II For yourselves, brethren, know our entering in unto you, that it hath not been found vain (2) but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we waxed bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict. (3) For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: (4) but even as we have been approved of God to be intrusted with the 'gospel, so we speak ; 1 Gr. good tidings. See ch. 1. 5. to follow them. Commenting expressly on what Paul 1 had said of his and his companions' work in Thessalonica, he appeals to the fact that his readers themselves must know, namely, that they had not come with empty hands. It must have been said to the Gentile Christians, that Paul and his companions had had no reason for coming to them, and hence must have done so from some selfish purpose. For this reason the Apostle reminds 2 them of the fact, that they knew perfectly well that their messengers of the faith had just at that time been suffering persecutions in Philippi, where they had been outrageously maltreated. If he, notwithstanding, came with joyful heart to Thessalonica, the reason could only have been that their God had commanded them to go and preach to them also the gospel of redemption, even if this had to be done amid severe struggles, which grew out of the hostility of the Jews. These Jews had 3 tried to persuade the young Christians that these pretended messengers of the gospel, whom they certainly, since they were people of their own race, must have been quickest to understand, were deceivers, who sought to win them from improper motives, such as greed, or desire for honor, or by crooked methods. For this reason the Apostle declares that their preaching, with which they sought to gain the readers, did not proceed from vain motives, or from an impure mind, and was not based on tricky calculation. If God con- 4 sidered them worthy of being entrusted with the gos not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts. (5) For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness; (6) nor seeking glory of men, neither from you nor from others, when we might have 1 claimed authority as apostles of Christ. (7) But we were gentle in the midst of you, as when a nurse cherisheth her own children: (8) even so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of Gcd only, but also our own souls, because ye were 1 Or, been burdensome, ver. 9; comp. 1 Cor. 9. 4. ff. Most of the ancient authorities read babes. Comp. 1 Cor. 14. 20. pel, then their teaching cannot be based on vain notions; and if they speak, not as such who seek to please men, but to please God, the Searcher of hearts, then 5 thereby all insincere purposes and means are out of the question. He can appeal to the personal experiences of the readers in support of his claim that their persuasion never was expressed in words of flattery, by which to gain the hearers through deception. But God was their witness, that their zeal for the truth was not a mere pretext, behind which they concealed an unworthy motive, such as that of greed. Nor were they 6 prompted by the desire for honor, as is clear from the fact that they did not seek honor from men, neither from the Thessalonians, nor from any others in whose presence they perchance would boast of their success in Thessalonica. It is true that they, as representatives of Christ, could have come forward with the full 7 weight of their office; but in all times they had showed gracious kindness, such as a superior who in his dealings goes down to an inferior, as all of them could testify among whom he had labored. 8 cherishes her own child in tender love at her breast, so they, with the longings of love which the mother evinces toward her suckling infant, had found their delight in communicating to their spiritual children nothing but the gospel of God. For as the mother, in Just as a nursing mother become very dear to us. (9) For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. (10) Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe (11) as ye know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging 1 Gr. good tidings. See ch, 1, 5. nursing her infant, gives up a part of her strength, often even to the point of exhaustion, so they in their struggle with their enemies had risked their lives in order to bring to them the food of the gospel. Such sacrifice shows that it was not greed that prompted them, but the love with which they were filled toward them. For this the Apostle could, however, appeal to an undeniable fact. For the readers certainly must 9 have remembered that Paul and his companions had practised their handicraft amid many troubles, and because they spend a good part of the day in the preaching of the gospel, they worked even during the night in order not to burden them with the demand that the congregation was to support them. For the congregation consisted of small business people and craftsmen, for whom this would have been a heavy burden. The Apostle, in his defense of the mission work of the messengers of faith, proceeds to discuss their pastoral activity among those Thessalonians who had already become believers. He calls upon them and 10 God Himself to witness to the pious modesty with which he and his companions performed the work of their calling, because their conduct was in accordance with the will of God, and had been unblamable. For 11 the Thessalonians certainly knew from their own personal experience that they had with fatherly affection exhorted every one; that they had by joyful encouragement raised up the hearts that were weighed down by you, and testifying, (12) to the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory. (13) And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when ye received from us 2 the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe. (14) For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even 1 Some ancient authorities read called. the weight of their demands; and had implored the 12 believers to walk worthily of God. For as God had called them to His own peculiar kingdom and its glory through the activity of His messengers, these latter were compelled to do all in their power to enable them to walk in a manner conformable to His requirements. It was, then, in reality, not the word of man, but the 13 word of God, which sought to lead them to this goal. And for this reason their teachers constantly rendered thanks to God because they had received this as such, although the truth had been transmitted to them through human teaching. For God Himself alone could have given to the preaching of His messengers the power which made the believers feel that it was of God. And when the Jews tried to convince them that they were merely being brought into hostility to their fellow-countrymen through the pretensions of tricky 14 deceivers, it was only the power of the word of God operating in the believers which could enable them to suffer everything that these men inflicted upon them on account of their faith. The Apostle expressly emphasizes the fact, that thereby they become imitators of the congregations of God in Judea, who had become such by their confession of Jesus as the Christ. These had to suffer as much at the hands of the Jews as the Thessalonians had from their own countrymen. For at as they did of the Jews; (15) who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men; (16) forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (17) But we, brethren, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more exceed 1 Gr. a season of an hour. this place Paul makes it clear that it was the unbelieving Jews who had sought, by slandering the messengers of God, to destroy their work in Thessalonica. He re- 15 minds them of the fact, that they had even put to death the exalted Lord Himself, whom the readers adored in Jesus, just as they had persecuted the messengers of God in the past and the messengers of Christ in the present. Of this, the Apostle's experience in Thessalonica and in Bercea, was sufficient proof. Just as these 16 men did not please God, so they stood in the attitude of hostility against all men by hindering the messengers of faith from preaching the gospel to the Gentiles which is to deliver them from destruction. It seems as though it were their purpose again to make full the measure of their sins, in order thus to call down upon themselves the wrath of God, although, indeed, the wrath of God has already come upon them in its worst shape, in the judgment of hardening, of which they are the objects. What the Apostle says concerning the sending of 17 Timothy serves also the purpose of his own defense. The young Gentile Christians in Thessalonica must have been persuaded that their deceivers had deserted them at an opportune moment, and in order not to become involved in the persecutions that they had brought down upon the congregation. But the Apostle goes on to relate how he and his companions had felt themselves as orphans through the separation from them, |