5 For our gospel came unto you in word only, but also in power, d not | Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of and in the Holy men we were among you for your sake. a Is. 55. 11. Mar. 16. 20. c 2 Co. 6. 6. on other principles and manifest a different spirit from other organizations of men. (4.) Every church should evince such a spirit that there may be no doubt of its election of God.' It should be so dead to the world; so pure in doctrine and in practice, and so much engaged in spreading the knowledge of salvation, that the world will see that it is governed by higher principles than any worldly association, and that nothing could produce this but the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. d He. 2. 3. there, as there were in other places, but there is no mention of such a fact, and it is not necessary to suppose it, in order to see the full meaning of this language. There was great power manifested in the gospel in its leading them to break off from their sins, to abandon their idols, and to give their hearts to God. See this more fully explained in the Notes on 1 Cor. ii. 4. ¶ And in the Holy Ghost. Comp. Notes on 1 Cor. ii. 4. It is there called the 'demonstration of the Spirit.' And in much assurance. That is, with firm conviction, or full persuasion of its truth. It was not embraced as a doubtful thing, and it did not produce the effect on the mind which is caused by anything that is uncertain in its character. Many seem to embrace the gospel as if they only 5. For our gospel came not unto you. When first preached. Acts xvii. 1-3. Paul speaks of it as 'our gospel,' because it was the gospel preached by him and Silas and Timothy. Comp. 2 Thess. ii. 14. 2 Tim. ii. 8. He did not mean to say that the gospel had been originated by him, but only that he had deliv-half believed it, or as if it were a ered the good news of salvation to them. He is here stating the evidence which had been given that they were a church chosen by God.' He refers, first, to the manner in which the gospel was received by them (vs. 5-7), and, secondly, to the spirit which they themselves manifested in sending it abroad. Vs. 8-10. ¶ In word only. Was not merely spoken; or was not merely heard. It produced a powerful effect on the heart and life. It was not a mere empty sound that produced no other effect than to entertain or amuse. Comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 32. But also in power. That is, in such power as to convert the soul. The apostle evidently refers not to any miracles that were wrought there, but to the effect of the gospel on those who heard it. It is possible that there were miracles wrought matter of very doubtful truth and importance; but this was not the case with the Thessalonians. There was the firmest conviction of its truth, and they embraced it 'heart and soul.' Comp. Coll. ii. 2. Heb. vi. 11. From all that is said in this verse, it is evident that the power of God was remarkably manifested in the conversion of the Thessalonians, and that they embraced the gospel with an uncommonly strong conviction of its truth and value. This fact will account for the subsequent zeal which the apostle so much commends in them-for it is usually true that the character of piety in a church, as it is in an individual, is determined by the views with which the gospel is first embraced, and the purposes which are formed at the beginning of the christian life. ¶ As ye know what manner of men, &c. b 6 And ye became followers received the word in much afflicof us, and of the Lord, having tion, with joy of the Holy Ghost; 7 So that ye were ensamples us. a 2 Co. 8. 5. b Ac. 13. 52. Paul often appeals to those among xvii. 5-8. It was in the midst of whom he had laboured as competent these trials that they had become witnesses with respect to his own con- converted-and they seem to have duct and character. See ch. ii. 9, 10. been all the better Christians for Acts xx. 33-35. He means here that them. In this they were imitators he and his fellow-labourers had set of the Saviour, or shared the same them an example, or had shown what lot with him, and thus became his Christianity was by their manner of followers. Their embracing and living, and that the Thessalonians holding fast the truths of religion had become convinced that the reli- amidst all this opposition, showed gion which they taught was real. that they were controlled by the The holy life of a preacher goes far same principles that he was, and to confirm the truth of the religion that they were truly his friends. which he preaches, and is among the ¶ With joy of the Holy Ghost. With most efficacious means of inducing happiness produced by the Holy them to embrace the gospel. Ghost. Though they were much 6. And ye became followers of afflicted and persecuted, yet there 'You became imitators-un- was joy. There was joy in their rai-of us.' This does not mean conversion-in the evidence of parthat they became followers of Paul, doned sin-in the hope of heaven. Silas, and Timothy, in the sense that See Notes, Acts viii. 8. However they had set themselves up as teach-great may be the trials and persecuers, or as the head of a sect, but that they imitated their manner of living. See Notes on 1 Cor. iv. 16; xi. 1. And of the Lord. The Lord Jesus. You also learned to imitate him. From this it is evident that the manner in which the Saviour lived was a prominent topic of their preaching, and also that it was one of the means of the conversion of the Thessalonians. It is probable that preaching on the pure and holy life of the Lord Jesus might be made a much more important means of the conversion of sinners than it is. Nothing is better adapted to show them the evil of their own guilty lives than the contrast between their lives and his; and nothing can be conceived better fitted to win them to holy living than the contemplation of his pure and holy deportment. Having received the word in much afliction. That is, amidst much opposition from others. See Acts tions experienced in receiving the gospel, or however numerous and long the sufferings of the subsequent life in consequence of having embraced it, there is a joy in religion that more than overbalances all, and that makes religion the richest of all blessings. 7. So that ye were ensamples to all that believe. Examples in reference to the firmness with which you embraced the gospel, the fidelity with which you adhered to it in trials, and the zeal which you showed in spreading it abroad. These things are specified in the previous and subsequent verses as characterizing their piety. The word here rendered ensamples-túrovs-is that from which the word type is derived. It properly denotes anything caused or produced by the means of blows (from Túnt), and hence a mark, print, or impression, made by a stamp or die; and then a resemblance, to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. figure, pattern, exemplar-a model after which anything is made. This is the meaning here. They became, as it were, a model or pattern after which the piety of others should be moulded, or showed what the piety of others ought to be. In Macedonia. Thessalonica was an important city of Macedonia (see the Intro. Comp. Notes, Acts xvi. 9), and of course their influence would be felt on the whole of the surrounding region. This is a striking instance of the effect which a church in a city may have on the country. The influence of a city church may be felt, and will usually be felt afar on the other churches of a community --just as, in all other respects, a city has an important influence on the country at large. ¶ And Achaia. Achaia proper was the part of Greece of which Corinth was the capital. The word, however, was sometimes so used as to comprehend the whole of Greece, and in this sense it seems to be employed here, as there is no reason to suppose that their influence would be felt particularly in the province of which Corinth was the centre. Koppe observes that Macedonia and Achaia were the two provinces into which all Greece was divided when it was brought under the Roman yoke, the former of which comprehended Macedonia proper, Illyricum, Epirus, and Thessaly, and the other Greece properly so called. The meaning here is, therefore, that their influence was felt on all the parts of Greece; that their piety was spoken of, and the effect of their conversion had been felt in all those places. Thessalonica was a commercial city, and a sea-port. It had intercourse with all the other parts of Macedonia, with Greece, and with Asia Minor. It was partly owing to the advantages of its situation that its influence was thus felt. Its own merchants and mariners who went abroad would carry with them the spirit of the religion of the church there, and those who visited it from other ports would see the effect of religion there. This is just an instance, therefore, of the influence which a commercial town and a sea-port may have in religion on other parts of the world. A revival of religion in such a place will extend its influence afar to other places, and appropriate zeal among the friends of the Redeemer there may have an important effect on sea-ports, and towns, and lands far remote. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of such places in regard to the spread of the gospel; and Christians who reside there-be they merchants, mechanics, lawyers, physicians, mariners, or ministers of the gospel, should feel that on them God has placed the responsibility of using a vast influence in sending the gospel to other lands. He that goes forth from a commercial town should be imbued with the spirit of the gospel, and churches located there should be so under the influence of religion that they who come among them from abroad shall bear to their own lands honourable testimony of the power of religion there. 8. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord. The truths of religion were thus spread abroad. The word rendered sounded out'— innra-refers to the sounding of a trumpet (Bloomfield), and the idea is, that the gospel was proclaimed like the sonorous voice of a trumpet echoing from place to place. Comp. Isa. lviii. 1. Rev. i. 10. Their influence had an effect in diffusing the gospel in other places, as if the we need not to speak any thing. 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye vealed. So that we need not to speak anything. That is, wherever we go, we need say nothing of the fact that you have been turned to the Lord, or of the character of your piety. These things are sufficiently made known by those who come from you, by those who visit you, and by your zeal in spreading the true religion. 9. For they themselves. They who have visited you, and they whom you have sent out; all persons testify of your piety. The apostle seems to refer to all whom he had met or had heard of in all places,' who said anything about the Thessalonians. They were unanimous in bearing testimony to their fidelity and piety. sound of a trumpet echoed and reechoed among the hills and along the vales of the classic land of Greece. This seems to have been done (1.) involuntarily; that is, the necessary result of their conversion, even without any direct purpose of the kind of their own, would be to produce this effect. Their central and advantageous commercial position; the fact that many of them were in the habit of visiting other places; and the fact that they were visited by strangers from abroad, would naturally contribute to this result. But (2.) this does not appear to be all that is intended. The apostle commends them in such a way as to make it certain that they were voluntary in the spread of the Show of us what manner of entergospel; that they made decided efforts ing in we had unto you. The testo take advantage of their position timony which they bear of you is, in to send the knowledge of the truth fact, testimony of the manner in abroad. If so, this is an interesting which we preached the gospel, and instance of one of the first efforts demeaned ourselves when we were made by a church to diffuse the gos- with you. It shows that we were pel, and to send it to those who were intent on our Master's work, and destitute of it. There is no impro- that we were not actuated by selfish bability in the supposition that they or sinister motives. The argument sent out members of their church- is, that such effects could not have messengers of salvationto other been produced among them if Paul, parts of Macedonia and Greece, that Silas, and their fellow-labourers had they might communicate the same been impostors. Their sound congospel to others. See Doddridge. version to God; their change from But also in every place. Thessa- idolatry to the true religion, and the lonica was connected not only with zeal which had been the result of Macedonia and Greece proper, in its their conversion, was an argument commercial relations, but also with to which Paul and his fellow-labourthe ports of Asia Minor, and not im- ers might appeal in proof of their probably with still more remote re- sincerity and their being sent from gions. The meaning is, that in all God. Paul often makes a similar the places with which they trafficked appeal. Comp. Notes on 2 Cor. iii. the effect of their faith was seen and 2, 3. It is certain that many of the spoken of Faith to God-ward. Jews in Thessalonica, when Paul Fidelity toward God. They showed and his fellow-labourers were there, that they had a true belief in God regarded them as impostors (Acts and in the truth which he had re-xvii. 6. 8), and there is every reason turned to God a from idols, to serve the living and true God; a 1 Co. 12. 2. Ga. 4. 8. to suppose that after they left the city, they would endeavour to keep up this impression among the people. To meet this, Paul now says that their own undoubted conversion to a life of holiness and zeal under their ministry, was an unanswerable argument that this was not so. How could impostors and deceivers have been the means of producing such effects? And how ye turned to God from idols. That is, under our preaching. This proves that the church was to a considerable extent | composed of those who were converted from idolatry under the preaching of Paul. Comp. Intro. § 4. The meaning here is, that they who came from them, or they who had visited them, bore abundant testimony to the fact that they had turned from idols to the worship of the true God. Comp. Notes, 1 Cor. xii. 2. Gal. iv. 8. To serve the living and true God. He is called the living God' in opposition to idols-who are represented as dead, dumb, deaf, and blind. Comp. Ps. cxxxv. 15-17. Notes, Isa. xliv. 10-17. Matt. xvi. 16. John v. 26. Acts xiv. 15. 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from b Ph. 3. 20. because it was a doctrine so well fitted to impart comfort to them in their trials (ch. iv. 13—18), and because, in that connection, it was so well calculated to rouse them to vigilance and zeal. Ch. v. 1-11. He makes it prominent in the second epistle, because material errors prevailed there in reference to it which needed to be corrected. In the passage before us, he says that the return of the Son of God from heaven was an important point which had been insisted on when he was there, and that their conduct, as borne witness to by all, had shown with what power it had seized upon them, and what a practical influence it had exerted in their lives. They lived as if they were waiting' for his return. They fully believed in it; they expected it. They were looking out for it, not knowing when it might occur, and as if it might occur at any moment. They were, therefore, dead to the world, and were animated with an earnest desire to do good. This is one of the instances which demonstrate that the doctrine that the Lord Jesus will return to our world, is fitted, when understood in the true sense revealed in the Scrip 10. And to wait for his Son from heaven. It is clear from this and from other parts of these two epis-tures, to exert a powerful influence tles, that the return of the Lord Jesus to this world was a prominent subject of the preaching of Paul at Thessalonica. No small part of these epistles is occupied with stating the true doctrine on this point (1 Thess. iv., v.), and in correcting the errors which prevailed in regard to it after the departure of Paul. Perhaps we are not to infer, however, that this doctrine was made more prominent there than others, or that it had been inculcated there more frequently than it had been elsewhere, but the apostle adverts to it here particularly on the souls of men. It is eminently adapted to comforts the hearts of true Christians in the sorrows, bereavements, and sicknesses of life (John xiv. 1-3. Acts i. 11. 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. 2 Pet. iii. 8, 9); to lead us to watchfulness and to an earnest inquiry into the question whether we are prepared to meet him (Matt. xxiv. 37–44; xxv. 13); to make us dead to the world, and to lead us to act as becomes the children of light (1 Thess. v. 5-9); to awaken and arouse impenitent and careless sinners (1 Thess. v. 2, 3. 2 Pet. iii. |