See your face. — Seeing them by proxy might satisfy for the while, but not for long. This exceeding importunate, prayer is caused by the feeling that it was Satan’s hindrance (1 Thessalonians 2:18), not God’s will, which forbad the meeting. He would not so have prayed to go into Bithynia (Acts 16:7), for the essence of prayer is to conform the will to God’s will.
That which is lacking in your faith. — Bishop Wordsworth points out the unflattering faithfulness of St. Paul’s dealing with his converts. What the deficiencies were is unknown, but they certainly include want of knowledge of the state of the dead and concerning the Advent.