- 1 Thessalonians 3:10-13
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- 1 Th 3:10 (KJB)
- Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face,
and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
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- Exceedingly - Above and beyond all measure
- Perfect - Make complete, restore, or repair
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- Paul did not ease up on his prayers for the Thessalonians, in fact, Paul
was a prayer warrior. In fact, even after he received the good news of the
thriving faith of the Thessalonians, he continued in fervent prayer and as
the Scripture states, it was prayer which exceeded other prayers. Paul knew
that the enemy would not give up on these Christians and therefore spiritual
warfare was constant because the more Christians grow, the more they are
targeted by the enemy. Paul wanted to come and visit them personally and to
help shore up any breaches in their faith. He wanted to either repair or
make complete. He was desirous of seeing them continuing to grow into a very
strong church. Whenever we lead someone to the Lord, we must never give up
on them and continually desire to see them grow. Sometimes Christians suffer
some type of “discipleship deism.” Deism is the belief that God created the
world and universe and placed natural laws into them and then walked away
from the creation. Sometimes we Christians do the same thing. We see someone
get saved, buy them a Bible and then send them on their own. They must be
nurtured because they are still spiritual babies. Paul knew this church was
young and feared that if he was away from them, they might suffer a
regression in their faith and testimony.
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- 1 Th 3:11 (KJB)
- Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our
way unto you.
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- Paul now breaks out into a prayer as he prays that God and the Lord
Jesus would direct his path to be able to visit the Thessalonians. In Paul’s
life, sometimes he wanted to go a certain place and God changed his
itinerary and sent him to another place. Here in this prayer, Paul is hoping
that God would so work out his life, that he is able to visit them again.
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- 1 Th 3:12 (KJB)
- And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one
toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
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- Increase - To exceed in great amounts
- Abound - To have an abundance, to excel
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- Here Paul continues his prayer for the Thessalonians in that they would
greatly increase in love to the point that they have a great abundance of
love and that abundance of love would translate into great love for each
other and that love would continue to abound and result in showing love
toward all, even those who are still unbelievers. Now what Paul is praying
for is not for a feeling based love but a divinely inspired love. Divinely
inspired love is the true motivational love indwelling the Christian. He
prays that the same love which sent Christ to the cross would be the
prevailing love among the Thessalonians. Christ had so much love for His
people, that is, those He came to die for, that nothing was going to hinder
Him from going to the cross. His was the ultimate act of true divine love.
Earthly love has a limit but divine love does not, because it lasts into
eternity
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- 1 Th 3:13 (KJB)
- To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in
holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all his saints.
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- Stablish - Fix, set firmly, or confirm
- Unblameable - Blameless or faultless
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- Here Paul jumps ahead to the last day when the Lord returns with all His
Saints. His prayer is that each individual Christian in Thessalonica will be
set firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ and those who are not saved will become
saved. Those who are saved will be blameless and holy before God the Father.
(Rev 14:5 KJV) And in their mouth was
found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
The true believer, because of salvation in Christ, is
seen as being faultless before the throne of God, that is, because when a
person becomes saved, they have all their sins removed and their souls are
as if they never sinned. This is the prayer that Paul prays for the
Thessalonians. Basically, his prayer is a prayer of salvation because when a
person is saved, God sees them as unblameable. The Calvary love that the
believers have indwelling in them, will cause them to be blameless before
those in the world. They will have no desire to do any evil to anyone, even
those who are persecuting them.
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