1 Thessalonians 3:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

From the time, he continues, that Timothy brought us the joyful news, we feel no bitterness. “In all our affliction and necessity, we were comforted concerning you.” He says not only in affliction, but also “in necessity.”

Indeed, nothing can trouble a good teacher so long as the affairs of his disciples proceed according to his desire. “We were comforted concerning you,” that is, you strengthened us. See verse 8.

“He assures them that without it everything else is nothing before the eyes of God (Gal 5:6). When he praises someone, he praises for faith and love. The Apostle is also gladdened by their remembrance of him, not as remembrance, but because it signified attachment to the faith he had handed down to them” (Bishop Theophan).

“Who can be compared with Paul, who considers the salvation of others his own salvation? Nothing can trouble a good teacher so long as the affairs of his disciples proceed according to his desire.

“‘We were comforted concerning you,’ that is, you strengthened us, you anointed us, you did not allow us to fall under the weight of temptations. He did not say, ‘we took courage,’ but what? ‘Now we live.’

“By this he shows that he considers nothing else death for himself but their stumbling (1 Cor 15:31), and life to be their progress” (John Chrysostom).

“See then, stand firm. Do not shake my confidence in your steadfastness, otherwise you will kill me” (Bishop Theophan).

Exegetes of the negative school, on the basis of parallel passages (Acts 17:14; 18:5; 1 Cor 4:17; 16:10 and others), raise objections concerning the sending of Timothy to Thessalonica. Yet these passages only confirm it. According to Acts, Paul’s meeting with Timothy is implied (17:14-15), as is Timothy’s mission to Macedonia (18:5). Here, in 1 Thess 3:1-8, this meeting and mission are stated positively.

“We feared lest temptation had overcome you, and we sorrowed over it. But when Timothy reported to us what was happening with you, we not only ceased to sorrow, but were filled with joy. Because of our joy over you, not even the feeling of any sadness remained in us” (Oecumenius).

“In all our affliction and necessity.” Affliction and necessity encompass everything that oppressed the Apostles. Necessity indicates more the external pressures, while affliction indicates the distress of the heart.

The joy was so great that through it the Apostle forgot all the unpleasant things weighing upon him, although they were both great and numerous. By affliction and necessity the Apostle means both those he had endured and those he was enduring at that time.

This includes the afflictions borne for the sake of the Thessalonians. In this respect the thought is: glory to God, we did not suffer and endure in vain for your sake. You are steadfast, and our labor is not in vain.

With respect to the pressures in which the Apostle found himself when he received the good news, the thought is this: “We no longer feel afflictions, but have been comforted, not in one affliction only, but in every one. Our joy over you has become a counterweight to all our necessities” (Theophylact).

“By your faith.” Here faith means everything: Christian teaching, life in accordance with it, all Christian orders, and remembrance of the Apostles with the desire to see them. “By your faith” is the same as saying, by your Christianity.

That is, as you received the faith and began to live according to its spirit, so you remain to this day.

St. Chrysostom says: “Who can be compared with Paul, who considers the salvation of others his own, having the same relation to all as the body has to its members? He did not want them to give him thanks for the temptations he endured for their sake.

“Instead, he gives them thanks because they were not shaken by the temptations that happened to him. It is as though he said: you faced greater danger from temptations than we did. You were more subjected to temptation than we, although you did not suffer during our sufferings.

“Since Timothy brought us the joyful news, we feel no bitterness. Nothing can trouble a good teacher so long as the affairs of his disciples proceed according to his desire.

“‘We were comforted concerning you,’ that is, you strengthened us, you anointed us, you gave us breath, and you did not allow us to fall under the weight of temptations.”