1 Thessalonians 2:1

Contextual Overview

¹You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.¹ You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. ¹ For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain,¹For you yourselves know, brothers, that our entrance to you was not in vain, ¹You cowboys and cowgirls remember that we didn't just make a social call when we came to work your pastures. ¹ For you yourselves, brothers, are conscious that our coming among you was not without effect: ¹ For ye know yourselves, brethren, our entering in which [we had] to you, that it has not been in vain; ¹ For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit with you was not without result. ¹ For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you hasn't been found vain, ¹ For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance to you, that it was not in vain: But even after we had suffered before,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

our: 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 1:3-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:1

in vain: 1 Thessalonians 3:5, Job 39:16, Psalms 73:13, Psalms 127:1, Isaiah 49:4, Isaiah 65:23, Habakkuk 2:13, 1 Corinthians 15:2, 1 Corinthians 15:10, 1 Corinthians 15:58, 2 Corinthians 6:1, Galatians 2:2, Galatians 4:11, Philippians 2:16

Reciprocal: Acts 20:18 - after Philippians 1:23 - in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 - what 1 Thessalonians 1:9 - what

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginnyng GOD created ye heauen and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
God created the sky and the earth. At first,

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the Heauen, and the Earth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you,.... The apostle having observed in 1 Thessalonians 1:9 that those persons to whom the report of the Gospel being preached at Thessalonica, and the success of it there was made, showed everywhere both what manner of entrance he and his fellow ministers had in that place, and the conversion of many souls there; he enlarges upon the latter, and here reassumes the former, and appeals to the Thessalonians themselves, who must know full well, and better than others, what an entrance it was; and which is to be understood not merely of a corporeal entrance into their city and synagogue, but of their coming among them, by the preaching of the Gospel, as the ministers of the word and ambassadors of Christ:

that it was not in vain; it was not a vain show with outward pomp and splendour, as the public entrances of ambassadors into cities usually are; but with great meanness, poverty, reproach, and persecution, having been lately beaten and ill used at Philippi; nor was it with great swelling words of vanity, with the enticing words of man's wisdom, to tickle the ear, please the fancy, and work upon the passions of natural men, in which manner the false teachers came: but the apostle came not with deceit and guile, with flattering words or a cloak of covetousness, or with a view to vain glory and worldly advantage; nor was the message they came with, from the King of kings, a vain, light, empty, and trifling one; but solid and substantial, and of the greatest importance; the doctrine they taught was not comparable to chaff and wind; it was not corrupt philosophy and vain deceit, the traditions and commandments of men, but sound doctrine, the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ: nor was it fruitless and without effect; the word did not return void and empty; but was powerful and efficacious to the conversion of many souls. Christ was with them both to assist them in their ministry, and to bless it to the salvation of men; nor was their coming to Thessalonica an human scheme, a rash enterprise, engaged in on their own heads, on a slight and empty foundation; but upon good and solid grounds, by divine direction and counsel; see Acts 16:9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you - notes, 1 Thessalonians 1:9. Paul appeals to themselves for proof that they had not come among them as impostors. They had had a full opportunity to see them, and to know what influenced them. Paul frequently appeals to his own life, and to what they, among whom he labored, knew of it, as a full refutation of the slanderous accusations of his enemies; compare notes, 1 Corinthians 4:10-16; 1 Corinthians 9:19-27; 2 Corinthians 6:3-10. Every minister of the gospel ought so to live as to be able, when slanderously attacked, to make such an appeal to his people.

That it was not in vain - κενὴ kenē This word means:

(1)Empty, vain, fruitless,” or without success;

(2)That in which there is no truth or reality - “false, fallacious;” Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 2:8.

Here it seems, from the connection 1 Thessalonians 2:3-5, to be used in the latter sense, as denoting that they were not deceivers. The object does not appear to be so much to show that their ministry was successful, as to meet a charge of their adversaries that they were impostors. Paul tells them that from their own observation they knew that this was not so.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER II.

The apostle sets forth how the Gospel was brought and preached

to the Thessalonians, in consequence of his being persecuted at

Philippi, 1, 2.

The manner in which the apostles preached, the matter of their

doctrine, and the tenor of their lives, 3-11.

He exhorts them to walk worthy of God, 12.

And commends them for the manner in which they received the

Gospel, 13.

How they suffered from their own countrymen, as the first

believers did from the Jews, who endeavoured to prevent the

apostles from preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, 14-16.

St. Paul's apology for his absence from them; and his earnest

desire to see them, founded on his great affection for them,

17-20.

NOTES ON CHAP. II.

Verse 1 Thessalonians 2:1. Our entrance in unto you — His first coming to preach the Gospel was particularly owned of the Lord, many of them having been converted under his ministry. This consideration gave him a right to deliver all the following exhortations.