Bible Strands
2 Thessalonians 2:17
encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Thessalonian church, concluding a prayer initiated in verse 16 where Jesus and God the Father are invoked as the sources of eternal comfort and good hope.
The words — παρακαλῆσαι (parakalesai) translates literally as "to encourage," and στηρίξαι (stērixai) means "to strengthen." These verbs describe God's direct action toward the believers' inner disposition and outward conduct.
The thread — The combination of divine encouragement and strengthening recurs in Pauline correspondence where apostolic ministry relies on God's faithfulness. The same thematic thread appears in 2 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, and 1 Thessalonians 3:2.
Why it lands — The text states that God encourages hearts and strengthens believers in every good word and deed. It requires the reader to attribute moral endurance and faithful action to divine initiative rather than self-generated effort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
Cross-references
- 2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:13 so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:2 We sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,
- 1 Corinthians 1:8 He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Colossians 2:7 rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
- Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
- Jude 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—
- Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
- Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”