1 Thessalonians 3:2

and sent Timothy, our brother and God's minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith [fearful lest the infant church should succumb to temptation or to persecution, and unable longer to endure his want of information concerning it, Paul had sent Timothy, from Athens, that he might visit the Thessalonians, and bring him word as to their spiritual condition; though in so doing he had deprived himself of all brotherly fellowship and ministerial assistance in Athens, the seat of idolatry and vain philosophy];