1 Thessalonians 2:17 - Exposition

Here a new chapter ought to have commenced, passing on to another subject, the apostle's desire to visit the Thessalonians. But we, brethren, being taken from you ; literally, being bereaved of you (R.V.). For a short time ; literally, for the space of an hour . And yet it was several years before the apostle revisited Thessalonica; but he here speaks of the short period—a space of six months—which had already separated them; not, as some suppose, that his mind was so full of the ideas of eternity that he overlooked all divisions of time. In presence, not in heart. Similar expressions are common in Paul's Epistles, denoting his love for his converts; thus: "Though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit" ( Colossians 2:5 ). Endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire ; because our separation has been so short. As has been well observed, "Universal experience testifies that the pain of separation from friends and the desire to return to them are more vivid, the more freshly the remembrance of the departure is on the mind" (Lunemann).