1 Thessalonians 3:6 KJV
But now when
Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and
charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to
see us, as we also to see you:
The Apostle wrote this
epistle in an effort to comfort and strengthen the suffing Christians in
Thessalonica. But remember that the Apostle suffered as well. Such suffering he
reminded them of in the first few verses of the chapter. He then transitioned into
a passage intended to express to them how he had been comforted by news about
them. Paul lists three specific things that were of great comfort to him:
Their faith
They had not abandoned either
faith in Jesus Christ or the doctrines and practices he had taught them. Though
the days were difficult and they might have relieved a great deal of stress if
they had just bowed to the local Jews in a couple of areas, they still stood
for those things Paul taught them; a much different scenario than had happened
in the churches of Galatia .
Their charity[2]
I take this word to reference
love for one's church[1].
Charity is used in a particular manner in the Bible, not merely to speak of a
godlike love which gives expecting nothing in return, but a focused love that
is directed to the Church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the
truth.
Paul saw this as the
confirmation that the first two were real. They had not moved passed what Paul
taught them but continued to embrace and grow in those things. They weren't
looking for new teachers to give them something Paul had missed; they looked
for Paul to give them more of what he had previously.
A preacher[3] lives to see the
people in his congregation hold fast to their faith, focus their affections on
the things of Christ in His church and long to hear the Word preached once
again.
[1]
I have written on this subject in my book, What’s Love Got To Do With It?,
available as an e-book at,
or paperback at,
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