For what [is] our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? [are] not *ye* also before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
Satan had blocked Paul's repeated tries to visit the Thessalonians, so his mind jumps ahead to a meeting no enemy can stop. His question — what is our hope, our joy, our crown? — has people for its answer.
Verse 18 ends with a closed door. Paul answers it by looking further down the road.
Heaven is a home, a place of company. The blessed Lord who has prepared that home of love will always have the first thought and the first place. Yet He Himself will connect the brightest scenes in glory with the darkest days of the wilderness. At the very moment when Satan was stopping him from visiting his beloved Thessalonians, who were badly persecuted, he looked beyond those troubled times. He saw his children in the faith around him in the glory.
Older translations read "crown of rejoicing" where the ESV has "crown of boasting". Either way the word means something to boast in — and the same people are a joy now and a crown later.
It is called the "crown of rejoicing" (1 Thess. 2:19). The apostle looks forward again to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He looks on to those Thessalonians, converted through his preaching, standing before Him in His glory on that day. They were his glory and joy now, and his crown then, a crown he could rejoice or boast in, for that is the sense of it. We may well ask ourselves this: can we look forward to the coming of Christ with the same gladness, thinking of anyone God has used us to bring to conversion, standing before Him in that day?
Every believer will share the joy of seeing the Lord. But the Spirit's work through one servant leaves its own fruit.
Notice here that the special fruits of our labours are not lost. They are found again at the coming of Christ. Our chief personal joy is to see the Lord Himself and to be like Him. That is the portion of all saints. But there are also particular fruits tied to the work of the Spirit in us and through us... So God would crown the apostle's work. He would bear striking testimony to its faithfulness in front of all these saints in glory. And the love that had worked in Paul's heart would find its satisfaction: it would see the people it loved in glory, in the presence of Jesus.
People often ask whether we will know each other in heaven. Paul's question assumes he will know these Thessalonians.
All you Thessalonians will be there; I shall see you there, you among whom I have laboured... People sometimes ask, Shall we know one another? Clearly Paul had no doubt about it: then he would know these loved Thessalonians. Paul saw the Lord as his Light and his Hope, and it was not inconsistent for him to think as well of meeting those among whom he had laboured. How this thought makes the scene a home scene.
Every believer will get the same glory as Christ. Crowns are different: they answer to a person's labour.
Reward is for our labour: as to our place, we all get the same glory as Christ... The Thessalonians will be Paul's crown, but they will not be ours; that is clear. We do not know how this will happen. But in glory Paul will have them as his crown, and he will not take away Christ's crown. Grace did it all. Still, Christ is pleased to reward faithful labour — owning not me, but the grace of God that is in me.
And the crown, once received, does not stay on the head.
And further, when the believer receives a crown or crowns at the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no flesh to be puffed up. The crowns will be cast at the feet of Him who awarded them — the One whose grace worked this fruit in the believer for His praise.
The same hope steadies anyone whose service costs them something.
What encourages love that suffers and toils along the road? "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?" Circumstances matter little to true ministry in the grace of Christ. Trial shows how far above circumstances it stands. Afflictions only prove its strength... One comfort never fails, and nothing else is enough: those who serve and those they serve will certainly meet again, in the day when all opposition will vanish.
- Hindrance — Satan shut the door on Paul's visit; Paul answered by looking to a meeting no enemy can block.
- Crown — the word means something to boast in, and the boast is people: those his preaching brought to Christ.
- Kept — the particular fruits of a servant's labour are not lost; they are found again at Christ's coming.
- Known — Paul expects to know these same Thessalonians there. That makes glory a home scene, not a strange one.
- Cast down — every believer shares Christ's glory. Crowns come from labour, and they land at the feet of the One whose grace produced them.
for ye are our glory and joy.
Paul longed to return to the Thessalonians, and the enemy kept him away. So he ends the chapter by calling these converts his glory and joy. That raises two questions. How can people be a servant's crown? And when does that crown appear?
Work done for other people can look like it disappears. One writer traces where it goes.
The special fruits of our labours are not lost; they are found again at the coming of Christ. Our chief personal joy is to see the Lord Himself and to be like Him. This is the portion of all saints; but there are particular fruits connected with the work of the Spirit in us and by us... The coming of Christ would crown this energy: these believers would stand in the glory as the fruit of his labours. And the love that had worked in Paul's heart would find its satisfaction in seeing those it loved in glory, in the presence of Jesus.
Calling converts "our glory" sounds like it pushes the Lord Himself aside.
We may say, is it not the Lord Himself who is to be "our hope or joy or crown of boasting"? No doubt this is true. Yet He so delights to identify Himself with His saints that the apostle's heart overflows with joy at the Lord's own joy in having all His own in His presence... Not that it was his labours that he was thinking of, but of them in whose blessing he delighted.
Paul praises people he could not reach.
For a time the enemy might seem to triumph, and those he was using as tools might frustrate the desires of Paul's heart. But where will Satan and his instruments of malice be when Paul and the saints meet in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The reunion Paul expects is personal.
Notice also how happily Paul looked forward to reunion with his beloved Thessalonian converts in heaven. His words would have been meaningless had he not expected to know them each and all in that day. The saints of God will know one another when they meet at the coming of Christ and in His presence.
Many read the Lord's coming as the day of reckoning.
The presence, or coming, of the Lord does not necessarily mean judgment... So when the apostle says, "What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting?"... where is the word of judgment on evil? ... The coming of the Lord may include the day of the Lord, as a whole includes a part. But the coming of the Lord is in itself presented in grace, not in judgment.
Which Thessalonians did Paul mean?
Who does he mean by "you"? A class among believers, those of special merit, of unusual holiness or extraordinary devotion? Or does he mean everyone the letter is written to, "the church of the Thessalonians"? There can be only one answer. He means them all, every one who by God's grace had turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.
If these converts are Paul's crown, what is left for Christ?
The Thessalonians will be Paul's crown, but they will not be ours; that is clear... in glory Paul will have them as his crown, yet he will not take away Christ's crown. It was all grace that did it, though Christ is pleased to reward faithful labour... The reward has nothing to do with motive, and never is the motive for action in scripture; it is the encouragement in the service.
Some say this hope makes people passive about the work.
Some time ago I read a statement in a magazine. It said that holding the doctrine of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ drains your strength, and that nobody would be anxious about service, missions, and things of that kind. What could be more untrue? Here I find the apostle full of energy. He longs for the conversion of the people he was sent to, and he labours tirelessly as he looks for the coming of Christ.
- Then, not now. The fruit of service is not lost. Christ's coming brings it back, and love sees the people it worked for standing in glory.
- Then, not here. The enemy frustrated the reunion Paul wanted. These words look past him to a meeting he cannot touch.
- Then, face to face. Paul expected to know each of these people in that day. Otherwise his words mean nothing.
- Then, in grace. No word of judgment appears here. Grace marks this coming, and it takes in every believer in the city, not a select few.
- Then, rewarded. The crown encourages the worker; it is not his motive. Keeping it in view made Paul tireless, never idle.