1 Thessalonians 5:25

Brethren, pray for us.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) Pray for us.—Taken in conjunction with what follows, this probably is a petition for remembrance in the great public service.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:23-28 The apostle prays that they might be sanctified more perfectly, for the best are sanctified but in part while in this world; therefore we should pray for, and press toward, complete holiness. And as we must fall, if God did not carry on his good work in the soul, we should pray to God to perfect his work, till we are presented faultless before the throne of his glory. We should pray for one another; and brethren should thus express brotherly love. This epistle was to be read to all the brethren. Not only are the common people allowed to read the Scriptures, but it is their duty, and what they should be persuaded to do. The word of God should not be kept in an unknown tongue, but transplanted, that as all men are concerned to know the Scriptures, so they all may be able to read them. The Scriptures should be read in all public congregations, for the benefit of the unlearned especially. We need no more to make us happy, than to know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is an ever-flowing and an over-flowing fountain of grace to supply all our wants.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Brethren, pray for us - A request which the apostle often makes; notes on Hebrews 13:18. He was a man of like passions as others: liable to the same temptations; engaged in an arduous work; often called to meet with opposition, and exposed to peril and want, and he especially needed the prayers of the people of God. A minister, surrounded as he is by temptations, is in great danger if he has not the prayers of his people. Without those prayers, he will be likely to accomplish little in the cause of his Master. His own devotions in the sanctuary will be formal and frigid, and the word which he preaches will be likely to come from a cold and heavy heart, and to fall also on cold and heavy hearts. There is no way in which a people can better advance the cause of piety in their own hearts, than by praying much for their minister.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. Some oldest manuscripts read, "Pray ye also for (literally, 'concerning') us"; make us and our work the subject of your prayers, even as we have been just praying for you (1Th 5:23). Others omit the "also." The clergy need much the prayers of their flocks. Paul makes the same request in the Epistles to Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and in Second Corinthians; not so in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, whose intercessions, as his spiritual sons, he was already sure of; nor in the Epistles, I Corinthians, and Galatians, as these Epistles abound in rebuke.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The apostle a little before had prayed for them, now he begs prayers of them, as he doth of other churches, Romans 15:30 Colossians 4:3. Ministers and people need each others’ prayers, and it is a mutual duty they owe to one another. Ministers are obliged by special office, people by common duty, with respect to the success of the gospel in general, 2 Thessalonians 3:1, and their own edification by their labours. The apostle, as he did not think it below him to call these Thessalonians brethren, so neither to beg their prayers. Those that stand highest in the church may stand in need of the meanest and lowest; the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. Those that preach not the gospel, may yet promote it by their prayers; yet this gives no warrant to beg the prayers of saints departed, for which we have no precept, promise, or example, as we have for the other; and what is without faith is sin. It is at the best doubtful whether they know our state below, or can hear us when we pray; and certainly God never required us to pray upon such uncertainties, and it cannot be in faith.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Brethren, pray for us. Which is added with great beauty and propriety, after the apostle had so earnestly and affectionately prayed for them; and this is directed, not to the pastors of the church only, but to all the members of it, whom the apostle styles "brethren" in a spiritual relation, as he often does; and of whom he requests, that they would pray for him, and the rest of his fellow ministers and labourers in the word, that God would more and more qualify and fit them for their work, assist in private studies and meditations, give them freedom of thought, liberty of expression, and a door of utterance, and follow their ministrations with a divine blessing and success, and deliver them out of the hands of unreasonable men; See Gill on Hebrews 13:18.

Geneva Study Bible

{15} Brethren, pray for us.

(15) The last part of the epistle, in which with most authoritative charge he commends both himself and this epistle to them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Thessalonians 5:25. Comp. Romans 15:30; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:1.

περὶ ἡμῶν] for us, namely, that our apostolic work may be successful.

1 Thessalonians 5:25-27. Concluding exhortations of the Epistle.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Thessalonians 5:25-27. Closing words of counsel and prayer.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. Brethren, pray for us] St Paul has just prayed for his readers (1 Thessalonians 5:23; comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:10-13); he desires that they in tarn should pray for him. “Some ancient authorities,” very suitably, “read also” (R. V. margin): pray also for us,—i.e. as we do for you.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 he repeats this request, in more definite form. Comp. Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3-4; Php 1:19; Romans 15:30, “that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” St Paul, in all the strength of his gifts and his office, yet felt his dependence on the prayers of the Church, and realised through this means his fellowship with brethren in Christ however distant.

The Conclusion

1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

The conclusion of the Epistle is very brief. It contains no reference to the autograph signature, which St Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:17 and in subsequent letters is careful to notify. The urgent request “that the Epistle be read to all the brethren,” is its notable feature.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Thessalonians 5:25. Περὶ ἡμῶν, for us) as we for you, 1 Thessalonians 5:23. [Paul begs the same thing in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, also in the epistle to the Romans, Ephesian, Colossians, and Philemon, and in passing, in the second epistle to the Corinthians, as well as to the Philippians. He does not make this request in the epistle to Timothy and Titus, because he either addressed them as sons or was sure of their spontaneous intercessions. He did not indeed ask this of the Corinthians in his first epistle, nor of the Galatians; for he required to rebuke them in the exercise of his paternal authority.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - Brethren, pray for us; namely, that our apostolic work may be successful; that "the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified" (2 Thessalonians 3:1). The apostle, in almost all his Epistles, requests from his converts an interest in their prayers (Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; comp. Hebrews 13:18). Ministers and people need each other's prayers, and prayer is a duty which they owe to each other. 1 Thessalonians 5:25