1 Thessalonians 3 – Godly Encouragement

As per usual standard, please read the chapter before you read my notes, as it is far more important, with it being, you know, divinely inspired and all that.

This chapter is, mostly, summarizing Paul and his companions’ longing for the church at Thessalonica, and sending Timothy to check up on them.

I think a broad lesson to be learned from this is that it’s not wrong to worry about your fellow believers’ faith, and to seek to encourage them. In fact, if you never think about or pray for others’ faith, there’s an issue somewhere. If you told me, “Yeah, I never think about my fellow Christians’ faith, or wonder if they’re walking well with the Lord or anything,” then I’d be worried about your faith!

And it is good to check in on them, ask them about it. It’s often encouraging to have someone ask you about your walk. Either encouraging or convicting, depending on how your walk is going. And it will encourage you who are asking as well. Iron sharpens iron. When you look into someone else’s walk with the Lord, it often makes you check your own walk as well.

Notice how Paul classified Timothy when describing sending him to encourage the Thessalonians. “… brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ…” (v. 2) That was what he did! His life! it was sharing the gospel. When someone is a co-worker, it’s not just a once in a while thing. It’s a binding agreement to hold up your end of the deal. To do the work because you’ve promised to do so. It’s what you do. As a co-worker in service to God, not just to men, sharing the gospel, that’s what Timothy did with his life, constantly, consistently and continually. He encouraged the Thessalonians in his service to God and by leading them to Him. He encouraged them by helping them in knowledge of the Lord and the Gospel.

Paul also called Timothy a “brother”. A brother in serving the Lord. When you are a brother, or a sister, for that matter, you are tied in. It’s a lifetime thing. You are part of the family. You don’t just stop being someone’s brother. It’s who you are.

Timothy was a servant, specifically to God, and by that a servant to all. He was tied in by brotherhood and agreement. And because he was the Lord’s servant, he was able to encourage well. To encourage in a godly manner. In serving the Lord, he was able to help others to Him, and to be encouraged.

And, allow me to be crystal clear: Encouragement is not making up nice things and throwing around compliments, random inspirational quotes, or explaining how everything is gonna be OK and fine and dandy.

“We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.”

1 Thessalonians 3:2-3

When Paul sent Timothy to encourage the believers at Thessalonica, he sent him with a clear method and intent: To strengthen and encourage their faith. He did not send Timothy to say, “Well, I know this is bad, but you’ll get through it! It’ll be over soon!” Nor did he say, “I can’t believe something so awful is happening! I’m sorry, what a horrible unexpected thing!”

He was incredibly straightforward about the trouble, even saying that it was destined for them to go through trials. It was bound to happen. Not even just a probability. Definitively, trials will happen. As it goes for everyone, well, everyone who ever lived, trials happened, and especially for those who serve God. In verse five, we can see that Paul even emphasized specifically to the Thessalonians that persecution would come.

He did not mince words: trials are unavoidable. And yet that doesn’t mean they always are going to destroy us. That’s why Paul sent Timothy, to be sure that none of the Thessalonians were unsettled by these troubles. And he sought to help them stay steady and strong through trials, to whether the storms of life, how? By encouraging them in their faith.

An enormous lesson that can be taken from Paul’s handling of the Thessalonians’ worry, and his own worry for them (as can be seen in verse six), is to encourage them in their faith. To strengthen them in their faith. To lead them back to God again and again because faith in God is truly the only way for anyone to have peace while honestly living through a trial. So if you seek to encourage someone, to ease their mind and settle their heart, to ease your own mind, point them to the Lord and encourage them in their faith. Peace comes through Him and Him alone.

Now, as a blessing to everyone involved, the Thessalonians were indeed still standing strong in their faith. Paul’s worries were not in fact reality, though not unfounded, but the Thessalonians were strong in their faith. In fact, we can see the encouragement it was to Paul that they walked in the Lord’s ways still.

“Therefore, brethren, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since we know you are standing firm in the Lord.”

1 Thessalonians 3:7-8

It gave Paul and his companions a renewed sense of life to know that their brothers and sisters in the faith walked strongly in the Lord’s path still. Even though they were still being persecuted, suffering greatly, they had joy!

And the Thessalonians had not suddenly turned a foul eye on Paul as he was being persecuted, as though he was suffering for some sin, but they remembered him fondly, wishing to see him and the others just as much as they sought to see the Thessalonians.

They were strong in faith and strong in their love for their fellow believers. And that was an encouragement for Paul. And so it should be a great encouragement for us to learn that our fellow believers are strong in the Lord, even though we are, most of us, stuck separated for the time being. It can give us peace, it can make us really live. And so it should! It is a joyous occasion when we follow the Lord steadfastly, and we should rejoice when we see others doing so.

“How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?”

1 Thessalonians 3:9

That was the extent of joy that came to Paul and his companions from the knowledge of the Thessalonians faith and love. Enough joy that Paul questioned whether they could thank God enough for them.

Let me ask this, of you and of myself while I write this: How often is it that we think, “How can I ever thank God enough for this?” For our salvation? For our fellow believers’ faith? For life itself? For every good thing and every joyous moment, which all come by the very grace of God who withholds us from eternal wrath to give us a lifetime to repent?

Can we ever thank God enough for any of that?

Simply put, no.

We can never give enough thanks, so don’t withhold any.

Later in this book, Paul writes this:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This is what he meant by that. Not that we’d be in great circumstances all the time. not that, while looking at ourselves from the world’s perspective, we’d always be in a place where we could say, “Man, I’ve got it pretty great right now, I should give thanks.” But no, as here we have Paul, acting in accordance with his own words, giving thanks in all circumstances, including persecution and distress. Not even for himself, but for other believers.

Because how can we not rejoice? We have so, so, so much grace given to us in every circumstance throughout our entire lives. How can we not rejoice and give thanks continually when we ought to have been cast into Hell the moment we existed? How can we not praise the Almighty when there was no need whatsoever for us to be created in the first place?

If the sheer mass of grace that He has hurled upon us does not encourage you, or any other who follows the Lord, through every suffering imaginable, then I do not know what to tell you. And keep in mind that, even though Paul was not with the Thessalonians, to simply hear of their faith and love revitalized Him. How much more should the great works of God on our behalf fill us with life?

And yet, though we ought to, of course, be always rejoicing, that doesn’t mean we cannot desire to seek greater, godly things with our lives, as Paul was doing here in his longing for the Thessalonians.

“Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.”

1 Thessalonians 3:10

Though he wasn’t griping, though he wasn’t complaining, though he was giving thanks continually, Paul still petitioned continually that the Lord would permit him to go back and be with the Thessalonians again. And, though this whole thing has been beat so far into the ground already, I can help but think of the whole world’s situation right now, that we as a the church are, for the most part, separated from one another. And we should be longing to see each other again. I know I am! But, while we must not grumble or complain, we can still pray in a godly manner to be with one another again.

I also recommend that we all keep in mind that, this sense of longing for fellowship? this loneliness? It is what persecuted and imprisoned believers feel every day. So pray for them, no?

We can be encouraged by others’ faith, and we can encourage others by helping them in their faith. because truly, faith in the Lord, whether you’re seeing this faith in someone else, or you have it in your own heart, is the only way to truly be encouraged.

To finish up, I’d like to use one of Paul’s prayers yet again as a great example of what we should be praying for our fellow believers, and that we should be asking our fellow brethren to pray for us.

“Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13