14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
For ye became imitators. If you are inclined to restrict this to the clause in immediate connection with it, the meaning will be, that the power of God, or of his word, shews itself in their patient endurance, while they sustain persecutions with magnanimity and undaunted courage. I prefer, however, to view it as extending to the whole of the foregoing statement, for he confirms what he has stated, that the Thessalonians had in good earnest embraced the gospel, as being presented to them by God, inasmuch as they courageously endured the assaults which Satan made upon them, and did not refuse to suffer anything rather than leave off obedience to it. And, unquestionably, this is no slight test of faith when Satan, by all his machinations, has no success in moving us away from the fear of God. In the mean time, he prudently provides against a dangerous temptation which might prostrate or harass them; for they endured grievous troubles from that nation which was the only one in the world that gloried in the name of God. This, I say, might occur to their minds: "If this is the true religion, why do the Jews, who are the sacred people of God, oppose it with such inveterate hostility?" With the view of removing this occasion of offense, [1] he, in the first place, shews them that they have this in common with the first Churches that were in Judea: afterwards, he says that the Jews are determined enemies of God and of all sound doctrine. For although, when he says that they suffered from their own countrymen, this may be explained as referring to others rather than to the Jews, or at least ought not to be restricted to the Jews exclusively, yet as he insists farther in describing their obstinacy and impiety, it is manifest that these same persons are adverted to by him from the beginning. It is probable, that at Thessalonica some from that nation were converted to Christ. It appears, however, from the narrative furnished in the Acts, that there, no less than in Judea, the Jews were persecutors of the gospel. I accordingly take this as being said indiscriminately of Jews as well as of Gentiles, inasmuch as both endured great conflicts and fierce attacks from their own countrymen
1 - "Aux Thessaloniciens;" -- "To the Thessalonians."
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus - Which are united to the Lord Jesus, or which are founded on his truth: that is, which are true churches. Of those churches they became "imitators" - μιμηταὶ mimētai - to wit, in their sufferings. This does not mean that they were founded on the same model; or that they professed to be the followers of those churches, but that they had been treated in the same way, and thus were like them. They had been persecuted in the same manner, and by the same people - the Jews; and they had borne their persecutions with the same spirit. The object of this is to comfort and encourage them, by showing them that others had been treated in the same manner, and that it was to be expected that a true church would be persecuted by the Jews. They ought not, therefore, to consider it as any evidence that they were not a true church that they had been persecuted by those who claimed to be the people of God, and who made extraordinary pretensions to piety.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen - Literally, "of those who are of your fellow-tribe, or fellowclansmen " - συμφυλέτων sumphuletōn. The Greek word means "one of the same tribe," and then a fellow-citizen, or fellowcountryman. It is not elsewhere used in the New Testament. The particular reference here seems not to be to the pagan who were the agents or actors in the scenes of tumult and persecutions, but to the Jews by whom they were led on, or who were the prime movers in the persecutions which they had endured. It is necessary to suppose that they were principally Jews who were the cause of the persecution which had been excited against them, in order to make the parallelism between the church there and the churches in Palestine exact. At the same time there was a propriety in saying that, though the parallelism was exact, it was by the "hands of their own countrymen" that it was done; that is, they were the visible agents or actors by whom it was done - the instruments in the hands of others.
In Palestine. the Jews persecuted the churches directly; out of Palestine, they did it by means of others. They were the real authors of it, as they were in Judea, but they usually accomplished it by producing an excitement among the pagan, and by the plea that the apostles were making war on civil institutions. This was the case in Thessalonica. "The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city on an uproar." "They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, 'Those that have turned the world up side down have come hither also;'" Acts 17:5-6. The same thing occurred a short time after at Berea. "When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people;" Acts 17:13; compare Acts 14:2. "The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren." "The Epistle, therefore, represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers;" Paley, Hor. Paul. in loc. It was, therefore, strictly true, as the apostle here states it:
(1) that they were subjected to the same treatment from the Jews as the churches in Judea were, since they were the authors of the excitement against them; and,
(2) that it was carried on, as the apostle states, "by their own countrymen;" that is, that they were the agents or instruments by which it was done. This kind of undesigned coincidence between the Epistle and the history in the Acts of the Apostles, is one of the arguments from which Paley (Hor. Paul.) infers the genuineness of both.
As they have of the Jews - Directly. In Palestine there were no others but Jews who could be excited against Christians, and they were obliged to appear as the persecutors themselves.
Ye - became followers of the Churches of God - There is not a word here of the Church of Rome being the model after which the other Churches were to be formed; it had no such pre-eminence: this honor belonged to the Churches of Judea; it was according to them, not the Church at Rome, that the Asiatic Churches were modelled. The purest of all the apostolic Churches was that of the Thessalonians, and this was formed after the Christian Churches in Judea.
Had any pre-eminence or authority belonged to the Church of Rome, the apostle would have proposed this as a model to all those which he formed either in Judea, Asia Minor, Greece, or Italy.
Ye also have suffered - of your own countrymen - It is worthy of remark that, in almost every case, the Jews were the leaders of all persecutions against the apostles and the infant Church. And what they could not do themselves, they instigated others to do; and, by gathering together lewd fellows of the baser sort from among the Gentiles, they made frequent uproars, and especially at Thessalonica, where the opposition to the Gospel was very high, and the persecution of the Christians very hot.
(12) For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in (g) Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own (h) countrymen, even as they [have] of the Jews:
(12) He strengthens and encourages them in their afflictions which they suffered among their own people, because they were afflicted by their own countrymen. And this happened, he says, to the churches of the Jews, as well as to them: and therefore they ought to take it in good part.
(g) Which Christ has gathered together.
(h) Even from those who are from the same country and the same town that you are from.
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God,.... As of the Lord and of the apostle, 1-Thessalonians 1:6 so of the churches of God that were before them, who were gathered out of the world by the grace of God; and who were united in the fear of God, and assembled together for his worship, to bear a testimony to his truth and ordinances, and for the glory of his name: these they followed in the faith and order of the Gospel, and "became like" them, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render the word; or "equal" to them, were upon an equal foot with them, as the Arabic; that is, in suffering reproach and persecution for the Gospel, as the latter part of the verse shows; and their bearing these with patience, courage, and constancy, was a proof that the word of God had a place, and wrought effectually in them; otherwise they would never have endured such things as they did, and as other churches did:
which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for besides the church at Jerusalem, there were many churches in Judea and Galilee; see Acts 9:31 which shows that the primitive churches were not national, but congregational: and these were in Christ Jesus; "in the faith" of Jesus Christ, as the Arabic version renders it; which distinguishes them from the synagogues, or congregations of the Jews, which did not believe in Christ; See Gill on 1-Thessalonians 1:1.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; the inhabitants of Thessalonica, the baser sort of them, who were stirred up by the unbelieving Jews of that place, to make an uproar in the city, and assault the house of Jason, in order to seize upon the apostles; see Acts 17:6.
Even as they have of the Jews; in like manner as the churches of Judea suffered by the Jews their countrymen; see Acts 8:1 Hebrews 10:32.
followers--Greek, "imitators." Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.
in Judea--The churches of Judea were naturally the patterns to other churches, as having been the first founded, and that on the very scene of Christ's own ministry. Reference to them is specially appropriate here, as the Thessalonians, with Paul and Silas, had experienced from Jews in their city persecutions (Acts 17:5-9) similar to those which "the churches in Judea" experienced from Jews in that country.
in Christ Jesus--not merely "in God"; for the synagogues of the Jews (one of which the Thessalonians were familiar with, Acts 17:1) were also in God. But the Christian churches alone were not only in God, as the Jews in contrast to the Thessalonian idolaters were, but also in Christ, which the Jews were not.
of your own countrymen--including primarily the Jews settled at Thessalonica, from whom the persecution originated, and also the Gentiles there, instigated by the Jews; thus, "fellow countrymen" (the Greek term, according to Herodian, implies, not the enduring relation of fellow citizenship, but sameness of country for the time being), including naturalized Jews and native Thessalonians, stand in contrast to the pure "Jews" in Judea (Matthew 10:36). It is an undesigned coincidence, that Paul at this time was suffering persecutions of the Jews at Corinth, whence he writes (Acts 18:5-6, Acts 18:12); naturally his letter would the more vividly dwell on Jewish bitterness against Christians.
even as they-- (Hebrews 10:32-34). There was a likeness in respect to the nation from which both suffered, namely, Jews, and those their own countrymen; in the cause for which, and in the evils which, they suffered, and also in the steadfast manner in which they suffered them. Such sameness of fruits, afflictions, and experimental characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, is a subsidiary evidence of the truth of the Gospel.
Ye suffered the same things - The same fruit, the same afflictions, and the same experience, at all times, and in all places, are an excellent criterion of evangelical truth. As they from the Jews - Their countrymen.
*More commentary available at chapter level.