After Paul and Barnabas made disciples in Derbe, they turned back toward cities where the good news had already been preached (Acts 14:21–23). Their return shows that making disciples created a responsibility that continued after people first believed. New Christians needed instruction about the pressures they would face, encouragement to remain faithful, and qualified men to care for them in their own congregations. Later, Paul proposed another visit to see how the brothers were doing, and he took Silas through Syria and Cilicia to strengthen the congregations there (Acts 15:36–41). When Paul himself was prevented from returning to Thessalonica, he sent Timothy, who encouraged the believers and brought back news of their faith and love (1 Thessalonians 2:17–18; 1 Thessalonians 3:1–6). These visits gave experienced workers firsthand knowledge of what believers faced and opportunities to address those circumstances with apostolic teaching.

Returning to the Disciples in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch

The route Paul and Barnabas took after preaching in Derbe brought them back to Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch (Acts 14:21). In Lystra, a crowd had stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead (Acts 14:19–20). In Iconium, a plot to mistreat and stone the missionaries had already forced them to leave, and in Pisidian Antioch opponents had stirred up persecution and driven them out of the district (Acts 13:50–51; Acts 14:5–6). The disciples remained in the places where these events had occurred, and they needed to know how to continue living as Christians there. Paul and Barnabas returned to speak to those very people about remaining in the faith. The earlier events give concrete meaning to the encouragement Luke records, since the disciples knew that the men urging them to persevere had themselves suffered for the message they preached.

Luke describes the missionaries as “strengthening the souls of the disciples” and “encouraging them to remain in the faith” (Acts 14:22, UASV). The second expression gives the strengthening a direction, since the purpose was to help the disciples continue in the faith they had already embraced. Paul and Barnabas told them that entering the Kingdom of God would involve passing through many afflictions. Their words gave believers a way to understand the opposition they encountered without taking it as a reason to doubt the good news. A disciple who had witnessed the hostility at Lystra could remember that the men who brought the message had explicitly prepared believers for the cost of remaining faithful. The Kingdom remained the object of their hope, and the instruction they received on the visit helped them see why immediate relief from opposition was no measure of whether that hope was secure.

The missionaries also appointed elders for the disciples in every congregation, accompanied by prayer and fasting (Acts 14:23). That action provided for care that would continue after the visitors had gone. If pressure arose again in Iconium, the disciples had men in their own congregation who could teach them, address their concerns, and help them remain faithful. Paul and Barnabas then committed the believers to the Lord in whom they had believed, placing their continuing welfare in the hands of the One to whom their faith was directed. When the missionaries reached Syrian Antioch, the congregation that had sent them out, they assembled the believers and reported what God had done with them, including how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts 14:26–28). The congregations along the route received care in person, and the congregation from which the work began heard what had happened among people far beyond its own city.

Paul’s Proposal and the Change of Companions

Paul later said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are” (Acts 15:36, UASV). His proposal identifies the people he wanted to see by recalling the work he and Barnabas had already done among them. The expression “see how they are” shows that he wanted to learn how the brothers were actually doing since their earlier contact. Their circumstances could have changed, and the missionaries needed to hear how believers were faring in each city. Luke specifies the purpose of the visit without giving a set of questions or prescribing an itinerary for later congregations. The initiative belongs to Paul, who remembered the people to whom he and Barnabas had preached and took responsibility for seeking them out again.

The two men disagreed about whether John Mark should accompany them. Barnabas wanted to take him, while Paul judged it inadvisable because Mark had withdrawn in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work (Acts 13:13; Acts 15:37–38). The disagreement was sharp enough that Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas and departed after the brothers commended him to the grace of the Lord (Acts 15:39–40). Cyprus was already familiar to Barnabas from the earlier journey, when he and Paul had proclaimed the word there (Acts 13:4–12). Luke follows Paul’s route from this point and gives no further details about the work of Barnabas and Mark on Cyprus. The facts Luke gives allow the reader to distinguish the disagreement over a traveling companion from Paul’s stated purpose of revisiting the brothers, which he carried out with Silas.

Paul and Silas Strengthen the Congregations

Silas had already done the kind of work the visit required. The apostles and elders, together with the whole congregation in Jerusalem, had chosen him and Judas Barsabbas to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch with the letter concerning the Gentile believers (Acts 15:22–27). The messengers could confirm in person what the letter said, and Luke records that Judas and Silas encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words (Acts 15:30–32). The occasion shows what their presence added for people who had heard conflicting claims about circumcision and salvation. The believers could hear the letter read, receive confirmation from the men who had been sent with it, and listen to further encouragement from men familiar with the issue. When Paul chose Silas, he chose a man who had already helped the brothers at Antioch understand and receive instruction bearing directly on their faith.

Paul and Silas traveled through Syria and Cilicia, regions explicitly named among the recipients of the letter sent from Jerusalem (Acts 15:23, 40–41). Luke says that Paul went through those regions “strengthening the congregations” (Acts 15:41, UASV). In the next stage of the journey, as the travelers went through the cities, they delivered the decisions of the apostles and elders for the believers to observe (Acts 16:4). Luke then says that the congregations were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily (Acts 16:5). The sequence shows how much a visit could accomplish by bringing clear instruction on a matter that had unsettled believers. A Gentile Christian who had been told that circumcision was necessary for salvation now had a definite answer, and those who taught in his congregation had a common basis for explaining what was required of him.

Why Timothy Was Sent to Thessalonica

Timothy joined the traveling company when Paul came to Derbe and Lystra. The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him, and Paul wanted him to travel with him (Acts 16:1–3). By the time Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he could describe Timothy as their brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ (1 Thessalonians 3:2). That description identifies the capacity in which Timothy came to them. The work entrusted to him involved speaking to believers under pressure, understanding the condition of their faith, and conveying what he learned to Paul and his fellow workers. His good reputation among the brothers in two cities and his participation in the gospel work give context to the confidence Paul placed in him.

In Thessalonica, some who heard Paul’s explanation of the Scriptures joined Paul and Silas, including God-fearing Greeks and a number of prominent women (Acts 17:1–4). Opponents then gathered a mob and attacked Jason’s house in search of the missionaries. Failing to find them, they dragged Jason and other brothers before the city rulers, who took security from them before releasing them (Acts 17:5–9). The brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea by night, while the Christians in Thessalonica had to continue living among people who knew they had received the missionaries and their teaching (Acts 17:10). Paul later wrote that he had repeatedly wanted to return and had been hindered (1 Thessalonians 2:17–18). By the time he sent Timothy, there was a concrete question about what the believers had experienced since his departure and how they had responded to it.

Encouragement That Addressed the Danger

Paul says that Timothy was sent “to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith” (1 Thessalonians 3:2, UASV). He then states what he wanted that encouragement to accomplish, namely that no one would be swayed by the afflictions they were experiencing (1 Thessalonians 3:3). While he had been among them, Paul had already warned them that suffering would come, and the Thessalonians now knew from experience what he meant (1 Thessalonians 3:4). Timothy’s assignment therefore had a definite subject and a known set of circumstances. He could reinforce the teaching the congregation had received and encourage believers to hold to it when doing so carried consequences. The visit extended the earlier instruction to the point where the brothers and sisters were having to act on it.

Paul also sent Timothy to learn about their faith because he feared that the tempter might have tempted them and that the missionaries’ labor might have been in vain (1 Thessalonians 3:5). Paul knew there was opposition, but Timothy’s visit would give him knowledge of how the congregation had responded. The danger Paul identifies was that the pressure might turn people away from what they had believed. His concern shows the difference between hearing that a congregation has encountered hostility and learning whether its members are holding firm under that hostility. Timothy was entrusted with both giving encouragement and finding out how the believers were faring. That combination made the visit an act of care for the congregation and gave Paul a basis for addressing its condition in his letter.

Timothy’s Report and Paul’s Continuing Care

Timothy brought back good news of the Thessalonians’ faith and love, along with word that they remembered the missionaries kindly and longed to see them (1 Thessalonians 3:6). The report answered Paul’s fear that the congregation might have yielded to pressure. The believers’ affection for the men who had brought them the gospel also mattered in a city where receiving those men had brought public trouble upon Jason and others. Paul tells the Thessalonians that news of their faith comforted him and his fellow workers in their own distress (1 Thessalonians 3:7–8). The visit thus brought encouragement in both directions. Timothy went to support believers whose condition worried Paul, and what he learned about their endurance gave strength to the men who had sent him.

The good report gave Paul reason to thank God, and he continued praying earnestly that he might see the Thessalonians and supply what was lacking in their faith (1 Thessalonians 3:9–10). His letter shows what such continued care could involve. Later he addresses grief over fellow believers who had died, grounds their hope in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and tells them to encourage one another with that teaching (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). Here was a specific way a congregation already commended for its faith and love could become better able to care for its own people. A brother who understood what Paul taught about the resurrection had something definite to say to a grieving household. In that way, the work of strengthening believers could continue among people who lived in the same city and could be present with one another after the visitor had gone.

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