Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Thessalonians 3:13

"to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." — 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (ASV)

To the end.—A beautiful connection of thought. Perfect and settled sanctification in the eyes of God is the object in view, and the means by which it is to be attained is growing and overflowing love toward mankind. (See Colossians 3:14.) St. Paul is already thinking, probably, how he will treat the subject of chastity in the next chapter. (See Note on 1 Thessalonians 4:6.)

Before God . . . at the coming.—The hearts are to be blamelessly holy before God—not only all through life, but also at the Judgment Day, when Jesus Christ is to judge us in the Father’s presence. Though He has “committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22), yet the judgment is His own, and the Son is the agent by whom He judges, just as He is the agent by whom He creates : therefore, in that day, it is in the Father’s sight rather than in the Son’s (though there can be no divergence between Them) that we are to be able to clear ourselves.

With all his saints—that is, attended by them:

“Thousand, thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train.”

The word might possibly be stretched to include the holy angels (Deuteronomy 33:2; Daniel 4:13, and other passages); but here we may more probably suppose that St. Paul is anticipating his teaching of 1 Thessalonians 4:14, and besides, the Greek seems almost to indicate that these “saints” are to be assessors in the judgment—an honor to be given only to holy men. (John 5:28; 1 Corinthians 6:3, and other passages.)