1 Thessalonians 2:14

2:13-16 We should receive the word of God with affections suitable to its holiness, wisdom, truth, and goodness. The words of men are frail and perishing, like themselves, and sometimes false, foolish, and fickle; but God's word is holy, wise, just, and faithful. Let us receive and regard it accordingly. The word wrought in them, to make them examples to others in faith and good works, and in patience under sufferings, and in trials for the sake of the gospel. Murder and persecution are hateful to God, and no zeal for any thing in religion can excuse it. Nothing tends more to any person or people's filling up the measure of their sins, than opposing the gospel, and hindering the salvation of souls. The pure gospel of Christ is abhorred by many, and the faithful preaching of it is hindered in many ways. But those who forbid the preaching it to sinners, to men dead in sin, do not by this please God. Those have cruel hearts, and are enemies to the glory of God, and to the salvation of his people, who deny them the Bible.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 . Γὰρ , for ) Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.— ἐν τῇ Ἰονδαίᾳ , in Judea ) The Jewish churches were distinguished examples to all the others.— τὰ αὐτὰ , the same things ) So, αὐτὸν , the same [conflict], Php 1:30 . The sameness of the fruit, the sameness of the afflictions, the sameness of the experimental proofs and characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, afford an excellent criterion of the truth of the Gospel.— ἰδίων , your own ) Matthew 10:36 ; Luke 13:33 , at the end.— συμφυλετῶν , fellow-countrymen ) [liter. “persons of the same tribe.”] These were Thessalonians, Jews and Gentiles. Acts 17:5 .

{12} For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in {g} Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own {h} countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (12) He strengthens and encourages them in their afflictions which they suffered among their own people, because they were afflicted by their own countrymen. And this happened, he says, to the churches of the Jews, as well as to them: and therefore they ought to take it in good part. (g) Which Christ has gathered together. (h) Even from those who are from the same country and the same town that you are from.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 . μιμηταί , and soon helpers ( Romans 15:26 ). The fact that they were exposed to persecution, and bore it manfully, proved that the gospel was a power in their lives, and also that they were in the legitimate succession of the churches. Such obstacles would as little thwart their course as they had thwarted that of Jesus or of his immediate followers. συμφ . might include Jews ( Acts 17:6 ), but Gentiles predominate in the writer’s mind.—The καί after καθώς simply emphasises the comparison (as in 1 Thessalonians 4:5 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 ). As Calvin suggests, the Thessalonians may have wondered why, if this was the true religion, it should be persecuted by the Jews, who had been God’s people. σ . is racial rather than local, but the local persecution may have still been due in part to Jews ( cf. Zimmer, pp. 16 f.).

In Christ Jesus Seems to be added to distinguish the Christian churches in Judaea from the synagogues of the Jews, which would claim to be churches of God. Comp. Galatians 1:22, and see on 1 Thessalonians 1:1. In Christ Jesus, in Christ, in Jesus, in the Lord, in him, are common Pauline formulas to denote the most intimate communion with the living Christ. These phrases are not found in the Synoptic Gospels. Ἑν ἐμοί in me (Christ) is frequent in the Fourth Gospel. The conception is that of a sphere or environment in which a Christian or a church lives, as a bird in the air, or the roots of a tree in the soil. Countrymen (συμφυλετῶν) N.T.o. olxx. Not in pre-Christian Greek writers. Lit. belonging to the same tribe or clan. The reference is to the Gentile persecutors who were instigated by the Jews.

Verse 14. - For ye, brethren, became followers ; or rather, imitators , namely, in the endurance of suffering for the sake of the gospel, not in intention only, but in reality. Of the Churches Of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus. These Churches arc mentioned as being at this early period the most prominent. The special mention of persecution by the Jews has its origin in the fact that it was by the unbelieving Jews that Paul was persecuted at Thessalonica. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen. One of the proofs that the Church of Thessalonica was Gentile in its origin; as these countrymen were evidently Gentiles, being here distinguished from the Jews. From this it would seem that, after Paul and his companions had left Thessalonica, the persecution which arose against the Christians continued, and the Gentiles combined with the Jews in opposing the gospel. Even as they - the Churches of God in Judaea - have of the Jews. We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that the Jewish Christians in Judaea were exposed to severe persecution from their unbelieving countrymen: Stephen was put to death, and Paul himself, in his unconverted state, was a chief among the persecutors. 1 Thessalonians 2:14

14. followers—Greek, "imitators." Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction. in Judea—The churches of Judea were naturally the patterns to other churches, as having been the first founded, and that on the very scene of Christ's own ministry. Reference to them is specially appropriate here, as the Thessalonians, with Paul and Silas, had experienced from Jews in their city persecutions (Ac 17:5-9) similar to those which "the churches in Judea" experienced from Jews in that country. in Christ Jesus—not merely "in God"; for the synagogues of the Jews (one of which the Thessalonians were familiar with, Ac 17:1) were also in God. But the Christian churches alone were not only in God, as the Jews in contrast to the Thessalonian idolaters were, but also in Christ, which the Jews were not. of your own countrymen—including primarily the Jews settled at Thessalonica, from whom the persecution originated, and also the Gentiles there, instigated by the Jews; thus, "fellow countrymen" (the Greek term, according to Herodian, implies, not the enduring relation of fellow citizenship, but sameness of country for the time being), including naturalized Jews and native Thessalonians, stand in contrast to the pure "Jews" in Judea (Mt 10:36).

It is an undesigned coincidence, that Paul at this time was suffering persecutions of the Jews at Corinth, whence he writes (Ac 18:5, 6, 12); naturally his letter would the more vividly dwell on Jewish bitterness against Christians. even as they—(Heb 10:32-34). There was a likeness in respect to the nation from which both suffered, namely, Jews, and those their own countrymen; in the cause for which, and in the evils which, they suffered, and also in the steadfast manner in which they suffered them. Such sameness of fruits, afflictions, and experimental characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, is a subsidiary evidence of the truth of the Gospel.

(14) For ye. —“The effectual power of this word upon you is shown in your joining the Church in spite of such difficulties.” Followers.—Better, imitators. The churches of Judæa are probably selected for example, not only as being the oldest and best-organised churches, but the most afflicted, both by want (Acts 11:29; Acts 24:17; Romans 15:26), and (chiefly) by persecution from the “Jews.” Your own countrymen.—See Acts 17:8-9. It was always the Jewish policy to persecute by means of others. Evidently the Thessalonian Church is almost entirely Gentile.

This proves the assertion of the foregoing verse, as the illative for doth show. They were followers of the churches in Judea, which showed the word wrought in them effectually. Though the greatest part of the Jews believed not, yet many did, and hereupon we read of churches in Judea. Though there was before but one national church, yet now in gospel times the churches were many. And believing in Christ they are called churches in him, gathered together in his name, into his institutions, and by his Spirit; and these Thessalonians became followers or imitators of them, or in the same circumstances with them. The churches among the Jews were the first planted, and the Gentile churches followed them, conforming to the faith, worship, and order that was first in them, yea, and imitating their faith and patience in suffering. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; the Jews that believed suffered from the unbelieving Jews of their own country; so did these Thessalonians. But whether the apostle means only the Gentiles of Thessalonica, or the Jews that dwelt there and were born among them, is uncertain; for the persecution mentioned Acts 17:1-34 , was chiefly from the Jewish synagogue, though the Gentiles might also join with them therein. Even as they have of the Jews: they suffered as the churches of Judea, namely, in the same kind, as Hebrews 10:32-34 ; and in the same cause, and with the same joy, constancy, and courage.

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus - Which are united to the Lord Jesus, or which are founded on his truth: that is, which are true churches. Of those churches they became "imitators" - μιμηταὶ mimētai - to wit, in their sufferings. This does not mean that they were founded on the same model; or that they professed to be the followers of those churches, but that they had been treated in the same way, and thus were like them. They had been persecuted in the same manner, and by the same people - the Jews; and they had borne their persecutions with the same spirit. The object of this is to comfort and encourage them, by showing them that others had been treated in the same manner, and that it was to be expected that a true church would be persecuted by the Jews. They ought not, therefore, to consider it as any evidence that they were not a true church that they had been persecuted by those who claimed to be the people of God, and who made extraordinary pretensions to piety. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen - Literally, "of those who are of your fellow-tribe, or fellowclansmen " - συμφυλέτων sumphuletōn. The Greek word means "one of the same tribe," and then a fellow-citizen, or fellowcountryman. It is not elsewhere used in the New Testament.