Chú giải Kinh Thánh

1. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you] entering in (R.V.), same word as in ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:9; see note. And the “For” of this verse is parallel to the “for” of ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:9 : what “they themselves (other people, strangers in different places) report of us” is confirmed by what “you yourselves know” of the successful entrance the Gospel had won at Thessalonica. Both these fors, and all that the Apostle has written since 1 Thessalonians 2:4 of ch. 1, go to sustain his assurance of God’s loving “choice” of the Thessalonian believers. We must not allow the artificial division of chapter and verse to break the thread of the writer’s thoughts.

The appeal made to the recollections and experience of the readers is characteristic of these letters, see 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10-11; ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, &c.; and comp. Introd. p. 35.

Concerning the “entrance” of the missionaries amongst them the Thessalonians know better than anyone else, that it hath not been found vain (R. V.). The Greek perfect tense (see note on ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:8) implies a settled result: not merely did the coming of Christ’s servants produce a striking impression at the time; their work has proved thoroughly successful. Its fruit is permanent.

Vain is lit. empty, void of substance and power. So the apostles’ “labour” would “turn out,” if “the Tempter” should destroy the Thessalonians’ faith (ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:5); so his “preaching” and his hearers’ “faith” at Corinth, if Christ’s resurrection were not a fact (1 Corinthians 15:14). “Not empty” echoes the “power” and “much fulness” of ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:5.

This verse might be rendered somewhat more freely in English idiom: For you know of yourselves, brethren, that our coming amongst you has not proved vain.

section ii

The Apostle’s Conduct at Thessalonica. Ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12Analysis. The ministry of Paul and his colleagues at Thessalonica had been unmistakably genuine, 1 Thessalonians 2:1. This appeared (1) by their boldness in the conflict amid which their work began, 1 Thessalonians 2:2; (2) by their sincerity and freedom from personal ambition, 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6; (3) by their gentleness and tender affection toward the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8; (4) by their extreme and self-denying labours, 1 Thessalonians 2:9; (5) by the purity of their life, 1 Thessalonians 2:10; and (6) by the fidelity and high spiritual aim of their teaching, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12. Four words resume the whole: courage, purity, love, fidelity. Here is a mirror for ministers of Christ, and an ideal for all His servants. The service of Christ called into exercise in Paul and his companions the highest and finest qualities of mainly character. And this is still the case, especially on missionary fields of labour, where similar dangers are encountered and the same powers of leadership required.

This section is of the nature of a self-defence, called forth (see Introd. pp. 23, 24) by the calumnies of St Paul’s enemies at Thessalonica. But there blends with his self-defence the lofty strain of thanksgiving in which the letter commenced, and which breaks forth again distinctly in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and Is pursued to the end of ch. 3; so that this paragraph grows naturally out of the last.

The Apostle continues to identify Silas and Timothy with himself writing in the plural,—

2. but even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi] More exactly, having suffered before, and been shamefully entreated (R. V.), or though we had already suffered and were shamefully treated at Philippi. “Entreated” is older English for treated, as in Matthew 22:6 and Luke 18:32 (spitefully entreated). Shamefully treated is one word in the Greek,—outraged. It implies insult and injury combined, such as constituted a legal crime. This accords with the protest of Paul and Silas against the Philippian magistrates (Acts 16:37): “They have beaten us, publicly, uncondemned, being Romans!” Such indignities the Apostle felt keenly; they added a distinct element to his sufferings.

As to the circumstances of the missionaries’ visit to Philippi and their experience there, read carefully Acts 16, and comp. Introd. Chap. II. “As ye know,” for the Apostle had doubtless told his Thessalonian friends of his treatment at Philippi. Moreover, this town was but three days’ journey east of Thessalonica along the Via Egnatia, and news of all kinds readily passed between them (Introd. Chap. I.).

Instead of being daunted by the violence they suffered, Paul and Silas at Philippi “sang praises to God at midnight, with their feet fast in the stocks.” And God there signally vindicated His servants and turned their shame to honour. So we are not surprised to read of the holy confidence with which they declared their message at Thessalonica: we waxed bold (R. V.)—or, took courage in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God amid much conflict.

The last words of the clause explain the first, on which the emphasis rests. The “conflict” that broke out at Philippi continued under another form at Thessalonica, and the apostles needed all their courage and faith in God to sustain them in entering on their ministry in this new city. Throughout this first European mission it required a hard struggle to win for the Gospel a footing anywhere. There was much conflict.

The Greek verb (waxed-bold) implies the undaunted bearing and address of the missionaries, the outspokenness with which they faced their opposers in the delivery of God’s message. This was more than natural courage: “we waxed bold in our God.” God’s presence and the consciousness that His Spirit was with them (ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, see note) made them fearless. “It is not ye that speak,” said Jesus, “but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you … Fear them not therefore” (Matthew 10:16-32). Besides, it was “the gospel of God” which they proclaimed: God had put the message into their lips. This is the secret of St Paul’s heroism. The highest moral courage, such as that of President Lincoln or General Gordon in modern times, springs from faith in God.

The evangelists addressed themselves to their work at Thessalonica with a high degree of confidence, and under the fullest sense of Divine direction. Contrast with this the “weakness and fear and much trembling in” which the Apostle shortly afterwards “was with” the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:3-5). St Paul’s mood as a preacher was not always the same; circumstances depressed or elated him.

3. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile] Read error for deceit; and supply the Greek ellipsis by is not (R. V.) rather than was not. The Apostle is setting forth the habit and spirit of his ministry: “We behaved in this fearless way at Thessalonica, for our ministry is free from all that is false and impure.” It is true men that make brave men. In 1 Thessalonians 2:5 Paul returns to his conduct at Thessalonica; 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4 speak of his general policy.

“Exhortation” hardly conveys his fall meaning,—our appeal is perhaps better; it is the practical “appeal,” or “address,” which “the gospel of God,” as the missionaries of Christ preach it everywhere, makes to its hearers. Comp. note on “comfort,” ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:2.

This appeal “is not of error” (deceit A.V., is incorrect)—not the product of illusion or deception; for it is “the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:2), “the word of the truth of the gospel” (Colossians 1:5). This was amongst Paul’s constant and uppermost convictions. The heavenly Form that met him on the road to Damascus, the Voice that said, “Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles,”—these were no phantasy. “I know Him whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12).

As the Apostle was sure of the genuineness of his message, so he was conscious of the purity of his motives: “nor of uncleanness.” This epithet commonly denotes bodily defilement, and is a synonym for unchastity, as in ch. 1 Thessalonians 4:7, &c. But there is a “defilement of spirit” as well as “of flesh” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Self-seeking (1 Thessalonians 2:5) in the witness of truth makes his testimony corrupt. So truth and purity go together; each promotes and guards the other. Comp. 1 Peter 1:22, “Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth.” On the other hand, the Apostle speaks of the “deceit of unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10), and of “men corrupt in mind and bereft of truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5).

So much for his motives: of his method St Paul will only say, “nor in guile;” as he puts it more at large in 2 Corinthians 4:2, “not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” The servant of truth should use only the weapons of truth. “Guile” was doubtless imputed to St Paul by his slanderers in Thessalonica, as it was subsequently at Corinth: “being crafty (as they say), I caught you with guile” (2 Corinthians 12:16).

To sum up the verse: Our doctrine is true; our motives pure; and our conduct straightforward.

4. but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak] Again the A.V. misses the force of the Greek perfect: better, as we have been approved by God to be entrusted. “Allow” in older English bears the stronger sense of accept, approve (comp. Romans 14:22), but even so falls short of the meaning of St Paul. His word is the same that is rendered in the last clause of the verse as trieth (R. V., proveth); it includes both proving and approving, it is approving on trial, or testing: comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (same Greek verb, “Prove all things); and 1 Corinthians 3:13, “The fire will prove each man’s work.” The Apostle had been tested for his work, and tested by it; God had made proof of him as a minister of Christ, and he was shown to be worthy of his trust: tried, then trusted (comp. 1 Timothy 1:12). “To be put in trust with the gospel” is the highest conceivable responsibility; the sense of it is enough to exclude every base motive and deceitful practice (1 Thessalonians 2:3). On Paul’s trust, read 1 Timothy 1:12-17 and Acts 9:15-16 : “He is a chosen vessel unto Me.”

so we speak] under the sense of this solemn trust, with the sincerity and self-abnegation that our charge demands.

not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts] R. V., proveth (see previous note): more precisely, pleasing God—Him who proves our hearts. This last is an O.T. expression, a standing attribute of God: see Psalm 17:3, Jeremiah 11:20, &c.; also Acts 1:24, “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all.” “Unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid” (Book of Common Prayer).

The “heart,” in the language of the Bible, is not the seat of the feelings alone; it is “the inner man,” the real self, the centre and meeting-point of all our thoughts, feelings, and resolves. It is there that God proves us: “The Lord looketh upon the heart.” No impure motive or crafty expedient, such as might deceive men, escapes Him. The sense of this continual and omniscient scrutiny makes any kind of dishonesty impossible to the Apostle. Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; 2 Corinthians 5:9-12 : “He that judgeth me is the Lord.”

It is God’s gospel that Paul and Silas have to preach; God had trusted them with it, and given them strength and courage to proclaim it (1 Thessalonians 2:2); to God’s approval, therefore, they must look, and to that alone. “Men,” such as the magistrates of Philippi and the populace of Thessalonica, would be pleased only if the messengers of Christ were silenced. So the authorities of Jerusalem “charged Peter and John not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus;” but they answered: “If it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye” (Acts 4:18-19). This sense of the sovereignty of God gives religion its invincible power; it is the conviction that makes martyrs. It is finely expressed in the Antigone of Sophocles (ll. 450–460), where the heroine replies to the tyrant Creon:

“Nor could I think thine edict of such might,

That one who is mortal thus should overrule

The infallible, unwritten laws of heaven.”

St Paul tells us elsewhere, and by way of example, that he “pleased all in all things for their good, unto edification” (1 Corinthians 10:33; Romans 15:2). To please men in that which displeases God, is to injure them: “If (in such circumstances) I pleased men, I should not be Christ’s slave” (Galatians 1:10). That is, to be the slave of public opinion,—often an ignorant, sometimes an unprincipled master.

1 Thessalonians 2:3-4 are then a general disclaimer of unworthy motives on the part of the missionaries. Their bold testimony at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2) was due to two things—their sincerity of heart, and their loyalty to God. Now we resume the account of the Apostle’s relations to the Thessalonians, confirming these professions:—

5. For neither at any time used we flattering words] were we found using words of flattery (R. V.: same verb as in 1 Thessalonians 2:1, “found vain”); or, did we fall into the use of flattering speech. “Found” might suggest detection, which is not in the Apostle’s mind. Lit., word of flattery, referring to the tenor and general style of the apostles’ speech. He adds a third time (see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:1) “as ye know.” St Paul, as his friends well knew, was not one to

“crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

Where thrift may follow fawning.”

In repudiating the cloak of covetousness he appeals to “God” as “witness” (comp. Romans 1:9, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son;” also Romans 2:15, Romans 9:1),—“God, Who proveth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4). The “cloak” signifies the pretext of an affected self-devotion, such as might be used to conceal the “covetousness” of a selfish heart. “God is witness,” he says, “that no secret avarice was hidden behind our zeal for your salvation.”

The Greek word for “covetousness” denotes greed of any kind,—oftenest, but not always or necessarily, for money; it is the spirit of self-aggrandisement, selfishness as a ruling passion. (Comp. the note on “defraud,” ch. 1 Thessalonians 4:6.) Such a motive in the servant of God would constitute the “uncleanness” denied in 1 Thessalonians 2:3.

This verse gives double evidence of the pure zeal for God professed in 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4—the one outward and of the lips, the other inward and known only to God in the heart. Contrast the opposite description of Psalm 12:2 : “A flattering lip, and a double heart.”

6. nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others] This clause continues 1 Thessalonians 2:5, and is so construed in the R. V.: nor (were we found) seeking glory of men, neither from you, nor from others. “Of men” points to the general source of such “glory,” indicating its character; “from you,” &c., to the particular quarter whence, conceivably, it might have been sought.

The motive of ambition—“that last infirmity of noble minds”—rises above the selfishness just disclaimed; but it is just as warmly repudiated, for it is equally inconsistent with the single-mindedness of men devoted to the glory of God. Our Lord finds in superiority to human praise the mark of a sincere faith: “How can ye believe,” He asks, “which receive honour one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not?” (John 5:44).

when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ] Lit., as apostles of Christ, without the definite article. St Paul is speaking for himself and Silas and Timothy; and the latter were not of the Apostles, but they were, in common with himself, “apostles of Christ.”

“Apostle” signifies by derivation emissary, or envoy,—one “sent out” by authority with some message or commission. The term was probably in current use amongst the Jews, when Jesus adopted it for His chosen Twelve. Bit it obtained in the early Church a wider application, concurrently with its stricter reference to the Twelve (including Paul, afterwards recognized as being of the same order, 1 Corinthians 9:1; Galatians 1:1; Galatians 1:17; Galatians 2:7, &c.). Of this we have examples in Barnabas and Paul, Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14; Andronicus and Junias, “amongst the apostles,” Romans 16:7; Titus and others, “apostles of the churches,” 2 Corinthians 8:23; Judean emissaries, “false apostles,” 2 Corinthians 11:13; Epaphroditus, sent from the Philippian Church to Paul in prison at Rome, Php 2:25; also in Revelation 2:2; Hebrews 3:1 (Christ Himself is “the Apostle,” being sent forth from God), John 13:16. In John 17:18; John 20:21 we find the fundamental idea of the word and the basis of its larger application: “As Thou didst send Me forth into the world, even so I have sent forth them.” In this more general use, apostle did not differ much from our word missionary. The title belonged to men who were sent out in Christ’s name by particular Churches—either with a specific and limited mission, or with a general commission to preach the gospel—as well as to those directly appointed by Jesus Himself and charged with His full authority. But after N.T. times the designation came to be reserved, with slight exceptions, to the Twelve and Paul. See Bishop Lightfoot’s detached note on the Name and Office of an Apostle in his Commentary on Galatians, pp. 92 ff.; and Huxtable’s very valuable Dissertation in the Pulpit Commentary on Galatians, pp. xxiii.–1. St Paul certainly possessed the lower apostleship (see Acts 13:1-3), and there was no need for him in this letter to claim the higher, nor to distinguish himself from his missionary companions. His friend Luke puts the Apostle, in the early stage of his ministry, on a level with Barnabas (Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14). The time came when he was compelled to assume the highest Apostolic powers and to assert his equality with Peter and the Twelve (Galatians 1:1; Galatians 2; 1 Corinthians 9:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:7-11; 2 Corinthians 12:11-13; 2 Corinthians 13:3-10); but it was not yet.

“Burdensome” is lit. in (or in our idiom, of) weight—an ambiguous phrase, whose sense is interpreted by 1 Thessalonians 2:9 : “that we might not burden any of you.” These “apostles of Christ”—according to Paul’s maxim, “They which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14)—might have claimed their maintenance from the Thessalonian Church. Had they been “seeking glory of men,” they would certainly have done so; it was both the easier and the more dignified course. “Weight” suggests the secondary sense of honour, glory: R. V. margin, claimed honour (comp. 2 Corinthians 4:17, “weight of glory”: weight and glory are one word in Hebrew). Not because they were apostles (as though this were a privilege peculiar to the name), but “as Christ’s apostles”—sent on His errand, preaching His word: “so hath the Lord ordained” (1 Corinthians 9:14; Luke 10:7). We find that the Apostle, while in Thessalonica at this time, did receive help twice over from his Philippian friends, and gratefully remembered it (Php 4:15-16). So afterwards, at Corinth, he allowed contributions to be sent him “from Macedonia” (2 Corinthians 11:9).

7. But we were gentle among you] Lit., and more graphically, in the midst of you (R. V.); also, were fount gentle—same verb as in 1 Thessalonians 2:1, and ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (shewed ourselves toward you, R. V.).

Instead of gentle, babes is the reading of “most of the ancient authorities” (R. V., margin), including the Vulgate (parvuli): the difference in the Greek lies only in the repetition or omission of a single letter. The modern editors (with the weighty exception of Westcott and Hort: see the Note in their New Testament in Greek, vol. II., p. 128), decide in favour of the received reading,—(1) because “gentle” better suits the context; and (2) because this Greek word occurs only once besides in the N.T. (1 Tim. 2:24), for copyists are prone to change an unfamiliar into any familiar word resembling it that gives a tolerable sense, and “babes” is a favourite expression of St Paul. If babes be the genuine reading—and it is difficult to resist the evidence in its favour—then it must be explained as it is by Origen and Augustine, endorsed by Westcott: like a nurse amongst her children, talking in baby language to the babes.

The gentleness of these apostles of Christ stands in tacit contrast with the airs of authority and the exactions of selfish and vain-glorious men in like circumstances (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6). The behaviour of the “false apostles” who appeared at Corinth affords us an example of that which St Paul and his comrades avoided. See 2 Corinthians 11:20-21; 2 Corinthians 12:13-18.

We note the union of gentleness and courage (1 Thessalonians 2:2) in the missionaries: a mark of the true hero, like Wordsworth’s ‘Happy Warrior,’—

“who though endued as with a sense

And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a soul whose master-bias leans

To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes.”

(We were gentle in the midst of you) as though a nurse were cherishing her own children. The “nurse” is mother at the same time—a mother with the babe at her breast, the perfect image of fostering love. Comp. Christ’s picture in Matthew 23:37.

8. so being affectionately desirous of you] R. V., even so.

The rare and peculiar Greek verb (one word) rendered “being affectionately desirous” implies the fondness of a mother’s love—yearning over you.

With this mother-like affection, he continues, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls (R. V.). The apostles were not merely willing (A.V.) to bestow themselves on the Thessalonians, they actually did so, and with the glad consent of a mother nourishing the babe from her own life. The same verb is rendered “thought-good” in ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:1; and the corresponding noun is “good-pleasure” in 2 Thessalonians 1:2 (see note).

For “souls” we might read “lives” (psyché is never the soul in general, but the individual soul, the personality)—our lives, our very selves. The Apostle sacrificed all personal aims and private interests—“what things were gains to me” (Php 3:7)—to the cause of the Gospel; his life was put in continual hazard in behalf of the Church; and for such people as the Macedonian Christians he did this with cordial satisfaction. “If I am made a libation over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all” (Php 2:17). Even to the thankless Corinthians he says, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). This is the true way to “impart the gospel of God,” to give our own heart and soul with it. For it is to impart the Gospel in the spirit in which it came from God, “Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32); and in the spirit of Christ, “Who gave Himself up for us” (Galatians 1:4; Galatians 2:20), Who “poured out His soul unto death” (Isaiah 53:12).

because ye were dear unto us] More adequately, ye became very dear (R. V.); lit., beloved, the word so often applied to Christ (in the Gospels) by the Father: “My Beloved,” “My Son, the Beloved” (comp. Ephesians 1:6, “accepted in the Beloved”). This Church had won upon St Paul’s affections in an especial degree. They were lovable people, dear to God and to the servants of God. Comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; see also Introd. pp. 34, 35, and notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20.