1 Thessalonians 3:11
pNow God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, 1direct our way unto you.
Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν, καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, κατευθύναι τὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς·
Textual key: ‘Christ’ [AV–‘our Lord Jesus Christ’; NAS –‘Jesus our Lord’]
p:
Ezra 8:21 ¶Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Psalms 5:7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Psalms 32:7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
Psalms 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
Proverbs 3:5 ¶Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Jeremiah 10:23 ¶O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
1:
Or, guide.
Here his prayer is expressed. The person to whom he prays is God himself, personally considered as God the Father, and relatively, when he styles him our Father: so ought believers to address themselves to God, not absolutely, but as to their Father. So Christ taught his disciples to pray: Our Father; and so the Spirit of adoption doth prompt the saints to pray: we come to God with greater freedom and confidence when we can come to him as a Father. And he prays also to Christ, whom he styles our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whence we may have an argument that Christ is God, else he could not be the object of Divine worship: not that we are to present our prayers distinctly to the Son without considering his union with the Father, nor to the Father distinctly from the Son, but to the Father in and by the Lord Jesus Christ; for so only we can consider him as our Father in prayer. And he speaks of Christ also in his relation to his people: our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the thing he prays for is, that God would direct his way unto them; that the hinderances of Satan, whatsoever they were, might be removed, and the providence of God open him a way to come to them: the word direct signifies in the Greek to make straight, and, 2Th 3:5, is applied to the heart: The Lord direct your hearts, & c., which is setting the heart straight towards God; answering to the Hebrew word Jashar, which signifies to be upright, and is often used in the Old Testament. The French read it, address our way. And hence we learn our duty by the apostle’s practice to pray to have our way in all cases directed by God.