<p>3:5- see on Jn. 5:42.</p><p><i>And so may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God- </i>Paul was confident God would act directly upon their hearts due to his prayer for them of 2:16,17. Here we have a clear statement to the effect that God is able to work directly upon the human heart, guiding it to a position or understanding. If we are simply intended to read the Bible and figure out things for ourselves, then Paul not only would state this explicitly, but there would be no point in him praying and wishing for such 'direction' of their hearts, if the direction of the human heart is purely down to our unaided efforts, and by our own intellectual processing we are intended to as it were squeeze the Spirit out of the pages of the book called the Bible.</p><p><i>Into the patient waiting for Christ</i>- Gk. &lsquo;the patience of Christ&rsquo;. His characteristics should be our aim, and Paul knew that God can work directly on the human heart to make us more like His Son. Note that He is even now patient; John spoke of how he was sharing in the patience / endurance of Christ (Rev. 1:9). This is the same idea as in Colossians 1 and Rom. 8 see notes there- we are counted righteous by reason of our status in Christ, but God&rsquo;s grace doesn&rsquo;t simply count us that way, but works through the Spirit within our hearts to actually change us into the &ldquo;Christ&rdquo; which we are counted as being. That work of the Spirit is through mechanisms, such as God&rsquo;s word which is Spirit and life (Jn. 6:63), and through the ministering of men like Paul who aim to present us &ldquo;perfect&rdquo; or completely in Christ, in the last day (Col. 1:28). But God is also sovereign and can clearly work directly on human hearts; for historically, not all believers have had access to Bibles and the majority have been illiterate. </p>