Paul prays for the Thessalonians to be found holy and blameless on the day when Jesus arrives – 1 Thessalonians 3:13.
Paul prays for the opportunity to return to Thessalonica, and that God will increase the church's love for him and others. The fulfillment of these two requests will help complete the faith of the
Thessalonians.
By “confirming their hearts,” they will
find themselves standing “blameless” before God when Jesus "arrives
from heaven." The passage transitions the narrative to the next section of
the letter by emphasizing two key subjects - Holiness and the arrival
of Jesus:
- (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13) - “Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus make straight our way unto you: And you may the Lord cause to abound and excel in your love, one toward another, and toward all, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may confirm your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the arrival of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”
LOVE AND HOLINESS
Paul does not suggest the Thessalonians lack love. He
referred previously to their “labor of love” and how Timothy brought him
news of their “faith and love.” Instead, he prays for them to “exceed
and abound” even more in love for one another, and for their non-Christian
neighbors - (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 3:6).
To be found “blameless in sanctification” before God
points to a future time of evaluation and judgment. That day will be a time of joy and vindication
for all who are found “blameless.” By inference, those who are not
prepared will be less fortunate.
In the preceding chapter, Paul expressed his wish for the assembly
to be established “before God.” That same future event is in view here,
and both passages label it the parousia or “arrival” of Jesus - (1
Thessalonians 2:19).
The Greek noun parousia occurs seven times
in the two letters to the Thessalonians. In six instances, it refers to the “coming”
or “arrival of Jesus." Once, it is applied to the “arrival”
of the “man of lawlessness,” although his arrival mimics
that of Christ.
Thus, Paul uses the term parousia consistently for
the “arrival” of Jesus, with the one exception of the “lawless one”
- (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
HIS ARRIVAL
At his parousia, Jesus will be accompanied by “all
his saints.” Other New
Testament passages associate angels with the “coming of Jesus,” and that
is likely the intent here - (Matthew 13:41, 13:49, 24:31, 25:31, 8:38, 13:27, Luke
9:26, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).
Paul’s description alludes to a verse from the book of Zechariah
- (“Then Yahweh will come and all the saints with him”). The
scriptural background sheds light on the identity of the “saints” or “holy
ones” in the present passage – (Zechariah 14:5).
Elsewhere, Paul refers to believers as “saints.” However,
here, he uses terminology from Zechariah where the term is applied to
angels. The context in Zechariah is a time of cataclysmic judgment,
the “day of Yahweh” when He gathers all the nations to fight against
them. He would arrive to save his people, accompanied by the hosts of
heaven.
Paul applies the words from Zechariah to the largely
Gentile congregation in Thessalonica. In Zechariah, Yahweh “gathers
all the nations to Jerusalem to battle.” After that, He arrives to confront
the nations and cleave the Mount of Olives so His people can flee to the “valley
of his mountains.” It is then that He arrives “with all his saints.”
This scriptural background indicates that Paul’s phrase, “with
all his saints,” refers to the angelic host that will accompany Jesus at
his “arrival” from heaven.
Paul’s stress on becoming “blamelessness” introduces the element of judgment. Elsewhere, the New Testament teaches that Christians must stand “before the judgment seat of Christ.”
The idea that judgment on the wicked will occur also at
the “coming” of Jesus is found in Paul’s employment of language
from Zechariah, a prophecy in which God defeats hostile nations on
behalf of his people on the “day of the Lord.”
The picture is of a future day when Jesus will come from
heaven accompanied by the angels to gather his elect. The Apostle’s desire is
for the believers in Thessalonica to be found “blameless” on the day
they are gathered to be with Jesus – “And he shall send
forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other” – (Matthew 24:31).