For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
Paul tells the Thessalonians they had come to resemble believers far away in Judea. The likeness was not in teaching or style but in what they suffered.
Word Received, Life Changed
The verse begins with "for." It points back to the word they had received. One writer shows what that word did in them, and where it placed them.
Hamilton SmithThe word of God worked powerfully in these young believers. It led them to identify themselves wholeheartedly with the people of God. They became followers of the assemblies of God, which in Judea were in Christ Jesus. They did not only share with them the privileges in Christ Jesus; they also became their companions in suffering for Christ.
Imitation Without Contact
Paul calls them imitators, but the likeness did not come from copying. It came from one cause at work in both places, and it crossed every barrier of background.
William KellyThe same spiritual cause produced similar effects... the Holy Spirit shapes the believer by the image of Christ, presented in God's word. That word is powerful not only to give souls new life from God, but also to clear, correct, instruct, reprove, discipline in every way, and cheer the believer on... A difference of race, or a completely different religious background, cannot hinder the power of grace and truth. The Thessalonians walked the same path of suffering and endurance as the Jewish assemblies in Christ Jesus. In Judea the flame of persecution burned fiercely against the companies that bore the name of the One they had crucified. It was no different for the Thessalonian believers from their own countrymen.
"In Christ Jesus"
Paul does not just say "the churches in Judea." He adds "in Christ Jesus," and that phrase sets them apart from every synagogue in the land.
The Christian's FriendPaul also describes the assemblies in Judea as in Christ. This too was true of all of them; but it marked out the assemblies in Judea as different from any Jewish synagogue. They were assemblies of Christ, and in Christ. These are terms and truths that no Jew could ever have used, or even claimed to accept.
A Bond Across Distance
Believing put the Thessalonians into a family that already existed. Their suffering did not isolate them; it linked them.
J. N. DarbyBecause their faith led them to obey, the Thessalonians found themselves connected with the churches of Judea. Those churches had gone before them in the same faith (there is one body). And like them, the Thessalonians were suffering persecution from people of their own nation.
One writer names what that bond cost them — and the company it gained them.
F. W. GrantIt took them out of their natural place in a world that had fallen away from God. It made them companions of those the world had rejected, though the world was not worthy of them.
Persecution From One's Own
In both places the blows came from their own people. One writer explains what makes such hatred so bitter.
William KellyNo hatred is as bitter as hatred sharpened by a difference in religion, especially where the claim is exclusive and divine. The gospel brought this out in its strongest form. It first had to make its way where God had really given special privileges. Those privileges were right to keep at their full value, as long as He still owned the people He had given them to.
Where the Comparison Leads
Naming the Judean churches leads Paul into the heaviest charge in the letter.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey had killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and they persecuted the apostles. They were not satisfied with this: they tried to stop the gospel they hated from reaching the Gentiles and saving them.
Summary
- Word. They received the gospel as God's own word, and it did its work in them.
- Likeness. One Spirit works through one word. So believers in Thessalonica came to resemble believers in Judea, though their race and religious background were entirely different.
- Belonging. Faith placed them among churches that had gone before them, for there is one body. It also moved them out of their natural place in the world.
- Cost. Shared suffering marked this family. In both places the blows came from their own people, because religious hatred is the most bitter of all.
- Exposure. The same hatred that linked them to Judea exposed those who tried to stop the gospel reaching the Gentiles.