(To see numbers 1 and 2: See Poole on "1 Thessalonians 3:1".)
3. By the description he gives of him in the text: a man dear to him, and as his right hand in the service of the gospel. And his care of them is commended the more by sending so eminent a person to them.
4. From his end in sending him; which was to establish them, that through the fear of suffering, or any temptations, they might not forsake the faith they had received; and to comfort them concerning their faith: the word sometimes signifies to exhort, and the sense is good if we so read it; but because the faith they had embraced presented much matter of comfort to them, therefore our translation; well renders the word.