Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Lest the Tempter Had Tempted You
1 Thessalonians 3:4-5
4 For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. · WEB
Paul had told them trouble was coming before it came, and he still could not stop worrying that it had worked.
When we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. The warning was given in advance and confirmed by events, which is the strongest position a teacher can be in.
And it did not settle his mind. Verse 5 repeats the phrase from verse 1 — when I couldn't stand it any longer — so the same limit was reached twice, and this time the first person singular makes it personal.
The fear is named plainly: for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain. Two things sit in that clause. First, a person is behind the pressure, and the title given is functional rather than dramatic — the one whose work is tempting. Second, Paul admits the possibility of failure. He does not write that he was certain they would hold; he writes that he was afraid they had not.
The last phrase is the one worth keeping. Our labor would have been in vain — the word for empty from 1 Thessalonians 2:1. An apostle who has just said God chose them 1 Thessalonians 1:4 can still lose sleep over whether his own work amounted to anything, and the letter records both without reconciling them.
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