1 Thessalonians 3:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Then in verse 10 we have the petitions: ‘Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.’ The word faith comes up repeatedly in the passage. The Greek word translated ‘perfect’ is rather a complex one, and it has to do with supplying, but supplying missing parts – making up a whole, making something perfect. You think instinctively of the doctrinal teaching that they needed. They needed the system of doctrine to be complete, clear in their mind. The apostle’s words actually say – we feel a need to complete you so that you have got it all, you have got the whole system, and that is what we need.But he is still principally concerned about faith. And that is what he says – ‘That we may perfect’, complete the system, ‘that which is lacking in your faith.’ Some of them were not applying their faith. He is not using the word faith in the sense of just, the beliefs. He is using it in the sense of your trust: your trust in God, your prayerfulness to him, your proving of him. There is something lacking. Later on in the epistle, he talks about people who are weak among the Thessalonians. People who have not developed, people who have not progressed. There are things to be made up and his pastoral heart was concerned for them.