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St. Paul begins this epistle, as he does the rest, with a very kind and gracious salutation; in which we have observable, the persons saluting, the parties saluted, and the salutation itself.
Note, 1. The persons saluting, Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus: Paul only was the inspired writer of this epistle, the other two were his associates and assistants, instruments with him in converting the Thessalonians to Christianity, and whom they had a deservedly great affection for: he joins them therefore with himself, as asserters and approvers of the truth contained in this his epistle, that so he might procure the greater respect to the doctrines it contained ; he therefore names them with himself, Paul, Silvanus, or Silas, as he is called, Acts 17, and Timotheus:
But why not Paul an apostle, or Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, as in other epistles, but bare Paul only?
Ans. Because his apostleship was not at all questioned by them; the Thessalonians had a seal of it in their hearts; and there were no false apostles among them to deny his apostleship, as the Galatians and other churches had.
The prudent and faithful ministers of Christ know both how and when to use those titles of honour and respect which God hath given them, and also when it is convenient to forbear the assuming of them.
Note, 2. The persons saluted, The church of the Thessalonians. Thessalonica was the metropolis, or mother city of Macedonia, where a Christian church was planted by the ministry of St. Paul and Silas, but with great opposition from the Jews, who forced Paul to fly to Berea for his own safety, Acts 17, and Jason, with others that entertained him, had like to have been sacrificed in their own houses; yet there, in despite of the devil's rage, and persecutor's malice, doth God erect a glorious church, a Christian church, in honour of his son, who purchased it with his blood.
Learn hence, that when and where God will gather to himself a church, no opposition, either of men or devils, shall be sufficient to hinder it; as Rome itself, nay, in the court of Nero, under the very nose of that bloody tyrant, was a church collected, Php_4:22. No wonder the devil struggles, when his kingdom totters; it follows, which (church) is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, established in the knowledge, faith, worship, and obedience of God the Father; they were Gentiles, called off from their dumb idols, to serve the living and true God, and were distinguished from all other societies and communions whatsoever; they were in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, they enjoyed a blessed union with Jesus Christ by faith, and a sweet communion and fellowship both with Father and Son, by the bond of the Spirit.
Behold the high dignity and glorious privilege of the Christian church, to be thus knit and united both to the Father and the Son, by the agency of the Holy Spirit! To the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Note, 3. The salutation itself, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where observe, 1. The option signifies, first, the gracious favour of God towards us; and, next, all the gifts of grace, all benefits and blessings issuing forth and flowing from thence: peace, usually signifies in the scripture language, all manner of outward prosperity and happiness.
2. The author and fountain from whence these blessings flow.
1. From God the Father:
2. From the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ; intimating, that whatever spiritual grace or temporal blessing we now receive from God, is from him, not barely as a Creator, but as a Father, a gracious Father in Christ, in whom he pours out the immensity of his love upon us, and through whom he conveys all kinds of blessings unto us.