Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Thessalonians 2:14
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they [have] of the Jews:
14. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus ] Followers should be imitators (R. V.), just as in ch. 1Th 1:6: imitators of the apostles and of their Lord, the Thessalonians were imitating the Judan Churches, and in the same respect, viz. in the willing endurance of suffering for the word’s sake. Silas, be it remembered, had been an active member of the Church at Jerusalem (Act 15:22; Act 15:32), and through him especially the missionary band would be in communication and sympathy at this time with their brethren in Juda.
More strictly, which are in Juda in Christ Jesus (R. V.). “In Juda” is the local, “in Christ Jesus” the spiritual habitat of these Churches. This latter phrase an expression characteristic of St Paul and frequent in subsequent Epistles signifies “in union and communion with Him, incorporated with Him who is the Head” of His Body the Church (Ellicott). It distinguishes the Christian from other Judan communities which also claimed to be “Churches (assemblies) of God.” Comp. note on “Church in God the Father,” &c., ch. 1Th 1:1.
Observe the order Christ Jesus, a combination almost confined to St Paul, and which he employs when he thinks of Him in His actual Person and official character, as the present Head and Life of His people on earth; whereas Jesus Christ is the historical order, and points to His earthly course and exaltation to Messiahship (see Act 2:36).
“Church of God” is an O.T. expression, found in the Greek rendering of Neh 13:1; Deu 23:1-3 (church of the Lord: congregation, A.V.); it denotes that the Church belongs to God, while it suggests, according to the derivation of ek-klesia, that its members are called out (of the world) by God (comp. 1Th 2:12). In Gal 1:22 the Apostle writes, more simply, “the Churches of Juda which are in Christ.”
This reference to the Home Churches creates a link between far-off Thessalonica and Juda. The Thessalonians are not alone in their troubles; they are fighting the same battle as the mother Church and the first disciples of the Lord. Comp. Php 1:30, “having the same conflict which ye saw in me.” Their union with Christ’s persecuted flock in Its native land shewed that the Gospel was working in them to purpose (1Th 2:13), and working everywhere in the same way.
for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews ] St Paul says the same, not like things. And this “for” represents a different word from the previous “for;” it is rather in that, not accounting for the Thessalonians imitating Judean example, but explaining wherein the imitation consisted.
The hostility of their fellow-townsmen formed a bitter ingredient in their afflictions (Act 17:5-9). The Apostle tells them that it was the same with the primitive Churches in Juda that, indeed, the murder of the Lord Jesus and of the old prophets, and the expulsion of the apostles, were due to feelings precisely similar to those aroused in their own city against themselves. This was a proof that they were in the true succession. Christ had said, “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” Such comfort has often to be given to young missionary churches.
But the Apostle has now to add words of awful severity respecting those whom his readers knew to be the prime instigators of persecution, both against themselves and him the Jews:
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 – mimetai – 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 – sumphuleton. 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. The particular reference here seems not to be to the pagan who were the agents or actors in the scenes of tumult and persecutions, but to the Jews by whom they were led on, or who were the prime movers in the persecutions which they had endured. It is necessary to suppose that they were principally Jews who were the cause of the persecution which had been excited against them, in order to make the parallelism between the church there and the churches in Palestine exact. At the same time there was a propriety in saying that, though the parallelism was exact, it was by the hands of their own countrymen that it was done; that is, they were the visible agents or actors by whom it was done – the instruments in the hands of others.
In Palestine. the Jews persecuted the churches directly; out of Palestine, they did it by means of others. They were the real authors of it, as they were in Judea, but they usually accomplished it by producing an excitement among the pagan, and by the plea that the apostles were making war on civil institutions. This was the case in Thessalonica. The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city on an uproar. They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, Those that have turned the world up side down have come hither also; Act 17:5-6. The same thing occurred a short time after at Berea. When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people; Act 17:13; compare Act 14:2. The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. The Epistle, therefore, represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers; Paley, Hor. Paul. in loc. It was, therefore, strictly true, as the apostle here states it:
(1) That they were subjected to the same treatment from the Jews as the churches in Judea were, since they were the authors of the excitement against them; and,
(2) That it was carried on, as the apostle states, by their own countrymen; that is, that they were the agents or instruments by which it was done. This kind of undesigned coincidence between the Epistle and the history in the Acts of the Apostles, is one of the arguments from which Paley (Hor. Paul.) infers the genuineness of both.
As they have of the Jews – Directly. In Palestine there were no others but Jews who could be excited against Christians, and they were obliged to appear as the persecutors themselves.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Th 2:14
For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which are in Judaea
I.
Church followers. The Thessalonian believers, acquainted with the important fact that there were several holy brotherhoods in Judaea which were united to Jesus Christ by faith in His truth, strove to imitate them in their spiritual virtues, and thus show that they were one with them–were united to them in and through the same Lord. The union of Church members is not a mere outward adhesion, like the way in which the stones of a building are joined to one another, but it is a living organic union, like the members of one body, possessed of a common life, constituting together one living whole, so that all are parts of one and the same being; hence it is a union which cannot be severed without doing violence to that blessed Spirit by whose act it has been brought about. The Church of Christ, which is His mystical body, cannot be Otherwise than one, wherever it may be–in Judea or Thessalonica, and its members, wherever living, cannot be otherwise than imitators of each other.
II. Church sufferers. The Word preached to the Thessalonians had wrought so effectually in them that they became examples unto others not only in faith and good works, but in patience and suffering, also for the Words sake. With unflinching courage and steady constancy they met the fierce opposition of their own fellow tribe or clansmen, beside that of others–the Jews–all enemies of the Cross of Christ. Christ Himself never used anything like force or violence, except once, and that was to drive ungodly men not into the Temple, but out of it. To ill-treat, and stone, and crucify good men for their religion is not the gospel of Christ, but the direct instigation of the devil. He is the father of lies, and truth is almost invariably on the side of the persecuted. Yet, though believers suffer persecution for it, they are benefitted by persecution, just as the giant of the forest becomes all the stronger and more deeply rooted for the strong blasts which have shaken and tried it. (M. F. Day, D. D.)
Suffering the test of conversion
It often happens that suffering reveals new features of character and awakens powers before dormant. It is said that Agrippa had a dormouse that slumbered so profoundly that it would never wake till cast in a cauldron of boiling lead. So there are some natures which put forth their powers only when in extremity. The piety of Gods people is often tested by affliction. The faith of thousands has sunk, while those who have borne the strain have gained an accession of moral nerve. The Thessalonians imitated the churches of God in facing the storm of persecution with unconquerable firmness.
I. Their suffering had a common origin. Ye of your own countrymen–they of the Jews.
1. It is the unkindest cut of all that comes from the sword of our own people–people with whom we have lived in amity, but from whom conscience compels us to differ (Psa 55:12), when natural love is turned into unnatural enmity.
2. What a revelation this of the devilish nature of persecution. Its insensate malice rudely sunders all bonds of fatherland, friendship, or kindred. The close affinity between Cain and Abel does not arrest the murderers hand. The tender ties between Saul and David avail not to curb the mad cruelty of the king.
3. How deep and changeless is the truth–All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The suffering that tests is still from the same source. A mans foes are they of his own household.
II. Their suffering was borne with exemplary Christian fortitude. The same thought is expressed in 1Th 1:6. At the head of the long line is Jesus, the captain of salvation; and all whom He leads to glory walk in His steps, imitate His example, and so become followers one of another.
1. It is not suffering in itself that purifies, so much as the spirit in which it is borne. It was enough to cool the fiery ambition of the aspiring disciples when Jesus said, Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? And yet the following of Christ in suffering is the true test of discipleship. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.
2. It is a proof of the supernatural efficacy of the gospel that it inspires so intense a love of it as to make us willing to endure suffering for its sake. The love of truth becomes supreme. John Huss, lamenting the rupture of an old and valued friendship, said, Paletz is my friend; truth is my friend; and both being my friends, it is my sacred duty to give the first honour to truth.
3. The soul, penetrated with this devotion, will pass unscathed the fiery test. On the destruction of the London Alexandra Palace by fire, it was found that, while many specimens of old English porcelain exhibited there were reduced to a black, shapeless mass, the true porcelain of Bristol, though broken into fragments, still retained its whiteness, and even its most delicate shades of colour uninjured by the fire. So the truly good, though wounded, shall survive the fiercest trial, and retain intact all that distinguishes the Christian character.
Lessons:–
1. Our love of the Gospel is tested by what we suffer for it.
2. The similarity of experience, in all times and places, is a strong evidence of the truth of the Christian religion.
3. Suffering does not destroy, but builds up and perfects. (G. Barlow.)
The secret of persecution
A wolf flies not upon a painted sheep, and men can look upon a painted toad with delight. It is not the soft pace, but the furious march of the soldier that sets men a-gazing and dogs a-barking. Let but a man glide along with the stream of the world, do as others do, he may sit down and take his ease; but if he once strive against the stream, stand up in the cause of God, and act for Christ, then he shall be sure to meet with as much malice as men and devils can possibly throw upon him. (J. Spencer.)
The honour of persecution
One who was persecuted in Queen Marys time wrote thus, A poor prisoner for Christ! What is this for a poor worm! Such honour have not all His saints. Both the degrees I took in the university have not set me so high as the honour of becoming a prisoner of the Lord.
Consolation in persecution
Do they cast us out of the city? They cannot cast us out of that which is in the heavens. If they who hate us could do this, they would be doing something real against us. So long, however, as they cannot do this, they are but pelting us with drops of water or striking us with the wind. (Gregory Nazianzen.)
Persecution elicits sympathy
A coloured man applied to a New York merchant for a subscription, who at once knocked him into the street. The coloured man started on telling the story of his abuse, won sympathy by it, and, before night, collected fifty dollars. The persecutor, hearing the story, desired to silence the man, sent for him, and gave him a liberal subscription,
Benefit of persecution
As frankincense, when it is put into the fire, giveth the greater perfume; as spice, if it be pounded and beaten, smelleth the sweeter; as the earth, when it is torn up by the plough, becometh more fruitful; the seed in the ground, after frost and snow and winter storms, springeth the ranker; the nigher the vine is pruned to the stock, the greater grape it yieldeth; the grape, when it is most pressed and beaten, maketh the sweetest wine; linen, when it is bucked and washed, wrung and beaten, is so made fairer and whiter: even so the children of God receive great benefit by persecution; for by it God washeth and scoureth, schooleth and nurtureth them, that so, through many tribulations, they may enter into their rest. (Cawdray.)
Persecution a stimulus
A certain amount of persecution rouses a mans defiance, stirs his blood for magnificent battle, and makes him fifty times more a man than he would have been without the persecution. So it was with the great reformer when he said, I will not be put down, I will be heard. And so it was with Millard, the preacher, in the time of Louis XI. When that sovereign sent word to him that unless he stopped preaching in that style he would throw him into the river, he replied, Tell the king that I shall reach heaven sooner by water, than he will by fast horses. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Ye – became followers of the Churches of God] There is not a word here of the Church of Rome being the model after which the other Churches were to be formed; it had no such pre-eminence: this honour belonged to the Churches of Judea; it was according to them, not the Church at Rome, that the Asiatic Churches were modelled. The purest of all the apostolic Churches was that of the Thessalonians, and this was formed after the Christian Churches in Judea.
Had any pre-eminence or authority belonged to the Church of Rome, the apostle would have proposed this as a model to all those which he formed either in Judea, Asia Minor, Greece, or Italy.
Ye also have suffered-of your own countrymen] It is worthy of remark that, in almost every case, the Jews were the leaders of all persecutions against the apostles and the infant Church. And what they could not do themselves, they instigated others to do; and, by gathering together lewd fellows of the baser sort from among the Gentiles, they made frequent uproars, and especially at Thessalonica, where the opposition to the Gospel was very high, and the persecution of the Christians very hot.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 Act 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 Heb 10:32-34; and in the same cause, and with the same joy, constancy, and courage. And here Christs words are fulfilled, that a mans enemies shall be those of his own house, Mat 10:36.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. followersGreek,“imitators.” Divine working is most of all seen andfelt in affliction.
in JudeaThe churchesof Judea were naturally the patterns to other churches, as havingbeen the first founded, and that on the very scene of Christ’s ownministry. Reference to them is specially appropriate here, as theThessalonians, with Paul and Silas, had experienced from Jews intheir city persecutions (Ac17:5-9) similar to those which “the churches in Judea”experienced from Jews in that country.
in Christ Jesusnotmerely “in God”; for the synagogues of the Jews (one ofwhich the Thessalonians were familiar with, Ac17:1) were also in God. But the Christian churches alonewere not only in God, as the Jews in contrast to theThessalonian idolaters were, but also in Christ, which theJews were not.
of your owncountrymenincluding primarily the Jews settled atThessalonica, from whom the persecution originated, and also theGentiles there, instigated by the Jews; thus, “fellowcountrymen” (the Greek term, according to Herodian,implies, not the enduring relation of fellow citizenship, butsameness of country for the time being), including naturalizedJews and native Thessalonians, stand in contrast to the pure “Jews”in Judea (Mt 10:36). It is anundesigned coincidence, that Paul at this time was sufferingpersecutions of the Jews at Corinth, whence he writes (Act 18:5;Act 18:6; Act 18:12);naturally his letter would the more vividly dwell on Jewishbitterness against Christians.
even as they (Heb10:32-34). There was a likeness in respect to thenation from which both suffered, namely, Jews, and those theirown countrymen; in the cause for which, and in the evilswhich, they suffered, and also in the steadfast manner inwhich they suffered them. Such sameness of fruits, afflictions, andexperimental characteristics of believers, in all places and at alltimes, is a subsidiary evidence of the truth of the Gospel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God,…. As of the Lord and of the apostle, 1Th 1:6 so of the churches of God that were before them, who were gathered out of the world by the grace of God; and who were united in the fear of God, and assembled together for his worship, to bear a testimony to his truth and ordinances, and for the glory of his name: these they followed in the faith and order of the Gospel, and “became like” them, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render the word; or “equal” to them, were upon an equal foot with them, as the Arabic; that is, in suffering reproach and persecution for the Gospel, as the latter part of the verse shows; and their bearing these with patience, courage, and constancy, was a proof that the word of God had a place, and wrought effectually in them; otherwise they would never have endured such things as they did, and as other churches did:
which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for besides the church at Jerusalem, there were many churches in Judea and Galilee; see Ac 9:31 which shows that the primitive churches were not national, but congregational: and these were in Christ Jesus; “in the faith” of Jesus Christ, as the Arabic version renders it; which distinguishes them from the synagogues, or congregations of the Jews, which did not believe in Christ; [See comments on 1Th 1:1].
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; the inhabitants of Thessalonica, the baser sort of them, who were stirred up by the unbelieving Jews of that place, to make an uproar in the city, and assault the house of Jason, in order to seize upon the apostles; see Ac 17:6.
Even as they have of the Jews; in like manner as the churches of Judea suffered by the Jews their countrymen; see Ac 8:1
Heb 10:32.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea ( ). On see on 1:5. “This passage, implying an affectionate admiration of the Jewish churches on the part of St. Paul, and thus entirely bearing out the impression produced by the narrative in the Acts, is entirely subversive of the theory maintained by some and based on a misconception of Ga 2, and by the fiction of the Pseudo-Clementines, of the feud existing between St. Paul and the Twelve” (Lightfoot).
In Christ Jesus ( ). It takes this to make a Christian church of God. Note order here
Christ Jesus as compared with
Jesus Christ in 1Thess 1:1; 1Thess 1:3.
Ye also–even as they ( — ). Note twice (correlative use of ).
Countrymen (). Fellow-countrymen or tribesmen. Late word that refers primarily to Gentiles who no doubt joined the Jews in Thessalonica who instigated the attacks on Paul and Silas so that it “was taken up by the native population, without whose co-operation it would have been powerless” (Lightfoot).
Own () here has apparently a weakened force. Note here with the ablative both with and after the intransitive (suffered). The persecution of the Christians by the Jews in Judea was known everywhere.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
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. Gal 1:22, and see on ch. 1Th 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. En ejmoi 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. 20 Countrymen [] . N. T. o. o LXX 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.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For ye, brethren became followers” (humeis gar mimetai egenethete adelphoi) “For brethren, ye became imitators (followers)”; The Thessalonian Church brethren had become following imitators of the early Judean churches of Jesus Christ, Act 9:31,
2) “Of the churches of God” (ton ekklesion tou Theou) “of the churches (congregations) of God”; those belonging to God, true in doctrines and practices, Act 9:31; In Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. This is a church letter that primarily concerns church members.
3) “Which in Judea are in Christ Jesus” (tonouson en te loudaia en Christo lesou) “the ones existing (being) in Judea (which are) in Christ Jesus”. Act 9:31; Act 16:5.
4) “For ye also have suffered like things” (hoti ta auta epathete kai humeis), “because the same (kind of) things ye also have suffered”; Suffering for Christ, his message, and his church is evidence of the power of the Word in the Saint, Joh 15:5; Heb 10:32-37.
5) “Of your own countrymen” (hupo ton idion sumphuleton) “by your own fellow-tribesmen among the Jews”; their own Grecian countrymen, followers of Pagan religions persecuted them as well as the Jews.
6) “Even as they have of the Jews” (kathos kai autoi hupo ton loudaion) “as even they (the Judean Churches) by the Jews”, have suffered in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee at the instigation of the Jews, Act 4:1-3; Acts 18, 23; Act 5:40; Act 8:1-3; Act 9:1-2; Act 12:1-5; Act 12:18-19; Act 13:45; Act 13:50; Act 14:1-6; Act 14:19; Act 15:1; Act 17:5-9; Jews are still enemies of Christ.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14 For ye became imitators. If you are inclined to restrict this to the clause in immediate connection with it, the meaning will be, that the power of God, or of his word, shews itself in their patient endurance, while they sustain persecutions with magnanimity and undaunted courage. I prefer, however, to view it as extending to the whole of the foregoing statement, for he confirms what he has stated, that the Thessalonians had in good earnest embraced the gospel, as being presented to them by God, inasmuch as they courageously endured the assaults which Satan made upon them, and did not refuse to suffer anything rather than leave off obedience to it. And, unquestionably, this is no slight test of faith when Satan, by all his machinations, has no success in moving us away from the fear of God.
In the mean time, he prudently provides against a dangerous temptation which might prostrate or harass them; for they endured grievous troubles from that nation which was the only one in the world that gloried in the name of God.
This, I say, might occur to their minds: “If this is the true religion, why do the Jews, who are the sacred people of God, oppose it with such inveterate hostility?” With the view of removing this occasion of offense, (543) he, in the first place, shews them that they have this in common with the first Churches that were in Judea: afterwards, he says that the Jews are determined enemies of God and of all sound doctrine. For although, when he says that they suffered from their own countrymen, this may be explained as referring to others rather than to the Jews, or at least ought not to be restricted to the Jews exclusively, yet as he insists farther in describing their obstinacy and impiety, it is manifest that these same persons are adverted to by him from the beginning. It is probable, that at Thessalonica some from that nation were converted to Christ. It appears, however, from the narrative furnished in the Acts, that there, no less than in Judea, the Jews were persecutors of the gospel. I accordingly take this as being said indiscriminately of Jews as well as of Gentiles, inasmuch as both endured great conflicts and fierce attacks from their own countrymen
(543) “ Aux Thessaloniciens;” — “To the Thessalonians.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th. 2:14. Became followers.R.V. imitators. The usual meaning of imitators hardly seems to obtain in full strength here. We cannot think the Thessalonians consciously copied the Judean Christians, to do which they would have had the superfluous task of raising up opposition. The words seem to mean no more than, Ye came to resemble. Of your own countrymen.Lit. fellow-tribesmen. One is reminded of Shylocks words
Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF 1Th. 2:14
Suffering: the Test of Conversion.
It often happens that suffering reveals new features of individual character, and awakens powers that were before dormant. It takes a great deal to thoroughly rouse some people. We are told that Agrippa had a dormouse that slumbered so profoundly that it would never wake till cast into a cauldron of boiling lead. So there are some natures which put forth all their powers only when in suffering and extremity. The piety of Gods people has been most severely tested in the midst of persecution and affliction. The faith of thousands has failed in the hour of trial, while those who have borne the strain have gained an accession of moral nerve and bravery. The Thessalonians imitated the Churches in Judea in boldly facing the storm of malignant opposition, and standing under it with calm, unconquerable firmness.
I. The suffering of the Thessalonians had a common origin.For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. Just as the Jews who embraced Christianity met with the maddest violence from their own unbelieving countrymen, so the Gentiles found their fiercest foes among their fellow-countrymen, who blindly clung to the worship of the gods. It is the unkindest cut of all that comes from the sword of our own peoplepeople with whom we have lived in amity and concord, but from whom conscience compels us to differ. Who can fathom the deep anguish of the Psalmist sounding in that sharp, bitter cry of startled surprise, For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; but it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance! It was a horrible discovery of nature engaged in a terrible suicidal war with itself! Nature grown monstrously unnatural and savagely retaliating on its own: natural love turned into unnatural enmity! What a revelation, too, is this of the desperate nature of all persecution! Its insensate malice rudely sunders all bonds of fatherland, friendship, and kindred. The close affinity between Cain and Abel does not arrest the murderers hand; the tender ties between Saul and David, woven with much reciprocal kindness and affection, avail not to curb the mad cruelty of the infuriate king. Ah! how deep and changeless is the truth, All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The suffering that tests is still from the same source, A mans foes are they of his own household.
II. The suffering of the Thessalonians was borne with exemplary Christian fortitude.For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. The same thought is expressed in the first chapter, where the apostle says, Ye became followers of us and of the Lord. For at the head of the long line is Jesus, the Captain of salvation; and all whom He leads to glory walk in His steps, imitate His example, and so become followers one of another. It is not, however, suffering in itself that purifies and exalts Christian character, so much as the spirit in which it is borne. The hardest point of obedience is to obey in suffering. It was enough to cool the fiery ambition of the aspiring disciples when Jesus said, Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? And yet the following of Christ in suffering is the true test of discipleship. He that taketh not his cross and followeth Me is not worthy of Me. It is a grand proof of the supernatural efficacy of gospel truth that it inspires so intense a love of it as to make us willing to endure the most exquisite suffering for its sake. The love of truth becomes supreme. John Huss, lamenting the rupture of an old and valued friendship, said: Paletz is my friend; truth is my friend; and both being my friends, it is my sacred duty to give the first honour to truth. The soul, penetrated with this sublime devotion to truth, will pass unscathed the fiery test of suffering. On the destruction by fire of the London Alexandra Palace a few years ago, it was found that, while many specimens of old English porcelain exhibited there were reduced to a black, shapeless mass, the true porcelain of Bristol, though broken into fragments, still retained its whiteness, and even its most delicate shades of colour, uninjured by the fire. So the truly good, though wounded and maimed, shall survive the fiercest trial, and retain intact all that specially distinguishes and beautifies the Christian character.
Lessons.
1. Our love of the gospel is tested by what we suffer for it.
2. The similarity of experience in all times and places is a strong evidence of the truth of the Christian religion.
3. Suffering does not destroy, but builds up and perfects.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text (1Th. 2:14)
14 For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews;
Translation and Paraphrase
14.
(It is obvious that you truly received the gospel as the word of God,) for you became imitators, brethren, of the churches of God which are in (the land of) Judea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered the same things from your own people as they also (did) from the Jews.
Notes (1Th. 2:14)
1.
There is no more painful hurt that a person can endure than for his own friends and relatives to turn against him because he has received Jesus Christ as his Lord. The unkindest cut of all is one from the sword of our own people, those with whom we have pleasant memories and blood kinship.
2.
The Thessalonians endured such anguish when the Jews set their whole city on an uproar against the Christians. Act. 17:5-9.
3.
But this very experience, and others like it that followed, marked them as truly one with the children of God everywhere. For by their sufferings, they became followers (or, more accurately, imitators, as in 1Th. 1:6) of the Christians in Judea.
4.
Judea was the main homeland of the Jews, with Jerusalem being its capital. It was there that the church of Christ was started, Churches were soon in existence in many of the villages of Judea. Paul calls these churches, the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. Note that you cannot be of God and not be also in Christ Jesus. (These churches were also called the churches of Judaea which were in Christ. Gal. 1:22.)
5.
The churches in Judea soon suffered persecution. Stephen was killed. Act. 7:59-60. A great persecution followed his death. Act. 8:1; Act. 8:3. Many of the Hebrew Christians lost their homes and property. Heb. 10:32-34. The unbelieving Jews tried to exterminate the followers of Christ, just as they had sought to kill Christ himself.
6.
Paul could well have written the same words to the Thessalonians that he wrote to the Philippians: For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Php. 1:29.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(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 Juda are probably selected for example, not only as being the oldest and best-organised churches, but the most afflicted, both by want (Act. 11:29; Act. 24:17; Rom. 15:26), and (chiefly) by persecution from the Jews.
Your own countrymen.See Act. 17:8-9. It was always the Jewish policy to persecute by means of others. Evidently the Thessalonian Church is almost entirely Gentile.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Churches in Judea Paul’s memory now runs from his European experience back to his Palestinean experience. The conversion of his Thessalonians, and their perseverance against persecution, reminds him of the earlier conversion of Churches in Judea, and the terrible contest they suffered from their Jewish kindred. And he now ranks his young Church here on the same footing with those suffering saints of the early day, whose work had already become historical. These young converts were true followers, imitators of the true primitive models.
Have suffered Your sufferings for Christ are the true badge of your identity with the earlier sufferers.
Own countrymen Kindred Gentiles.
They of the Jews Gentiles were persecuted by Gentiles, as Jews by Jews. Generally, the earliest persecutions were by Jews. More slowly did the Romans pass edicts against Christianity.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out (or ‘persecuted us’), and do not please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. To fill up their sins always. But the wrath is come on them to the uttermost.’
Paul now likens them to the churches in Judea ‘in Christ Jesus’. They too are suffering persecution as the Christians in Judea are, partly, or even largely, instigated by the Jews in Thessalonika. ‘Imitators’ means those who go through the same things. They are not alone in their sufferings. The Jews are also causing them elsewhere, as they always have.
The Thessalonians’ persecution would last a long time, and so would their steadfastness. Some six years later Paul would still speak of the churches of Macedonia as enduring ‘a severe test of affliction’ and as continuing to give evidence of the reality of their faith in that ‘their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality’ (2Co 8:1-2). The ‘extreme poverty’ might well have been the result of mob violence and looting, and having their property confiscated. Elsewhere in the New Testament we learn of those who, in the early days of their faith, ‘joyfully accepted’ the plundering of their property in addition to other forms of illtreatment (Heb 10:32-34).
The comparison Paul makes is interesting in that it includes both Old and New Testament churches. ‘The church’, the righteous believers in God, have always suffered at the hands of the Jews, whether it was the Prophets or the Lord Jesus Himself.
It is clear from this that the continual persecution of Christians in Judea was well known throughout the churches. They were suffering for Christ’s sake. It was nothing new. It had happened to the Prophets throughout history, as Jesus emphasised. That this signifies the Old Testament prophets as well as the New (Mat 23:34) is indicated by the fact that it is they of whom we have a record that they had been killed (Mat 23:31; Mat 23:35; Mat 23:37; Luk 11:47-50; Act 7:52). Indeed Jesus links them together (Mat 23:29-36). But Jesus had clearly shown what they would do to those who believed in Him (Mar 13:9-13; Mat 10:17; Mat 10:23; Mat 23:34; Joh 16:2-3).
‘Who — killed the Lord, even Jesus.’ They had capped all their infamy by killing ‘the Lord, even Jesus’. Paul in his Greek distinguishes the Lord from Jesus by placing the verb between them. He wants his hearers to take in the full enormity of it. They had killed ‘the Lord’, He Who was over all, He Who they claimed to worship. And that Lord was Jesus.
Interestingly this is the only place in Paul where the blame is specifically attached to the Jews by him, but that is because here he was thinking of the Jews as persecutors. Elsewhere the blame is laid squarely on everyone, both Jew and Gentile. Compare also Act 4:27. But Luke regularly shows the Apostles as having done so in Act 3:15; Act 4:10; Act 7:52; Act 10:39.
His indictment of the Jews is frightening. ‘Who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out (or ‘persecuted us’), and do not please God, and are contrary to all men.’ Yet on the whole the Jews would have accepted it as true (although they blamed their fathers for what had been done to the Prophets and they would not have agreed that they did not please God). They were proud that they had killed Jesus, they were still driving Christians out and persecuting them and they still looked on the rest of the world as unacceptable, unless of course they became proselytes, and as a nation they spurned preaching to them for that purpose. They considered the Gentiles as not worthy of consideration and had no feeling of friendship towards them, rather the opposite. They would in fact have accepted that they were ‘contrary to them’. ‘Do not please God’ is Paul’s summary of the whole. They had become the opposite of what God had intended them to be (Exo 19:6; Isa 42:4; Isa 49:6).
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. To fill up their sins always. But the wrath is come on them to the uttermost.’ Thus the Jews, with some exceptions, opposed preaching to the Gentiles. They were angry at those who did so, condemning what they were doing. If Gentiles wanted to be saved, they said, let hem become proselytes, but they did not seek to make them so (although paradoxically they were angry when the God-fearers, those on the fringes who attended synagogues, became Christians).
‘To fill up their sins always.’ Does this refer to the Jews or the Gentiles? Did he mean that by their behaviour the Jews were simply piling up sin upon sin, capping the sins of which they were guilty by adding to them and filling them to the full. Or does it mean that by their behaviour they were leaving the Gentiles to become more and more filled up with sin, leaving them to wallow in them. The former is more probable. It explains why the wrath has come upon them.
‘But the wrath has come on them to the uttermost (or ‘to the end’).’ Here ‘the wrath’ clearly refers to what God has determined to do to them because of their sinfulness, and because of the slaying of His Son. The aorist tense signifies a once for all decision. They are now under wrath. It thus includes all wrath to be directed at the Jews, the wrath to be poured out on them at the destruction and treading down of Jerusalem and the scattering of the nation (Luk 21:23-24; Mat 23:37), the wrath which is the consequence of sin (Rom 9:22; Rom 1:18; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6), the wrath revealed in the devastations of ‘the end times’, whenever they may be (Rev 15:1; Rev 15:7; Rev 16:1; Rev 16:19) and the wrath of judgment (1Th 5:9; Rev 6:17; Rev 11:18; Rev 14:10; Rev 14:19). They have passed the point of no return (although as ever there will be mercy for those who return to God) and have been rejected as a nation. All that awaits them as a nation is continually the wrath of God. This applies whether we translate ‘to the uttermost’ or ‘to the end’. For ‘the end’ would mean the end of all things.
Paul was aware of what Jesus had prophesied about Jerusalem, he was aware of what the Old Testament had said awaited the Jews (and the world) e.g. Dan 9:27 b, he was aware that at the Judgment the final wrath of God would be revealed. He saw it all as one. It was all the consequence of their rejection of their destiny. His emphasis is on that rejection, with its resulting consequence, not on the detail of the outworking of the wrath.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Th 2:14. Having before commended them for their ready and cheerful reception of the gospel, and hinted at their resolution in suffering for the cause, he goes on to commend them for their patience and fortitude, 1Th 2:14-16 and then again expresses his great affection for the Thessalonians, and his earnest desire to make them another visit; which he assures them he had more than once attempted; but Satan had always hindered him: by which vehement expression he again obliquely reflects on the unbelieving Jews, 1Th 2:17-20. St. Paul probably calls the Christian churches in Judea, churches in Christ Jesus, to distinguish them from the Jewish churches, or the synagoguesin Judea, as well as to intimate that all the members of Christ’s true church are one in him. As to the patience and fortitude of the Christian churches there, see Acts 12 and Heb 10:32-34. How these Thessalonians imitated them, see ch. 1Th 1:6. Act 17:5. &c. The Jews of Jerusalem had desired Pilate, a Gentile, to crucify our Lord; the Jews of Thessalonica had exasperated the Gentiles, and even the governors of that city, to persecute his apostle and disciples. From the representation both of the history of the Acts, and the Apostolic Epistles, as well as from other ancient writings, it appears, that most of the primitive persecutions proceeded from the malice and opposition of the unbelieving Jews.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Th 2:14 is not designed, as Oecumenius, Calvin, and Pelt think, to prove the sincerity with which the Thessalonians received the gospel, but is a proof of , 1Th 2:13 . In not shunning to endure sufferings for the sake of the gospel, the Thessalonians had demonstrated that the word of God had already manifested its activity among them, had already become a life-power, a moving principle in them.
] an emphatic resumption of the previous .
] imitators , certainly not in intention or design , but in actual fact or result .
] The frequent repetition of this address (comp. 1Th 1:4 , 1Th 2:1 ; 1Th 2:9 ; 1Th 2:17 ) is significant of the ardent love of Paul toward the church. That Paul compares the conduct of the Thessalonians with that of the Palestinian churches is, according to Calvin, whom Calixtus follows, designed to remove the objection which might easily arise to his readers. As the Jews were the only worshippers of the true God outside of Christianity, so the attack on Christianity by the Jews might give rise to a doubt whether it were actually the true religion. For the removal of this doubt, the apostle, in the first place, shows that the same fate which had at an earlier period befallen the Palestinian churches had happened to the Thessalonians; and then, that the Jews were the hardened enemies of God and of all sound doctrine. But evidently such a design of the apostle is indicated by nothing, and its supposition is entirely superfluous, as every Christian must with admiration recognise the heroism of Christian resistance to persecution with which the Palestinian churches had distinguished themselves. Accordingly, it was a great commendation of the Thessalonians if the same heroic Christian stedfastness could be predicated of them . This holds good against the much more arbitrary and visionary opinion of Hofmann, that Paul, by the mention of the Palestinian churches, and the expression concerning the Jews therewith connected, designed to meet the erroneous notion or representation of what happened to the readers. As the conversion of the Thessalonians might in an intelligible manner appear in the eyes of their countrymen as a capture of them in the net of a Jewish doctrine, and hence on that side the reproach might be raised that, on account of this strange matter, they had become hostile to their own people; so it was entirely in keeping to show that the apostolic doctrine was anything but an affair of the Jewish people, that, on the contrary, the Jews were its bitterest enemies! Grotius would understand the present participle in the sense of the participle of the preterite; whilst, appealing to Act 8:4 ; Act 11:19 , he thinks that the Palestinian churches had by persecutions ceased to exist as such, only a few members remaining. But neither do the Acts justify such an opinion, nor is it in accordance with the words of Paul in Gal 1:22 . The further supposition which Grotius adds is strange and unhistorical, that some Christians expelled from Palestine had betaken themselves to Thessalonica, and that to them mainly a reference in our passage is made.
] Oecumenius: , .
] for.
] the like things , denotes the general similarity of the sufferings endured. Grotius precariously specifies them by res vestras amisistis, pars fuistis ejecti.
] of the same , belonging to the same natural stock, contribulis , then generally countryman, fellow-countryman, (Hesychius). Comp. Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 172, 471. By we are naturally not to understand the Jews (Cornelius a Lapide, Hammond, Joachim Lange); for that the expression is best suited to them, as Braun (with Wolf) thinks, whilst possibly Jews of a particular tribe (perhaps of the tribe of Juda or Benjamin) were resident in Thessalonica, only merits to be mentioned on account of its curiosity. Also is not, with Calvin, Piscator, Bengel, and others, to be understood both of Jews and Gentiles, but can only be understood of Gentiles. To this we are forced (1) by the sharp contrast of and , which must be considered as excluding each other; (2) by the addition of to , as the great majority of the Thessalonian church consisted of Gentiles; comp. 1Th 1:9 . However, although Paul in the expression speaks only of Gentiles as persecutors, yet the strong invective against the Jews which immediately follows (1Th 2:15-16 ) constrains us to assume that the apostle in 1Th 2:14 had more in his mind than he expressed in words . As we learn from the Acts, it was, indeed, the heathen magistrates by whose authority the persecutions against the Christian church at Thessalonica proceeded, but the proper originators and instigators were here also the Jews; only they could not excite the persecution of the Christians directly, as the Jews in Palestine, but, hemmed in by the existing laws, could only do so indirectly, namely, by stirring up the heathen mob. This circumstance, united with the repeated experience of the inveterate spirit of opposition of the Jews, which Paul had in Asia at a period directly preceding this Epistle (perhaps also shortly before its composition at Corinth), is the natural and easily psychologically explanatory occasion of the polemic in 1Th 2:15-16 . Erroneously Olshausen gives the reason; he thinks it added in order to turn the attention of the Christians in Thessalonica to the intrigues of those men with whom the Judaizing Christians stood on a level, as it was to be foreseen that they would not leave this church also undisturbed; against which view de Wette correctly remarks, that there is no trace of such a warning, and that the Thessalonians did not require it, as they had learned sufficiently to know the enmity of the Jews against the gospel.
] Instead of this, properly or should have been put, corresponding to (comp. Phi 1:30 , ). However, even in the classics such inexact connections are very frequently found. See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 426 f.; Bremi, ad Demosth. adv. Phil. I. p. 137; Khner, II. p. 571. The double ( ) brings out the comparison.
] denotes not the apostle and his assistants (Erasmus, Musculus, Er. Schmid), as such a prominent incongruity in the comparison is inconceivable; but the masculine as a recognised free construction (comp. Gal 1:22-23 ) refers to , thus denotes the Palestinian Christians.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
Ver. 14. Of your own countrymen ] Malice against the truth breaks all bonds of nature or amity. Moab was irked because of Israel, or vexed at them, Num 22:3-4 , though they were allied to Israel, who passed by them peaceably, and by the slaughter of the Amorites, freed them from evil neighbours, which had taken away part of their country, &c. The English Papists in four years sacrificed 800 of their innocent countrymen in Queen Mary’s days. In the holy war (as they called it) against the Waldenses (those ancient Protestants) in France, the pope’s great army took one great populous city, and put to the sword 60,000, among whom were many of their own Catholics. For, Arnoldus the Cistercian, abbot (being the pope’s envoy in this great war) commanded the captains and soldiers, saying, Caedite eos, novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius, i.e. Down with them all, for God knoweth which of them are his. (Caesarius Heisterbach. Hist. v. 21.) And the issue of this was, ut potius caesi, fugati, bonis ac dignitatibus ubique spoliati sint, quam ut erroris convicti resipuerint, i.e. that they were rather slain, scattered, spoiled of their goods and dignities, than brought by a sight of any error to sound repentance, saith Thuanus, an ingenuous Papist.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 .] Proof of this , that they had imitated in endurance the Judan churches.
resumes above.
] not in intention, but in fact. (On , see on ch. 1Th 1:5 .) Calvin suggests the following reason for his here introducing the conflict of the Judan churches with the Jews: ‘Poterat illis hoc venire in mentem: Si hc vera est religio, cur eam tam infestis animis oppugnant Judi, qui sunt sacer Dei populus? Ut hoc offendiculum tollat, primum admonet, hoc eos commune habere cum primis Ecclesiis, qu in Juda erant: postea Judos dicit obstinatos esse Dei et omnis sacr doctrin hostes.’ But manifestly this is very far-fetched, and does not naturally lie in the context: as neither does Olsh.’s view, that he wishes to mark out the judaizing Christians, as persons likely to cause mischief in the Thessalonian church. The reason for introducing this character of the Jews here was because (Act 17:5 ff.) they had been the stirrers up of the persecution against himself and Silas at Thessalonica, to which circumstance he refers below. By the mention of them as the adversaries of the Gospel in Juda he is carried on to say that there, as well as at Thessalonica, they had ever been its chief enemies. And this is a remarkable concidence with the history in the Acts, where we find him at this time, in Corinth, in more than usual conflict with the Jews (Act 18:5-6 ; Act 18:12 ).
On c. remarks, , .
, , Hesych. Herodian says, , , , , . , . And this criticism seems just: the Latins also using civis meus not concivis , of the enduring relation of fellow-citizen, but commilito meus , not miles meus , of the temporary relation of fellow-soldier. See Scaliger, in Lobeck on Phrynichus, p. 471 (also p. 172). Ellicott would regard these words merely as supererogatory compounds belonging to later Greek. These were not Jews wholly nor in part, but Gentiles only. For they are set in distinct contrast here to .
] The proper apodosis to would be , or . But such inaccuracies are found in the classics: Khner (ii. 571) cites from Plato, Phd. p. 86 A, : so also Legg. p. 671 C; Xen. An. i. 10. 10.
, not ‘ we ourselves ,’ as Erasm., al.: but the members of the Judan churches mentioned above. The same construction occurs in Gal 1:22-23 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Th 2:14 . , and soon helpers (Rom 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. . might include Jews (Act 17:6 ), but Gentiles predominate in the writer’s mind. The after simply emphasises the comparison (as in 1Th 4:5 ; 1Th 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. . is racial rather than local, but the local persecution may have still been due in part to Jews ( cf. Zimmer, pp. 16 f.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
followers. See 1Th 1:6.
churches. App-186.
Christ Jesus. App-98.
have. Omit.
like = the same
countrymen. Greek. sumphuletes. Only here.
they = they also.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14.] Proof of this ,-that they had imitated in endurance the Judan churches.
resumes above.
] not in intention, but in fact. (On , see on ch. 1Th 1:5.) Calvin suggests the following reason for his here introducing the conflict of the Judan churches with the Jews: Poterat illis hoc venire in mentem: Si hc vera est religio, cur eam tam infestis animis oppugnant Judi, qui sunt sacer Dei populus? Ut hoc offendiculum tollat, primum admonet, hoc eos commune habere cum primis Ecclesiis, qu in Juda erant: postea Judos dicit obstinatos esse Dei et omnis sacr doctrin hostes. But manifestly this is very far-fetched, and does not naturally lie in the context: as neither does Olsh.s view, that he wishes to mark out the judaizing Christians, as persons likely to cause mischief in the Thessalonian church. The reason for introducing this character of the Jews here was because (Act 17:5 ff.) they had been the stirrers up of the persecution against himself and Silas at Thessalonica, to which circumstance he refers below. By the mention of them as the adversaries of the Gospel in Juda he is carried on to say that there, as well as at Thessalonica, they had ever been its chief enemies. And this is a remarkable concidence with the history in the Acts, where we find him at this time, in Corinth, in more than usual conflict with the Jews (Act 18:5-6; Act 18:12).
On c. remarks, , .
, , Hesych. Herodian says, , , , , . , . And this criticism seems just: the Latins also using civis meus not concivis, of the enduring relation of fellow-citizen,-but commilito meus, not miles meus, of the temporary relation of fellow-soldier. See Scaliger, in Lobeck on Phrynichus, p. 471 (also p. 172). Ellicott would regard these words merely as supererogatory compounds belonging to later Greek. These were not Jews wholly nor in part, but Gentiles only. For they are set in distinct contrast here to .
] The proper apodosis to would be , or . But such inaccuracies are found in the classics: Khner (ii. 571) cites from Plato, Phd. p. 86 A, : so also Legg. p. 671 C; Xen. An. i. 10. 10.
, not we ourselves, as Erasm., al.: but the members of the Judan churches mentioned above. The same construction occurs in Gal 1:22-23.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Th 2:14. , for) Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.- , in Judea) The Jewish churches were distinguished examples to all the others.- , the same things) So, , 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.-, your own) Mat 10:36; Luk 13:33, at the end.-, fellow-countrymen) [liter. persons of the same tribe.] These were Thessalonians, Jews and Gentiles. Act 17:5.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Th 2:14
For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus:-I do not understand that they tried to fashion after the example of the Jewish churches; but following the same law, meeting the same difficulties, they had developed into the same likeness: became imitators of them by following the same laws. This was said for the encouragement and strengthening of the Thessalonians, for as unbelieving Jews persecuted the Christians in Judea so they had done here to them. The unbelieving Jews stirred up the persecution at Thessalonica, but it was prosecuted by unbelieving Gentiles.
for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen,-It was always the Jewish policy to persecute by means of others. By making a wily appeal to political passion the Jews had aroused the Gentiles to attack Paul; thence followed the persecution of the church at Thessalonica, which had not at the time of writing subsided. [We do not know to what extremity the enemies of the gospel had gone in Thessalonica: but the distress of the Christians must have been great when Paul could make this comparison. He had already told them (1:6) that much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, is the badge of Gods children; and here he combines the same stern necessity with the operation of the word of truth in their hearts. The effect of receiving the gospel is in the first instance a new character, a character not only distinct from that of the unconverted, but antagonistic to it, and more directly and inevitably antagonistic, the more thoroughly it is wrought out, so that in proportion as Gods word is operative in us, we come in collision with the world which rejects it. To suffer, therefore, is to Paul the seal of faith. It is not a sign that God has forgotten his people, but a sign that he is with them: and that they are being brought by him into fellowship with the apostles and prophets, and with the Son of God himself. It is a subject for gratitude that they have been counted worthy to suffer for his name.]
even as they did of the Jews;-In Palestine there were no others but Jews who could be excited against Christians, and they were obliged to appear as the persecutors themselves.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
became: 1Th 1:6
the churches: Act 9:31, Gal 1:22
are: 1Th 1:1, 2Th 1:1
ye also: 1Th 3:4, Act 17:1-8, Act 17:13, 2Co 8:1, 2Co 8:2
even: Act 8:1, Act 8:3, Act 9:1, Act 9:13, Act 11:19, Act 12:1-3, Heb 5:7, Heb 5:8, Heb 10:33, Heb 10:34
Reciprocal: Ecc 1:10 – it hath Hag 1:12 – Zerubbabel Mat 22:6 – the remnant Mat 24:9 – shall they Luk 6:22 – when men Luk 6:23 – for in Luk 22:36 – But Act 18:6 – they Rom 1:13 – even Rom 16:4 – also 1Co 11:16 – the churches Gal 4:29 – even Phi 1:30 – the same Phi 4:9 – which 1Th 1:3 – your 2Th 1:4 – your persecutions 2Th 1:5 – for Jam 5:10 – for 1Jo 3:12 – And 3Jo 1:2 – even 3Jo 1:11 – follow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Th 2:14. Followers of the churches. Not that the churches were looked to for authority, but as good examples of right living in Christ Jesus. Judea was the place where the first churches were planted, amidst persecution, and the Thesslonians imitated them by enduring opposition brought by the Jews. (See Act 17:5-9.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Th 2:14. For introduces evidence of the actual working of Gods word in the believing Thessalonians. This evidence was that they had been persecuted by their own countrymen. This persecution was of itself a testimony to the reality of their Christianity. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. But Paul has probably also in view the manner in which they bore this persecution, else he would scarcely have used the word imitators.
Your own countrymenthe Greeks of Thessalonica.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews [their countrymen];
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
ARGUMENT 3
SIN ALWAYS FIGHTS
14-16. Sin, like its symbol, the rattlesnake, always fights for its life. The Christians in Palestine were cruelly persecuted by the Jews. The Thessalonian Gentiles were most malignantly persecuted by the Gentile tribes. Graceless always fight the grace of God, that seeks to save them. The Gentiles were the apostate Patriarchal Church; the Jews, the fallen Mosaic Church, having retrogressed into formality and hypocrisy. So the devil had them both, and they were ready to unite against God. Fallen Churchism has always been Satans organized opposition. But wrath cometh on them in the extreme. Pauls prophetic eye saw the awful storm of Roman castigation coming on the Jews. Within a score of years from this writing, the army of Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. Josephus says that a sword suspended high in the air hung over Jerusalem a whole year preceding her destruction. The horrors of the siege beggar all description. A solid million perished by sword, pestilence, and famine, and a million were sold into slavery; while the scathed and peeled remnant were driven to the ends of the earth, prohibited, on pain of death, to return to the home of their race and the land of their love. The Roman emperors hated the religion, both of Jews and Christians. Therefore they did their utmost to obliterate the very memory of Jerusalem, the Emperor Adrian even dropping the name, and founding a Roman colony on the site under the name of Elia Capitolina. It retained this name two hundred years, till the conversion of Constantine, A.D. 325, when he and his royal mother, Queen Helena, went to Palestine, rebuilt Jerusalem, restoring the name after an interregnum of two hundred years. Still the curse of expatriation is on the Jews. Methinks I see the day dawning on the wandering children of Abraham. Certainly the signs of the times portend the speedy fulfillment of the wonderful latter-day prophecies in reference to the hope of Israel.
Terrible has been their retribution. Correspondingly glorious will be their redemption when they shall come from their wanderings in the ends of the earth, and again take their place at the front of the world, to fall and wander no more.
17. We see here Pauls hour indefinitely denoted simply a short period of time.
18. Satan is constantly maneuvering, especially through human instrumentality, to hinder Gods saints in their soul-saving enterprises. Blessed consolation amid all, God is infinitely stronger than the devil, and actually his assaults are a blessing to his true people.
19. The saints are Pauls hope, joy, and crown, in presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. In this and all other epistles, Paul keeps the second coming of the Lord constantly before the people, thus inspiring them to get ready. Parousia, the Greek translated coming, is from para, along with, and ousa, being. Hence, it means to come and stay, perfectly harmonizing with the pre-millennial view of his glorious reign on the earth after his coming. It literally means his presence.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
2:14 {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.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
By believing the gospel the Thessalonians had followed in the train of many others who, when they believed the truth, also found that they attracted enemies. The reference to the Jews here is probably to the unbelieving Jews who opposed the Christians in Thessalonica rather than a general reference to all Jews.
"Persecution inevitably arises from the outside when a Christian patterns his life after the Lord." [Note: Thomas, p. 258.]