Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking from your faith. Sermons I. HIS GRATITUDE FOR THE JOY IMPARTED BY TIMOTHY'S TIDINGS. "For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God?" 1. He has no words to express his gratitude to God for their constancy. 2. The joy he experienced was not in the greed of any worldly advantage he had gained, but was the hearty and sincere joy of one profoundly interested in their spiritual welfare. 3. It was joy "before God," who sees and knows all inward thoughts and feelings, and therefore knows its reality and power. II. HIS PRAYERFUL ANXIETY TO SEE THE THESSALONIANS FOR THEIR FURTHER BENEFIT. "Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith." His prayers had an extraordinary fervency. Ministers ought to be much in prayer for their flocks. 1. The deficiencies in their faith. They had already received the grace of faith and the doctrine of faith, and exhibited in its fullness the "work of faith." But there were deficiencies still to be supplied. (1) Their faith wanted still greater power, for they had hardly yet escaped all danger of relapse into heathen impurities. (2) It wanted to be more widely diffused through all the duties of life, for they needed to mind honest industry and forswear idleness. (3) They needed fuller light upon the second advent. 2. The design of the ministry is to supply these deficiencies of faith. The apostle longed to be at Thessalonica once more, not only to impart to them "some spiritual gift, to the end they might be established" (Romans 1:10, 11), but to give them fuller teaching upon the various points where their faith needed enlargement. It is God's work to increase faith, but ministers can promote it as instruments, for they are "for the perfecting of the saints in the knowledge of the Son of God." - T.C.
Night and day praying exceedingly I. ITS CHARACTERISTICS.1. It was incessant; his aspiration by day, the breathing of his heart in the stillness of the night. 2. Intensely earnest. Above ordinary measure. It was a wrestling with his covenant God that he might see their face again. Satan had hindered this; hence the importunity. 3. Prevalent. It was heard. II. ITS OCCASION. He desired this boon not for the mere gratification of any feeling of friendship in him or them; but because there were what he calls "the lacking measures of your faith." 1. As to doctrine, their knowledge was defective. They were entertaining not only imperfect but erroneous views, e.g. about the coming of the Lord, about the state of those who had fallen asleep, and the shares these would have in the glories of the second advent. In matters of this kind the apostolic churches generally had less defined views than those to whom have come "the long results of time." 2. As to practice, there was much that called for correction. The apostolic churches, like the mission churches of our own day, were in the midst of a social corruption of which we can barely form even a conception. There were especially four classes of evils prevailing:(1) Licentiousness, in its most degrading forms, was the besetting sin of the heathen world. The Christian converts often became contaminated with it. It lingered in the flesh when the spirit had cast it off. Even within the pale of the Church it sometimes assumed the form of a mystic Christianity. There were those who imagined themselves to have found in licentiousness the true freedom of the gospel. Chap. 1 Thessalonians 4 points in this direction.(2) In the Church itself there reigned the spirit of disorder — enhanced in the case of Thessalonica by the idleness engendered by belief in the nearness of the second coming. There are constantly recurring evidences of this in these two Epistles.(3) There were scruples of conscience as to the observance of days, and eating with the unclean and unbelievers. The contact of Jews and Gentiles in the privileges and work of the Church could hardly fail in those days to give rise to such questions.(4) Disputes about doctrines and teachers bred dissentions and marred the beauty of Christian life. In all these different ways "unreasonable and wicked men" (2 Thessalonians 3:2) worked mischief which needed to be guarded against and withstood. III. ITS PURPOSE — to "perfect that which is lacking." The word "perfect" means to readjust, to restore. It is used in surgical language, of the setting of a bone or joint, and of repairing nets, and also of refitting and strengthening of ships. 1. In each of these senses we have fitting illustrations of Paul's purpose. His aim and that of all ministers is that Christians may be —(1) "perfectly joined together" (1 Corinthians 1:10, Ephesians 4:12). Whatever may be their graces they have still lacking measures of faith. They need to be "fitly joined together" (Ephesians 4:16).(2) So perfected in knowledge and practice that there shall be no defects in the gospel net.(3) So ceaselessly to be repaired, built up, as the Ark of Safety, that they shall withstand all the rude billows of this world. 2. Thus filling up that which is lacking in faith on earth, Christ's Church will at last pass into heaven where there will be nothing lacking in glory. John Howe has said, "We read indeed of certain afterings of faith (as it may be significantly rendered) 'things lacking' we render it; but there will be no afterings of glory. What is perfect admits of no increase, it is already full; and why should not a full glory satisfy? It is fulness of joy." (J. Hutchison, D. D.) "Why," say you, "should a minister need encouraging? We have plenty of troubles all the week long, with our losses here, and crosses there, we want encouragements, but surely ministers do not." Ah! if you want to have a refutation of that idea you had better come into this pulpit, and occupy it a little time. If you would like to exchange, I would truly say that so far as the pleasure of my office is concerned, apart from the spiritual joy my Lord gives me, I would change places with a crossing sweeper, or a man who breaks stones on the road. Let a man carry out the office of a Christian minister aright, and he will never have any rest. "God help," says Richard Baxter, "the man who thinks the minister's an easy life." Why, he works not only all day, but in his sleep you will find him weeping for his congregation, starting in his sleep with his eyes filled with tears, as if he had the weight of his congregation's sins resting on his heart, and could not bear the load, I would not be that man in the ministry who does not feel himself so fearfully responsible, that if he could escape from the ministry by going with Jonah into the depths of the sea, he would cheerfully do it; for if a minister is what he should be, there is such a weight of solemn concern, such sound of trembling in his ears, that he would choose any profession or any work, however arduous, sooner than the preacher's post. "If the watchman warn them not they shall perish, but their blood will I require at the watchman's hands." To sit down and spell over the question — "Am I free of his blood?" is terrible. I have sometimes thought I must have a day or two of rest, but I frankly confess that rest is very little rest to me, for I think I hear the cries of perishing souls, the wailings of spirits going down to hell, who chide me thus: "Preacher, can you rest? Minister, can you be silent? Ambassador of Jesus can you cast aside the robes of your office? Up! and to your work again."(C. H. Spurgeon.) People Paul, Thessalonians, Timotheus, TimothyPlaces Athens, ThessalonicaTopics Beseeching, Bring, Complete, Earnestly, Earnestness, Exceedingly, Face, Faces, Faith, Intense, Lacking, Perfect, Perfection, Praying, Requesting, Supply, WhateverOutline 1. Paul testifies his great love to the Thessalonians, 5. partly by sending Timothy unto them to strengthen and comfort them; 7. partly by rejoicing in their well-doing; 10. and partly by praying for them, and desiring a safe coming unto them. Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Thessalonians 3:10 4957 night Library Whether the Movement of the Saints Will be Instantaneous?Objection 1: It would seem that movement of the saints will be instantaneous. For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxii, 30) that "wherever the spirit listeth there will the body be." Now the movement of the will, whereby the spirit wishes to be anywhere, is instantaneous. Therefore the body's movement will be instantaneous. Objection 2: Further, the Philosopher (Phys. iv, 8) proves that there is no movement through a vacuum, because it would follow that something moves instantaneously, since a vacuum … Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Calvin -- Enduring Persecution for Christ Heathenism. The Beginning of the New Testament Paul at Corinth The Protevangelium. Growth in Grace Concerning Persecution Links 1 Thessalonians 3:10 NIV1 Thessalonians 3:10 NLT 1 Thessalonians 3:10 ESV 1 Thessalonians 3:10 NASB 1 Thessalonians 3:10 KJV 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Bible Apps 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Parallel 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Biblia Paralela 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Chinese Bible 1 Thessalonians 3:10 French Bible 1 Thessalonians 3:10 German Bible 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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