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.