<p>3:3 <i>But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and guard you from the evil</i>- Mt. 13:19 describes the evil one taking away the word out of&nbsp;our heart. However can we resist that evil one? Paul had his eye on this question in 2 Thess. 3:1,3, where he speaks of the word being <i>with them</i>, and also of the&nbsp;Lord keeping them from the evil one. Paul knew that the Lord (Jesus) will help us in keeping the word in our hearts, if we allow him to; he saw the Lord's power as greater than the schemes of the Judaizers to upset their faith (see on :2). &nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Establish you&quot; translates Greek meaning &lsquo;to turn in a direction, to confirm&rsquo;. The Lord confirms us in the path we wish to go; He has the ability to turn human hearts by His direct operation upon us (:5; Prov. 21:1). The theme continues in :5, where we read that the Lord directs our hearts; and see on 2:17. But this turning or establishing of the human heart is often done by the Lord through a human mechanism; the same word for &ldquo;establish&rdquo; is found in Lk. 22:32, where Peter is told to &ldquo;strengthen&rdquo; his brethren, in Rom. 1:11 where Paul speaks of his strengthening of the Roman believers through his personal presence with them and teaching the Gospel to them (Rom. 16:25), and in 1 Thess. 3:2 where Timothy&rsquo;s visiting of brethren would strengthen them (Paul goes on to say that <i>the Lord </i>would strengthen them, 1 Thess. 3:13- working through Timothy to do so, we can conclude). Likewise in :5 when we read that the Lord will &ldquo;direct&rdquo; their hearts, the only other time Paul uses this word is in 1 Thess. 3:11 where he speaks of how God will direct his journey so that he visits the Thessalonians. God&rsquo;s confirming of His children in their way to Him can operate through the agency of our pastoral efforts for others, our physical presence with them through visiting them, our sharing of the Gospel with them.</p><p>They could be 'guarded' or 'kept' from the forces of evil, the Judaizers associated with &quot;the man of sin&quot; in chapter 2. This implies direct psychological action upon them by the Lord Jesus; and clearly He uses His Spirit to achieve this. Thus the same word is used of &quot;the Holy Spirit which dwells within us&quot; empowering Timothy to keep or guard what had been entrusted him (2 Tim. 1:14).</p>