Page 17 - Pauline Epistles Student Textbook

Paul had already discussed their coming among them (1 Thess. 1:5). Paul shared how the church had
welcomed the apostles (1 Thess. 1:9). Paul appealed to their knowledge of the apostles’ going
among them as not in vain (1 Thess. 2:1). This suggests that 1 Thessalonians 2:1ff will clarify the
apostles’ ministry among the Thessalonians.

Notice that Paul appeals to the addressees’ knowledge to bear witness that their coming to them
was not in vain. They faced mistreatment in Philippi, nonetheless, went ahead and spoke the gospel
in boldness amidst much opposition. How did the believers at Thessalonica know about the apostles’
mistreatment in Philippi? The proximity of Philippi to Thessalonica makes the speedy spread of
information plausible. Consistent trading is possibly as the means for the fast spread of information.
Philippi was one of the four main cities in Macedonia. The fact that Paul shares his mistreatment gels
well with Paul’s and Silas’ confinement and flogging even when they were Roman citizens (cf. Acts
16:22-40). As Darrell L. Bock notes, “Some exceptions allowed Roman citizens to be beaten, but it
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was never without a full hearing.”

So, in verse 2, Paul did not share details about their ministry among them. But the fact that he
discussed about the proclamation of the gospel among them (1 Thess. 2:2) directs us back to their
conversion in 1 Thessalonians k1:2-10. The Thessalonian believers knew about the apostles’
suffering. Wanamaker argues that the verb here “stresses the continuing results of his missionary
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activity.”

Notice also that the source for Paul’s and his companion’s boldness to proclaim the gospel was God
(1 Thess. 2:2b). If you need motivation in ministry, do not go beyond God. Do not seek it from
wrong places. God is the creator in whom the ministry of the proclamation of the gospel finds its
source.

You do not have to feel God’s provision of boldness for you to go ahead and practice ministry for
God’s glory (Matt 28:19-20). Instead, prayers for faithful proclamation of the truth should be
offered. My graduate professor who used to say that you should always “step out to any God-given
task and expect God to show up” (Dr. Roy King).

Again, Paul begins with for which links us with what he has been discussing in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2.
He spelled out the nature of their proclamation of the gospel. That is their appeal was not from
error, impurity, or deceit (v3). Most scholars suggest, as Wanamaker argues that this kind of writing
suggested the presence of opposers. On whether that argument is bolstered by the internal
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evidence is ambiguous. However, Paul’s proclamation of the gospel in Thessalonica was not without
less persecution and opposition. If it is true that v3 demonstrates the presence of opposers, then,
they should be of Jewish origin with Gentiles as a minority (cf. 1 Thess. 2:14-16). Whatever the case,
Paul and his friend’s appeal was not in that way because they were approved by God, entrusted with
the gospel to please God but not man (v4). In v5, Paul argued that they never used flattery. Believers
at Thessalonica knew it and God was their witness. If flattery denotes saying good words or
appreciating someone for the job well done, then somehow, we have all flattered before.
Apparently, the flattery in Paul’s mind appears to be that one which is exercised in anticipatory of
something in return. In a nutshell, it is a conditionally-wielded type of flattery. Neither were they

30 Darrell L. Bock, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Acts, eds. Robert W.
Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 544.

31 Wanamaker, The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the
Thessalonians, 92.

32 Ibid., 93.

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