And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
The verse is a prayer for the believers in Thessalonica that the Lord would direct their hearts into the love of God and into patient waiting for Christ. It stands together with a request for prayer that the word of the Lord may have free course and spread freely and that Paul may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. It stands also with confidence that the believers do and will do the things he commands, and with commands to withdraw from every disorderly brother, to follow his own example of not eating bread for nothing but working with labor night and day so as not to be chargeable or a burden, and to work quietly and eat their own bread.
It was given after showing that the power of evil would continue through long centuries of darkness and persecution before the second coming of Christ, to correct the hope for immediate deliverance. Patient waiting for Christ means brave, God-fearing steadfastness in faith, not neglect of duties or resigning to idle waiting. The verse urges doing the things commanded and not growing weary or becoming weary in well-doing. It calls believers to take up the work given them by God in the round of daily life and to meet opposition, to be established in every good word and work, to adhere faithfully to the truth and give its light to others, and to be diligent in temporal matters while laboring with zeal in the cause of Christ.
The verse is a prayer for the believers in Thessalonica that the Lord would direct their hearts into the love of God and into patient waiting for Christ. It stands together with a request for prayer that the word of the Lord may have free course and spread freely and that Paul may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. It stands also with confidence that the believers do and will do the things he commands, and with commands to withdraw from every disorderly brother, to follow his own example of not eating bread for nothing but working with labor night and day so as not to be chargeable or a burden, and to work quietly and eat their own bread.
It was given after showing that the power of evil would continue through long centuries of darkness and persecution before the second coming of Christ, to correct the hope for immediate deliverance. Patient waiting for Christ means brave, God-fearing steadfastness in faith, not neglect of duties or resigning to idle waiting. The verse urges doing the things commanded and not growing weary or becoming weary in well-doing. It calls believers to take up the work given them by God in the round of daily life and to meet opposition, to be established in every good word and work, to adhere faithfully to the truth and give its light to others, and to be diligent in temporal matters while laboring with zeal in the cause of Christ.