Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Go To 1 Thessalonians 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Night and day, he says, praying exceedingly. This too is a sign of joy. For as any husbandman, hearing concerning his land that has been tilled by himself, that it is burdened with ears of grain, longs with his own eyes to see so pleasant a sight, so Paul to see Macedonia. Praying exceedingly. Observe the excess; that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith.
Here there is a great question. For if now you live, because they stand fast, and Timothy brought you glad tidings of their faith and love, and you are full of so much joy as not to be able worthily to give thanks to God, how do you say here that there are deficiencies in their faith? Were those then the words of flattery? By no means, far be it. For previously he testified that they endured many conflicts, and were no worse affected than the Churches in Judæa. What then is it? They had not enjoyed the full benefit of his teaching, nor learned all that it behooved them to learn. And this he shows toward the end. Perhaps there had been questionings among them concerning the Resurrection, and there were many who troubled them, not by temptations, nor by dangers, but by acting the part of teachers. This is what he says is lacking in their faith, and for this reason, he has so explained himself, and has not said, that you should be confirmed, where indeed he feared concerning the faith itself, I have sent, he says, Timothy 'to confirm you,' but here, to perfect that which is lacking, which is rather a matter of teaching than of confirming. As also he says elsewhere, that you may be perfected unto every good work. From 1 Corinthians 1:10, or 2 Timothy 3:17 Now the perfected thing is one in which there is some little deficiency: for it is that which is brought to perfection.
