Greeting
1 Paul, Silvanus, ,a and Timothy: b
To the church of the Thessalonians c in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and peace.
Thanksgiving
2 We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers. 3 We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, d your work produced by faith, e your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. f 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved g by God, h that he has chosen you, i 5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, j and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you k for your benefit, 6 and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message l with joy from the Holy Spirit. 7 As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia m and Achaia. n 8 For the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith ,o in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception p we had from you: how you turned q to God from idols r to serve the living s and true t God 10 and to wait u for his Son v from heaven, whom he raised from the dead w—Jesus, who rescues us x from the coming wrath. y
1. EPISTOLARY GREETING (1:1)
A. Faith, love, and hope (1:2–3). 1:2. The apostles’ thanksgivings to God for the church are frequent (“always”) and inclusive (“for all of you”). The context of these thank offerings was likely their corporate prayer times.
1:3. The motivation for their thanks is the Christian virtues of faith, love, and hope demonstrated by the Thessalonian believers. This trilogy of virtues characterizes true Christianity (1 Th 5:8; Rm 5:1–5; 1 Co 13:13; Gl 5:5–6; Col 1:4–5; 1 Pt 1:21–22; Heb 10:22–24). Their “work produced by faith” likely refers to their “good works” (2 Th 1:11; 2 Co 9:8; Eph 2:10). Among the Jewish people, acts of charity, visitation of the sick, hospitality toward strangers, and helping those who had been forsaken were considered to be good works.
1:6. The way the Thessalonians have received the gospel is additional evidence of their election (1:6–10). Imitation is not a well-recognized form of instruction today in the West, but the ancients appreciated the value of imitating people who served as models, as do people in other cultures today. Paul understood well that suffering is an element of the Christian life (see Ac 9:15–16; 14:21–22; Rm 8:17; 2 Co 1:5; Php 3:10; 1 Pt 2:21). The miracle of the Thessalonians’ conversion is that they received the message of Christ crucified amid great hostility. The first Christians, like many believers today, suffered intensely but found joy in sharing in the sufferings and the shame of Christ (Ac 5:41; Rm 12:12; 2 Co 4:8–10; 7:4; Php 2:17; 1 Pt 1:6; 4:13–14). The source of this joy is the Holy Spirit (cf. Gl 5:22; Rm 14:17; 1 Pt 4:13–14).
1:7–9. The influence and ministry of this church, located in the city known as “The Mother of Macedonia,” spread far and wide (1:7–8; cf. 4:10). Paul and his associates have received reports from others who encountered the Thessalonian believers (1:9). Paul affirms that their conversion from paganism to the one true God was affirmed by others (Ac 14:11–18; 17:22–31; 19:23–41). Conversion to God not only entailed abandoning practices associated with idolatry (1 Pt 4:3) but also included worship and moral service to God (Rm 6:6, 16–19).
1:10. Turning to God included embracing the Christian expectation regarding the end. “To wait” was used in the Greek translation of the OT to signify the hope God’s people held for divine salvation and mercy (Is 59:11; see also Pss 25:3; 27:14). The object of this waiting is Jesus, the one risen and slated to return (1 Th 4:13–18), “who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Th 1:10; 5:9). The wrath of God is the execution of his judgment against sin (Mt 3:7; Lk 3:7; Rm 2:5; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6; Rv 6:16–17; 11:18; 16:19; 19:15), not an outburst of emotion.