How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
In the many, many months of the pandemic, we have become more aware of a deep yearning to see those we love face to face. In this passage the Apostle Paul longs for the chance to see his friends in Thessalonica. We can’t be sure what has kept them apart, although Paul implies (3:4) that forces beyond his control have detained him. Possibly he was in jail, suffering persecution for his faith. The fact that his way back to his friends was blocked by such forces made him more keenly aware of why he longed to see them. He wanted the assurance that they were healthy and well; and, more pointedly, he wanted to share the simple joy of being together.
We have perhaps been experiencing something similar as we are reunited with family and loved ones after long separations. It matters less what we do, or what gifts we bring. It is enough that we are together; it restores us and strengthens our faith. The presence of others, and especially those we love, reminds us that we do not struggle in isolation, and that living together rather than alone is what we are made for.
What Paul feels in this separation from his friends and fellow Christians in Thessalonica fits also with the longing he has for the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Sometimes the “second coming of Christ” can seem ominous, since it involves the end of the world as we know it, along with judgment for sin. Yet these elements should be seen in the context of a great reunification, a coming together after a long time apart. We are reunited, things are made right, and joy abounds. This is what we await during the Advent season.
Charlie Pinches
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
In the many, many months of the pandemic, we have become more aware of a deep yearning to see those we love face to face. In this passage the Apostle Paul longs for the chance to see his friends in Thessalonica. We can’t be sure what has kept them apart, although Paul implies (3:4) that forces beyond his control have detained him. Possibly he was in jail, suffering persecution for his faith. The fact that his way back to his friends was blocked by such forces made him more keenly aware of why he longed to see them. He wanted the assurance that they were healthy and well; and, more pointedly, he wanted to share the simple joy of being together.
We have perhaps been experiencing something similar as we are reunited with family and loved ones after long separations. It matters less what we do, or what gifts we bring. It is enough that we are together; it restores us and strengthens our faith. The presence of others, and especially those we love, reminds us that we do not struggle in isolation, and that living together rather than alone is what we are made for.
What Paul feels in this separation from his friends and fellow Christians in Thessalonica fits also with the longing he has for the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Sometimes the “second coming of Christ” can seem ominous, since it involves the end of the world as we know it, along with judgment for sin. Yet these elements should be seen in the context of a great reunification, a coming together after a long time apart. We are reunited, things are made right, and joy abounds. This is what we await during the Advent season.
Charlie Pinches
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