1 Thessalonians 3

1 Thessalonians 3:1

And therefore, being no longer able to bear the want and desire of seeing or hearing of you, I resolved to deprive myself of Timothy’s company, and to stay alone at Athens, a city in Greece. to settle you in the doctrine of the gospel, which we had planted among you, and to comfort you against all the tribulations which were befallen you for the profession of the faith of Christ;

1 Thessalonians 3:3

To keep you from being discouraged or falling off by reason of these afflictions, by putting you in mind of what I am sure you know already, that this is to be looked for by all true believers, the gospel being the covenant of the cross, and so nothing in it strange, that God should determine to permit and not to restrain the malice of wicked men, but leave Christians to be exercised by them.

1 Thessalonians 3:4

For of this at our first preaching the gospel to you we advertised you, that afflictions are the Christian’s portion; and it hath accordingly come to pass, and so you have the experimental knowledge of it.

1 Thessalonians 3:5

And therefore the occasion of our late sending of Timothy was to see whether you continued constant, or whether the devil and the world, bringing persecutions upon you for the faith, had wrought upon you by those temptations, and so all our labour in planting the faith were cast away and lost upon you.

[a] tempted] It is ordinary in the scripture dialect for verbs to signify, beside the action or passion noted by them, the effect which is

1 Thessalonians 3:6

And now he at his return telling us that joyful news of your constancy in the faith, and of your love to God, casting out all fear of persecution; and that your kindness to me continues; and that you are as desirous to see me as I to visit you:

1 Thessalonians 3:7

This was matter of extreme joy to us in the midst of our afflictions, or in the midst of yours, that though the gospel had brought persecution and dis-

1 Thessalonians 3:19

[A] crown] A crown was an attire or dressing for the head, and so is mentioned Ezek. xvi. 12, together with jewels on the forehead, and earrings in the ear; and so Ezek. xxiii. 42, bracelets upon their hands, and crowns upon their heads: not that this was an ensign of majesty peculiar to kings, but the name of an ornament worn by others, both men, as the Sabeans, Ezek. xxiii. 42, and women, as in that description of the Jewish nation by a woman, ch. xvi. So the Misna makes mention of crowns that bridegrooms and brides were wont to wear. The bridegroom’s was of gold, or gilt, or painted, or of roses, or myrtle, or olives, and so the bride’s also, Gemara Hierosol. ad tit. Sota, c. 9. But these were interdicted by the Jews about the time of Vespasian, saith the Misna tit. Sota, c. 9. Of these there is also frequent mention among the heathens, στίφος γαμήλιον, a nuptial crown, in Bion’s Epitaph of Adonis; and in Libanius Declam. 8, speaking of nuptial rites, οὐκ ἐστεφανωσάμην; was I not crowned? But as of all other ornaments, so of this it must be observed, that they were either of every day’s use, (unless days of fasting and mourning,) or for extraordinary or festival days, (in like manner as there was an every day’s anointing, unless upon days of humiliation,) Matt. vi, and the oil of gladness or festival oil, psalm xlv. 7; and the latter of these is in those places of Ezekiel called a beautiful crown, and here στίφανος κουχήσεως, a crown of boasting, that is, either of rejoicing or festivity, as rejoicing and boasting is all one, (such we know was the nuptial crown, wherewith his mother is said to have crowned Solomon in the day of the gladness of his heart, Cant. iii. 11,) or of boasting, as that sounds literally, such as are the special kinds of ornament, wherein one is set out most pompously and magnificently, so as vain-glorious persons adorn themselves.