After he had been thus labouring about two or three months, Silas and Timothy returned from Macedonia (Acts xviii. 5), and relieved the Apostle’s intense anxiety respecting the churches he had planted there (1 Thess. i. 2; ii. 13; iii. 6), informing him of the continuance of their faith and love, of their fond remembrance of himself, and their eager desire to see him again (1 Thess. iii. 6). The effect of this welcome news seems to have been an instantaneous increase of the zeal and resolution with which he prosecuted his labours. Already there were signs of opposition to the progress of the truth, and he had begun his work at Corinth _in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling_ (1 Cor. ii. 3). But now a weight was taken off from his mind (1 Thess. iii. 1–6), and _he was pressed in the spirit_, or, according to a preferable reading, he was _pressed by the word_[1012] (Acts xviii. 5). His zeal was a positive pain to him. His anxieties removed, he felt he could not restrain the impulse to give utterance to the Word of God, and to apply himself with redoubled energy to his work. Satisfactory, however, as had been in the main the tidings brought by Silas and Timothy from Thessalonica, some irregularities which had crept in, and some mistaken notions the new converts entertained, required correction. Since the Apostle’s visit several of their relatives and friends had died, and they feared that these departed Christians would lose the happiness of witnessing their Lord’s second coming, which they conceived to be close at hand (1 Thess. iv. 13–18). Under the excitement of the same expectation others had abandoned their lawful callings, and fancying that they need not work claimed the support of the richer members of the church (1 Thess. iv. 11, 12). Others, again, had not learned to subdue their carnal appetites (1 Thess. iv. 1–8), and there were symptoms of a lack of order (1 Thess. iv. 9, 10), and a tendency to despise the gift of prophesying, or inspired teaching, in comparison with other and more showy gifts (1 Thess. v. 20; comp. 1 Cor. xiv.).