Explanation of the Text: 1Thess 3:5 Timothy sent to find out the Condition of their faith

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1Th 3:5  For this reason I also, when I could no longer endure the uncertainty, sent to know the condition of your faith, lest perchance the Tempter might have tempted you and our labour have been lost.


Since I knew that you were so liable to be persecuted, and since I feared that some might be turned from the truth by this opposition. Barnes
Notes: I sent to Know (eis to gnonai)
Image result for picture of asia bibi
Aisia Bibi in Jail in Pakistan
when I — Greek, “when I also (as well as Timothy, who, Paul delicately implies, was equally anxious respecting them, compare “we,” 1Th_3:1), could no longer contain myself (endure the suspense).”
sent to know the condition of your faith.That is, your fidelity. or your steadfastness in the gospel. Barnes. He wanted to know whether they were holding firm or vacillating under the strain of the Persecution. So often Persecution and suffering is designed to turn believers away from the faith.

In Malaysia new Converts from Islam are placed in reeducation camps which make it very difficult for them. So many Muslims have seen through the face of Islam in our day thatthey are turning to Christ in their Thousands, especially after the Shias and Sunnis have been fighting one another for years. Muslims have been killing other Muslims by their 100s of thousands. eg. Syria.

lest perchance the Tempter might have tempted you and our labour have been lost. 

The Tempter Matthew 4:3  So the Tempter came to Jesus and said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into loaves of bread.
Matthew 6:13 In the Lord's Prayer: "And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from the Evil One."
Paul realized that the Thessalonians were liable to be persecuted and even chased, so he feared that some might be turned from the faith by the opposition.

The Jewish opposition was the immediate opposition in those transactions, yet Paul regarded this as being under the direction of Satan to accomplish his purpose. Satan was the real author of those persecutions. He tempts people to swerve from the Faith. Barnes.

our labour have been lost. 
an our efforts to have been useless. NIV.
Reliance on God is the key to the Christian Life and this is just what the Tempter wants to attack. Paul's whole thrust in his ministry was that the Thessalonians would believe, trust and rely on God in the midst of sore trials.


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