Bible Passage Scripture Block

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

May both the Father and Lord Jesus direct us [Paul and companions] to you [the Thessalonians], and may the Lord cause your increase in love for each other — even everyone — just as we have for you, in order that you will be established and fully perfected to stand before the Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus together with all the saints.

In Paul’s extended introduction to the “church of the Thessalonians” (1:1), he is recalling the events around their first hearing Paul bring them the gospel (Acts 17 during his second missionary journey). Here he is lamenting the fact that he could not come to see them in person (2:18) given his desperate concern for their faith and “fear that somehow the tempter had tempted” them making his his labor among them wasted (3:5).