Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 1:2 - 1:7
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Personal And Historical
1Th_1:2 to 1Th_3:13
___________
I
Paul shows the Thessalonians the genuineness of his preaching and of their faith
(1Th_1:2 to 1Th_2:16)
1Th_1:2-7
2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor [toil, êüðïõ ] of love, and patience of hope in [of ] our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of [before, ἔìðñïóèåí ] God and our Father [our God and Father, ôïῦ èåïῦ êáὶ ðáôñὸò ἡìῶí ]; 4knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God [brethren beloved of 5God, your election]; for [because, ὅôé ] our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in [sin. omits this ἐí ] much assurance; as [even as, êáèþò ] ye know what manner of men we were [proved were found] among you [for ἐí ὑìῖí Bin. has simply ὑìῖí ] for your sake; 6and ye became followers [imitators, ìéìçôáß ] of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost; 7so that ye were [became, ãåíÝóèáé ] ensamples [a pattern] to all that believe [all the believers] in Macedonia and [in] Achaia.
2. Making mention of you.—That ìíåßáí ðïéïýì . supplies the particular explanation, or modal definition, to åὐ÷áñ .: “whilst we make mention of you,” is clear; and equally so that åἰäüôåò , 1Th_1:4, supplies a causal definition: Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians, because he knows their election. But it is a question, whether the intermediate participle is to be made parallel to the first or the third. The former view is adopted by most, and then at first sight a beautiful parallel results: ìíçìïíåýïíôåò answers to the ìíåßáí ðïéïýì ., the ὑìῶí is extended in ὑìῶí ôïῦ ἔñãïõ — Ἰçóïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ , and, ἐðὶ ôῶí ðñïóåõ÷ῶí , &c. returns in ἔìðñïóèåí — ðáôñὸò ἡìῶí . But the parallelism is only too strong, and amounts to tautology; the first clause were of no account alongside of the second. We shall, therefore, do better (with Chrysostom, Calvin, Schott, Koch), by taking ìíçìïí . as parallel to åἰäüôåò , and finding in 1Th_1:3 the first, and in 1Th_1:4 the second, ground assigned for the thanksgiving. In favor of this, also, is the analogy of Col_1:4 and 2Th_1:3. To thanksgiving for the Thessalonians the Apostle is impelled on the human side by his remembrance of their work of faith, &c.; on the divine side, by his reasonable conviction of their election.
3. (1Th_1:2 [3].) Without ceasing.— Ἀäéáëåßðôùò is by the Peschito, Vulgate, Luther, Bengel, Ewald, and many others [Benson, Burton, Bloomfield, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.—J. L.], rightly construed with what precedes; and for this the analogy of 1Th_2:13; Rom_1:9; comp. 2Ti_1:3, is decisive. The word, moreover, is used by Paul in only one other place, 1Th_5:17, and thus always in connection with prayer. Nor does the word so arranged drag (Lünemann); rather it is distinguished, and ðÜíôïôå thereby receives its special illustration. The Apostle would certify the Thessalonians with peculiar emphasis that they are constantly in his devotional remembrance. On the other hand, ìíçìïíåὐïíôåò does not in this way become flat (De Wette), but is just as marked and forcible as the parallel åἰäüôåò at the head of the clause.
4. (1Th_1:3.) For we are mindful [Remembering].— Ìíçìïíåýåéí is not merely transitive= ìíåßáí ðïéåῖóèáé , to mention, bring to remembrance (De Wette, Lünemann, &c.), but it also means, and indeed primarily, to be mindful ( ìíÞìùí ), as êõñéåýåéí , äïõëåýåéí = êýñéïò , äïῦëïò åἶíáé . Thus everywhere in Paul’s writings, and generally in the New Testament; whence arises a new proof in favor of our view of 1Th_1:3 (though, even taken intransitively, the word might be understood of remembrance in prayer).—Paul remembers what he himself has seen at Thessalonica, and what Timothy has since reported to him (1Th_3:6). He goes on to speak in unusually strong terms of the excellencies of the Thessalonians, as in the second chapter he has to commend his own ministry. In this there is neither flattery nor egotism; nor is it simply even a father’s joy in the young church, that puts such words in his mouth. He is rather “exhibiting evidences to the Thessalonians, that they had attained to a genuine faith, and that there is in them a true work of God” (J. Mich. Hahn).
5. Your work in [of] faith.— Ὑìῶí is to be connected with the following substantives, and that in such a way that its force extends over all the three main ideas.—It is, then, of three things that Paul is mindful, and this threefoldness he defines according to the three fundamental elements of the Christian life, which he so often extols: faith, love, hope (comp. 1Th_5:8; 1Co_13:13; Col_1:4 sq.). But here these occur only in a subordinate, genitival way. And the genitives are all of the same sort: genitives of the origin (De Wette, Schott, and most); they mark the feeling that produces ἔñãïí , êüðïò , ὑðïìïíÞ , showing itself practically therein. In German we should best employ compound substantives: Glaubenswerk, Liebesmühe, [faith-work, love-toil], were this kind of phrase possible in the last instance. Now in this way also may be explained the only one of these expressions that is difficult, and has been very variously understood: ôὸ ἔñãïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò , with which comp. 2Th_1:11. Here ἔñãïí , as parallel to êüðïò , cannot denote a single work, but is something continuous, a totality, like our day’s-work, life-work. And so ἔñãïí is already found also in classical Greek = business, occupation; it denotes every human activity, especially in so far as it displays a free energetic movement, or is connected with toil and effort (Passow). In the New Testament and with Paul the word stands repeatedly for a man’s whole life-work, the sum of his ἔñãá , as it is sometimes said that God judges according to works, at other times according to every one’s work (comp., for instance, Romans 1 [2] 6 with 1Pe_1:17; Rev_20:12 with Rev_22:12). Ôὸ ἔñãïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò is thus a course of action, with the accessory idea of vigor, strength, as proceeding from faith; the resolute, serious authentication of faith; practical earnestness in Christianity (comp. for the expression ôὸ ἔñãïí ôïῦ íüìïõ , Rom_2:15, in which only the genitival relation is somewhat different; whereas the material parallel cited by De Wette, and others, Gal_5:6 : ðßóôéò äἰ ἀãÜðçò ἐíåñãïõìÝíç , is in so far less apt, as it confounds the second particular, the êüðïò ôῆò ἀãÜðçò , with the first). To the later Pauline usage, formed in connection with the doctrine of justification, our expression stands as yet in no direct, conscious relation; but in reality it forms a double antithesis to the ἔñãá íüìïõ , since faith and law stand mutually opposed (Rom_4:13 sqq.; Gal_3:23 sqq.), and so the singular ôὸ ἔñãïí to the anarthrous plural—the undivided unity of the spiritually quickened life-work to the incoherent multiplicity of single, more or less external, works and performances. For the thought, such passages may be compared as Col_1:10; Eph_2:10, and especially Tit_3:8 ( êáëῶí ἔñãùí ðñïÀóôáóèáé ïἱ ðåðéóôåõêüôåò èåῷ ); Tit_2:14; Tit_2:7; Tit_1:16; 1Ti_2:10; 2Ti_2:21; 2Ti_3:17. As Paul has the expression ôὸ ἔñãïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò in his two earliest Epistles, so his latest, the Pastoral Epistles, insist with peculiar earnestness on the evidencing of faith in good works. Herein moreover lie hints for the reconciliation of Paul with James. After what has been said, we can now readily estimate the divergent explanations. It is a mistake, were it only on account of the analogy with what follows, to take ôῆò ðßóôåùò , nearly in the sense of Joh_6:29, as a genitive of apposition [Hofmann, Alford]: the work, that consists in faith; whether, indeed, we understand this, with Calvin and Calov, of faith as a mighty operation of God in man, or, with Clericus and Macknight, of the reception of the Gospel as man’s work, so far as that involves, for example, the subduing of prejudices. It is also erroneous, because resting on an indistinct conception of the ἔñãïí and of the genitival relation, and likewise as violating the analogy with what follows, and encroaching in the third member, to lay the chief stress, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Pelt, Lünemann (though he rightly says that ἔñãïõ is emphatic), and others, on ðßóôåùò : faith, something begun with energy, and in spite of all temptations steadfastly retained. Rightly Anselm: quomodo fides vestra non est otiosa, sed semper bonum opus gignit; De Wette: moral activity, proceeding from faith; and similarly Bengel, Olshausen, &c.
[At 2Th_1:11 Dr. Riggenbach would modify the above explanation of ἔñãïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò by limiting the expression to the inward work of faith in the soul itself, and cites Rom_4:20-21 as a better parallel than Gal_5:6. An obvious objection to this is, that what Paul had observed of the faith of the Thessalonians, and what he now remembered of it, could only have been its outward manifestations in the life, not its internal operation in the heart. And just so in regard to their love and hope.—J. L.]
6. Toil in [of] love.—[“Such as their own Jason had shown amid persecutions, in Acts 17.” Jowett.—J. L.]—The first expression bears on the relation to God, the second on that to the Christian brethren (comp. Col_1:4), the third on that to the world and its persecutions. The governing substantives advance from the active to the passive: ἔñãïí is vigorous doing, ὑðïìïíÞ patient suffering, êüðïò forms the transition: toil is a doing combined with suffering; strenuous, fatiguing, devoted labor. Patience is the last and highest; rightly to suffer is more and harder than rightly to work; even in the case of the Lord suffering was the last, decisive test, and became the means of His perfecting and glorification (comp. 1Pe_4:14). In these three, then, are shown and verified faith, love, hope—the root, stem, and crown of the new life. Faith lays hold of the grace exhibited in the facts of redemption, and is thus the foundation of Christian life, the reimplanting of man through Christ in God. Thence arises love as the echo and answer to the Divine love in the heart of man; it is the pure opposite of selfishness that principle of sin—and so is the soul of the Christian life, and of the present Christian fellowship—the fulfilling of the law. Hope knows that the future belongs to the Lord and His Church; it is the real expectation and sure prospect, that the pneumatic life, which now already, descending from the Lord, dwells in his members, shall outwardly also penetrate and transfigure all things, and subdue its still existing antagonists, the flesh and the world, by means of new revelations of the Lord. Thus, in these three subjective factors of the new life is reflected at the same time the historical character of the objective kingdom of God.—With regard to the Thessalonians, therefore, Paul rejoices first of all in the vigor and earnestness of their life of faith, in that they have not yet become faint, and then in the fact that during this hard time, when their church is exposed to manifold vexations, they not merely in a general way hold together in mutual love, but also with laborious effort and sacrifice come to one another’s help—in beneficiis spiritualibus vel externis (Bengel). Comp. the examples, Act_17:5; Act_17:9; Rom_16:4; Rom_16:12; 1Jn_3:16.—With this is connected finally
7. (1Th_1:3.) Patience in [of] hope. ὙðïìïíÞ , properly the staying under (under the cross), patient, unwearied constancy in suffering; here in persecution (see Act_17:5 sqq.). This constancy proceeds from hope, because in view of the future glory one can the more cheerfully bear the present suffering (Rom_8:18; 2Co_4:17 sq.; Heb_11:26; Heb_12:2 sq.). Patience, therefore, appears as the inseparable companion of hope (Rom_8:25); likewise, in the reverse order, as producing it, for in the spiritual life there exists a reciprocal influence (Rom_5:3 sq.); or it even takes the place of hope beside faith and love (Tit_2:2; comp. 2Ti_3:10; 1Ti_6:11).— ôïῦ êõñßïõ ἡìῶí Ἰçóïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ refers not to all the three preceding virtues as derived from Christ (Olshausen, [Steiger, on 1Pe_1:2, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson]), nor yet to ὑðïìïíÞ (Bengel, after 2Th_3:5), but to ἐëðßäïò as a genitive, not of apposition (Luther), but of the object. Christ is the proper object of hope (and as such is certainly Himself also called ἡ ἐëðßò , Col_1:27; 1Ti_1:1), not only because on Him all our trust (this the more common meaning of ἐëðßò ) rests, but especially because it is through His return and the revelation of the Kingdom of God therewith connected, that the Christian’s hope of glory is fulfilled (Tit_2:13). Let it be observed, how by the addition of this genitive the element of hope, so important in our Epistles, already appears here in a fuller and more emphatic way than the other two.
8. Before our God and Father.— Ἡìῶí belongs to both substantives. The words ἔìðñïóèåí , &c., may be joined either with the verb ìíçìïíåýïíôåò (De Wette, Olshausen, [Lünemann, Alford, Ellicott], &c.), or with the three substantives, ôïῦ ἔñãïõ , &c. (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Œcumenius [Bishop Hall, Jowett, Wordsworth]). Even in the first case ìíçìïí . need not be understood of mention in prayer, but that Paul before God, that is, so often as he comes before God in prayer, remembers their work of faith, &c.; that is the ground of his thanksgiving; comp. 1Th_3:9, a parallel passage that favors this view. But opposed to it is the verbal arrangement, since ἔìðñïóèåí , &c. would in this way drag; and the other connection, which no more than ἐí èåῷ , 1Th_1:1, requires the article to be repeated (against Lünemann), might be preferable. By this means the entire conduct of the Thessalonians is put in relation to God (comp. 1Th_3:13), as 1Th_1:4 will presently describe in turn God’s bearing towards them. Chrysostom [Wordsworth]: “Since no man praised or rewarded what they did, therefore Paul adds these words, as if he would say: Be of good cheer, you suffer in the presence of God.”
9. (1Th_1:4.) Knowing.— Åἰäüôåò is thus parallel with ìíçìïíåýïíôåò , 1Th_1:3; comp. the note on that word. Paul makes the two participles emphatic by placing them in the front. By the side of the remembrance of what actually lay before his eyes, he sets the knowledge, the firm assurance of something, of which one cannot be so easily certain, and in this way he intimates so much the more strongly, that on this point he is sure of his ground. To an afflicted person no higher comfort can be given, than when it is allowed to say to him: I know that thou art chosen.—With this also agrees the address: brethren beloved of God ( ἠãáðçìÝíïé , perfect participle: embraced once for all by the Divine love): they are permitted to regard themselves as objects of the Divine love, of electing love; they are to know that their Christianity is not a human dream and vapor, but the evidence that the everlasting purpose of God’s own love is directed towards them. Comp. 2Th_2:13, where an address almost entirely similar stands also in connection with election; Col_3:12; Rom_11:28; Psa_60:7 [Psa_60:5]; Psa_108:1 [Psa_108:6], where the members of the chosen people are called éְãִéãֵé éְäåָֹä LXX. ἀãáðçôïß . Thus the members of the Old and of the New Testament Church are spoken of both as God’s Chosen and as His beloved., ἘêëïãÞ , selection, the election of grace, is the acting of the Divine love, whereby God has from eternity freely devised in Christ the plan of salvation, according to which all men should be called in succession to the kingdom of heaven, and has likewise received into the same these ordained persons. ἘêëÝãåóèáé answers to áָçַø , e. g. Deu_7:6, and includes three things: ἐê - ëÝã - åóèáé : the stem marks the freeness of the Divine choice; the middle, that God has chosen men for Himself, into, the fellowship of His love, for His own; ἐê , to select, out from the world, comp. Joh_15:15; Joh_16:19 [Joh_15:16; Joh_15:19]. In our place ἐêëïãÞ denotes, not, as Rom_9:11, the act of choosing, but, as 2Pe_1:10, the being chosen [Möller]; Rom_11:1, the chosen. Paul constantly gives this title of elect to Christians, in whom through their calling and faith the purpose of redemption is realized; see 1Th_1:5-6.
10. (1Th_1:5.) Because.— Ὅôé not=that (Luther, Bengel, Schott, &c.), but=because, for. It serves not to analyze ôὴí ἐêëïãÞí , but to confirm åἰäüôåò ôὴí ἐêë . ὑìῶí . The Apostle assigns two grounds of his knowledge of the election of the Thessalonians, both lying in the nature of the case, so far as from the realization of election an inference may be drawn backward to its existence: 1. the call had come to them in power (1Th_1:5); 2. they had received it in faith (1Th_1:6). The first takes place on the part of God through the apostolical preaching, the second on the part of men; and therefore to ôὸ åὐáããÝëéïí ἡìῶí (1Th_1:5) the ὑìåῖò (1Th_1:6) is emphatically opposed.
11. Our gospel came [German: showed itself] unto you.—Before Paul came to Macedonia and Thessalonica, as Rieger also and Olshausen remind us, he was forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in the provinces of Asia and Bithynia (Act_16:6-7); from which he could but infer that the hour of their election had not yet struck (it came later, Act_19:10). Instead of this, he was called by a vision to Macedonia (Act_16:9-10), and here, and therefore also in Thessalonica, he was able to preach with more than ordinary power and assurance in the Holy Ghost. By this he perceived that God’s saving purpose was directed to the Thessalonians. ἘãåíÞèç åἰò , or, which is the same in sense, ðñὸò ὑìᾶò , not: was with you (Luther), as if it were å `̓ í ὑìῖí , but: came to you, showed itself in its direction and relation to you. By ἐãåíÞèç the certainty of the fact is expressed in a sonorous word, which is therefore thrice repeated in 1Th_1:5-6, and precisely at the essential points. This we have attempted to represent in the translation by: showed itself.
12. Not in word only, but, &c.—Comp. as specially parallel 1Co_4:20; only that ìüíïí is wanting there, because the ëüãïò ôῶí ðåöõóéùìÝíùí is in question, here the preaching of the Apostle Äýíáìéò is the objective Divine force, which shone forth from the Apostle in preaching, and wrought as a power on men’s souls, spiritualis doctrinal energia (Calvin); ðëçñïöïñßá , the subjective fulness of conviction, assurance, confidence, and joyfulness, with which he was able to speak; Ewald: gushing fulness. In the middle stands the common principle of both: the Holy Ghost, who animated the Apostle, and was, indeed, the Author alike of the former fact, the real power, and of this consciousness, the fulness of confidence. By means of ἐí ðíåýìáôé ἁãßῳ , significantly placed in the centre, as it were the soul of both, äýí . and ðëçñïö . receive their precise specification; for with mere power and assurance can even a worldly orator speak.—Power and spirit belong together (comp. 1Co_2:4; Rom_15:19; Act_1:8; Act_10:38; comp. Luk_1:35), and so spirit and life (Rom_8:12 [11]; Joh_6:63; 2Co_3:6; Rom_8:2; Rom_8:10.
13. Even as ye know what, &c—With this begin the appeals, so frequent in the sequel, especially 1Th_2:1-12 (1Th_2:1-2; 1Th_2:5; 1Th_2:9-11), to the personal knowledge of the Thessalonians respecting the Apostle’s behavior among them. These can only be explained by the fact, that some sought to misrepresent that behavior, and bring it under suspicion. Ïἷïé , how behaved, in what power and fulness of the Spirit (Olshausen); carried out in detail, 1Th_2:1-12. So little does the Apostle divide his gospel, his preaching, his office, from his person, that for proof of the former he appeals, and can appeal, to the latter. He says not: how we preached, but: how we were. The whole man preached. Such a fine advance of the thought characterizes the style of the Apostle.—By the äἰ ὑìᾶò put significantly at the close Paul hints thus early at what he afterwards also further unfolds, 1Th_2:1 sqq., that in his ministry he had sought not his own advantage, but only the salvation of the Thessalonians.
14. (1Th_1:6.) And ye became, &c.—After 1Th_1:5 should be placed, not, as is commonly done, a period, but a comma, 1Th_1:6 being still dependent on ὅôé of 1Th_1:5, as the emphatic ὑìåῖò is no doubt opposed to ôὸ åὐáãã . ἡìῶí of that verse; see Exegetical Note 9 [10]. Thus 1Th_1:6, with which, 1Th_1:1 is connected, contains the second ground from which is inferred the election of the Thessalonians. namely, the reception on their part of the call. But, as Paul preached, not merely in a general way, but with power, &c., so they too received the word, not merely in a general way, but in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Through these corroborating circumstances on both sides the conclusion in regard to the election becomes the more certain. And therefore is this corroboration emphasized in 1Th_1:6 by prefixing ìéìçôáὶ ἡìῶí ἐãåíÞèçôå , &c.; for the tertium comparationis lies not in äåîÜìåíïé ôὸí ëïãüí , which indeed were unsuitable, in particular, to the Lord, but in this, that in great affliction, with holy joy of the Spirit, they yielded themselves to God in faith, as Paul and the Lord had done in their preaching and official procedure. On ìéìçôáß , comp. 1Co_4:16; 1Co_11:1; Php_3:17; Eph_5:1; Gal_4:12, and the Doctrinal division.
15. Having received the word, &c.—When through the preaching of the gospel a man experiences in his heart the truth and glory of salvation, this will the more vividly mount even to joy of the Holy Ghost, the more that outward affliction, that is, hostility and persecution for the gospel’s sake, seeks to dispute with him the possession of salvation. As a counterpoise to the world’s intimidation and vexation, the Holy Ghost works this inward joy at the opening prospect of an everlasting communion with God ( ðíåýìáôïò ἁãßïõ , genitive of the origin, like the genitives of 1Th_1:3). And now the question is, whether the man gives the victory to this joy or to that affliction, to the new power of the Spirit or to the old power of the flesh. If he does the first, the case comes to äÝ÷åóèáé ôὸí ëüãïí .. The äÝ÷åóèáé —on which comp. 1Th_2:13; Luk_8:13; Act_8:14; Act_11:1; Act_17:11; Jam_1:21 ( äÝîáóèå ôὸí ëüãïí , imperative)—expresses man’s agency in the work of salvation, as this is likewise marked by ὑìåῖò . But this agency is not an independent efficiency (Pelagianism), nor any coöperation (Synergism), but an acceptance, the affirmation of the Divine working on us and in us, a free receptivity. While a man thus gives admission to prevenient grace, asserting itself to him inwardly in the word of the Spirit (1Th_1:5), and acting upon his heart, he yet recognizes the new life as entirely the work of the Holy Spirit, because he himself has not effected, but merely received it.—On the affliction of the Thessalonians, see Act_17:5 sqq. At Thessalonica, and generally in the primitive Church period, conversion was an act of personal courage and vigorous self denial, since a man had to be prepared to surrender comfort, honor, property, and life itself.
16. (1Th_1:7.) A pattern to all the believers answers to the ìéìçôáß of 1Th_1:6 : The true followers become themselves in turn patterns for others. This circumstance, moreover, that they had become a pattern for others, might be of vise to the Thessalonians for confirmation in their faith, and for their conviction of its reality; the Apostle, therefore, still further enlarges upon it in the following section (1Th_1:7-10), to which our verse forms the transition.—Believers) is one of the most frequent designations of Christians in the New Testament—comp. Act_2:44; Act_4:32—along with ἅãéïé , &c.
17. Macedonia and Achaia, whither the Apostle journeyed from Thessalonica. Achaia, originally the most northern territory of the Peloponnesus, was from the year 146 before Christ the name of the Roman province that embraced the Peloponnesus and Hellas, since by the overthrow of the Achæan League the Romans had made themselves masters of Greece. The two provinces of Macedonia and Achaia together formed the entire Greek domain, and are therefore often named together (Act_18:12; Act_19:21; Rom_15:26. 2Co_9:2).
2. (1Th_1:3.) On faith, love, hope, see Exegetical Note 5.
3. (1Th_1:4.) Election is not to be so understood, as if God had appointed some men to salvation, to the exclusion of others. The latter are not rejected, but simply passed by for a time [?—nur zurückgestellt]. Election has reference to an organic position in that kingdom of God, to which all men are appointed, and, in connection therewith, to a temporal entrance into the same (see Romans 9-11, and on that passage especially J. T. Beck, Versuch einer pneumatisch hermeneutischen Entwicklung des ix. Kapitels im Brief an die Römer, Stuttgart, 1833). “God chooses for Himself out of all, before others and for others.” (Richter, Hausbibel, on Eph_1:4.) Quite as little is election to be so understood, as if in the elect grace wrought irresistibly, so that they could not fail to become and remain believers. Rather, when God’s hour for a man has struck, there goes forth to him through the Gospel the call (1Th_1:5), which he can receive or not (1Th_1:6;—on the relation between grace and freedom, see the second Note on that verse); and, when he has received it, it is still for him a question of permanent interest, that he persevere and continue steadfast in grace (see 2Th_2:13-15 : åἵëáôï ὑìᾶò ὁ èåὁò ἀð ʼ ἀñ÷ῆò — ἐêÜëåóåí äéὰ ôïῦ åὐáããåëßïõ — ἄñá ïὖí óôÞêåôå . 2Pe_1:10): “Scripture certainly knows only of a Divine causality in the matter of salvation; but neither does it conflict with this, that the conditions of obtaining salvation rest with man.” (Stier, on Eph_1:4.) By means of the first view, that the election of grace is to be understood in an organic and historical sense, the difficulty in regard to the reprobi is solved; by means of the other, that freedom, or, more precisely, man’s free receptivity is not annulled, but unbound, by grace and the election of grace, is solved the difficulty in regard to the electi. “A prædestinatio sanctorum is spoken of, but without at the same time affirming also a reprobatio impiorum or a gratia irresistibilis.” (Olshausen, on Eph_1:4.) Predestination is a decrelum absolutum, and to that extent remains ever a mystery, in so far as it rests on the free good pleasure of the Divine love and wisdom, which according to their sovereign decision, yet not otherwise in the kingdom of God than in secular history, assign to one a distinguished, to another an inglorious, position; but it is no decretum horrendum, because on the ground of what God gives men move with freedom, and so the claims of conscience and reason remain secure. Nay, only thus does predestination become, what it is to Paul, the Divine world idea, the plan, formed in Christ, of creation and redemption, which lies at the basis of the entire development of the world, and comprehends the successive elevation or reintroduction of the creatures into the glory of the Creator. But for believers the knowledge of election has a double significance—a humbling one, made especially prominent in Romans 9; and one that lifts up, with which the Apostle has to do here, and at Eph_1:4; Rom_8:28-30. The first consideration is the consciousness, fatal to all self righteousness, that our salvation rests not on any. doings or performances of ours, but is founded wholly out of and above ourselves in the free, everlasting mercy of God. The second is the lofty and joyful assurance, wherein believers find comfort, that their salvation is therefore not of yesterday, but from eternity; that it rests not on weak, human props, but in the eternal purpose of grace of the Father in the Son, into the world pervading realization of which they know themselves to be taken up. The grace of God is all embracing; but it is precisely in consequence of the universality of the gracious disposition that despisers perish. Jul. Müller: “Love could not be in earnest with itself, did it not deny its denial.” [Mat_10:33; Luk_12:9.] To believers, on the other hand, it never occurs either to suppose that now indeed they can no longer miscarry, or even to claim superiority to other men, as if God had not loved the world. “From all weakness and temptation we may ever again revert to the eternal foundation, that in Jesus Christ God has foreordainec us, that within the eternal contemplation of His Son is included our election, which now advances in manifestation and accomplishment, till we hear the gospel and are sealed by the Spirit. Only this is implied in the election of grace, as Paul explains it, that faith has reason to consider itself chosen; of those who do riot attain to this grace he speaks not at all.” (“Minutes of the Preachers’ Conference at Stuttgart, May 12, 1852, p. 309.)—[Barnes: It is possible for a people (and for individuals) to know that they are chosen of God, and to give such evidence of it that others shall know it also.—J. L.]
4. (1Th_1:5.) The call does not come through every sort of gospel-preaching, but through!, preaching filled with the Spirit, and an essential point in the matter is the personal endowment of the preachers. Comp. the Exegetical Notes 11 and 12.
5. (1Th_1:6-7.) Christianity proposes to men no new problems which they must first solve by themselves, and as it were in new paths; it is also in this respect not a law, but a gospel. The primary problem is solved, the way is prepared, and in this way there are forerunners, in whose footsteps we simply tread, God, Christ, and His witnesses. God was imitated by Christ (Joh_5:19 sq.), Christ by Paul and the Apostles (1Co_11:1), Paul by the Thessalonians and all who so walked (Php_3:17), and then again these imitators themselves became a pattern for others (see Exegetical Note 15). Nor is that a spiritless imitation, but a following (Luk_9:23 sqq., Luk_9:57 sqq.) in the power of the Spirit, who begets ever new, fresh life, though in historical continuity; since He is a Spirit of remembrance (Joh_14:26), yea, the ever present God Himself, authenticating His earlier creations by those subsequent, so that preceding spiritual men become models and instruments of training for the later, and that word: Learn of me (Mat_11:29), finds its fulfilment perpetually renewed. Thus the Church hangs through Christ on God, and from God there goes forth through Christ and His Apostles into the world an unbroken succession of bright forms, a cloud of witnesses (Heb_12:1), who are images and representatives of God in the world, and, in connection with their predecessors, leave a personal impress of the heavenly, spiritual quality, according to the circumstances and needs of each several period. As we commence the missionary work amongst a heathen people, not by translating the Bible into their language, but by sending messengers to them—(it is not without reason that ðïñåõèÝíôåò occurs in the missionary charge, Mat_28:19)—so, in general, to the word of the Spirit, even the preached, audible word, must still be added the visible stamp of the Spirit in living personalities, who show by act the power and glory of the gospel, and in whom can be seen, if the expression is allowed, the holy arts of the spiritual walk—the spiritual dietetics. On this rests the high importance of good biographies, and yet more of the living observation of Christian characters. What Christian owes not his best thanks to such life impressions? For, indeed, humanity is so organized, and this is its noble distinction, that what is deepest rests ever on the relation of person to person: the relation of father and child, of master and disciples, penetrates everywhere. Oetinger: “It cannot be denied that an embodied visible gospel is necessary to the right use of the written rule, and of the hearing of preaching. The written standard must be made available through the help of the Spirit in the members.” Hence the importance of Church History in its innermost sanctuary, so far as it is a history of the invisible Church, of men of God, of true saints. That is the most living tradition, the tradition of the Spirit and of power. In this sense also an essential importance belongs to the Church as well as to Holy Scripture. She is in a certain sense a continuation of the actual revelation of God alongside of the verbal revelation, wherein, it is true, the word of God reaches, as it always does, far beyond the fact, and the latter serves only as a step and means of guidance to the former (comp. Joh_2:11; Joh_2:22; Joh_5:36 sqq. and Joh_5:39 sqq.; Joh_14:10-11). And thus shall it be, till what we shall be appears; then fact and word become one.
1Th_1:3. Calvin: A brief description of true Christianity: 1. That faith be earnest and vigorous; 2. that no pains be spared, so long as there are neighbors to be assisted, but that all the pious assiduously fulfil the obligations of love; 3. they should studiously endeavor, in the hope of Christ’s manifestation, to despise all things else, and by patience overcome both the irksomeness of the long interval (to the appearing of the Lord), and all the temptations of the world.—Luther: Faith is a lively, active, practical, temperate thing, so that it cannot but do good works unremittingly. It does not even ask whether good works are to be done; but let a man rather ask whether he has done, and is ever doing, them. Without constraint, therefore, a man becomes willing and glad to do good to every one, to serve every one, to suffer in every way, from love to God and for His glory, who has shown him so great grace; so that it is impossible to separate works from faith, as impossible as for heat and light to be separated from fire.—Bengel: He, who from regard to his own profit and ease withdraws from labor, loves little.—Rieger: Love will have reality and truth, nor that in such measure only as is convenient for every man, bringing him honor and a good name, without too closely compromising his own life; but so that a man must descend withal from his own station, and the distinctions thereto belonging, and, instead of finding his pleasure in himself, place himself in the circumstances of another: that is what is meant by the labor of love. Under the patience of hope may be comprehended the entire career of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is all summed up in this, that He condescended to what was most ignominious, and maintained Himself above what was most glorious; as now in our career of faith everything depends on the hope of the kingdom breaking its way through tribulation with the patience of Christ.
1Th_1:4. Election the highest comfort of the tempted.—Zwingli: Paul therewith guards his commendation, lest they arrogate to themselves what belongs to God alone.—Marks of election: 1. a powerful call; 2. a believing reception of the gospel as the word of God; comp. 1Th_2:13.—An anointed preacher may thus comfort tempted believers, and one Christian another: I know that thou art chosen.—Rieger: The Apostle speaks thus decidedly of their election, in consequence of the call and the evidence of their obedience to it. Nor is it even beyond our present measure to form such a judgment, in praise of the work of God in a soul, though formerly, to be sure, it may have been more perceptible. Our office otherwise loses its proper force [Seele, soul], when we never dare to discern between the righteous and the unrighteous, or to recognize as dead or alive what really is so.
1Th_1:3-4. [Scott: Faith which worketh not obedience; professed love that declines self denying labor; and hope which is separated from patient continuance in well doing, can never prove a man’s election.—J. L.]
1Th_1:5. The right preaching of the kingdom of God, like itself, stands not in words, but in power.—Spiritual power dwells in the preaching, when the hearers feel that the preacher himself is a man of firm conviction, who stands in the joyful assurance of that which he preaches.—Power on others and assurance (within) we cannot give to ourselves; it is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Even an Apostle cannot everywhere work with equal force. It behoves us, renouncing self, to yield ourselves to the Lord.—The preacher’s doctrine and life must form one whole.—John Mich. Hahn: A holy, Christian behavior makes impressions on elect souls. Wherever we go or sojourn, let us never forget that we too are closely watched and observed. Our aim must be to walk as elect, holy and beloved, not only before our Holy Father, but also before the dear ones whom our Lord has purchased for Himself.
1Th_1:6. The right disposition of preachers and hearers.—Diedrich: Ye are in the heavenward march of the children of God, that is led by the God Man.—Rieger: To hear and receive God’s word has been specified by the Saviour Himself as the decisive badge of those, who are of God and of the truth; especially when one is not deterred by the outside covering of shame and affliction.—Roos: A gospel or good news should cause joy, and, if unable to cause any, it is no gospel. When amongst Jews, Heathens, or Christians, unbelief, idolatry, and all damnable ungodliness is reproved, this rebuke should be keen and of swift operation; but so likewise should joy over the simultaneously proffered grace swiftly rise, and cause the pain occasioned by the rebuke to be disregarded, when compared with the richness of the proffered grace, or with the happy condition into which a man now enters.—[Jowett: The suffering that comes from without cannot depress the spirit of a man who is faithful in a good cause. It is only when “from within are fears” that the mind is enslaved.—J. L.]
1Th_1:7. Rieger: Who becomes a follower of the Lord, without confiding also in brave predecessors and comrades, and becoming their follower? It amounts to a great perverseness, when any would break down confidence in those who by word and work, doctrine and life, are helpers of the truth, and would pretend in this to a zeal for the Lord, supposing that they are striving merely against a ruinous dependence on men. Whoever in his following casts off humility, fails likewise to attain the grace to become a pattern.—Even believers need patterns of the genuineness and evidence of joy under affliction.—[Webster and Wilkinson: It requires higher grace, and is a more important duty, to be an example to believers than to the world, 1Th_2:10.—J. L.]
Footnotes:
1Th_1:2.— ὑìῶí after ìíåßáí is, indeed, wanting in A. B. [Sin.] &c., but by Tischendorf, who, with Lachmann, formerly cancelled it, it has been rightly resumed on preponderating evidence, external and internal. On account of the ὑìῶí before [ ìíåßáí it might easily drop out of the manuscripts.
1Th_1:3.—[For a different construction of ἀäéáëåßðôùò , adopted by our Authors, see the Exegetical Notes.—J. L.]
1Th_1:3.—[Comp. 1Th_5:8; Rom_5:2; Tit_1:2; Tit_3:7. And so here the older English versions, and very many others. See the Exegetical Notes, and the Revision.—J. L.]
1Th_1:4.—[This construction of åἰäüôåò , ἀäåëöïὶ ἠãáðçìÝíïé ὑðὸ èåïῦ (Sin: ôïῦ èåïῦ ) ôὴí ἐêëïãὴí ὑìῶí , is that of the oldest versions (Syriac and Vulgate), and may be said to be now universally adopted. King James’ Revisers erred here in quitting Tyndale and Cranmer to follow Geneva and the Bishops’ Bible. Comp. 2Th_2:3; Rom_1:7 : Sept. Deu_33:12; Sir_45:1; Sir_46:13.—The reason for the change of the punctuation at the close of 1Th_1:4-5 will be found in the exegesis.—J. L.]
1Th_1:5.— åἰò ὑìᾶò , Griesbach, Lachmann,