1 Thessalonians 3:12–13

Meanwhile he had to leave his dear Thessalonians in the immediate care of the Lord he depended on. To that his heart turns. May God direct my way to come to you. "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all." And his heart could present its affection for them as the pattern of what they ought to feel for others.

While he was still kept away, his desire was that they should increase and abound in love for one another. God alone is the Object of faith. He is also the Object of love. But the best practical way to show love to Him is to love those born of Him, as John's letter reminds us. Moreover the Christian should be an overflowing fountain of love toward all men. The Thessalonians were like this, and that is why they became such good advertisements for the gospel.

What he seeks for them matters just as much for us and for all God's people — that love in us should increase and overflow, toward one another and toward all, so that our hearts may be established blameless in holiness. This is God's way, and it is certainly not man's. Man insists on holiness first, so that love may follow. But in truth love must work first, to produce holiness. This principle runs right through the gospel. It was God's love that met and blessed us in sovereign grace, when we were enemies, powerless and ungodly — and it met us in Christ's death for us. That love was the strongest motive that worked holiness in us.

It is wonderful how the purifying of the soul and love go together. Selfishness is at the bottom of sin. The opposite of selfishness is love, and God's love purifies us from the selfishness of sin.

"Increase and abound" comes about by keeping nearer to God. I have often thought that it takes great grace to see a little grace. If you go out in love, it will find some response. In one place people complained that everything was so cold. I could only say, Why do you not go out in love, and warm the rest?

For God is love, and love working in a Christian's heart is the fruit of the Spirit's presence and working. It is in fact the effect of God's presence. At the same time it makes us feel His presence, so it keeps us before Him.

But we may well echo on our own behalf the prayer of verse 12, for the increasing and abounding of love toward the saints of God and toward all men. How easily we lose sight of this, the most vital and basic mark of Christianity, so that love fades instead of increasing. If growth in knowledge decreases love, there is something badly lacking in such knowledge. If it is truly the knowledge of the Lord Jesus it will increase love.

What he asks for them in the meantime matters just as much for us and for all saints: that love in us may grow and overflow, toward one another and toward everyone, so that our hearts are established blameless in holiness. This is God's way, and just as surely it is not man's. Man insists on holiness first, as the way to love; but in truth love must work to produce holiness. This principle holds true right through the gospel. It was God's love that met us and blessed us in sovereign grace when we were enemies, powerless and ungodly, in Christ's death for us; and that was the strongest motive working holiness in us.

The sense of verse 13 is this: May God establish your hearts in holiness (now, by the exercise of love), so that you may be [seen] blameless in holiness, before our God and Father [at that moment] at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Here the coming of Jesus is not shown as the moment when we are gathered together to Him and go to meet Him. It is shown as the moment when we come with Him from the Father's house, after having been in His presence. That is the moment which will show whether we are blameless.

This is the third time Paul mentions the coming of our Lord in this letter. First he spoke of waiting for His Son from heaven as the mark of a true believer (1:9-10). Then we read of the saints gathered in the presence of the Lord, the time of glory and joy, when the faithful servant will receive the reward (2:19-20). Now another phase is added. The Lord is coming with all His saints. It is now not the coming for His saints, but with them, in the day when He is revealed in glory, and all the saints are revealed with Him.

The grand goal before us is the coming of the Lord Jesus with all His saints. Notice that little word "with." When He comes in His glory we are to be with Him. The letter has not yet made clear how we reach His presence above, so as to come out from heaven in His company when He appears. But this verse alone should have assured the Thessalonians, and should assure us, that when He comes not one will be missing. It will be with ALL His saints.

The end of all mere social gospels is more comfortable circumstances on earth, but the apostle looks for holiness completely without blame at the coming of the Lord. So this pure hope is to shape the believer's character now. But notice here that it is His coming "with all His saints" — that is, when He is revealed in glory at the end of the tribulation period. The Church will certainly have been taken to heaven before this, or they could not come with Him. But he is not speaking of the rapture here. Rather, it is the day when all creation will witness the unblamable holiness of saints who on earth "suffered with Christ," despised, blamed, rejected. What a difference then! But such training now looks toward so incomparable an end.

There is not one holiness for heaven, and another for this world, as 1 Thessalonians 3:13 teaches so strikingly. We carry our treasure in a clay jar, we know only in part, we see only a dim reflection; but the treasure — what we know and what we see — is one and the same.