Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that he sent Timothy to the Thessalonians to confirm them in faith.
Then, v. 6, when Timothy had returned to him, and from him he had learned of their constancy, that he wondrously rejoiced.
Next, v. 9, for the same he gives thanks to God, and prays God that He may grant him to revisit them and perfect them in faith.
Finally, v. 12, for this he invokes God's blessing upon them, that He may increase their charity and holiness.
Vulgate Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13
1. Therefore, no longer enduring, it pleased us to remain at Athens alone: 2. and we sent Timothy our brother, and minister of God in the Gospel of Christ, to confirm you and exhort you for your faith, 3. that no one might be moved in these tribulations: for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this. 4. For even when we were with you, we foretold you that we would suffer tribulations, as it has come to pass, and you know. 5. Therefore I also, no longer enduring, sent to learn your faith: lest perhaps he who tempts have tempted you, and our labour be in vain. 6. But now, when Timothy came to us from you, and announced to us your faith and charity, and that you always have a good remembrance of us, desiring to see us, as we also you: 7. therefore, brethren, we were comforted in you, in all our necessity and tribulation, through your faith, 8. because now we live, if you stand in the Lord. 9. For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, in all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God, 10. night and day more abundantly praying, that we may see your face, and complete those things which are wanting to your faith? 11. Now may God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. 12. And may the Lord multiply you, and make your charity to abound toward one another, and toward all men, as we also do toward you: 13. to confirm your hearts blameless in holiness, before God and our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Amen.
Verse 1: Therefore, No Longer Enduring
1. Therefore, no longer enduring. — In Greek μηκέτι στέγοντες, that is, no longer bearing — supply: "the desire of knowing your affairs and of dealing with you," we sent Timothy for this cause, as a kind of go-between to you.
It pleased us to remain at Athens alone. — You will say: In Acts XVII, 15, Paul is said to have summoned Silas and Timothy from Berea and Thessalonica to himself at Athens; therefore he did not remain alone at Athens. I answer: He summoned them, but immediately sent them back to Thessalonica; which, although Acts XVII does not say, nevertheless is gathered from this, and from the fact that in Acts XVIII, 5, Silas and Timothy are said to have returned to Paul, no longer staying at Athens, but at Corinth: if they returned, then already after the mutual meeting (of which Acts XVII, 15) they had again departed from him.
Verse 2: Minister of God
2. Minister of God. — The Greek and Syriac add καὶ συνεργὸν ἡμῶν, "and our fellow worker."
To confirm you and exhort you for your faith, — that is, for procuring the stability and increase of your faith. So Theophylact.
Secondly, more simply, the Greek and the Syriac take περί for ὑπέρ, that is "over," which corresponds to the Hebrew על al, as if to say: That I may confirm and exhort you concerning your faith, or about your faith, or in your faith: for the Hebrew al signifies all these.
Verse 3: That No One May Be Moved in These Tribulations
3. That no one may be moved in these tribulations (the persecutions of Jews and Gentiles); for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. — The Syriac renders, "we are destined for this," namely for enduring persecutions and tribulations. St. Chrysostom: "He did not say simply, We are tempted; but, We are appointed to this; for what is, we are made for this — this is our work, this our life, and do you seek rest?" Let every Christian therefore say with St. Sebastian what Jeremiah says of himself as a type of Christ and of every Christian, Lamentations III, 12: "He has set me (God) as a mark for the arrow, He has sent into my reins the daughters of His quiver," that is, His arrows, namely tribulations.
Let every sufferer say with St. Job, chapter XVI, verse 13: "He (God) has set me up as a mark for Himself," that is, as a target, into which all enemies hurl their darts. Let all Christians hear this, says Theophylact, that they are indeed appointed and called for this — namely to bear the cross strongly with Christ and for Christ. So we become, says Chrysostom, soldiers of Christ, if we are clothed with the arms of patience. So we become martyrs of Christ, if we conquer the devil: for if you suffer and endure, the devil will flee. The Apostle predicted this in a general sentence, II Timothy III, 12: "All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Indeed Christ Himself, John XVI, 33: "In the world," He says, "you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
"This method," says Seneca in his book On the Constancy of the Wise Man, "God follows with good men, as teachers do with their disciples, who exact more labour from those in whom hope is more sure; and as commanders with their soldiers, sending the best soldiers to the hardest tasks. So He tests fire in Mucius, poverty in Fabricius, exile in Rutilius, torment in Regulus, poison in Socrates, death in Cato. As stern parents bring up their sons more severely, so God His own, and this that they may gather strength from sorrows and losses themselves. Let these therefore say: We have been deemed worthy by God, in whom He might test how much human nature can suffer (indeed, how much grace and the love of God can do). Behold a pair worthy of God: a brave man matched with evil fortune; behold a spectacle worthy of God." These and more things scattered Seneca says in the place cited.
Verse 5: Therefore I Also, No Longer Enduring, Sent to Learn Your Faith
5. Therefore I also, no longer enduring (namely the desire of learning your faith and your affairs: of which in verse 1), sent (Timothy) to learn your faith.
Lest perhaps he who tempts have tempted you (and by tempting overcome you and cast you down from faith or constancy). — The Greek ὁ πειράζων is a participle, which after the Hebrew manner is put for the appellative noun, that is, that tempter who has tempted and tempts Christ and all the Saints, whose art is to tempt — namely Satan, of whom Matthew IV, 3.
Verse 8: For Now We Live, If You Stand in the Lord
8. For now we live, if you stand in the Lord. — As if to say: Although we are afflicted even unto death, yet when we have heard of your constancy and the faith which you have in the Lord, we as it were come back to life and are raised from the dead.
Here Anselm exclaims: "Oh, what tender bowels the Apostle bore, when he panted with such fervour of love around his sons, that he said: Now we live, if you stand in the Lord! He feared too much lest his disciples, seeing in their preacher the reproaches of so many persecutions, despise faith in God, against which the imminent reproaches of sufferings would prevail. And therefore he grieved less in his torments, but feared more for his sons concerning the temptation of his own torments: he made little of bodily blows in himself, while he dreaded for his sons blows of the heart." And a little below: "He was secure of his own reward, even if the disciples should fall, and yet, as if in their fall he would lose the reward of his labour, he said he lived in their state: for he did not wish to live with them falling, but with them standing in the Lord, that his fruit might be entire to them, and his reward with God full of joys."
Verse 9: What Thanksgiving Can We Render to God for You
9. What thanksgiving can we render to God for you (concerning you) in all the joy (over all the joy), with which we rejoice because of you (constant in faith amid adversities) before our God, — in the presence of our God: for this is the Greek ἔμπροσθεν.
Verse 10: Night and Day More Abundantly Praying
10. Night and day more abundantly (ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ, as if to say "above out of abundance," that is, as Ambrose, most abundantly, exceedingly, marvellously, beyond measure: so Vatablus) praying, — that is, we pray. For the Hebrews use the participle for the indicative.
That we may see your face, and complete those things which are wanting to your faith.
Verse 12: And May the Lord Multiply You
12. And may the Lord multiply you, — that the number of the faithful, which I was compelled to leave behind, may be multiplied and increased in number.
And may He make your love to abound toward one another, and toward all. — Thus the Roman edition; but the Greek has καὶ περισσεύσαι τῇ ἀγάπῃ εἰς ἀλλήλους, καὶ εἰς πάντας, that is: and may He make [you] abundant or exuberant in mutual love among yourselves, and toward all. But although the case is changed, the sense returns the same.
Even as we also toward you, — supply: have abounded in the love just spoken of. So Anselm.
Verse 13: To Confirm Your Hearts Without Blame in Holiness
To confirm your hearts (this can be referred to Paul, as if to say: I have abounded in love toward you, that I might confirm your hearts in holiness. Secondly and better, you may refer it to God, as if to say: May God make love abound in you, in order that He may confirm your hearts), without blame (in Greek ἀμέμπτως, that is irreprehensible) in holiness (namely so confirmed in holiness that no one may complain of them or of their impurity or vice, and this) before God (that is, in the presence of God, so that God may find nothing to blame in your hearts, but may judge them wholly holy), in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, — supply: that your hearts may be and may be found holy and without blame at the coming of Christ, when He shall come with all His Saints to judgment. For the Apostle, full of the Spirit, here heaps together many things which his affection suggested, nor is he careful about the words, but suppresses and leaves to be understood some words, according to Canon 38.
Truly St. Chrysostom here, Homily 4, says: "Paul, when he saw the tears of certain beloved ones, that adamant was so broken and worn down that he would say: What are you doing, weeping and wearing down my heart? For I resist all things, with love alone excepted: that conquers and overcomes me."
13. To confirm your hearts. — In Greek it is εἰς τὸ καταρτίσαι τὰ ὑστερήματα τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν, as if to say: That I may complete the joints, members, and connections which are still lacking to your faith, so that the body of your faith may be made whole and perfected in all its parts as in members. For the Greek καταρτίζειν is said of a body which is made whole, completed, and perfected by its joints and members. In the same sense Paul said that he was filling up τὰ ὑστερήματα, that is, the things lacking in the sufferings of Christ (Colossians I, 24), as if to say: I desire to see you, so that I may complete and perfect the imperfect evangelization and instruction of you which I was compelled to break off because of the persecution of the Jews.