1 Thessalonians 3

1 Thessalonians 3:1

And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord. All the universe is called to confess him as Lord, and thus glorify God. All will yet confess him, either in joy or shame.

1 Thessalonians 3:2

Wherefore, my beloved. From the contemplation of Christ’s glory, the apostle turns to the lessons needed by the Philippian church. Work out your own salvation. While Christ is our Savior, and the author of our salvation, we must accept him and work together with him. Hence the Holy Spirit says, “Save yourselves” (Acts 2:40) and “work out your own salvation”. Unless we do our part Christ cannot save us. With fear and trembling. With constant anxiety not to fail.

1 Thessalonians 3:3

For it is God which worketh in you. God works in the converted person by his word and Spirit. His Spirit is a helper. It does not destroy our free will, for we may resist it (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Both to will and to do. God shows his will by his word and spirit and work in us. We ought to heed it. We can work in harmony with the divine will, or we may reject to our damnation. For [his] good pleasure. As seemeth best to him.

1 Thessalonians 3:4

Do all things without murmurings. Without complaining. Some persons pass their lives complaining.

1 Thessalonians 3:5

The sons of God. Those of so high estate ought to be harmless, blameless, and in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, a wicked world, they should shine as lights by their pure and holy lives.

1 Thessalonians 3:6

Holding forth the word of life. Always preaching Christ in word, in life, and in deed. That was their work. Unless they did this they were a failure. That I may rejoice. Unless they had done so he would be made to feel, in the day of Christ, the day of accounts, that his labor at Philippi was in vain.

1 Thessalonians 3:7

Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,. He is willing to die as a sacrifice for Christ, martyred because he has preached the gospel to the Gentiles, if it will be an encouragement to their faith. The imagery used was familiar to those who had so often seen victims sacrificed as offerings in the heathen temples. I joy, and rejoice with you all. He will even rejoice in death if it will help the cause of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 3:8

For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. Like me, rejoice in the prospect of death, if thereby Christ may be glorified.

1 Thessalonians 3:9

I trust in the Lord Jesus. Through the help of the Lord. To send Timotheus. His companion at Rome at this time, his beloved convert and fellow-laborer. See PNT Philippians 1:1. That I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. When he returns from visiting you and shows me your state.

1 Thessalonians 3:10

For I have no man likeminded. No one else is here with me who will so well represent my feelings and views when he visits you.

1 Thessalonians 3:11

For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. Others, who were at hand, were more mindful of their own interests than of Christ’s cause. We infer from this that of his faithful fellow- preachers none were in Rome save Timothy.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

Ye know the proof of him. You have seen him and know him. Timothy had more than once visited Philippi before this (2 Corinthians 2:9 13:3). As a son with the father. Timothy was his convert, and showed him a tender reverence.

1 Thessalonians 3:13

So soon as I shall see how it will go with me. As soon as there is some decision in his case, showing whether he will be released, or what may be his fate, he will send Timothy.