We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything.
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We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything. For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Parallel Translations
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We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.
We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen,
and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.
You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything.
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We geve God thakes all waye for you all makinge mension of you in oure prayers
with out ceasynge and call to remembraunce youre worke in the faythe and labour in love and perseveraunce in the hope of oure lorde Iesus Christ in the sight of God oure father:
because we knowe brethren beloved of god how that ye are electe.
For oure gospell came not vnto you in worde only but also in power and also in the holy gost and in moche certayntie as ye knowe after what maner we behaued oure selves amonge you for youre sakes.
And ye became folowers of vs and of the lord and receaved the worde in moche affliccion with ioye of the holy gost:
so that ye were an ensample to all that beleve in Macedonia and Achaia.
For from you sounded out the worde of the lorde not in Macedonia and in Achaia only: but youre fayth also which ye have vnto god spred her silfe abroade in all quartars so greatly that it nedeth not vs to speake eny thynge at all.
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We giue God thankes alwayes for you all, making mention of you in our prayers
Without ceasing, remembring your effectuall faith, and diligent loue, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Iesus Christ, in the sight of God euen our Father,
Knowing, beloued brethren, that ye are elect of God.
For our Gospell was not vnto you in worde only, but also in power, and in the holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know after what maner we were among you for your sakes.
And ye became followers of vs, and of the Lord, and receiued the worde in much affliction, with ioy of the holy Ghost,
So that ye were as ensamples to all that beleeue in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you sounded out the worde of the Lord, not in Macedonia and in Achaia only: but your faith also which is toward God, spred abroad in all quarters, that we neede not to speake any thing.
Cross-references (181)
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (v3) But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
- Revelation 2:19 (v3) “I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (v4) But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation…
- Titus 2:7 (v7) In all things be showing yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, be showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility,
- 1 Corinthians 11:1 (v6) Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Show all 100 cross-references
- Galatians 5:6 (v3) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
- Romans 1:8-9 (v2) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness,…
- 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (v5) For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you, neither did we eat bread from anyone’s…
- Acts 13:52 (v6) The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 4:16 (v6) I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
- 2 Peter 1:10 (vv4–5) Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
- Mark 16:20 (v5) They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
- Ephesians 1:15-16 (v2) For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints,…
- Titus 3:4-5 (v4) But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but…
- 1 Peter 5:3 (vv5, 7) not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.
- Romans 1:8 (v8) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.
- Romans 8:24-25 (v3) For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t…
- 1 Timothy 4:12 (v7) Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in…
- Philemon 1:4 (v2) I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
- 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 (v5) For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much…
- Colossians 1:3 (v2) We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
- 2 Thessalonians 1:11 (v3) To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work…
- Romans 9:25 (v4) As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”
- Philippians 1:3-4 (v2) I thank my God whenever I remember you, always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy,
- 1 John 5:3 (v3) For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- Romans 15:13 (vv3, 6) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Galatians 5:22 (v6) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
- Galatians 6:9 (v3) Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.
- Colossians 3:12 (v4) Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (v5) For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:14 (v5) to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 2:4-5 (vv4–5) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive…
- Romans 10:14-18 (v8) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear…
- 1 Corinthians 4:20 (v5) For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power.
- 2 Corinthians 8:7-9 (v3) But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also abound in this…
- Galatians 3:2-5 (v5) I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having…
- Ephesians 1:4 (v4) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
- Colossians 2:2 (v5) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that…
- 1 Thessalonians 3:6 (v3) But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us…
- 2 Thessalonians 3:9 (v6) not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us.
- Hebrews 6:18-19 (v5) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to…
- Hebrews 10:36 (v3) For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
- 1 Peter 1:12 (v5) To them it was revealed, that they served not to themselves, but to you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through…
- 1 John 3:3 (v3) Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
- Romans 1:7 (v4) to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Romans 8:28-30 (v4) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he…
- 1 Corinthians 1:4 (v2) I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
- 1 Corinthians 15:58 (v3) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in…
- Ephesians 5:1 (v6) Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
- Hebrews 2:3-4 (v5) how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those…
- James 1:3-4 (v3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,…
- 1 John 3:18 (v3) My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.
- 3 John 1:11 (v6) Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
- Romans 5:3-5 (vv3, 6) Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:4 (vv6, 8) so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the…
- Isaiah 52:7 (v8) How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims…
- Acts 11:21 (v5) The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
- Romans 1:16 (v5) For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first,…
- Romans 11:5-7 (v4) Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of…
- Romans 15:18-19 (v5) For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and…
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (v3) For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who…
- Galatians 5:22-23 (v5) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things…
- Ephesians 3:20 (v5) Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- Philippians 1:6-7 (v4) being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is even right…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:3 (v3) We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love…
- 2 Timothy 1:3-5 (v3) I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day…
- Hebrews 11:24-34 (v3) By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with…
- James 2:17-26 (v3) Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without…
- 3 John 1:12 (v8) Demetrius has the testimony of all, and of the truth itself; yes, we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.
- Revelation 14:6 (v8) I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe,…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (vv3, 6) For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the…
- Ecclesiastes 2:26 (v3) For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he…
- Matthew 16:24 (v6) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
- John 6:27-29 (v3) Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the…
- John 8:12 (v6) Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have…
- John 14:15 (v3) If you love me, keep my commandments.
- John 14:16-18 (v6) I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world…
- John 14:21-23 (v3) One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love…
- John 21:15-17 (v3) So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him,…
- Romans 2:7 (v3) to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
- Romans 8:16-18 (v6) The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with…
- Romans 12:12 (v3) rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;
- Romans 15:4 (v3) For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the…
- 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (v5) for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations…
- 2 Corinthians 11:9-10 (v7) When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the…
- Galatians 1:4 (v3) who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—
- Galatians 5:13 (v3) For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
- Philippians 4:9 (v5) The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:8 (v7) For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has…
- 2 Thessalonians 3:1 (v8) Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, even as also with you,
- 2 Timothy 1:9-10 (v4) who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to…
- 2 Timothy 2:8 (v5) Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News,
- Philemon 1:5-7 (v3) hearing of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints, that the fellowship of your faith…
- Hebrews 6:10-11 (v3) For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the…
- Hebrews 6:15 (v3) Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
- Hebrews 11:7-8 (v3) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- Hebrews 11:17 (v3) By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son,
- James 1:16-18 (v5) Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with…
- James 5:7-8 (v3) Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient…
- 1 Peter 1:2 (v4) according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (181 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (29 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–8 2 We give thanks to God. He praises, as…
2 We give thanks to God. He praises, as he is wont, their faith and other virtues, not so much, however, for the purpose of praising them, as to exhort them to perseverance. For it is no small excitement to eagerness of pursuit, when we reflect that God has adorned us with signal endowments, that he may finish what he has begun, and that we have, under his guidance and direction, advanced in the right course, in order that we may reach the goal. For as a vain confidence in those virtues, which mankind foolishly arrogate to themselves, puffs them up with pride, and makes them careless and indolent for the time to come, so a recognition of the gifts of God humbles pious minds, and stirs them up to anxious concern. Hence, instead of congratulations, he makes use of thanksgivings, that he may put them in mind, that everything in them that he declares to be worthy of praise, is a kindness from God. He also turns immediately to the future, in making mention of his prayers. We thus see for what purpose he commends their previous life.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–6 An example of a right Christian rejoicing:whereby also we…
An example of a right Christian rejoicing:whereby also we learn, that such as have great gifts in them are in two sorts bridled, to wit, if they consider that they have received all from God, and that continuance must be desired at his hands, whereunto also the whole Epistle exhorteth the Thessalonians.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–8 2 We give thanks to God always for you…
2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
Ver. 2. We give thanks to God] Thus he beginneth most of his Epistles with thanksgiving; this being held to be the first that ever he wrote to any of the Churches, the beginning of his strength, as Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), and the excellency of dignity, Gen 49:3.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 We give thanks to God; after his salutation he…
We give thanks to God; after his salutation he adds his thanksgiving and prayer for them. He saw in them an eminent seal of his apostleship, and effect of his ministry, and advantage to the gospel in their example, and so gives thanks. And his thanks is to God, because the success of the gospel was more from his blessing than his own ministry.
Always; pantote, that is, in a constant course; or affectu, though not actu, by a grateful sense he had of it continually upon his heart.
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For you all; for he had a good report of them all from Timothy, 1Th 3:6, and we find not one reproof in this First Epistle to any one, as in the Second.
Making mention of you in our prayers; he adds also his prayer for them, wherein he made mention of them by name, as some understand the words, μνειαν υπων ποιουμενοι. Prayer and thanksgiving ought to go together, especially in the ministers of the gospel, and in the work of their ministry. And thus the apostle practised towards other churches also, as Rom 1:8; Phi 1:3, &c.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6, 8 Note here, 1. The holy wisdom of our apostle,…
Note here, 1. The holy wisdom of our apostle, who being about to magnify and extol the graces of the Spirit wrought in the Thessalonians, particularly their faith, their love, their patience and hope, instead of commending them for these graces, he breaks forth into thanksgiving unto God for them; We give thanks to God always for your work of faith and labour of love, and patience of hope: His business was not to celebrate and commend them, but to admire the special grace of God conferred upon them, and conspicuous in them.
Learn hence, that it is our duty, and will be our great wisdom, so to speak of the grace of God, which we see and observe in others, as that they may not be puffed up with any conceit of their own excellencies, but see matter of praise and thanksgiving due unto God, only, and nothing to themselves.
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Note, 2. The special and particular graces which St. Paul observed in the Thessalonians, their faith, their love, their hope, together with the evidence of the sincerity of those graces, their faith was a working faith, that is, fruitful in good works; their love was a laborious love, promoting the good of all the saints; and their hope in the Lord Jesus, rendered them patient in and under all tribulations for his sake. There is no such way to judge of the truth of the inward habits of grace in the heart, as by observing the effects and fruits of that grace in the life; The apostle concluded they had true faith, because a fruitful faith; true love, because a laborious love; a good hope in Christ, because accompanied with patience under the cross of Christ.
Note, 3. St. Paul’s offices and acts of love performed on the Thessalonians behalf, namely, thanksgiving and prayer.
1. Thanksgiving, We give thanks unto God always for you all.
But why, O blessed apostle, art thou so thankful for the graces of God’s holy Spirit wrought in these Thessalonians?
For thy own sake, no doubt, as well as theirs; he saw in them an eminent seal of his apostleship, the happy fruit and blessed effect of his ministry among them.
This, O! This it was that drew forth his very soul in thanksgivings to God. Learn, that the faithful ministers of Christ rejoice greatly at the sight and appearance of the grace of God in any person, but when they see it in their own people, as the seal of their ministry, and the blessed fruit of their own painful endeavours amongst them, this carries them out into transports of thankfulness; verily, the joy of their hearts is too big to come out at their mouths, they give thanks for such a mercy without ceasing.
Yet, 2. He subjoins prayers with his praises, adds, supplications to his thanksgivings, making mention of you always in my prayers; to let them know that there was still much grace wanting in them to keep them humble, as well as great grace in them to make him thankful: Our prayers for grace, must be thankful prayers, or accompanied with thanksgiving; when we pray to God for more grace, we must ever be thankful for what we have received; and when we return thanks for grace received, we must be earnest and instant with God for further and fresh supplies of grace wanted.
Note, 4. The frequency, yea, contancy of our apostle, in performing these duties of prayer and thanksgiving on the behalf of these Thessalonians, We give thanks to God always for you, remembering you without ceasing in the sight of God, and our Father: that is, as often as we appear before God our Father, we incessantly pray for you, and constantly praise God on your behalf.
Where observe, the comfortable relation in which the saints of God do approach and draw near unto God in prayer, they come to him as a Father, yea, as their Father; in the sight of God our Father. The Holy Spirit of God vouchsafed to believers under the gospel, enables them to come before him in prayer, with a full assurance of his fatherly affection towards them, as being the sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, and it enables them to cry, Abba, Father; and they are very careful to improve this their relation to God, and interest in him as a Father, in prayer, on behalf of themselves, and all their fellow brethren and members in Christ. Thus St. Paul here, We give thanks for you, and remember you without ceasing, in the sight of God and our Father.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv2, 6 I. The apostle begins with thanksgiving to God. Being…
I. The apostle begins with thanksgiving to God. Being about to mention the things that were matter of joy to him, and highly praiseworthy in them, and greatly for their advantage, he chooses to do this by way of thanksgiving to God, who is the author of all that good that comes to us, or is done by us, at any time. God is the object of all religious worship, of prayer and praise. And thanksgiving to God is a great duty, to be performed always or constantly; even when we do not actually give thanks to God by our words, we should have a grateful sense of God's goodness upon our minds. Thanksgiving should be often repeated; and not only should we be thankful for the favours we ourselves receive, but for the benefits bestowed on others also, upon our fellow-creatures and fellow-christians. The apostle gave thanks not only for those who were his most intimate friends, or most eminently favoured of God, but for them all.
II. He joined prayer with his praise or thanksgiving. When we in every thing by prayer and supplication make our requests known to God, we should join thanksgiving therewith, Phi 4:6. So when we give thanks for any benefit we receive we should join prayer. We should pray always and without ceasing, and should pray not only for ourselves, but for others also, for our friends, and should make mention of them in our prayers. We may sometimes mention their names, and should make mention of their case and condition; at least, we should have their persons and circumstances in our minds, remembering them without ceasing. Note, As there is much that we ought to be thankful for on the behalf of ourselves and our friends, so there is much occasion of constant prayer for further supplies of good.
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III. He mentions the particulars for which he was so thankful to God; namely,
1. The saving benefits bestowed on them. These were the grounds and reasons of his thanksgiving. (1.) Their faith and their work of faith. Their faith he tells them (Th1 1:8) was very famous, and spread abroad. This is the radical grace; and their faith was a true and living faith, because a working faith. Note, Wherever there is a true faith, it will work: it will have an influence upon heart and life; it will put us upon working for God and for our own salvation. We have comfort in our own faith and the faith of others when we perceive the work of faith. Show me thy faith by thy works, Jam 2:18. (2.) Their love and labour of love. Love is one of the cardinal graces; it is of great use to us in this life and will remain and be perfected in the life to come. Faith works by love; it shows itself in the exercise of love to God and love to our neighbour; as love will show itself by labour, it will put us upon taking pains in religion. (3.) Their hope and the patience of hope. We are saved by hope. This grace is compared to the soldier's helmet and sailor's anchor, and is of great use in times of danger. Wherever there is a well-grounded hope of eternal life, it will appear by the exercise of patience; in a patient bearing of the calamities of the present time and a patient waiting for the glory to be revealed. For, if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it, Rom 8:25.
2. The apostle not only mentions these three cardinal graces, faith, hope and love, but also takes notice, (1.) Of the object and efficient cause of these graces, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ. (2.) Of the sincerity of them: being in the sight of God even our Father. The great motive to sincerity is the apprehension of God's eye as always upon us; and it is a sign of sincerity when in all we do we endeavour to approve ourselves to God, and that is right which is so in the sight of God. Then is the work of faith, or labour of love, or patience of hope, sincere, when it is done under the eye of God. (3.) He mentions the fountain whence these graces flow, namely, God's electing love: Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God, Th1 1:4. Thus he runs up these streams to the fountain, and that was God's eternal election. Some by their election of God would understand only the temporary separation of the Thessalonians from the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles in their conversion; but this was according to the eternal purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will, Eph 1:11. Speaking of their election, he calls them, brethren beloved; for the original of the brotherhood that is between Christians and the relation wherein they stand one to another is election. And it is a good reason why we should love one another, because we are all beloved of God, and were beloved of him in his counsels when there was not any thing in us to merit his love. The election of these Thessalonians was known to the apostles, and therefore might be known to themselves, and that by the fruits and effects thereof - their sincere faith, and hope, and love, by the successful preaching of the gospel among them. Observe, [1.] All those who in the fulness of time are effectually called and sanctified were from eternity elected and chosen to salvation. [2.] The election of God is of his own good pleasure and mere grace, not for the sake of any merit in those who are chosen. [3.] The election of God may be known by the fruits thereof. [4.] Whenever we are giving thanks to God for his grace either to ourselves or others, we should run up the streams to the fountain, and give thanks to God for his electing love, by which we are made to differ.
3. Another ground or reason of the apostle's thanksgiving is the success of his ministry among them. He was thankful on his own account as well as theirs, that he had not laboured in vain. He had the seal and evidence of his apostleship hereby, and great encouragement in his labours and sufferings. Their ready acceptance and entertainment of the gospel he preached to them were an evidence of their being elected and beloved of God. It was in this way that he knew their election. It is true he had been in the third heavens; but he had not searched the records of eternity, and found their election there, but knew this by the success of the gospel among them (Th1 1:5), and he takes notice with thankfulness, (1.) That the gospel came to them also not in word only, but in power; they not only heard the sound of it, but submitted to the power of it. It did not merely tickle the ear and please the fancy, not merely fill their heads with notions and amuse their minds for awhile, but it affected their hearts: a divine power went along with it for convincing their consciences and amending their lives. Note, By this we may know our election, if we not only speak of the things of God by rote as parrots, but feel the influence of these things in our hearts, mortifying our lusts, weaning us from the world, and raising us up to heavenly things. (2.) It came in the Holy Ghost, that is, with the powerful energy of the divine Spirit. Note, Wherever the gospel comes in power, it is to be attributed to the operation of the Holy Ghost; and unless the Spirit of God accompany the word of God, to render it effectual by his power, it will be to us but as a dead letter; and the letter killeth, it is the Spirit that giveth life. (3.) The gospel came to them in much assurance. Thus did they entertain it by the power of the Holy Ghost. They were fully convinced of the truth of it, so as not to be easily shaken in mind by objections and doubts; they were willing to leave all for Christ, and to venture their souls and everlasting condition upon the verity of the gospel revelation. The word was not to them, like the sentiments of some philosophers about matters of opinion and doubtful speculation, but the object of their faith and assurance. Their faith was the evidence of things not seen; and the Thessalonians thus knew what manner of men the apostle and his fellow-labourers were among them, and what they did for their sake, and with what good success.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–8 We give thanks to God always for you all,....…
We give thanks to God always for you all,.... For all the members of this church, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, greater or lesser believers, officers or private Christians; for their being a church, for the gifts bestowed on them, for the graces hereafter mentioned that were wrought in them and exercised by them; the glory of all which is given to God, and thanks for the same, which shows them to be gifts of his, and not in the least owing to any merits of men: the apostle ascribes nothing to their free will, previous dispositions and qualifications, diligence and industry; nor does he attribute anything to himself and to his companions, who were only ministers by whom these believed; but he refers all to God, to his grace and goodness: and he returned thanks to him for it, and that "always"; whenever he thought of it, made mention of it, or was at the throne of grace, as follows,
making mention of you in our prayers; to God, daily, both in private and in public, at which times thanksgivings to God were made on their account; for thanksgiving is a part of prayer, and requests are always to be made known unto God with thanksgiving. The Ethiopic version renders this clause in the singular number, "and I am mindful of you always in my prayer"; and leaves out the word "all" in the former clause.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8 Remembering in the sight of God - That is,…
Remembering in the sight of God - That is, praising him for it. Your work of faith - Your active, ever-working faith. And labour of love - Love continually labouring for the bodies or souls of men. They who do not thus labour, do not love. Faith works, love labours, hope patiently suffers all things.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–8 Verse 2. We give thanks] See Phi 1:3; Phi…
Verse 2. We give thanks] See Phi 1:3; Phi 1:4, and Col 1:3; where the same forms of speech are used.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6 1Th 1:2-4. We give thanks, &c. — From hence…
1Th 1:2-4. We give thanks, &c. — From hence to 1Th 3:13, we have the chief object of this epistle, which was to comfort, strengthen, and establish the Christians at Thessalonica, and induce them to persevere under all the discouragements which he, their apostle, or they themselves, might meet with. And in his entrance upon this design he gives vent to what lay most upon his heart, thanking God for their conversion from idolatry to Christianity amidst so many discouraging circumstances; and praying that they might continue in the faith they had embraced, in which he takes all occasions of speaking well of the Thessalonians, as indeed he does through all the epistle, in which there is a peculiar sweetness, unmixed with any sharpness or reproof; those evils which the apostle afterward reproved, having not yet crept into the churches: remembering without ceasing — Or constantly in all our prayers; your work of faith — Your active, ever-working faith; and labour of love — Your love to God and man, which induces you to labour continually to promote the glory of God, and do good to the bodies or souls of men; and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ — Your patience under all your persecutions and other sufferings, the fruit of that blessed hope of eternal life, which is grounded on the death and resurrection of Christ, and is wrought in you by his saving grace; in the sight of God, even our Father — Whose eye is continually upon you, who observes, and will not fail to reward, the graces wrought in you by his blessed Spirit. Observe reader, all true faith in Christ, and the truths and promises of the gospel, works; all genuine love to God and man, labours; and the hope which is well grounded and lively, patiently bears all things. Knowing, brethren, beloved of God — And of us his servants; your election — Your being chosen to be God’s peculiar people, by these plain marks. Of predestination and election, see on Rom 8:28; Eph 1:4-5.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–8 We give thanks to God always for you all…
We give thanks to God always for you all - see the notes, Rom 1:9.
Making mention of you in our prayers - See the notes at Eph 1:16. It may be observed here:
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(1) That the apostle was in the habit of constant prayer.
(2) That he was accustomed to extemporary prayer, and not to written prayer. It is not credible that “forms” of prayer had been framed for the churches at Thessalonica and Ephesus, and the other churches for which Paul says he prayed, nor would it have been possible to have adapted such forms to the varying circumstances attending the organization of new churches.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 8 The apostle praises the Thessalonians for the progress they…
The apostle praises the Thessalonians for the progress they had made in the theological virtues [of faith, hope, and charity], and enumerates the profit they had derived from each. Their faith had produced works; their charity rendered their labour light and easy, and their patience was the fruit of their future hopes, in confidence of which they bore what they had to suffer from their unconverted countrymen. (Estius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv2, 8 Personal And Historical
FIRST PART
Personal And Historical
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1Th_1:2 to 1Th_3:13
___________
I
Paul shows the Thessalonians the genuineness of his preaching and of their faith
(1Th_1:2 to 1Th_2:16)
1Th_1:2-7
The Apostle thanks God for the gracious standing of the Thessalonians (1Th_1:2), which he describes in its human manifestation (1Th_1:3), as well as its Divine ground (1Th_1:4). The latter is their election, to he inferred from the fact, that the Gospel was, on the one hand, preached amongst them with power (1Th_1:5), and, on the other hand, was received by them with joy, so as to furnish an example to others (1Th_1:6-7)
2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you15 in our prayers; 3remembering without ceasing16 your work of faith, and labor [toil, κόπου] of love, and patience of hope in [of ]17 our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of [before, ἔμπροσθεν] God and our Father [our God and Father, τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἡμῶν]; 4knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God [brethren beloved of 5God, your election]18; for [because, ὅτι] our gospel came not unto you19 in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in [sin. omits this ἐν] much assurance; as [even as, καθώς] ye know what manner of men we were [proved were found]20 among you [for ἐν ὑμῖν Bin. has simply ὑμῖν] for your sake; 6and ye became followers [imitators, μιμηταί] of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost; 7so that ye were [became, γενέσθαι] ensamples [a pattern]21 to all that believe [all the believers]22 in Macedonia and [in] Achaia.[23]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (1Th_1:2.) We give thanks.—With such a thanks giving for the faith of his readers, or rather an assurance that he is always giving thanks on that account, Paul begins all his Epistles to churches (and also 2 Timothy and Philemon), with the exception of that to the Galatians, where he sets out with a characteristic θαυμάζω. What God has done and continues to do in sinners appears to him ever afresh great and worthy of praise, nor does he even allow himself to be disconcerted in his thanksgiving by the many faults and imperfections still adhering to the churches, while on the other hand by testifying his thankful joy in his readers, every one of whom is to understand that he himself is included therein (πάντων), he opens his way to their hearts. But pro gratulatione gratiarum actionem ponit, ut Dei beneficium esse admoneat, quicquid prædicat esse in ipsis laude dignum (Calvin).—The plural, found here and 2 Thessalonians and Colossians, is not the literary We (Pelt, [Conybeare,] &c., contrary to 1 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, &c., but includes Silvanus and Timothy (comp. 1Th_2:18).24 As the three men preach and write together, so also they pray together. Excellently De Wette: “In other cases the Epistles begin with such declarations of thankfulness only by way of preamble, and so that soon a special object of the Epistle is announced; but here the thanksgiving is connected with a good deal that the Apostle feels himself impelled to write to the young church respecting its condition, and his own relation to it; and this forms a principal part of the Epistle, if not its main substance.” The Apostle gives thanks for the Christian standing of his readers, and to confirm them therein, and remove all doubt of its Divine reality, as well as of the purity of the motives with which he himself had led them into their position, is really, strictly speaking, his object in chh. 1–3.
2. Making mention of you.—That μνείαν ποιούμ. supplies the particular explanation, or modal definition, to εὐχαρ.: “whilst we make mention of you,” is clear; and equally so that εἰδότες, 1Th_1:4, supplies a causal definition: Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians, because he knows their election. But it is a question, whether the intermediate participle is to be made parallel to the first or the third. The former view is adopted by most, and then at first sight a beautiful parallel results: μνημονεύοντες answers to the μνείαν ποιούμ., the ὑμῶν is extended in ὑμῶν τοῦ ἔργου—Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, and, ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν, &c. returns in ἔμπροσθεν—πατρὸς ἡμῶν. But the parallelism is only too strong, and amounts to tautology; the first clause were of no account alongside of the second. We shall, therefore, do better (with Chrysostom, Calvin, Schott, Koch), by taking μνημον. as parallel to εἰδότες, and finding in 1Th_1:3 the first, and in 1Th_1:4 the second, ground assigned for the thanksgiving. In favor of this, also, is the analogy of Col_1:4 and 2Th_1:3. To thanksgiving for the Thessalonians the Apostle is impelled on the human side by his remembrance of their work of faith, &c.; on the divine side, by his reasonable conviction of their election.25
3. (1Th_1:2 [3].) Without ceasing.—Ἀδιαλείπτως is by the Peschito, Vulgate, Luther, Bengel, Ewald, and many others [Benson, Burton, Bloomfield, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.—J. L.], rightly construed with what precedes; and for this the analogy of 1Th_2:13; Rom_1:9; comp. 2Ti_1:3, is decisive. The word, moreover, is used by Paul in only one other place, 1Th_5:17, and thus always in connection with prayer. Nor does the word so arranged drag (Lünemann); rather it is distinguished, and πάντοτε thereby receives its special illustration. The Apostle would certify the Thessalonians with peculiar emphasis that they are constantly in his devotional remembrance. On the other hand, μνημονεὐοντες does not in this way become flat (De Wette), but is just as marked and forcible as the parallel εἰδότες at the head of the clause.26
4. (1Th_1:3.) For we are mindful [Remembering].—Μνημονεύειν is not merely transitive=μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι, to mention, bring to remembrance (De Wette, Lünemann, &c.27), but it also means, and indeed primarily, to be mindful (μνήμων), as κυριεύειν, δουλεύειν=κύριος, δοῦλος εἶναι. Thus everywhere in Paul’s writings, and generally in the New Testament; whence arises a new proof in favor of our view of 1Th_1:3 (though, even taken intransitively, the word might be understood of remembrance in prayer).—Paul remembers what he himself has seen at Thessalonica, and what Timothy has since reported to him (1Th_3:6). He goes on to speak in unusually strong terms of the excellencies of the Thessalonians, as in the second chapter he has to commend his own ministry. In this there is neither flattery nor egotism; nor is it simply even a father’s joy in the young church, that puts such words in his mouth. He is rather “exhibiting evidences to the Thessalonians, that they had attained to a genuine faith, and that there is in them a true work of God” (J. Mich. Hahn).
5. Your work in [of] faith.—Ὑμῶν is to be connected with the following substantives, and that in such a way that its force extends over all the three main ideas.—It is, then, of three things that Paul is mindful, and this threefoldness he defines according to the three fundamental elements of the Christian life, which he so often extols: faith, love, hope (comp. 1Th_5:8; 1Co_13:13; Col_1:4 sq.). But here these occur only in a subordinate, genitival way. And the genitives are all of the same sort: genitives of the origin (De Wette, Schott, and most);28 they mark the feeling that produces ἔργον, κόπος, ὑπομονή, showing itself practically therein. In German we should best employ compound substantives: Glaubenswerk, Liebesmühe, [faith-work, love-toil], were this kind of phrase possible in the last instance. Now in this way also may be explained the only one of these expressions that is difficult, and has been very variously understood: τὸ ἔργον τῆς πίστεως, with which comp. 2Th_1:11. Here ἔργον, as parallel to κόπος, cannot denote a single work, but is something continuous, a totality, like our day’s-work, life-work. And so ἔργον is already found also in classical Greek = business, occupation; it denotes every human activity, especially in so far as it displays a free energetic movement, or is connected with toil and effort (Passow). In the New Testament and with Paul the word stands repeatedly for a man’s whole life-work, the sum of his ἔργα, as it is sometimes said that God judges according to works, at other times according to every one’s work (comp., for instance, Romans 1 [2] 6 with 1Pe_1:17; Rev_20:12 with Rev_22:12). Τὸ ἔργον τῆς πίστεως is thus a course of action, with the accessory idea of vigor, strength, as proceeding from faith; the resolute, serious authentication of faith; practical earnestness in Christianity (comp. for the expression τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου, Rom_2:15, in which only the genitival relation is somewhat different; whereas the material parallel cited by De Wette, and others, Gal_5:6 : πίστις δἰ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη, is in so far less apt, as it confounds the second particular, the κόπος τῆς ἀγάπης, with the first). To the later Pauline usage, formed in connection with the doctrine of justification, our expression stands as yet in no direct, conscious relation; but in reality it forms a double antithesis to the ἔργα νόμου, since faith and law stand mutually opposed (Rom_4:13 sqq.; Gal_3:23 sqq.), and so the singular τὸ ἔργον to the anarthrous plural—the undivided unity of the spiritually quickened life-work to the incoherent multiplicity of single, more or less external, works and performances. For the thought, such passages may be compared as Col_1:10; Eph_2:10, and especially Tit_3:8 (καλῶν ἔργων προΐστασθαι οἱ πεπιστευκότες θεῷ); Tit_2:14; Tit_2:7; Tit_1:16; 1Ti_2:10; 2Ti_2:21; 2Ti_3:17. As Paul has the expression τὸ ἔργον τῆς πίστεως in his two earliest Epistles, so his latest, the Pastoral Epistles, insist with peculiar earnestness on the evidencing of faith in good works. Herein moreover lie hints for the reconciliation of Paul with James. After what has been said, we can now readily estimate the divergent explanations. It is a mistake, were it only on account of the analogy with what follows, to take τῆς πίστεως, nearly in the sense of Joh_6:29, as a genitive of apposition [Hofmann, Alford]: the work, that consists in faith; whether, indeed, we understand this, with Calvin and Calov, of faith as a mighty operation of God in man, or, with Clericus and Macknight, of the reception of the Gospel as man’s work, so far as that involves, for example, the subduing of prejudices. It is also erroneous, because resting on an indistinct conception of the ἔργον and of the genitival relation, and likewise as violating the analogy with what follows, and encroaching in the third member, to lay the chief stress, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Pelt, Lünemann (though he rightly says that ἔργου is emphatic), and others, on πίστεως: faith, something begun with energy, and in spite of all temptations steadfastly retained. Rightly Anselm: quomodo fides vestra non est otiosa, sed semper bonum opus gignit; De Wette: moral activity, proceeding from faith; and similarly Bengel, Olshausen, &c.
[At 2Th_1:11 Dr. Riggenbach would modify the above explanation of ἔργον τῆς πίστεως by limiting the expression to the inward work of faith in the soul itself, and cites Rom_4:20-21 as a better parallel than Gal_5:6. An obvious objection to this is, that what Paul had observed of the faith of the Thessalonians, and what he now remembered of it, could only have been its outward manifestations in the life, not its internal operation in the heart. And just so in regard to their love and hope.—J. L.]
6. Toil in [of] love.—[“Such as their own Jason had shown amid persecutions, in Acts 17.” Jowett.—J. L.]—The first expression bears on the relation to God, the second on that to the Christian brethren (comp. Col_1:4), the third on that to the world and its persecutions. The governing substantives advance from the active to the passive: ἔργον is vigorous doing, ὑπομονή patient suffering, κόπος forms the transition: toil is a doing combined with suffering; strenuous, fatiguing, devoted labor. Patience is the last and highest; rightly to suffer is more and harder than rightly to work; even in the case of the Lord suffering was the last, decisive test, and became the means of His perfecting and glorification (comp. 1Pe_4:14). In these three, then, are shown and verified faith, love, hope—the root, stem, and crown of the new life. Faith lays hold of the grace exhibited in the facts of redemption, and is thus the foundation of Christian life, the reimplanting of man through Christ in God. Thence arises love as the echo and answer to the Divine love in the heart of man; it is the pure opposite of selfishness that principle of sin—and so is the soul of the Christian life, and of the present Christian fellowship—the fulfilling of the law. Hope knows that the future belongs to the Lord and His Church; it is the real expectation and sure prospect, that the pneumatic life, which now already, descending from the Lord, dwells in his members, shall outwardly also penetrate and transfigure all things, and subdue its still existing antagonists, the flesh and the world, by means of new revelations of the Lord. Thus, in these three subjective factors of the new life is reflected at the same time the historical character of the objective kingdom of God.—With regard to the Thessalonians, therefore, Paul rejoices first of all in the vigor and earnestness of their life of faith, in that they have not yet become faint, and then in the fact that during this hard time, when their church is exposed to manifold vexations, they not merely in a general way hold together in mutual love, but also with laborious effort and sacrifice come to one another’s help—in beneficiis spiritualibus vel externis (Bengel). Comp. the examples, Act_17:5; Act_17:9; Rom_16:4; Rom_16:12; 1Jn_3:16.—With this is connected finally
7. (1Th_1:3.) Patience in [of] hope. Ὑπομονή, properly the staying under (under the cross), patient, unwearied constancy in suffering; here in persecution (see Act_17:5 sqq.). This constancy proceeds from hope, because in view of the future glory one can the more cheerfully bear the present suffering (Rom_8:18; 2Co_4:17 sq.; Heb_11:26; Heb_12:2 sq.). Patience, therefore, appears as the inseparable companion of hope (Rom_8:25); likewise, in the reverse order, as producing it, for in the spiritual life there exists a reciprocal influence (Rom_5:3 sq.); or it even takes the place of hope beside faith and love (Tit_2:2; comp. 2Ti_3:10; 1Ti_6:11).—τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ refers not to all the three preceding virtues as derived from Christ (Olshausen, [Steiger, on 1Pe_1:2, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson]), nor yet to ὑπομονή (Bengel, after 2Th_3:5), but to ἐλπίδος as a genitive, not of apposition (Luther), but of the object. Christ is the proper object of hope (and as such is certainly Himself also called ἡ ἐλπίς, Col_1:27; 1Ti_1:1), not only because on Him all our trust (this the more common meaning of ἐλπίς) rests, but especially because it is through His return and the revelation of the Kingdom of God therewith connected, that the Christian’s hope of glory is fulfilled (Tit_2:13). Let it be observed, how by the addition of this genitive the element of hope, so important in our Epistles, already appears here in a fuller and more emphatic way than the other two.29
8. Before our God and Father.—Ἡμῶν belongs to both substantives.[30] The words ἔμπροσθεν, &c., may be joined either with the verb μνημονεύοντες (De Wette, Olshausen, [Lünemann, Alford, Ellicott], &c.), or with the three substantives, τοῦ ἔργου, &c. (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Œcumenius [Bishop Hall, Jowett, Wordsworth]). Even in the first case μνημον. need not be understood of mention in prayer, but that Paul before God, that is, so often as he comes before God in prayer, remembers their work of faith, &c.; that is the ground of his thanksgiving; comp. 1Th_3:9, a parallel passage that favors this view. But opposed to it is the verbal arrangement, since ἔμπροσθεν, &c. would in this way drag; and the other connection, which no more than ἐν θεῷ, 1Th_1:1, requires the article to be repeated (against Lünemann), might be preferable.[31] By this means the entire conduct of the Thessalonians is put in relation to God (comp. 1Th_3:13), as 1Th_1:4 will presently describe in turn God’s bearing towards them. Chrysostom [Wordsworth]: “Since no man praised or rewarded what they did, therefore Paul adds these words, as if he would say: Be of good cheer, you suffer in the presence of God.”
9. (1Th_1:4.) Knowing.—Εἰδότες is thus parallel with μνημονεύοντες, 1Th_1:3; comp. the note on that word. Paul makes the two participles emphatic by placing them in the front. By the side of the remembrance of what actually lay before his eyes, he sets the knowledge, the firm assurance of something, of which one cannot be so easily certain, and in this way he intimates so much the more strongly, that on this point he is sure of his ground. To an afflicted person no higher comfort can be given, than when it is allowed to say to him: I know that thou art chosen.—With this also agrees the address: brethren beloved of God (ἠγαπημένοι, perfect participle: embraced once for all by the Divine love): they are permitted to regard themselves as objects of the Divine love, of electing love; they are to know that their Christianity is not a human dream and vapor, but the evidence that the everlasting purpose of God’s own love is directed towards them. Comp. 2Th_2:13, where an address almost entirely similar stands also in connection with election; Col_3:12; Rom_11:28; Psa_60:7 [Psa_60:5]; Psa_108:1 [Psa_108:6],32 where the members of the chosen people are called יְדִידֵי יְהוָֹה LXX. ἀγαπητοί. Thus the members of the Old and of the New Testament Church are spoken of both as God’s Chosen and as His beloved., Ἐκλογή, selection, the election of grace, is the acting of the Divine love, whereby God has from eternity freely devised in Christ the plan of salvation, according to which all men should be called in succession to the kingdom of heaven,33 and has likewise received into the same these ordained persons.34 Ἐκλέγεσθαι answers to בָחַר, e. g. Deu_7:6, and includes three things: ἐκ-λέγ-εσθαι: the stem marks the freeness of the Divine choice; the middle, that God has chosen men for Himself, into, the fellowship of His love, for His own; ἐκ, to select, out from the world, comp. Joh_15:15; Joh_16:19 [Joh_15:16; Joh_15:19]. In our place ἐκλογή denotes, not, as Rom_9:11, the act of choosing, but, as 2Pe_1:10, the being chosen [Möller35]; Rom_11:1, the chosen. Paul constantly gives this title of elect to Christians, in whom through their calling and faith the purpose of redemption is realized; see 1Th_1:5-6.
10. (1Th_1:5.) Because.—Ὅτι not=that (Luther, Bengel, Schott, &c.), but=because, for. It serves not to analyze τὴν ἐκλογήν, but to confirm εἰδότες τὴν ἐκλ. ὑμῶν. The Apostle assigns two grounds of his knowledge of the election of the Thessalonians, both lying in the nature of the case, so far as from the realization of election an inference may be drawn backward to its existence: 1. the call had come to them in power (1Th_1:5); 2. they had received it in faith (1Th_1:6). The first takes place on the part of God through the apostolical preaching, the second on the part of men; and therefore to τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν (1Th_1:5) the ὑμεῖς (1Th_1:6) is emphatically opposed.
11. Our gospel came [German: showed itself] unto you.—Before Paul came to Macedonia and Thessalonica, as Rieger also and Olshausen remind us, he was forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in the provinces of Asia and Bithynia (Act_16:6-7); from which he could but infer that the hour of their election had not yet struck (it came later, Act_19:10). Instead of this, he was called by a vision to Macedonia (Act_16:9-10), and here, and therefore also in Thessalonica, he was able to preach with more than ordinary power and assurance in the Holy Ghost. By this he perceived that God’s saving purpose was directed to the Thessalonians. Ἐγενήθη εἰς, or, which is the same in sense, πρὸς ὑμᾶς, not: was with you (Luther), as if it were ε`̓ν ὑμῖν,36 but: came to you, showed itself in its direction and relation to you. By ἐγενήθη the certainty of the fact is expressed in a sonorous word, which is therefore thrice repeated in 1Th_1:5-6, and precisely at the essential points. This we have attempted to represent in the translation by: showed itself.37
12. Not in word only, but, &c.—Comp. as specially parallel 1Co_4:20; only that μόνον is wanting there, because the λόγος τῶν πεφυσιωμένων is in question, here the preaching of the Apostle Δύναμις is the objective Divine force, which shone forth from the Apostle in preaching, and wrought as a power on men’s souls, spiritualis doctrinal energia (Calvin); πληροφορία, the subjective fulness of conviction, assurance, confidence, and joyfulness, with which he was able to speak; Ewald: gushing fulness. In the middle stands the common principle of both: the Holy Ghost, who animated the Apostle, and was, indeed, the Author alike of the former fact, the real power, and of this consciousness, the fulness of confidence. By means of ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, significantly placed in the centre, as it were the soul of both, δύν. and πληροφ. receive their precise specification; for with mere power and assurance can even a worldly orator speak.—Power and spirit belong together (comp. 1Co_2:4; Rom_15:19; Act_1:8; Act_10:38; comp. Luk_1:35), and so spirit and life (Rom_8:12 [11]; Joh_6:63; 2Co_3:6; Rom_8:2; Rom_8:10.
13. Even as ye know what, &c—With this begin the appeals, so frequent in the sequel, especially 1Th_2:1-12 (1Th_2:1-2; 1Th_2:5; 1Th_2:9-11), to the personal knowledge of the Thessalonians respecting the Apostle’s behavior among them. These can only be explained by the fact, that some sought to misrepresent that behavior, and bring it under suspicion. Οἷοι, how behaved, in what power and fulness of the Spirit (Olshausen); carried out in detail, 1Th_2:1-12. So little does the Apostle divide his gospel, his preaching, his office, from his person, that for proof of the former he appeals, and can appeal, to the latter. He says not: how we preached, but: how we were. The whole man preached. Such a fine advance of the thought characterizes the style of the Apostle.—By the δἰ ὑμᾶς put significantly at the close Paul hints thus early at what he afterwards also further unfolds, 1Th_2:1 sqq., that in his ministry he had sought not his own advantage, but only the salvation of the Thessalonians.
14. (1Th_1:6.) And ye became, &c.—After 1Th_1:5 should be placed, not, as is commonly done, a period, but a comma, 1Th_1:6 being still dependent on ὅτι of 1Th_1:5, as the emphatic ὑμεῖς is no doubt opposed to τὸ εὐαγγ. ἡμῶν of that verse;[38] see Exegetical Note 9 [10]. Thus 1Th_1:6, with which, 1Th_1:1 is connected, contains the second ground from which is inferred the election of the Thessalonians. namely, the reception on their part of the call. But, as Paul preached, not merely in a general way, but with power, &c., so they too received the word, not merely in a general way, but in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Through these corroborating circumstances on both sides the conclusion in regard to the election becomes the more certain. And therefore is this corroboration emphasized in 1Th_1:6 by prefixing μιμηταὶ ἡμῶν ἐγενήθητε, &c.; for the tertium comparationis lies not in δεξάμενοι τὸν λογόν, which indeed were unsuitable, in particular, to the Lord, but in this, that in great affliction, with holy joy of the Spirit, they yielded themselves to God in faith, as Paul and the Lord had done in their preaching and official procedure. On μιμηταί, comp. 1Co_4:16; 1Co_11:1; Php_3:17; Eph_5:1; Gal_4:12, and the Doctrinal division.
15. Having received the word, &c.—When through the preaching of the gospel a man experiences in his heart the truth and glory of salvation, this will the more vividly mount even to joy of the Holy Ghost, the more that outward affliction, that is, hostility and persecution for the gospel’s sake, seeks to dispute with him the possession of salvation. As a counterpoise to the world’s intimidation and vexation, the Holy Ghost works this inward joy at the opening prospect of an everlasting communion with God (πνεύματος ἁγίου, genitive of the origin, like the genitives of 1Th_1:3). And now the question is, whether the man gives the victory to this joy or to that affliction, to the new power of the Spirit or to the old power of the flesh. If he does the first, the case comes to δέχεσθαι τὸν λόγον..39 The δέχεσθαι—on which comp. 1Th_2:13; Luk_8:13; Act_8:14; Act_11:1; Act_17:11; Jam_1:21 (δέξασθε τὸν λόγον, imperative)—expresses man’s agency in the work of salvation, as this is likewise marked by ὑμεῖς. But this agency is not an independent efficiency (Pelagianism), nor any coöperation (Synergism), but an acceptance, the affirmation of the Divine working on us and in us, a free receptivity.40 While a man thus gives admission to prevenient grace, asserting itself to him inwardly in the word of the Spirit (1Th_1:5), and acting upon his heart, he yet recognizes the new life as entirely the work of the Holy Spirit, because he himself has not effected, but merely received it.—On the affliction of the Thessalonians, see Act_17:5 sqq. At Thessalonica, and generally in the primitive Church period, conversion was an act of personal courage and vigorous self denial, since a man had to be prepared to surrender comfort, honor, property, and life itself.
16. (1Th_1:7.) A pattern to all the believers answers to the μιμηταί of 1Th_1:6 : The true followers become themselves in turn patterns for others. This circumstance, moreover, that they had become a pattern for others, might be of vise to the Thessalonians for confirmation in their faith, and for their conviction of its reality; the Apostle, therefore, still further enlarges upon it in the following section (1Th_1:7-10), to which our verse forms the transition.—Believers) is one of the most frequent designations of Christians in the New Testament—comp. Act_2:44; Act_4:32—along with ἅγιοι, &c.
17. Macedonia and Achaia, whither the Apostle journeyed from Thessalonica. Achaia, originally the most northern territory of the Peloponnesus, was from the year 146 before Christ the name of the Roman province that embraced the Peloponnesus and Hellas, since by the overthrow of the Achæan League the Romans had made themselves masters of Greece. The two provinces of Macedonia and Achaia together formed the entire Greek domain, and are therefore often named together (Act_18:12; Act_19:21; Rom_15:26. 2Co_9:2).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (1Th_1:2.) The exordiums of the Pauline Epistles afford us noteworthy glimpses of the devotional life of the Apostle. So faithfully and constantly did he bear churches and individuals on his heart in intercession and thanksgiving, that he is able to speak of it to his readers in terms, which to the common sense appear hyperbolical. And it is true that the apostolic is by its very nature hyperbolical, inasmuch as the Apostles transcend the ordinary measure, and excel all others not only as preachers and founders of the Church, but also as men of prayer. When the Twelve at Jerusalem gave up the external services to the deacons, they said: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Act_6:4). Prayer is to them the full half, and indeed the first half, of their office. And so Paul too begins his Epistles, in which he addresses the word to the churches, with a distinct reference to the fact, that he is constantly praying for them. By prayer we act upon God; by the word, on the world, on men. To every labor for the world must be added the blessing of God; the moral can prosper only on the religious ground. Hence for every man the golden, in its simplicity inconceivably wise and comprehensive, rule: Pray and labor. But for the laborer in the word, whereby the world is to be brought to God, and the Spirit of God is to enter men’s souls, the rule has a double value. And indeed from the statements of the Apostle we observe that he had regular exercises of devotion; as a result of which, his Epistles manifest a continual devotional frame.
2. (1Th_1:3.) On faith, love, hope, see Exegetical Note 5.
3. (1Th_1:4.) Election is not to be so understood, as if God had appointed some men to salvation, to the exclusion of others. The latter are not rejected, but simply passed by for a time [?—nur zurückgestellt]. Election has reference to an organic position in that kingdom of God, to which all men are appointed, and, in connection therewith, to a temporal entrance into the same (see Romans 9-11, and on that passage especially J. T. Beck, Versuch einer pneumatisch hermeneutischen Entwicklung des ix. Kapitels im Brief an die Römer, Stuttgart, 1833). “God chooses for Himself out of all, before others and for others.” (Richter, Hausbibel, on Eph_1:4.) Quite as little is election to be so understood, as if in the elect grace wrought irresistibly, so that they could not fail to become and remain believers. Rather, when God’s hour for a man has struck, there goes forth to him through the Gospel the call (1Th_1:5), which he can receive or not (1Th_1:6;—on the relation between grace and freedom, see the second Note on that verse); and, when he has received it, it is still for him a question of permanent interest, that he persevere and continue steadfast in grace (see 2Th_2:13-15 : εἵλατο ὑμᾶς ὁ θεὁς ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς—ἐκάλεσεν διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου—ἄρα οὖν στήκετε. 2Pe_1:10): “Scripture certainly knows only of a Divine causality in the matter of salvation; but neither does it conflict with this, that the conditions of obtaining salvation rest with man.”41 (Stier, on Eph_1:4.) By means of the first view, that the election of grace is to be understood in an organic and historical sense, the difficulty in regard to the reprobi is solved; by means of the other, that freedom, or, more precisely, man’s free receptivity is not annulled, but unbound, by grace and the election of grace, is solved the difficulty in regard to the electi. “A prædestinatio sanctorum is spoken of, but without at the same time affirming also a reprobatio impiorum or a gratia irresistibilis.” (Olshausen, on Eph_1:4.) Predestination is a decrelum absolutum, and to that extent remains ever a mystery, in so far as it rests on the free good pleasure of the Divine love and wisdom, which according to their sovereign decision, yet not otherwise in the kingdom of God than in secular history, assign to one a distinguished, to another an inglorious, position; but it is no decretum horrendum, because on the ground of what God gives men move with freedom, and so the claims of conscience and reason remain secure. Nay, only thus does predestination become, what it is to Paul, the Divine world idea, the plan, formed in Christ, of creation and redemption, which lies at the basis of the entire development of the world, and comprehends the successive elevation or reintroduction of the creatures into the glory of the Creator. But for believers the knowledge of election has a double significance—a humbling one, made especially prominent in Romans 9; and one that lifts up, with which the Apostle has to do here, and at Eph_1:4; Rom_8:28-30. The first consideration is the consciousness, fatal to all self righteousness, that our salvation rests not on any. doings or performances of ours, but is founded wholly out of and above ourselves in the free, everlasting mercy of God. The second is the lofty and joyful assurance, wherein believers find comfort, that their salvation is therefore not of yesterday, but from eternity; that it rests not on weak, human props, but in the eternal purpose of grace of the Father in the Son, into the world pervading realization of which they know themselves to be taken up. The grace of God is all embracing; but it is precisely in consequence of the universality of the gracious disposition that despisers perish. Jul. Müller: “Love could not be in earnest with itself, did it not deny its denial.” [Mat_10:33; Luk_12:9.] To believers, on the other hand, it never occurs either to suppose that now indeed they can no longer miscarry, or even to claim superiority to other men, as if God had not loved the world. “From all weakness and temptation we may ever again revert to the eternal foundation, that in Jesus Christ God has foreordainec us, that within the eternal contemplation of His Son is included our election, which now advances in manifestation and accomplishment, till we hear the gospel and are sealed by the Spirit. Only this is implied in the election of grace, as Paul explains it, that faith has reason to consider itself chosen; of those who do riot attain to this grace he speaks not at all.” (“Minutes of the Preachers’ Conference at Stuttgart, May 12, 1852, p. 309.)—[Barnes: It is possible for a people (and for individuals) to know that they are chosen of God, and to give such evidence of it that others shall know it also.—J. L.]
4. (1Th_1:5.) The call does not come through every sort of gospel-preaching, but through!, preaching filled with the Spirit, and an essential point in the matter is the personal endowment of the preachers. Comp. the Exegetical Notes 11 and 12.
5. (1Th_1:6-7.) Christianity proposes to men no new problems which they must first solve by themselves, and as it were in new paths; it is also in this respect not a law, but a gospel. The primary problem is solved, the way is prepared, and in this way there are forerunners, in whose footsteps we simply tread, God, Christ, and His witnesses. God was imitated by Christ (Joh_5:19 sq.), Christ by Paul and the Apostles (1Co_11:1), Paul by the Thessalonians and all who so walked (Php_3:17), and then again these imitators themselves became a pattern for others (see Exegetical Note 15). Nor is that a spiritless imitation, but a following (Luk_9:23 sqq., Luk_9:57 sqq.) in the power of the Spirit, who begets ever new, fresh life, though in historical continuity; since He is a Spirit of remembrance (Joh_14:26), yea, the ever present God Himself, authenticating His earlier creations by those subsequent, so that preceding spiritual men become models and instruments of training for the later, and that word: Learn of me (Mat_11:29), finds its fulfilment perpetually renewed. Thus the Church hangs through Christ on God, and from God there goes forth through Christ and His Apostles into the world an unbroken succession of bright forms, a cloud of witnesses (Heb_12:1), who are images and representatives of God in the world, and, in connection with their predecessors, leave a personal impress of the heavenly, spiritual quality, according to the circumstances and needs of each several period. As we commence the missionary work amongst a heathen people, not by translating the Bible into their language, but by sending messengers to them—(it is not without reason that πορευθέντες occurs in the missionary charge, Mat_28:19)—so, in general, to the word of the Spirit, even the preached, audible word, must still be added the visible stamp of the Spirit in living personalities, who show by act the power and glory of the gospel, and in whom can be seen, if the expression is allowed, the holy arts of the spiritual walk—the spiritual dietetics. On this rests the high importance of good biographies, and yet more of the living observation of Christian characters. What Christian owes not his best thanks to such life impressions? For, indeed, humanity is so organized, and this is its noble distinction, that what is deepest rests ever on the relation of person to person: the relation of father and child, of master and disciples, penetrates everywhere. Oetinger: “It cannot be denied that an embodied visible gospel42 is necessary to the right use of the written rule, and of the hearing of preaching. The written standard must be made available through the help of the Spirit in the members.” Hence the importance of Church History in its innermost sanctuary, so far as it is a history of the invisible Church, of men of God, of true saints. That is the most living tradition, the tradition of the Spirit and of power. In this sense also an essential importance belongs to the Church as well as to Holy Scripture. She is in a certain sense a continuation of the actual revelation of God alongside of the verbal revelation, wherein, it is true, the word of God reaches, as it always does, far beyond the fact, and the latter serves only as a step and means of guidance to the former (comp. Joh_2:11; Joh_2:22; Joh_5:36 sqq. and Joh_5:39 sqq.; Joh_14:10-11). And thus shall it be, till what we shall be appears; then fact and word become one.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Th_1:2. Prayer, as in the apostolic Epistles, so generally, the beginning and foundation of the promulgation of the word. The preacher’s office a perseverance in prayer and in the ministry of the word; comp. Act_6:4.—The Apostle’s daily communication with his churches by prayer.—Zwingli: True love is careful for the brethren.—A Christian preacher gives God glory and thanks for what through him has been wrought in souls; and just so the praise of other men becomes in the Christian’s mouth thanksgiving to God.—Rieger: Oh, the lightening of the official burden, when the Lord still opens our eyes, and shows us for what we have to give thank?, and for what to pray!—Theodoret: We should first give thanks for the good already bestowed upon us, and only then pray for what still is wanting. So do we find it everywhere with the Apostle.—Diedrich: Happy the man, who is able to let all his joy pour itself forth in pure thanksgiving to the Father. Otherwise there is even no joy worth anything.—Calvin: An important motive to zealous progress is the reflection, that God has granted to us noble gifts for the perfecting of the work begun; that under His guidance we have already made advances on the right road for reaching the end. For as an idle confidence in the virtues to which men foolishly lay claim puffs them up, and makes them secure and sluggish, so the recognition of God’s gifts humbles pious souls, and incites them to a solicitous zeal.
1Th_1:3. Calvin: A brief description of true Christianity: 1. That faith be earnest and vigorous; 2. that no pains be spared, so long as there are neighbors to be assisted, but that all the pious assiduously fulfil the obligations of love; 3. they should studiously endeavor, in the hope of Christ’s manifestation, to despise all things else, and by patience overcome both the irksomeness of the long interval (to the appearing of the Lord), and all the temptations of the world.—Luther: Faith is a lively, active, practical, temperate thing, so that it cannot but do good works unremittingly. It does not even ask whether good works are to be done; but let a man rather ask whether he has done, and is ever doing, them. Without constraint, therefore, a man becomes willing and glad to do good to every one, to serve every one, to suffer in every way, from love to God and for His glory, who has shown him so great grace; so that it is impossible to separate works from faith, as impossible as for heat and light to be separated from fire.—Bengel: He, who from regard to his own profit and ease withdraws from labor, loves little.—Rieger: Love will have reality and truth, nor that in such measure only as is convenient for every man, bringing him honor and a good name, without too closely compromising his own life; but so that a man must descend withal from his own station, and the distinctions thereto belonging, and, instead of finding his pleasure in himself, place himself in the circumstances of another: that is what is meant by the labor of love. Under the patience of hope may be comprehended the entire career of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is all summed up in this, that He condescended to what was most ignominious, and maintained Himself above what was most glorious; as now in our career of faith everything depends on the hope of the kingdom breaking its way through tribulation with the patience of Christ.
1Th_1:4. Election the highest comfort of the tempted.—Zwingli: Paul therewith guards his commendation, lest they arrogate to themselves what belongs to God alone.—Marks of election: 1. a powerful call; 2. a believing reception of the gospel as the word of God; comp. 1Th_2:13.—An anointed preacher may thus comfort tempted believers, and one Christian another: I know that thou art chosen.—Rieger: The Apostle speaks thus decidedly of their election, in consequence of the call and the evidence of their obedience to it. Nor is it even beyond our present measure to form such a judgment, in praise of the work of God in a soul, though formerly, to be sure, it may have been more perceptible. Our office otherwise loses its proper force [Seele, soul], when we never dare to discern between the righteous and the unrighteous, or to recognize as dead or alive what really is so.
1Th_1:3-4. [Scott: Faith which worketh not obedience; professed love that declines self denying labor; and hope which is separated from patient continuance in well doing, can never prove a man’s election.—J. L.]
1Th_1:5. The right preaching of the kingdom of God, like itself, stands not in words, but in power.—Spiritual power dwells in the preaching, when the hearers feel that the preacher himself is a man of firm conviction, who stands in the joyful assurance of that which he preaches.—Power on others and assurance (within) we cannot give to ourselves; it is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Even an Apostle cannot everywhere work with equal force. It behoves us, renouncing self, to yield ourselves to the Lord.—The preacher’s doctrine and life must form one whole.—John Mich. Hahn: A holy, Christian behavior makes impressions on elect souls. Wherever we go or sojourn, let us never forget that we too are closely watched and observed. Our aim must be to walk as elect, holy and beloved, not only before our Holy Father, but also before the dear ones whom our Lord has purchased for Himself.
1Th_1:6. The right disposition of preachers and hearers.—Diedrich: Ye are in the heavenward march of the children of God, that is led by the God Man.—Rieger: To hear and receive God’s word has been specified by the Saviour Himself as the decisive badge of those, who are of God and of the truth; especially when one is not deterred by the outside covering of shame and affliction.—Roos: A gospel or good news should cause joy, and, if unable to cause any, it is no gospel. When amongst Jews, Heathens, or Christians, unbelief, idolatry, and all damnable ungodliness is reproved, this rebuke should be keen and of swift operation; but so likewise should joy over the simultaneously proffered grace swiftly rise, and cause the pain occasioned by the rebuke to be disregarded, when compared with the richness of the proffered grace, or with the happy condition into which a man now enters.—[Jowett: The suffering that comes from without cannot depress the spirit of a man who is faithful in a good cause. It is only when “from within are fears” that the mind is enslaved.—J. L.]
1Th_1:7. Rieger: Who becomes a follower of the Lord, without confiding also in brave predecessors and comrades, and becoming their follower? It amounts to a great perverseness, when any would break down confidence in those who by word and work, doctrine and life, are helpers of the truth, and would pretend in this to a zeal for the Lord, supposing that they are striving merely against a ruinous dependence on men. Whoever in his following casts off humility, fails likewise to attain the grace to become a pattern.—Even believers need patterns of the genuineness and evidence of joy under affliction.—[Webster and Wilkinson: It requires higher grace, and is a more important duty, to be an example to believers than to the world, 1Th_2:10.—J. L.]
Footnotes:
[15]1Th_1:2.—ὑμῶν after μνείαν is, indeed, wanting in A. B. [Sin.] &c., but by Tischendorf, who, with Lachmann, formerly cancelled it, it has been rightly resumed on preponderating evidence, external and internal. On account of the ὑμῶν before [μνείαν it might easily drop out of the manuscripts.
[16]1Th_1:3.—[For a different construction of ἀδιαλείπτως, adopted by our Authors, see the Exegetical Notes.—J. L.]
[17]1Th_1:3.—[Comp. 1Th_5:8; Rom_5:2; Tit_1:2; Tit_3:7. And so here the older English versions, and very many others. See the Exegetical Notes, and the Revision.—J. L.]
[18]1Th_1:4.—[This construction of εἰδότες, ἀδελφοὶ ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ θεοῦ (Sin: τοῦ θεοῦ) τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν, is that of the oldest versions (Syriac and Vulgate), and may be said to be now universally adopted. King James’ Revisers erred here in quitting Tyndale and Cranmer to follow Geneva and the Bishops’ Bible. Comp. 2Th_2:3; Rom_1:7 : Sept. Deu_33:12; Sir_45:1; Sir_46:13.—The reason for the change of the punctuation at the close of 1Th_1:4-5 will be found in the exegesis.—J. L.]
[19]1Th_1:5.—εἰς ὑμᾶς, Griesbach, Lachmann, Lünemann: πρὸς ὑμᾶς. [Sin. inserts τοῦ θεοῦ after εὐαγγέλιον.—J. L.]
[20]1Th_1:5.—[ἐγενήθημεν. Comp. 2Co_7:14. Here Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva: behaved ourselves; Auberlen: urs erwiesen (and similarly in the other two instances in 1Th_1:5-6); and many other versions to the same effect. In the New Testament the first aorist passive forms of γίνομαι (see Phrynichus, ed. Lobeck, pp. 108–9) occur 36 times, and, while in 14 instances our English version treats them as simply equivalent to a past tense of εἶναι, it is not difficult to detect a different shade of meaning in every one of them. See the Revision on this verse, Notes s. and W. In the present context Alford lays (Ellicott thinks an undue) stress on the passive forms as suggestive of Divine efficiency;* and so Wordsworth: “were made by God’s grace.”—J. L.]
[21]1Th_1:7.—τύπον Recepta, defended by: τύπους. [The singular is edited by Knapp, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott—the last named, however, admitting that the plural form is supported by better external authority—A. C. F. G. K. L.; to which must now be added Sin.—For the translation, comp. Tit_2:7 and Heb_8:5.—J. L.].
[22]1Th_1:7.—[πάσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν;—“πιστ. not having here a pure participial force, … but, as often in the N. T. coalescing with the article to form a substantive.” Ellicott.—J. L.]
[23]1Th_1:7.—[ Most critical editions repeat the ἐν before τῇ Ἀχαΐᾳ, with nearly all the uncial manuscripts, including Sin.—Here, and in 1Th_1:8, Μακεδονίᾳ is in Sin. Μακαιδ.—J. L.]
[24][So commentators generally in this instance. Wordsworth’s remark, however, is worthy of note, that the we of these earliest Epistles is in those of later date exchanged for the first person singular I. Jowett also refers it exclusively to Paul.—J. L.]
[25][Ellicott, who takes the other view of μνημονεύοντες, as being parallel to the preceding μνείαν ποιούμ, would distinguish the three participial clauses thus: “The first serves principally to define the manner, the second the time and circumstances, the third the reasons and motives of the action.”—J. L.]
[26][All this fails to satisfy me that the construction of our English version should not be retained. The whole sentence is thus better balanced. Paul having assured the Thessalonians that he was always thanking God for them, it was much less important to add immediately that he made continual mention of them in his prayers, than that the continual remembrance of their Christian character and its fruits was the reason why his reference to them in his prayers always took the form of thanksgiving to God. The other texts cited cannot control a sentence of different structure. Ellicott also adheres to this arrangement as “far more natural,” and refers in its behalf to Chrysostom and the other Greek commentators.—J. L.]
[27][This meaning, which Beza here introduced (commemorantes), and which Alford has lately adopted: making mention of (though in his New Testament for English Readers, published in the same year as the last edition of the Greek Testament—1865—he follows the Common Version, remembering), is borne by the word, out of 21 instances of its occurrence in the New Testament, only at Heb_11:22, and there the construction is different.—J. L.]
[28][Ellicott is inclined to make them simply possessive genitives, and ἔργου, κόπου, ὑπομονῆς the prevailing features and characteristics of πίστεως, ἀγάπης, ἐλπίδος,, respectively. But the two ideas are in this case essentially one—at least inseparable in fact;—the former belonging to the latter at modes of self-manifestation.—J. L.]
[29][The above definition of the hope, as having immediate reference to Christ’s second coming (comp. 1Th_1:10), is given by very many of the best interpreters, from Ambrosiaster to Alford and Ellicott.—J. L.]
[30][So the Dutch version, Conybeare, Peile, Jowett, &c. The other construction, however, is in this case grammatically allowable. Ellicott rather prefers it; see his note on Gal_1:4.—J. L.]
[31][Dr. Riggenbach’s Preface indicates a preference for the connection with μνημονεύοντες.—J. L.]
[32][The German Bible, like the Hebrew, includes the titles of the Psalms among the numbered verses.—J. L.]
[33][I do not know where Scripture teaches that this is a part of the plan of salvation, or where ἐκλογή is employed to express any such idea; nor is it easy to see how it could be, except, indeed, as the human race might be spoken of as thus distinguished from the angels that sinned—J. L.]
[34][What persons? All men in succession? or the Church members referred to in the previous sentence? In either case reception and election represent totally different ideas.—The whole definition is lacking in accuracy and precision. Nor do these qualities by any means characterize all that is added on this topic under the Doctrinal head. This is not the place for the discussion of theological systems, But I may be allowed simply to refer to what is said on this point in my Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 55 sqq. and p. 542 sq.—J. L.]
[35][Dr. W. Möller. He edited the 3d edition of De Wette’s Exeg. Handbuch on the Epistles to the Galatians and Thessalonians, 1864.—J. L.]
[36][Ellicott would allow this sense to πρὸς ὑμᾶς, and refers to 1Co_16:10.—J. L.]
[37][See Critical Note 6.—J. L.]
[38][The Author’s German version repeats the ὅτι: and because ye became, &c. But it is better, with Ellicott, to regard the connection of 1Th_1:6 with that particle as rather logical than structural, and so “to place neither a period (Tischendorf, Alford), nor a comma (Lachmann, Buttmann), but a colon, after 1Th_1:5.” In the Translation, indeed, Ellicott, perhaps through oversight, retains the period.—J. L.]
[39][The joy of the Holy Ghost is rather the accompaniment and the fruit of faith, than, as here represented, the preparation for it.—J. L.]
[40][On δέχσθαι as compared with παραλαβεῖν, see Exegetical Notes on 1Th_2:13.—J. L.]
[41][Only let it be added, that the “Divine causality” extends also to the “human conditions,” though in such a way, however to us incomprehensible, as does not at all impair, out rather strengthens, man’s free moral agency. See Act_13:48; Act_16:14; Eph_2:8; 2Ti_2:25; Luk_22:32; 1Pe_1:5; Jude 24; &c—J. L.]
[42][German: ein visibles und sichtbares Evangelium.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–8 (Rom 1:9; Ti2 1:3.) The structure of the sentences…
(Rom 1:9; Ti2 1:3.) The structure of the sentences in this and the following verses, each successive sentence repeating with greater fulness the preceding, characteristically marks Paul's abounding love and thankfulness in respect to his converts, as if he were seeking by words heaped on words to convey some idea of his exuberant feelings towards them.
We--I, Silvanus, and Timotheus. Rom 1:9 supports ALFORD in translating, "making mention of you in our prayers without ceasing" (Th1 1:3). Thus, "without ceasing," in the second clause, answers in parallelism to "always," in the first.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–8 2. We give thanks to God—For whatever conditions man…
2. We give thanks to God—For whatever conditions man performs in order to salvation, yet the author of that salvation, the bringer of it within our reach, and the empowerer of our souls to accept it, is God. Upon these thanks depend the three co-ordinate participles, making mention, remembering, and knowing. Making mention shows that the thanks for them were done vocally and specifically, in trust that the distinct act of faith in their behalf would bring on them the divine answers.
Always— That is, whenever our prayers are offered. Never were his Thessalonians forgotten when he bowed before God.
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All—Not that each was named; but his comprehensive prayer took in every soul of the church.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–8 2. We give thanks to God always for you…
2. We give thanks to God always for you all] “We,” i.e. the three above named. Here, as in Php_1:4, he has thankfulness and joy over them “all;” no other Churches seem to have been so much to the Apostle’s mind as these two. And everything dear to him or useful to others in his friends moves him to gratitude toward God on their account. This St Paul felt that he “owed to God” (2Th_1:3), the Source of al goodness in men; and it was the best and safest way of commending them.
making mention of you in our prayers] i.e. when engaged in prayer. As often as the Apostle and his companions prayed, the Thessalonian Church came to their mind; and with supplication praise on their behalf constantly mingled. For the connection of prayer and thanksgiving, see notes on ch. 1Th_5:17-18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–8 (2) “We never set ourselves to prayer without remembering…
(2) “We never set ourselves to prayer without remembering your faithful activity, loving laboriousness, cheerful and persevering endurance, and thanking God for it.”
We.—All three are regarded as the writers, and no doubt the sentiments of all are expressed, though the letter is St. Paul’s own composition. In 1Th_2:18 he corrects himself for using “we” where it was only true of himself. It may be noticed that St. Paul never speaks of himself alone in the plural in any of the other Epistles.
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To God.—None of the success is due either to the preachers or to the converts.
Always.—Not as meaning “without ceasing,” but “on every occasion that reminds us of you;” the words “in our prayers” specify the nappy occasions. Christians like best to be remembered then.
For you all.—“There is not one of you that we know of for whom we cannot give thanks: the whole church is what it should be.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–8 We. Many expositors (Cony-beare, Koch, Jowett) suppose that the…
We. Many expositors (Cony-beare, Koch, Jowett) suppose that the plural is here used for the singular; as Paul elsewhere does in other parts of this Epistle. Thus: "Wherefore we would come unto you, even I Paul, once and again"; (1Th_2:18) "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone". (1Th_3:1) In these verses the pronoun "we" is evidently restricted to Paul. Still, however, Silvanus and Timotheus being mentioned directly before, it is most natural to include them here. Give thanks to God always for you all. All Paul"s Epistles, with the solitary exception of the Epistle to the Galatians, commence with an expression of thanksgiving. Making mention of you in our prayers; whilst we are engaged in prayer for you. Paul"s prayer for the Thessalonians took the form of thanksgiving.
Vers. 2, 3.
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Heartfelt thanksgiving for spiritual prosperity.
The apostle begins by a full and earnest expression of thanksgiving such as is characteristic of all his Epistles except that to the Galatians.
I THE GROUND OF THANKSGIVING. "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." We consider here:
1. The graces of the Christian life. We have here, in the first Epistle ever written by the apostle, his favorite trilogy of Christian principles.
(1) The three graces are fundamental. As the three principal colors of the rainbow red, yellow, and blue, representing respectively heat, light, and purifying power supply in their combination all the other colors, so, by a sort of moral analysis, it can be shown that faith, hope, and love lie at the foundation, or enter into the composition, of all other Christian graces whatever.
(2) They are three inseparable graces. Faith always works by love, and love is inseparable from hope, for "hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost". (Rom_5:5) Faith is the necessary root, as hope and love are its unfailing fruits. As faith works by love, it is also the substance of things hoped for.
(3) They are at once the defense and the adornment of Christian life. "Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation". (1Th_5:8)
(4) They are the abiding principles of Christian life: "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three". (1Co_13:13) They do not die with death; for in eternity the Church will "be made perfect in love, as it will ever continue to trust in the Lord, and hope for new developments of truth and new disclosures of blessedness.
2. The practical aspect of these graces as forces in the life of the Church.
There is a climax in the exhibition of the three graces. The apostle does not say, "the work of faith, the work of love, the work of hope," but ascends from work to labor, and from labor to endurance. There is a work that is a refreshing exercise of our energies, but it involves no exhaustion or fatigue; but when work has deepened into labor we become conscious of the limitation of our strength, and then we have to call in the new principle of endurance, or "patience," if we are to carry it to a triumphant result.
(1) The work of faith points to a work springing out of faith; for faith is the most active of all the principles which influence human conduct. Their faith was, therefore, a fruitful faith.
(2) The labor of love suggests the sacrifices which we are ready to make for the objects of our love. It was not love in word or in tongue," but "in deed and in truth". (1Jn_3:18)
(3) The patience of hope suggests the severity of present afflictions, which are borne with constancy and perseverance because the sufferers arc cheered by hope. But it is "hope in our Lord Jesus Christ;" that is, hope of his second advent; for the Thessalonians had a constant and overwhelming sense of the nearness of his coming, which in some cases broke in upon the continuity of their daily duties.
II THE OCCASION, CIRCUMSTANCES, AND FREQUENCY OF THE APOSTLE"S THANKSGIVING. "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.
1. It was in his prayers for them that he expressed his thanksgiving. "Even in the sight of God and our Father." The care of all the Churches was upon him daily, (2Co_11:28) and under such a burden he "bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is happy for Christians to be remembered in the prayers of saints, to be borne upon their hearts, to be borne up before God in intercessory prayer. (Rom_1:9; Eph_1:16) His thanksgivings were as constant as his prayers.
2. Tile thanksgivings were addressed to God because the spiritual prosperity at Thessalonica was due neither to the converts themselves nor to the preachers of the gospel. We must ever speak of the grace of God, and exalt it in our praises.
3. The thanksgiving was all the more hearty and full because it had regard to the prosperity of the entire community. "All of you," because they were an eminent seal Of his apostleship, a blessed effect of his ministry among them. T.C. Vers. 2-6.
The apostle"s thanksgiving.
I ITS CHARACTER.
1. It is shared with his companions. "We give thanks." The three friends prayed and gave thanks together. It is true that the plural number is characteristic of these Epistles to the Thessalonians; the singular is avoided, it seems, from motives of modesty. But here, immediately after the mention of the three names, it is natural to regard the thanksgiving as proceeding from all. It is a true Christian feeling that draws friends together for religious exercises. The faith, the love, of the one kindles, strengthens, the like graces in the other. The tide of prayer and praise from many hearts flows in deeper, fuller volume towards the throne. And we know that where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there is he in the midst of them.
2. It is constant. "We give thanks to God always. " Thanksgiving is the joy of the redeemed in heaven; it is the outpouring of the Christian heart upon earth. The nearer we can approach to perpetual thanksgiving, the nearer we draw to heaven. "Sursum corda! up your hearts!" is an exhortation which we daily need. May God give us grace to answer daily, hourly, "We lift them up unto the Lord.
3. It is for all. The true shepherd knows his sheep; he loves them all, he prays for all. He does not divide them into parties. The closer his own walk with God, the more he is enabled to keep himself apart from and above party divisions. But the infant Thessalonian Church seems to have enjoyed the blessing of unity. It was not, like Corinth, distracted by strife and party feeling.
4. It accompanied prayer. Thanksgiving and prayer ever go together. The man who prays earnestly must give thanks, for prayer brings him into the sense of God"s most gracious presence; and with that presence cometh joy joy in the Lord. True prayer must involve intercession, for in answer toprayer the Holy Spirit is given; and the first, the chief of the fruits of the Spirit is love. St. Paul is a remarkable example of perseverance in intercessory prayer.
II ITS GROUNDS.
1. His remembrance of their spiritual state. He was working hard at Corinth; in the midst of his labor, with all its new interests, he remembered without ceasing the Christians of Thessalonica. The care of all the Churches was already beginning to press upon him. He was unwearied in his labors, in his supplications, in his constant thoughtfulness for all the Churches which he had founded, for all the converts whom he had brought to Christ. Mark the extent, the comprehensiveness of his love for souls.
2. His description of that state. The Thessalonian Christians already exhibited the three chief Christian graces.
(1) Faith, and that not a dead faith, but a faith that was ever working through love. St. Paul remembered their work of faith. Faith is itself a work, the work of God. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." It is itself a work, and it must work in the soul, for it is an active principle. It cannot exist without working. Its working may not always express itself in outward action; it will do so when possible; but it will be always working in the inner sphere of the heart, producing self-purification, self-consecration, spiritual self-sacrifice. Each step towards holiness is a work of faith, hidden, it may be, from the eyes of men, but seen by him who searcheth the heart. The Thessalonians had shown their faith by their works.
(2) Love, the greatest of the three, manifests itself in labor. The word is a strong one; "toil," perhaps, is a better rendering. Toil is not painful when it is prompted by love. True Christian love must lead the believer to toil for the gospel"s sake, for the souls and bodies of those whom Jesus loved. The abundance of the Christian"s labors is the measure of his love. "I labored more abundantly than they all" (says St. Paul: (1Co_15:10) "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
(3) Hope. The object of the Christian"s hope is the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ, which is our Hope." We hope for him for his gracious presence revealed in fuller measure now, for the blissful vision of his glorious beauty hereafter. That hope is patient. The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth; the Christian waits patiently for Christ. It works patience in the soul. He can endure the troubles of life who is blessed with the lively hope of the inheritance reserved in heaven. The Thessalonians showed in their lives the presence of this lively hope. All this the apostle remembered without ceasing before God in his prayers and meditations.
3. His confidence in Gods election; Himself "a vessel of election", (Act_9:15) he felt sure that the same gracious choice had rested on the Thessalonian Christians. God had "chosen them to salvation," he tells them in the Second Epistle. St. Paul loves to dwell on the great truth of God"s election.
4. The evidence of that election. St. Paul finds it:
(1) In the lives of the Thessalonians. Archbishop Leighton beautifully says, "If men can read the characters of God"s image in their own souls, these are the counterpart of the golden characters of his love in which their names are written in the book of life. He that loves God may be sure that he was first loved of God; and he that chooses God for his delight and portion may conclude confidently that God hath chosen him to be one of those that shall enjoy him and be happy in him for ever; for that our love of him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of his love shining upon us." The Thessalonians received the Word; they showed the martyr spirit; they were content to suffer as Christians for the gospel"s sake. They had joy amid tears that holy joy which the presence of the blessed Spirit can give even in the midst of afflictions. They were learning in their own experience the meaning of that seeming contradiction, "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." They imitated the holy life of St. Paul, the holiest life of the Lord Jesus Christ. By this patient continuance in well-doing they were making their calling and election sure.
(2) In the energy and success of his own preaching among them. He had brought them the gospel, the glad tidings of great joy. He had delivered his message with power, with the strength of deep conviction. The Holy Ghost was with him, teaching him what to speak, filling him with a Divine fervor and enthusiasm. His words were more than mere sounds; they were a message full of intense meaning a message from God. The Thessalonians had felt the power of his preaching; they were his witnesses. This energy was not his own; it came from God; it proved that God was with him; it was a sure evidence that God was blessing the apostle"s work; it was given for the sake of the Thessalonians; it surely meant that God had chosen them to be his own.
Learn:
1. To take delight in the spiritual progress, in the, faith, hope, love of our fellow-Christians.
2. To thank God for it.
3. To refer all that seems good in us to God"s electing grace.
4. To look for the evidence of that election in holiness of life. B.C.C. Vers. 2-10.
Manifestation of interest.
I HOW THEY THANKED GOD FOR THE THESSALONIANS. "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." The three Christian preachers away at Corinth, and in the midst of their engagements there, were interested in their Thessalonian converts. They were so interested as to act as priests for them. This they did at the throne of grace, praying for them by name, in view of their special needs as a Church. This they would also do unitedly, praying to all the more purpose that they united their prayers; for a threefold cord is not easily broken. Noah, Daniel, and Job in a land may not counteract all wickedness; but Paul, Silas, and Timothy, agreeing as touching what they asked for a progressing Church like Thessalonica, would certainly mean valuable help to them from heaven. Praying, they gave thanks always. This designation of time is not to be understood with the utmost strictness. It is prescribed in Exodus that Aaron should bear the judgment of the children of Israel (the Urim and Thummim) upon his heart before the Lord continually, i.e. whenever he went into the holy place to discharge the pontifical functions. So the meaning here is that, whenever these men of God went into the presence of God to discharge the priestly function of prayer for the Thessalonians, their hearts were filled with gratitude for them, which they poured forth in thanksgiving. They gave thanks to God, who had made the Thessalonians a Church, who had blessed them hitherto, and upon whom they depended for future blessing. They gave thanks to God for them all. They did not know of any (and their information was recent) who were bringing dishonor on the Thessalonian society. They were all with one heart helping forward the common Christian good.
II UPON WHAT THEY PROCEEDED IN THANKING GOD FOR THE THESSALONIANS. "Remembering without ceasing." They proceeded in their thanksgivings upon what they remembered of the Thessalonians. The impression produced at the time had not been effaced by fresh scenes, new engagements, the lapse of time. By thinking of them and hearing from them their impression of them had not ceased to be lively. This impression concerned the three Christian graces faith, love, hope. In 1Co 13. love is placed last, the object being to exalt it, in its permanent value, over the other two Here, as also in the fifth chapter and in Colossians 1., and virtually in Titus 2., the natural order is followed, faith manifesting itself in love, (Gal_5:6) and hope rising out of Rom_5:5. Hope is also properly held to come last, as the link between the present and the future. What the Christian pioneers remembered was the practical outcome of each grace.
1. Your work of faith. " In the eleventh of the Hebrews we read of special works which were produced by faith. But the work, in its totality, which each man produces, is the life which be lives before the world. And he who believes that there is the eye of the holy, heart-searching God upon him; that he is here to carry out the Divine behests; that according as he does or does not carry out these behests does he lie under the Divine approval or disapproval; that there is a judgment coming which shall prove each man"s work of what sort it is; such a man will surely produce a work very different from him who habitually looks only to the seen and the temporal. The adoption of faith as the principle of their lives meant to the Thessalonians the abandonment of many vices, and the cultivation of sincerity, humility, purity, temperance, and other Christian excellences.
1. And labor of love. " The word translated" labor "approaches the meaning of painful effort. We are not merely to wish well to others and to
2. rejoice in their good; that implies no laboriousness of love. But we are to burden ourselves with the wants of others, and to undertake labors on behalf of the sick, on behalf of the poor, on behalf of the oppressed, on behalf of the ignorant, on behalf of the erring. The Thessalonian Christians were full of these labors; their Church life had become one labor of love, a putting forth of painful effort for each other, without thought of reward, with only the desire to please the Master. It was a labor of purest, freest love, that the Master himself undertook on behalf of those whom he was not ashamed to call his brethren.
3. And patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. " Hope was the characteristic grace of the Thessalonians. It was hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, which is more exactly defined in the Epistle as hope with regard to his coming. It was a hope which burned in them with, extraordinary intensity. So eager were they as to the time of its realization that there was a likelihood of impatience being engendered by delay. When the Thessalonians are remembered here for the patience of their hope, we are to understand the brave way in which they maintained the conflict with sin within, and especially with persecution without. It is the hope of victory that sustains the soldier under all the hardships of the march and the dangers of the battle-field. So it was the hope of the infinite compensation that there would be at the confine of Christ that sustained them under the disadvantages of their position. What to them were all that their enemies might inflict on them, when any day Christ might come among them for their deliverance? They could say with their teacher," For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us-ward." Additional circumstance. "Before our God and Father." This points to the solemnity and also the joy of the remembrance. It was in prayer that it took place. It was there before the God of Paul and Silas and Timothy, the Heart-searching One, who could testily that it was no formal remembrance, but was marked by sincerity. It was also before their Father, who, as Infinite Benevolence, regarded it with pleasure.
III THERE IS NOTED THE FACT OF THE ELECTION OF THE THESSALONIANS. "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election." Paul, for himself and his helpers, addresses them as brethren. What they had in common was that they were beloved of God. What marked them as objects of Divine love was their election. This is a word of deep and gracious import, which is more opened up in other places in Scripture. What marked ancient Israel was that they were the election. In succession to ancient Israel, Christians were the election. Among others these Thessalonian Christians had most of them been elected out of heathenism, elected to all the privileges of the new covenant. They owed this their position not to their own merits. It was no doings of their own that brought Christ into the world. It was by circumstances over which they had no control that the gospel was preached to them in Thessalonica. It was not in their own strength that they believed. It was Divine love, then, that gave them their position among the election, and to Divine love was to be all the praise.
IV PAUL AND SILAS" HELPERS CAME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR ELECTION BY CONSIDERATION OF DIVINE ASSISTANCE VOUCHSAFED IN PREACHING TO THEM. "How that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy" Ghost, and in much assurance; even as ye know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you for your sake." The gospel is the glad tidings of salvation to all men. It could only be called their gospel inasmuch as they used it instrumentally in the conversion of souls. It was Christ who was the great Subject of it. "Neither is there salvation in any other." These three agreed as to the purport of the gospel. It was not different from the gospel as preached by Peter or any other Christian teacher. In dealing with the Jews in Thessalonica, as we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, the gospel proper was accompanied with the producing of proof from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah was to suffer and to rise from the dead; and the fitting into it of other proof that the historical Jesus, who had lately been on the earth, met all the requirements of their Scriptures. But to Jews and Gentiles alike it was the free offer of salvation, based on the great facts of the death and resurrection of God"s Son in our nature. This gospel had come to them in Thessalonica; it had providentially been directed their way. It had come to them in word, in the Word preached, and that was a great point gained. "For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" But it had not come in word only, but also in power. They felt power descending on them in the delivery of their message. This was nothing else than the assistance of the Holy Ghost. And it was accompanied with the deep assurance that their message was taking effect. The Thessalonians themselves had the proof of their being men who were divinely assisted toward them. And, as this Divine assistance was granted in their interest, it pointed to their being in the number of the elect.
V PAUL AND HIS HELPERS CAME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ELECTION OF THE THESSALONIANS BY CONSIDERATION OF THEIR POWER OF IMITATION. "And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." There is a point of difference. They preached the Word, or rather for a new aspect is brought up the Lord in them. It was the Lord"s message they delivered; they were the instruments of the Lord in its delivery. It was, therefore, the Lord as well as they, and more than they, in the preaching. On the other hand, the Thessalonians received the Word. This is not inconsistent with what is said in the Acts of the Apostles in connection with Beraea: "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so." For the meaning there is that the Beraean Jews were a nobler class than the Thessalonian Jews, which is no reflection on the Thessalonian Christians, who, with few exceptions, were Gentiles. The testimony of this Epistle is that they were a Church peculiarly receptive of the Word. Allowing for this difference which the sense requires, the imitation is to be restricted to the associated circumstances and spirit. In much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." It was the Word that gave rise to much affliction. And it is not to be wondered at that, when the light comes into conflict with darkness, this should be the result to those who are associated with the light. In much affliction the three subordinates and the great Superintendent in them drew joy from the Word preached. "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," said the greatest of the three. In the same affliction the Thessalonians were imitators, in drawing joy from the Word received. They were not crushed under the affliction, but, imbibing the comfort of the Word, they rose triumphant over it. In both cases the joy, which was not to be thought of as earthly, proceeded from the Holy Ghost dwelling within. This was the second thing that pointed to their election.
VI THE THESSALONIANS WERE SO GOOD IMITATORS AS TO BECOME AN ENSAMPLE TO OTHERS. "So that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia." These were the two Roman divisions of Greece. It is implied that the circumstances of the Grecian Churches were similar. To believe was, more or less, to be opposed, to be afflicted. The Thessalonians were an encouragement to the other Churches. Philippians, Bermans, Athenians, Corinthians, might all take heart from the manner in which the Thessalonians triumphed over their affliction.
VII THERE WAS A WIDESPREAD REPORT REGARDING THESSALONICA WHICH WAS VERY SERVICEABLE. "For from you hath sounded forth the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything." This shows how the Thessalonians could be an ensample to so many. There was the condition of publicity. In the language which is used, prominence is given to the Word, and it is characterized, not now as "our gospel," but as the Word of the Lord." From them at Thessalonica the Word of the Lord had sounded forth. The Word of the Lord sounds forth, not merely when we preach it, but also when, as these Thessalonians did, we receive it and allow it to have influence upon our lives. From them at Thessalonica there had been a notable sounding forth. The image employed is that of a trumpet, filling with its clear sound all the surrounding places. Hill and valley, hamlet and homestead, arc waked with it. So the gospel-trumpet had been sounded at Thessalonica, and the result is represented as the filling of all Greece with the clear sound of the gospel. Its wakeful sound had reached the important places, not only in Macedonia, but in Achaia. There is suggested by this what the Church has to do for the world; it has to sound the gospel-trumpet, so that, without any hyperbole, the whole world shall he filled with the clear sound of the gospel. The sounding forth from Thessalonica had reached even to places beyond Greece. And, in giving expression to this, Paul, as he sometimes does, gives a different turn to the sentence. We should have expected it to run so as to be complete: "Not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in places beyond." He, however, lays hold on what the Word had notably done for the Thessalonians, viz. made them monotheists, given them faith to God-ward, and the sentence is made to run: "But in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth." "The currency of the reports was probably much promoted by the commercial intercourse between Thessalonica and other cities, both in Greece and elsewhere. Wieseler suggests that Aquila and Priscilla, who had lately come from Rome to Corinth, (Act_18:2) might have mentioned to the apostle the prevalence of the report even in that more distant city. If this be so, the justice and truth of the apostle"s hyperbole is still more apparent; to be known in Rome was to be known everywhere." This may be true, but still it is to be borne in mind that the sounding forth to distant places is rather ascribed to the vigor with which the gospel-trumpet bad been sounded at Thessalonica. By the going forth of their faith there was great service done. In preaching the gospel in new places, it was Paul"s custom to hold up what it bad done for other places. With regard to Thessalonica, he was placed in an exceptional position. In Beraea, in Athens, in Corinth, wherever he went, he needed not to labor in language to create an impression of what the gospel had done for Thessalonica. He needed not to say anything, the work being already done for him.
VIII THE TWO POINTS TO WHICH THE REPORT REFERRED.
1. The entering in of Paul and his helpers. "For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you." This has already been particularized. It was their gospel coming unto the Thessalonians, not in word only, but also in power, and the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. It was that attested by the Thessalonians. It was the Lord in them preaching the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Now it is generalized manner of entering in we had unto you." They did not need to enter upon that; the people themselves in the various places came forward with their acknowledgments. This was important to the three ministers; it was a seal to their ministry, it was added influence in the proclamation of the gospel. A minister may well aspire to have such a record.
2. The response of the Thessalonians. "And how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead." This is an expansion of the previous words," your faith to God-ward." They had been idolaters. This is to be understood of the Thessalonian Church as a whole, which points to its composition. They turned unto God from idols. There is marked their conversion to monotheism. They turned from idols "to serve a living and true God." The old translation is better here: "to serve the living and true God." Idols are dead; their living touch upon the soul can never be felt. They turned from dead idols to the living God, the God in whom we live and move and have our being, who giveth to all life and breath and all things. Idols are false and vain, they can do no good to their votaries. They turned from false and vain idols to the true God, who cannot deceive his worshippers, who comforts and cheers them, who is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Turning from idols, they made their life a service of this living and true God not a dead, make-believe service, but characterized, from its object, by life and truth, a waiting on him to carry out his behests. There is marked their conversion to Christianity. They turned from idols to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. They laid hold on the great Christian fact, that God gave up his Son to die for man. They also laid hold on the other great Christian fact, that God raised him from the dead and raised him to heaven. They further believed, on Divine authority, that God"s Son was to come from heaven.
Round this their life as a Church very much revolved; they were fascinated by its influence. They waited for his Son from heaven; they lived in daily expectation of his coming. While we are not curious about the time of Christ"s coming, let us not lose the influence of the fact of Christ"s coming. Let us consider whether we are prepared for his coming. Let us be dead to the charms of the world, dead also to its opposition. Let us take comfort, under present troubles, from this coming. (Joh_14:1-3) Let us joyfully anticipate the coming. (1Pe_1:8) We may well learn from the Thessalonians to give this subject greater prevalence in our thoughts. Let us, like them, be found in the attitude of expectancy. Christ"s last message to man is this: "Yea, I come quickly." And the reply which we are expected to make is this: "Amen: come, Lord Jesus." "Even Jesus, which delivereth us from the wrath to come." This is the first of the three references to the wrath of God in this First Epistle to the Thessalonians. It is an element that is more largely prevalent in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. It was natural that, writing so much to the Thessalonians about the second coming, he should introduce the future wrath. The full expression in this place, "the wrath to come," had already been used by one who could preach the terrors of the Law. When the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, "Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Paul, standing after the great Messianic manifestation, could say more definitely and mildly, "Even Jesus, which delivereth us from the wrath to come.
(1) The reality of the wrath. By the wrath of God we are to understand the disposition which leads him to inflict punishment for sin. It cannot be said of God that he is wrathful, or that wrath is the predominant feature in his character. For "he delighteth in mercy;" but "judgment is his strange work." When men put themselves in opposition to God, while he is displeased, he is also grieved. We read of the grieving of the Spirit; of Christ, while looking round on his audience with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts. Even when God, from necessities of government, may have to remove the reprobate from his presence, there is not wanting the tone of indignant rebuke, "Cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." But with this righteous indignation there is no mingling of malice, but only a feeling of infinite reluctance to resort to such a measure with any of his creatures. It is supposed to be derogatory to the Divine character that there should be wrath in the heart of God at all. But how is he to regard sin? Is sin to be committed under his government, and no notice to be taken of it, especially when it is of the very nature of sin to strike at the Divine government? Such an idea would certainly be repudiated in connection with human government. Or are we to suppose that he can become accustomed to the sight of sin, so as not to heed this sin or that sin in the great multitude that are committed every day upon this earth? But God can never see sin to he other than it really is. It stands out before him in all its details and in all its vileness, as that which interferes with his government, thwarts his holy ends among men. And as he has taught us to flash out in anger against wrong-doing, so we must believe that his own soul flashes out in anger against wrong done to his government. But we must exclude from the Divine out-flashing such inequality as attaches to human outflashing. The Thrice-holy One never knows the perturbing influence of passion; sin is not felt mere keenly at the first, and less keenly when time has exerted its sway it is ever unchanged before his mind. He continues unsatisfied, and the fire burns within him against it, until it is removed out of his sight. So far from wrath being derogatory to God, it must enter into a right conception of the Divine character. It is necessary to the consistency of the Divine character. To favor the following of a certain course, and yet to view with indifference the following of an opposite course, is simply characterlessness. According to the ardor with which we regard one course must we burn against its opposite. We must think of God as infinitely favoring righteousness; and he would not be true to himself if his feelings did not infinitely burn against iniquity. According as he is attracted to the pole of holiness, so powerfully must he be repelled from the opposite pole of sin. Even under the New Testament economy it is said that "our God is a consuming fire." More prominence is given to this in the Old Testament, but it is a necessary conception of God, that, as he is consumed with zeal for the cause of truth and love, so he is a consuming fire to all that is opposed to it. There is a certain course which he favors which he puts forward as obligatory. He gives us every encouragement to follow this course; it is the consuming desire of his heart to see it followed by us. This may be said. to he the course of humble dependence upon him. If we follow this course, he is pleased, and he marks his pleasure, by making our humility return in liberty and happiness upon ourselves. But if we willfully assert our independence and follow our own course, then God will make our willfulness recoil in bondage and misery upon our own souls. Wrath is even necessary to our rising to a proper conception of the Divine compassion. We miss what the Divine compassion is, unless we first apprehend ourselves as objects of the Divine wrath. "That heathen antiquity had no idea of God"s love is attributable to the fact that it had no living conviction of the world being under God"s wrath. Plato and Aristotle rise only to the bare representation of God as being a jealous God; and men who in our day speak of dispassionate love rise no higher than they.
(2) The time to which the wrath is referred. The wrath to come is the disposition of wrath in its future manifestation. It is in the next world that it is to come to its full manifestation. Even now God manifests his displeasure against sin. The Flood was an early and signal instance of God"s wrath burning against a wicked world. And the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was another signal instance of God"s wrath burning against wicked communities. But under the present order of things God does not ordinarily deal with man in unmixed wrath. He has ends of redemption in view. And, though he does give experience of judgment that men may not be forgetful of him, still he mingles mercy with judgment. And usually he gives us to experience far more mercy than judgment, that thereby he may commend redemption to us. He exercises wonderful forbearance toward us, that thereby he may win us over to himself. Thus it is that meantime there is no adequate impression given of the punitive justice of God. We do not see punishment following always upon sin. We do not see punishment proportioned to sin. The more hardened in sin men are, the more may they escape present punishment. It does not yet appear what God"s displeasure against sinners is, any more than it yet appears what his love to his people is. There are hindrances which prevent a full manifestation in both cases. In the next world these hindrances will be removed, and then it will be seen clearly how God views every one who through a period of grace continues to oppose himself to Divine love. The sins of this life, unforgiven, will cry unto God; and his wrath, no longer restrained, will go forth. There are things for which, it is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. There is a certain open defiance and forgetfulness of God (encouraging to ungodliness) which in a special manner attracts the Divine judgment. But it is true of a sinful life as a whole, that what there is in it of resistance to God draws down on it, when the time comes, the Divine wrath. This is to be at the day of judgment, which is called "the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Then there will be a righteous summing-up of the life lived on earth as a whole; and the wrath that descends will exactly indicate what. God"s estimate of the life is. That there will be retribution, and retribution exactly proportioned to each life, some being punished with few stripes and others with many stripes, is most certain. We cannot define with exactness the manner and contents of the retribution. The language employed in Scripture is sufficiently fitted to create alarm: "But unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil." What is at first the assertion of independence toward God, will become, retributively, hindrance and bondage in complete subjugation and environment by God. What is, in its working, excitement and self-gratification, will become, retributively, in the distraction of the mind, in the upbraidings of conscience, a feeling of anguish. There is thus before the life of sin a dark future. "There remaineth a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." And the life of sin is not to be judged by what it is at present in its license and excitements and restraint of judgment, but is to be judged by what it is to come to. It is in the next world that the nothingness and wretchedness of a life of sin will be fully evidenced. And what a powerful deterrent is this to continuing our resistance to Divine grace!
(3) The Deliverer from the wrath to come. This is the gracious side which is now presented in the gospel. We must think of the wrath to come, in order that we may properly conceive of the Deliverer. He is appropriately called Jesus. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for it is he that shall save his people from their sins." Here it is saving from the wrath of God on account of their sins. We read of heroes of antiquity who were renowned for delivering countries from the monsters with which they were infested. The New Testament tells of One who delivers from the evil most to be feared of man the wrath to come. It is not to be understood that Jesus did deliver (on the cross) or will deliver (at the last day), but rather that it is his office to deliver. This is the great part which he performs for men; it belongs to Jesus to deliver from the wrath to come. This office entailed on the Holder of it infinite self-abnegation. "The Son of God... even Jesus." And, as the Son of God, he had to begin by laying aside his Divine glory, not counting it a prize to be clutched at by him. Anti he came down into our nature, that he might receive into himself the wrath due to our sin. He became the great vessel of wrath. What should have been poured into us was poured into him. Thus the Deliverer is the greatest of all sufferers. He is one who has marks of mysterious sorrow and anguish upon his nature. And that shows how far it is from being according to the heart of God to make men miserable, to send wrath upon them. He interposes between the sinner and the results of his sin in this great Deliverer sent forth from his own bosom. He says, "Save from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom." Rather does he inflict wrath upon his Son than inflict it on us. So far as his doing is concerned, he has removed the wrath to come he has made it non-existent. Is that not proof, the most conclusive, that wrath is most abhorrent to him, that in his heart of hearts he wishes us to escape from wrath, wishes to make us all happy?
(4) Our relation to the Deliverer. It is said here, "which delivereth us from the wrath to come." And the context shows that the reference is to believers. All are welcome to come into a saving relation to Christ; but, as a matter of fact, all do not come. In Thessalonica there were many to whom the gospel of deliverance came, who, in their idolatrous life, thought it an idle tale. There were some who, tired of their idolatrous life, welcomed the thought of deliverance, and gave a ready ear to the apostle when he told them of Jesus "which delivereth from the wrath to come." And there are many still in our more enlightened times who treat wrath and deliverance from it as an intrusion. The great work which Jesus accomplished has no interest to them. They like to go on in their own self-pleasing way, heedless of the issues. There are others, and these are the believers, who are unsatisfied in a life merely in the present. They are anxious to know how they are to meet the eternal issues. And feeling unable to do this themselves, as guilty before God, they shelter themselves in Jesus, "which delivereth from the wrath to come." Taking him as their Representative, entering into the full benefit of his deliverance, the future is relieved to them, and, for the first time, they breathe freely as in the atmosphere of heaven. Out of Christ the wrath to come is still a reality, and a reality which has been made more dreadful to those who refuse to escape from it. In Christ let us take the comfort of our position, let us dismiss our fear of future wrath; and let us remember him to whom we owe our escape, and let us prove our gratitude by a life of loyalty to our Deliverer. R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2–7 We give thanks to God always for you all,…
1Th_1:2-4
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers
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Ministerial thanksgiving
I.
Is expansive in its character. It is our duty to be grateful for personal benefits, but it displays a nobler generosity to be thankful for the good of others. Paul thanked God--
1. Because of their work of faith.
(1) Faith itself is a work; it is the laying hold of Christ for salvation. In its exercise man meets with opposition, and it becomes a fight.
(2) It is the cause of work--the propelling and sustaining motive in all Christian toil. Faith without works is dead.
2. Because of their labour of love. Labour tests the strength of love. We show our love to Christ by what we do for Him. Love makes even drudgery an enjoyment. It leads us to attempt what we would once have shrunk from in dismay.
3. Because of their patient hope. It was severely tried, but not quenched. It is hard to hope in the midst of discouragement. It was so with Joseph in prison, with David in the mountains of Judah, with the Jews in Babylon. But the grace of patience gives constancy to hope.
4. Because of their election, not as individuals, this could not he, but as a people. St. Paul here means that from what he saw of the operations of Christian grace in them he knew they were Gods elect. As Bengel says, Election is the judgment of Divine grace, exempting in Christ, from the common destruction of men, those who accept their calling by faith. Every one who is called, is elected from the first moment of his faith; and so long as he continues in his calling and faith, he continues to be elected; if at any time he loses calling and faith, he ceases to be elected. Observe the constancy of this thanksgiving spirit--We give thanks always for you all. As they remembered without ceasing the genuine evidences of conversion so did they assiduously thank God.
II. Evokes a spirit of practical devotion. Making mention of you in our prayers. The interest of the successful worker in his converts is keenly aroused; he is especially anxious the work should be permanent, and resorts to prayer as the effectual means. Prayer for others benefits the suppliant. When the Church prayed, not only was Peter liberated from prison, but the faith of the members was emboldened.
III. Is rendered to the great Giver of all good. We give thanks to God. God is the author of true success. In vain we labour where His blessing is withheld. (G. Barlow.)
Intercessory prayer
A praying engineer used to run from Boston on the morning express train. A very faithful man he was in his business; and he was a man of ardour and enthusiasm for souls. He used to make me ride with him, and he would give me an account of his hunting and fishing for souls. I suppose he was the means of rescuing fifty men from the devils grasp, clothing them and getting them into business. Even while he was running his engine he was thinking of his work--for his real work was among souls. The moment he got to the terminus off went his engineers clothes and on went his ordinary dress, and he started around town to look after some of his cases to inquire about them, and to speak with them. He drew out his praying list one day! I found that he had a strip of paper on which were written ten or fifteen names; and he said that each day he prayed for every single one of them. Sometimes he was more particularly moved in behalf of this one, and sometimes in behalf of that one. Said he, As soon as one of these is converted I put another on the list. There are ever so many waiting to get on the list; but I cannot put more than fifteen on. He was always praying somebody on or somebody off from that list of his. He gave me some of the most affecting accounts that I ever heard in my life. (H. W. Beecher.)
Prayer for individuals
There is nothing better than to always have before your mind some one at whose conversion you are aiming. There may be a withering plant in your garden, but it will respond to the touch of the water with which you sprinkle it, and there will be an awakening to new strength and beauty. And who will say that less effective will be the power of the Holy Ghost; that the Christian may not pray down an influence like the waters of life to any soul wasted away by sin? It is so hopeful, this personal work in behalf of souls. It is most effective when its aim is single, and one by one you separate men and make them special, individual objects of your attention. Such work, if persisted in, will tell wonderfully by and by. The results will grow into mountains. They may not aggregate as rapidly as did Dr. Hopkins, the old Newport parson, and the famous author of Hopkinsonism. He made a list of the members of his congregation, and for each one made separate supplication. There were thirty-one conversions after those separate prayers. You may not have such a success, but enough stars will shine in your crown to make a constellated glory there forever!
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv2, 5 Chapter 2
Chapter 2
THE THANKSGIVING.
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1Th_1:2-4 (R.V.)
THE salutation in St. Pauls epistles is regularly followed by the thanksgiving. Once only, in the Epistle to the Galatians, is it omitted; the amazement and indignation with which the Apostle has heard that his converts are forsaking his gospel for another which is not a gospel at all, carries him out of himself for a moment. But in his earliest letter it stands in its proper place; before he thinks of congratulating, teaching, exhorting, admonishing, he gives God thanks for the tokens of His grace in the Thessalonians. He would not be writing to these people at all if they were not Christians; they would never have been Christians but for the free goodness of God; and before he says one word directly to them, he acknowledges that goodness with a grateful heart.
In this case the thanksgiving is particularly fervent. It has. no drawback. There is no profane person at Thessalonica, like him who defiled the church at Corinth at a later period; we give thanks, says the Apostle, for you all. It is, as far as the nature of the case permits, uninterrupted. As often as Paul prays, he makes mention of them and gives thanks; he remembers without ceasing their newborn graces. We ought not to extenuate the force of such words, as if they were mere exaggerations, idle extravagances of a man who habitually said more than he meant. Pauls life was concentrated and intense, to a degree of which we have probably little conception. He lived for Christ, and for the churches of Christ; it was literal truth, not extravagance, when he said, "This one thing I do": the life of these churches, their interests, their necessities, their dangers, Gods goodness to them, his own duty to serve them, all these constituted together the one dear concernment of his life; they were ever with him in Gods sight, and therefore in his intercessions and thanksgivings, to God. Other mens mind might surge with various interests; new ambitions or affections might displace old ones; fickleness or disappointments might change their whole career; but it was not so with him. His thoughts and affections never changed their object, for the same conditions appealed constantly to the same susceptibility; if he grieved over the unbelief of the Jews, he had unceasing (αδιαλειπτον) pain in his heart; if he gave thanks for the Thessalonians, he remembered without ceasing (αδιαλειπτως) the graces with which they had been adorned by God.
Nor were these continual thanksgivings vague or formal; the Apostle recalls, in each particular case, the special manifestations of Christian character which inspire his gratitude. Sometimes, as in 1st Corinthians, they are less spiritual-gifts, rather than graces; utterance and knowledge, without charity; sometimes, as here, they are eminently spiritual-faith, love, and hope. The conjunction of these three in the earliest of Pauls letters is worthy of remark. They occur again in the well-known passage in 1Co_13:1-13, where, though they share in the distinction of being eternal, and not, like knowledge and eloquence, transitory in their nature, love is exalted to an eminence above the other two. They occur a third time in one of the later epistles-that to the Colossians-and in the same order as here. That, says Lightfoot on the passage, is the natural order. "Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future." Whether this distribution of the graces is accurate or not, it suggests the truth that they cover and fill up the whole Christian life. They are the sum and substance of it, whether it looks back, or looks around, or looks forward. The germ of all perfection is implanted in the soul which is the dwelling place of "these three."
Though none of them can really exist, in its Christian quality, without the others, any of them may preponderate at a given time. It is not quite fanciful to point out that each in its turn seems to have bulked most largely in the experience of the Apostle himself. His earliest epistles-the two to the Thessalonians-are pre-eminently epistles of hope. They look to the future; the doctrinal interest uppermost in them is that of the second coming of the Lord, and the final rest of the Church. The epistles of the next period-Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians-are as distinctly epistles of faith. They deal largely with faith as the power which unites the soul to God in Christ, and brings into it the virtue of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus. Later still, there are the epistles of which Colossians and Ephesians are the type. The great thought in these is that of the unity wrought by love; Christ is the head of the Church; the Church is the body of Christ; the building up of the body in love, by the mutual help of the members, and their common dependence on the Head, preoccupies the apostolic writer. All this may have been more or less accidental, due to circumstances which had nothing to do with the spiritual life of Paul; but it has the look of being natural, too. Hope prevails first-the new world of things unseen and eternal outweighs the old; it is the stage at which religion is least free from the influence of sense and imagination. Then comes the reign of faith; the inward gains upon the outward; the mystical union of the soul to Christ, in which His spiritual life is appropriated, is more or less sufficient to itself; it is the stage, if it be a stage at all, at which religion becomes independent of imagination and sense. Finally, love reigns. The solidarity of all Christian interests is strongly felt; the life flows out again, in all manner of Christian service, on those by whom it is surrounded; the Christian moves and has his being in the body of which he is a member. All this, I repeat, can be only comparatively true; but the character and sequence of the Apostles writings speak for its truth so far.
But it is not simply faith, love, and hope that are in question here: "we remember," says the Apostle, "your work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." We call faith, love, and hope the Christian graces; and we are apt to forget that the associations of heathen mythology thus introduced, are disturbing rather than enlightening. The three Graces of the Greeks are ideally beautiful figures; but their beauty is aesthetic, not spiritual. They are lovely as a group of statuary is lovely; but though "by (their) gift come unto men all pleasant things and sweet, and the wisdom of a man and his beauty, and the splendour of his fame," their nature is utterly unlike that of the three powers of the Christian character; no one would dream of ascribing to them work, and labour, and patience. Yet the mere fact that "Graces" has been used as a common name for both has diffused the idea that the Christian graces also are to be viewed mainly as the adornments of character, its unsought, unstudied beauties, set on it by God to subdue and charm the world. That is quite wrong; the Greek Graces are essentially beauties; they confer on men all that wins admiration-personal comeliness, victory in the games, a happy mood; but the Christian graces are essentially powers; they are new virtues and forces which God has implanted in the soul that it may be able to do His work in the world. The heathen Graces are lovely to look at, and that is all; but the Christian graces are not subjects for aesthetic contemplation; they are here to work, to toil, to endure. If they have a beauty of their own - and surely they have-it is a beauty not in form or colour, not appealing to the eye or the imagination, but only to the spirit which has seen and loved Christ, and loves His likeness in whatever guise.
Let us look at the Apostles words more closely: he speaks of a work of faith; to take it exactly, of something which faith has done. Faith is a conviction with regard to things unseen, that makes them present and real. Faith in God as revealed in Christ and in His death for sin, makes reconciliation real; it gives the believer peace with God. But it is not shut up in the realm of things inward and unseen. If it were, a man might say what he pleased about it, and there would be no check upon his words.
Wherever it exists, it works: he who is interested can see what it has done. Apparently the Apostle has some particular work of faith in his mind in this passage; some thing which the Thessalonians had actually done, because they believed; but what it is we cannot tell. Certainly not faith itself; certainly not love, as some think, referring to Gal_5:6; if a conjecture may be hazarded, possibly some act of courage or fidelity under persecution, similar to those adduced in Heb_11:1-40. That famous chapter contains a catalogue of the works which faith wrought; and serves as a commentary, therefore, on this expression. Surely we ought to notice that the great Apostle, whose name has been the strength and shield of all who preach justification by faith alone, the very first time he mentions this grace in his epistles, mentions it as a power which leaves its witness in work.
It is so, also, with love: "we remember," he writes, "your labour of love." The difference between εργον (work) and κοπος (labour) is that between effect and cause. The Apostle recalls something which the faith of the Thessalonians did; he recalls also the wearisome toil in which their love spent itself. Love is not so capable of abuse in religion, or, at least, it has not been so rankly abused, as faith. Men are much more apt to demand the proof of it. It has an inward side as much as faith; but it is not an emotion which exhausts itself in its own transports. Merely as emotion, indeed, it is apt to be undervalued. In the Church of today emotion needs rather to be stimulated than repressed. The passion of the New Testament startles us when we chance to feel it. For one man among us who is using up the powers of his soul in barren ecstasies, there are thousands who have never been moved by Christs love to a single tear or a single heart throb. They must learn to love before they can labour. They must be kindled by that fire which burned in Christs heart, and which He came to cast upon the earth, before they can do anything in His service. But if the love of Christ has really met that answer in love for which it waits, the time for service has come. Love in the Christian will attest itself as it attested itself in Christ. It will prescribe and point out the path of labour. The word employed in this passage is one often used by the Apostle to describe his own laborious life. Love set him, and will set everyone in whose heart it truly burns, upon incessant, unwearied efforts for others good. Paul was ready to spend and be spent at its bidding, however small the result might be. He toiled with his hands, he toiled with his brain, he toiled with his ardent, eager, passionate heart, he toiled in his continual intercessions with God, and all these toils made up his labour of love. "A labour of love," in current language, is a piece of work done so willingly that no payment is expected for it. But a labour of love is not what the Apostle is speaking of; it is laboriousness, as loves characteristic. Let Christian men and women ask themselves whether their love can be so characterised. We have all been tired in our time, one may presume; we have toiled in business, or in some ambitious course, or in the perfecting of some accomplishment, or even in the mastery of some game or the pursuit of some amusement, till we were utterly wearied: how many of us have so toiled in love? How many of us have been wearied and worn with some labour to which we set ourselves for Gods sake? This is what the Apostle has in view in this passage; and, strange as it may appear, it is one of the things for which he gives God thanks. But is he not right? Is it not a thing to evoke gratitude and joy, that God counts us worthy to be fellow labourers with Him in the manifold works which love imposes?
The church at Thessalonica was not old; its first members could only count their Christian age by months. Yet love is so native to the Christian life, that they found at once a career for it; demands were made upon their sympathy and their strength which were met at once, though never suspected before. "What are we to do," we sometimes ask, "if we would work the works of God?" If we have love enough in our hearts, it will answer all its own questions. It is the fulfilling of the law just because it shows us plainly where service is needed, and put us upon rendering it at any cost of pain or toil. It is not too much to say that the very word chosen by the Apostle to characterise love- this word κοπος -is peculiarly appropriate, because it brings out, not the issue, but only the cost, of work. With the result desired, or without it; with faint hope, or with hope most sure, love labours, toils, spends and is spent over its task: this is the very seal of its genuine Christian character.
The third grace remains: "your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." The second coming of Christ was an element in apostolic teaching which, whether exceptionally prominent or not, had made an exceptional impression at Thessalonica. It will more naturally be studied at another place; here it is sufficient to say that it was the great object of Christian hope. Christians not only believed Christ would come again; they not only expected Him to come; they were eager for His coming. "How long, O Lord?" they cried in their distress. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," was their prayer.
It is matter of notoriety that hope in this sense does not hold its ancient place in the heart of the Church. It holds a much lower place. Christian men hope for this or that; they hope that threatening symptoms in the Church or in society may pass away, and better things appear; they hope that when the worst comes to the worst, it will not be so bad as the pessimists anticipate. Such impotent and ineffective hope is of no kindred to the hope of the gospel. So far from being a power of God in the soul, a victorious grace, it is a sure token that God is absent. Instead of inspiring, it discourages; it leads to numberless self-deceptions; men hope their lives are right with God, when they ought to search them and see; they hope things will turn out well when they ought to be taking security of them. All this, where our relations to God are concerned, is a degradation of the very word. The Christian hope is laid up in heaven. The object of it is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not precarious, but certain; it is not ineffective, but a great and energetic power. Anything else is not hope at all.
The operation of the true hope is manifold. It is a sanctifying grace, as appears from 1Jn_3:3 : "Everyone that hath this hope set on Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure." But here the Apostle characterises it by its patience. The two virtues are so inseparable that Paul sometimes uses them as equivalent; twice in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, he says faith, love, and patience, instead of faith, love, and hope. But what is patience? The word is one of the great words of the New Testament.
The corresponding verb is usually rendered endurance, as in Christs saying, "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." Patience is more than resignation or meek submission; it is hope in the shade, but hope nevertheless; the brave steadfastness which bears up under all burdens because the Lord is at hand. The Thessalonians had much affliction in their early days as Christians; they were tried, too, as we all are, by inward discouragements-that persistence and vitality of sin that break the spirit and beget despair; but they saw close at hand the glory of the Lord; and in the patience of hope they held out, and fought the good fight to the last. It is truly significant that in the Pastoral Epistles patience has taken the place of hope in the trinity of graces. It is as if Paul had discovered, by prolonged experience, that it was in the form of patience that hope was to be mainly effective in the Christian life. The Thessalonians, some of them, were abusing the great hope; it was working mischief in their lives, because it was misapplied; in this single word Paul hints at the truth which abundant experience had taught him, that all the energy of hope must be transformed into brave patience if we would stand in our place at the last. Remembering their work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, in the presence of our God and Father, the Apostle gives thanks to God always for them all. Happy is the man whose joys are such that he can gratefully dwell on them in that presence: happy are those also who give others Cause to thank God on their behalf.
The ground of the thanksgiving is finally comprehended in one short and striking phrase: "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election." The doctrine of election has often been taught as if the one thing that could never be known about anybody was whether he was or was not elect. The assumed impossibility does not square with New Testament ways of speaking. Paul knew the elect, he says here; at least he knew the Thessalonians were elect. In the same way he writes to the Ephesians: "God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world; in love He foreordained us to adoption as sons." Chose whom before the foundation of the world? Foreordained whom? Himself, and those whom he addressed. If the Church has learned the doctrine of election from anybody, it has been from Paul; but to him it had a basis in experience, and apparently he felt differently about it from many theologians. He knew when the people he spoke to were elect; how, he tells in what follows.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv2–8 2–5. We. The plural, perhaps, is used because Silas…
2–5. We. The plural, perhaps, is used because Silas and Timothy were joined in the greeting, but the Epistle is Paul's, not the joint work of three persons. Give thanks. Almost all Paul's letters begin with thanksgiving.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6 1Th_1:3. Work of faith, and labour of love, and…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th_1:3. Work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope.—The famous three sister-graces familiar to us from St. Paul’s other letters. As Bengel says, they are Summa Christianismi. St. James, one thinks, would have liked the expression, “work of faith” (Jas_2:14-26). But if faith works, love cannot be outdone (1Co_13:13), and toils with strenuous endeavour; whilst hope—a faculty flighty enough with some—here patiently endures, “pressing on and bearing up.”
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1Th_1:4. Your election.—God is said to pick out, not for any inherent qualities, certain persons for purposes of His own. The same idea is in the word “saints,” as those whom God has separated from a godless world and made them dear to Himself.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Th_1:2-4
Ministerial Thanksgiving.
Gratitude for the healthy, flourishing state of the Thessalonian Church is a marked feature in both epistles, and is frequently expressed. The apostle left the young converts in a critical condition, and when he heard from Timothy a favourable account of their steadfastness and growth in grace, like a true minister of Christ he gave God thanks.
I. Ministerial thanksgiving is expansive in its character.—“We give thanks always for you all” (1Th_1:2). It is our duty, and acceptable to God, to be grateful for personal benefits; but it displays a broader, nobler generosity when we express thanksgiving on behalf of others. It is Christ-like: He thanked God the Father for revealing the things of His kingdom unto babes. The apostle thanked God:—
1. Because of their work of faith.—“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith” (1Th_1:3). Faith is itself a work. It is the eye and hand of the soul, by which the sinner sees and lays hold on Christ for salvation. Man meets with opposition in its exercise; he has to fight against the faith-stifling power of sin in himself and in the world. Faith is also the cause of work. It is the propelling and sustaining motive in all Christian toil. “Faith without works is dead.”
2. Because of their labour of love.—The strength of love is tested by its labour; we show our love to Christ by what we do for Him. Love intensifies every faculty, moves to benevolent exertion, and makes even drudgery an enjoyment. Love leads us to attempt work from which we would once have shrunk in dismay.
3. Because of their patient hope.—Their hope of salvation in Christ was severely tried by affliction, persecutions, and numberless temptations, but was not quenched. It is hard to hope on in the midst of discouragement. It was so with Joseph in prison, with David in the mountains of Judah, with the Jews in Chaldea. But the grace of patience gives constancy and perseverance to our hope. The apostle rejoiced in the marked sincerity of their faith, love, and hope, which he acknowledged to be “in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” These virtues are derived alone from Christ, and their exercise God witnesses and approves. Things are in reality what they are in God’s sight. His estimate is infallible.
4. Because assured of their election.—“Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election” (1Th_1:4). St. Paul here means only to show how he, from the way in which the Spirit operated in him at a certain place, drew a conclusion as to the disposition of the persons there. Where it manifested itself powerfully, argued he, there must be elect; where the contrary was the case, he concluded the contrary (Olshausen). Election is the judgment of divine grace, exempting in Christ from the common destruction of men those who accept their calling by faith. Every one who is called is elected from the first moment of his faith, and so long as he continues in his calling and faith he continues to be elected; if at any time he loses calling and faith he ceases to be elected (Bengel). Observe the constancy of this thanksgiving spirit—“We give thanks always for you all.” As they remembered without ceasing the genuine evidences of their conversion, so did they assiduously thank God. There is always something to thank God for if we will but see it.
II. Ministerial thanksgiving evokes a spirit of practical devotion.—“Making mention of you in our prayers” (1Th_1:2). The interest in his converts of the successful worker is keenly aroused; he is anxious the work should be permanent, and resorts to prayer as the effectual means. Prayer for others benefits the suppliant. When the Church prayed, not only was Peter liberated from prison, but the faith of the members was emboldened. Gratitude is ever a powerful incentive to prayer. It penetrates the soul with a conscious dependence on God, and prompts the cry for necessary help. There is no true prayer without thanksgiving.
III. Ministerial thanksgiving is rendered to the great Giver of all good.—“We give thanks to God” (1Th_1:2). God is the Author of true success. In vain we labour where His blessing is withheld. Paul was not equally successful in other places as in Thessalonica. In Damascus, where he first bore testimony for Christ, the governor under King Aretas planned his capture, and he but narrowly escaped. At Lystra the apostle was violently stoned and dragged out of the town as one dead. But at Thessalonica, notwithstanding opposition, the gospel laid firm hold of the hearts of men, and believers were multiplied. The highest kind of success in spiritual work must ever come from above. Like Paul, we should be careful constantly to acknowledge and thank God as the active source of all prosperity.
Lessons.—
1. There is much in the work of the minister to test his patience and faith.
2. The true minister gratefully traces all success directly to God.
3. A thankful spirit prompts the minister to increased Christian enterprise.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Th_1:2. Thanksgiving and Prayer.
I. The apostle had the burden of all the Churches and their individual members.
II. The effect of the remembrance on himself.—
1. He gives thanks. They were the seals of his ministry, the recipients of the grace of God, the earnest of a more abundant harvest.
2. He prays.—They had not fully attained. They were in danger. None trusts less to human means than the most richly qualified.—Stewart.
1Th_1:3. Grace and Good Works.
I. All inward graces ought to bloom into active goodness.—
1. Faith is to work.
2. Love is to labour.
3. Hope is to endure.
II. All active goodness must be rooted in some inward grace.—
1. The root of work is faith.
2. The spring of labour is in love.
3. We need to refresh ourselves by a perpetual onward glance, a confident anticipation of the coming triumph.—Local Preacher’s Treasury.
1Th_1:4. Election of God.
I. There is an eternal election.
II. Which comes out in the election made in time.
III. Let us rejoice in it, for apart from it none would be saved.—Stewart.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v2 2,3. “Incessantly remembering your work of faith and labor…
ARGUMENT 1
THESSALONIAN CONVERSION
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2,3. “Incessantly remembering your work of faith and labor of love.” All who have faith and love are Christians, these two fundamental graces constituting the beautiful globe of the new creation, Faith the human, and Love the Divine hemisphere. Soul-saving work is the legitimate and normal fruit of a genuine faith; so is love demonstrated by evangelistic labor These people proved their faith and love by their works.
4. “Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election.” We are repeatedly informed in the Scripture that our election is through “sanctification of the Spirit.” In conversion we become candidates for heaven; in sanctification, we are elected. Though these people had not all been sanctified, God seeing it in the future recognizes it.
5. “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but even in dynamite and in the Holy Ghost and in much full assurance.” You see from these inspired statements that their conversion was no modern bogus, but was like a sunburst from the throne of God. It is utterly impossible for a candid mind to call in question the genuineness of their spiritual birth.
6. “Receiving the Word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Ghost.” No sinner has the joy of the Holy Ghost, but he has the sorrow and condemnation of conviction till he passes from death to life.
7. “So that you are an example to all those who believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” Here we see Paul holds them up as paragon saints for the exemplification of all others.
8. “For from you the Word of the Lord has roared out, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith, which is toward God, has gone forth.” Here we see that they were not only themselves saved, but efficient and enthusiastic missionaries, scouring all the surrounding country, and preaching with stentorian voices. Good Lord, give us everywhere the Thessalonian type of conversion!
8. The Thessalonian saints are bold missionaries, proclaiming the gospel in Macedonia and Achaia with stentorian voices. They were none of your dumb professors.
9. …We find Paul, on his first visit to Thessalonica, rendered the second coming of Christ exceedingly prominent. The Christhood, in which his first coming to suffer and die, and his second coming to conquer and to reign, are the great salient points, constituted the burden of apostolic preaching. So it is today. When we cease to preach Christ, we would better travel. “To await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, delivering us from the wrath to come.” Christ is our great Deliverer, over all and in all.
1,2. Despite their cruel treatment in Philippi, and the hot and bloody pursuit of their enemies to Thessalonica, they were bold as lions, exposing the futility of the heathen gods, and the impertinency of the defunct Judaism; they fearlessly hold Jesus Christ as the only Savior of a lost world, the Holy Ghost attesting the truth of their testimony.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv3, 8 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians
FAITH, LOVE, HOPE, AND THEIR FRUITS
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1Th 1:3.
This Epistle, as I suppose we all know, is Paul’s first letter. He had been hunted out of Thessalonica by the mob, made the best of his way to Athens, stayed there for a very short time, then betook himself to Corinth, and at some point of his somewhat protracted residence there, this letter was written. So that we have in it his first attempt, so far as we know, to preach the Gospel by the pen. It is interesting to notice how, whatever changes and developments there may have been in him thereafter, all the substantial elements of his latest faith beam out in this earliest letter, and how even in regard to trifles we see the germs of much that came afterwards. This same triad, you remember, ‘faith, hope, charity,’ recurs in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, though with a very significant difference in the order, which I shall have to dwell upon presently.
The letter is interesting on another account. Remembering that it was only a very short time since these Thessalonians had turned from idols to serve the living God, there is something very beautiful in the overflowing generosity of commendation, which never goes beyond veracity, with which he salutes them. Their Christian character, like seeds sown in some favoured tropical land, had sprung up swiftly; yet not with the dangerous kind of swiftness which presages decay of the growth. It was only a few days since they had been grovelling before idols, but now he can speak of ‘your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope’ . . . and declare that the Gospel ‘sounded out’ from them--the word which he employs is that which is technically used for the blast of a trumpet--’so that we need not to speak anything.’ Rapid growth is possible for us all, and is not always superficial.
I desire now to consider that pair of triads--the three foundation-stones, and the three views of the fair building that is reared upon them.
I. The three foundation-stones.
That is a natural metaphor to use, but it is not quite correct, for these three--faith, love, hope--are not to be conceived of as lying side by side. Rather than three foundations we have three courses of the building here; the lowest one, faith; the next one, love; and the top one, hope. The order in 1 Corinthians is different, ‘faith, hope, charity,’ and the alteration in the sequence is suggested by the difference of purpose. The Apostle intended in 1 Corinthians to dwell at some length thereafter on ‘charity,’ or ‘love.’ So he puts it last to make the link of connection with what he is going to say. But here he is dealing with the order of production, the natural order in which these three evolve themselves. And his thought is that they are like the shoots that successive springs bring upon the bough of a tree, where each year has its own growth, and the summit of last year’s becomes the basis of next. Thus we have, first, faith; then, shooting from that, love; and then, sustained by both, hope. Now let us look at that order.
It is a well-worn commonplace, which you may think it not needful for me to dwell upon here, that in the Christian theory, both of salvation and of morals, the basis of everything is trust. And that is no arbitrary theological arrangement, but it is the only means by which the life that is the basis both of salvation and of righteousness can be implanted in men. There is no other way by which Jesus Christ can come into our hearts than by what the New Testament calls ‘trust,’ which we have turned into the hard, theological concept which too often glides over people’s minds without leaving any dint at all--’faith.’ Distrust is united with trust. There is no trust without, complementary to it, self-distrust. Just as the sprouting seed sends one little radicle downwards, and that becomes the root, and at the same time sends up another one, white till it reaches the light, and it becomes the stem, so the underside of faith is self-distrust, and you must empty yourselves before you can open your hearts to be filled by Jesus. That being so, this self-distrustful trust is the beginning of everything. That is the alpha of the whole alphabet, however glorious and manifold may be the words into which its letters are afterwards combined. Faith is the hand that grasps. It is the means of communication, it is the channel through which the grace which is the life, or, rather, I should say, the life which is the grace, comes to us. It is the open door by which the angel of God comes in with his gifts. It is like the petals of the flowers, opening when the sunshine kisses them, and, by opening, laying bare the depths of their calyxes to be illuminated and coloured, and made to grow by the sunshine which itself has opened them, and without the presence of which, within the cup, there would have been neither life nor beauty. So faith is the basis of everything; the first shoot from which all the others ascend. Brethren, have you that initial grace? I leave the question with you. If you have not that, you have nothing else.
Then again, out of faith rises love. No man can love God unless he believes that God loves him. I, for my part, am old-fashioned and narrow enough not to believe that there is any deep, soul-cleansing or soul-satisfying love of God which is not the answer to the love that died on the Cross. But you must believe that, and more than believe it; you must have trusted and cast yourselves on it, in the utter abandonment of self-distrust and Christ-confidence, before there will well up in your heart the answering love to God. First faith, then love. My love is the reverberation of the primeval voice, the echo of God’s. The angle at which the light falls on the mirror is the same as the angle at which it is reflected from it. And though my love at its highest is low, at its strongest is weak: yet, like the echo that is faint and far, feeble though it be, it is pitched on the same key, and is the prolongation of the same note as the mother-sound. So my love answers God’s love, and it will never answer it unless faith has brought me within the auditorium, the circle wherein the voice that proclaims ‘I love thee, my child,’ can be heard.
Now, we do not need to ask ourselves whether Paul is here speaking of love to God or love to man. He is speaking of both, because the New Testament deals with the latter as being a part of the former, and sure to accompany it. But there is one lesson that I wish to draw. If it be true that love in us is thus the result of faith in the love of God, let us learn how we grow in love. You cannot say, ‘Now I will make an effort to love.’ The circulation of the blood, the pulsations of the heart, are not within the power of the will. But you can say, ‘Now I will make an effort to trust.’ For faith is in the power of the will, and when the Master said, ‘Ye will not come unto me,’ He taught us that unbelief is not a mere intellectual deficiency or perversity, but that it is the result, in the majority of cases--I might almost say in all-of an alienated will. Therefore, if you wish to love, do not try to work yourself into a hysteria of affection, but take into your hearts and minds the Christian facts, and mainly the fact of the Cross, which will set free the frozen and imprisoned fountains of your affections, and cause them to flow out abundantly in sweet water. First faith, then love; and get at love through faith. That is a piece of practical wisdom that it will do us all good to keep in mind.
Then the third of the three, the topmost shoot, is hope. Hope is faith directed to the future. So it is clear enough that, unless I have that trust of which I have been speaking, I have none of the hope which the Apostle regards as flowing from it. But love has to do with hope quite as much, though in a different way, as faith has to do with it. For in the direct proportion in which we are taking into our hearts Christ and His truth, and letting our hearts go out in love towards Him and communion with Him, will the glories beyond brighten and consolidate and magnify themselves in our eyes. The hope of the Christian man is but the inference from his present faith, and the joy and sweetness of his present love. For surely when we rise to the heights which are possible to us all, and on which I suppose most Christian people have been sometimes, though for far too brief seasons; when we rise to the heights of communion with God, anything seems more possible to us than that death, or anything that lies in the future, should have power over a tie so sweet, so strong, so independent of externals, and so all-sufficing in its sweetness. Thus we shall be sure that God is our portion for ever, in the precise degree in which, by faith and love, we feel that ‘He is the strength of our hearts,’ to-day and now. So, then, we have the three foundation-stones.
And now a word or two, in the second place, about
II. The fair building which rises on them.
I have already half apologised for using the metaphor of a foundation and a building. I must repeat the confession that the symbol is an inadequate one. For the Apostle does not conceive of the work and labour and patience which are respectively allocated to these three graces as being superimposed upon them, as it were, by effort, so much as he thinks of them as growing out of them by their inherent nature. The work is ‘the work of faith,’ that which characterises faith, that which issues from it, that which is its garment, visible to the world, and the token of its reality and its presence. Faith works. It is the foundation of all true work; even in the lowest sense of the word we might almost say that. But in the Christian scheme it is eminently the underlying requisite for all work which God does not consider as busy idleness. I might here make a general remark, which, however, I need not dwell upon, that we have here the broad thought which Christian people in all generations need to have drummed into their heads over and over again, and that is that inward experiences and emotions, and states of mind and heart, however good and precious, are so mainly as being the necessary foundations of conduct. What is the good of praying and feeling comfortable within, and having ‘a blessed assurance,’ a ‘happy experience,’ ‘sweet communion,’ and so on? What is the good of it all, if these things do not make us ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world’? What is the good of the sails of a windmill going whirling round, if the machinery has been thrown out of gear, and the great stones which it ought to actuate are not revolving? What is the good of the screw of a steamer revolving, when she pitches, clean above the waves? It does nothing then to drive the vessel onwards, but will only damage the machinery. And Christian emotions and experiences which do not drive conduct are of as little use, often as perilous, and as injurious. If you want to keep your ‘faith, love, hope,’ sound and beneficial, set them to work. And do not be too sure that you have them, if they do not crave for work, whether you set them to it or not.
‘Your work of faith.’ There is the whole of the thorny subject of the relation of faith and works packed into a nutshell. It is exactly what James said and it is exactly what a better than James said. When the Jews came to Him with their externalism, and thought that God was to be pleased by a whole rabble of separate good actions, and so said, ‘What shall we do that we might work the works of God?’ Jesus said, ‘Never mind about works . This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,’ and out of that will come all the rest. That is the mother-tincture; everything will flow from that. So Paul says, ‘Your work of faith.’
Does your faith work? Perhaps I should ask other people rather than you. Do men see that your faith works; that its output is different from the output of men who are not possessors of a ‘like precious faith’? Ask yourselves the question, and God help you to answer it.
Love labours. Labour is more than work, for it includes the notion of toil, fatigue, difficulty, persistence, antagonism. Ah! the work of faith will never be done unless it is the toil of love. You remember how Milton talks about the immortal garland that is to be run for, ‘not without dust and sweat.’ The Christian life is not a leisurely promenade. The limit of our duty is not ease of work. There must be toil. And love is the only principle that will carry us through the fatigues, and the difficulties, and the oppositions which rise against us from ourselves and from without. Love delights to have a hard task set it by the beloved, and the harder the task the more poignant the satisfaction. Loss is gain when it brings us nearer the beloved. And whether our love be love to God, or its consequence, love to man, it is the only foundation on which toil for either God or man will ever permanently be rested. Do not believe in philanthropy which has not a bottom of faith, and do not believe in work for Christ which does not involve in toil. And be sure that you will do neither, unless you have both these things: the faith and the love.
And then comes the last. Faith works, love toils, hope is patient. Is that all that ‘hope’ is? Not if you take the word in the narrow meaning which it has in modern English; but that was not what Paul meant. He meant something a great deal more than passive endurance, great as that is. It is something to be able to say, in the pelting of a pitiless storm, ‘Pour on! I will endure.’ But it is a great deal more to be able, in spite of all, not to bate one jot of heart or hope, but ‘still bear up and steer right onward’; and that is involved in the true meaning of the word inadequately rendered ‘patience’ in the New Testament. For it is no passive virtue only, but it is a virtue which, in the face of the storm, holds its course; brave persistence, active perseverance, as well as meek endurance and submission.
‘Hope’ helps us both to bear and to do. They tell us nowadays that it is selfish for a Christian man to animate himself, either for endurance or for activity, by the contemplation of those great glories that lie yonder. If that is selfishness, God grant we may all become a great deal more selfish than we are! No man labours in the Christian life, or submits to Christian difficulty, for the sake of going to heaven. At least, if he does, he has got on the wrong tack altogether. But if the motive for both endurance and activity be faith and love, then hope has a perfect right to come in as a subsidiary motive, and to give strength to the faith and rapture to the love. We cannot afford to throw away that hope, as so many of us do--not perhaps, intellectually, though I am afraid there is a very considerable dimming of the clearness, and a narrowing of the place in our thoughts, of the hope of a future blessedness, in the average Christian of this day--but practically we are all apt to lose sight of the recompense of the reward. And if we do, the faith and love, and the work and toil, and the patience will suffer. Faith will relax its grasp, love will cool down its fervour; and there will come a film over Hope’s blue eye, and she will not see the land that is very far off. So, dear brethren, remember the sequence, ‘faith, love, hope,’ and remember the issues, ‘work, toil, patience.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv2–8 We give thanks to God always for you all,…
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers ;
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v3 work of faith
work of faith
Lit. operative faith, and laborious love, and hope-filled patience.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v5 A Recommendation of the Congregation’s Attitude.
A Recommendation of the Congregation’s Attitude.
v. 5. For our Gospel came not unto, you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
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v. 6. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost,
v. 7. so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
v. 8. For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.
v. 9. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
v. 10. and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
The apostle here substantiates more fully the reason for his assurance of the election of the Thessalonian Christians: Because our Gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in full assurance, just as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sakes. This is Paul’s reason, as far as he, as to his own person, is concerned, why he is so sure of their having been chosen by God unto salvation. He had not been preaching the Gospel to them in vain and empty phrases, See 1Co 4:20; he had not been hiding its glorious message by a false oratory; he had not embittered its sweetness by a doctrine of works. He had preached in power, the Word itself exerting its strength upon the hearts of his hearers. He had preached in the Holy Spirit, who works in and through the Word of the Gospel as His means of grace. And his preaching had received additional emphasis from the fact that he had preached with the full personal conviction, with the unfaltering confidence, that it was the divine truth which he was proclaiming. It is the fullness of assurance which gives to the simplest discourse of the Gospel-truth much of its force and persuasive power. If a man calling himself a minister of the Gospel himself has doubts as to the divinity of the Word, as to the certainty of salvation, his words will hardly carry the strength of conviction. Paul’s readers knew his record.
The apostle also has a reason from their standpoint why he feels safe in concluding that they belong to the elect of the Lord: And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, accepting the Word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Ghost. The Thessalonians had had ample opportunity of judging as to Paul’s conviction in the matter of the Gospel which he preached; they knew how he had conducted himself in their midst and in their behalf. By the grace of God, through the work of the Spirit, they had received such a firm assurance of the truth that they imitated their teacher, believing as he believed. Incidentally, they became imitators of the Lord, they walked in the way prescribed by Him, by His gracious and good will, which points to salvation for all men. All this they did by accepting the Word, by receiving the Gospel-truth, by acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. This attitude of the heart is always accompanied with the joy of the Holy Ghost, in the very midst of much affliction, No matter how much hostility and persecution the believers must contend with, no matter how seriously the wretchedness and misery of this present life seek to create doubt and unhappiness in their hearts, they have the assurance of the Holy Ghost in the Word, and therefore they are, in their heart of hearts, satisfied, joyful, happy.
Such a condition, however, will have its effect also upon others, as in the case of the Thessalonian Christians: So that you became an example to all those that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. The true believers, exhibiting the firm and happy conviction of faith which the Lord desires, become a pattern or type for others; they become an example for others to model their spiritual life after. Since this fact may, in turn, redound to the further confirmation of the faith of the Thessalonians, to the further conviction of its reality, St. Paul freely commends them in this respect: For from you has been sounded forth the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that there is no need for us to say anything. The geographical and commercial position of Thessalonica aided greatly in the rapid spread of the news concerning the acceptance of the Gospel in that city, making it incidentally an excellent basis for missionary work. Throughout Macedonia and Achaia, the ancient Grecian country, the larger part of what is now the Balkan Peninsula, the Gospel had been disseminated, people had gone forth, even in this brief space of time since Paul first preached there, endeavoring to spread the seed of the Gospel doctrine throughout the country. Surely a splendid example of interest and zeal for all Christians to imitate. By thus taking advantage of their opportunities, the Thessalonians had caused their faith to be known, to be spoken of everywhere. See Rom 1:8; Col 1:6-23. The rapid, powerfully spreading conversion was exciting attention everywhere, so that there was nothing for Paul to add; the facts spoke more loudly than his words.
So great was the sensation which the faith of the Thessalonians had caused in all the cities along the trade routes of the Eastern Mediterranean that, as the apostle writes: For of their own accord people make mention concerning us what manner of entrance we had toward you, and how you turned to God from the idols to serve the living and true God. This was surely a novel experience for the apostle. Before he so much as had an opportunity to refer to the willing acceptance which the Thessalonians gave to the Gospel, in order to incite others to emulation and to open a way for the preaching of the Gospel, people told him of their own accord what they knew of the situation in Thessalonica, of the willingness with which the Thessalonians had received the Gospel-message. It was known everywhere how they had turned away from the worship of idols with the express intention of serving only the living, the true God. The God of the Gospel-preaching is the living God, as opposed to all dead idol-images; He is the true, the real God, as opposed to the imaginary, lying idols. To serve this true God in faith and love, that is the life of the believers, therein they find true and lasting happiness. The service of all false gods and imaginary deities is a slavery which the conscience of the idolaters denounces, which they themselves abhor; the service of the true God is the outflow of the relation of love which obtains between the heavenly Father and His children.
And the best is yet to be: And to wait for the coming of His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, the Deliverer from the wrath to come. While the believers lead their lives of faith and love, serving God and their fellow-men in the simplicity of their hearts, their minds are looking forward to, they are eagerly expecting, they are anxiously awaiting, the coming of the Son of God, who will return from heaven in the fullness of His divine glory, Mat 25:31. It was this Son whom God raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of His power. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the great fact by which He has definitely and incontrovertibly been proved to be the Son of God with power, Rom 1:4. This Jesus, who earned salvation for all men, will, on the last day, bring the final deliverance to His believers; He will show before the whole world that He has delivered us, torn us away, from the wrath to come, from the punishment of hell, which would have been our rightful and well-earned condemnation but for His glorious redemption. This wrath of God would surely have struck us also if Jesus had not borne its curse and punishment in our stead, including that of eternal damnation. But now, since in Jesus Christ judgment has already been passed upon the world, therefore, whosoever believeth in Him is no longer judged, Joh 3:14-18, but is the happy possessor of full deliverance, of the inheritance of eternal life.
Summary
After the opening salutation the apostle assures the Thessalonians of his grateful prayer in their behalf and of his remembrance of their Christian virtues, due to his own preaching and their cheerful acceptance of his message, the news of which has gone forth throughout Macedonia and Achaia.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 4, 6, 8 General Information:
General Information:
In this letter the words "we" and "us" refer to Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, unless otherwise noted. Also, the word "you" is plural and refers to the believers at the church of Thessalonica. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We" and Forms of You)
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We always give thanks to God
Here "always" suggests that when Paul prays to God, he consistently presents the Thessalonians to God in his prayers.
we mention you in our prayers
"we pray for you"
work of faith
acts done because of trust in God
translationWords
God
pray
faith
labor
love
lord
Jesus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2–7 1:2-10 After thanking God for the faith, love, and…
1:2-10 After thanking God for the faith, love, and hope of the Thessalonian believers (1:2-3), Paul recalls how the Good News was proclaimed to them (1:4-5) and how they accepted its message (1:6-10). Paul returns to these themes in 2:1-12 and 2:13-16.
1:2 We always thank God for all of you is the first of three thanksgivings for the church (see 2:13; 3:9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.