1 Thessalonians 3:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Whose afflictions is he referring to? Some think he means the afflictions of the Thessalonians as well as his own, but others think he is referring here more just to his own afflictions. The Thessalonian believers heard about the problems of the apostle and the attacks upon him, and it discouraged them. The idol priests would say to them – how can you Christians and your preachers really have a hold on God when there are so many troubles? No, says the apostle, I do not want our afflictions to make you doubt the goodness of God. And he proceeds to the subject of Christian suffering in general – ‘For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.’ All Christians are. This is a hostile world. There will be difficulties and disadvantages and setbacks for all believers in Christ and the enemy of souls will assail you. The apostle Paul was told by God and told by Ananias at the time of his conversion that great afflictions awaited him. Why was he singled out to bear exceptional burdens? Well first of all so that believers who were themselves persecuted, would see that the arch-persecutor, the one who had been appointed to be their principal persecutor before his conversion, was like them. It underscored his genuineness. It was obvious that he was not in it for wealth or for comfort, and it should be so with all ministers. This was why he had his thorn in the flesh: it was so that he should not be lifted up unduly on account on his revelations and his instrumentality and his usefulness before God. But then the apostle had to suffer to expose the human heart. When you read the record of the apostle Paul and his evangelism, you see the treacherous and violent, hateful things that they will do. That mirrors in a sense the reaction of everyone to the gospel. We are antagonistic to God. We are against his Word, until by the Holy Spirit we are made new and converted and changed.And then the apostle Paul suffers as an example to us because we can see from where he derives comfort and strength and enabling power, and so through his sufferings we see the effectiveness of God in answering his prayers and sustaining him and comforting him and blessing him.We are shown also that the work of God will never be easy. By reading the life of the apostle Paul, Luther at the time of the Reformation recognised that his life would never be easy, would always be under threat and under attack.