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Our apostle's great design, in this chapter, being to set forth the wonderful success which the preaching of the gospel had among the Thessalonians, and also to assign the causes of that success, he having, in the former verses, given the reason of this on his own part, namely, his sincerity in preaching it, and his pious conversation in all things suitable to it; now he comes to shew the reason on their part, with all thankfulness to Almighty God for the same:
first, they heard it;
secondly, they received it;
thirdly, they examined it, and found it no fable, but the word of God, and, as such, entertained it with a divine faith;
fourthly, the word thus received did work with a mighty power and efficacy in them that believed, that is, was accompanied with miracles, and miraculous operations of the Holy Spirit, then to confirm them in the faith of what they did believe;
and the word has also now an efficacious energy and divine efficacy accompanying it in the hearts of believers, working upon the will, not in a way of compulsion, but in a way congruous to the nature and liberty of the will, by a divine influx, Tollendo resistentiam, non voluntatis libertatem, (as the great St. Austin speaks).
Observe next, St. Paul farther proves the efficacious success which the word had amongst the Thessalonians, from their constancy and patience under the sharpest sufferings for the word's sake; Ye have suffered like things of your own countrymen:
As if he had said, "You of the Christian church in Thessalonica, have shewn yourselves like to the Christian churches in Judea, in patient suffering persecution from your friends and kinsfolks, from your countrymen and fellow citizens as they did from the unbelieving Jews."
Note thence, that where the word is efficaciously received, it makes the embracer of it endure the hardest trials and sufferings rather than renounce it.
Note, 2. That there neither is, nor can be, any better evidence that the word of God is effectually received, than when it enables Christians to bear afflictions, and undergo persecutions with Christian courage and holy resolution; Ye have suffered like things:
But of whom?
Of your own countrymen at Thessalonica, as the churches in Judea did of the Jews.
Learn thence, that such is the fury of a persecuting spirit, that when men are judicially given up of God unto it, they will break all bonds, both natural, civil, and religious, and turn barbarous and savage, like wolves and tigers, towards those of their own flesh, who dare not deny the truth, which they persecute and oppose. Here the churches in Judea and Thessalonica were persecuted alike by their own countrymen, Ye have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.