In sharing his own anxiety over their well-being with them, the Apostle Paul opens up to the church at Thessalonica by telling them that his prolonged (unwanted) absence from them has caused him turmoil. His reasons? (1) The relationship that they have will be celebrated when Christ returns. (2) They needed his assistance, which meant sending them Timothy in Paul's stead. (3) Paul knew that they would be facing persecution. (4) He feared that temptation might have caused them to be unfruitful.
Paul's openness demonstrates the importance to us of our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, the need that every local church has for its own version of Timothy to support and encourage it, and our collective reliance upon faith to overcome temptation.
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