Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
What Is Lacking in Your Faith
1 Thessalonians 3:9-10
9 For what thanksgiving can we give again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God, · WEB
Relief turns straight into a request to come and finish the job.
What thanksgiving can we give again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God? The question is rhetorical and the answer is none — he cannot find a return adequate to what he has been given, and the joy is described as taking place before God rather than privately.
Verse 10 gives the shape of the prayer: night and day praying exceedingly. The compound Paul uses is emphatic beyond ordinary intensity, and the phrase night and day has already appeared for his manual labor 1 Thessalonians 2:9. The same round-the-clock language covers both his work and his praying.
What he asks for is two things. That we may see your face — the personal request, and the one he has been prevented from twice already 1 Thessalonians 2:18.
And that we may perfect that which is lacking in your faith. The word means to mend or complete, used of repairing nets and setting a bone. It is a striking thing to write immediately after praising their faith for two and a half chapters, and it is not a retraction. A faith can be genuine, tested, and reported across two provinces, and still have gaps in it — which is exactly what chapters 4 and 5 will fill.
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