Prayer to Christ
Canon Liddon. 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.… At the very moment of his conversion Saul of Tarsus surrendered himself by a prayer to Christ as the lawful Lord of his being. "Lord," he cried, "what wilt Thou have me to do?" And when afterwards in the Temple our Lord bade St. Paul "Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem," we find the apostle unfolding to Jesus his secret thoughts, fears, regrets, confessions; laying them out before Him, and waiting for an answer from Him (Acts 22:19, 20). Indeed, St. Paul constantly uses language which shows that he habitually thought of Jesus as of Divine Providence in a human form, watching over, befriending, consoling, guiding with infinite foresight and power, but also with the tenderness of human sympathy. In this sense Jesus is placed on a level with the Father in these, St. Paul's two earliest Epistles (text and 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17), in one instance as directing the movements of the apostle's life, in the other as building up the inward life of Christians. In other devotional expressions the name of Jesus stands alone (Philippians 2:19; 1 Timothy 1:12). Is not this the natural language of a soul which is constantly engaged in communion with Jesus, whether it be the communion of praise or the communion of prayer? Jesus is to Paul, not a deceased teacher or philanthropist, who has simply done his great work and then has left it as a legacy to the world; He is God, ever living and ever present, the Giver of temporal and spiritual blessings, the Guide and Friend of man in his outward and inward life. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. WEB: Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you;