1 Thessalonians 3:5

Anxious about their faith, Paul sent Timothy lest the tempter had derailed them and his work prove vain. His concern reveals genuine pastoral love.

Cross-references · 17

• Jas 1:13–14Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
• Matt 4:3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
• 2 Cor 2:11that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
• Phil 2:16holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.
• Gal 1:6–9I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
• Eph 4:14that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
• Isa 49:4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”
• Gal 2:2I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.
• 2 Cor 11:13–15For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
• 1 Cor 7:5Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
• 2 Cor 11:2–3For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
• Gal 4:11I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
• 2 Cor 7:5–7For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.
• 1 Th 3:1–2Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,
• 1 Th 3:6But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you;
• 1 Th 2:1For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain,
• Acts 15:36After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”

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