1 Thessalonians 3:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Hear what the prophet says to show that vice generally defiles the soul: “Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem” (Jer 4:14). And again, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove your evil deeds” (Isa 1:16).

He did not say, “Cease from fornications,” because not fornication alone, but the other vices also defile the soul. “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”

Christ will then be the Judge. Yet we shall stand at the judgment not only before Him, but also before the Father. Or here the Apostle means that we must be blameless before God.

This is what I always say: not before the face of men, but before the face of God. In this true virtue consists. Therefore love makes us blameless, and it truly makes us blameless.

Once, when I was explaining this to a certain man and saying that love makes us blameless, and that love for neighbor blocks every entrance to sin, and when I was speaking in detail about many other things, an acquaintance came up to me.

He said, “But what about fornication? Is it not possible both to love and to fornicate? For this too comes from love. Greed, adultery, envy, deceit, and the like can separate us from love for neighbors. But how can fornication do so?”

I said that love can cut this off as well. Whoever loves a dissolute woman will strive to remove her from other men and not give himself over to sin with her.

Therefore, only the man who greatly hates a harlot is likely to commit fornication with her. The man who truly loves her will turn her away from that shameful deed.

There is absolutely no sin that the power of love does not consume like fire. It is easier for weak brushwood to withstand a strong fire than for the nature of sin to withstand the power of love.

Let us therefore increase this love in our souls, so that we may stand with all the saints. For they all pleased God through love for neighbor. Why was Abel killed, and why did he not kill?

Certainly because he greatly loved his brother and could not even conceive of such a thing. From where did Cain receive the poison of envy? Yet I would not even wish to call him Abel’s brother, since the foundations of love were not firmly established in him.

For what did Noah’s two sons deserve praise? Was it not because they greatly loved their father and could not bear to see his nakedness? And for what did the one fall under a curse? Was it not because he did not love?

How also was Abraham glorified? Was it not by the love with which he cared for his nephew, and by his intercession for the Sodomites? The saints were full of love and compassion.

Consider how Paul is softened by love, though he counted even fire as nothing. He was adamantine, firm, unshaken, always strong, filled with the fear of God, and unbending.

“Who,” he says, “shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom 8:35).

He who thus dares all these things on land and sea, who laughs even at the adamantine gates of Hades, and whom absolutely nothing stopped, was himself adamant. Yet when he saw the tears of certain beloved ones, he was crushed and moved.

He could not conceal the strong disturbance of his soul, and immediately said, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?” (Acts 21:13). What are you saying? Tell me, could a tear crush that adamantine soul?

Yes, he answers. I can withstand everything except love. It overcomes me and enslaves me. So it is pleasing to God. An abyss of waters did not crush him, but a few tears crushed him.

“What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?” Truly, great is the power of love. Do you wish to see him weeping again? Hear what he says elsewhere: “For three years, night and day, I did not cease with tears to admonish each one of you” (Acts 20:31).

Because of great love he feared lest some harm should happen. Again, “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears” (2 Cor 2:4).

And what of Joseph, tell me? He was firm and stood against such violence. He showed such valor against such a flame of love. He struggled so gloriously and overcame such frenzy in his mistress.

What did not then tempt him? There was beauty of face, dignity of rank, the costliness and splendor of clothing, the fragrance of perfumes, for this too can soften the soul, and the tenderest words.

You know that a woman in love, and so passionately, will shrink from no humiliation, taking on the appearance of a suppliant slave. This woman, clothed in gold-woven garments and possessing almost royal dignity, was so wounded by passion that she perhaps fell at the knees of a captive slave.

Perhaps she entreated him with tears, clasping his knees. She did this not once or twice, but many times. Then one could also see her gaze shining brilliantly.

Certainly she adorned herself not carelessly, but with the greatest refinement, because she tried with many nets to catch the lamb of Christ. Add to this many sorceries.

Yet this unbending man, strong and firm as a rock, saw his brothers, who had sold him, cast him into the pit, betrayed him, wanted to kill him, and caused his imprisonment and exaltation.

When he heard from them the words that had grieved his father, “Let us say,” it says, “that he was devoured by wild beasts” (Gen 37:20), he was shaken, softened, troubled, and wept.

Unable to master the disturbance of his soul, he went out to his brothers and “controlled himself” (Gen 43:31), that is, he wiped away his tears.

What is this? Are you weeping, Joseph? What lies before you is not worthy of tears, but of anger, fury, indignation, severe punishment, and vengeance. Your enemies and would-be fratricides are in your hands.

You can fully satisfy your anger. Moreover, this would not be injustice, because you would not be beginning to commit wrongs, but only avenging yourself on those who wronged you.

Do not consider your rank. This happened not according to their intention, but according to the will of God, who poured out His mercy upon you. Why do you weep?

But he would have said, God forbid that, after gaining a good reputation among all, I should lose it all through such remembrance of wrongs. Truly, now is the time for tears.

I am not more savage than beasts. Even they act according to their nature, whatever evil they may suffer. I weep, he says, because this has wholly moved me.

Let us also imitate him. Let us lament those who wrong us, and not be angry with them. They are truly worthy of tears, because they make themselves liable to judgment and punishment.

I see how you are now weeping, how you rejoice, marveling at Paul, being astonished at Joseph, and calling them both blessed. But if anyone has an enemy, let him bring him now to memory.

Let him set him before his mind, so that while the heart is still warmed by remembrance of these saints, it may put aside the fury of anger and soften its harshness and cruelty.

I know that when you leave here, after I stop speaking, some warmth and zeal will remain in you. Yet it will no longer be as strong as now while you are listening.

Therefore, if anyone is covered with frost, let him shake it off. Remembrance of wrongs truly is frost and ice. Let us cry out to the Sun of righteousness. Let us implore Him to send down His rays.

Then there will no longer be cruel frost, but water that quenches thirst. If the fire of the Sun of righteousness touches our soul, nothing hardened will remain in it, nothing cruel, nothing burning, nothing barren.

Everything will appear ripe, everything sweet, everything filled with great pleasantness. If we love one another, this ray will descend upon us.

Give me the possibility, I beg you, to speak of this with zeal. Let me hear that you have received some benefit from these words.

Let me hear that one of you, leaving here, immediately stretched both hands to his enemy, embraced him, held him close, kissed him, and wept.

Even if that man were a beast, even if he were stone, even if he were something else, he would be softened by such friendship. Why indeed is he your enemy? Has he reviled you? But he has done you no wrong.

Are you despising a hostile brother because of money? “Forgive him,” I beg you. “Let us bring everything to an end.” Time is in our power. Let us use it as we should. Let us break the bonds of sin.

Before we stand before the judgment, let us judge one another ourselves. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26). Let no one delay. Delay produces hardness.

If you delay today, there will be greater shame. There will be still more if you put it off until tomorrow. There will be incomparably more if you put it off until the day after tomorrow.

Let us not put ourselves to shame, but forgive, so that we may be forgiven. And if we are forgiven, we shall inherit all the heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord.

With Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Therefore a man is truly blameless when he purifies his heart. Then he also has holiness. For although holiness chiefly denotes chastity, just as impurity denotes fornication and adultery, in general every sin is impurity, and every virtue is holiness.

The Apostle desires them to be blameless before God and the Father, both now and at the coming of Christ. True virtue is before God, not before men, for human judgment is unstable. Christ will also judge us before the face of His Father.

Therefore, he says, may you be blameless, as all the saints are.

All this is a matter of the heart (Mt 15:19). To be clean from all this constitutes holiness. For although holiness chiefly denotes chastity, just as impurity denotes fornication and adultery, in general every sin is impurity, and every virtue is purity.

The Savior says, 'Blessed are the pure in heart' (Mt 5:8), meaning those who are pure in every respect. And the Apostle says: I desire that this love should so abound in you that no blemish should be in you" (John Chrysostom).

Turning attention to why the Apostle expressed the desire that the Thessalonians appear perfect before the Father, St. John Chrysostom says: "Christ will then be the Judge. Yet at the judgment we shall stand not before Him, but before the Father.

Or here the Apostle means that we must be blameless before God. This is what I always tell you: one must be blameless not before the face of man, but before the face of God. For in this true virtue consists."

By the saints one should most immediately understand the Angels, since the Second Coming of Christ is always depicted with Him surrounded by Angels (Mt 25:36; Acts 10:22). Yet since it says here "with His saints," and indeed "all," one may also understand perfect Christians. For it was promised to the Apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones and judge (Mt 19:28).

The heart of the Apostle Paul was especially filled with this love. He loved the Thessalonians even before they became his brethren in Christ. This love will establish their heart in perfect purity before God, as it must appear on the day of Christ's Second Coming.

This is why, desiring firmness in moral purity and chastity, he desires love. Love is the means to unshaken purity, or firm and irreproachable morality. This latter is the condition of justification at the second coming of Christ. In another place he writes: "Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor 7:1).

Here he says: if you wish to be so pure and irreproachable, seek and entreat for yourself perfect love. Saint Chrysostom writes: "I desire, he says, that this love abound in you so much that there be no blemish in you. He did not say, to establish you, but your hearts. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts (Mt 15:19).

One can be evil without doing any evil, as when one feels hatred, unbelief, is deceitful, rejoices in the misfortunes of neighbors, is unfriendly, or holds perverse teaching. All this is the work of the heart. To be pure from all this constitutes holiness.

Although holiness is mainly and preeminently called chastity, just as impurity means fornication and adultery, in general every sin is impurity and every virtue is purity. 'Blessed are the pure in heart,' says the Savior (Mt 5:8), meaning by the pure those who are pure in everything."

Before our God and Father may be referred either to blameless in holiness, with the thought that their hearts should prove blameless and pure before the all-seeing eye of God Himself. In which case purity alone is true purity, or to the coming of the Lord, with the thought that the judgment too will take place before the face of the Father.

Thus Saint Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and Theophylact. Chrysostom writes: "Christ will then be the Judge, but we shall stand at the judgment not before Him, but before the Father. Or here the Apostle means that we must be blameless before God. This is what I always tell you, that one must be blameless not before the face of man, but before the face of God, because true virtue consists in this."

At the coming of the Lord. The Apostle more than once has already raised the Thessalonians' attention to this decisive moment (1 Thess 1:10; 1 Thess 2:12, 19). Now he presents it again as the final limit of hopes and expectations. At the same time, he presents it as the strongest motive for maintaining energetic efforts in oneself toward deeds and dispositions that may be deemed worthy of approval at that time.

What is then determined concerning someone will seal his lot with an unchangeable seal unto eternal ages, either for blessedness or for torment.

With all His saints. Some think that the Apostle wishes them to have blamelessness with all the saints, alongside them and like them, so as to be in their assembly at the meeting of the Lord (Theodoret). But more directly these words refer to the coming of the Lord with all His saints.

With which saints? "Most immediately, with the angels. For the coming of the Lord is everywhere described so that He will be surrounded by hosts of angels (Mt 25:31; Mk 8:38; Lk 9:26; Acts 10:22; Mt 16:27; 2 Thess 1:7). But since it says with His saints, and indeed all of them, one may also understand the perfected Christians, who are His in a special sense, as those bought by His blood and united with Him into one spirit."

To the first of them, the Apostles, it was promised that they would sit on twelve thrones and judge (Mt 19:28).

Amen. In the course of his speech, the Apostle more than once introduces prayerful addresses and appeals to God, which he often confirms with the word amen. It is as though he says: so may it be. Let it be, let it be. He wants to say that his prayerful good wish is not the result of a momentary impulse, but the fruit of his constant and firm desire that they receive the essential good in Christianity.