Summary:

As the apostle of the Gentiles (Rom.11:13) Paul has the authority to command us (IIThes.3:6). But when he called those under his command his “fellowsoldiers” (Phil.2:25), we know he never looked down on the people he commanded, for the word “fellow” means equal. Likewise, as the “masterbuilder” of the church (ICor.3;10), he considered the builders under his command to be his “fellowlabourers” (Phile.1:24). All this means that as a good leader he’d never command us to do what he himself wouldn’t do (ITim.6:12 cf. IITim.4:7), as we’ll see later in this passage.

To command us “in the name of our Lord” means to say what the Lord said and shut up (cf. ISam.25:5-9). That’s important because commanding us to “withdraw” from a brother (IITh.3:6) doesn’t sound like something Jesus would do, it sounds like something Paul added to the instructions he received from the Lord.

But there are two Pauline reasons to “withdraw from a brother. First, if he isn’t teaching right (ITim.6:5; IITim.3:5-8). You’ll be accused of breaching the unity of the Body if you withdraw from false teachers, but those who teach other than Paul breach the unity (Rom.16:17). When we teach Pauline truth we are repairing the breaches they cause, like Israel’s priests (IIKi.12:5), something God will reward (cf.Isa.58:12).

But we are also to withdraw from those who aren’t living right (ICor.5:11-13), and we know that’s the context here since Paul says to withdraw from those “that walketh disorderly” (IITh.3:6). When Paul told them about the imminence of the Rapture, they got so excited they quit their jobs (IIThes.3:11). This impatience was why Paul prayed the Lord would direct them “into the patient waiting for Christ” (IITh.3:5).

This was a problem Paul had to address in the first epistle (ITh.4:11). Notice Paul warned those who had quit work before telling others to shun them, and then he also told the others to warn them as well (ITh.5:14). That word “unruly” is the same Greek word as “disorderly” (IITh.3:6). Only when these measures don’t work should we take the additional step of withdrawing from these brethren. Of course, those who are too “feebleminded” or “weak” to work are excluded from the instructions to withdraw from those who would not work (ITh.5:14).

Those who didn’t work weren’t following the “tradition” Paul delivered them (IITh.3:6 cf. ITh.2:9). This means in commanding them to work, he was showing himself to be a good leader who wouldn’t do anything he asked those serving under him to do, as we noted earlier.

In commanding them to follow him by working, we see a dispensational difference. While here on earth ministering to the Jews (Mt.15:24) the Lord told His followers to quit their jobs (Mt.4:18,19; Lu.5:27). This was because the Lord preached “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.4:17), and He meant the kingdom in which Israel would be a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6). And what do we know about priests? The priests, the Levites, had no inheritance in the promised land (Deut.18:1), no way of supporting them-selves other than the tithes of the other 11 tribes. But in the kingdom of heaven on earth, all Jews will be priests (Isa.66:20) and live off the support of the tithes of the Gentiles (Isa.61:6). This is why the Lord told His followers to quit their jobs, to be ready to be priests in the kingdom.

But Paul says that we are to follow the Lord as he followed Him (ICor.11:1). To follow the Lord today you have to keep working in order to have “lack of nothing” (ITh.4:11,12). This too is a dispensational difference. God has never wanted His children to lack for the basic necessities of food and clothing (ITi.6:8), but the means by which we obtain these things has changed. To have “lack of nothing” in Moses’ day, you had to collect manna (Ex.16:15-18; Deut.29:5). When the Lord sent the 12 out to preach without provisions, they didn’t lack (Lu.22:35), since the people they ministered to supported them as He said they would. At Pentecost they had no lack because they pooled their resources (Acts 4:34,35). But to have no lack in the dispensation of grace, you have to go to work!

Summary:

To put “confidence” in someone (3:4) means to put your trust in them (Psalm 118:8). Since the Lord was trustworthy, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” (3:4) concerning many things. He was “confident” he was saved (II Corinthians 5:6-8), because he was “confident” that the Lord would keep him saved (Phil.1:6).

But how could Paul tell the Thessalonians that he had “confidence in the Lord touching you” (3:4). Well, the Thessalonians were an exemplary church (ITh.1:7), they had done what he’d commanded in the past, so he was confident they’d continue to do what he commanded. But how could he “have confidence” in the Corinthians “in all things” (IICor.7:16) even “great confidence” (8:22). Well, you’ll notice these references were from Paul’s second letter to them. Evidently they’d done some of the things he commanded in his first letter to them

But the past good performance of the Thessalonians was no guarantee they would continue to do what he commanded, so how could Paul say he had confidence in them—and the Galatians (Gal. 5:10)? Their past performance had left him “in doubt” of them (Gal.4:20), not with confidence in them.

True, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” in them, but the Lord wouldn’t make them obey the apostle’s commands.

Well, when the Lord first told Paul He was going to save people by grace and just expect they’d do what He commanded because they were grateful to be saved, I think Paul had his doubts because he had no confidence in men. But he had confidence in the Lord concerning them, and this confidence reflected God’s own confidence in us.

We see this confidence illustrated when Paul reminded Philemon he should do what he asked him to do since he had led him to the Lord (Phile.1:19), a picture of how we should do what God asks just because we are grateful He saved us. When Paul went on to express confidence that Philemon would obey him (v.21), it expresses God’s confidence we’ll do what He says. Religion says that you can’t tell someone they can’t be lost or they’ll refuse to obey God, but God says He is confident we’ll do “more” than He says under law (Phile.1:21b). Religion says you can’t tell believers they don’t have to tithe or they won’t give at all, but God is confident that those who can afford to will give more than ten percent.

Paul was confident they were already doing what he commanded even though he was gone (3:4). Compare this to how Moses predicted after he left they’d cease to obey (Deut.31:217-29), and that was the pattern under the Law (Judges 2:18,19). Under grace, God’s people do “much more” in the absence of a spiritual authority (Phil.2:12).

There are commands under grace, Pauline commands (ICor.14:37). Paul makes over 600 imperative command statements, some of which sound like the ten commandments (ITh.4:2,3), of which he repeats 9 of the 10

In Paul’s benediction he expresses a desire that the Lord would “direct” the Thessalonians. Proverbs 16:9 makes it sound like men devise a way and God overpowers their will to direct them in another way. Verses like that make Calvinists believe God causes our every move, but that would make Him responsible for our sin. God directs men with His Word (Isa.40:13). There is no evidence He directed Cyrus (Isa.45:13) audibly. Rather, when he learned that God had surnamed him centuries before his birth (Isa.45:1-4), he figured he’d better do what His Word said to do! Of course, you have to be willing to let God’s Word direct you, as Cyrus was. That’s the meaning of Proverbs 3:5,6. If you’ll let the Word direct you, you’ll find life as easy as cutting wood with a sharp tool (Eccl.10:10). There’s a reason God says the way of the sinner is hard (Pr.13:15)

God’s love for us (3:5) isn’t something their hearts needed to be directed into, for His love was shed abroad in their hearts (Rom.5:5,6). Paul was hoping their hearts would be directed into loving God, which always means keeping His commandments (Ex.20:6; Deut. 10:12; John 14:21; IJohn 5:3). In context, of course, he meant Pauline commandments, including “the patient waiting for Christ” (3:5).

Summary:

Paul asked every church he wrote to pray for him, except the Galatians, and it is easy to understand why. When you put others under the law, you bite and devour them (Gal.5:15), you don’t pray for them. But Paul knew the Thessalonians were a loving church (ITh.4:9), and so asked them to pray for “us” (IITh.3:1) himself and Silvanus and Timothy (1:1).

This shows it is okay to ask for prayer for yourself, especially since Paul says that you should pray for “all saints,” and you are one of the saints (Eph.6:18)! It is also okay to pray “in every thing” (Phil.4:6). But here’s the thing: Paul didn’t ask the saints to pray for him so he could have an easier life, he asked for their prayers so he could serve the Lord (Eph.6:18-20; Col.4:3). Even when he prayed for his thorn to be removed it was because he thought he could be stronger for the Lord, so the Lord had to explain otherwise (IICor.12:9). So while it is okay to pray for yourself and everything that concerns you, the more you mature in the Lord, the more you will be mostly concerned with serving the Lord and pray like Paul.

“The word of the Lord” (3:1) to Israel was a threat of judgment (Ezek.6:3), but today the word of the Lord is found in Acts 13:38,39 (cf.v.49). The Greek word for “free course” is always translated “run” elsewhere. Paul was asking them to pray the word would be able to run “free” of the hurdles he’d seen runners have to jump at the Isthmian games in Corinth, from whence he wrote this epistle. We should pray this too, and then make sure we are not one of the hurdles by hurting God’s testimony, refusing to help the work or help finance it, or criticizing it.

The word is “glorified” (3:1) when it is believed (Acts 13:48). The word didn’t have free course “with” the Thessalonians 3:1) when Paul established the church (Acts 17:1-9), but it did now that he was gone, and he was asking them to pray that it would now have free course with him as it was with them. Of course, Paul knew he’d be delivered “from unreasonable and wicked men,” knowing he couldn’t die till he’d finished his course, like John (Acts 13:24,25) and the two witnesses (Rev.11:7). You see, Paul also had a course and a testimony (Acts 20:24) and he knew he couldn’t die until he’d finished testifying by writing his epistles (IITim.4:6,7).

But if he knew he couldn’t die till then, why did he ask them to pray for his deliverance? He was asking them to pray according to God’s will. We see the same thing in his letter to the Corinthians, where he knew he’d be delivered, but asked the Corinthians to pray for it also (IICor.1:8-11).

These “unreasonable” (3:2) are unsaved Jews who don’t respond to God’s offer to “reason” with them (Isa.1:18). Paul also reasoned with Jews who didn’t believe (Acts 17:1-4l 18:1-6), but unsaved religious Gentiles were also a problem for him (Acts 19:29-34).

But we know Paul was also asking to be delivered from saved religious men when he adds, “for all men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful” (3:2,3).Since the word “faith” can mean faithful (Rom.3:1-3), Paul was comparing the Lord’s faithfulness to the faithlessness of believers, who can be just as “unreasonable and wicked” as unsaved men.

In declaring that God will be “faithful” to do what He says He will do, the thing that Paul said He would faithfully do was to “stablish” them (3:3). That word, like all words, has different meanings depending on the context. In 2:16,17 the hope of the pre-trib Rapture could “stablish” them, but we know that depended on their faithfulness or they wouldn’t have been “shaken” and “troubled” (2:2). The stablishing here is speaking about the stablishing where the Lord will stablish us “unblameble in holiness before God” (IThes.3:12,13) when He returns to heaven with us.

That return will be before the Tribulation, and that is how the Lord plans to “keep you from evil” (3:3), i.e., the evil of the Tribulation. We have no guarantee that we will be saved from any other evil. If you don’t understand this, you will charge God with unfaithfulness when wicked men harm you.