1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Increase and Overflow
Read the passage
9How can we adequately thank God for you in return for our great joy over you in His presence?
10Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.
11Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you.
12And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows,
13so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
Berean Standard Bible
Read aloud
Paul asks how he can adequately thank God for the Thessalonians in return for the great joy they bring him in God's presence. The question is too large for a neat answer. Gratitude becomes prayer.
He and his companions pray night and day to see the Thessalonians face to face and supply what is lacking in their faith. Their faith is real, and there is still more for them to learn and receive. Paul's care includes helping them grow.
The prayer asks God the Father and the Lord Jesus to direct their way back to Thessalonica. Paul wants to return, but he puts the direction of that return in God's hands. His desire is intense without becoming a demand that every obstacle must immediately disappear.
Then Paul prays for the Thessalonians themselves. May the Lord cause them to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as the missionaries' love overflows toward them. Love is not treated as a fixed amount that a person either has or lacks. It can grow, widen, and become more generous.
Paul asks the Lord to establish their hearts in blamelessness and holiness before God when Jesus comes with all His saints. Their growing love belongs to His work of preparing them for that day. He is the One who can make them ready for His presence.
Questions
1 What does Paul ask about thanking God?
AnswerHe asks how he can thank God enough for the great joy they bring him before God, because gratitude for their faith exceeds a neat expression.
2 What do the missionaries pray to do?
AnswerThey pray night and day to see the Thessalonians again and strengthen whatever still needs to grow in their faith.
3 What does Paul ask the Lord to increase?
AnswerHe asks the Lord to make their love increase and overflow toward one another and toward everyone, not stopping with the people already close to them.
4 What does Paul ask God to establish?
AnswerHe asks God to establish their hearts in blamelessness and holiness before God when the Lord Jesus comes with all His saints.
What This Means for Us
Let gratitude and growth coexist. Thank God for what is already present, then ask whether love is widening, becoming more discerning, and reaching beyond the people who are easiest to love.
Ask whose needs are outside your household’s usual circle. Pray for love that becomes wider and wiser, then choose one person to welcome, serve, or remember.
Prayer
Father and Lord Jesus, increase our love and establish our hearts. Make our gratitude honest, our holiness steady, and our care wide enough to include people beyond our familiar circle. Amen.