For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in [the] Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; even as ye know what we were among you for your sakes
Paul has just told the Thessalonians that he knows they were chosen by God. This verse gives his reason: how the message reached them, and what the men who carried it were like. (Where the writers below say "much assurance," the ESV reads "with full conviction"; where they say "in word only," the ESV reads "not only in word.")
The verse opens with "because." It gives the evidence for the confidence Paul voiced a line earlier. One writer says what that confidence was not built on.
These things were clear and distinct in the Thessalonian believers. They led Paul to the confident conclusion that they were among God's elect. When he stood up in the synagogue at Thessalonica on those three Sabbath days, he could not have put a mark on the back of each one who would believe before he began to preach. He had no private access to the Lamb's book of life. He did not know in advance the names of those chosen by God. Paul's knowledge came from the opposite direction. He knew the powerful way the gospel had reached them. He saw the results the Spirit of God produced in them. So he had no doubt about his conclusion.
One writer traces the chain from the word itself to the assurance it produced.
The word had power in their heart — it came to them as the word of God. The Spirit Himself revealed Himself in it, giving the consciousness of His presence. The result was the full assurance of the truth in all its power, in all its reality.
Another writer explains what that power was, and what certainty it brought.
The power here is the "dynamite" of the gospel, an energy that produced decisive results. The Spirit of God was the living source of that power: supreme, divine, holy. "Much assurance" was the inevitable companion of this. No doubtfulness, no fears, no worries could remain in such an atmosphere. The apostle never gave souls the impression that God could truly save a person who might then be lost again. His gospel was one of certainty and "much assurance," and that was its effect on the Thessalonians.
Assurance is not the same as thinking something is probably true.
There must be unhesitating confidence in the things laid hold of; then there is power. If I say merely, "I suppose these things are true," this is not assurance. But they received the gospel "in much assurance." So they stood completely apart from the world. The world became their enemy.
The phrase "not only in word" leaves room for preaching that is correct and still stops short.
Sadly, there may be much correct gospel preaching. But too often it is "in word only." The power and work of the Holy Spirit are missing. One thing gives power to the preaching and leaves the Holy Spirit free to work: the consistent life of the preacher.
One writer traces the lack back to the man, not the method.
We may be sure that much of the shallowness of our work is the fruit of the shallowness of the workman. Where is the power? Where is the demonstration of the Spirit? Where is the "much assurance"?
The second half of the verse turns from the sermon to the preachers. Their conduct was part of the message.
The point to notice is that the life and walk of the apostle matched, and in fact embodied, his teaching. Surely this is the mark of a perfect servant! Nothing is sadder than the contradiction we often see between a witness's testimony and his life... The power of the Holy Spirit showed as much in his everyday life as in his preaching of the gospel of God's grace.
Read as a sequence, the verse sets out how these people passed from hearing to certainty.
Here we have the divine order of salvation. First, the message of the gospel is heard and believed. Then the Spirit of God shows His power in the conversion and the sealing of those who believed. The result is the full assurance of the truth in all its blessed power and reality... They were living witnesses of the power of the gospel they proclaimed. Their holy walk, their self-denial, their peace and quietness had its effect on the Thessalonian believers. They became imitators of the apostles.
- Word — the gospel came to them in words. The verse does not despise the word; it refuses to stop there.
- Power — the word reached the heart as the word of God, an energy that produced decisive results.
- Spirit — the Holy Spirit made Himself known in the message, and He is the living source of that power.
- Assurance — the outcome was certainty, not "I suppose these things are true." It left no room for fear of being saved and then lost.
- Life — the preachers' daily conduct embodied what they preached. From that whole chain Paul read back their election.
and *ye* became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of [the] Holy Spirit,
The Thessalonians took in the message, and what came out of them looked like Paul and looked like Christ. The striking part is the pairing at the centre of the verse: heavy affliction and joy, in the same people at the same time.
An older translation reads "followers of us" here. One writer explains what that following was, and what it was not:
Being "followers of us" was not simply following men as a party. Their conduct followed the godly example of these men, who were themselves formed by following the Lord. He is speaking of the practical effect on their ways, not of recognising leaders. They had received the word from those who suffered for it, and they met the same affliction themselves — but sweetened by "joy of the Holy Spirit." It was not slavish loyalty to popular leaders, but pure joy in suffering alongside those who had suffered for the Lord's sake.
The likeness runs further back. They copied Paul, and Paul was copying the Lord:
The apostle's life, his whole conduct, confirmed the testimony that he bore — it formed part of it. And this is always the case: the fruit of his labours matched in character the one who laboured. The Christianity of the Thessalonians resembled that of Paul. It was like the walk of the Lord Himself, whom Paul followed so closely.
Receiving here is more than agreeing. These hearers took the message as coming from God, and it kept working long after the day they believed:
They heard Paul and Silas preach, but they felt that the words carried truth from God to their souls. It was God's word they listened to, which gave them life and then went on working in their hearts. Conversion with them was only the beginning. The word then began to work in them, and did not stop working in their souls.
Commentators differ on what the affliction was. One reads it as persecution. Taking the word in set them apart from the world, and the world turned on them:
They received the gospel "in much assurance." The result was that they were completely different from the world, which became their enemy. This was not the most pleasant part. They had "much affliction" — but then there was also "joy in the Holy Spirit."
Another writer sets this verse beside the parable of the seed that fell on stony ground. He finds the affliction earlier still — inside the hearer, before any opposition comes:
This affliction, which came before their gladness, was the result of their being awakened to their sin under the convicting power of the word. The stony ground hearer skips over the affliction, because he does not feel his real need. He lands himself in a shallow gladness that fades when tested — and he fades with it.
The sufferer does not manufacture this joy. The verse calls it the joy of the Holy Spirit, and that is why hostility cannot cancel it:
This testimony in power stirred up the hatred of those who rejected it. That malice showed itself in persecuting the believers. Yet the Holy Spirit kept these believers in joy. The devil may stir up persecution, but the power of the Spirit is greater than all the power of the enemy. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, was held up in triumph in the middle of his sufferings as a martyr.
Christ Himself held the same two things together. That is why the verse names Him too:
They suffered bitterly for the truth that filled their hearts with joy. So did Paul, dying daily while he lived. So did the Lord, who died as no other, yet lived the perfect example and fullness of joy in God His Father, under complete rejection here on earth.
Their joy under pressure became a testimony to the people watching them:
They see in Christians a power they know nothing of, motives they have never felt, and a joy they may mock but do not have. Their patience shows how helpless the enemy is. He is fighting a power that endures everything and rejoices despite all his efforts. What can you do with people who let themselves be killed without becoming less joyful — who in fact become more so?
- Received. The word came to them as God's word, not man's, and kept working after conversion — the beginning, not the whole story.
- Reproduced. They copied conduct, not a personality — and Paul passed on what he had copied from the Lord.
- Resisted. Taking the word in put visible distance between them and the world, and the world turned hostile.
- Rejoiced. The joy belonged to the Holy Spirit. Persecution could not remove it, because the Spirit is stronger than the enemy.
- Radiated. Their mix of suffering and gladness left the watching world with a puzzle it could not explain away.
so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia
The Thessalonians had been believers only a short time. Their city had already turned hostile. Yet Paul tells them that every believer across Macedonia and Achaia was now looking at them. The verse opens with "so that," which links this standing to what came before it — and raises a question. How could such young converts become the measure for everyone else?
One reference work traces the Greek word behind "example" here. Its entry is on the English word "type":
This English word occurs in the Authorized Version only in the margin. The Greek word is τύπος, from which comes the word "type." It is translated "print" in John 20:25, "form" in Romans 6:17, and "pattern" in Titus 2:7. It is also translated "ensample" in 1 Thessalonians 1:7 and "example" in 1 Timothy 4:12.
So the Thessalonians were not just admired. They were a pattern — a form that shaped other people.
The example did not grow in comfort. The same preaching that saved them made enemies for them. How they carried that suffering is what others copied.
This testimony in power stirred up hatred in those who rejected it. That malice showed itself in persecuting the believers. Still, the Holy Spirit kept these believers in joy. The devil may stir up persecution, but the power of the Spirit is greater than all the power of the enemy... A martyr whose sufferings only draw out praise to the Lord gives a striking testimony. Before the world, it displays the power of God! So the joy of these young converts under persecution became an example to believers. It was also a testimony to the world around them.
They were followers before they were models. One writer is careful about what that following did and did not mean:
Being "followers of us" was no mere party following of men. Their conduct followed the godly example of these men, who were themselves formed by following the Lord. He is speaking of the practical effect on their ways, not of recognising leaders... In this simple, godly way they became a model of true testimony to all Macedonia and Achaia. And they were still very young in the faith.
Newness in the faith, then, was no barrier to being a pattern.
The verse points to what other believers could see in them:
As for their fellow believers, they became examples. Every believer in Macedonia and Achaia could see in them a practical example of the grace that the gospel brings and builds up in those who receive it.
Being watched across Macedonia and Achaia is dangerous ground. The safeguard is a life lived in God's sight.
It is a life of holy fear lived before God. It is not lived in front of people to win a religious position, or in front of fellow believers to gain a reputation for devotion. These young believers became "examples to all the believers," and news of their faith in God spread far and wide. But their witness before people came out of a life lived before God. They knew they lived and walked "before our God and Father."
The pattern spread with no campaign behind it. The Thessalonians were not managing their reputation.
These Thessalonians were living in another world after the word came to them in power. There was a divine spring in them that nothing could touch. In other places believers might be going along more quietly. But there was power here. Everything they did was connected with God; they did it all under God. This is what we have to seek. Then the testimony went out, and they hardly knew how. But people saw this link with God. They did not trouble themselves about what was said of them.
- Pattern, not compliment. The word means type, form, pattern — a shape that others take, not a badge of praise.
- Pattern by imitation. They copied men who were copying the Lord. Followers first, models second.
- Pattern through pain. Joy that persecution could not chill is what made them worth copying.
- Pattern for believers. Believers across Macedonia and Achaia could see in them what grace produces in people who receive it.
- Pattern rooted before God. Their public witness grew out of a life lived before God. They never troubled themselves about what people said of them.
for the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which [is] towards God has gone abroad, so that we have no need to say anything;
Paul had preached in Thessalonica, and the message did not stay there — people far away were already talking about it. The verse raises a practical question — how does a group of new believers end up doing the preacher's work for him?
The word did not just leave Thessalonica quietly. One writer names what people repeated — and what they did not.
The sound of it rang out like a trumpet in all directions — not about miracles or tongues, but their faith toward God. Surely a fine, admirable, and gracious testimony had gone out among people who worshipped idols. It stood wholly against the hard, proud rule-keeping of the Jews. It stood just as much against the dark and indecent follies of the non-Jewish world.
Another writer puts the same thing in a single image: their faith came back as sound returning off a wall.
The faith of the Thessalonians had an echo; it was talked about everywhere.
Where a city sits decides how far its news travels.
Their city stood on the great highway between Rome and the country north of the Aegean Sea. So the report of their conversion was not limited to their town and the area around it… The change was so decided, the work so obvious, that everyone was speaking of it. Those in Macedonia and Achaia heard the report of it. Even those who could not understand it still talked about it. Paul and Silas had, we cannot doubt, many interesting details they could have passed on to others. But they had no need to make the work known. People learned of it from the converts, not from the evangelists.
Paul did not have to vouch for these converts. Their own witness had already done it.
There was no need for Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to say anything about these Thessalonian Christians. It was not necessary to speak to others of what God had done in Thessalonica or to declare that these new converts were genuine… They sounded out the word of the Lord with no uncertain sound. They were true lights in the world's darkness, holding out the word of life. Their faith toward God became widely known in every place. Through their witness the whole region learned what the gospel is and what it produces in the hearts and lives of those who believe.
There is a gain here for the wider work.
Their faith went out as a living proclamation of the truth, "so that we need not say anything." How happy it is when the work has such power and freshness that it leaves the worker free for other fields already ripe for harvest!
Paul's converts did not just repeat his message. They lived from the same hope he lived from.
In a remarkable way the maker's hand is often found on his work. In the apostle's labours, he passed on to these Thessalonians the very hope he had himself. It had to be so, since that hope was part of the gospel he had received. But it also had the very same effect on them that it had on him, and the whole country around took notice.
So where did this come from? Not from any plan of theirs.
There was a divine spring in them that nothing could touch… They connected everything they did with God. They did it all under God. This is what we have to seek. Then the testimony went out, and they scarcely knew how. But people saw this link with God. They did not trouble themselves about what others said of them.
There is a warning in this for anyone who wants a name for being devoted.
These young believers became "an example to all the believers," and their faith toward God spread abroad. But their witness before people came out of a life lived before God. It is a life of holy fear lived before God. It is not lived merely before people to gain a religious position, or before other believers to earn a reputation for devotion.
- Sounded — The word went out from them like a trumpet. What people repeated was not miracles or tongues, but their faith toward God.
- Source — The spring was inside them and turned toward God. They lived before God, not before an audience, so the testimony went out while they scarcely knew how.
- Stamped — The hope Paul carried had the same effect on them that it had on him; the maker's hand showed in the work.
- Spread — Their city sat on a great highway, so the report ran through Macedonia and Achaia. People heard it from the converts, not from the preachers.
- Set free — The message arrived ahead of Paul, so he needed to say nothing. The worker was free for fields still waiting for harvest.
for they themselves relate concerning us what entering in we had to you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,
Paul did not have to advertise what happened in Thessalonica. Other people were already telling the story — how the Thessalonians received him, and how they turned to God from idols.
Onlookers who never heard Paul preach could see his message in the people who believed it.
Paul's presence caused trouble in the world, among the people he passed through. These Thessalonians displayed the power of the hope, and that made the trouble greater. Paul could point to what people saw in them as the very sum and substance of his own teaching. That is where the power of his presenting the truth lay.
The wording is exact: they turned to God from idols, not from idols to God. Commentators press this order, because it explains where a person finds the power to let go.
You tell a sinner to give up his sins, to turn from this and that sin, and he hesitates; he does not have the power to do it. You set God before him, and the claims of His grace. If the word takes hold of him and he turns to the living God, he will turn away from sin. That is the difference. It is not turning from sin to God, but to God from sin. There is power in that.
So this was not a protest movement against false religion, and not the swapping of one deity for another.
They had given up objects they could see for One they had never seen... It was not a change of gods, but the finding of God for the first time... Notice the language — "they turned to God from idols." A simple negative was not what occupied them. They did not merely take up a position of protesting against error. Their hearts were taken up with something positive — they turned to God from idols.
The Thessalonians left real statues behind. But an idol can be far more than a statue, and this verse doubles as a definition of conversion.
"You turned to God from idols." Here we have a Scriptural definition of conversion. It is not only a turning. It is a turning to God, and therefore from idols. Idols are not only the ugly images that idol-worshippers honour and fear. An idol is anything, elegant or ugly, that takes over the place in a person's heart which belongs by right to God alone — the place of supreme rule. Idols are in front of the face of every fallen sinner, charming his heart, and God is behind his back. Conversion happens — and look, God is before his face and idols are behind his back!
One danger remains: a compromise that keeps the old objects under new names.
Satan has a great aim: to combine the world with God, and to allow the flesh while claiming the Spirit. The end of it is to fall under his delusions while professing Christ. You see the opposite of all this confusion in the entrance the apostle had among the Thessalonians. You see it in the complete break made for their souls from everything opposed to God... They turned to God from their idols instead of giving them Christian names and mocking Him. They served not forms or doctrines or institutions, but a living and true God.
Turning is one word here, but it covers the whole person and a new object for the heart.
Here, in Thessalonica, these souls were brought out to serve the living and true God. The whole man turned to God — a completely new state from beginning to end. This is not merely relief for the conscience. It is God Himself in Christ becoming the object before the soul. This is the full meaning of conversion, as we have it in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. A man is turned round to God. There is repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two words describe the God they now served: living, and true. Both stand against what they had left.
What a contrast between the living God and the idols they had served. He was a God deeply interested in them. They could turn to Him at any time. They knew His ear heard their prayers, and His eyes took notice of everything they were going through. He was a true God — true in contrast to everything false. He was true also in being perfectly reliable, open and fully revealed.
Serving God did not mean a change of career.
I do not think these Thessalonians acted in some special way. I do not think they gave up their calling in life and threw themselves exclusively into spreading the gospel... The letter implies that they went on with their work, in their usual occupation. They stayed in the place and circumstances they had been brought up in — only now they worked for their God above. They had found a living and true God, and they had found out how to serve Him in the middle of their ordinary duties.
- Reported — the change was so plain that others told the story for Paul. What people saw in the Thessalonians was his teaching made visible.
- Turned — the movement is to God first; set God before a person and the idols fall away behind his back.
- From — an idol is anything, ugly or elegant, that takes the place in the heart belonging to God alone.
- Whole — conversion in full is not just a quieted conscience. It is God Himself in Christ as the new object of the soul, with no old gods renamed and kept.
- Serve — the living God hears, and He is reliable. You serve Him in the same job, home and town where you already stood.
and to await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath.
The Thessalonians turned from idols to serve God. Now Paul shows what they wait for: a Person, raised from the dead, who rescues them from a wrath still to come.
How often does the New Testament mention the Lord's coming? Darby thought counting was the wrong measure.
Some people have taken the trouble to count how many times it occurs. But my point is not merely this. It is so bound up with every part of Christian life that if you take it out, you take away what gives the whole Christian life its character. Take conversion: people say, what has that to do with the Lord's coming? That is part of what they were converted to: "to wait for God's Son from heaven."
What they awaited was not an event on a calendar but someone.
Here it is the object itself that is presented, the Person of the Lord. God's own Son will come, and will satisfy all the heart's desire. This is neither His kingdom, nor the judgment, nor even rest. It is the Son of God. And this Son of God is Jesus, risen from among the dead, who has delivered us from the wrath to come. For wrath is coming. Each believer therefore expects the Son of God for himself — expects Him from heaven.
That rules out several substitutes people put in Christ's place.
Notice, it is not signs they looked for, but Christ. Not some remarkable events still to happen on earth. Not some special feeling to come over them, but the Lord Himself. Not death or judgment, but the Saviour Himself coming to change their bodies and carry them to glory.
If the Son is coming from heaven, then nothing on earth is worth waiting for.
Besides this new source and centre for the present, there is something else to wait for. It gives this blessing its form and character: "waiting for His Son from heaven." What an extraordinary thing to do! Waiting for God's Son! That is, all our hopes are right outside this world. Do not expect anything from earth. Look for something from heaven — and that something is God's Son Himself.
An older English translation put this rescue in the past tense. The verb in fact looks forward.
It is God's Son who is coming, and He comes from the heavens where He is now seated. His name is Jesus, and we know Him as our Deliverer from the coming wrath. The verb is not in the past tense — "delivered" — as in our Authorised Version. It is rather, "Jesus, who delivers us," or "Jesus, our Deliverer." The point is that Jesus who is coming from heaven will deliver us from the wrath that is coming.
There is a striking turn here. The Judge and the Deliverer are the same Person.
From that wrath to come we have a deliverer, even Jesus, the one who will carry out that wrath. Him we await from heaven. Blessed hope of our souls!
Does this mean God's judgments on the earth, or His judgment in eternity? The word is used in more than one way.
Again and again both Testaments use the word wrath for the heavy judgments of God that are coming on this earth. We do not deny for a moment that several New Testament passages widen its meaning. There it takes in the penal judgment of God, which stretches out into eternity. Still, the main use of the word is the one we have given, as anyone who reads the book of Revelation with care can see.
This wrath falls on more than individual people.
There is a wrath to come to get out of. Not only was man to be judged, but the whole scene is to be judged. When Christ returns to this earth, it will be to judge it. They knew wrath was coming, but they had nothing to do with it. Those who were looking for Christ were entirely delivered from the wrath to come.
The resurrection settles how they wait.
They turned to God from their idols instead of giving them Christian names and mocking Him. They served no forms or doctrines or institutions, but a living and true God. And they awaited His Son from the heavens, not as a dreaded and awful Judge, but as their Deliverer from the coming wrath. He is the One God raised from the dead — the pledge of their justification and the pattern of the new life in which they lived to God by faith in Him.
- Turned — waiting for God's Son was not advanced teaching for mature believers. It was part of what these new believers turned to God for.
- Raised — the resurrection of Jesus is the pledge that the coming One is a Deliverer and not a dreaded Judge.
- Delivers — the tense points forward. Jesus is coming from heaven, and He will take His own out of the coming wrath.
- Awaited — they looked for a Person, not for signs, feelings, or even rest. Their hope lay right outside this world.
- Unafraid — the One who will carry out that judgment is the One believers look for. That is why His coming is a hope, not a terror.