1 Thessalonians 3:2-5

JMNT(i) 2 and then sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow-worker in Christ's message of ease and goodness, to perhaps set you firmly (make you stable) and possibly call you alongside (to aid, encourage, exhort, console and give relief) over the [situation] of your trust and faith (or: conviction and loyalty), 3 that no one be continuously wagged as a tail (= shaken or agitated) within these pressures (contractions, constrictions; oppressions), for you yourselves have seen and are aware that we are continually laid into (= repeatedly destined and set for) this! 4 You see, even when we were with you we were predicting (laying it out and telling beforehand) to you that, "we are about to be continuously pressed (or: squeezed; oppressed), " just as it was even birthed (or: also came to be), and you have seen and know. 5 On account of this I also, no longer keeping a lid on [my desires] (= when I could bear it no longer), sent to find out about your faith, trust and loyalty, lest (or: in case) somehow the One continuously putting [folks] to the proof (or: the trier; [note: this could refer to God, or to one of His instruments, as with Job]) put you to the proof (tried or tested you), and our exhausting labor (or: = the trouble to which we went; toil; hardship; or: beating) may be birthed into a void (or: come to be [entered] into an empty place; or: exist in vain; = be to no purpose).