Bible Commentaries
1 Thessalonians 1

Verse 1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.

Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.

-Year of the Constantinopolitan era of the world, or that used by the Byzantine historians, 5560.

-Year of the Alexandrian era of the world, 5554.

-Year of the Antiochian era of the world, 5544.

-Year of the Julian period, 4762.

-Year of the world, according to Archbishop Usher, 4056.

-Year of the world, according to Eusebius, in his Chronicon, 4280.

-Year of the minor Jewish era of the world, or that in common use, 3812.

-Year of the Greater Rabbinical era of the world, 4411.

-Year from the Flood, according to Archbishop Usher, and the English Bible, 2400.

-Year of the Cali yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 3154.

-Year of the era of Iphitus, or since the first commencement of the Olympic games, 992.

-Year of the era of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, 799.

-Year of the CCVIIth Olympiad, 4.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 799.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Frontinus, 803.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Fasti Capitolini, 804.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Varro, which was that most generally used, 805.

-Year of the era of the Seleucidae, 364.

-Year of the Caesarean era of Antioch, 100.

-Year of the Julian era, 97.

-Year of the Spanish era, 90.

-Year from the birth of Jesus Christ according to Archbishop Usher, 56.

-Year of the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 52.

-Year of Ventidius Cumanus, governor of the Jews, 4.

-Year of Vologesus, king of the Parthians, 3.

-Year of Caius Numidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, 2.

-Year of Ananias, high priest of the Jews, 8.

-Year of the Dionysian period, or Easter Cycle, 53.

-Year of the Grecian Cycle of nineteen years, or Common Golden Number, 15; or the first after the fifth embolismic.

-Year of the Jewish Cycle of nineteen years, 12, or the first after the fourth embolismic.

-Year of the Solar Cycle, 5.

-Dominical Letters, it being Bissextile, or Leap Year, BA.

-Day of the Jewish Passover, according to the Roman computation of time, the Calends of April, i.e. April 1st, which happened in this year on the Jewish Sabbath.

-Easter Sunday, April 2.

-Epact, or the moon's age on the 22d of March, or the Xth of the Calends of April, 4

-Epact, according to the present mode of computation, or the moon's age on New Year's day, or the Calends of January, 11.

-Monthly Epacts, or the moon's age on the Calends of each month respectively, (beginning with January,) 11, 13, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18, 20, 20.

-Number of Direction, or the number of days from the twenty-first of March (or the XIth of the Calends of April) to the Jewish Passover, 10.

-Year of Claudius Caesar, the fifth emperor of the Romans, 12.

-Roman Consuls, Publius Cornelius Sylla Faustus, and Lucius Salvius, Otho Titianus; and for the following year, (which is by some supposed to be the date of this epistle,) Decimus Junius Silanus, and Quintus Haterius Antoninus.

CHAPTER I.

The inscription by Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, to the Church

of the Thessalonians, 1.

St. Paul gives thanks to God for their good estate, and prays

for their continuance in the faith, 2-4.

Shows how the Gospel came to them, and the blessed effects it

produced in their life and conversation, 5-7,

How it became published from them through Macedonia and Achaia,

and how their faith was everywhere celebrated, 8.

He shows farther, that the Thessalonians had turned from

idolatry, become worshippers of the true God, and were waiting

for the revelation of Christ, 9, 10.

NOTES ON CHAP. I.

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:1. Paul, and: Silvanus, and Timotheus — Though St. Paul himself dictated this letter, yet he joins the names of Silas and Timothy, because they had been with him at Thessalonica, and were well known there. See Acts 17:4; Acts 17:14.

And Silvanus — This was certainly the same as Silas, who was St. Paul's companion in all his journeys through Asia Minor and Greece; see Acts 15:22; Acts 16:19; Acts 17:4; Acts 17:10. Him and Timothy, the apostle took with him into Macedonia, and they continued at Berea when the apostle went from thence to Athens; from this place St. Paul sent for them to come to him speedily, and, though it is not said that they came while he was at Athens, yet it is most probable that they did; after which, having sent them to Thessalonica, he proceeded to Corinth, where they afterwards rejoined him, and from whence he wrote this epistle. See the preface.

Verse 2

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:2. We give thanks — See Philippians 1:3; Philippians 1:4, and Colossians 1:3; where the same forms of speech are used.

Verse 3

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:3. Your work of faith — This verse contains a very high character of the believers at Thessalonica. They had FAITH, not speculative and indolent, but true, sound, and operative; their faith worked. They had LOVE, not that gazed at and became enamoured of the perfections of God, but such a love as laboured with faith to fulfil the whole will of God. Faith worked; but love, because it can do more, did more, and therefore laboured-worked energetically, to promote the glory of God and the salvation of men. They had HOPE; not an idle, cold, heartless expectation of future good, from which they felt no excitement, and for which they could give no reason, but such a hope as produced a satisfying expectation of a future life and state of blessedness, the reality of which faith had descried, and love anticipated; a hope, not hasty and impatient to get out of the trials of life and possess the heavenly inheritance, but one that was as willing to endure hardships as to enjoy glory itself, when God might be most honoured by this patient endurance. FAITH worked, LOVE laboured, and HOPE endured patiently.

It is not a mark of much grace to be longing to get to heaven because of the troubles and difficulties of the present life; they who love Christ are ever willing to suffer with him; and he may be as much glorified by patient suffering, as by the most active faith or laborious love. There are times in which, through affliction or other hinderances, we cannot do the will of God, but we can suffer it; and in such cases he seeks a heart that bears submissively, suffers patiently, and endures, as seeing him who is invisible, without repining or murmuring. This is as full a proof of Christian perfection as the most intense and ardent love. Meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, are in our present state of more use to ourselves and others, and of more consequence in the sight of God, than all the ecstasies of the spirits of just men made perfect, and than all the raptures of an archangel. That Church or Christian society, the members of which manifest the work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope, is most nearly allied to heaven, and is on the suburbs of glory.

Verse 4

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:4. Knowing - your election of God. — Being assured, from the doctrine which I have delivered to you, and which God has confirmed by various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, that he has chosen and called the Gentiles to the same privileges to which he chose and called the Jews; and that, as they have rejected the offers of the Gospel, God has now elected the Gentiles in their stead. This is the election which the Thessalonians knew; and of which the apostle treats at large in his Epistle to the Romans, and also in his Epistles to the Galatians and Ephesians. No irrespective, unconditional, eternal, and personal election to everlasting glory, is meant by the apostle. As God had chosen the Jews, whom, because of their obstinate unbelief, he had now rejected; so he had now chosen or elected the Gentiles. And in neither case was there any thing absolute; all was most specifically conditional, as far as their final salvation was concerned; without any merit on their side, they were chosen and called to those blessings which, if rightly used, would lead them to eternal glory. That these blessings could be abused-become finally useless and forfeited, they had an ample proof in the case of the Jews, who, after having been the elect of God for more than 2000 years, were now become reprobates.

Verse 5

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:5. For our Gospel — That is, the glad tidings of salvation by Jesus Christ, and of your being elected to enjoy all the privileges to which the Jews were called, without being obliged to submit to circumcision, or fulfil the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law.

Came not unto you in word only — It was not by simple teaching or mere reasoning that the doctrines which we preached recommended themselves to you, we did not insist on your using this or the other religious institution; we insisted on a change of heart and life, and we held out the energy which was able to effect it.

But also in power — εν δυναμει. With miraculous manifestations, to your eyes and to your hearts, which induced you to acknowledge that this Gospel was the power of God unto salvation.

And in the Holy Ghost — By his influence upon your hearts, in changing and renewing them; and by the testimony which ye received from him, that you were accepted through the Beloved, and become the adopted children of God.

And in much assurance — εν πληροφορια πολλη. The Holy Spirit which was given you left no doubt on your mind, either with respect to the general truth of the doctrine, or the safety of your own state. Ye had the fullest assurance that the Gospel was true, and the fullest assurance that ye had received the remission of sins through that Gospel; the Spirit himself bearing witness with your spirit, that you are the sons and daughters of God Almighty.

What manner of men we were — How we preached, and how we lived; our doctrines and our practices ever corresponding. And for your sakes we sustained difficulties, endured hardships, and were incessant in our labours.

Verse 6

Verse 6. Ye became followers of us — Ye became imitators, μιμηται, of us-ye believed the same truths, walked in the same way, and minded the same thing; knowing that our doctrine was of the Lord, and that the way in which we walked was prescribed by himself, and that he also suffered the contradictions of ungodly men.

Having received the word in much affliction — That they received the doctrine of the Gospel in the midst of much persecution we may learn from the history in general, and from Acts 17:5-6.

With joy of the Holy Ghost — The consolations which they received, in consequence of believing in Christ, more than counterbalanced all the afflictions which they suffered from their persecutors.

Verse 7

Verse 7. Ye were ensamples — τοπους. Types, models, or patterns; according to which all the Churches in Macedonia and Achaia formed both their creed and their conduct.

Verse 8

Verse 8. From you sounded out — As Thessalonica vas very conveniently situated for traffic, many merchants from thence traded through Macedonia, Achaia, and different parts of Greece. By these, the fame of the Thessalonians having received the doctrine of the Gospel was doubtless carried far and wide. And it appears that they had walked so conscientiously before God and man, that their friends could speak of them without a blush, and their adversaries could say nothing to their disgrace.

Verse 9

Verse 9. How ye turned to God from idols — This could not be spoken either of the Jews or of the devout persons, but of the heathen Greeks, and of such it appears that the majority of the Church was formed. See what is said on this subject in the preface to this epistle.

To serve the living and true God — The living God; in opposition to the idols, which were either inanimate stocks or stones, or the representations of dead men.

The true God-In opposition to the whole system of idolatry, which was false in the objects of its adoration, false in its pretensions, false in its promises, and false in all its prospects.

Verse 10

Verse 1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven — To expect a future state of glory, and resurrection of the body, according to the Gospel doctrine, after the example of Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, and ascended unto heaven, ever to appear in the presence of God for us.

Delivered us from the wrath to come. — From all the punishment due to us for our sins, and from the destruction which is about to come on the unbelieving and impenitent Jews.

This was the news, the sounding out, that went abroad concerning the converted Thessalonians. Every where it was said: They have believed the Gospel; they have renounced idolatry; they worship the living and true God; they have received the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit; they are happy in their souls, unspotted in their lives, and full of joy; expecting an eternal glory through that Christ who had died for and purged their sins, and who shall fashion their degraded bodies and make them like to his glorious body, and give them an eternal residence with himself in a state of blessedness.

These were glorious news; and, wherever they were told, prepared the way of the Gospel among the heathen. The mere preaching of the Gospel has done much to convince and convert sinners, but the lives of the sincere followers of Christ, as illustrative of the truth of these doctrines, have done much more: Truth represented in action seems to assume a body, and thus renders itself palpable. In heathen countries, which are under the dominion of Christian powers, the Gospel, though established there, does little good, because of the profane and irreligious lives of those who profess it. Why has not the whole peninsula of India been long since evangelized? The Gospel has been preached there; but the lives of the Europeans professing Christianity there have been, in general, profligate, sordid, and base. From them sounded out no good report of the Gospel; and therefore the Mohammedans continue to prefer their Koran, and the Hindoos their Vedas and Shasters, to the Bible. It should now ever be acknowledged, to the glory of God, that of late years a few apostolic men in that country are turning the tide in favour of the Gospel; and several eminent Europeans have warmly espoused the doctrine of Christ, and are labouring to circulate the word of God through the whole of British India.