Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Starting this Sunday, many churches will feature Advent candles. The traditional understanding of the significance of these candles is that in this season of waiting, the candles help the church focus on hope, peace, joy, and love. Each candle represents an essential disposition of faith. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians may be the source of this ritual. Not that Paul talked about Advent candles, of course. Yet, this letter focuses strongly on Christ’s “Parousia” at the same time as emphasizing the vital centrality of hope, peace, joy, and love. In 1 Thessalonians, Christ’s second advent and the cardinal states of hope, peace, joy, and love are intrinsically related.

Those who know this letter know that it evidences an overriding interest in Christ’s Parousia. The letter starts with Paul’s definition of the consequence of the Thessalonians’ faith—they are those who wait for God’s Son from heaven (1:10). Paul speaks regularly about the coming of the Lord Jesus (for example, 2:19; 3:13). The apostle responds to the Thessalonians’ concern about whether those who have already died will miss out on Christ’s second advent (4:13–5:2).

At the same time, 1 Thessalonians emphasizes faith, hope, and love (1:3), and also peace and joy. Paul speaks of the Thessalonian believers as the cause of his hope for himself and his coworkers as they await Christ’s return (2:10). He is convinced that at that return they will be saved—the hope of salvation (5:8; see also 1:10). Paul calls God the God of peace (5:23) and exhorts his converts to be at peace among themselves (5:13). Such peace is the cause and result of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. 

The apostle declares that his joy and that of his coworkers is due to the goodness of the Thessalonians’ lives (3:9), which goodness will be manifest at the return of the Lord (2:19–20). The quality of this joy is seen in its flourishing even in the midst of affliction (1:6).  

It is, however, love on which Paul dwells. He expresses in remarkably touching ways just how beloved the Thessalonians are. He reminds them of the love evidenced by him and his co-missionaries on his first visit: they were like a nursing mother with her children (2:7). While giving them the gospel of God, Paul and his companions gave the Thessalonians their very selves (2:8).

Several times in the letter Paul acknowledges how loving his converts are and declares that they have been taught this by God (4:9). This community characteristic is something he wants them to build on and nurture (4:10). It is what defines them as children of the day and so as those destined to be saved (5:8).

Hope, peace, joy, and love are organically connected since they are dependent one on another: there is no hope without peace, or without joy and love; there is no peace without hope, or without joy and love; there is no joy without hope, or without peace and love; and there is no love without hope, peace, and joy. Yet, here as elsewhere, Paul emphasizes the fundamental nature of love. As he says in 1 Corinthians 13:13, love is the greatest. This is perhaps why Paul directly connects lives of love to the coming of Christ in our passage (3:12). Lives of love produce “blamelessness in holiness” (3:13)—that is, the right state to be in at Christ’s Parousia.  

The Thessalonians seem to have no doubt but that the One in whom they fully believe (1:5) will return, most probably very soon. One of the primary reasons Paul writes this letter is precisely because his converts are convinced of Christ’s imminent coming (see especially 4:13–5:2). Their concern about Christ’s Parousia and Paul’s in this regard diverge, however. The Thessalonians are focused on logistical matters, such as what will happen to those who have already died (4:13). Paul writes not only to clarify these matters—those who have died will not be left out at the Parousia—but also to refocus the Thessalonians’ attention on what is most critical about Christ’s return.  

Paul wants the Thessalonians, as he says in our passage, to direct their attention to increasing and abounding in love for each other and for all (3:12). Since Paul’s goal for his beloved converts is that they should be “blameless in holiness” when the Lord returns, he underscores that such a blessed state is dependent on the quantity and quality of their love. The most important thing is not when Christ will return or matters such as the fate of believers who have already died. The most essential thing about Christ’s second advent is that believers be in the optimum condition to meet Christ.

This is not to say Paul thinks the Thessalonians should be anxious about whether they will be saved when Christ returns. Far from it. He assures them that their salvation is sure: “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9). At the outset of the letter he declares that they are waiting for the return of God’s Son, who is their deliverer from the wrath that is coming (1:10).

Rather, what Paul wants these believers to recognize is that God’s desire for those he has chosen (1: 4) is that they take on God’s character. The  point of the Thessalonians’ faith exceeds their salvation from the coming wrath. The gift of their faith is fundamentally and primarily that they become holy as God is holy. This astonishing grace is from God and is manifest in lives of love both for fellow believers and for all.  

Paul draws attention to the truth that lives of love are not the result of believers’ independent willpower. Though such lives involve the hard work of love (see 1:3), such is enabled by the Lord. In fact, it is God who has taught them to love each other (4:9). It is the Lord (understanding “lord” in context [3:11] to refer to Jesus; see also 1 Corinthians 8:6) who makes their love increase and abound (3:12). It is the Lord who confirms the hearts of the Thessalonians blameless in holiness (3:12).  

Believers participate with God in God’s project of allowing them to share God’s character—holiness. The will of God is that believers be holy (4:3, 7). Paul details some aspects of holiness (4:3–6; 5:12–22), but in our passage emphasizes that love is the chief and most essential. As Paul’s words in 3:12–13 make plain, holiness is the definition of love, and love is the definition of holiness.  

In light of Christ’s coming, the children of the day are to focus on doing more of the same—loving each other and all.