Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · 1 Thessalonians Chapter 2

1 Thessalonians 2:1. Was not in vain:—This may be rendered, was not vain. Dr. Heylin translates it, was not without success.

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1 Thessalonians 2:2. With much contention,— Because of the opposition exerted against us by the perverse and unbelieving Jews. Acts 17:1-9. Dr. Heylin reads, even under great difficulties.

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1 Thessalonians 2:3. For our exhortation was not of deceit,— For our doctrine was not erroneous, nor impure, nor such as could seduce you.

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1 Thessalonians 2:4. But, as we were allowed, &c.— But as we have been approved of God to be intrusted, &c.

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1 Thessalonians 2:6. When we might have been burdensome,— The Apostle particularly refers to the right he had of being maintained at their charge. See 1 Thessalonians 2:9. 2 Corinthians 11:9. 1 Timothy 5:18, and 1 Corinthians 9:0. Vitringa, however, would render it, when we could have taken much [authority] upon us.

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1 Thessalonians 2:7. But we were gentle, &c.— "We not only gave up our own just rights, but considered you as our children, and cherished you in your infant state as a hen cherisheth her brood under her wings, or as a tender and affectionate mother nurseth her own helpless infant." Dr. Heylin renders the verse, We treated you with the tenderness and condescension of the nursing mother cherishing her children.

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1 Thessalonians 2:9. For, labouring night and day, &c.— What an instance of goodness and benevolence to mankind! to labour for bread with his own hands, while he spent his time in teaching all who would learn truths of the greatest importance,—how to live holily, die cheerfully, and be happy for ever!

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1 Thessalonians 2:12. That ye would walk worthy of God,— How much does the Apostle insist upon holiness of heart and life in all professed Christians! He urged the converted heathens to piety, purity, and virtue, from the example of the true God, in whom they now believed, Col 1:10 and by the great favour which was shewn them in their being received into the Christian church, Eph 4:1 by that purity which the gospel in general requires, Romans 8:1; Rom 8:39 and, more particularly, by the life and example of our Lord and Saviour; by his death and resurrection, by his ascension and authority, and by the prospect of his coming to judgment at the last day, as well as of their enjoying an endless life of holiness and happiness in his glorious kingdom. See 1 Corinthians 11:1.Hebrews 12:2-3; Hebrews 12:2-3.

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1 Thessalonians 2:13. But as it is in truth, the word of God,— That the doctrine was from God, and the apostles only as heralds, messengers, and ambassadors from God, to publish it among men, appears from comparing ch. 1Th 1:6 and 1 Thessalonians 4:8. Matthew 10:40. Galatians 4:14. 2 Peter 3:2. Where-ever it is thus esteemed, the gospel must necessarily have a great influence; where there is a thorough and full conviction that the apostles of our Lord and Saviour were employed by heaven, and that the doctrine itself is nothingless than a message from the God of strict truth, unspotted holiness, unerring wisdom, and overflowing goodness; no wonder that it should, when accompanied by divine grace, influence such as considered it in this view, readily to renounce their false religions, to lay aside their prejudices and prepossessions, to embrace it, and live upon its principles, and to forego all temporal things whatever, on the faith of so well attested a religion, and so glorious a prospect.

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1 Thessalonians 2:14.— Having before commended them for their ready and cheerful reception of the gospel, and hinted at their resolution in suffering for the cause, he goes on to commend them for their patience and fortitude, 1Th 2:14-16 and then again expresses his great affection for the Thessalonians, and his earnest desire to make them another visit; which he assures them he had more than once attempted; but Satan had always hindered him: by which vehement expression he again obliquely reflects on the unbelieving Jews, 1 Thessalonians 2:17-20. St. Paul probably calls the Christian churches in Judea, churches in Christ Jesus, to distinguish them from the Jewish churches, or the synagoguesin Judea, as well as to intimate that all the members of Christ's true church are one in him. As to the patience and fortitude of the Christian churches there, see Acts 12:0 and Hebrews 10:32-34. How these Thessalonians imitated them, see ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:6. Acts 17:5. &c. The Jews of Jerusalem had desired Pilate, a Gentile, to crucify our Lord; the Jews of Thessalonica had exasperated the Gentiles, and even the governors of that city, to persecute his apostle and disciples. From the representation both of the history of the Acts, and the Apostolic Epistles, as well as from other ancient writings, it appears, that most of the primitive persecutions proceeded from the malice and opposition of the unbelieving Jews.

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1 Thessalonians 2:15. Who both killed, &c.— Who have both killed the Lord Jesus, and the, or his prophets. Mill, and Wetstein. Not only heathen authors have given the Jews the character of being an obstinate, prejudiced people, contrary to all men; but even their own prophet, Ezekiel, (ch. 1Th 3:4-9 1 Thessalonians 5:6.) and Josephus, their own historia

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1 Thessalonians 2:16. Forbidding us to speak— Or, hindering us from speaking. Their filling up the measure of their sins, was by murdering our Lord Jesus Christ, and persecuting his disciples. This most grievous sin was, in a manner, uniting all the guilt of mankind in one act of disobedience; and therefore it was to be punished with a most grievous and exemplary punishment; as if all the temporary punishments of sinners had been deferred till then, and were to have been collected, in order to fall upon their heads with the greater vengeance. The next clause might be rendered, more properly, For perfect wrath, or complete and durable vengeance, is coming upon them. It is true, a judicial blindness had seized them; but the remarkable destruction was approaching, prophesied of, Daniel 9:27. Matthew 24:0. They returned from their former captivities; but extreme vengeance, a lasting divine judgment, has befallen them, since their crucifixion of the Lord of Life. Above 1700 years have they been dispersed among the nations, and Jerusalem is still trodden under foot of the Gentiles; and shall be so, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The destruction here referred to, was drawing nigh when the Apostle wrote this Epistle, and actually happened within twenty years after; and it may be observed, that, in consequence of this destruction, the Jews suffered the divine vengeance in various other partsof the earth; particularly under Trajan, 460,000 of them were destroyed in Egypt and Cyprus; and under Adrian 580,000.

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1 Thessalonians 2:17. Being taken from you— The original word is very emphatical;— απορφανισθεντες . It is an allusion to that grief, anxiety, and reluctance of heart with which dying parents take farewell of their children, when they are just going to leave them helpless orphans, exposed to the injuries of the world; or that sorrow of heart with whichpoor destitute orphans close the eyes of their dying parents. The Apostle, by this metaphor, in a very lively and tender manner, expresses the concern and reluctance wherewith he had parted from his young converts at Thessalonica; being violently driven away from them by the unbelieving Jews; compelled to leave these his spiritual children amid the most restless and malicious enemies, without the guidance, defence, and support of their father in the gospel. Acts 17:5; Acts 17:10. The original, rendered, for a short time, signifies literally, for an hour's time; which is a figurative expression. It was several years before the Apostle returned to them; but his mind was full of the ideas of eternity, which annihilated, as it were, any period of mortal life.

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1 Thessalonians 2:18. But Satan hindered us.— When the Hebrews would express any thing remarkably great, they add the name of God to it; so they call great mountains, the mountains of God,—and the like: and thus, when they describe the most wicked men, they call them the ministers, servants, and children of Satan, and sometimes Satan himself; because they imitate and comply with the temptations of that wicked spirit who is at the head of all apostacy from God, and the most remarkable enemy in the universe to truth and goodness. The unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica, as the instruments of Satan, were the persons intended; and indeed the sense of their extreme malice seems to have dwelt strongly on the Apostle's mind during the writing of this whole Epistle.

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