1. He uses no title. He does not style himself apostle. He asserted his apostolic authority when it was necessary to do so; for the sake of others, as in his Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians. Now it was not necessary; the Macedonian Churches regarded him with affection and reverence. He simply gives his name, his new name—Paul. He had laid aside his old name with all its associations. It recalled the memory of the famous king, Saul the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. It recalled to the apostle the memories of his own old unconverted life, his self-satisfied Pharisaism, his persecution of the Church, especially that one saddest day of his life, when he consented to the death of the first martyr of the Lord, the holy Stephen. He had laid aside his old name, and with it his old modes of thought, his old life. Paul was, we may say, his Christian name; we do not read of it before the beginning of his first missionary journey; it was consecrated now by constant, untiring, self-sacrificing labor. It was known wherever Christ was preached as the name of the great missionary, the apostle of the Gentiles, the first of the noble band of Christian missionaries, who had left his home and all that once he loved to devote himself, heart and soul, to the mission work with all its hardships, all its dangers. Many holy men have trodden in his steps; but it was Paul who first set the high example, who kindled the sacred enthusiasm which has led so many saints in every age to fulfill the Lord's command, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Paul is a Latin name; it means "little." St. Augustine in one place suggests that St. Paul may have chosen it to mark himself as "the least of the apostles." There are other possible reasons for the change, and it may be thought that St. Paul would have shrunk from what might seem almost like a parade of humility. But at least we may find a lesson here. God exalteth the humble. Paul is a famous name. Others have borne it—some distinguished Romans; but it was reserved for the apostle to make the name honored and beloved throughout the civilized world. The Paulus who conquered Macedonia for Rome is far less famous now than the Paul who won the Macedonian Churches for Christ.
2. He associates others with himself. Paul is the spiritual father of the Thessalonian Christians; he is the writer of the Epistle, not Silvanus or Timotheus (see 2 Thessalonians 3:17). But they had labored with him in Thessalonica; Silvanus certainly, Timotheus in all probability; they had shared his dangers there; they were well known to the Thessalonians. So he joins their names with his own, recognizing their brotherly fellowship, their faithful co-operation, and shrinking, it may be, kern putting himself into unnecessary prominence. He seeks not honor ion himself; he has no literary ambition; his one aim is the salvation of his converts, the glory of God.
II. THE CHURCH.
1. The foundation of the Thessalonian Church. St. Paul had been shamefully treated at Philippi; he had not lost courage. He came to Thessalonica; he went, as he was wont, to the synagogue. There he preached for three sabbath days; he "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." He showed (as our Lord himself had shown to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus) that it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer, and should rise again from the dead; he showed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ. All true preaching must be full of Scripture; all true preaching must be full of Christ. St. Paul's words were greatly blessed. Some Jews believed, a great multitude of Greek proselytes, many ladies of rank. Those three sabbaths had been wonderfully fruitful; a Church was formed at Thessalonica.
2. The word "Church." This is the earliest of St. Paul's extant Epistles; it may be (possibly the Epistle of St. James was written earlier) the earliest of all the writings of the New Testament. Then, if we were to read the New Testament in chronological order, we should meet here with the word "Church" for the first time. St. James 2:2 uses the word "synagogue," not "Church." Our Lord, of course, used it earlier. He founded the Church. He had said, "On this rock wilt I build my Church;" and again, "Tell it to the Church." But the date of St. Matthew's Gospel is probably later than that of this Epistle. The Greek word means simply an assembly, a congregation, as the word "synagogue" means a meeting. It is derived from a verb which means to call out or summon, and is regularly used in classical Greek of the assemblies of citizens summoned by the magistrate in the Greek commonwealths for legislative or other political purposes (comp. Acts 19:39); sometimes of other assemblies, as of the crowd of artisans collected by Demetrius (Acts 19:32, Acts 19:41). It is used of the congregation of Israel in Acts 7:38; Hebrews 2:12; and sometimes in the Septuagint. The New Testament has taken the word and filled it with a new and holy meaning. It is the assembly which Christ hath chosen to himself out of the world—the flock of Christ. The visible Church of Christ is "a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." The great day of Pentecost was the true birthday of the Church; the gift of the Holy Ghost then sent down from heaven knit together the disciples into one body, the mystical body of Christ. St. Luke gives us, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, a description of the Church at that time. "Then they that gladly received the Word were baptized… and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Thus the notes of the Church, according to Holy Scripture, are baptism, fellowship with the apostles, the doctrine of the apostles, the holy communion, public worship. The Church is also one, for it is one body in Christ, united into one fellowship by the indwelling of the one Spirit. It is holy, because it is being sanctified by the Holy Ghost; all its members are dedicated to God in holy baptism; they are all pledged by that dedication to follow after holiness of heart and life. It is catholic, because it is not confined to one nation, like the synagogue, but universal, world-wide, open to all who receive the Word of God. It is apostolic, because it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone; and because it continues in the doctrine and fellowship of the apostles. It is the bride of Christ. "Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it unto himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
3. The Church of the Thessalonians. Now there was a branch of the one Church at Thessalonica.
III. THE SALUTATION.
1. Grace. It is one of those words which the Holy Spirit has taken from common use and filled with a sweet and sacred meaning.
2. Peace. It was the first greeting of the risen Lord to his apostles, "Peace be unto you." It became the apostolic greeting. The Macedonian Churches had little outward peace; they were early called to suffer. They needed that blessed peace which God alone can give. (See homiletics on Philippians 1:2 and Philippians 4:7.)
LESSONS.
1. Imitate St. Paul in his humility. Notice every feature, every manifestation of that great grace; it is hard to learn.
2. The Church, as a whole, is in God; in his guardianship, in his encircling love. We must strive and pray to realize that loving presence individually, to be in God ourselves.
3. Pray that grace and peace may rest on all who bear the Name of Christ.—B.C.C.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-6 - The apostle's thanksgiving.
I. ITS CHARACTER.
1. It is shared with his companions. "We give thanks." The three friends prayed and gave thanks together. It is true that the plural number is characteristic of these Epistles to the Thessalonians; the singular is avoided, it seems, from motives of modesty. But here, immediately after the mention of the three names, it is natural to regard the thanksgiving as proceeding from all. It is a true Christian feeling that draws friends together for religious exercises. The faith, the love, of the one kindles, strengthens, the like graces in the other. The tide of prayer and praise from many hearts flows in deeper, fuller volume towards the throne. And we know that where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there is he in the midst of them.
2. It is constant. "We give thanks to God always." Thanksgiving is the joy of the redeemed in heaven; it is the outpouring of the Christian heart upon earth. The nearer we can approach to perpetual thanksgiving, the nearer we draw to heaven. "Sursum corda!"—"Lift up your hearts!" is an exhortation which we daily need. May God give us grace to answer daily, hourly, "We lift them up unto the Lord."
3. It is for all. The true shepherd knows his sheep; he loves them all, he prays for all. He does not divide them into parties. The closer his own walk with God, the more he is enabled to keep himself apart from and above party divisions. But the infant Thessalonian Church seems to have enjoyed the blessing of unity. It was not, like Corinth, distracted by strife and party feeling.
4. It accompanied prayer. Thanksgiving and prayer ever go together. The man who prays earnestly must give thanks, for prayer brings him into the sense of God's most gracious presence; and with that presence cometh joy—joy in the Lord. True prayer must involve intercession, for in answer to prayer the Holy Spirit is given; and the first, the chief of the fruits of the Spirit is love. St. Paul is a remarkable example of perseverance in intercessory prayer.
II. ITS GROUNDS.
1. His remembrance of their spiritual state. He was working hard at Corinth; in the midst of his labor, with all its new interests, he remembered without ceasing the Christians of Thessalonica. The care of all the Churches was already beginning to press upon him. He was unwearied in his labors, in his supplications, in his constant thoughtfulness for all the Churches which he had founded, for all the converts whom he had brought to Christ. Mark the extent, the comprehensiveness of his love for souls.
2. His description of that state. The Thessalonian Christians already exhibited the three chief Christian graces.
3. His confidence in God's election; Himself "a vessel of election" (Acts 9:15), he felt sure that the same gracious choice had rested on the Thessalonian Christians. God had "chosen them to salvation," he tells them in the Second Epistle. St. Paul loves to dwell on the great truth of God's election.
4. The evidence of that election. St. Paul finds it:
Learn:
1. To take delight in the spiritual progress, in the, faith, hope, love of our fellow-Christians.
2. To thank God for it.
3. To refer all that seems good in us to God's electing grace.
4. To look for the evidence of that election in holiness of life.—B.C.C.
1 Thessalonians 1:7-10 - The happy results of the conversion of the Thessalonians.
I. THEY BECAME AN EXAMPLE TO OTHERS.
1. True piety tends to propagate itself. The Thessalonians had not long embraced Christianity. But they had learned much; they had given their hearts to God. The Macedonian Churches gave St. Paul, from the first, deep and unmingled satisfaction. Thessalonica was the metropolis of Macedonia, the seat of government, and of trade. It became a center of spiritual life. All believers throughout Macedonia and Achaia looked to the Thessalonians. St. Paul was now at Corinth, the chief city of Achaia. The Lord had much people in that city; but there were grave evils at Corinth, many causes for anxiety and distress. St. Paul must have told the Corinthians often of the simple faith and obedience of the Macedonians. So the Thessalonians became an example to the converts whose lot was cast among the sensual temptations anti the intellectual restlessness of the famous Peloponnesian town. The lives of good men are very precious; they are a living proof of the power of God's grace; they arc facts which can be seen and tested; facts from which the reality of the forces which are working in the unseen sphere of God's spiritual agency can be inferred with as much certainty as the laws of nature from the facts of observation and experiment.
2. The Word of God is living and powerful. The Thessalonians had received it; it was in their hearts and on their lips. As the starry heavens with their silent witness declare the glory of God, so it is with the stars that are in the right hand of the Son of God (Revelation 1:20); their sound goeth forth into all the earth. That heavenly melody was issuing now from Thessalonica. "It hath sounded forth," St. Paul says, like a clear, thrilling trumpet-strain. It hath sounded, and still it sounds, reaching far and wide with its penetrating tones. The conversion of the Thessalonians was known not only in the neighboring regions of Greece. The glad news had brought joy wherever the gospel had reached. It was not necessary for the apostle to praise the faith of the Thessalonians; men knew it., talked of it among themselves, reported it to the great missionary himself.
II. THE TESTIMONY THAT WAS BORNE TO THE FAITH OF THE THESSALONIANS. Christians talked:
1. Of the wonderful success of St. Paul's preaching. Those three weeks had been a time of marvelous fruitfulness. It was but an entrance, the time was so short; but what an entrance!—so full of power, so manifestly under the Divine guidance. The three men—Silas, of whom we know so little; Timotheus, shy and timid; Paul, of whom it was said in Corinth that his bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible,—they had done wonders in Thessalonica. God was with them plainly; there could be no other explanation of such strange unexampled energy.
2. Of the change wrought in the Thessalonians. They turned from idol-worship. The Thessalonian Church was mainly Gentile; there were a few Jews among them, but the Jews as a body bitterly persecuted the infant Church. The gospel was glad tidings indeed to thoughtful Gentiles. The Jews had great and precious truths, though their teachers had well-nigh hidden them under a mass of traditions and idle forms. But what was there in the heathenism of the day on which a thinking man could rest his soul? There were temples everywhere, but what man who felt the yearnings of the human soul for righteousness and God could in his heart reverence the deities who were worshipped there? So the Thessalonians turned from their idols:
LESSONS.
1. The holy lives of Christian people help the blessed work of saving souls; holy lives are more persuasive than holy words. Let each Christian strive to do his part.
2. We are not in heathen darkness; God has given us the light of his gospel. Let us be thankful, and show our thankfulness in our lives.
3. Wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus; all our hopes are in him.—B.C.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
1 Thessalonians 1:1 - Introduction.
This Epistle has the distinction of being the first in time of all Paul's Epistles. The leading thought, to which there is reference toward the close of each of the five chapters into which the Epistle has been divided, is the second coming of our Lord. The first three chapters are personal, setting forth the apostle's connection with the Thessalonians, and interest in them as a Church. In the remaining two chapters he addresses them in view of their condition as a Church, and especially in view of anxiety connected with the second coming. Pleased with the progress they were making, he writes to them in a quiet, practical, prevailingly consolatory strain.
I. THE WRITERS. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy." Paul comes first, as preeminently the writer. It can be made out that the matter and style are characteristically Pauline. It speaks to his humility that he does not claim it as his own, that he does not put forward his official position, but associates two brethren with him as joint-writers. These, Silvanus (to be identified with Silas) and Timothy (less prominent at the time), assisted at the founding of the Thessalonian Church. Timothy had just returned from a visit of inquiry to Thessalonica. He therefore claims them as adding the weight of their influence with the Thessalonians to his own. And their place as joint-writers is accorded to them throughout. Only in three places, for a special reason in each case, does he make use of the singular number.
II. COMMUNITY ADDRESSED. "Unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Thessalonica—so named by Cassander in honor of his wife, who was a sister of Alexander the Great—was well situated for commerce "on the inner bend of the Thermaic gulf—half-way between the Adriatic and the Hellespont—on the sea-margin of a vast plain watered by several rivers," the chief of these being the Axius and Haliacmon. Under the Romans it became a large, wealthy, and populous city; and was chosen as the Macedonian capital. Its importance has been well kept, up to the present day. Saloniki (slightly altered from Thessalonica) ranks next to Constantinople in European Turkey, with a population of seventy thousand. Paul visited Thessalonica in his second missionary tour, after the rough handling he had received in the other Macedonian city of Philippi. The Jews, being more numerous here than at Philippi, had a synagogue; and in this, Paul, for three sabbath days, reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and alleging that it behooved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and that this Jesus is the Christ. The result was so far favorable. Some Jews were persuaded, and consorted with Paul and Silas; of the Gentile proselytes attached to the Jewish synagogue, a great multitude, and, among these, not a few chief women. But there was also what was unfavorable. The Jews as a body, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, and raised a tumult against the Christian preachers, which ended in their departing by night for Beraea. Paul and his assistants had a very short time in which to found a Church in Thessalonica. For three sabbath days Paul reasoned in the Jewish synagogue. We may allow a little longer time for the ripening of Jewish opposition. Short as the time was, they had settled down to supporting themselves by laboring with their own hands. Short as the time was, the Philippian Christians, in their eagerness, had managed once and again to send unto Paul's necessity. What would render the formation of a Christian Church at Thessalonica easier was the number of Gentile proselytes who embraced Christianity. These had received training in monotheistic ideas, and had already the elements of a godly character. But, beyond this, many Gentile idolaters must have been brought in; for the entering in of Paul and his companions was signalized as a turning of the majority of them from idols unto the living and the true God. Under the conditions of time and manual labor and Jewish fanaticism, the founding of the Thessalonian Church was a most marvelous work. So short time with them, Paul wrote to them when he got to Corinth, after Visiting Beraea and Athens, about the close of the year 52. The Thessalonians are addressed as a Church, i.e. in their corporate capacity, with corporate responsibilities and privileges, not as saints, i.e. in respect of the consecration of the members-individually. They are addressed as a Church in God the Father, i.e. as having all the position of sons. They are also addressed as a Church in the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. as a Christian family where the sons are all saved men placed under the superintendence of him who has the position of Lord, and distributes to their need.
III. GREETING. "Grace to you and peace." This did not necessarily exclude favor and peace from men, from these persecuting Jews. But whether it had that sweep or not, it certainly meant the Divine treatment of them, not according to merit, but according to infinite mercifulness, and the consequent freeing of them from all disturbing influences. It is what we should invoke for all our friends.—R.F.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 - Manifestation of interest.
I. HOW THEY THANKED GOD FOR THE THESSALONIANS. "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." The three Christian preachers away at Corinth, and in the midst of their engagements there, were interested in their Thessalonian converts. They were so interested as to act as priests for them. This they did at the throne of grace, praying for them by name, in view of their special needs as a Church. This they would also do unitedly, praying to all the more purpose that they united their prayers; for a threefold cord is not easily broken. Noah, Daniel, and Job in a land may not counteract all wickedness; but Paul, Silas, and Timothy, agreeing as touching what they asked for a progressing Church like Thessalonica, would certainly mean valuable help to them from heaven. Praying, they gave thanks always. This designation of time is not to be understood with the utmost strictness. It is prescribed in Exodus that Aaron should bear the judgment of the children of Israel (the Urim and Thummim) upon his heart before the Lord continually, i.e. whenever he went into the holy place to discharge the pontifical functions. So the meaning here is that, whenever these men of God went into the presence of God to discharge the priestly function of prayer for the Thessalonians, their hearts were filled with gratitude for them, which they poured forth in thanksgiving. They gave thanks to God, who had made the Thessalonians a Church, who had blessed them hitherto, and upon whom they depended for future blessing. They gave thanks to God for them all. They did not know of any (and their information was recent) who were bringing dishonor on the Thessalonian society. They were all with one heart helping forward the common Christian good.
II. UPON WHAT THEY PROCEEDED IN THANKING GOD FOR THE THESSALONIANS. "Remembering without ceasing." They proceeded in their thanksgivings upon what they remembered of the Thessalonians. The impression produced at the time had not been effaced by fresh scenes, new engagements, the lapse of time. By thinking of them and hearing from them their impression of them had not ceased to be lively. This impression concerned the three Christian graces—faith, love, hope. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. love is placed last, the object being to exalt it, in its permanent value, over the other two Here, as also in the fifth chapter and in Colossians 1:1-29., and virtually in Titus 2:1-15., the natural order is followed, faith manifesting itself in love (Galatians 5:6), and hope rising out of love (Romans 5:5). Hope is also properly held to come last, as the link between the present and the future. What the Christian pioneers remembered was the practical outcome of each grace.
1. "Your work of faith." In the eleventh of the Hebrews we read of special works which were produced by faith. But the work, in its totality, which each man produces, is the life which be lives before the world. And he who believes that there is the eye of the holy, heart-searching God upon him; that he is here to carry out the Divine behests; that according as he does or does not carry out these behests does he lie under the Divine approval or disapproval; that there is a judgment coming which shall prove each man's work of what sort it is;—such a man will surely produce a work very different from him who habitually looks only to the seen and the temporal. The adoption of faith as the principle of their lives meant to the Thessalonians the abandonment of many vices, and the cultivation of sincerity, humility, purity, temperance, and other Christian excellences.
2. "And labor of love." The word translated" labor "approaches the meaning of painful effort. We are not merely to wish well to others and to rejoice in their good;—that implies no laboriousness of love. But we are to burden ourselves with the wants of others, and to undertake labors on behalf of the sick, on behalf of the poor, on behalf of the oppressed, on behalf of the ignorant, on behalf of the erring. The Thessalonian Christians were full of these labors; their Church life had become one labor of love, a putting forth of painful effort for each other, without thought of reward, with only the desire to please the Master. It was a labor of purest, freest love, that the Master himself undertook on behalf of those whom he was not ashamed to call his brethren.
3. "And patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." Hope was the characteristic grace of the Thessalonians. It was hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, which is more exactly defined in the Epistle as hope with regard to his coming. It was a hope which burned in them with, extraordinary intensity. So eager were they as to the time of its realization that there was a likelihood of impatience being engendered by delay. When the Thessalonians are remembered here for the patience of their hope, we are to understand the brave way in which they maintained the conflict with sin within, and especially with persecution without. It is the hope of victory that sustains the soldier under all the hardships of the march and the dangers of the battle-field. So it was the hope of the infinite compensation that there would be at the confine of Christ that sustained them under the disadvantages of their position. What to them were all that their enemies might inflict on them, when any day Christ might come among them for their deliverance? They could say with their teacher," For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us-ward." Additional circumstance. "Before our God and Father." This points to the solemnity and also the joy of the remembrance. It was in prayer that it took place. It was there before the God of Paul and Silas and Timothy, the Heart-searching One, who could testily that it was no formal remembrance, but was marked by sincerity. It was also before their Father, who, as Infinite Benevolence, regarded it with pleasure.
III. THERE IS NOTED THE FACT OF THE ELECTION OF THE THESSALONIANS. "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election." Paul, for himself and his helpers, addresses them as brethren. What they had in common was that they were beloved of God. What marked them as objects of Divine love was their election. This is a word of deep and gracious import, which is more opened up in other places in Scripture. What marked ancient Israel was that they were the election. In succession to ancient Israel, Christians were the election. Among others these Thessalonian Christians had most of them been elected out of heathenism, elected to all the privileges of the new covenant. They owed this their position not to their own merits. It was no doings of their own that brought Christ into the world. It was by circumstances over which they had no control that the gospel was preached to them in Thessalonica. It was not in their own strength that they believed. It was Divine love, then, that gave them their position among the election, and to Divine love was to be all the praise.
IV. PAUL AND SILAS' HELPERS CAME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR ELECTION BY CONSIDERATION OF DIVINE ASSISTANCE VOUCHSAFED IN PREACHING TO THEM. "How that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy' Ghost, and in much assurance; even as ye know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you for your sake." The gospel is the glad tidings of salvation to all men. It could only be called their gospel inasmuch as they used it instrumentally in the conversion of souls. It was Christ who was the great Subject of it. "Neither is there salvation in any other." These three agreed as to the purport of the gospel. It was not different from the gospel as preached by Peter or any other Christian teacher. In dealing with the Jews in Thessalonica, as we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, the gospel proper was accompanied with the producing of proof from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah was to suffer and to rise from the dead; and the fitting into it of other proof that the historical Jesus, who had lately been on the earth, met all the requirements of their Scriptures. But to Jews and Gentiles alike it was the free offer of salvation, based on the great facts of the death and resurrection of God's Son in our nature. This gospel had come to them in Thessalonica; it had providentially been directed their way. It had come to them in word, in the Word preached, and that was a great point gained. "For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" But it had not come in word only, but also in power. They felt power descending on them in the delivery of their message. This was nothing else than the assistance of the Holy Ghost. And it was accompanied with the deep assurance that their message was taking effect. The Thessalonians themselves had the proof of their being men who were divinely assisted toward them. And, as this Divine assistance was granted in their interest, it pointed to their being in the number of the elect.
V. PAUL AND HIS HELPERS CAME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ELECTION OF THE THESSALONIANS BY CONSIDERATION OF THEIR POWER OF IMITATION. "And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." There is a point of difference. They preached the Word, or rather—for a new aspect is brought up—the Lord in them. It was the Lord's message they delivered; they were the instruments of the Lord in its delivery. It was, therefore, the Lord as well as they, and more than they, in the preaching. On the other hand, the Thessalonians received the Word. This is not inconsistent with what is said in the Acts of the Apostles in connection with Beraea: "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so." For the meaning there is that the Beraean Jews were a nobler class than the Thessalonian Jews, which is no reflection on the Thessalonian Christians, who, with few exceptions, were Gentiles. The testimony of this Epistle is that they were a Church peculiarly receptive of the Word. Allowing for this difference which the sense requires, the imitation is to be restricted to the associated circumstances and spirit. "In much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." It was the Word that gave rise to much affliction. And it is not to be wondered at that, when the light comes into conflict with darkness, this should be the result to those who are associated with the light. In much affliction the three subordinates and the great Superintendent in them drew joy from the Word preached. "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," said the greatest of the three. In the same affliction the Thessalonians were imitators, in drawing joy from the Word received. They were not crushed under the affliction, but, imbibing the comfort of the Word, they rose triumphant over it. In both cases the joy, which was not to be thought of as earthly, proceeded from the Holy Ghost dwelling within. This was the second thing that pointed to their election.
VI. THE THESSALONIANS WERE SO GOOD IMITATORS AS TO BECOME AN ENSAMPLE TO OTHERS. "So that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia." These were the two Roman divisions of Greece. It is implied that the circumstances of the Grecian Churches were similar. To believe was, more or less, to be opposed, to be afflicted. The Thessalonians were an encouragement to the other Churches. Philippians, Bermans, Athenians, Corinthians, might all take heart from the manner in which the Thessalonians triumphed over their affliction.