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19For what is our hope. He confirms that ardor of desire, of which he had made mention, inasmuch as he has his happiness in a manner treasured up in them. “ I forget myself, I must necessarily desire your presence, for ye are our glory and joy. ” Farther, when he calls them his hope and the crown of his glory, we must not understand this as meaning that he gloried in any one but God alone, but because we are allowed to glory in all God’ favors, in their own place, in such a manner that he is always our object of aim, as I have explained more at large in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. (553) We must, however, infer from this, that Christ’ ministers will, on the last day, according as they have individually promoted his kingdom, be partakers of glory and triumph. Let them therefore now learn to rejoice and glory in nothing but the prosperous issue of their labors, when they see that the glory of Christ is promoted by their instrumentality. The consequence will be, that they will be actuated by that spirit of affection to the Church with which they ought. The particle also denotes that the Thessalonians were not the only persons in whom Paul triumphed, but that they held a place among many. The causal particle γάρ, (for,) which occurs almost immediately afterwards, is employed here not in its strict sense, by way of affirmation—”assuredly you are.”
(553) “Sur la premiere aux Corinth., chap. 1, d. 31;” — “ 1Co_1:31.”