1 Thessalonians 3:9
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
The verse is thanksgiving rendered to God for all the joy felt for the sake of the Thessalonians before God. That joy came because Timothy had brought good tidings of their faith and charity and of their loving remembrance, which comforted Paul in all his affliction and distress. In that comfort he lives if they stand fast in the Lord, for their faithfulness and growth is what gave him joy before God.
The thanksgiving belongs together with praying night and day exceedingly to see their face and to perfect what is lacking in their faith. It belongs together also with the desire that the Lord make them increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all, to establish their hearts unblameable in holiness before God at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. The same spirit of tender solicitude and joyful thanks to God is fitting toward the believers in Rockhampton upon receiving Brother Chapman's good letter about them.