1 Thessalonians 3:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When we could no longer forbear Or bear, rather, namely, our anxiety on your account. The word στεγοντες, here used, literally signifies bearing or carrying, but never forbearing. Some such word as anxiety is necessary to be supplied, because it appears from the following verse, that the apostle was at this time under great concern lest the Thessalonians should have been moved from the faith of the gospel, either by the false arguments of the unbelievers, or by the persecutions which they suffered. We thought it good to be left at Athens alone Although there we had peculiar need of the support and comfort of having with us an approved companion and friend. Some infer, from this manner of speaking, that Silas was absent from Paul while he was at Athens. And Macknight supposes, that though Timothy and Silas were both ordered to follow him from Berea to Athens, (Acts 17:15,) only Timothy came to him there. See Acts 18:1; Acts 18:5. If this opinion be correct, when Timothy left Athens, the apostle remained in that city alone, which was a very trying circumstance, as he expected great opposition from the Athenian philosophers. Some, however, infer, from the apostle's speaking in the plural number, We thought, &c., that Silas must have been with him. And sent Timotheus, our fellow-labourer in the gospel As Timothy is said (Act 17:14) to have remained with Silas in Berea, after Paul's departure, it is probable he had been with the apostle at Thessalonica, and had assisted him in his work of preaching the gospel there; to establish you In the new faith you have embraced; and to comfort you Under your suffering. That no man That none of you, who have believed; should be moved Or shaken, as σαινεσθαι means; should be discouraged, and made to fall off from his adherence to the Christian profession and hope, by these afflictions Which either you or we are exposed to. For you know that we are appointed thereto Our Lord expressly forewarned his apostles that they were to be persecuted, and that even to death; and that whoever killed them would think he did God service. Moreover, when he called Paul to the apostleship, he showed him how great things he must suffer for his name's sake, Acts 9:16. All the apostles, therefore, and Paul more especially, expected to be persecuted. But here it is signified, that not only the apostles, evangelists, and other ministers of the word, were exposed to persecution, but that all who embraced the Christian faith were to expect to meet with the same treatment from the unbelievers, whether heathen or Jews; yea, that, as the original expression, εις τουτο κειμεθα, implies, that they were appointed to it, or rather laid, in every respect, in a fit posture for it, and that by the very design and contrivance of God himself, for the trial and increase of their faith and other graces. For, one principal part of the scheme of God, in establishing the Christian Church, was to raise a society of men who should glorify his name, and illustrate the force of true religion by enduring the greatest extremities in its defence with fortitude and cheerfulness. He gives great riches to the world, but stores up his treasures of wholesome afflictions for his children. For when we were with you We did not flatter you with any vain hopes of an easy and pleasurable life, but plainly and candidly told you, before you embraced the gospel which we preach, and united yourselves to the Christian community, by submitting to the ordinance of baptism, that we should suffer tribulation And indeed what else could be expected by any that consider the nature of the religion to which we are endeavouring to make converts, compared with the tempers, prejudices, and interests of mankind. Because the apostle knew that the enemies of the gospel would infer, from his not delivering himself from persecution by miracles, that he did not possess the miraculous powers to which he pretended, he took care to let his disciples know, in every place, that he was ordered by his Master to suffer for the gospel, and that his suffering for it was as necessary a part of the proof of its divine original as his working miracles.