1 THESSALONIANS 3:5 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.”
For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain — the concern is not peripheral but existential; Paul fears apostasy (peirazō, temptation toward unfaith). The prospect that his labors might prove hollow (kenos, vain) drives his urgent inquiry. Satan's seduction is presented as the gravest threat to the faith.
Church Fathers on 1 Thessalonians 3:5
A question lies before us today, which is much disputed, and which is gathered from many sources. But what is this question? “For this cause,” he says, “when I could no longer forbear, I sent Timothy that I might know your faith.” What do you say? He, who knew so many things, who heard unutterable words, who ascended even to the third heaven, does not he know, even when he is in Athens? And yet the distance is not great, nor has he been long parted from them. For he says,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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