1 Thessalonians 3:12

And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another In the Greek order, But you may the Lord make to increase, &c. "whatever it may please Him to appoint in respect to usand our coming" (Ellicott). 1 Thessalonians 3:12 is linked with 11, just as 1 Thessalonians 3:11 with 10, by contrast. The Apostle is thinking now of what the Thessalonians were to each other and might do for each other, in distinction from himself.

"The Lord" is still the "Lord Jesus" of the adjoining verses, the Pattern and Fountain of love. Comp. John 13:34; Ephesians 5:2 ("Walk in love, as the Christ also loved you"). Christ is invoked as the Lord, in His Divine authority and power to grant this prayer (comp. 2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Increased lovewould be the best supplement of their "defects of faith" (1 Thessalonians 3:11), and the basis of the unblameable holinessin which they are to appear at Christ's coming (1 Thessalonians 3:13). In "brotherly love" the Thessalonians already excelled (ch. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and 2 Thessalonians 1:3); but this is a grace of which there can never be too much. Its "increase" lies in its own growth and enlargement; its "abundance" is the affluence with which it overflows toward others. These synonyms are delicately varied in Romans 5:20: "where Sin increased(or multiplied), Grace superabounded."

But this multiplied and overflowing love is not to be confined to the brotherhood: toward one another, and, he adds, toward all. Similarly in ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:15. For the Thessalonian Church, cruelly persecuted, this wider love was peculiarly necessary, and difficult. It meant loving their enemies, according to Christ's command (Matthew 5:44).

The Apostle has shewn them by his example how to love each other in Christ (see ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20); and remembering this he adds, even as we also toward you. Comp. the appeal of Christ in John 13:34 ("even as I loved you"). Paul's love too was not stationary, but living and growing. This verse has the same turn of expression as 1 Thessalonians 3:6, "even as we also (long to see) you."

Faithwas the object of the Apostle's prayer in 1 Thessalonians 3:10; Love in ver.12; and now 1 Thessalonians 3:13 crowns both, as it seeks for the Thessalonians, in view of Christ's coming, a well-assured Hope(comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:3):