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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Thessalonians 2:4 - 2:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
But even as we have been approved by God (alla kathōs dedokimasmetha hupo tou theou). Perfect passive indicative of dokimazō, old verb to put to the test, but here the tense for completed state means tested and proved and so approved by God. Paul here claims the call of God for his ministry and the seal of God’s blessing on his work and also for that of Silas and Timothy.
To be entrusted with the gospel (pisteuthēnai to euaggelion). First aorist passive infinitive of pisteuō, common verb for believing, from pistis (faith), but here to entrust rather than to trust. The accusative of the thing is retained in the passive according to regular Greek idiom as in 1Co 9:17; Gal 2:7; Rom 3:2; 1Ti 1:11; Tit 1:3, though the active had the dative of the person.
So we speak (houtōs laloumen). Simple, yet confident claim of loyalty to God’s call and message. Surely this should be the ambition of every preacher of the gospel of God.
Not as pleasing men (ouch hōs anthrōpois areskontes). Dative case with areskō as in Gal 1:10. Few temptations assail the preacher more strongly than this one to please men, even if God is not pleased, though with the dim hope that God will after all condone or overlook. Nothing but experience will convince some preachers how fickle is popular favour and how often it is at the cost of failure to please God. And yet the preacher wishes to win men to Christ. It is all as subtle as it is deceptive. God tests our hearts (the very verb dokimazō used in the beginning of this verse) and he is the only one whose approval matters in the end of the day (1Co 4:5).