You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
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1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God. You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory. 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 word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.
Parallel Translations
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You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.
As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,
to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
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Ye are witnesses and so is god how holyly and iustly and vnblameable we behaved oure selves amonge you that beleve:
as ye knowe how that we exhorted and comforted and besought every one of you as a father his children
that ye wolde walke worthy of God which hath called you vnto his kyngdome and glory.
Show all 3 translations
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Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and iustly, and vnblameably we behaued our selues among you that beleeue.
As ye knowe how that we exhorted you, and comforted, and besought euery one of you (as a father his children)
That ye would walke worthy of God, who hath called you vnto his kingdome and glorie.
Cross-references (83)
- Ephesians 4:1 (v12) I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
- 1 John 2:6 (v12) he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
- 1 John 1:6-7 (v12) If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he…
- 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 (v11) I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (v12) 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…
Show all 82 cross-references
- 1 Thessalonians 4:12 (v12) that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
- 2 Corinthians 1:12 (v10) For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (v10) 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…
- Hebrews 13:22 (v11) But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation; for I have written to you in few words.
- 1 Peter 5:3 (v10) not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.
- 1 Peter 5:10 (v12) But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect,…
- Ephesians 5:2 (v12) Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
- Ephesians 5:8 (v12) For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- Colossians 1:10 (v12) that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (v12) He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (v12) 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…
- 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (v11) Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.
- 1 Timothy 5:21 (v11) I command you in the sight of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the chosen angels, that you observe these things without prejudice, doing…
- 2 Timothy 4:1-2 (v11) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:…
- Titus 2:7-8 (v10) In all things be showing yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, be showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, and…
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (vv11–12) Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that…
- Deuteronomy 3:28 (v11) But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit…
- 1 Chronicles 28:20 (v11) David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed; for Yahweh God, even my God, is with…
- Romans 9:23-24 (v12) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called,…
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 (v12) God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
- Galatians 5:16 (v12) But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
- Colossians 2:6 (v12) As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,
- 1 Thessalonians 2:7 (v11) But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (v11) Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do.
- 1 Peter 1:15-16 (v12) but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy; for…
- Genesis 50:16-17 (v11) They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, ‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the…
- Numbers 27:19 (v11) Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight.
- Deuteronomy 31:14 (v11) Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may…
- 1 Chronicles 22:11-13 (v11) Now, my son, may Yahweh be with you and prosper you, and build the house of Yahweh your God, as he has spoken concerning you. May Yahweh…
- 1 Chronicles 28:9 (v11) You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all…
- Psalms 34:11 (v11) Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
- Proverbs 1:10 (v11) My son, if sinners entice you, don’t consent.
- Proverbs 1:15 (v11) My son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path,
- Proverbs 2:1 (v11) My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
- Proverbs 3:1 (v11) My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
- Proverbs 4:1-12 (v11) Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding; for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law. For I…
- Proverbs 5:1-2 (v11) My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding, that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve…
- Proverbs 6:1 (v11) My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
- Proverbs 7:1 (v11) My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
- Proverbs 7:24 (v11) Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
- Proverbs 31:1-9 (v11) The words of king Lemuel; the revelation which his mother taught him. “Oh, my son! Oh, son of my womb! Oh, son of my vows! Don’t give your…
- Acts 20:2 (v11) When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece.
- Acts 20:18 (v10) When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the…
- Philippians 1:27 (v12) Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state,…
- 1 Timothy 5:7 (v11) Also command these things, that they may be without reproach.
- 1 Timothy 6:2 (v11) Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who…
- 1 Timothy 6:13 (v11) I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession,
- 1 Timothy 6:17 (v11) Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the…
- 2 Timothy 3:10 (v10) But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,
- Titus 2:6 (v11) Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded.
- Titus 2:15 (v11) Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v12) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Numbers 16:15 (v10) Moses was very angry, and said to Yahweh, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of…
- 1 Samuel 12:3-5 (v10) Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I…
- Job 29:11-17 (v10) For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me: Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the…
- Job 31:1-39 (v10) “I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? For what is the portion from God above, and the…
- Psalms 7:3-5 (v10) Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have…
- Psalms 18:20-24 (v10) Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me. For I have kept the…
- Jeremiah 18:20 (v10) Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn…
- Acts 20:26 (v10) Therefore I testify to you today that I am clean from the blood of all men,
- Acts 20:33-34 (v10) I coveted no one’s silver, gold, or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me.
- Acts 24:16 (v10) In this I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.
- Romans 8:28 (v12) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 (v10) We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed, but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of…
- 2 Corinthians 7:2 (v10) Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one.
- 2 Corinthians 11:11 (v10) Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
- Ephesians 4:17 (v11) This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
- 1 Thessalonians 2:5 (v10) For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
- 2 Thessalonians 3:7 (v10) For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you,
- 1 Timothy 4:12 (v10) 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…
- 2 Timothy 1:9 (v12) 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…
- Titus 2:9 (v11) Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters and to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting,
- 1 Peter 3:9 (v12) not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a…
- Romans 8:30 (v12) Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
- 2 Corinthians 4:2 (v10) But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the…
- 2 Corinthians 5:11 (v10) Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your…
- 2 Corinthians 11:31 (v10) The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
82 distinct cross-references across this passage (83 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10 Ye are witnesses. He again calls God and…
10 Ye are witnesses. He again calls God and them to witness, with the view of affirming his integrity, and cites, on the one hand, God as a witness of his conscience, and them, on the other hand, as witnesses of what they had known by experience. How holily, says he, and justly, that is, with how sincere a fear of God, and with what fidelity and blamelessness towards men; and thirdly, unreproachably, by which he means that he had given no occasion of complaint or obloquy. For the servants of Christ cannot avoid calumnies, and unfavorable reports; for being hated by the world, they must of necessity be evil-spoken of among the wicked. Hence he restricts this to believers, who judge uprightly and sincerely, and do not revile malignantly and groundlessly.
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 vv10–12 To excel others in example of godly life.
To excel others in example of godly life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10 Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily…
10 Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
Ver. 10. Ye are witnesses, and God also] Happy is that man that can be acquitted by himself in private, in public by others, in both by God: bystanders may see more.
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How holily, and justly, and unblameably] Here he practised his own precepts, Tit 2:12. And herein lies the difference between divinity and other sciences, that it is not enough to prescribe it, but you must practise it, as lessons of music, and as a copy must not be read only, but acted also.
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 vv10–12 The former verses gave account of their carriage in…
The former verses gave account of their carriage in the ministry, this here of their Christian conversation; holily, with respect to God; justly, with respect to duties commanded towards men; and unblamably, in denying themselves in lawful liberty to avoid all occasion of blame from any of them. And for the truth of this he appeals to themselves; yea, to God himself. There is the witness of men, and the witness of conscience greater than of men, and the witness of God greatest of all, 1Jo 3:20. He appeals to them as witnesses about their external actions, and to God about the integrity of their hearts; and he doth this not in a way of boasting, but to be an example to them, and as a further reason of the great success of his ministry. The conversation of ministers hath great influence upon the success of their labours.
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 v11 Observe, that still our apostle appeals to their own…
Observe, that still our apostle appeals to their own consciences for his good behaviour amongst them: Ye know: Happy minister, that has a throne in the consciences of his people, unto which he can and dare, at all times, appeal, for the clearing of his innocency and integrity, in and before the face of the whole world!
Observe next, that having compared himself to a nurse before, he resembles himself to a father now, we exhorted you as a father doth his children. As it is the office of a father to direct and instruct, to counsel and exhort his children, so the apostle did exhort, comfort, and charge the Thessalonians, that they be strictly conscientious in the faithful discharge of their whole duty, both to God and man, and patient under all, and all manner of trials and afflictions whatsoever, which they did, or might meet with, in the way of well doing.
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Where note, that a mixture of meekness and gentleness, accompanied with authority and gravity is an excellent compostion in the ministers of the gospel: St. Paul having shewn, that, for gentleness, he was a nursing mother, declareth here, that for authority and gravity, he was an instructing father.
Observe lastly, the great duty which he did direct them in, and exhort them to, namely, to walk worthy of God, who had called them unto his kingdom and glory.
Note here, 1. The duty exhorted to, namely, to walk worthy of God: How so? Not with a worthiness of merit, but with a worthiness of meekness, to walk as becomes them who profess the name of God, who bear the image of God, answerable to the high and holy privileges received from God.
Note, 2. The reason or argument inforcing the duty, he hath called you to his kingdom and glory that is, to grace; and by grace here, to glory hereafter; such as are called to the one, are called to both; grace is a certain pledge and earnest of glory, a low degree of glory, and glory the highest degree of grace; such as walk worthy of God now, shall live with him, ere long, to eternal ages.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Ye are witnesses, and God also,.... Not so much…
Ye are witnesses, and God also,.... Not so much to what goes before as to what follows after, relating to their holy walk and conversation among them, the more open part of which they were witness of; and for the more secret part God is appealed to, who is acquainted with the springs of actions, as well as with actions themselves:
how holily, and justly, and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. The Syriac version joins the last clause of the preceding verse with this, and reads the whole thus, "ye are witnesses, and God also, how purely and justly we preached unto you the Gospel of God, and how unblamable we were among all that believed"; referring the former part to the purity and integrity in which they preached the Gospel, and the latter to their unblemished conduct among the saints; but the whole of it refers to their conversation, which was holy, externally holy, arising from internal principles of holiness in their hearts, and free from that impurity and filthiness with which the false teachers were polluted; and confirms what is before said, that their exhortation was not of uncleanness: and it was likewise "just", they were righteous in the sight of God through the justifying righteousness of Christ, and in consequence of this lived righteously before men, and were injurious to no man's person nor property: and their conversation was also "unblamable"; not that they were, without sin, and so without blame in themselves, or without the commission of sin by them, or that they passed without censure in the world, for they went through honour and dishonour, through good report and bad report, and had all manner of evil spoken of them falsely for Christ's name's sake; but by the grace of God, they had their conversation among them that believed so, that there was nothing material to be alleged against them, or any just cause of blame to be laid either on their persons or their ministry; and which is mentioned for imitation.
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 vv10–12 Holily - In the things of God. Justly -…
Holily - In the things of God. Justly - With regard to men. Unblamable - In respect of ourselves. Among you that believe - Who were the constant observers of our behaviour.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Verse 10. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how…
Verse 10. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily] i.e., in reference to GOD; how justly in reference to men; and unblamably in reference to our spirit and conduct, as ministers of Christ, we behaved ourselves among you. What a consciousness of his own integrity must St. Paul have had to use the expressions that are here! No hypocrite, and none who did the work of the Lord carelessly, could make such an appeal both to God and man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Ye are witnesses - They had a full opportunity…
Ye are witnesses - They had a full opportunity of knowing his manner of life.
And God also - See the notes on ver 5.
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How holily - Piously - observing all the duties of religion.
And justly - In our contact with people. I did them no wrong.
And unblameably - This seems to refer to his duties both to God and man. In reference to all those duties no one could bring a charge against him. Every duty was faithfully performed. This is not a claim to absolute perfection, but it is a claim to consistency of character, and to faithfulness in duty, which every Christian should be enabled to make. Every man professing religion should so live as to be able to appeal to all who have had an opportunity of knowing him, as witnesses that he was consistent and faithful, and that there was nothing which could be laid to his charge.
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 v10 You are witnesses. We must necessarily conclude that the…
You are witnesses. We must necessarily conclude that the apostle speaks this not from vain glory, or personal vanity; but in the just right of defending his own character against the aspersions of enemies, and lest the faith of any might be staggered by the calumnies. In such cases self-praise is not only lawful, but frequently an imperative duty, if confined within the limits of truth. (Haydock)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Ye are witnesses--as to our outward conduct.
Ye are witnesses--as to our outward conduct.
God--as to our inner motives.
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holily--towards God.
justly--towards men.
unblamably--in relation to ourselves.
behaved ourselves--Greek, "were made to be," namely, by God.
among you that believe--rather, "before (that is, in the eyes of) you that believe"; whatever we may have seemed in the eyes of the unbelieving. As Th1 2:9 refers to their outward occupation in the world; so Th1 2:10, to their character among believers.
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 vv10–12 10. Holily—As in God’s presence.
10. Holily—As in God’s presence.
Justly—With strict integrity toward men.
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Unblamably—Avoiding evil constructions by others.
You that believe—And who had opportunity to judge us most truly.
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 vv10–12 10. Ye are witnesses, and God also] In 1Th_2:5…
10. Ye are witnesses, and God also] In 1Th_2:5 the witness of man and of God (to the outward and inward respectively) were distinguished; here they are combined: You are witnesses, and so is God.
how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe] R. V. more correctly, toward you: also righteously instead of justly. Concerning “you that believe,” as a designation of Christians, see note to ch. 1Th_1:7.
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For holily we might substitute religiously. The Greek adverb does not represent the ordinary N.T. word for “holy” (hagios, i.e. saint), but another adjective (hosios), which is frequent in the O.T. and in common Greek. The former denotes Holiness as a relationship to God; the latter, as a condition or disposition of the man: they differ as consecrated from religious or pious. For the combination of Holiness (in this latter sense) with Righteousness, see Eph_4:24; Tit_1:8; also Luk_1:75; in the O.T., Deu_32:4; Psa_145:17 (applied to God), &c. The terms are not mutually exclusive, but may apply to the same acts and persons. The “holy” man has regard to the sanctities, the “righteous” man to the duties of life; but duty is sacred, and piety is duty. They cover the whole field of conduct, regarded in turn from the religious and moral standpoint, while “unblameably” affixes the seal of approval both by God and man.
Unblameably reappears in the “blameless” of ch. 1Th_3:13 and 1Th_5:23.
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 vv10–12 (10) Ye are witnesses.—Abruptly, without conjunction, the writers add…
(10) Ye are witnesses.—Abruptly, without conjunction, the writers add a summary description of their conduct at Thessalonica; before, they had dwelt on details, now, on the broad characteristics. As in 1Th_2:5, God is appealed to, because the readers could only judge of the outward propriety of their teachers’ conduct; and it is a moral law that (as Aristotle says) “the righteous man is not he that does acts which in themselves are righteous, but he that does those acts in such a mind as befits righteous men.”
Holily, of the inner, “justly,” of the outer life.
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Among you that believe—where (if anywhere) we might have been tempted to be lax or exorbitant.
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 vv10–12 Ye are witnesses, and God also; ye of the…
Ye are witnesses, and God also; ye of the outward conduct, and God of the motives which actuated us. How holily and justly and unblamably; " holily" denoting the apostle"s conduct to God, "justly" his conduct to man, and "unblamably" the negative side of both particulars. We behaved ourselves among you that believe. The apostle here refers to his own personal demeanor and to that of Silas and Timothy among them, in order that the Thessalonians might realize the purity of their conduct, and so might continue steadfast in their attachment to the gospel which they taught, He men-lions specially "them that believe," not that He acted otherwise among those that did not believe, but because believers were cognizant of his conduct.
Vers. 10-12.
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Appeal alike to man and to God respecting his personal and his official work at Thessalonica.
This double appeal attests his profound sincerity.
I CONSIDER HIS PERSONAL DEPORTMENT. "Ye are witnesses, and God, how holily, and justly, and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe." He touches on the twofold relationship of the Christian life toward God and toward man, for he had always exercised himself" to have a conscience void of offence toward man and God," and strove "to give no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed". (2Co_6:3) He had striven to walk circumspectly in a world prone to suspect sinister ends even in the best of men. The apostle"s walk was on high, even as his calling was high.
II CONSIDER HIS OFFICIAL DEPORTMENT. It was manifest in his method of dealing with his converts, and in the end which he kept steadily in view in all his ministry.
1. His method of dealing with his converts. "As ye know how we exhorted and comforted, and testified to each one of you as a father doth his children.
(1) Mark the varieties in his mode of dealing with his converts.
(a) He exhorted them, for their position of persecution and temptation demanded that he "should give them much exhortation. (Act_20:2)
(b) He comforted them, m the presence of many disquieting circumstances in their condition.
(c) He testified to them, exhibiting gospel truth with all urgency.
(2) Mark the affectionate spirit of his dealing with them: "As a father doth his children;" for he combined a father"s unwearying love with his power of direction and authority.
(3) Mark the individualizing interest in their welfare: "Each one of you." Whether they were rich or poor, few or many, he passed by none of them. They all had a place in his heart.
2. The aim of all his affectionate and individualizing interest in their welfare. "That you would walk worthy of God, who calleth you into his kingdom and glory." The duty here enjoined, "Walk worthy of God." This implies
(1) conformity to his revealed will;
(2) adornment of the gospel by a holy walk;
(3) supreme regard to the obligations involved in the high calling of God these being necessitated by
(a) the nature of the call, which is not external, but spiritual;
(b) by the consideration of him who calls us;
(c) by the holy ends of the call;
(d) by the consideration of their high destiny: for they are called to "his own kingdom and glory." This kingdom is that which is established in the mediation of Christ, into which we enter by the gate of regeneration, and which reaches its full and final development in the second coming of Christ. The glory is that which he impresses upon his people here, and which receives its full manifestation hereafter. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10. Ye are witnesses. How holy and blameless were…
10. Ye are witnesses. How holy and blameless were our lives.
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v12 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians
WALKING WORTHILY
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1Th 2:12.
Here we have the whole law of Christian conduct in a nutshell. There may be many detailed commandments, but they can all be deduced from this one. We are lifted up above the region of petty prescriptions, and breathe a bracing mountain air. Instead of regulations, very many and very dry, we have a principle which needs thought and sympathy in order to apply it, and is to be carried out by the free action of our own judgments.
Now it is to be noticed that there are a good many other passages in the New Testament in which, in similar fashion, the whole sum of Christian conduct is reduced to a ‘walking worthy’ of some certain thing or other, and I have thought that it might aid in appreciating the many-sidedness and all-sufficiency of the great principles into which Christianity crystallises the law of our life, if we just gather these together and set them before you consecutively.
They are these: we are told in our text to ‘walk worthy of God.’ Then again, we are enjoined, in other places, to ‘walk worthy of the Lord,’ who is Christ. Or again, ‘of the Gospel of Christ.’ Or again, ‘of the calling wherewith we were called.’ Or again, of the name of ‘saints.’ And if you put all these together, you will get many sides of one thought, the rule of Christian life as gathered into a single expression--correspondence with, and conformity to, a certain standard.
I. And first of all, we have this passage of my text, and the other one to which I have referred, ‘Walking worthy of the Lord,’ by whom we are to understand Christ. We may put these together and say that the whole sum of Christian duty lies in conformity to the character of a Divine Person with whom we have loving relations.
The Old Testament says: ‘Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’ The New Testament says: ‘Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love.’ So then, whatever of flashing brightness and infinite profundity in that divine nature is far beyond our apprehension and grasp, there are in that divine nature elements--and those the best and divinest in it--which it is perfectly within the power of every man to copy.
Is there anything in God that is more Godlike than righteousness and love? And is there any difference in essence between a man’s righteousness and God’s;--between a man’s love and God’s? The same gases make combustion in the sun and on the earth, and the spectroscope tells you that it is so. The same radiant brightness that flames burning in the love, and flashes white in the purity of God, even that may be reproduced in man.
Love is one thing, all the universe over. Other elements of the bond that unites us to God are rather correspondent in us to what we find in Him. Our concavity, so to speak, answers to His convexity; our hollowness to His fulness; our emptiness to His all-sufficiency. So our faith, for instance, lays hold upon His faithfulness, and our obedience grasps, and bows before, His commanding will. But the love with which I lay hold of Him is like the love with which He lays hold on me; and righteousness and purity, howsoever different may be their accompaniments in an Infinite and uncreated Nature from what they have in our limited and bounded and progressive being, in essence are one. So, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy’; ‘Walk in the light as He is in the light,’ is the law available for all conduct; and the highest divine perfections, if I may speak of pre-eminence among them, are the imitable ones, whereby He becomes our Example and our Pattern.
Let no man say that such an injunction is vague or hopeless. You must have a perfect ideal if you are to live at all by an ideal. There cannot be any flaws in your pattern if the pattern is to be of any use. You aim at the stars, and if you do not hit them you may progressively approach them. We need absolute perfection to strain after, and one day--blessed be His name--we shall attain it. Try to walk worthy of God and you will find out how tight that precept grips, and how close it fits.
The love and the righteousness which are to become the law of our lives, are revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Whatever may sound impracticable in the injunction to imitate God assumes a more homely and possible shape when it becomes an injunction to follow Jesus. And just as that form of the precept tends to make the law of conformity to the divine nature more blessed and less hopelessly above us, so it makes the law of conformity to the ideal of goodness less cold and unsympathetic. It makes all the difference to our joyfulness and freedom whether we are trying to obey a law of duty, seen only too clearly to be binding, but also above our reach, or whether we have the law in a living Person whom we have learned to love. In the one case there stands upon a pedestal above us a cold perfection, white, complete, marble; in the other case there stands beside us a living law in pattern, a Brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; whose hand we can grasp; whose heart we can trust, and of whose help we can be sure. To say to me: ‘Follow the ideal of perfect righteousness,’ is to relegate me to a dreary, endless struggling; to say to me, ‘Follow your Brother, and be like your Father,’ is to bring warmth and hope and liberty into all my effort. The word that says, ‘Walk worthy of God,’ is a royal law, the perfect law of perfect freedom.
Again, when we say, ‘Walk worthy of God,’ we mean two things--one, ‘Do after His example,’ and the other, ‘Render back to Him what He deserves for what He has done to you.’ And so this law bids us measure, by the side of that great love that died on the Cross for us all, our poor imperfect returns of gratitude and of service. He has lavished all His treasure on you; what have you brought him back? He has given you the whole wealth of His tender pity, of His forgiving mercy, of His infinite goodness. Do you adequately repay such lavish love? Has He not ‘sown much and reaped little’ in all our hearts? Has He not poured out the fulness of His affection, and have we not answered Him with a few grudging drops squeezed from our hearts? Oh! brethren! ‘Walk worthy of the Lord,’ and neither dishonour Him by your conduct as professing children of His, nor affront Him by the wretched refuse and remnants of your devotion and service that you bring back to Him in response to His love to you.
II. Now a word about the next form of this all-embracing precept. The whole law of our Christian life may be gathered up in another correspondence, ‘Walk worthy of the Gospel’ {Php 1:27}, in a manner conformed to that great message of God’s love to us.
That covers substantially the same ground as we have already been going over, but it presents the same ideas in a different light. It presents the Gospel as a rule of conduct. Now people have always been apt to think of it more as a message of deliverance than as a practical guide, as we all need to make an effort to prevent our natural indolence and selfishness from making us forget that the Gospel is quite as much a rule of conduct as a message of pardon.
It is both by the same act. In the very facts on which our redemption depends lies the law of our lives.
What was Paul’s Gospel? According to Paul’s own definition of it, it was this: ‘How that Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’ And the message that I desire now to bring to all you professing Christians is this: Do not always be looking at Christ’s Cross only as your means of acceptance. Do not only be thinking of Christ’s Passion as that which has barred for you the gates of punishment, and has opened for you the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. It has done all that; but if you are going to stop there you have only got hold of a very maimed and imperfect edition of the Gospel. The Cross is your pattern , as well as the anchor of your hope and the ground of your salvation, if it is anything at all to you. And it is not the ground of your salvation and the anchor of your hope unless it is your pattern. It is the one in exactly the same degree in which it is the other.
So all self-pleasing, all harsh insistence on your own claims, all neglect of suffering and sorrow and sin around you, comes under the lash of this condemnation: ‘They are not worthy of the Gospel.’ And all unforgivingness of spirit and of temper in individuals and in nations, in public and in private matters, that, too, is in flagrant contradiction to the principles that are taught on the Cross to which you say you look for your salvation. Have you got forgiveness, and are you going out from the presence-chamber of the King to take your brother by the throat for the beggarly coppers that he owes you, and say: ‘Pay me what thou owest!’ when the Master has forgiven you all that great mountain of indebtedness which you owe Him? Oh, my brother! if Christian men and women would only learn to take away the scales from their eyes and souls; not looking at Christ’s Cross with less absolute trustfulness, as that by which all their salvation comes, but also learning to look at it as closely and habitually as yielding the pattern to which their lives should be conformed, and would let the heart-melting thankfulness which it evokes when gazed at as the ground of our hope prove itself true by its leading them to an effort at imitating that great love, and so walking worthy of the Gospel, how their lives would be transformed! It is far easier to fetter your life with yards of red-tape prescriptions--do this, do not do that--far easier to out-pharisee the Pharisees in punctilious scrupulosities, than it is honestly, and for one hour, to take the Cross of Christ as the pattern of your lives, and to shape yourselves by that.
One looks round upon a lethargic, a luxurious, a self-indulgent, a self-seeking, a world-besotted professing Church, and asks: ‘Are these the people on whose hearts a cross is stamped?’ Do these men--or rather let us say, do we live as becometh the Gospel which proclaims the divinity of self-sacrifice, and that the law of a perfect human life is perfect self-forgetfulness, even as the secret of the divine nature is perfect love? ‘Walk worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’
III. Then again, there is another form of this same general prescription which suggests to us a kindred and yet somewhat different standard. We are also bidden to bring our lives into conformity to, and correspondence with, or, as the Bible has it, ‘to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called’ {Eph 4:1}.
God summons or invites us, and summons us to what? The words which follow our text answer, ‘Who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory.’ All you Christian people have been invited, and if you are Christians you have accepted the invitation; and all you men and women, whether you are Christians or not, have been and are being invited and summoned into a state and a world {for the reference is to the future life}, in which God’s will is supreme, and all wills are moulded into conformity with that, and into a state and a world in which all shall--because they submit to His will--partake of His glory, the fulness of His uncreated light.
That being the aim of the summons, that being the destiny that is held out before us all, ought not that destiny and the prospect of what we may be in the future, to fling some beams of guiding brightness on to the present?
Men that are called to high functions prepare themselves therefor. If you knew that you were going away to Australia in six months, would you not be beginning to get your outfit ready? You Christian men profess to believe that you have been called to a condition in which you will absolutely obey God’s will, and be the loyal subjects of His kingdom, and in which you will partake of God’s glory. Well then, obey His will here, and let some scattered sparklets of that uncreated light that is one day going to flood your soul lie upon your face to-day. Do not go and cut your lives into two halves, one of them all contradictory to that which you expect in the other, but bring a harmony between the present, in all its weakness and sinfulness, and that great hope and certain destiny that blazes on the horizon of your hope, as the joyful state to which you have been invited. ‘Walk worthy of the calling to which you are called.’
And again, that same thought of the destiny should feed our hope, and make us live under its continual inspiration. A walk worthy of such a calling and such a caller should know no despondency, nor any weary, heartless lingering, as with tired feet on a hard road. Brave good cheer, undimmed energy, a noble contempt of obstacles, a confidence in our final attainment of that purity and glory which is not depressed by consciousness of present failure--these are plainly the characteristics which ought to mark the advance of the men in whose ears such a summons from such lips rings as their marching orders.
And a walk worthy of our calling will turn away from earthly things. If you believe that God has summoned you to His kingdom and glory, surely, surely, that should deaden in your heart the love and the care for the trifles that lie by the wayside. Surely, surely, if that great voice is inviting, and that merciful hand is beckoning you into the light, and showing you what you may possess there, it is not walking according to that summons if you go with your eyes fixed upon the trifles at your feet, and your whole heart absorbed in this present fleeting world. Unworldliness, in its best and purest fashion--by which I mean not only a contempt for material wealth and all that it brings, but the sitting loose by everything that is beneath the stars--unworldliness is the only walk that is ‘worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called.’
And if you hear that voice ringing like a trumpet call, or a commander’s shout on the battlefield, into your ears, ever to stimulate you, to rebuke your lagging indifference; if you are ever conscious in your inmost hearts of the summons to His kingdom and glory, then, no doubt, by a walk worthy of it, you will make your calling sure; and there shall ‘an entrance be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom.’
IV. And the last of the phases of this prescription which I have to deal with is this. The whole Christian duty is further crystallised into the one command, to walk in a manner conformed to, and corresponding with, the character which is impressed upon us.
In the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans {verse 2}, we read about a very small matter, that it is to be done ‘worthily of the saints.’ It is only about the receiving of a good woman who was travelling from Corinth to Rome, and extending hospitality to her in such a manner as became professing Christians; but the very minuteness of the details to which the great principle is applied points a lesson. The biggest principle is not too big to be brought down to the narrowest details, and that is the beauty of principles as distinguished from regulations. Regulations try to be minute, and, however minute you make them, some case always starts up that is not exactly provided for in them, and so the regulations come to nothing. A principle does not try to be minute, but it casts its net wide and it gathers various cases into its meshes. Like the fabled tent in the old legend that could contract so as to have room for but one man, or expand wide enough to hold an army, so this great principle of Christian conduct can be brought down to giving ‘Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church at Cenchrea,’ good food and a comfortable lodging, and any other little kindnesses, when she comes to Rome. And the same principle may be widened out to embrace and direct us in the largest tasks and most difficult circumstances.
‘Worthily of saints’--the name is an omen, and carries in it rules of conduct. The root idea of ‘saint’ is ‘one separated to God,’ and the secondary idea which flows from that is ‘one who is pure.’
All Christians are ‘saints.’ They are consecrated and set apart for God’s service, and in the degree in which they are conscious of and live out that consecration, they are pure.
So their name, or rather the great fact which their name implies, should be ever before them, a stimulus and a law. We are bound to remember that we are consecrated, separated as God’s possession, and that therefore purity is indispensable. The continual consciousness of this relation and its resulting obligations would make us recoil from impurity as instinctively as the sensitive plant shuts up its little green fingers when anything touches it; or as the wearer of a white robe will draw it up high above the mud on a filthy pavement. Walk ‘worthily of saints’ is another way of saying, Be true to your own best selves. Work up to the highest ideal of your character. That is far more wholesome than to be always looking at our faults and failures, which depress and tempt us to think that the actual is the measure of the possible, and the past or present of the future. There is no fear of self-conceit or of a mistaken estimate of ourselves. The more clearly we keep our best and deepest self before our consciousness, the more shall we learn a rigid judgment of the miserable contradictions to it in our daily outward life, and even in our thoughts and desires. It is a wholesome exhortation, when it follows these others of which we have been speaking {and not else}, which bids Christians remember that they are saints and live up to their name.
A Christian’s inward and deepest self is better than his outward life. We have all convictions in our inmost hearts which we do not work out, and beliefs that do not influence us as we know they ought to do, and sometimes wish that they did. By our own fault our lives but imperfectly show their real inmost principle. Friction always wastes power before motion is produced.
So then, we may well gather together all our duties in this final form of the all-comprehensive law, and say to ourselves, ‘Walk worthily of saints.’ Be true to your name, to your best selves, to your deepest selves. Be true to your separation for God’s service, and to the purity which comes from it. Be true to the life which God has implanted in you. That life may be very feeble and covered by a great deal of rubbish, but it is divine. Let it work, let it out. Do not disgrace your name.
These are the phases of the law of Christian conduct. They reach far, they fit close, they penetrate deeper than the needle points of minute regulations. If you will live in a manner corresponding to the character, and worthy of the love of God, as revealed in Christ, and in conformity with the principles that are enthroned upon His Cross, and in obedience to the destiny held forth in your high calling, and in faithfulness to the name that He Himself has impressed upon you, then your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the painful and punctilious pharisaical obedience to outward commands, and all things lovely and of good report will spring to life in your hearts and bear fruit in your lives.
One last word--all these exhortations go on the understanding that you are a Christian, that you have taken Christ for your Saviour, and are resting upon Him, and recognising in Him the revelation of God, and in His Cross the foundation of your hope; that you have listened to, and yielded to, the divine summons, and that you have a right to be called a saint. Is that presumption true about you, my friend? If it is not, Christianity thinks that it is of no use wasting time talking to you about conduct.
It has another word to speak to you first, and after you have heard and accepted it, there will be time enough to talk to you about rules for living. The first message which Christ sends to you by my lips is, Trust your sinful selves to Him as your only all-sufficient Saviour. When you have accepted Him, and are leaning on Him with all your weight of sin and suffering, and loving Him with your ransomed heart, then, and not till then, will you be in a position to hear His law for your life, and to obey it. Then, and not till then, will you appreciate the divine simplicity and breadth of the great command to walk worthy of God, and the divine tenderness and power of the motive which enforces it, and prints it on yielding and obedient hearts, even the dying love and Cross of His Son. Then, and not till then, will you know how the voice from heaven that calls you to His kingdom stirs the heart like the sound of a trumpet, and how the name which you bear is a perpetual spur to heroic service and priestly purity. Till then, the word which we would plead with you to listen to and accept is that great answer of our Lord’s to those who came to Him for a rule of conduct, instead of for the gift of life: ‘This is the work of God, that ye should believe on Him whom He hath sent.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily [toward…
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily [toward God] and righteously [toward man] and unblamably [either toward God or man] we behaved ourselves toward you that believe [Paul here claims not perfection, but consistency of life]:
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 holy, righteous, and blameless
holy, righteous, and blameless
Paul uses three words that describe their good behavior toward the Thessalonian believers.
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as a father deals with his own children
Paul compares how he encouraged the Thessalonians to a father gently teaching his children how to behave. (See: Metaphor)
We were begging you and encouraging and urging you
The words "begging," "encouraging," and "urging" are used together to express how passionately Paul's group encouraged the Thessalonians. AT: "We were strongly encouraging you" (See: Doublet)
into his own kingdom and glory
The word "glory" describes the word "kingdom." AT: "into his own glorious kingdom" (See: Hendiadys)
to walk in a manner that is worthy of God
"Walk" here is an metaphor for "live." AT: "live so that people will think well of God" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
testimony
God
holy
righteous
blameless
believe
exhort
testimony
walk
worthy
call
kingdom
glory
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 vv10–12 2:10 Both God and the Thessalonians were witnesses (see…
2:10 Both God and the Thessalonians were witnesses (see 2:5) that Paul’s conduct was devout and honest, terms used in ancient literature to describe obedience to both divine and human laws.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.