2 Thessalonians 1:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 Thessalonians 1:3

Comments

Verse three is a challenge to us all – the debt of praise that we owe, and especially for faith.. Look at the strength of the words – ‘We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren.’ We are bound to do it. It comes from the verb to owe. We have a debt, an obligation. We are deeply indebted to God, to thank him for certain things which the apostle Paul will promptly list.You have to think of the praise of God as a debt owed to him. Do we pay our debts, friends? Do we praise him and thank him constantly? Or are we vulnerable to self-pity, grief and difficulty over much? We are not paying our debts. Adversity comes, and the first thing we think of is what we can praise him for. That is how it should be. Faith will come first on the list. ‘We are bound to thank God,’ we owe it to him is the sense.And then he goes on – ‘Always for you, brethren, as it is meet.’ That translates a word which means deserved. So the debt is there twice really. We owe it to God, and he deserves it, he should have it. We should not deprive him of his praise all the time, in every situation. It is wonderful to see this. The three workers through whom the church was founded, they do not speak about their triumphs or their successes, they praise God straightaway. The first item on the agenda for praise is faith and the growth of their faith. It was, very fast. Faith should be always deepening, always developing. This is a life of trust. By faith is meant here not the faith, the body of doctrine, but confidence and trust in God. And this ought to be deeper this year than it was last year. Does it deepen or does it weaken because it is not exercised?‘And the charity,’ the outgoing love. Not the static love, not the theoretical love only, uttered mechanically – I love fellow Christians. No, the active, expressed outgoing love. It exceeds; it overflows. So that was growing too – prayer for each other, the avoiding of gossip and foolish talking, growing love and helpfulness one toward another. These are the things that he praises God for.

Application

How different it is with us today. People love to praise a preacher or the instrument or the means or the method that has been used or whatever gimmick they invent to bring people into church, and to take the credit and to praise all these things. But you come to the New Testament and they praise God for the faith given to the converts. This is the great debt that has to be paid. It is quite different. They are not considering themselves or boosting themselves. ‘We are bound to thank God always,’ constantly, repeatedly. The debt is not paid with one burst of praise. It has to be remembered continually.

I was touched by what the late Dr Henry Morris, died some years ago now, the great Creation writer among Christians, when he published a series which he kept going for years of daily devotional study notes, the title he hit upon for these was Days of Praise. Of course it comes from the hymn of Isaac Watts, ‘I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath. My days of praise shall ne’er be past.’ And where did Watts get it from? Well he got it from Psalm 146 – ‘Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises to God while I have any being.’ And that should be the theme of every believer, constant praise for all things. We praise God in adversity, praise him in sorrow, in witness, for all that he has done. Praise in work, in the workplace; praise in the family; praise for friends; praise for husbands and for wife constantly. Why this is the heart of the life of the believer.

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2 Thessalonians 1:3 Commentary and Bible Study