I Thessalonians 3:9-13

I Thessalonians 3:9-13 (NRSV)

⁹ How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? ¹⁰ Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. ¹² And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. ¹³ And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

 

I Thessalonians 3:9-13 begin with a thanksgiving for the report Timothy has brought to Paul concerning what is happening among the Christians in Thessalonica. This merges into a prayer.

⁹ How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Paul legitimates the profusion of outpourings of gratitude. Yet, he seems to tweak them lightly. Despite their laudatory faith and steadfastness, they still have more to learn. The expression of thanksgiving that remains the tone of Paul throughout the letter is also one of overwhelming joy. Earlier in the letter (see 2:19-20) Paul has used the theme of joy: joy that these new followers of Christ would also spread the news of “hope or joy or crown of boasting” in God’s presence. Underlying Paul’s joy is the relief that all is going so well with this community. With the difficulties new Christians faced in the pagan world and in the synagogue, joy at the progress of the community (and the presence of God that provides for that progress) leads to this prayer. ¹⁰ Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore (or supply by his insights and guidance) whatever is lacking in your faith. The shortcomings are gaps in their knowledge of Christian doctrine and code of Christian behavior. They seem to have some delinquency or problem with their faith. The prayer supports the view that the letter is an interim communication until he can be there in person. Paul is looking forward to teaching the community the duties of Christian discipleship and other as-of-yet unexplored territories of faith (Ephesians 3:8-12). Chapter 4 takes up this suggestion by moving away from words of thanksgiving and into lessons on the proper behavior, beliefs and eschatological expectations the Thessalonian Christians should manifest. This young community has come a long way and overcome some hardships, but their faith is still new, and growth in faith still needs to increase.

I Thessalonians 3:11-13 has the context of a prayer for the Thessalonians. It is difficult to grasp the significance of the prayer without the context of the letter. The prayer forms a transition to the instruction that follows. 

¹¹ Now may (optative rather than imperative mood) our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct (singular verb) our way to you. This verse forms a colon, a metrical unit that expresses one complete thought. The newness of faith and need for growth in faith is reason enough for Paul’s expression of hope for a return to them. He still has work to do and still has faith to nurture. Paul is addressing his prayer to God the Father and God the Son. This is the first occurrence of “fatherhood” in Paul’s writings. Such a designation of God as Father, especially in prayer, while taking place in the Jewish world, would become very distinctive among the Christian community. As Paul does this, he emphasizes the relationship of God to humanity (in parental terms) and the relationship of Jesus to humanity in terms of Jesus as Savior or Lord. God is not only the Father of our Lord Jesus; God is also Father to all believers. Verses 12-13 form a second independent benediction “colon.”^[1] In each of these grammatically separate colons, the subject matter that stands at the very front of the colon is God or Jesus.  Bracketing the end of this extended thanksgiving section, the double benediction reminds readers of the motifs Paul expressed in chapters 1-3. ¹² Moreover, may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. Brotherly love must spread from one another to the human race.  Paul’s prayer is one that outlines his priorities. “Love” is at the top of Paul’s list. Love will hold this infant congregation together in the face of the persecution that they face. His prayer is that God will not only increase their love for each other, but for all. Paul uses as an example his own love for this congregation. God expects mutual love of all Christians, and is a common New Testament theme — just as Paul loves this community, they must love each other. Love also comes from God, and the Spirit helps this love to grow among the Christians. Paul’s discussion of the inner love of the community of believers and outward love of God is a message that he would further develop (I Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:13). Love in the New Testament usually takes place between Christians. Here, however, love shows the readiness of Christians to receive all people. The existence of the community is not an end in itself. The community exists for the sake of the world that God loves. The mutual love practiced within the community is to find its repetition in love practiced for all.^{[2] 13} In addition, may the Lord so strengthen your hearts with this love that you will have a life dedicated to God and therefore in holiness, that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.^[3] This is not merely a prayer for love of any kind, but Christian love — a love that would carry them to the time of Jesus’ return. "Holiness" begins with brotherly love but it will not reach its completion until the Parousia. Judaism commonly attributed holiness to God, the Sabbath and God’s dwelling places, such as the tabernacle and the temple. Over time, Israel articulated holiness in two different ways: In the Torah, and especially the Levitical law, holiness described a state of personal and ritual purity; in the prophets, holiness often described a communal and moral state of justice. The parousia should provide an incentive for holy living.  This holiness is not a new or separate petition of Paul for the believers in Thessalonica, but a statement about how the increased gift of love would function in the lives of the believers. The increase of love in verse 12 refers to the present time in which the Thessalonians find themselves; whereas the “strengthen your hearts” refers to the future and that which is final. For Paul at the second coming, the end of time, it is his prayer that the believers will be seen as blameless and enter into the presence of God. By reading ahead into I Thessalonians 4:1-12, one can see that Paul is using “holiness” to describe personal purity and “love.” They address the requirements of holiness first, which requires bodily self-control, the abatement of lust and regard for others as persons and not objects (4:3-7). As for the requirements of love, the authors feel that they “do not need to have anyone write” because “you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia” (4:9-10). Yet from the following exhortations, one may deduce that love is fundamentally communal and involves right relationships within a community.

The first lesson in soul-crafting Paul offers here is that they "abound in love for one another and for all" (v. 12). This is the first step in "strengthening their hearts in holiness." What is an attitude that "abounds in love?" With what kind of love are we to abound?

Literature expresses the power and danger of love. Human beings have so much desire for love that we might seek a quick fix in a pill or potion.

Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound.

And maidens call it "love-in-idleness."

Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again

Ere the leviathan can swim a league.^[4]

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling uses a discussion of love potions to explain the nature of love for her young readers. Professor Slughorn, the potions master at Hogwarts, is telling some students about Amortentia, a powerful love-potion: "Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession." Yet, the professor is still very cautious about the havoc such a concoction can cause. "It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room." This, he explains, is because of "the power of obsessive love."^[5]

Love can take some hard work, especially when being human involves so much pain.

When Paul urged the Thessalonians to "abound in love," he was speaking to a community that had already had its capacity to love significantly challenged. Persecutions and suffering at the hands of the city's pagan officials, condemnations from the Jewish synagogue and contentions within their own ranks had threatened to strain the loving nature of the Thessalonians. Surely, we who do not face such challenges ought to find it easier to abound in love. Yet, the challenge is before us. If we take Paul's own life as an example, we can discern at least three ways that the apostle might have expected the Thessalonians, and all Christians, to abound in Love.

First, as Christians, we need to respond to life with love. We must take whatever hits life brings our way and respond to them with love. Consider the world in which we live. We human beings do not practice love all that much. Therefore, there is a good chance that what will hit us will not be love. The challenge of the Christian is to respond with love no matter what. When someone clobbers us with hate, we love. When someone jabs us with jealously, we love. When someone shoves us around with pettiness, we love. When someone floors us with dishonesty, we love. When someone plows us over with prejudice, we love.

Second, as Christians, we need to take the initiative in loving others. To "abound in love" means we, too, must step forward and add our voices and our testimony to that great cloud of witnesses. It is not enough to know we are the recipients of God's love. To "abound in love," we must make love known to the world by making love visible in our actions. Charles Schultz made one of the most stirring indictments on the church ever penned many years ago. Snoopy is shivering out in a snowstorm beside an empty food dish. He was looking longingly, expectantly, toward the house. Lucy came out and said, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled!" Then she turned and went back into the house and slammed the door. In the last frame, you saw a confused Snoopy looking toward the house, shivering, hungry, and utterly baffled. To make known the love of Christ takes more than words. To make the love of Christ known takes action and results.

Third, as Christians, we need to have a love that lets our light shine. We have only to glance at the New Testament to determine the effects of Paul's ministry and message. This apostle, who spent more time in prison than out, has managed to have his words, his testimonies, become a witness throughout the church for two millennia. It is because Paul's words "abound with love" that they continue to resound with the spirit of truth as loudly today as they did when delivered before the Thessalonian Christians.

The Shack by William Paul Young tells the story of Mack Philips whose young daughter someone abducted during a family vacation. Evidence indicates that she someone murdered her in an abandoned shack. Four years later, Mack gets a mysterious note inviting him to the very shack where the crime was apparently committed. The note purports to be from God. In his visit to the shack, he meets God in the form of a wise woman. At one point, Mack questions God about the trinity, and God speaks about the need for being three persons yet entirely one. In explaining this to Mack, God says, "All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within God, myself. Love is not the limitation; ... I am love." Over several conversations Mack picks up a phrase used extensively by God, "You seem to be especially fond of a lot of people. Are there any who you are not especially fond of?" She (God) lifts her eyes as if running down a list of every created being then says, "Nope, I haven't been able to find any. Guess that's jes' the way I is."

Yes, Paul is clear that the Christian life is about relating to God in Christ in such way that the relationship transforms us into increasingly loving persons. When we see that the love God has for us already in Christ, then we can live in this relationship.

            While Paul makes just a brief reference to “the coming of our Lord Jesus” in this passage, it is a reminder that Christ will come again. This brief reference, with which one might compare 2:19, also points toward a more detailed discussion of the return of Christ later in the letter in 4:13-5:11. Just as Paul is enthusiastic about being able to be with this congregation again, so should the church in Thessalonica, and indeed all Christians, be eager about the second coming of Christ. Paul knows about the “advent” of the good news into the community of believers. He delivered it to them. However, Paul is also aware that the coming of Christ into the lives of the believers will bring conflict and division, just as it brings peace and good will. Christ may not yet have come in his glorious advent, but Paul has proclaimed that Christ is already present in the Christian community, which is a new creation in Christ.

I offer a concluding prayer. 

“Behold, you come. And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your Advent, at the end of which we, too, shall have found out that you have really come. O God who is to come, grant me the grace to live now, in the hour of your Advent, in such a way that I may merit to live in you forever, in the blissful hour of your eternity.”^[6]

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[1]          Robert Jewett, "The Form and Function of the Homiletic Benediction," Anglican Theological Quarterly, 51, 1969, 20‑21

[2]  (Barth 2004, 1932-67), IV..2 [68.3] 805, 809.

[3] "Holy ones" could be the chosen, the saved, the angels.

[4] --Oberon to Robin in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2, Scene 1.

[5] --J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Scholastic, 2005), 186.

[6]          (from Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence [Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1965], 87).