occasion required direct divine encouragement to proceed with the mission. Ever since leaving Macedonia (2 Thess. 1:7, 3:1–2, 1 Thess. 3:7) he had felt thwarted and troubled by perverse and evil men. He was worried over the Macedonian churches, night and day. All this had made him anxious and diffident on reaching Corinth. Yet, he now reflects, it was providential (1:14). It only served to bring out the convincing power of the message with which he had been entrusted (1:27). He that of greatest works