Bible Study
September 17, 2025 (CSB)
1 Thessalonians 3:6 – 10 (CSB)
“A Terrific Report”
“But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love. He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us, as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, 10 as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?”
What a great report for Paul to receive. The church was doing well Satan had not been able to infiltrate it with his lies and false doctrine. How were they able to accomplish something such as this? They resisted the temptations placed before them.
How do we overcome? By resisting the temptations Satan throws at us. Paul says they (he) has been encouraged by what he has heard of the church. Paul like us needed encouragement whether in sickness, anxiety, fear, uncertainty nothing is better for the one in distress than a word of encouragement.
I can see Paul setting the stage for the church as one standing such as an army ready for battle and refusing to lose. They are being assaulted as the church is today. We stand for what the scriptures say and we will be challenged a form of persecution. Paul has encouraged each of the stand firm in what we believe.
Paul was asking what could he do in return for their remaining faithful as he relished in the joy of seeing them stay strong. As fervent a fighter against the church before his conversion he was even a greater proponent of the church and for the church once he met his Damascus road experience.
As John wrote to the seven churches in the Revelation of Jesus Paul was telling them the one thing they needed: they had not reached their potential and he encouraged them to stay strong and remain fervent in walk in the truth.
Is there something your church of today needs?
God Bless.
Asbury Chapel 