2 Thessalonians 3:5

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) The Lord.—See Note on 2Thessalonians 3:3. The Person of the Blessed Trinity to whom this guidance immediately belongs is the Holy Ghost. So far, the Greek expositors are right who are agreed to consider this a proof of the Holy Ghost’s divinity. Their right conclusion is, however, drawn from wrong premise, for the name is not here to be taken as consciously intending Him. The ground for their supposition is that the names “God” and “Christ” occur immediately after, and not (as we might expect) “His” or “for Him.” But in 1Thessalonians 3:12-13, there occurs precisely the same arrangement of the three words: the Greek equivalent for the sacred Hebrew Name standing first, and then, for clearness’ sake, being explained by the personal titles, “God our Father,” “our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Direct your hearts into the love of God.—This prayer in itself implies that they had not yet reached the point which St. Paul would have them reach, and were perhaps not taking the directest course. The same word is used in Luke 1:79; 1Thessalonians 3:11. The “love of God” here meant is that practical love which consists in keeping the commandments (John 14:21), as may be seen from the context:—“I am sure that the Lord will strengthen you, and that you are doing and will continue to do as you are bidden: may God help you to the obedience of true love, and to such perseverance in obedience as was shown by Christ; and it is in this hope that we bid you take steps to repress the disorders which are prevalent among you.”

The patient waiting for Christ.—This rendering is so beautiful in itself, and so well in keeping with the leading thoughts of these two Epistles, that it is painful to be forced to reject it. But the only rendering which is possible is, Christ’s patience; and the simplest meaning of that phrase is “the endurance which characterises Christ,” the genitive being, as in 1Thessalonians 1:3, almost a descriptive adjective, “Christ-like,” “Christian endurance.” This “patience” includes both the thought of bearing up under their present persecutions and also the thought of “patient continuance in well doing,” as opposed to the fitful restlessness which had begun to prey upon the Thessalonian Church.

MacLaren's Expositions

2 Thessalonians

THE HEART’S HOME AND GUIDE

2 Thessalonians 3:5.

A word or two of explanation of terms may preface our remarks on this, the third of the Apostle’s prayers for the Thessalonians in this letter. The first point to be noticed is that by ‘the Lord’ here is meant, as usually in the New Testament, Jesus Christ. So that here again we have the distinct recognition of His divinity, and the direct address of prayer to Him.

The next thing to notice is that by ‘the love of God’ is here meant, not God’s to us, but ours to Him; and that the petition, therefore, respects the emotions and sentiments of the Thessalonians towards the Father in heaven.

And the last point is that the rendering of the Authorised Version, ‘patient waiting for Christ,’ is better exchanged for that of the Revised Version, ‘the patience of Christ,’ meaning thereby the same patience as He exhibited in His earthly life, and which He is ready to bestow upon us.

It is not usual in the New Testament to find Jesus Christ set forth as the great Example of patient endurance; but still there are one or two instances in which the same expression is applied to Him. For example, in two contiguous verses in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read of His ‘enduring contradiction of sinners against Himself,’ and ‘enduring the Cross, despising the shame,’ in both of which cases we have the verb employed of which the noun is here used. Then in the Apocalypse we have such expressions as ‘the patience of Christ,’ of which John says that he and his brethren whom he is addressing are ‘participators,’ and, again, ‘thou hast kept the word of my patience.’

So, though unusual, the thought of our text as presented in the amended version is by no means singular. These things, then, being premised, we may now look at this petition as a whole.

I. The first thought that it suggests to me is, the home of the heart.

‘The Lord direct you into the love of God and the patience of Christ.’ The prayers in this letter with which we have been occupied for some Sundays present to us Christian perfection under various aspects. But this we may, perhaps, say is the most comprehensive and condensed of them all. The Apostle gathers up the whole sum of his desires for his friends, and presents to us the whole aim of our efforts for ourselves, in these two things, a steadfast love to God, and a calm endurance of evil and persistence in duty, unaffected by suffering or by pain. If we have these two we shall not be far from being what God wishes to see us.

Now the Apostle’s thought here, of ‘leading us into’ these two seems to suggest the metaphor of a great home with two chambers in it, of which the inner was entered from the outer. The first room is ‘the love of God,’ and the second is ‘the patience of Christ.’ It comes to the same thing whether we speak of the heart as dwelling in love, or of love as dwelling in the heart. The metaphor varies, the substance of the thought is the same, and that thought is that the heart should be the sphere and subject of a steadfast, habitual, all-pleasing love, which issues in unbroken calmness of endurance and persistence of service, in the face of evil.

Let us look, then, for a moment at these two points. I need not dwell upon the bare idea of love to God as being the characteristic of the Christian attitude towards Him, or remind you of how strange and unexampled a thing it is that all religion should be reduced to this one fruitful germ, love to the Father in heaven. But it is more to the purpose for me to point to the constancy, the unbrokenness, the depth, which the Apostle here desires should be the characteristics of Christian love to God. We sometimes cherish such emotion; but, alas, how rare it is for us to dwell in that calm home all the days of our lives! We visit that serene sanctuary at intervals, and then for the rest of our days we are hurried to and fro between contending affections, and wander homeless amidst inadequate loves. But what Paul asked, and what should be the conscious aim of the Christian life, is, that we should ‘dwell all our days in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.’

Alas, when we think of our own experiences, how fair and far seems that other, contemplated as a possibility in my text, that our hearts should ‘abide in the love of God’!

Let me remind you, too, that steadfastness of habitual love all round our hearts, as it were, is the source and germ of all perfectness of life and conduct. ‘Love and do as Thou wilt,’ is a bold saying, but not too bold. For the very essence of love is the smelting of the will of the lover into the will of the beloved. And there is nothing so certain as that, in regard to all human relations, and in regard to the relations to God which in many respects follow, and are moulded after the pattern of, our earthly relations of love, to have the heart fixed in pure affection is to have the whole life subordinated in glad obedience. Nothing is so sweet as to do the beloved’s will. The germ of all righteousness, as well as the characteristic spirit of every righteous deed, lies in love to God. This is the mother tincture which, variously coloured and with various additions, makes all the different precious liquids which we can pour as libations on His altar. The one saving salt of all deeds in reference to Him is that they are the outcome and expression of a loving heart. He who loves is righteous, and doeth righteousness. So, ‘love is the fulfilling of the law.’

That the heart should be fixed in its abode in love to God is the secret of all blessedness, as it is the source of all righteousness. Love is always joy in itself; it is the one deliverance from self-bondage to which self is the one curse and misery of man. The emancipation from care and sorrow and unrest lies in that going out of ourselves which we call by the name of love. There be things masquerading about the world, and profaning the sacred name of love by taking it to themselves, which are only selfishness under a disguise. But true love is the annihilation, and therefore the apotheosis and glorifying, of self; and in that annihilation lies the secret charm which brings all blessedness into a life.

But, then, though love in itself be always bliss, yet, by reason of the imperfections of its objects, it sometimes leads to sorrow. For limitations and disappointments and inadequacies of all sorts haunt our earthly loves whilst they last; and we have all to see them fade, or to fade away from them. The thing you love may change, the thing you love must die; and therefore love, which in itself is blessedness, hath often, like the little book that the prophet swallowed, a bitter taste remaining when the sweetness is gone. But if we set our hearts on God, we set our hearts on that which knows no variableness, neither the shadow of turning. There are no inadequate responses, no changes that we need fear. On that love the scythe of death, which mows down all other products of the human heart, hath no power; and its stem stands untouched by the keen edge that levels all the rest of the herbage. Love God, and thou lovest eternity; and therefore the joy of the love is eternal as its object. So he who loves God is building upon a rock, and whosoever has this for his treasure carries his wealth with him whithersoever he goes. Well may the Apostle gather into one potent word, and one mighty wish, the whole fulness of his desires for his friends. And wise shall we be if we make this the chiefest of our aims, that our hearts may have their home in the love of God.

Still further, there is another chamber in this house of the soul. The outer room, where the heart inhabits that loves God, leads into another compartment, ‘the patience of Christ.’

Now, I suppose I need not remind many of you that this great New Testament word ‘patience’ has a far wider area of meaning than that which is ordinarily covered by that expression. For patience , as we use it, is simply a passive virtue. But the thing that is meant by the New Testament word which is generally so rendered has an active as well as a passive side. On the passive side it is the calm, unmurmuring, unreluctant submission of the will to whatsoever evil may come upon us, either directly from God’s hand, or through the ministration and mediation of men who are His sword. On the active side it is the steadfast persistence in the path of duty, in spite of all that may array itself against us. So there are the two halves of the virtue which is here put before us--unmurmuring submission and bold continuance in well-doing, whatsoever storms may hurtle in our faces.

Now, in both of these aspects, the life of Jesus Christ is the great pattern. As for the passive side, need I remind you how, ‘as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth’? ‘When He was reviled He reviled not again, but committed Himself unto Him that judgeth uprightly.’ No anger ever flushed His cheek or contracted His brow. He never repaid scorn with scorn, nor hate with hate. All men’s malice fell upon Him, like sparks upon wet timber, and kindled no conflagration.

As for the active side, I need not remind you how ‘He set His face to go to Jerusalem’--how the great solemn ‘ must ‘ which ruled His life bore Him on, steadfast and without deflection in His course, through all obstacles. There never was such heroic force as the quiet force of the meek and gentle Christ, which wasted no strength in displaying or boasting of itself, but simply, silently, unconquerably, like the secular motions of the stars, dominated all opposition, and carried Him, unhasting and unresting, on His path. That life, with all its surface of weakness, had an iron tenacity of purpose beneath, which may well stand for our example. Like some pure glacier from an Alpine peak, it comes silently, slowly down into the valley; and though to the eye it seems not to move, it presses on with a force sublime in its silence and gigantic in its gentleness, and buries beneath it the rocks that stand in its way. The patience of Christ is the very sublimity of persistence in well-doing. It is our example, and more than our example--it is His gift to us.

Such passive and active patience is the direct fruit of love to God. The one chamber opens into the other. For they whose hearts dwell in the sweet sanctities of the love of God will ever be those who say, with a calm smile, as they put out their hand to the bitterest draught, ‘the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?’

Love, and evil dwindles; love, and duty becomes supreme; and in the submission of the will, which is the true issue of love, lies the foundation of indomitable and inexhaustible endurance and perseverance.

Nor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this resolve to do the will of God, in spite of all antagonism and opposition, lies a condition at once of moral perfection and of blessedness. So, dear friends, if we would have a home for our hearts, let us pass into that sweet, calm, inexpugnable fortress provided for us in the love of God and the patience of Christ.

II. Now notice, secondly, the Guide of the heart to its home.

‘The Lord direct you.’ I have already explained that we have here a distinct address to Jesus Christ as divine, and the hearer of prayer. The Apostle evidently expects a present, personal influence from Christ to be exerted upon men’s hearts. And this is the point to which I desire to draw your attention in a word or two. We are far too oblivious of the present influence of Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, upon the hearts of men that trust Him. We have very imperfectly apprehended our privileges as Christians if our faith do not expect, and if our experience have not realised, the inward guidance of Christ moment by moment in our daily lives. I believe that much of the present feebleness of the Christian life amongst its professors is to be traced to the fact that their thoughts about Jesus Christ are predominantly thoughts of what He did nineteen centuries ago, and that the proportion of faith is not observed in their perspective of His work, and that they do not sufficiently realise that to-day, here, in you and me, if we have faith in Him, He is verily and really putting forth His power.

Paul’s prayer is but an echo of Christ’s promise. The Master said, ‘He shall guide you into all truth.’ The servant prays, ‘The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.’ And if we rightly know the whole blessedness that is ours in the gift of Jesus Christ, we shall recognise His present guidance as a reality in our lives.

That guidance is given to us mainly by the Divine Spirit laying upon our hearts the great facts which evoke our answering love to God. ‘We love Him because He first loved us’; and the way by which Jesus directs our hearts into the love of God is mainly by shedding abroad God’s love to us in our spirits by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

But, besides that, all these movements in our hearts so often neglected, so often resisted, by which we are impelled to a holier life, to a deeper love, to a more unworldly consecration--all these, rightly understood, are Christ’s directions. He leads us, though often we know not the hand that guides; and every Christian may be sure of this--and he is sinful if he does not live up to the height of his privileges--that the ancient promises are more than fulfilled in his experience, and that he has a present Christ, an indwelling Christ, who will be his Shepherd, and lead him by green pastures and still waters sometimes and through valleys of darkness and rough defiles sometimes, but always with the purpose of bringing him nearer and nearer to the full possession of the love of God and the patience of Christ.

The vision which shone before the eyes of the father of the forerunner, was that ‘the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ It is fulfilled in Jesus who directs our hearts into love and patience, which are the way of peace.

We are not to look for impressions and impulses distinguishable from the operations of our own inward man. We are not to fall into the error of supposing that a conviction of duty or a conception of truth is of divine origin because it is strong. But the true test of their divine origin is their correspondence with the written word, the standard of truth and life. Jesus guides us to a fuller apprehension of the great facts of the infinite love of God in the Cross. Shedding abroad a Saviour’s love does kindle ours.

III. Lastly, notice the heart’s yielding to its guide.

If this was Paul’s prayer for his converts, it should be our aim for ourselves. Christ is ready to direct our hearts, if we will let Him. All depends on our yielding to that sweet direction, loving as that of a mother’s hand on her child’s shoulder.

What is our duty and wisdom in view of these truths? The answer may be thrown into the shape of one or two brief counsels.

First, desire it. Do you Christian people want to be led to love God more? Are you ready to love the world less, which you will have to do if you love God more? Do you wish Christ to lay His hand upon you, and withdraw you from much, that He may draw you into the sanctities and sublimities of His own experienced love? I do not think the lives of some of us look very like as if we should welcome that direction. And it is a sharp test, and a hard commandment to say to a Christian professor, ‘Desire to be led into the love of God.’

Again, expect it. Do not dismiss all that I have been saying about a present Christ leading men by their own impulses, which are His monitions, as fanatical and mystical and far away from daily experience. Ah! it is not only the boy Samuel whose infancy was an excuse for his ignorance, who takes God’s voice to be only white-bearded Eli’s. There are many of us who, when Christ speaks, think it is only a human voice. Perhaps His deep and gentle tones are thrilling through my harsh and feeble voice; and He is now, even by the poor reed through which He breathes His breath, saying to some of you, ‘Come near to Me.’ Expect the guidance.

Still your own wills that you may hear His voice. How can you be led if you never look at the Guide? How can you hear that still small voice amidst the clattering of spindles, and the roar of wagons, and the noises in your own heart? Be still, and He will speak.

Follow the guidance, and at once, for delay is fatal. Like a man walking behind a guide across some morass, set your feet in the print of the Master’s and keep close at His heels, and then you will be safe. And so, dear friends, if we want to have anchorage for our love, let us set our love on God, who alone is worthy of it, and who alone of all its objects will neither fail us nor change. If we would have the temper which lifts us above the ills of life and enables us to keep our course unaffected by them all, as the gentle moon moves with the same silent, equable pace through piled masses of cloud and clear stretches of sky, we must attain submission through love, and gain unreluctant endurance and steadfast wills from the example and source of both, the gentle and strong Christ. If we would have our hearts calm, we must let Him guide them, sway them, curb their vagrancies, stimulate their desires, and satisfy the desires which He has stimulated. We must abandon self, and say, ‘Lord, I cannot guide myself. Do Thou direct my wandering feet.’ The prayer will not be in vain. He will guide us with His eye, and that directing of our hearts will issue in experiences of love and patience, whose ‘very sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for immortality.’ The Guide and the road foreshadow the goal. The only natural end to which such a path can lead and such guidance point is a heaven of perfect love, where patience has done its perfect work, and is called for no more. The experience of present direction strengthens the hope of future perfection. So we may take for our own the triumphant confidence of the Psalmist, and embrace the nearest and the remotest future in one calm vision of faith that ‘Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.’

Benson Commentary

2 Thessalonians 3:5. And the Lord — By his Holy Spirit, whose proper work this is; direct — Powerfully incline; your hearts unto the love of God — That is, into the exercise of love to God, in return for his love to you; and into the patient waiting for Christ — Namely, the patient waiting for his second coming, or for his coming to call you hence by death, 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Macknight, however, interprets the verse rather differently, thus: “May the Lord direct your heart to imitate the love which God hath showed to mankind, and the patience which Christ exercised under sufferings.” The patience of Christ has this sense Revelation 1:9 : A partaker in the kingdom and patience of Jesus. As the patience of Job means the patience of which Job was so great an example, so the patience of Christ may signify the patience which he exercised in his sufferings.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-5 Those who are far apart still may meet together at the throne of grace; and those not able to do or receive any other kindness, may in this way do and receive real and very great kindness. Enemies to the preaching of the gospel, and persecutors of its faithful preachers, are unreasonable and wicked men. Many do not believe the gospel; and no wonder if such are restless and show malice in their endeavours to oppose it. The evil of sin is the greatest evil, but there are other evils we need to be preserved from, and we have encouragement to depend upon the grace of God. When once the promise is made, the performance is sure and certain. The apostle had confidence in them, but that was founded upon his confidence in God; for there is otherwise no confidence in man. He prays for them for spiritual blessings. It is our sin and our misery, that we place our affections upon wrong objects. There is not true love of God, without faith in Jesus Christ. If, by the special grace of God, we have that faith which multitudes have not, we should earnestly pray that we may be enabled, without reserve, to obey his commands, and that we may be enabled, without reserve, to the love of God, and the patience of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God - So direct your hearts that you may love God. "And into the patient waiting for Christ." Margin, "patience of Christ." The marginal reading is in accordance with the Greek, and seems best to express the apostle's meaning. The prayer of the apostle was, that they might have the love of God in their hearts, and "the patience of Christ;" that is, the same patience which Christ evinced in his trials. They were then suffering affliction and persecution. They needed patience, that they might endure their trials in a proper manner. It was natural for the apostle to refer them to the Saviour, the great example of patience, and to pray that they might have the same which he had. That it does not mean that they were to wait patiently for the appearing of Christ, as our translation seems to imply, is quite clear, because the apostle had just been showing them that he would not appear until after a long series of events had occurred.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. If "the Lord" be here the Holy Ghost (2Co 3:17), the three Persons of the Trinity will occur in this verse.

love of God—love to God.

patient waiting for Christ—rather as Greek, "the patience (endurance) of Christ," namely, which Christ showed [Alford] (2Th 2:4; 1Th 1:3). Estius, however, supports English Version (compare Re 1:9; 3:10). At all events, this grace, "patience," or persevering endurance, is connected with the "hope" (1Th 1:3, 10) of Christ's coming. In Alford's translation we may compare Heb 12:1, 2, "Run with patience (endurance) … looking to Jesus … who, for the joy that was before Him, endured the cross"; so WE are to endure, as looking for the hope to be realized at His coming (Heb 10:36, 37).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Here the apostle prays for them again, as he had done a little before, 2 Thessalonians 2:17; and as this shows how much they were in his heart, so the frequent mingling of prayers with his exhortations shows they could not be effectual without God. And he prays for two things:

1. To have their hearts directed into the love of God; which is either meant passively, for God’s love to them, to have their hearts, that is, their whole soul, engaged in the study, contemplation, and admiration of this love; or rather actively, for their love to God, to have their hearts set straight into the love of God, as the Greek word imports; drawn out towards him as a straight line to its centre, or as an arrow directed to the mark. Till man’s love is set upon God, the motions of the heart are crooked and irregular; as the ways of sin are called crooked ways, Psalm 125:5; and John Baptist’s ministry was to make crooked things straight, Isaiah 40:4. The turning man’s heart and ways towards God makes them straight. David prays, Psalm 119:36: Incline my heart unto thy testimonies; ybm-jh or, bend my heart; as we bend a crooked stick to make it straight. Or as he prays God to unite his heart to his fear, Psalm 86:11; so here Paul, to direct theirs to his love, by which some understand all religion. We learn hence, that to direct man’s heart to the love of God is the work of God, and beyond our power. And the hearts of the best saints stand in need of a more perfect and constant direction unto the love of God. Patient sufferings for Christ’s sake; as the apostle calls his sufferings for Christ’s sake, the sufferings of Christ, often, 2 Corinthians 1:5 Philippians 3:10, &c.; and patience for his sake, is called the patience of Christ, Revelation 1:9. In this sense, the apostle prays they may have hearts ready to suffer, and patiently to suffer for Christ’s sake, Hebrews 10:36 Jam 5:10; and suited to a suffering state, which the heart is naturally averse and disinclined unto. And the word is often used in this sense for patience under the cross. And so the apostle hath his eye in his prayer upon the suffering state these believers were in for Christ’s sake. If the sense be rendered as in our translation, he prays for their hearts to be fixed upon the coming of Christ, to look towards it, and patiently to wait for it; the Greek word being often taken for the patience of expectation as well as of suffering, Romans 8:25 Hebrews 10:36: and so it is the same as waiting for the Son of God from heaven, mentioned 1 Thessalonians 1:10, and looking for the Saviour, Philippians 3:20; that hereby they might not faint under his sufferings, nor be surprised by his coming. And because the hearts of the best are apt either to be remiss or secure upon the delay of Christ’s coming, he therefore prays their hearts might be directed to a patient waiting for it, as the apostle Peter upon the same account exhorts believers to the girding up the loins of their mind, 1 Peter 1:13.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God,.... By which may be meant either the love with which God is loved. This is the sum and substance of the first and chief commandment in the law, and is what every man in a state of nature is destitute of; it is implanted in the heart in regeneration, and is a fruit of the Spirit of God; and where it is it oftentimes grows cold, and needs to be stirred up and reinflamed, by the Spirit of God, which may be intended, by a directing of the heart into it, that is, to a lively exercise of it: or else the love with which God loves his people is designed, which is free, sovereign, unchangeable, and from everlasting to everlasting; and to have the heart directed into this, is to be led into it directly; or by a straight line, as the word signifies, and not in a round about way, by works and duties, as the causes or conditions of it; and to be led further into it, so as to wade into these waters of the sanctuary, from the ankles to the knees, and from thence to the loins, and from thence till they become a broad river to swim in; or so as to comprehend the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of this love, and to be rooted and grounded in it, and firmly persuaded of interest in it; and that nothing shall separate from it; and so as to have the heart sensibly affected with it. The phrase of directing the heart to God, and to seek him, is used in the Septuagint, in 2 Chronicles 19:3. And this is not to be done by a believer himself, nor by the ministers of the Gospel: the apostle could not do it, and therefore he prays "the Lord" to do it; by whom is meant the Spirit of God, since he is distinguished from God the Father, into whose love the heart is to be directed, and from Christ, a patient waiting for whom it is also desired the heart may be directed into; and since it is his work to shed abroad the love of God in the heart, and to lead unto it, and make application of it; and which is a proof of his deity, for none has the direction, management, and government of the heart, but God, Proverbs 21:1, and in this passage of Scripture appear all the three Persons; for here is the love of the Father, patient waiting for Christ, the Spirit and the Lord. For it follows, as another branch of the petition,

and into the patient waiting for Christ; or "patience of Christ", as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it; and may intend either that patience, of which Christ was the subject; and which appeared in his quiet submission to all that outward meanness he did in his state of humiliation; in bearing the insults and reproaches of men, and the frowardness of his own disciples, in suffering himself to be tempted by Satan; and in bearing the sins of his people, the wrath of God, and strokes of justice in the manner he did: and for the saints to have their hearts directed into this patience of Christ, is of great use unto them, to endear Christ unto, them; to lead them into the greatness of his love, and also of his person; and to make them more patient under the cross, when they consider him, and have him for an example. Or else it may respect the grace of patience, which he is the author of, for all grace comes from him; and he from hence may be called the God of patience, as his word, which is the means of it, is the word of his patience; and it is by his strength that saints are strengthened unto all patience, and longsuffering: and to be directed into this, or to the exercise of it, is of great use under afflictions from the hand of God, and under the reproaches and persecutions of men, and under divine desertions, and want of an answer of prayer, and under the temptations of Satan, and in an expectation of the heavenly glory. And the heart is never more in the exercise of this, than when it is directed into the love of God; see Romans 5:2. Or this may refer to that patience of which Christ is the object, and be understood, either of a patient bearing the cross for his sake; for every believer has a cross to take up and bear for Christ, and which is to be borne constantly, cheerfully, and patiently; and nothing more strongly animates to such a patient bearing of it, than a sense of the love of God; so that a being directed into that, leads also to this: or as our version points out the sense, it may be understood of a patient waiting for the second coming of Christ. Christ will certainly come a second time, though when he will come is uncertain; and his coming will be very glorious in itself, and of great advantage to the saints: hence it becomes them, not only to believe it, hope for it, love it, and look for it, but to wait patiently for it; which being directed to by the Spirit of God, is of great use unto them in the present state of things.

Geneva Study Bible

{4} And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

(4) Thirdly, he diligently and earnestly admonishes them of two things which are given to us only by the grace of God, that is, of charity, and a watchful mind to the coming of Christ.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Thessalonians 3:5. A fresh involuntary effusion of piety on the part of the apostle, by means of which he calls down the divine blessing on every action of man as a condition of its success. Theodoret: ʼΑμφοτέρων ἡμῖν χρεία, καὶ προθέσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν συνεργείας. To assume that 2 Thessalonians 3:5 was added by Paul, because he could not yet entirely trust the Thessalonians (de Wette), is without foundation.

ὁ κύριος] Christ, as in 2 Thessalonians 3:3-4.

κατευθύναι ὑμῶν τὰς καρδίας εἰς τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ Θεοῦ] direct your hearts to the love of God, namely, in order to be filled and pervaded by it, not in order to remain contemplating it (Koppe, Olshausen).

ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ] is not “amor a deo praeceptus” (Clericus), or “amor, quem deus hominum quasi infundit animis” (Pelt), also not the love of God to men, which was to be the pattern for Christian brotherly love (Macknight, Koppe), or, more specially, the manifestation of the love of God in Christ and in His work of redemption (Olshausen, Riggenbach); but love toward God (Gen. object.). Paul wishes the Thessalonians to be inspired with it, because it is the centre uniting all commandments; comp. Matthew 22:37 ff.

καὶ εἰς τὴν ὑπομονὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ] Oecumenius, Ambrose, Faber Stapulensis, Erasmus, Vatablus, Cornelius a Lapide, Beza, Bernard a Piconio, and Benson, to whom recently Hofmann has attached himself, understand by this the patient waiting for Christ, that is, for His coming. Erroneous, because—(1) ἀναμονήν (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10) would require to be written instead of ὑπομονήν; and (2) the idea of patient waiting, by which addition the statement becomes only suitable, would require to be expressly brought forward by an additional clause. The stedfastness of Christ (Gen. possessiv.) is meant, inasmuch as the endurance which the Christian manifests in tribulation for the sake of the gospel is in its nature nothing else than the stedfastness which was peculiar to Christ Himself in His sufferings. Comp. the analogous expression τὰ παθήματα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, 2 Corinthians 1:5, and Meyer in loco. The simple genitive cannot express stedfastness for the sake of Christ, as it is usually explained.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Thessalonians 3:5. κατευθύναι, κ.τ.λ. Paul no longer (I., 1 Thessalonians 3:11) entertains the hope of revisiting them soon. “God’s love and Christ’s patient endurance” (i.e., the ὑπομονή which Christ inspires and requires, cf. Ignat. ad. Rom., last words) correspond to the double experience of love and hope in 2 Thessalonians 2:16. It is by the sense of God’s love alone, not by any mere acquiescence in His will or stoical endurance of it, that the patience and courage of the Christian are sustained. Cf. Ep. Arist., 195, ἐπὶ τῶν καλλίστων πράξεων οὐκ αὐτοὶ κατευθύνομεν τὰ βουλευθέντα· θεὸς δὲ τελειοῖ τὰ πάντων. Connect with 2 Thessalonians 3:3 and cf. Mrs. Browning’s line, “I waited with patience, which means almost power”.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. And (or But) the Lord direct your hearts] “The Lord” is still Christ: see note, 2 Thessalonians 3:3.

“May He direct (or guide) you as Lord of His people, Shepherd of the sheep” (John 10). The Apostle expects his Thessalonian flock to follow his directions (2 Thessalonians 3:4); but above both himself and them is the Supreme Director of hearts, Whose guidance he invokes. For the transitional, contrastive But, comp. notes on ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 and 1 Thessalonians 3:11. “Direct your hearts” is a Hebraism, used in the LXX to translate the words rendered “set” or “prepare the heart” in our Version (Psalm 78:8; 1 Chronicles 29:18‚ &c.) It denotes giving a fixed direction, a steady purpose, as to “stablish the heart” (ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:17) signifies to give a sure position. On direct see also 1 Thessalonians 3:11.

into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ] A. V. margin and R.V., patience of Christ. Patience (or endurance) is what the Greek noun signifies in ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3 (see note), and in the other numerous examples of its use in the N.T. For the way in which “Christ’s endurance” is made a model for our own, see 1 Peter 2:19-24; 1 Peter 3:17-18; 1 Peter 4:1-2, and Hebrews 12:2-3. Elsewhere St Paul speaks of His sufferings as shared by His people (2 Corinthians 1:5; Php 3:10, &c.); and if the sufferings, surely the patience. The Thessalonians were eagerly awaiting His return (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2); let them wait for it in His patient spirit. Had the Apostle wished to speak of waiting for the glorified Christ, he would surely have called Him, as so often in these Epistles, “the Lord Jesus.”

Christ is in this place the patient Christ, who “endured the cross” and the “contradiction of sinners,” fulfilling the prophetic ideal of Jehovah’s suffering Servant, Isaiah 53; comp. 1 Peter 2:21-25; Matthew 11:29-30, &c. The Greek article is therefore not otiose, but has its distinctive and graphic force—Christ as the prophets foresaw Him, and we know Him: the patience of the Christ. Comp. Romans 15:3, “The Christ did not please Himself;” Ephesians 4:20, “You did not so learn (get to know) the Christ,”—the great Ideal. We wish that the Revisers had seen their way to restore to us the expressive definite article in such passages.

To “love God” was the Lord’s “great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38); it is the soul of religion (see Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 8:1-3; and 1 John, passim). “God our Father has loved” the Thessalonian believers (ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:16); Christ must teach them to reciprocate the Divine love, and in the strength of this love to endure evil and sorrow even as He Himself endured.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Thessalonians 3:5. Κύριος, the Lord) Christ.—εἰς τὴν ἀγαάπην τοῦ Θεοῦ, into the love of God) You will thus favour the running (free course) of the word of God, and will not be ἄτοποι, unreasonable.—εἰς ὑπομονὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, to the patience of Christ) It is thus you will endure the hatred of the wicked enemies of Christ. Each must be taken objectively: love towards God, patience shown on account of Christ [But Engl. Vers. patient waiting for Christ].

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - And the Lord; namely, Christ, for so the word "Lord" is to be rendered in St. Paul's Epistles. Bishop Wordsworth supposes that the Holy Ghost is here invoiced, as both God and Christ are afterwards mentioned in the petition; but the term "Lord" is not applied by, the apostle to the Holy Ghost; '2 Corinthians 3:17 is the only apparent exception. Direct your hearts; as the heart is the fountain of Christian life - the centre of the will. Into the love of God. Here not God's love to us, specially "the manifestation of the love of God in Christ and his work of redemption" (Olshausen); nor the love of God to man, which is to be the pattern of our love to God; but, objectively, our love to God. This love of God is the fulfilment of the Law; and hence the apostle prays that the Thessalonians may be directed into it as the source and essence of all acceptable obedience. And into the patient waiting for Christ. The words, "patient waiting," are but one word in the original, generally translated "patience" or "endurance." The clause has been differently interpreted. Some (Calvin, Hofmann, Jowett) render it, as in the A.V., "patient waiting for Christ." And this is conformable to the context, as the object of Paul was to repress all impatient longing for the advent. But such a meaning is not linguistically justifiable. Others render it, "patience for Christ," that is, steadfast endurance for his sake (De Wette); but there is no preposition in the original. The words simply mean "Christ's patience," or "the patience of Christ" (R.V.), the patience which he exhibited under his unparalleled sufferings. The Thessalonians were exposed to persecutions, and therefore the apostle prays that they might be directed into the patience of Christ, as this would enable them to bear all their sufferings with composure. Love and patience comprehend the active and passive virtues of Christianity. Now follows a warning against the disorderly life and conduct which the expectation of the immediate advent of Christ had produced. On account of the supposed nearness of the day of the Lord, great disorders had arisen in the Thessalonian Church. Work had been given up by many, who walked about in fanatical idleness. The apostle had censured this conduct in his former Epistle (1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12), but the evil had rather increased than diminished; and, accordingly, he severely rebukes this spirit, and sets himself to correct the disorders occasioned by it. 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Vincent's Word Studies

Hearts (καρδίας)

See on Romans 1:21; see on Romans 10:10; see on Ephesians 1:18.

Patient waiting for Christ (ὑπομονὴν τοῦ χριστοῦ)

Rather patience of Christ. The prayer is that their hearts may be directed to love God and to exhibit the patience of Christ.