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1Th_3:8. Paul considers the ἀνάγκη and θλίψις which lay upon him as a θάνατος , but he does not feel this evil; the θάνατος is converted to him into ζωή , when he learns how the churches which he had founded cleave to the Lord. External matters are, in general, indifferent to the apostle, provided he reaches his life-aim, to lead souls to Christ; every success in reference to this imparts strength and fulness of life to him.
νῦν ] is not to be understood in contrast to the pre-Christian life of the apostle, when his thought and aim were entirely different; whereby a thought entirely foreign to the context would be introduced. The force of νῦν as an adverb of time, at present, is not to be too greatly pressed (Marloratus: Sub adverbio nunc repetit, quod prius dixerat, se afflictione et necessitate graviter fuisse oppressum), but has here (on account of ἐάν ) a causal reference; now, serving as an introduction to what follows: ἐὰν ὑμεῖς στήκητε ἐν κυρίῳ . Comp. Kühner, II. p. 385; Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 25.
ζῶμεν ] not to be referred, with Chrysostom, to the future, eternal life, nor weakened to “we are happy” (Pelt and others), or “satisfied” (Grotius, Moldenhauer), but the meaning is: For now we live, i.e. we are in full strength and freshness of life, we do not feel the sorrows and tribulations which the outer world prepares for us.
ἐὰν ὑμεῖς στήκητε ἐν κυρίῳ ] when, or so soon as ye stand fast in the Lord, hold fast to His fellowship.
ὑμεῖς ] applies specially to the Thessalonians what holds good of Christians generally.
ἐάν ] makes the fact of the stedfastness of the readers appear as a well-grounded supposition (see Schmalfeld, Syntax des Griech. Verbums, p. 201). But the hypothetical form of the sentence includes, indirectly, the exhortation to hold fast to the Lord for the future.