1 Thessalonians 1:10

1:6-10 When careless, ignorant, and immoral persons are turned from their carnal pursuits and connexions, to believe in and obey the Lord Jesus, to live soberly, righteously, and godly, the matter speaks for itself. The believers under the Old Testament waited for the coming of the Messiah, and believers now wait for his second coming. He is yet to come. And God had raised him from the dead, which is a full assurance unto all men that he will come to judgment. He came to purchase salvation, and will, when he comes again, bring salvation with him, full and final deliverance from that wrath which is yet to come. Let all, without delay, flee from the wrath to come, and seek refuge in Christ and his salvation.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 . Καὶ ἀναμένειν , and to wait for ) The compound, ἀναμένειν , is applied to Him who has so gone away, as that He is about to come [again], John 14:3 , note; Acts 1:11 , note. I do not altogether deny the return , but I say that the coming is elegantly used for His return , because the glorious coming has very many things altogether new connected with it. [ To be waiting for [Him], is the most certain characteristic of the true Christian .—V. g.]— ὅν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν , whom He raised from the dead ) The preeminent (palmarium) argument is here brought in, from which [viz. His resurrection] it is evident, that Jesus is the Song of Solomon of God .— ῥυόμενον , Who delivers ) Christ once ἐλυτρώσατο , hath redeemed us, He alway ῥυέται , delivers us.— ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ἐρχομένης , from the wrath to come ) The wrath comes at the last judgment, ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 .

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from {e} the wrath to come. (e) This word the is not put here without reason: and by wrath is meant that revenge and punishment with which the Lord will in time judge the world in his terrible wrath.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 . In preaching to pagans, the leaders of the primitive Christian mission put the wrath and judgment of God in the forefront ( cf. Sabatier’s Paul , 98 f.), making a sharp appeal to the moral sense, and denouncing idolatry ( cf. Sap., 14, 12 f., 22 f.). Hence the revival they set on foot. They sought to set pagans straight, and to keep them straight, by means of moral fear as well as of hope. Paul preached at Thessalonica as he did at Athens ( Acts 17:29-31 ; see Harnack’s Expansion of Christianity , i. 108 f.) and the substance of his mission-message on the wrath of God is preserved in Romans 1:18 to Romans 2:16 . The living God is manifested by His raising of Jesus from the dead, His awakening of faith in Christians, and His readiness to judge human sin in the hereafter. Seeberg ( der Katechismus der Urchristenheit , 82–85) finds here an echo of some primitive Christian formula of faith, but his proofs are very precarious.— τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ . This marked them out from Jewish proselytes, who might also be said to have turned from idols to serve the living God. The quiet combination of monotheism and a divine position of Jesus is striking ( cf. Kattenbusch, op. cit. , ii. 550 f.).— ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν … ἐκ τ . νεκρῶν , both the hope and the historical fact lay outside the experience of the Thessalonians, but both were assured to them by their experience of the Spirit which the risen Jesus had bestowed, and which guaranteed His final work.

Were it not for touches like the deeper sense of δουλεύειν , the celestial origin of Jesus, and the eschatological definition of ὀργή , one might be tempted to trace a specious resemblance between this two-fold description of Christianity at Thessalonica and the two cardinal factors in early Greek religion, viz. , the service of the Olympian deities ( θεραπεύειν ) and the rites of aversion ( ἀποπομπαί ) which were designed to deprecate the dark and hostile powers of evil. Paul preached like the Baptist judgment to come. But his gospel embraced One who baptised with the Spirit and with the fire of enthusiastic hope ( cf. 1 Corinthians 1:7 ).

To wait for (ἀναμένειν) N.T.o. Several times in lxx, as Job 2:9; Job 7:2; Isaiah 59:11. Paul's usual word is ἀπεκδέχομαι: see Romans 8:19, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Philippians 3:20. From heaven (ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν) Lit. from the heavens. Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:47; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:7. Paul uses the unclassical plural much oftener than the singular. Although the Hebrew equivalent has no singular, the singular is almost universal in lxx, the plural occurring mostly in the Psalm. Οὐρανός is from a Sanscrit word meaning to cover or encompass. The Hebrew shamayim signifies height, high district, the upper regions. Similarly we have in N.T. ἐν ὑψίστοις in the highest (places), Matthew 21:9; Luke 2:14 : ἐν ὑψηλοῖς in the high (places), Hebrews 1:3. Paul's usage is evidently colored by the Rabbinical conception of a series of heavens: see 2 Corinthians 12:2; Ephesians 4:10. Some Jewish teachers held that there were seven heavens, others three. The idea of a series of heavens appears in patristic writings, in Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of the celestial hierarchies, and in Dionysius the Areopagite, Through the scholastic theologians it passed into Dante's Paradiso with its nine heavens. The words to await his Son from heaven strike the keynote of this Epistle. Jesus which delivered (Ἱησοῦν τὸν ῥυόμενον) More correctly, delivereth. See on Matthew 1:21. Ῥύεσθαι to deliver, mostly in Paul. Lit. to draw to one's self.

Almost invariably with the specification of some evil or danger or enemy. Σώζειν to save is often used in a similar sense, of deliverance from disease, from sin, or from divine wrath: see Matthew 1:21; Mark 6:56; Luke 8:36; Acts 2:40; Romans 5:9 : but σώζειν is a larger and more comprehensive term, including not only deliverance from sin and death, but investment with all the privileges and rewards of the new life in Christ. The wrath to come (τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ἐρχομένης) Lit. the wrath which is coming. The wrath, absolutely, of the wrath of God, as Romans 5:9 Romans 7:19; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. Sometimes for the punishment which wrath inflicts, as Romans 12:4; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6. See on John 3:36. The phrase wrath to come is found in Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7. Coming does not necessarily imply the thought of speedy or imminent approach, but the general tone of the Epistle points in that direction.

Verse 10. - And to wait. The faith of the Thessalonians took the form of hope or expectation for the coming of the Lord; an element of Christian feeling, perhaps, not so prominent in the present day. For his Son from heaven ; referring to the second advent. Christ on his departure from this world went to heaven, where he resides, making intercession for us, but from thence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. In the primitive Church the advent of Christ was not regarded as at a distance, but as an event which might at any moment occur. Whom he raised from the dead ; with emphasis placed before "Jesus," because his resurrection from the dead was the open declaration, the public inauguration, of his Divine sonship ( Romans 1:4 ). Even Jesus which delivered us. The participle is present; not past, "who delivered us," namely, by his death; nor future, "who shall deliver us," at the judgment; but present," who delivers us;" the deliverance is going on - it commenced with his death, but will not be completed until his advent. Or the word may be used as a substantive, "Jesus, our Deliverer." From the wrath ; or righteous indignation of God; here punishment as the effect of wrath. "The wrath of God is, in its deepest ground, love; love itself becomes a consuming fire to whatever is opposed to the nature of goodness" (Koch). To come; literally, which is coming, the coming wrath , denoting its absolute certainty.

10. This verse distinguishes them from the Jews, as 1Th 1:9 from the idolatrous Gentiles. To wait for the Lord's coming is a sure characteristic of a true believer, and was prominent amidst the graces of the Thessalonians (1Co 1:7, 8). His coming is seldom called his return (Joh 14:3); because the two advents are regarded as different phases of the same coming; and the second coming shall have features altogether new connected with it, so that it will not be a mere repetition of the first, or a mere coming back again. his Son … raised from the dead—the grand proof of His divine Sonship (Ro 1:4). delivered—rather as Greek, "who delivereth us." Christ has once for all redeemed us; He is our Deliverer ALWAYS. wrath to come—(1Th 5:9; Col 3:6).

(10) And to wait. —The idea of the Advent is that which both here and throughout the Epistle occupies the foreground in the minds of St. Paul and his friends. These two infinitives, “to serve” and “to wait,” express not so much the intention of the Thessalonians in turning, as the condition into which they came by turning. Whom he raised.—Not only proves His Sonship (Romans 1:4), but also gives a kind of explanation of the “awaiting Him from heaven.” Delivered.—Better, delivereth. To come.—Better, which is already coming. The wrath is on its way to the world, to appear with Christ from heaven (2Thessalonians 1:7-8), and He is day by day working to save us from it (Hebrews 7:25).

And to wait for his Son from heaven: this is added to show the further power of the gospel upon them, they had not only faith to God-ward, as was said before, but to Christ-ward. They did not only turn to the true God, in opposition to the heathen, but to the Son of God as the true Christ, in opposition to the unbelieving Jews. For though he was the Son of David after the flesh, yet he was the Son of God also; and not by creation, as the angels are called the sons of God, nor by adoption, as the saints are, but by eternal generation, though the Man Christ Jesus by his personal union is the Son of God. And their faith respecting the Son of God, was their waiting for him from heaven; not that their faith consisted only in this, but it suited their present state of affliction to wait for Christ’s coming as a deliverer and rewarder, therefore here mentioned by the apostle; and their faith, hope, love, and patience may all be included in it. They believed that he was gone to heaven, and would come again, which are two great articles of the Christian faith. And though there was nothing in sense or reason, or any tradition, to persuade them of it, yet they believed it upon the apostle’s preaching it. And though the time of his coming was unknown to them, yet their faith presently put them upon waiting for it. And the certain time of his coming is kept secret, that the saints in every age may wait for it.