Paul has already made it known he was desperate to be with the church in Thessalonica. He now uses an interesting phrase and twice, ‘when we could stand it no longer.’
Paul wanted to be there but he couldn’t (and we don’t know why, whether it be opposition or something else) so what did he do?
There are times when we just have to make a decision because we cannot wait any longer; we cannot stand back; we have to step forward. But wisdom is needed. We can see from these verses principles that can be applied to most situations we want to step in to help.
“So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no-one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain.” 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5
When he couldn’t stand it any longer:
- He thought through what was the best thing to do. Importantly ‘we’ were involved in that thinking. He checked out his thoughts with the others. Key thought: what have others said about this decision?
- He gave their best; so he sent Timothy. Timothy was valuable. A decision sometimes needs your investment of your best and what is of value for it to be a good decision. Key thought: what can I give that will bring the most impact?
- His decision was to strengthen and encourage what was there. The decision was to make sure the people were heading in the right direction otherwise what’s the point of encouraging something that is going wrong. Paul was concerned for them as they went through the trials. Key thought: how do I strengthen what is already there?
- He decided not to remain in a place of worry. Though Paul was not surprised by the persecution he was anxious the churches may have fallen because of it and the work would unravel. Instead of remaining anxious he did something about it, he decided to find out. Key thought: I need to make more decisions that alleviate worry not create it.
- He was not so preoccupied with moving forward into new places that he took his eye off the work already established. Key thought: Ever place we come to needs to be consolidated so that we move forward into the future from a place of strength, resulting in min-decisions needed before the bigger ones.
Missions Paul 