Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Thessalonians 3:4

"For verily, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction; even as it came to pass, and ye know." — 1 Thessalonians 3:4 (ASV)

Timothy told them not to be “unsettled by these trials.” “Trials” (or “afflictions”; GK 2568) are the stiffest test of faith. Such is the inevitable lot of Christ’s followers (e.g., Jn 16:33), just as it was for their Master (cf. Jn 15:18– 16:4). These trials are not to be identified with the end-time tribulation just before Christ’sparousia, which will mark the culmination of God’s wrath against the ungodly (Matthew 24:21; 1 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:6). Rather, they are part of the church’s ongoing experience, as Paul indicates in v.4. Paul had already told them that trials are an inevitable part of Christian experience (3:3; cf. Acts 14:22); Timothy was to reinforce this message.