Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Thessalonians 2:20
For ye are our glory and joy.
20. For ye are our glory and joy ] Or: Yea, verily, you are our glory and joy (Ellicott). Emphasis rests both on “ye” and “are.” This delight was not matter of hope alone (1Th 2:19), but of present fact. See ch. 1Th 1:2-4, and 1Th 3:9: “The joy wherewith we rejoice on your account before our God”; and 2Th 1:4: “We glory in you in the Churches of God.” Glory is praise and honour from others; joy is one’s own delight.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For ye are our glory and joy – The meaning is, that the source of happiness to a minister of the gospel in the day of judgment will be the conversion and salvation of souls. The object of the apostle in dwelling on this in a manner so tender and affectionate is, to show them that his leaving them, and his long absence from them, were not caused by any want of affection for them.
Remarks On 1 Thessalonians 2
(1) Ministers of the gospel should be entirely sincere, and without guile. They should attempt to carry no measure – not even the conversion of sinners – by trick or management; 1Th 2:3-5.
(2) They should not make it a point to please people; 1Th 2:4, they do please men; or if their ministry is acceptable to people, they should not regard it, indeed, as proof that they are unfaithful, for they should have a good report of them that are without; nor should they make it a point to displease people, or consider it a proof that because people are offended, therefore they are faithful; but it should not be their leading aim or purpose to gratify people. They should preach the truth; and if they do this, God will take care of their reputation, and give them just as much as they ought to have. The same principle should operate with all Christians. They should do right, and leave their reputation with God.
(3) Ministers of the gospel should be gentle, tender, and affectionate. They should be kind in feeling, and courteous in manner – like a father or a mother; 1Th 2:7, 1Th 2:11. Nothing is ever gained by a sour, harsh, crabby, dissatisfied manner. Sinners are never scolded either into duty or into heaven. Flies are not caught with vinegar. No man is a better or more faithful preacher because he is rough in manner, coarse or harsh in his expressions, or sour in his contact with mankind. Not thus was the Master or Paul. There is no crime in being polite and courteous; none in observing the rules of good breeding, and paying respect to the sensibilities of others; and there is no piety in outraging all the laws which society has found necessary to adopt to promote happy conversation. What is wrong we should indeed oppose – but it should be in the kindest manner toward the persons of those who do wrong; what is true, and right we should maintain and defend – and we shall always do it more effectually if we do it kindly.
(4) Ministers should be willing to labor in any proper calling, if it is necessary for their own support or to do good; 1Th 2:9. It is, indeed, the duty of a people to support the gospel, but there may be situations where they are not able to do it, and a minister should be able to earn something, in some other way, and should be willing to do it. Paul made tents; and if he was willing to do that, a minister should not feel himself degraded if he is obliged to make shoes, or to hoe corn, or to plow, or to keep cattle. He had better not do it, if he can avoid it well – for he needs his time for his more important work; but he should feel it no dishonor if he is obliged to do it – and should feel that it is a privilege to preach the gospel even if he is obliged to support himself by making either tents or shoes. It is no dishonor for a minister to work hard; and it is not well for a man to enter the ministry wholly unacquainted with every other way of procuring an honest living.
(5) Every minister should be able to appeal to the people among whom he has labored in proof that he is an honest man, and lives consistently with his profession; 1Th 2:1, 1Th 2:9-11. The same remark applies to all other Christians. They should so live that they may at once refer to their neighbors in proof of the uprightness of their lives, and their consistent walk, But to be enabled to do this, a man should live as he ought – for the world generally forms a very correct estimate of character.
(6) The joy of a minister in the day of judgment will be measured by the amount of good which he has done, and the number of souls which he has been the means of converting and saving; 1Th 2:19. It will not be the honor which he has received from people; the titles which they have conferred on him; the commendation which he has received for eloquence or talent, or the learning which he has acquired, but it will be found in the number of those who have been converted from the error of their ways, and in the evidence of the good which he did on the earth. And will not the same thing be substantily true of all others who bear the Christian name? Will it then be a source of joy to them that they were richer than their neighbors; or that they were advanced to higher honors; or that they had a more splendid mansion, or were able to fare more sumptuously? The good that we do will be remembered certainly with pleasure in the day of judgment: of how many other things which now interest us so much can the same thing be said?
(7). Paul expected evidently to recognize the Thessalonian Christians at the day of judgment, for he said that they would be then his joy and crown of rejoicin; 1Th 2:19. But this could not be, unless he should be able to know those who had been converted by his instrumentality. If he expected then to recognize them, and to rejoice with them, then we also may hope to know our pious friends in that happy world. Nothing in the Bible forbids this hope, and we can hardly believe that God has created the strong ties which bind us to each other, to endure for the present life only. If Paul hoped to meet those who had been converted by his instrumentality, and to rejoice with them there, then the parent may hope to meet the child over whose loss he mourned; the husband and wife will meet again; the pious children of a family will be re-assembled; and the pastor and his flock will be permitted to rejoice together before the Lord. This hope, which nothing in the Bible forbids us to entertain, should do much to alleviate the sorrow of the parting pang, and may be an important and powerful inducement to draw our own thoughts to a brighter and a better world. Of many of the living it is true that the best and dearest friends which they have are already in heaven – and how should their own hearts pant that they may meet them there!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. For ye are our glory and joy.] Ye are the seal of our apostleship; your conversion and steadiness are a full proof that God hath sent us. Converts to Christ are our ornaments; persevering believers, our joy in the day of judgment.
1. IN the preceding chapter we have the character and marks of a genuine pastor laid down in such a manner as not to be misunderstood. Every man who preaches the Gospel should carefully read this chapter and examine himself by it. Most preachers, on reading it conscientiously, will either give up their place to others, or purpose to do the work of the Lord more fervently for the future. He who expects nothing but the approbation of Christ, will labour for Christ; and he, who has the glory of his Master only in view, will ever have his Master’s presence and blessing. Those who enter into this work for human applause or secular emolument, may have their reward; but in that, one smile of approbation from Christ is not included.
2. God, for reasons best known to himself, often permits the most pious and benevolent purposes of his servants to be frustrated for a time. It is well that the good purpose was in the heart; but God knows the fittest time and place to bring it to effect. Satan is ever opposing all that is pure, good, and benevolent and he appears frequently to succeed; but this is not really the case: if at any time he prevents the followers of God from bringing a pious purpose into effect, that was the time in which it could not have been done to secure its full effect. Let the purpose be retained, and the best time and place will be duly provided. As Satan constantly endeavours to oppose every good work, no wonder he is found opposing a good purpose, even at the very time that God sees it improper to bring it to the intended effect. Man proposes, but God disposes.
3. The apostle speaks of the wrath coming upon the Jews: it was about twenty years after this that their city was destroyed, their temple burnt, more than a million of them destroyed, their civil polity utterly subverted, and what remained of this wretched nation scattered to all the winds of heaven; and in this state, without a nation, without a temple, without worship, and apparently without any religion, they continue, to this day, a monument of God’s displeasure, and a proof of the Divine inspiration both of the prophets and apostles, who, in the most explicit manner, had predicted all the evils which have since befallen them. Their crimes were great; to these their punishment is proportioned. For what end God has preserved them distinct from all the people of the earth among whom they sojourn, we cannot pretend to say; but it must unquestionably be for an object of the very highest importance. In the meantime, let the Christian world treat them with humanity and mercy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He redoubles the expression, to show his great affection, and complacency of heart in them; or to show that they more than others were this occasion of rejoicing to him. And he mentions glory as well as joy, for the great success of his ministry among them would redound to his glory in the day of Christ; as Dan 12:3; They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. Or, they were his glory at present, a glory to his ministry, and a seal to his apostleship.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Emphatical repetition withincreased force. Who but ye and our other converts are our hope,&c., hereafter, at Christ’s coming? For it is ye whoARE now our glory andjoy.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For ye are our glory and joy. Or “our joy”, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read; this is a repetition, and a confirmation of what is before said; and signifies that these saints were then the glory of the apostles, being the seals of their ministry; and whom they gloried of and rejoiced in, and hoped and believed they would be such, as would be their joy and crown in time to come, and for ever.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “For ye are our glory” (humeis gar este he doksa hemon) “for you all are our glory”, occasion for, object of glory in the Lord, yet to be revealed, 1Pe 1:8; 1Pe 1:11; Rom 8:18.
2) “And joy” (kai he chara) “and (even) the joy”, rejoicing of our hearts, 2Co 2:3; 2Ti 1:4; 3Jn 1:4; Jud 1:24. When the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son were found and brought home they were objects of joy 1) for the shepherd, 2) the woman of the household, and 3) the Father of the prodigal son, Luk 15:5-7; Luk 15:9-10; Luk 15:24; Luk 15:32.
CHRISTIAN JOY
The farthest that any of the philosophers went in the discovery of blessedness was but to come to that, — to pronounce that no man could be called blessed before his death; not that they had found what kind of better blessedness they went to after death, but that still, till death, they were sure every man was subject to new miseries, and interruptions of any thing which they could call blessedness. The Christian philosophy goes farther: it shows us a perfector blessedness than any conceived for the next life also. The pure in heart are blessed already, not only comparatively, that they are in a better way of blessedness than others are, but actually, in a present possession of it; for this world and the next world are not, to the pure in heart, two houses, but two rooms, a gallery to pass through, and a lodging to rest in, in the same house, which are both under one roof, Christ Jesus. So the joy and the sense of salvation which the pure in heart have here is not a joy severed from the joy of heaven, but a joy that begins in us here, and continues, and accompanies us tither, and there flows on, and dilates itself to an infinite expansion.
-Dr. Donne
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20. For In the response which his questions are assumed by his heart to have drawn from them, St. Paul joins with a hearty affirmation.
1Th 2:20. For ye are our glory and joy. The Apostle expected to know the Thessalonians again at the day of judgment, and in the other world; and rejoiced in the hope of meeting them among the holy and glorified in that day, especially as he had been so instrumental toward their conversion. Hence we may expect to know our friends in another world; but then, all temporal consanguinity and relation shall cease, and we shall rejoice in each other there in proportion to the degrees of grace and glory, and as we have here mutually contributed to promote each other’s knowledge and divine love, piety and virtue. When this animal nature, and those affections and qualities suited to this animal state and terrestrial life, shall be put off, and we shall have qualities and affections fit only for an intellectual state, we shall then see things in a different light, and our relish will be wholly spiritual; for whererational enjoyments are in their higher perfection, rational beings, who have the true taste, will value each other in an exact proportion to their purity and perfection, knowledge, love, and holiness. What a glorious motive ought this to be to us, as it was here to St. Paul, to cultivate in ourselves, and to promote in all our friends and acquaintance divine knowledge, holiness, and virtue, goodness, and heavenly love! This will leave lasting and happy effects, when all earthly relations will be over; and be a pleasurable reflection to us and them many thousand ages hence.
Inferences.Surely it is not possible to conceive, from any thing but the example of the great Shepherd of the sheep, a more amiable idea of the character of a gospel minister, than that which is here exhibited. With what a frankness and openness of soul does the Apostle appeal to their consciences, as to the integrity and benevolence of his behaviour among them, while, unterrified by all the indignities and inhumanities that he had met with at Philippi, he immediately renewed the same combat at Thessalonica, and contended boldly with all the enemies of the gospel, not esteeming his liberty, or his life, on an occasion of so great importance.
With such courage let the ministers of Christ face all danger and oppositions: with such simplicity of heart let them deliver their important message; not with deceit, uncleanness, or guile, but as those who remember that they have been put in trust with the gospel by God himself, and therefore must be solicitous not to please men, but God, who trieth the heart. And may they ever be superior to those views of avarice, ambition, or popular applause, which would lead them to sacrifice truth to the affection or favour of men, or even to the fear of being thought to do it. And let them, with all this intrepidity and firmness of soul, put on a gentleness and sweetness of dispositiona gentleness like that with which a nurse cherishes her children. While their people, like new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby (1Pe 2:2.), let ministers draw forth that precious nourishment to them, as imparting even their own souls unto them, and willing to wear out, or, if such should be the will of God, to sacrifice their lives in such a service.
Let them particularly endeavour, by all prudent care, suitable to the circumstances in which God has fixed them, not to make themselves burthensome to the people in temporal things, nor, under the pretence of a Divine mission, to tyrannize over their consciences; but behave with such integrity and such sanctity, that they may be able cheerfully to appeal to God as a witness of it, and may also have a testimony in the breast of each of their flock. And O that the entrance of such ministers among their people, and their labours with them, may not be in vain; but that the blessed consequence of all the charges, entreaties, and consolations which they are addressing to them, may be thisthat they may walk worthy of God, worthy of that kingdom and glory, to the views and blessings of which he has condescended to call them! Then will all the fatigues of their office sit lightly upon them, while they see the blessed purposes of it answered. Then will they finish their course with joy, and bless God with their dying breath, that he ever called them to so great, so important a work.
Again. May Divine grace teach our souls ever to distinguish between the authority of the word of men and the word of God; that we may always set them at a due distance from each other, and may feel the peculiar energy of the Divine Word, with which it operates in all them that believe! May we experience this, whatever be the consequences, yea, though we should be exposed to sufferings, severe as those which Jews or Heathens at first inflicted on the professors, or even on the preachers of the gospel! Adored be that power of Divine Grace which went along with it, so that when the envious disciples of Moses, after having slain the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as their own prophets, forbad his messengers to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, these faithful ambassadors of health and life feared none of their threatenings, or cruelties, but courageously declared the matter as it was, testifying, both to Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ! Act 20:21.
The Jews, in the mean time, filled up the measure of their sins, till wrath came upon them to the uttermost: and so will all the opposition which is made to the gospel end to those who are implacable and obstinate in it. They who believe not that Christ is He, shall die in their sins. Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. (Joh 8:24. Mat 21:44.)
Therefore, let the ministers of Christ, however Satan may attempt to hinder them, go on faithfully and courageously in their work, and watch over the souls which they have instrumentally converted. When absent from them in body, let them not be absent in heart; but let them be thinking of their state, and often caring and praying for them: for what will be their hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord?even those faithful saints, who are converted to God by the instrumentality of their labours, or are trained up by them in the ways of holiness, and prove faithful unto death. May all those ministers, who serve God with their spirit in the gospel of his Son, have many such spiritual children: and, in the views of their increasing piety, may they daily anticipate the glory and the joy with which they hope at last to deliver them to their Divine Master!
REFLECTIONS.1st. The Apostle reminds the Thessalonians,
1. Of his manner of preaching among them. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, with great swelling words of vanity, or empty ineffectual harangues, but with the power of the gospel, and the mighty word of truth. But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, undismayed at the persecutions which we had endured, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention, as in an agony labouring after your conversion, amidst all the opposition that we had to encounter. For our exhortation was not of deceit, we broached no false doctrine, nor had any intention to deceive; nor of uncleanness, but tending to discourage all manner of impurity; nor in guile, for we spoke the truth from the heart; but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, and had this honour conferred upon us to be appointed his ambassadors, even so we speak, under a sense of the weighty charge committed to us; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts, to whom we study, to approve ourselves in simplicity and godly sincerity: for neither at any time used we flattering words, in order to insinuate and ingratiate ourselves into your confidence, or to encourage you with the least imagination of impunity in your sins, as ye know; nor did we put on a cloak of religion, to conceal designs of covetousness, in order to make an advantage of you; God is witness to the uprightness of our hearts respecting you. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, desiring human applause, or esteem, when we might have been burdensome, and demanded our maintenance of you, as the apostles of Christ.
2. Of his conduct and conversation among them. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children, with the greatest tenderness: so being affectionately desirous of you, of your happiness and salvation, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, ready to spend and be spent in the service of your faith, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, with our own hands, to earn our maintenance, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God freely. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, conscientiously discharging every duty of religion towards God, and of righteousness towards men: as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, with the affection and authority of the kindest parent, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory, to the blessings of his grace in time, and of his glory in eternity; and will bestow them upon you, if you perseveringly cleave to the Son of his Love. Note; (1.) They can speak boldly who can appeal to their own conduct for the example of what they teach. (2.) The more love and tenderness accompanies our exhortations, the more effectual are they likely to prove.
2nd, The Apostle proceeds, 2. They were honoured with the cross, and bore it most exemplarily. 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, and sustained the shock of persecution with the same unshaken fortitude and unwearied patience.
3. He mentions with horror the dreadful guilt and rooted enmity of the Jewish zealots, his and their chief opponents, who both killed the Lord Jesus, with the most atrocious wickedness imbruing their hands in his sacred blood, and murdered their own prophets, and have with the utmost violence persecuted us his apostles; and they please not God, though they flatter themselves that they are his only favourites; they act in direct opposition to his will, and are contrary to all men, abhorring both Gentiles and Christians, and filled with implacable malice against those who use any means for the conversion of the Heathen to Christ; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles the gospel of God’s grace, that they might be saved, to fill up the measure of their sins alway, and to hasten the full vials of God’s vengeance upon their devoted heads: for the wrath is come upon them, and hath begun to seize them in their rejection of God, and will be poured out to the uttermost, or to the end, in the entire destruction of their city, nation, and temple, and in the eternal perdition of the impenitent. Note; When the sinner’s iniquities are at the full, then wrath cometh to the uttermost.
3rdly, The Apostle, 2. He assures them of his high affection and regard for them. For what is our hope in our labours, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? what revives, animates, and comforts our souls under all our work and sufferings? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Yes, verily, For ye are our glory and joy; while, looking forward to the great day of Christ’s appearing, we confidently hope to present you before him as the happy fruits of our labour, to your eternal blessedness, and to our own immortal honour.
1Th 2:20 . An impassioned answer to the question in 1Th 2:19 . Thus is not causal, but confirmatory, you or truly ye are ( , emphatic) our glory and our joy . Comp. Winer, p. 396 [E. T. 558]; Hartung, Partikell . I. p. 473. Flatt and Hofmann refer 1Th 2:19 to the future, to the , and 1Th 2:20 to the present: “Ye are now our glory and our joy, therefore I hope that ye will be yet more,” etc. Without justification, as this distinction of time would have been marked by Paul.
REFLECTIONS
LET as many ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ as read this precious chapter, beg for grace, to be enabled to follow the Apostle’s example in their ministry, and humbly pray for the same success. Oh! what an arduous undertaking, what a solemn trust, what distinguished honor, and what vast responsibility. Who that considered it as he ought, but would rather shrink from the high calling, than run unsent! But let every faithful servant of Jesus not despond. Jesus is the all-sufficiency both of his ministers and people. And be that looks wholly to Jesus, and draws all his resources from Jesus, whether minister or people, will never fail of finding an all-sufficiency for his own soul, and for his labor among others. Where God the Spirit ordains, he will give the suited supply. And those words of the Lord are sufficient to carry the servant through the whole of his labor. Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world!
And no less, ye people of God! do you hold up the hands of the Lord’s servant, who goeth in and out before you by the Lord’s appointment, by prayer and supplication, for a blessing on his labors. It is a sweet encouragement to the faithful laborer in the Lord’s vineyard, when he knows that his people go before with their prayers to the Lord for his blessing, and follow him for supplications for pardon to all his imperfections. And where the Lord hath blessed a Church with a faithful servant, who taketh the oversight of the Church of Christ, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: what may not be hoped for from the divine blessing on such a congregation, both of minister and people! Lord, the Spirit! send Pastors after Mine own heart, which shall feed thy people with knowledge and understanding!
20 For ye are our glory and joy.
Ver. 20. For ye are our glory and joy ] Let no man therefore envy us these temporary good things, a competent maintenance: there are better things abide us above.
20 .] sometimes serves to render a reason for a foregoing assertion, by asserting it even more strongly, q. d. ‘it must be so, for the fact is certain.’ So Soph. Philoct. 746, “ .” “ , :” see Hartung, Partikell. i. p. 474. I should be inclined to ascribe to 1Th 2:20 , on this very account, a wider range than 1Th 2:19 embraces: q.d. you will be our joy in the day of the Lord: for ye are (at all times, ye are , abstractedly) our glory and joy . This seems to me far better than, with Ellic., to regard the as only ‘confirmatory and explicative.’
20.] sometimes serves to render a reason for a foregoing assertion, by asserting it even more strongly, q. d. it must be so, for the fact is certain. So Soph. Philoct. 746, . , : see Hartung, Partikell. i. p. 474. I should be inclined to ascribe to 1Th 2:20, on this very account, a wider range than 1Th 2:19 embraces: q.d. you will be our joy in the day of the Lord: for ye are (at all times, ye are, abstractedly) our glory and joy. This seems to me far better than, with Ellic., to regard the as only confirmatory and explicative.
1Th 2:20
For ye are our glory and our joy.-They were the fruit of his life and labors. As an apostle of Jesus Christ, and as such he gloried and rejoiced in them. In his mind he saw them grow daily out of the taint of heathenism into the purity and love of Christ. He saw them, as the discipline of Gods instruction had its perfect work in them grow from babes in Christ, and grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, to the measure of the stature of perfect men. He saw them presented faultless in the presence of the Lord in the great day. To witness that spiritual transformation which he had inaugurated carried on to completion gave the future a greatness and a worth which made Paul’s heart leap for joy.
Pro 17:6, 1Co 11:7
Reciprocal: Pro 23:15 – if Dan 12:3 – shine 1Co 4:8 – ye did 2Co 1:14 – even 2Co 12:14 – for I Phi 1:4 – with Phi 2:2 – Fulfil Phi 4:1 – my joy 1Th 2:19 – rejoicing 1Ti 4:16 – them Phm 1:20 – let me Heb 13:17 – with joy 2Jo 1:4 – rejoiced 3Jo 1:2 – even 3Jo 1:3 – I
For ye are our glory and our joy. [Paul also calls the Philippians his joy and crown (Phi 4:1), and expresses, as here, a hope of glorying hereafter both in them and in the Corinthians (Phi 2:16; 2Co 1:14). Paul usually employs the word “crown” in a figurative sense, the figure being derived from the wreath or chaplets worn by athletes in the Grecian games (1Co 9:24-27; 2Ti 4:7-8), and it is fair to suppose that he does so here. The full thought, then, is this: As an athlete, who, in the absence of his king, had entered the contest, competed for, and won the crown, would, on the king’s appearing, rejoice to lay his trophy at the king’s feet; so Paul, having won the Thessalonians for Christ, hoped that he might joyfully present them to Christ at his coming. The passage is a beautiful but effectual rebuke to the idle fears of some Christians that they will not recognize their friends in the hereafter. If Paul could not recognize the Thessalonians, how could he present them as his crown, or glory in them ?]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. To thank God for their ready reception of the gospel word. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, which may be fallacious, or at best of uncertain authority, but as it is, in truth, the word of God, and, as such, deserving the deepest reverence and obedience; which effectually worketh also in you that believe, producing the most blessed consequences, and carrying with it the evidence of its divine original. Note; (1.) Though the treasure of God’s word is committed to earthen vessels, its excellence is not therefore the less: and we must remember not so much who dispenses it, as whose word it is, that with reverence and godly fear we may hear and obey. (2.) Wherever the gospel is received into the heart, it works effectually to the present salvation of the soul, casting the whole man into its blessed mould.
1. Excuses his absence, which was not voluntary, but through unavoidable hindrances. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, and obliged reluctantly to leave you as helpless orphans, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire, longing to converse with you, and build up your souls on the true foundation. Wherefore we would have come unto you, (even I Paul,) once and again, and made efforts for that purpose; but Satan hindered us, sowing such dissentions and raising such difficulties as made our abode in these parts, where we now are, absolutely necessary. Note; We have a busy enemy, who is ever seeking to lay obstacles in our way. We need therefore to watch against his devices, and to resist his wiles.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)