2 Thessalonians 3:5b-Experiencing God’s Love and Love for God Through Faith in the Word of the Lord

2 Thessalonians 3:4 Now, each one of us is confident about each and every one of you because of your faith in and love for the Lord that what we are commanding, each one of you both are making it your habit of practicing, and each one of you will continue to practice. 5 On the other hand, may the word of the Lord guide the hearts of each and every one of you into experiencing God’s love and love for God so as to experience Christ’s perseverance and perseverance for Christ. (Lecturer’s translation)

2 Thessalonians 3:5 presents a Spirit inspired intercessory prayer which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy offered up to the Father on behalf of the Thessalonian Christian community.

These three men share this request with the Thessalonians because they wanted to encourage them to continue to grow spiritually and also to teach them what they should pray for themselves.

This intercessory prayer requests that the word of the Lord Jesus Christ would guide the hearts of each member of this community into experiencing God’s love and love for God as well as Christ’s perseverance and perseverance for Christ.

Specifically, it requests that the word of the Lord Jesus Christ guide the hearts of each member of this community into experiencing God’s love for them which produces love for God as well as Christ’s perseverance for them, which produces in them perseverance for Christ.

Love for God is produced in the Thessalonians by the Thessalonians exercising faith in God’s love for them, which is communicated in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Also, persevering for Christ is produced by the Thessalonians exercising faith in the gospel, which presents the Lord’s perseverance in accomplishing the Father’s will in order to deliver them from His wrath when they were His enemies.

Why did Paul, Silvanus and Timothy ask the Father in prayer in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 that the “Lord” Jesus Christ and not the Father or the Spirit would guide the Thessalonians into experiencing God’s love for them and love for God as well as experiencing Christ’s perseverance for them and perseverance for Christ?

The reason is that all that they requested would all be accomplished through faith in the Word of the Lord, which Paul’s apostolic teaching manifested.

Thus, the noun kurios, “Lord” contains the figure of metonymy which means the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is put for His Word.

It is only through faith in the Word of the Lord that the Thessalonians would experience God’s love for them since this love is communicated to the child of God by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of the Lord, i.e. the Scriptures, Paul’s apostolic teaching.

It is experienced through faith in this teaching, which produces obedience, which manifests love for the Lord.

Also, it is only through faith in the Word of the Lord that the Thessalonians would love God since it is through obedience to the Word of the Lord which faith produces, that manifests the fact that one loves God.

It is only through faith in the Word of the Lord that the child of God experiences God’s love for them which empowers them to love God and others with this love.

Furthermore, it is only through faith in the Word of the Lord that the child of God experiences Christ’s perseverance since this perseverance is also communicated to the child of God by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of the Lord, i.e. Paul’s apostolic teaching, the Scriptures.

It too is experienced through faith in this teaching, which manifests obedience to God which produces perseverance for Christ in the child of God.

Lastly, it is only through the faith in the Word of the Lord that the child of God experiences persevering for Christ since persevering for Christ is accomplished through exercising faith in the Spirit’s teaching that Christ persevered for them.

This faith manifests itself in obedience to the Lord, which manifests the fact that one loves the Lord which enables the child of God to persevere for the Lord.

The contents of First and Second Thessalonians constituted the Word of the Lord since they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and revealed the Father’s will for them to be conformed into the image of the Father’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The teaching Paul and Silvanus communicated to the Thessalonians prior to being driven out of the city of Thessalonica because of persecution also constituted the Word of the Lord.

The teaching Timothy communicated to the Thessalonians in the place of these two men also constituted the Word of the Lord and this teaching constituted the gospel about Jesus Christ and originated from Him through the Spirit.

God the Father’s love for the Thessalonians was communicated in the gospel and when they exercised faith in the gospel, they experienced this love.

This same faith produced in them obedience to the various commands and prohibitions presented in the gospel and which obedience manifested the fact that they loved God.

Thus, Christ’s perseverance, which He demonstrated on behalf of the Thessalonians, would be produced in the Thessalonians when they exercised faith in the gospel, which presents Christ’s perseverance on behalf of them and all of sinful humanity.

The noun agapē (ἀγάπη) does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of God’s love for the Thessalonians as well as the Thessalonians love for God.

The former pertains to God the Father loving each member of the Thessalonian Christian community by causing His one and only Son suffer His wrath on the cross as a substitute for them when they were His enemies in order to deliver them from His wrath in the lake of fire (cf. Rom. 5:6-8).

It refers to the exercise of the Father’s love for the Thessalonians when He raised up each of them with Christ at their justification through the baptism of the Spirit when they were dead in their sins and transgressions (cf. Eph. 2:4-6).

This word agapē also refers to the idea of the Thessalonians expressing love for the Father as a result of accepting by faith His love for them, which the Holy Spirit communicated through Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s teaching (cf. Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22-23; 1 John 4:7-16).

This faith manifested itself in obedience to the Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions in the gospel, which revealed the Father’s will for their lives.

The Thessalonians love for the Father is produced in them by the Holy Spirit as a result of exercising faith in the Spirit’s testimony in the gospel that God loves them through His Son.

Faith in the Spirit’s testimony produces obedience to the Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions of Scripture and which obedience constitutes love for both the Son and the Father (cf. John 14:15).

So therefore, the noun agapē refers to the vertical aspect of divine-love, which means that it speaks of God the Father’s love for the Thessalonians as well as the Thessalonians love for the Father.

Of course, the practice of the vertical aspect of this love will manifest the horizontal aspect of practicing this love with other believers as well as non-believers.

The believer is commanded to love their neighbor as they would themselves and love their fellow believer as the Lord loves them and obedience to this command constitutes love for the Lord.

The noun theos, “God” is both an “objective” and “subjective” genitive and thus a “plenary” genitive, which is expressing the idea of God’s love for the Thessalonians and the Thessalonians love for God.

The “subjective” genitive is expressing the idea that God the Father loves each member of the Thessalonian Christian community, which He manifested by sending His one and only Son to the cross when they were His enemies in order to deliver them from His wrath in the lake of fire (cf. Rom. 5:6-8).

He also manifested His love for them when He raised up each member of the Thessalonian Christian community with Christ at their justification through the baptism of the Spirit when they were dead in their sins and transgressions (cf. Eph. 2:4-6).

The “objective” genitive is expressing the idea of the Thessalonians expressing love for the Father as a result of accepting by faith His love for them, which the Holy Spirit communicated through Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s teaching (cf. Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22-23; 1 John 4:7-16).

This faith produces obedience to the commands and prohibitions of the gospel, and which obedience demonstrates love for God.

The plenary genitive usage of the noun theos, “God” here in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 echoes 1 John 4:19.

1 John 4:19 Each one of us does practice divine-love because He Himself in contrast to us first loved each one of us. (Lecturer’s translation)

Now, the prepositional phrase eis tēn agapēn tou theou (εἰς τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ θεοῦ), “into experiencing God’s love and love for God” in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 is expressing the idea of the hearts of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community entering into the state of experiencing God’s love for them as well as entering into the state of loving God.

The former is accomplished when the Thessalonians exercise faith in Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit empowered teaching which reveals God the Father’s love for them.

The latter is accomplished when the Thessalonians obey the command to love one another as a result of exercising faith in Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit empowered teaching that God loved them by sacrificing His Son for them.