1 Thessalonians 2
DOYLY— but also our own souls.] Or ’lives.’ Dr. Wells. To have spent our lives in your service. Dr. Whitby.
1 Thessalonians 2:11
- — as a father doth his children.] The Apostle, having compared his gentleness towards the Thessalonians to the tenderness of a nursing-mother for her infant children, here compares the affection and earnestness, with which he recommended holiness to them, to the affection and earnestness of a pious father, engaged in the instruction of his own children. An admirable mixture of meekness and gentleness with gravity and authority. Dr. Macknight, Burkitt.
1 Thessalonians 2:12
- — who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.] To the honour and privilege of being Christians here, and, if you continue constant in the faith, glorified saints in heaven. Dr. Hammond.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
- — not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.] The word which St. Paul preached, though they heard it of him, yet it was not his word, not the word of any man, but it was, in deed and in truth, the word of God Himself; and they received it as spoken to them from God. And so all ought to receive whatsoever was spoken by Moses and the Prophets, or by Christ and His Apostles, and is now written in the books of the Old and New Testaments: for it is all equally the word of God: all Scripture, as the Apostle saith, being “given by inspiration of God,” 2 Tim. iii. 16. And therefore whoever spoke or wrote it, it was still God’s word they spoke or wrote: and all men are bound to look upon it and receive it with the same respect and reverence, as if God had spoken it to them with His own mouth, or had written it with His own finger, as He did the Ten Commandments. Bp. Beveridge.
— which effectually worketh also in you that believe.] Being not barely received or heard by you, but also bringing forth in your practice, as other good fruits, so particularly the fruits of Christian patience. Dr. Wells.
1 Thessalonians 2:15
- — and are contrary to all men:] It is well known
what invincible prejudices the Jews in general entertained against all other nations; and several passages might be produced from Tacitus and other heathen writers, in which they are represented as bearing an inveterate hatred against all the rest of mankind. And nothing certainly could afford a stronger proof of this malignant temper, than that perverse opposition to so benevolent a scheme as the Gospel, for which the Apostle passes this severe censure upon them. Dr. Doddridge.
1 Thessalonians 2:16
- — to fill up their sins alway:] Filling up the measure of their sins, and so accomplishing the prediction of our Saviour, that to the murder of the Prophets they should add the murder of Him, and of those Prophets and wise men, whom He should send among them, Matt. xxiii. 32—35. Dr. Whitby.
— for the wrath is come] Or is just coming or hastening “upon them,” not for a punishment during a short time, as was the Babylonian captivity, but “to the uttermost,” or so as to make an utter end both of their religious and of their civil state. Dr. Wells.
1 Thessalonians 2:17
- — being taken from you for a short time &c.] The Apostle means, that when he fled from Thessalonica to Berea he proposed to be absent only a few days, until the rage of the Jews should be abated: after which he intended to return. Accordingly he tells them, he the more earnestly on that account endeavoured to return, and actually made two attempts for that purpose. But the coming of the Jews from Thessalonica, to stir up the people in Berea against him, frustrated his design, and obliged him to leave Macedonia. Dr. Macknight.
1 Thessalonians 2:18
- — but Satan hindered us.] Satan stirred up these envious Jews to raise oppositions against me, and by these means hindered my journey to you. Bp. Hall. Hence we may learn, that they who obstruct the progress of the Gospel, and persecute the promoters of it, are the instruments and ministers of Satan, and therefore fitly bear his name. So chap. iii. 5; 2 Cor. xi. 15; Rev. ii. 10. Burkitt, Dr. Whitby.
Paul’s care for them. I. THESSALONIANS. He rejoiceth in their well doing. Anno DOMINI 34. # CHAP. III.