1 Thessalonians 2:11

2:7-12 Mildness and tenderness greatly recommend religion, and are most conformable to God's gracious dealing with sinners, in and by the gospel. This is the way to win people. We should not only be faithful to our calling as Christians, but in our particular callings and relations. Our great gospel privilege is, that God has called us to his kingdom and glory. The great gospel duty is, that we walk worthy of God. We should live as becomes those called with such a high and holy calling. Our great business is to honour, serve, and please God, and to seek to be worthy of him.

1 Thessalonians 2:11 . Ὡς ἕνα ἕκαστον , how every one ) They do not act in this way who seek [their own] glory, 1 Thessalonians 2:6 .— ὡς πατὴρ , as a father ) Mild gravity is the characteristic of fathers.— παρακαλοῦντες , exhorting ) This depends on ἐγενήθημεν , we became ( behaved ), 1 Thessalonians 2:10 . Παράκλησις , exhortation , rouses one to do something willingly; παραμύθιον , consolation , to do it joyfully; τὸ μαρτυρεῖσθαι , earnest entreaty, testifying [ charging ], to do it with awe.

1 Thessalonians 2:11 . καθάπερ , sharper than καθώς . Viteau (ii. 111) suggests that κ . ο . is a parenthesis, and ὡς a causal introductory particle for the participles (“heartening,” “encouraging,” “adjuring”) which in their turn depend on ὑμῖν … ἐγενήθημεν , but the likelihood is that in the rush of emotion, as he dictates, Paul leaves the participial clause without a finite verb (so e.g. , 2 Corinthians 7:5 ).— ὡς πατήρ κ . τ . λ . ( cf. ὡς ἐὰν τροφός , 7). The figure was used by Jewish teachers of their relationship to their pupils. Cf. e.g. , the words of Eleazar b. Azarja to his dying master, “Thou art more to Israel than father or mother; they only bring men into this world, whereas thou guidest us for this world and the next”. Catullus, lxxii. 4 (dilexi tum te non tantum ut uulgus amicam, sed pater ut natos diligit et generos).

Comforted (παραμυθούμενοι) The A.V. renders the three participles in this verse as finite verbs, we exhorted, etc. Rev. retains the participial construction. Better than comforted, persuading. Persuasion is the form which the exhortation assumed. Παράκλησις exhortation, and παραμύθιου persuasion, are associated in Philippians 2:1. The verb παραμυθέομαι, to persuade occurs only four times in N.T. See on Philippians 2:1. Neither verb nor noun in lxx. Charged (μαρτυρόμενοι) Rev. testifying; but the A.V. is more correct. Rend. charging. The verb means to conjure, or appeal to by something sacred. So Ephesians 4:17. Comp. Acts 20:26; Galatians 5:3, and διαμαρτύρομαι I charge, 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:14; 2 Timothy 4:1. Comp. Thucyd. vi. 80.

Verse 11. - As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children. The translation of this verse is somewhat faulty; it ought to be, as in the R.V., as ye know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying . Paul here changes the image from that of a nursing mother to that of a father; because then he was speaking of his tender care for his converts, whereas here he speaks of the instructions and admonitions which he gave them; as a mother he nourished their spiritual life, and as a father he superintended their spiritual education. "Exhorting and comforting and charging;" representing three modes of the apostle's instructions: "exhorting" denotes also encouraging and consoling; "comforting" denotes supporting and sustaining ("Comfort the feeble minded," 1 Thessalonians 5:14 ); and "charging" denotes testifying or protesting - a solemn pressing home of the exhortation to the hearers. 1 Thessalonians 2:11

11. exhorted and comforted—Exhortation leads one to do a thing willingly; consolation, to do it joyfully [Bengel], (1Th 5:14). Even in the former term, "exhorted," the Greek includes the additional idea of comforting and advocating one's cause: "encouragingly exhorted." Appropriate in this case, as the Thessalonians were in sorrow, both through persecutions, and also through deaths of friends (1Th 4:13). charged—"conjured solemnly," literally, "testifying"; appealing solemnly to you before God. every one of you—in private (Ac 20:20), as well as publicly. The minister, if he would be useful, must not deal merely in generalities, but must individualize and particularize. as a father—with mild gravity. The Greek is, "his own children."

(11) As (emphatic):” we lived holily—just (in fact) as you remember we tried to induce each one of you to live.” Every one,—Now they appeal to the individual recollection of the Thessalonians. It gives us an incidental glimpse of the apostolic method,—which was, to deal with individual souls. (Comp. Acts 20:20; Acts 20:31; Colossians 1:21.) St. Chrysostom exclaims: “Fancy! not one in all that multitude passed over!” The image is changed from that of motherly tenderness to that of fatherly direction. Comforted is here used as almost equivalent to “exhorted,” or, rather, encouraged, when the moral aspirations were beginning to flag. Charged.—Better, adjured; so Galatians 5:3.

Besides his public ministry, he dealt more privately with them, as Acts 20:20 ; and that in a way of exhortation and comfort; by exhortation to quicken them, and by comfort to support them under troubles both outward and inward. And he did this as a father to his children, with much earnestness, compassion, and love, yea, and authority also. He was before represented as a mother, 1 Thessalonians 2:7 ; and here as a father, whose work and duty is to exhort, counsel, and comfort his children privately at home; so did he as well as publicly, for he was their spiritual father, as he begat them to Christ by the gospel, as he tells the Corinthians also, 1 Corinthians 4:15 . As before he represented his gentleness, so here his fatherly care. Or, at their first conversion he carried it with gentleness as a mother, but afterwards used his fatherly authority. And in this he appeals to their own knowledge also, calling their own consciences to bear witness to what he speaks, that it might leave the greater impression upon them.

How we exhorted - That is, to a holy life. And comforted - In the times of affliction. And charged - Greek, "testified." The word testify is used here in the sense of protesting, or making an earnest and solemn appeal. They came as witnesses from God of the truth of religion, and of the importance of living in a holy manner They did not originate the gospel themselves, or teach its duties and doctrines as their own, but they came in the capacity of those who bore witness of what God had revealed and required, and they did this in the earnest and solemn manner which became such an office. As a father doth his children - With an interest in your welfare, such as a father feels for his children, and with such a method as a father would use. It was not done in a harsh, dictatorial, and arbitrary manner, but in tenderness and love.

11 . as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children ] The R. V. recasts the verse, restoring the order and emphasis of the Apostle’s words: how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying , &c. “Dealt with” is not in the Greek, but English idiom requires some such verb to sustain the participles that follow. The writer intended to complete the sentence with some governing verb, but the intervening words carried his thoughts away. See the observations on St Paul’s style in the Introd. Chap. VI. The Apostle compared himself to a nurse-mother ( 1 Thessalonians 2:7 ) in his tender, gentle affection; now he is a father in the fidelity and manly strength of his counsels. Comp. 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 , where he gives a different turn to the figure. “Exhorting” is the general term for animating address: comp. notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:3 , and ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:2 . “Encouraging” (as in ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 , John 11:19 ; John 11:31 ; rendered uniformly in A.V., “comforting”) is the calming and consoling side of exhortation, as addressed to the afflicted or the weak. “Testifying” (same word as in Galatians 5:3 ; Ephesians 4:17 ; Acts 26:22 ) supplies its solemn, warning element. The Thessalonian Church was both suffering and tempted, and the Apostle’s ministry to them had been at once consolatory and admonitory .