E. Paul's Satisfaction (3:9-10) 103
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. s For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
Timothy's return marked a change. Where the previous section was pervaded by the note of uncertainty and stress, Paul makes it clear that with the news Timothy brought there is now reassurance and hope.
6 A new section begins at this point, and there is a real break in the sense. Paul has been speaking of what took place in the past, but here he comes virtually to the present moment. It is evident that he was writing very soon after Timothy's arrival, which he speaks of as having taken place "just now." We have seen how all the indications are that Paul had been rather depressed at the turn of events. But the coming of Timothy with news of the way in which the Thessalonian converts had not only stood firm, but had made progress in the faith, had acted on him like a tonic. He wrote immediately with a full heart. Which makes passages like 2:17-3:5 all the more poignant, for they were in fact written after Timothy's return.
Something of his joy comes out in his description of Timothy's news with the term "brought good news." The verb he employs is the one usually translated "preach the gospel."21 Indeed, this is the only place in the whole of Paul's writings where it is used in any other sense than that. Some scholars have felt that the news that the Thessalonians were making progress in the Christian life was itself part of the gospel, but this seems farfetched. It is more likely that the term is used because it is the most expressive one open to Paul. For Christians generally there is no good news that can compare with the tidings that God has given us life through the death of his Son. One word became the technical term to denote this best of good news. That Paul uses it just this once for other good news is an indication of the joy that that news had brought him.
Paul enumerates three points. The first is the news about the faith of the Thessalonians. His deep concern for their faith has been noted already (vv. 2, 5). He expresses his relief now that they have not wavered in maintaining a right attitude to God.
The second point is that they had continued in love. Just as faith is the characteristic attitude of Christians toward God, so love is their characteristic attitude toward people. It stands for their complete readiness to give themselves in wholehearted service to others (see on 1:3). Timothy had gladdened Paul with the news that the Thessalonians were exercising this virtue. The combination of faith and love is no mean summary of the whole duty of Christians. As Paul says elsewhere, "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Gal. 5:6). Calvin comments: "in these two words he comprehends briefly the entire sum of true piety. Hence all that aim at this twofold mark during their whole life are beyond all risk of erring: all others, however much they may torture themselves, wander miserably."
The third point is their attitude to Paul. He had evidently wondered how far the propaganda of his enemies had been effective. He had feared that his converts might now hold him in low esteem. But he was delighted to find that not only did they remember him, but that "you cherish happy memories of us" (Phillips). The Thessalonians had not allowed hostile propaganda to distort their recollections of the visit of the great apostle. They still looked back on it with joy. They did more. They looked forward with eager longing22 to a reunion, and were just as anxious to see Paul again as he was to see them.
That Paul was in no easy situation when Timothy reached him is brought out by his reference to "distress and persecution" (LB, "our own crushing troubles and suffering"). The former of these words basically denotes "necessity." It is that which constrains one into a certain position. From this it gets the derived notion of compulsion, and so straits, distress (cf. Luke 21:23). "Persecution" is the word used in 1:6 (where see note). We should probably not make too sharp a distinction between the two terms in this context, but the combination shows that the apostle was carrying on his work under grave difficulties and in the face of strong opposition. Rutherford renders, "We were altogether miserable and crushed; but your faith has recovered us." This is the fourth time in this chapter that Paul has mentioned the faith of the Thessalonians.24 It was this faith that strengthened him. He comes back to it again and again. There is more to Christianity than faith, but faith is the primary thing.
8 This truth is brought out in another way in the reference to standing fast in the Lord.25 Elsewhere Paul speaks of standing by faith (Rom. 11:20; 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 1:24). We need not think that this was out of his mind here. The thing that really made him rejoice, the thing that really strengthened him, the thing that gave him life, was the fact so clearly demonstrated by Timothy's mission, that the Thessalonians did indeed believe. They had a strong tie to the Lord. Their lives were characterized by faith. This meant that they had a place in God's kingdom, and this in turn indicated that Paul's work among them had not been in vain.
Elsewhere Paul writes, "to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). The present passage gives another facet of the same truth. The service of Christ was for Paul no halfhearted thing, but that which mattered most in life. This service did not mean an idle contemplation of the excellencies of the Savior. It was the active, fruitful work of preaching Christ and his atonement among the Gentiles. Thus Paul could equally say that Christ was his life, and that it meant life to him to know that his converts were standing.26 It was his service to Christ to win people for him ("so that by all possible means I might save some," 1 Cor. 9:22). Thus it was life indeed to know that this had happened. "You" is emphatic, which indicates some of the importance Paul attached to the conduct of the Thessalonians. At the time of which he was writing it was they and no other who were the vindication of the gospel that he preached. Similarly, the verb he uses for "stand firm" is important. It is not the ordinary word for standing. By the use of the less usual term Paul manages to convey the idea of a firmness, a steadfastness in the stand they had taken.27