Verse 5
For this cause I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent that I might know your faith, lest by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor should be in vain.
The tempter ... "Only in one other passage (Matthew 4:3) is Satan thus designated in the New Testament." [13] Paul's usual designation of the evil one was by his proper name, Satan; and some scholars have even based their denial of Pauline authorship of Hebrews on the "fact!" that Paul nowhere uses "devil" as in Hebrews 2:14. This so-called "fact" is like many that are alleged by critics; because Paul used "devil" frequently, as in Acts 13:10; Ephesians 4:27; 6:11,1 Timothy 3:6,7; 2 Timothy 2:26, and Hebrews 2:14!
Our labor should be in vain ... If old five-point Calvinism had any proof in the New Testament, Paul could have spared himself any concern about any of the Thessalonians being lost!
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