We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
We give thanks to God always for all of you:
Since all things come from God, they first offer thanks for their progress, because God has been pleased not only to give His gift to people who were still in bondage to sin, but also to adopt them as His children, at the same time helping them to put up with all suffering so that they might become worthier.
Keeping the memory of you:
This is because they have grown in the work of faith more than other churches and by God's grace were perfecting the work which they had eagerly begun.
Grace be unto you, and peace. Do you perceive that the very commencement of his Epistle is with encomiums? We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. For to give thanks to God for them is the act of one testifying to their great advancement, when they are not only praised themselves, but God also is thanked for them, as Himself having done it all. He teaches them also to be moderate, all but saying, that it is all of the power of God. That he gives thanks for them, therefore, is on account of their good conduct, but that he remembers them in his prayers, proceeds from his love towards them. Then as he often does, he says that he not only remembers them in his prayers, but apart from his prayers. Remembering without ceasing, he says, your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. What is remembering without ceasing? Either remembering before God and the Father, or remembering your labor ...
For to give thanks to God for them is the act of one testifying to how they have advanced in the faith. Not only are the Thessalonians praised by Paul, but Paul thanks God for them, as though God himself had accomplished everything. Paul also teaches them to be moderate in their selfestimation, all but saying that all their growth is from the power of God.
Of you in our prayers without ceasing:
This can be understood in three ways: in one way, as to the very act of praying, and then one is praying always or without ceasing, if he prays at the appointed times and hours: "Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour" (Ac 3:1). In another way, as to purpose of prayer which is that our mind rises up to God; and so a man prays as long as he directs his entire life to God: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Thirdly, as to the cause; for when a person so acts that others pray for him, he seems to be praying, as in the case of those who give alms to the poor who pray for them: "Store up almsgiving in the heart of the poor: and it shall obtain help for you against all evil" (Si 29:12).
