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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:2-3:13 Thanksgiving and Encouragement. It is typical for Paul to include a thanksgiving near the beginning of his letters (Galatians is a striking exception).
1:2-3 Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians' Faith, Love, and Hope. Paul thanks God that the Thessalonians are evidencing the essential marks of the Christian life--faith, love, and hope.
1:3 remembering. Paul may be recalling the events of his mission to Thessalonica, or this may just be standard prayer language. faith . . . love . . . hope. A common Pauline triad (cf. 5:8; Rom. 5:2-5; 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:5-6; Eph. 4:2-5). The prominent final position here belongs to hope, which seems fitting in a letter so concerned with the end times (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:12, 19-20; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11, 23-24). work . . . labor . . . steadfastness. These are the practical outworking of the Thessalonians' conversion. The "work" the Thessalonians do is a result or consequence of their "faith." So, too, their "labor" flows from "love," and their endurance or "steadfastness" comes from "hope."
