1 Thessalonians

1Chapter

Greeting

1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy: To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.

Thanksgiving

2We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers. 3We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, 6and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. 7As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
2Chapter

Paul’s Conduct

1For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our visit with you was not without result. 2On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. 3For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. 4Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts. 5For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives —God is our witness — 6and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others. 7Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nurse nurtures her own children. 8We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 9For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. 11As you know, like a father with his own children, 12we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Reception and Opposition to the Message

13This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe. 14For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, since you have also suffered the same things from people of your own country, just as they did from the Jews 15who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us. They displease God and are hostile to everyone, 16by keeping us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. As a result, they are constantly filling up their sins to the limit, and wrath has overtaken them at last.

Paul’s Desire to See Them

17But as for us, brothers and sisters, after we were forced to leave you for a short time (in person, not in heart ), we greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face. 18So we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us. 19For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20Indeed you are our glory and joy!
3Chapter

Anxiety in Athens

1Therefore, when we could no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens. 2And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith, 3so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. 4In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction, and as you know, it happened. 5For this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.

Encouraged by Timothy

6But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love. He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us, as we also long to see you. 7Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith. 8For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, 10as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?

Prayer for the Church

11Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. 12And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you. 13May he make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen.
4Chapter

The Call to Sanctification

1Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing —do this even more. 2For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. 6This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. 7For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Loving and Working

9About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

13We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
5Chapter

The Day of the Lord

1About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you. 2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief. 5For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. 6So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. 7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation. 9For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

Exhortations and Blessings

12Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, 13and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. 16Rejoice always, 17pray constantly, 18give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19Don’t stifle the Spirit. 20Don’t despise prophecies, 21but test all things. Hold on to what is good. 22Stay away from every kind of evil.
23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. 25Brothers and sisters, pray for us also. 26Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. 27I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Study
Chapter 1
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Thanksgiving and Encouragement. It is typical for Paul to include a thanksgiving near the beginning of his letters (Galatians is a striking exception).

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Paul’s Confidence in the Election of the Thessalonians. Paul is confident that the Thessalonians are elect because of God’s blessing on the missionaries during the mission and the authenticity of the Thessalonians’ reception of the gospel and subsequent obedience.

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Opening. Paul makes no mention of his apostolic status, perhaps because there are no false teachers challenging it within the Thessalonian church. Silvanus and Timothy were coworkers with Paul during his second missionary journey. Silvanus, or Silas, was a Judean Christian (Acts 15:22) who joined Paul after he separated from Barnabas (Acts 15:39–40). Timothy, of Lystra in south Galatia, was a son of a Jewish mother and Greek father and became partners with Paul when Paul passed through his hometown early on his second journey (see Acts 16:1–4; Introduction to 1 Timothy). Timothy had just returned from a visit to the Thessalonian church (1 Thess. 3:6), and his report is Paul’s major source of information as he writes. While Silas and Timothy are included as co-senders, Paul was clearly the main author (see 2:18; 3:5; 5:27). in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers enjoy a mysterious union with both the Father and the Son and hence are supremely secure and safe from spiritual harm. Grace … and peace. See note on Rom. 1:7.

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Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith, Love, and Hope. Paul thanks God that the Thessalonians are evidencing the essential marks of the Christian life—faith, love, and hope.

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remembering. Paul may be recalling the events of his mission to Thessalonica, or this may just be standard prayer language. faith … love … hope. A common Pauline triad (cf. 5:8; Rom. 5:2–5; 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:5–6; Eph. 4:2–5). The prominent final position here belongs to hope, which seems fitting in a letter so concerned with the end times (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:12, 19–20; 3:13; 4:13–18; 5:1–11, 23–24). work … labor … steadfastness. These are the practical outworking of the Thessalonians’ conversion. The “work” the Thessalonians do is a result or consequence of their “faith.” So, too, their “labor” flows from “love,” and their endurance or “steadfastness” comes from “hope.”

ESV

The ultimate reason for Paul’s certainty regarding the Thessalonians’ election is that they are brothers loved by God. God’s love undergirds election (Eph. 1:4–5; cf. Rom. 1:7; 9:13) and is demonstrated by it (Rom. 8:35–39; 11:28). Chosen (lit., “elected,” using Gk. eklogē, “choice, selection, election”) refers to God’s antecedent sovereign act of appointing people for eternal life (see notes on Rom. 10:20–21; Eph. 1:4; 1:5; 1:11). Paul infers from the events of the mission that the Thessalonians were elect and therefore he can reassure them that they are forever secure.

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because. Paul grounds his confidence that the Thessalonians are elect in two things: the undeniable authenticity and authority of those preaching the gospel to them (v. 5) and the exemplary nature of the Thessalonians’ response to the gospel (vv. 6–10). First, he appeals to the fact that the missionaries’ preaching (our gospel) was characterized by power (miraculous power, or power in preaching, or both), the Holy Spirit (manifestations of the Spirit’s approving presence), and full conviction (transparent sincerity and integrity, bringing certainty to the hearers’ minds). You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. The genuineness of the gospel was reinforced, as it always should be, by the evident integrity of its preachers.

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imitators of us. The Thessalonians followed Paul’s example even as Paul followed Christ’s example. for you received the word in much affliction. See Acts 17:5–9; 1 Thess. 2:14. Suffering affliction is normal for those destined to be saved at the end (see Rom. 8:17–18; 1 Pet. 4:12–14). with the joy of the Holy Spirit. The remarkable joy in suffering that characterized the Thessalonian Christians was patterned after the joy of Jesus and Paul.

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Macedonia and Achaia were the two Greek provinces of the Roman Empire.

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not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth. This may refer to evangelistic activities or, more likely, news of the Thessalonians’ newfound faith. Either way, what transpired in Thessalonica resulted in the gospel being proclaimed far and wide, no doubt aided by the fact that Thessalonica was strategically located (see Introduction: Purpose, Occasion, and Background).

ESV

The Greeks from other areas report that the Thessalonians had repented of their idolatrous past, had committed themselves to serve God, and were waiting for Jesus’ second coming—the key traits of genuine Christian conversion. living and true God. In contrast to idols, God is the only real Deity. wait for his Son. This is the first of many references to the second coming in this letter (cf. 2:12, 19–20; 3:13; 4:13–18; 5:1–11, 23–24). whom he raised from the dead. This may anticipate 4:13–18, where Paul affirms the Thessalonians’ hope for the deceased on the foundation of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (4:14). delivers us from the wrath to come. This may anticipate 5:1–11, where Paul emphasizes that the Thessalonians are not destined for wrath at the final judgment.