Paul asked the believers at Thessalonica to pray for him and those laboring with him for the sake of the Gospel (2Thessalonians 3:1). He wanted believers to pray that the Lord would grant that Gospel would have an avenue of apprehension and given honor, as it was received among them at Thessalonica. He wasn’t asking for prayer to be given free access to communities; nor was he asking that the Gospel would be spread out from where it was already accepted, viz. outward from Thessalonica. Such things may or may not occur, and, if they do, that would be good, but such a thing is entirely the Lord’s doing. What Paul was asking his readers to pray for was that God would open the hearts of folks in other communities to receive the Gospel as it was preached, just as it was done in Thessalonica. Paul was on a mission to preach the Gospel to the world at large, i.e. throughout the Roman Empire, or what was considered the civilized world (cp. Matthew 28:19-20). This was what we understand to be the Great Commission. Paul wanted success in completing the task.
It isn’t enough that one preaches the Gospel to a community. In order for the Gospel to have a course (G5153), it must be believed. Its course can never be that it was preached in this city or that city, but, rather, that it was believed in this city and that city. The one simply blankets a community with data without any mention on the fruit, while the other has foundations, in that the data was believed and received; the preaching bore fruit. Simply preaching data doesn’t unveil the power of the data. The power of the data is proved, in that it is believed, accepted and spread outward to others. There is such a thing as the spiritual and the physical. Paul mentioned in 1Corinthians 2 that he knew nothing but Christ and him crucified (verse-2), and he preached the wisdom of God, which was unknown to the world (verse-7). The Gospel is about “Things no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart conceived…” (1Corinthians 2:9). Paul was asking for prayer for this.
The Greek word Paul used for course is trecho (G5143). It is usually translated run, and it is translated course only in 2Thessalonians 3:1. It is used for the women who ran to tell the disciples that Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28:8). The word is used in Galatians 2:2 to express Paul’s concern over his labor in Galatia that he may have run (preached the Gospel) in vain. So there is a purpose in the run. The women needed to tell the Apostles Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28:8), and Paul desired his message would be believed (Galatians 2:2) not simply that it was preached freely. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21), it is not a kingdom that one could find on a map, so that one could say it is here or there. Therefore, the course of the Gospel is into a man’s heart, not into this or that city.
Secondly, Paul wanted the believers at Thessalonica to pray that he would be saved from unreasonable and wicked men (2Thessalonians 3:2). He often told others that all who would live godly in Christ would, not might, but would suffer persecution (2Timothy 3:12). Paul was well aware of the fact that trouble would arise wherever he preached Christ. What he prayed for was that he would be delivered from wicked men seeking his life, for, as his words are translated in the Vulgate, “faith does not reach all hearts” (2Thessalonians 3:2).
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