1 Thessalonians 3.7-Paul and Silas Were Encouraged Because the Thessalonians Remained Faithful to the Gospel (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday August 11, 2024

First Thessalonians Series: 1 Thessalonians 3:7-Paul and Silas Were Encouraged Because the Thessalonians Remained Faithful to the Gospel

Lesson # 43

1 Thessalonians 3:7 For these reasons, brothers and sisters, we have been encouraged because of each and every one of you during all our distress produced by all our adversity by means of your faith. (Pastor’s translation)

The apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3:7 makes two emphatic, emotional statements to the Thessalonian Christian community.

The first is that he and Silas were encouraged by the report they received from Timothy which is recorded in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 while the second is that they were encouraged by the Thessalonians during all their distress produced by all their adversity by means of the Thessalonians’ post-justification faith in the gospel.

So therefore, the first emphasizes that what encouraged Paul and Silas was what the Thessalonians were doing and their attitude toward them.

The second simply personalizes the first emphasizing the Thessalonians were the reason why they were encouraged during all their distress produced by all their adversity by means of their post-justification faith.

That these assertions are emphatic and emotional is indicated by the vocative use of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brothers,” which is expressing the fact that 1 Thessalonians 3:7 is an emphatic emotional statement from Paul and Silas to the Thessalonian Christian community.

The first assertion is tied to the statements in 1 Thessalonians 3:6, which is indicated by the phrase dia touto (διὰ τοῦτο), “therefore,” which is pointing back to the second, third and fourth statements in 1 Thessalonians 3:6, which contains five statements.

The first asserts that Timothy had come back into the presence of Paul and Silas and the second asserts that Timothy by himself communicated to Paul and Silas the good news of the Thessalonians’ faith as well as their divine-love.

The third asserts that the Thessalonians were always remembering these two men with affection and the fourth asserts that the Thessalonians greatly desired to see them again.

The fifth and final assertion states that Paul and Silas greatly desired to see the Thessalonians again as well.

Of course, the first and fifth statements do not present the reason why Paul and Silas were encouraged by the Thessalonians.

Therefore, a comparison of the second, third and fourth statements in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 and the verb parakaleō (παρακαλέω), “we were encouraged,” which appears in 1 Thessalonians 3:7 indicates that there were four reasons why Paul and Silas were encouraged by the news they received from Timothy regarding the Thessalonians.

First, they were encouraged because Timothy communicated to them the good news of the Thessalonians’ faith.

They were also encouraged because Timothy communicated the good news of their divine-love.

Paul and Silas were also encouraged because Timothy communicated the good news to them that the Thessalonians were always remembering them with affection.

Lastly, they were encouraged because Timothy communicated to them the good news that the Thessalonians greatly desired to see them again.

Now, notice that the prepositional phrase dia touto (διὰ τοῦτο), “therefore” in 1 Thessalonians 3:7 is redundant and interferes with the syntactical flow of 1 Thessalonians 3:6-7 since this prepositional phrase is causal and the second and third participles in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 are also causal.

Both these participles and this prepositional phrase are expressing the reason why Paul and Silas were encouraged with the latter pointing back to the second, third and fourth assertions in 1 Thessalonians 3:6.

This interruption of the syntactical flow is deliberate and called anacoluthon, which is so-called, because the construction with which a proposition begins is abandoned and either for the sake of perspicuity, emphasis or elegance, the sentence proceeds in a manner different from that in which it set out.

Paul employs this figure for emphasis in that he is attempting to catch and fix the attention of the reader and here it draws the attention of the reader to the good news Timothy communicated to Paul and Silas regarding the spiritual status of the Thessalonians.

Now, the prepositional phrase ephʼ hymin (ἐφʼ ὑμῖν), “about you” personalizes the prepositional phrase dia touto (διὰ τοῦτο), “therefore.”

Thus the former is emphasizing the Thessalonians themselves as people were the reason why they were encouraged during all their distress produced by all their adversity by means of their faith while the latter asserts that Timothy’s report about them encouraged them.

The prepositional phrase epi pasē tē anankē kai thlipsei hēmōn (ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ ἀνάγκῃ καὶ θλίψει ἡμῶν), “in all our distress and persecution” contains the figure of hendiadys which indicates that the nouns anagkē (ἀνάγκη), “distress” and thlipsis (θλῖψις), “persecution” are not referring to two different concepts but rather one.

This figure indicates that thlipsis (θλῖψις), “persecution” is intensifying or advancing upon the idea expressed by anagkē (ἀνάγκη), “distress” and the advancement and the intensification are that this distress was produced by the adversity Paul and Silas experienced.

The adversity which Paul and Silas are speaking of here in 1 Thessalonians 3:7 and the distress of soul produced by it is reference to the persecution they were experiencing which was undeserved suffering.

1 Thessalonians 3:7 is not the first time in First Thessalonians that Paul has mentioned that he and Silas experienced undeserved suffering in the form of persecution since he mentions this in 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6, 2:15, and 3:4.

Paul taught Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 that every believer who does at any time desire to live a godly life by means of fellowship with Jesus Christ will certainly be persecuted.

Persecution can take various forms in different countries and in different ages and some persecution is blatantly overt and some persecution is very subtle taking the form of rejection which can include being ignored, patronized or mocked and can take the form of condescension as well.

Both forms express the hostility of those who are enslaved to sin and Satan and his cosmic system.

Now, 1 Thessalonians 3:7 comes to an end with the prepositional phrase dia tēs hymōn pisteōs (διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν πίστεως), “because of your faith” which indicates that the Thessalonians’ faith in the gospel was the means by which Paul and Silvanus were encouraged.

This is not a reference to justifying-faith since the Thessalonians were already declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ or in other words, they were already regenerated and thus Christians.

Rather, this faith speaks of their post-justification faith or in other words, their faith they need to exercise in the Word of God after their justification which would enable them to experience their sanctification and salvation and practice the love of God in their lives.

This is indicated by the fact that in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul associates their faith with work, which refers to their Christian service.

This prepositional phrase indicates that Paul and Silas main concern regarding the Thessalonians or in other words, that which they were most concerned about was whether or not they were exercising faith in the gospel which they communicated to them prior to their abrupt departure from Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 3:7 does not mention the fact that they were obeying the command to love one another but not because it was not important.

So why the emphasis on their post-justification faith in the gospel?

If they did not exercise faith in the gospel, they would not be able to obey the command to love one another and if they did not have faith that God loves them, they would be unable to obey the command to love one another.

Their love for God, each other and the non-believer was the result of them responding “by faith” to the Spirit’s revelation in the gospel that the Father sent His Son to the cross for them when they were His enemies in order that they might possess an eternal relationship and fellowship with Him for all of eternity.

So therefore, without faith, the Thessalonians would not obey the command to love another and consequently, because they did exercise faith in the fact that God loves them which was expressed through the work of the Son and the Spirit, they obeyed the command to love another.

Thus, they manifested God’s attribute of love and thereby glorified God and this is why Paul mentions the Thessalonians’ faith first in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 3:2 and 6 and then their love.

Love is important, however, faith was more important because without faith it is impossible to love one another and thus please God (cf. Heb. 11:1-6).