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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
4. καὶ γὰρ ὅτε πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἧμεν, προελέγομεν κ.τ.λ. In support of the rule just stated, the Apostles recall their own definite and repeated warnings. For εἰμὶ πρός—the “with” of personal converse—cf. 2Th 2:5; 2Th 3:1; 2Th 3:10; also Gal 1:18; Joh 1:1. The impf. προελέγομεν, like ἐλέγομεν in 2Th 2:5, supposes reiterated warning; the language of the sequel, μέλλομεν κ.τ.λ., sustains the sense “fore-tell” for this verb—otherwise it might be rendered, “we told you openly (or plainly),” as in R.V. margin; cf. πρόκειμαι in 2Co 8:12. The same ambiguity attaches to προ-λέγω in 2Co 13:2; Gal 5:21.
ὅτι μέλλομεν θλίβεσθαι, that we are to be afflicted (writers and readers; see note on κείμεθα, 1Th 3:3). The persecution of the missionaries and their converts sprang from the same source (see 1Th 2:14 f.; Act 17:5), the malignity and persistence of which were patent from the first in Thessalonica.
Ὅτι μέλλομεν, not μέλλοιμεν: the moods of oratio recta are almost always in N.T. Greek taken over unchanged in the subordinate clause, whether the verbum dicendi be primary or historical in tense; see Winer-Moulton, p. 376.
καθὼς καὶ ἐγένετο καὶ οἴδατε, as indeed it proved, and you know: an appeal to the facts of the case and the experience of the readers. On the latter point, and the recurrence of this appeal (cf. 1Th 3:3), see notes to 1Th 1:5 and 1Th 2:1. The reminder should help to prevent the Thessalonian believers from being “shaken amid these afflictions”: what had happened was natural and expected; it is “no strange thing” (1Pe 4:12).