1 Thessalonians 1:1 - Homilies By R. Finlayson

This Epistle has the distinction of being the first in time of all Paul's Epistles. The leading thought, to which there is reference toward the close of each of the five chapters into which the Epistle has been divided, is the second coming of our Lord. The first three chapters are personal, setting forth the apostle's connection with the Thessalonians, and interest in them as a Church. In the remaining two chapters he addresses them in view of their condition as a Church, and especially in view of anxiety connected with the second coming. Pleased with the progress they were making, he writes to them in a quiet, practical, prevailingly consolatory strain.

I. THE WRITERS . "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy." Paul comes first, as preeminently the writer. It can be made out that the matter and style are characteristically Pauline. It speaks to his humility that he does not claim it as his own, that he does not put forward his official position, but associates two brethren with him as joint-writers. These, Silvanus (to be identified with Silas) and Timothy (less prominent at the time), assisted at the founding of the Thessalonian Church. Timothy had just returned from a visit of inquiry to Thessalonica. He therefore claims them as adding the weight of their influence with the Thessalonians to his own. And their place as joint-writers is accorded to them throughout. Only in three places, for a special reason in each case, does he make use of the singular number.

II. COMMUNITY ADDRESSED . "Unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Thessalonica—so named by Cassander in honor of his wife, who was a sister of Alexander the Great—was well situated for commerce "on the inner bend of the Thermaic gulf—half-way between the Adriatic and the Hellespont—on the sea-margin of a vast plain watered by several rivers," the chief of these being the Axius and Haliacmon. Under the Romans it became a large, wealthy, and populous city; and was chosen as the Macedonian capital. Its importance has been well kept, up to the present day. Saloniki (slightly altered from Thessalonica) ranks next to Constantinople in European Turkey, with a population of seventy thousand. Paul visited Thessalonica in his second missionary tour, after the rough handling he had received in the other Macedonian city of Philippi. The Jews, being more numerous here than at Philippi, had a synagogue; and in this, Paul, for three sabbath days, reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and alleging that it behooved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and that this Jesus is the Christ. The result was so far favorable. Some Jews were persuaded, and consorted with Paul and Silas; of the Gentile proselytes attached to the Jewish synagogue, a great multitude, and, among these, not a few chief women. But there was also what was unfavorable. The Jews as a body, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, and raised a tumult against the Christian preachers, which ended in their departing by night for Beraea. Paul and his assistants had a very short time in which to found a Church in Thessalonica. For three sabbath days Paul reasoned in the Jewish synagogue. We may allow a little longer time for the ripening of Jewish opposition. Short as the time was, they had settled down to supporting themselves by laboring with their own hands. Short as the time was, the Philippian Christians, in their eagerness, had managed once and again to send unto Paul's necessity. What would render the formation of a Christian Church at Thessalonica easier was the number of Gentile proselytes who embraced Christianity. These had received training in monotheistic ideas, and had already the elements of a godly character. But, beyond this, many Gentile idolaters must have been brought in; for the entering in of Paul and his companions was signalized as a turning of the majority of them from idols unto the living and the true God. Under the conditions of time and manual labor and Jewish fanaticism, the founding of the Thessalonian Church was a most marvelous work. So short time with them, Paul wrote to them when he got to Corinth, after Visiting Beraea and Athens, about the close of the year 52. The Thessalonians are addressed as a Church, i.e. in their corporate capacity, with corporate responsibilities and privileges, not as saints, i.e. in respect of the consecration of the members-individually. They are addressed as a Church in God the Father, i.e. as having all the position of sons. They are also addressed as a Church in the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. as a Christian family where the sons are all saved men placed under the superintendence of him who has the position of Lord, and distributes to their need.

III. GREETING . " Grace to you and peace. " This did not necessarily exclude favor and peace from men, from these persecuting Jews. But whether it had that sweep or not, it certainly meant the Divine treatment of them, not according to merit, but according to infinite mercifulness, and the consequent freeing of them from all disturbing influences. It is what we should invoke for all our friends.—R.F.

1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 - 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 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 . 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 1:1-29 ., and virtually in Titus 2:1-15 ., the natural order is followed, faith manifesting itself in love ( Galatians 5:6 ), and hope rising out of love ( Romans 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.

2. " 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 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 ( Acts 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—"what 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 ( John 14:1-3 ). Let us joyfully anticipate the coming ( 1 Peter 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."