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§ 2. 1Th 1:2-10. Thanksgiving for the Thessalonian Church
This εὐχαριστία is one long sentence spun out in a continuous thread (cf. Eph 1:3-14; and see Introd. p. lix.). It affords a good example of the writer’s characteristic style (see Jowett’s or Lightfoot’s Commentary ad loc.) St Paul’s sentences are not built up in orderly and balanced periods (as e.g. those of the Epistle to the Hebrews); they grow like living things, putting forth processes now in this direction now in that, under the impulse of the moment, and gathering force as they advance by the expansion in each successive movement of the thought of the previous clause. On the epistolary form of Thanksgiving, see Introd. p. lxi.
Εὐχαριστοῦμεν is buttressed by three parallel participles (1Th 1:2-4), in which μνείαν ποιούμενοι supplies the occasion, μνημονεύοντες the more immediate and εἰδότες κ.τ.λ. the ultimate ground of the Apostle’s thanksgiving; “We give thanks … in making mention … as we remember … since we know,” &c. The above fundamental ground of thanksgiving is made good by proof in the ὅτι-sentence beginning in 1Th 1:5, which, covering the rest of the chapter, gives an account (a) of the bringing of the gospel to Thessalonica (1Th 1:5), (b) of its reception by the readers (1Th 1:6); finally, of the effect of all this upon others, as evidenced (c) in the impression made on them by the conversion of the Thessalonians (1Th 1:7 f.), and (d) in the report which is everywhere current of the success of the Apostles’ mission in this city (1Th 1:9 f.). We are thus brought round at the conclusion to the starting-point of the doxology, viz. ὑμῶν τοῦ ἔργου τῆς πίστεως.