2 Thessalonians 3:3 3But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.4And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that the things we are commanding you also are doing and will do. 5Now may the Lord direct your hearts towards the love of God and towards the perseverance of Christ.
Every believer is protected from the evil one, but we must seek God’s help and way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). Paul reminds the Thessalonians of God’s help in verse 3 and the human response in verse 4. He highlights three ways God helps believers. First, God is faithful. What God has promised, God will do (1 Thessalonians 4:24). The gospel message is true, and its promises will be fulfilled. God’s faithfulness should give them assurance to face their challenges. Second, God will strengthen. The one who created us is also the one who can sustain us as we face temptation and deceit. Third, God will guard from the evil one. God is our protector and watches over us (Psalm 121). “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The words should have brought great encouragement to the Thessalonians that they did not have to face their spiritual or moral battles alone.
Paul also reminds the Thessalonians in verse 4 that they needed to respond to God’s help by faithful obedience. Paul had given them many important ideas about theology and Christian behavior in his two letters, his visit, and the time Timothy spent with them. They had the basics and could grow from there with the help of the Holy Spirit (2:13). The verb have confidence (pepoithamen) is perfect tense indicating that Paul had confidence in them in the past and had it in the present. This church was growing in their faith. Good things were happening, but they could not rely on their past decisions. They needed to have a living and active faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 5 is another wish prayer that expresses Paul’s hope for the continued spiritual growth of the Thessalonians believers. The prayer has two parts that indicate two essential qualities the church needed. One is that they needed to love God. Nothing else would matter if they did not start there. Love for God is not static or quantifiable but must be always increasing. Life will give us many dynamics. We face new situations every day that will offer opportunities for us to express our love for God. The second part invites the Thessalonians to seek God’s help in persevering through their persecution and suffering. The genitive phrase perseverance of Christ is likely subjective, meaning that Christ is the source of this endurance: the perseverance that comes from and through Christ.
God is the one who would work in the hearts and lives of the Thessalonians to make these happen. These verses help us see the synergism between God’s grace and our response of faith and obedience. God will do great things in us and through us as we love him and hope in salvation through Jesus Christ.
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