Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

work of faith--the working reality of your faith; its alacrity in receiving the truth, and in evincing itself by its fruits. Not an otiose assent; but a realizing, working faith; not "in word only," but in one continuous chain of "work" (singular, not plural, works), Th1 1:5-10; Jam 2:22. So "the work of faith" in Th2 1:11 implies its perfect development (compare Jam 1:4). The other governing substantives similarly mark respectively the characteristic manifestation of the grace which follows each in the genitive. Faith, love, and hope, are the three great Christian graces (Th1 5:8; Co1 13:13). labour of love--The Greek implies toil, or troublesome labor, which we are stimulated by love to bear (Th1 2:9; Rev 2:2). For instances of self-denying labors of love, see Act 20:35; Rom 16:12. Not here ministerial labors. Those who shun trouble for others, love little (compare Heb 6:10). patience--Translate, "endurance of hope"; the persevering endurance of trials which flows from "hope." Rom 15:4 shows that "patience" also nourishes "hope." hope in our Lord Jesus--literally, "hope of our Lord Jesus," namely, of His coming (Th1 1:10): a hope that looked forward beyond all present things for the manifestation of Christ. in the sight of God and our Father--Your "faith, hope, and love" were not merely such as would pass for genuine before men, but "in the sight of God," the Searcher of hearts [GOMARUS]. Things are really what they are before God. BENGEL takes this clause with "remembering." Whenever we pray, we remember before God your faith, hope, and love. But its separation from "remembering" in the order, and its connection with "your . . . faith," &c., make me to prefer the former view. and, &c.--The Greek implies, "in the sight of Him who is [at once] God and our Father."