3:11
St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose saw in Paul’s prayer for the joint action of God and Jesus evidence of their unity.
Athanasius:
For one and the same grace is from the Father and the Son, as the light of the sun and the sun’s radiance is one, and the sun’s illumination occurs through the radiance. In this way Paul prays for the Thessalonians, “Now may God himself our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.” He has guarded the unity of the Father and the Son. For he did not say, “May they direct,” as if a double grace were given from one and the other. Instead, he prayed, “May he direct,” to show that the Father gives this grace through the Son.a
Ambrose:
The apostle said, “Now may God himself our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.” He mentions both the Father and the Son, but there is unity of directing because there is unity of power. For this reason in another place he says, “May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father, who loved us and gave us an eternal consolation and good hope in grace, console and strengthen your hearts” (2 Thess 3:16–17). What a great unity he reveals, so that there would be a unity of consolation.b
a. Oratio III contra Arianos 11.6 (my translation).
b. De fide libri V 2.10 (my translation).
[3:12]
Paul does not often appeal to Jesus in prayer, but in verses 11–12 he does just that, addressing him as the Lord (see also 1 Cor 1:2; 16:22; 2 Cor 12:7–9). Paul prays that Jesus would cause a superabundance of love to well up in the Thessalonian converts, overflowing to love of one another and also for all. In 1 Thess 5:15 Paul says something similar, asking the Thessalonians always to “pursue the good, both for one another and for all” (my translation). In 4:10 he commends them for loving one another and also “all the brothers throughout Macedonia.” The love that existed among the members of the local church was meant to overflow to those in Christ elsewhere as well as those outside the church (2 Cor 9:13; Gal 6:10).
[3:13]
Love for all people will transform the Thessalonians so that they will be blameless in holiness when Jesus returns and works are judged. We tend to think of “holiness” as our personal sanctity before God and love as something that turns our attention to others. In American Christianity, where we are tempted to divide Christianity up along the lines of the American political spectrum of “liberal” and “conservative,” we sometimes associate “love” with liberal Christians and “holiness” with conservative Christians. So, a church that emphasizes “holiness” will stress things like freedom from sexual sin, whereas a church that emphasizes “love” will focus on welcoming outcasts into the community. Paul taught his churches to avoid sexual sin (1 Thess 4:3) and to accept others (Rom 15:7), but there is no split between holiness and love in his thought. On the contrary, in this prayer we see that holiness is expressed and achieved in love. Holiness conforms the Christian to Christ, who “loved” others and gave himself up for them (Gal 2:20). Paul prays that Jesus will find the Thessalonians sanctified through their love when he returns.
The prayer describes Jesus returning surrounded by all his holy ones. The word translated as “holy ones” (plural of hagios) is commonly translated as “saints.” Despite the fact that every other occurrence of hagios in Paul’s Letters describes humans, most commentators argue that “holy ones” refers to angels in this case.8 Many ancient Jewish and Christian texts do describe the Lord’s return in the company of angels. Zechariah 14:5 (“The LORD, my God, will come, and all his holy ones with him”), which Paul echoes here, is often read this way. Moreover, it is argued that Paul would be contradicting himself if he said here that the Lord returns in the company of the faithful, because in 1 Thess 4:16 Paul describes the faithful joining Jesus after his return. These are reasonable arguments, but the case for understanding “holy ones” as a reference to the faithful is stronger. Though the image of the Lord returning flanked by angels was traditional, so was the image of the Lord returning in the company of the people of God.9 Indeed, Zech 14:5 itself may be referring to humans.10 Most importantly, human “holy ones” makes much more sense in context. In this verse, Paul has just prayed that the Lord would strengthen them in holiness in preparation for the †parousia, so it is not surprising that when looking forward to that day h
e would refer to them as “the holy ones.” The supposed contradiction with 1 Thess 4:16 disappears on closer examination. An early Christian text known as the Didache interpreted the Lord coming “with” all his saints as a reference to the resurrection of the dead (16:7), so that may be what Paul had in mind. Paul describes the faithful meeting the Lord in the air after the resurrection (1 Thess 4:17), probably imagining that they will accompany him from that point on, returning “with him” to the earth for the last judgment (see commentary on 1 Thess 4:16–17).11 According to 4:13–18, therefore, one may say that the Lord returns “to” the faithful but also that the Lord returns “with” the faithful.
BIBLICAL BACKGROUND
Humans and Angels as “Saints”
In contemporary English the word “saint” is typically used by Catholics to refer only to members of the Church triumphant, men and women who lived lives of sanctity and now worship and intercede in heaven. In Scripture, however, members of the Church on earth are also called saints. Paul and other New Testament authors commonly refer to those in Christ as hagioi, which can be translated into English with either a word of Latin derivation (“saints”) or of Old English (“holy ones”). This way of referring to the people of God appears already in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps 34:10) and recalls the teaching of the Torah that the people are to be holy (hagioi in the LXX) as God is holy.a Strangely enough, angels are sometimes also called “saints.” Psalm 89:6–8, for instance, describes the “saints”—that is, the angels in heaven—praising God. Zechariah 14:5 speaks of the Lord returning with his “saints,” which may refer to his angels (see also Deut 33:2). In popular piety, angels and members of the Church triumphant are sometimes confused.b This is unfortunate, though understandable. Both angels and saints are made holy as God is holy, fit to be in the presence of God and offer worship.
a. E.g., Lev 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:7; Num 15:40.
b. For an ancient example of martyrs being described as angels, see Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.3.
Reflection and Application (3:11–13)
A frequent subject of debate among scholars of the New Testament and Christian origins is the question of when Jesus was first believed to be divine. First Thessalonians may be Paul’s oldest surviving letter and also the earliest surviving Christian document. As such, it provides special insight into the beliefs of some of the earliest Christians. In these verses (3:11–13) Paul concludes the long first section of the letter with prayers that Jesus would increase the love of the Thessalonian church, and that Jesus and God would make it possible for Paul to return to them. Paul would not say this unless he believed that Jesus was indeed able to increase the Thessalonians’ love, and that Jesus could work together with God the Father to eliminate the obstacles preventing Paul from traveling to Thessalonica.12 It is also important to note that Paul does not explain to the Thessalonians how Jesus will accomplish these things. Though the Thessalonians were new believers and were confused about many things (as chap. 4 shows), they apparently already understood that Jesus was at work in their lives to increase their love.
If we back up and take stock of what the letter as a whole says about Jesus, we see that Paul taught that Jesus was a man who, like the prophets before him, was killed unjustly in Judea (2:14–15). Despite the fact that his execution was unjust, it had a larger purpose in God’s plan. Jesus gave his life “for us” so that we might obtain salvation and live with him whether we are dead or alive (5:9–10). After he was killed, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven (1:10; 4:14). The Church waits in hope of his coming, confident that he will save them from the wrath that will come in the final days (1:3, 10; 5:1–11) and in the hope that they will share in a resurrection like his and be with him always (4:13–18). Though this event remains in the future, Paul can already say that we live with Jesus (5:10) and that Jesus speaks through him (4:2). Paul also says that God gives us the Holy Spirit (4:8) and that God’s “word” is at work among us to enable us to become holy and to be like Jesus by enduring persecution with joy (1:6). This process of sanctification has as its goal the moment when Jesus returns and those who are in him stand before him “blameless in holiness,” perfected in love through the working of Jesus in our lives. This is not the developed trinitarian theology of later centuries, but from this earliest letter we see that Paul preached Jesus as a human who died and was raised and who works in our lives in concert with the Holy Spirit and God the Father.
1. Homiliae in epistulam i ad Thessalonicenses (PG 62:410 [my translation]).
2. See introduction to 1 Thessalonians.
3. Homiliae (PG 62:418 [my translation]).
4. In sanctum Barlaam martyrem (PG 50:676).
5. E.g., Béda Rigaux, Saint Paul: Les Épitres aux Thessaloniciens, EBib (Paris: Lecoffre, 1956), 480–81.
6. E.g., Pss 22:26; 50:14; 56:13; 61:6, 9; 66:13; 116:14.
7. Homiliae (PG 62:419 [my translation]).
8. E.g., Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 32B (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 214.
9. 2 Thess 1:10; Didache 16.7; Ascension of Isaiah 4.14. See Rigaux, Les Épitres aux Thessaloniciens, 491.
10. Didache 16.7 (first or second century AD) interprets Zech 14:5 as a description of the resurrection of all Christians.
11. See also 1 Thess 4:14, which says that God will bring the faithful departed “with him.”
12. See Chris Tilling, Paul’s Divine Christology, WUNT 2/323 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 153–54.
Life Pleasing to God
1 Thessalonians 4:1–12
The chapter divisions in modern Bibles were not added until the thirteenth century, but on some occasions they rightly identify key turning points in the text. This is one of those occasions. From this point on in the letter, Paul turns to †paraenesis, encouraging and exhorting the new converts to please God with their lives (4:1). In 4:1–12, Paul discusses sexual purity and brotherly love. He had already told them some of these things when he was in Thessalonica (4:6, 11), but Timothy’s report, though positive overall, led Paul to believe that there were certain problems that needed to be addressed (3:10). Paul carefully prepared his listeners for this section in chapter 2 when he described the apostles’ own behavior. The apostles sought to please God (2:4), to be free from uncleanliness and greed (2:3), and to work so as not to burden others (2:8–9). Now Paul returns to all these same issues, telling the Thessalonians that they must do likewise. For Paul, the stakes were high: it was necessary to continue in this new way of life in order to be worthy of the kingdom of God.
Instructions on Pleasing God (4:1–2)
1Finally, brothers, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God—and as you are conducting yourselves—you do so even more. 2For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
NT: 2 Cor 5:18–20
[4:1–2]
The NABRE’s Finally makes it sound as if the letter were coming to a close. The sense of the Greek is closer to “So then, as for the other matters . . .” Far from wrapping the letter up, Paul has a number of pressing issues to address, including sexual morality and the question of what happens to the faithful after they have died. Though 1 Thessalonians remains friendly from start to finish, in this section Paul adopts a more solemn tone, giving instructions on vital matters and in some cases warning them of divine judgment should they refuse to comply. The word translated as instructions (parangelia) is often used in military and legal settings and could be translated as “commands” or “orders.” These are not optional suggestions for their consideration but rather a blueprint laying out the pattern of life that God requires. Paul gives them these instructions through the Lord Jesus, meaning that the ideas that follow in the section are not his personal preferences but instead carry the authority of Jesus himself. As Theodoret of Cyrus explains, “Paul makes the paraenesis [parainesis]
worthy of belief by invoking the memory of the Master.”1 Though Paul is giving commands from the Lord, he does not describe God as an implacable taskmaster. Instead, Paul indicates at a number of points in the letter that God will supply what the Thessalonians need to keep God’s commands (see especially 5:23–24). Paul thought that it really was possible for them with God’s help to live in a way that God would find pleasing, just as he endeavored to please God in his own ministry (2:4; see Rom 8:8–9).
Sanctity and Sexual Immorality (4:3–8)
3This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, 4that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, 5not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God; 6not to take advantage of or exploit a brother in this matter, for the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly affirmed. 7For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness. 8Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not a human being but God, who [also] gives his holy Spirit to you.
First and Second Thessalonians Page 10