So significant was this news of their faith and love that Paul says it was a great comfort to him in a time when he was suffering distress in ministry. Look at 1 Thessalonians 3:7:
For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith.Now, in part, that comfort stemmed from the news that they remembered him with fondness. They had not been turned against him. Paul is being slandered. He is being criticized. He was worried that they would turn against him. They had not done so. What a blessing it was. And they were growing in faith. They had faith and love. Andrew Young writes,This news of this sort of lasting life changes in those we serve in the gospel is one of the greatest encouragements to press on in difficult times.The knowledge of what God has done through us is often enough to keep us at our posts and revive our flagging spirits. How true that is. And so Paul’s ministry benefited greatly from clear biblical goals for which he was aiming: faith and love.But he was also blessed—and one of the things that made him effective was not just the supernatural power of Christ (that was true)—but he also was committed to biblical methods in ministry. He knew not only what he was trying to do, but how God was going to use him. He was going to do God’s work in God’s way. That made him confident of God’s blessing, and we see those methods reflected in this passage.1
Richard D. Phillips
6 Mais Timothée, récemment arrivé ici de chez vous, nous a donné de bonnes nouvelles de votre foi et de votre amour, et nous a dit que vous avez toujours de nous un bon souvenir, désirant nous voir comme nous désirons aussi vous voir.