Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Faith That Grows Under Pressure
2 Thessalonians 1:3-4
3 We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds, · WEB
Paul says he is obliged to thank God for them, and what he thanks God for is growth that happened while they were being hurt.
We are bound to give thanks, he writes, and adds that it is fitting. The doubling is unusual and reads like a man insisting on something the readers might dispute about themselves. They were frightened and under attack; he tells them their condition is a matter for thanksgiving.
Two things are named. Their faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one toward one another abounds — the verbs are of overflow, and love is described as running person to person rather than in general. In the first letter he had prayed for exactly this increase 1 Thessalonians 3:12, and he now reports it granted.
Verse 4 adds that Paul boasts of them in the other assemblies, and specifies the grounds: perseverance and faith in all their persecutions and afflictions. Not deliverance from the afflictions, which had not come. Endurance inside them, which had.
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