4 so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
So that we ourselves glory in you. He could not have bestowed higher commendation upon them, than by saying that he sets them forward before other Churches as a pattern, for such is the meaning of those words: -- We glory in you in the presence of other Churches. For Paul did not boast of the faith of the Thessalonians from a spirit of ambition, but inasmuch as his commendation of them might be an incitement to make it their endeavor to imitate them. He does not say, however, that he glories in their faith and love, but in their patience and faith. Hence it follows, that patience is the fruit and evidence of faith. These words ought, therefore, to be explained in this manner: -- "We glory in the patience which springs from faith, and we bear witness that it eminently shines forth in you;" otherwise the context would not correspond. And, undoubtedly, there is nothing that sustains us in tribulations as faith does; which is sufficiently manifest from this, that we altogether sink down so soon as the promises of God leave us. Hence, the more proficiency any one makes in faith, he will be so much the more endued with patience for enduring all things with fortitude, as on the other hand, softness and impatience under adversity betoken unbelief on our part; but more especially when persecutions are to be endured for the gospel, the influence of faith in that case discovers itself.
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God - That is, we mention your example to other churches, and glory in it, as an evidence of what the gospel is suited to do; see the notes on 1-Thessalonians 2:19-20; compare the notes on 2-Corinthians 9:2.
For your patience - Your patient endurance of trials.
And faith - Fidelity, or constancy. You have shown unwavering confidence in God in your afflictions.
In all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure - See the notes on 1-Thessalonians 2:14; 1-Thessalonians 4:13. It would seem from this that the persecutions and trials to which the apostle referred in his First Epistle were still continued.
We ourselves glory in you in the Churches of God - We hold you up as an example of what the grace of God, can produce when communicated to honest and faithful hearts.
For your patience and faith - From Acts 17:5, Acts 17:13, and from 1-Thessalonians 2:14, we learn, that the people of Thessalonica had suffered much persecution, both from the Jews and their own countrymen; but being thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Gospel, and feeling it to be the power of God unto salvation, no persecution could turn them aside from it. And having suffered for the truth, it was precious to them. Persecution never essentially injured the genuine Church of God.
So that we ourselves glory in you,.... Or "of you"; for though they were the subject concerning which, yet not the object in which they gloried; the apostle elsewhere advises not to glory in men, but only in the Lord; nor was this his practice contrary to his advice, for he did not boast of these persons with respect to their carnal things; he did not glory in their flesh, nor in their riches, nor wisdom, nor strength, nor any external gift; he gloried indeed of their graces, and of the exercise and increase of them; but of these not as of themselves, or as owing to him, and his fellow ministers, but as instances of the grace of God, and for which he gives thanks to him: and besides, he did not glory of these in the presence of God, in whose presence none should glory, but
in the churches of God; the other churches in Macedonia and Achaia, as Philippi, Berea, Corinth, &c. he gave thanks to God for them, and gloried of them before men, or among the saints, to the glory of the grace of God in them, and in order to stir up other churches to an emulation and imitation of them. And the particulars he gloried of them for were as follow,
for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: many and sore were the reproaches, the afflictions, and persecutions that befell them for the sake of Christ, and their profession of him, and his Gospel; and which is more or less the case of everyone that will live godly in Christ Jesus: and these they endured, they bore and stood up under, they were not shocked, and staggered, and moved from the hope of the Gospel by them; which shows that the truth of grace was in them; for where there is not the root of the matter, when tribulation and affliction arise because of the profession of the word, such are offended, stumbled, and quickly gone; but these saints endured their afflictions, and with great patience, without murmuring and repining, and with great constancy, firmness, and resolution of mind. They stood fast in the grace and doctrine of faith, and in the profession of both, which they held without wavering, and none of the things they met with could move them from it. The apostle had mentioned their faith before, and he takes notice of it again, because their patience, constancy, and perseverance in sufferings, arose from it; for the trying of faith works patience, James 1:3. The Ethiopic version leaves out the word "faith", but very wrongly.
glory in you--make our boast of you, literally, "in your case." "Ourselves" implies that not merely did they hear others speaking of the Thessalonians' faith, but they, the missionaries themselves, boasted of it. Compare 1-Thessalonians 1:8, wherein the apostle said, their faith was so well known in various places, that he and his fellow missionaries had no need to speak of it; but here he says, so abounding is their love, combined with faith and patience, that he and his fellow missionaries themselves, make it a matter of glorying in the various churches elsewhere (he was now at Corinth in Achaia, and boasted there of the faith of the Macedonian churches, 2-Corinthians 10:15-17; 2-Corinthians 8:1, at the same time giving the glory to the Lord), not only looking forward to glorying thereat at Christ's coming (1-Thessalonians 2:19), but doing so even now.
patience--in 1-Thessalonians 1:3, "patience of hope." Here hope is tacitly implied as the ground of their patience; 2-Thessalonians 1:5, 2-Thessalonians 1:7 state the object of their hope, namely, the kingdom for which they suffer.
tribulations--literally, "pressures." The Jews were the instigators of the populace and of the magistrates against Christians (Acts 17:6, Acts 17:8).
which ye endure--Greek, "are (now) enduring."
Which ye endure - "That ye may be accounted worthy of the kingdom."
*More commentary available at chapter level.