The Trinity and the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

‘May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.’

These words were written by Paul to the church in Thessalonica, a relatively new church that had recently undergone persecution for the faith, and which received two letters from the apostle as a consequence. Understandably, Paul initially was worried about how they were coping with their trials, but we know from 1 Thessalonians that Timothy had returned from Thessalonica with a good report about how they were progressing on in the Christian life. Since then it seems that Paul had received further information about two problems in the Thessalonian church and he wrote this short letter informing them how they should respond to those issues. One problem is mentioned in chapter 2 and it concerned wrong notions about the second coming of Jesus being spread within the congregation and the other problem is mentioned in chapter 3 and it concerned the notion that some people had that they should not have to work. Perhaps both wrong ideas were connected.

What does one say to a church in such circumstances? Paul said several things to them in both of his letters; sometimes his words are more lengthy and sometimes his teaching is only one sentence in length. The ones composed of only a sentence contain important matters, so we cannot judge their importance by their short length. After all, in the verse we are considering, Paul refers to the Trinity, one of the deepest of doctrines. We may read the verse in this way: ‘May the Lord [the Holy Spirit] direct your hearts to the love of God [the Father] and to the steadfastness of Christ.’

It is not the only time in this letter that the apostle refers to the Trinity in one sentence. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 he writes: ‘But we ought always to give thanks to God [the Father] for you, brothers beloved by the Lord [Jesus], because God [the Father] chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.’ Clearly, Paul had instructed this young church in the doctrine of the Trinity, that in the Godhead there are three divine persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Of course, Paul would have had to explain aspects of the Trinity when he baptised new converts since they would have been baptised in the name of the Trinity as Jesus had commanded in the words of the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.

In a sermon on this text in 2 Thessalonians, Spurgeon made this beautiful comment: ‘What a heavenly content I feel in yielding myself to the sacred Trinity! The God who made us may most fitly be called upon to govern us. When we recognize the glory of the whole Godhead we perceive the perfect suitability of such direction as will come from the Three in One God. Albeit that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this verse by name, He is mentioned by His operations, for it is the Spirit of God that deals with the hearts of believers. I take rare pleasure in our text, because we have the blessed Trinity in unity in these few words, “The Lord” – that is, the Holy Spirit who dwells within believers – “direct your hearts into the love of God (by whom I understand the Father) and into the patient waiting for Christ.”’

The role of the Holy Spirit

Where is the Holy Spirit as he engages in this activity? He is in the hearts, the inner lives, of believers. He came to dwell there when they as sinners trusted in Jesus and were forgiven their sins. One of the tasks that he engages in as he indwells them is to lead them to know God increasingly. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of Christ and reveal them to his followers. Paul reminds his readers that one of the actions of the Holy Spirit is to show to believers the wonder of the status of their adoption into the family of God.

Paul says in our verse that the Holy Spirit directs believers to go to two distinct but connected places. In other words, he is a guide on a journey. This past week, I was driving through Edinburgh and I used the Map app on my phone to guide me. Every minute this voice said turn left or turn right, and when I listened to the voice I was kept on the right road and reached my destination. The Holy Spirit has a destination in mind for his people, which is heaven, and on the journey there he lead them along two ways, one to do with the heavenly Father and the other to do with the Son of God. Maybe we could liken them to railway lines on the journey to glory – where one line goes, the other line is there as well, the same distance apart all the way.

Paul was not suggesting that the Holy Spirit only does this work once or even occasionally. Rather his prayer was that the Spirit would constantly lead believers into this marvellous twofold experience. Paul’s description is that of a healthy Christian life, the abundant life that Jesus promised in John 10:10. His idea is that the Holy Spirit leads believers day by day into the love of God the Father and the steadfastness or loyalty of Jesus the Saviour.

A similar illustration of the work of the Holy Spirit is that which says he is a like a spotlight that shines in a dark room. God’s people are going through a dark sinful world, but as they do so it is possible for them to have light in their souls. As Paul says elsewhere, God has shined in the hearts of God’s people so that they have spiritual light in a dark world. What is that light? One answer is that the Holy Spirit reveals to them or reminds them of the love of the Father and the steadfastness of the Saviour.

The love of the Father

What does the Holy Spirit point to in this regard? No doubt several ideas come to our minds. We can think first of his electing love, an aspect of his love that we cannot explain. It is a love without beginning. The God of heaven is eternal, and an aspect of his eternalness is his love. Some people try and probe this doctrine and end up losing the blessing. Instead of venturing into the impossibility of explaining it, we should consider the reality of this great love, a personal love for each of his people that is without a beginning.

We can think secondly of his giving love as it is described in John 3:16. If his electing love is without beginning, then his giving love is without limits. Although we should say it with reverence, we can say that God could not do anything greater to reveal his love than what he did at the cross when he gave his Son for sinners. The Holy Spirit delights to lead us to the cross where God’s love for sinners is revealed.

We can also think thirdly of the adopting love of the heavenly Father. If his electing love is without beginning and his giving love is without limits, then his adopting love is without end. Once in the family, they are always in the family. Adopting love has taken poverty-stricken, rebellious sinners and made them joint-heirs with Jesus. Through this Fatherly provision, all of them have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. They have access to his presence, are being changed into the likeness of Jesus, and have an endless inheritance ahead of them. It is true that their heavenly Father will chastise them, but even that experience will be good for their sanctification.

So Paul prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead the Thessalonian believers into the love of God and surely we can pray the same for one another. But it is not the only matter that Paul prayed for and neither is it the only matter that we should pray for one another. We should also do what he did, which was to pray that believers would be led into the steadfastness of Christ.

The steadfastness of Jesus

One way to consider the steadfastness of Christ is to think of the reality of identification. Often, a person’s loyalty to a cause is seen in their identification with it and we know that sometimes a person can stop identifying with something and even change sides.

How long has Jesus been identified with his people? The answer to that question is eternally. Take the three examples of the love of the Father that we thought about earlier. In each of them, Jesus was or is involved. In the past eternity he was fully committed to the electing love of the Father and received his people from the Father as a gift of love. Moreover, he was fully committed to his people when he suffered in their place when he was on the cross. And he is identified also with his people as members of the family of God. He is infinitely more important than his brothers as the original recipient of all that they will receive. But he has never wished that any of them or all of them should be deprived of the benefits that they will receive as members of the heavenly family.

It is the case that one of the best ways to think about Jesus is to recall his three offices of prophet, priest and king. As their prophet, he teaches his people about the kingdom of God, and how loyal he is to that role, to the task of teaching them in a manner that they learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart. As their priest, he died for them on the cross, and how steadfast he was there as he endured all that was required of him in order for their sins to be dealt with and the penalty due from them to be paid by him. He is also their priest as he intercedes for them in heaven, an intercession which means that he is always their representative there. As their king he rules over them, subduing their sinfulness; he also rules for them as he works out providence for the blessing of the church; and he also rules over all their enemies, preventing them from inflicting the kinds of damage on his cause that would bring about the fullness of their malice. The steadfastness of Jesus is truly a wonderful reality.

Application

We like to talk about balance in the Christian life. Here is a good balance by which we can estimate how well we are praying for one another as believers in the Lord. Do we pray as Paul did for the Thessalonians, that our fellow Christians would be led by the Spirit into the love of the Father and into the steadfastness of Christ? If we have not done so, we should begin to do so because God loves to hear his own Word in our prayers. Such petitions reveal the presence of divine grace in our souls, grace that desires the best of experiences for other believers. What could be better than knowing in one’s heart the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ?

An unusual outcome of being directed by the Holy Spirit into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ is that we will become like the blessings we are pursuing for others. Thinking about the love of God the Father for his people has the effect of increasing our love for the Father. Thinking about the steadfastness of Jesus concerning his people has the effect of making us loyal to Jesus. Obviously the fruits within us are inferior to the perfection in which they exist in God. Yet there is a connection between the Father’s love and our love and between the Saviour’s commitment to his people and their commitment to him.

As we close, we see in the requests in this prayer samples of the wonderful change made in such a sinful heart by the presence within it of the Holy Spirit. Were such desires ever found in an unconverted heart? No. It should help our assurance when we have such desires. The two blessings reveal what the Lord wants his people to have in their spiritual experience.