2 Thessalonians 3:4

3:1-5 Those who are far apart still may meet together at the throne of grace; and those not able to do or receive any other kindness, may in this way do and receive real and very great kindness. Enemies to the preaching of the gospel, and persecutors of its faithful preachers, are unreasonable and wicked men. Many do not believe the gospel; and no wonder if such are restless and show malice in their endeavours to oppose it. The evil of sin is the greatest evil, but there are other evils we need to be preserved from, and we have encouragement to depend upon the grace of God. When once the promise is made, the performance is sure and certain. The apostle had confidence in them, but that was founded upon his confidence in God; for there is otherwise no confidence in man. He prays for them for spiritual blessings. It is our sin and our misery, that we place our affections upon wrong objects. There is not true love of God, without faith in Jesus Christ. If, by the special grace of God, we have that faith which multitudes have not, we should earnestly pray that we may be enabled, without reserve, to obey his commands, and that we may be enabled, without reserve, to the love of God, and the patience of Christ.

Verse 4. - And we have confidence in the Lord. The apostle confidently expects the obedience of the Thessalonians, but his confidence is not fixed on them - on their own efforts, endeavours, and resolutions - but on the Lord, namely, Christ; on his grace and strength communicated to and perfected in weakness. The obedience of the Thessalonians flowed from the grace of Christ; it was in consequence of the communication of the influences of his Spirit that they were enabled to make progress and to persevere in the Christian life. "Here," observes Professor Jowett, "as elsewhere, the apostle speaks of believing, hoping, doing all things in Christ. We lead an ordinary life as well as a religious one; but, with the apostle, his ordinary life is his religious one, and hence he uses religious expressions in reference to all that he says and does." The apostle lives in the sphere of Christ. Touching you; with reference to you - the direction of his confidence. That ye both do and will do the things which we command you. There is here the same union of Divine assistance and human effort, of God's working and man's working, which pervades the whole scheme of the gospel salvation (see Philippians 2:12, 13 ). 2 Thessalonians 3:4

4. we have confidence in the Lord—as "faithful" (2Th 3:3). Have confidence in no man when left to himself [Bengel]. that ye both do—Some of the oldest manuscripts insert a clause, "that ye both have done" before, "and are doing, and will do." He means the majority by "ye," not all of them (compare 2Th 3:11; 2Th 1:3; 1Th 3:6).

And we have confidence in the Lord - Not primarily in you, for you have hearts like others, but in the Lord. It is remarkable that when Paul expresses the utmost confidence in Christians that they will live and act as becomes their profession, his reliance is not on anything in themselves, but wholly on the faithfulness of God. He must be a stranger to the human heart who puts much confidence in it even in its best state; see Philippians 1:6 ; Philippians 4:7 ; 2 Timothy 1:12 ; compare Jde 1:24; Revelation 3:10 ; Proverbs 28:26 .

(4) We have confidence in the Lord touching you. —Rather, We rely upon you in the Lord: the clause forms the counterpart to the last verse. St. Chrysostom’s whole comment is worth transcription:—“God, saith he, is faithful, and having promised to save, save He assuredly will, but as He promised. And how did He promise? If we would be agreeable, and would hear Him; not unconditionally, nor while we remain inactive like stocks and stones. Yet, well has he added his, ‘We rely in the Lord :’ that is, ‘We trust to His love of men.’ Once more he takes them down, ascribing the whole matter to that quarter; for had he said ‘We trust to you,’ it would have been a great compliment indeed, but would not have taught them to ascribe all to God; and had he said ‘We rely on the Lord that He will keep you,’ without adding ‘upon you,’ and ‘that ye both do and will do what things we command,’ he would have made them less active by casting the whole upon the power of God.” (See the passage of Galatians referred to in the margin.) Both do and will do.—The emphasis of the sentence is on the future tense, the commendation of the present being only intended to do away the rebuke which might have been conveyed by the future alone. How careful St. Paul is not to wound susceptibilities, though he never “pleases men”!

4 . And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you ] “The Lord” is not, as the English phrase may suggest, the object of this confidence— 2 Thessalonians 3:3 declared the Apostle’s trust in Him—but the ground on which rests his confidence in the Thessalonian Church. His relations with them and feelings towards them have the common relationship of both to Christ for their foundation and background, their vital underlying bond; comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:2 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:1 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:12 and 2 Thessalonians 3:12 below. No idiom is more frequent or characteristic of St Paul than this— in the Lord, in Christ . But it is “to you ” that his confidence is now directed; the construction of the Greek is identical with that of 2 Corinthians 2:3 , “having confidence in you all.” Let us accordingly read here, in the Lord we have confidence in you . Such is the trust that all true Christians should give to each other. For command read charge , as in 1 Thessalonians 4:2 ‚ 11 (see notes). The word is taken up again in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 . The Apostle seems to have an eye already to the “charge” that he is about to give, which will put to the test his readers’ obedience.

The apostle had before declared his confidence that God would establish them and keep them from evil, and now here declares his confidence in them concerning their obedience; for he knew well that this is the way of God’s keeping men; and hereby he shows that he built his confidence concerning what he had before declared about their election, calling, establishment, and preservation upon some good ground. And he describes their obedience by doing what the apostle and his fellow labourers in the gospel among them commanded them, whether they were commandments about the duties of the law of the first or second tables, or the doctrine, order, worship, or discipline of the gospel; so that their commandments were no other but the commandments of the Lord himself, Matthew 28:20 1 Corinthians 14:37 . Ministers are not arbitrary commanders in the church; not lords over God’s heritage, 1 Peter 5:3 , or have dominion over the people’s faith, 2 Corinthians 1:24 ; nor may they, as the Pharisees, teach for doctrines the commandments of men, Matthew 15:9 . And he speaks before of these Thessalonians, that they received the word preached by them, not as the word of men, but of God, 1 Thessalonians 2:13 . Both our faith and practice in religion are to be built upon Divine authority; either upon what God hath expressly declared, or what by clear consequence may be derived from it. So that what they command the people is from the Lord, and not themselves.