Page 13 - Pauline Epistles Student Textbook

“Before our God and Father “demonstrates the sincerity of this remembrance in prayer. Some in the
Thessalonian church had questioned Paul’s motives in dealing with them. So right from the
beginning of his letter Paul dispels this suspicion and confronts it more directly later in Chapters 2
and 3. In 2:10 he says, “You are my witnesses, and so is God.”

Labor Prompted by Love (1 Thess. 1:3b) and labor of love (ESV)

In addition to the work produced by faith, Paul and his companion kept on expressing thanksgiving
to God because of their labor prompted by love. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 suggests that this labor was
the love for not only their brothers and sisters, but also for all those who were in Macedonia. And
Paul argues that they did not need any instruction concerning how to love one another because they
were taught by God Himself how to do that. That love must be unconditional love. Actually, Paul
described what unconditional love does: it is patient, kind, it does not envy, does not boast, it is not
proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrong, it does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth (1 Cor. 13:8-6). Believers at Thessalonica,
despite undergoing intense suffering, persecution, and affliction, continued to demonstrate this kind
of love for each other.

Endurance Inspired by Hope in Our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:3c) and steadfastness of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Paul and his companions continued to convey thanksgiving to God on their behalf because of their
exercise of endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:3b). The church at
Thessalonica faced afflictions head-on (1 Thess. 3:3, 5). Further, they underwent intense grief from
the loss of their beloved ones in the family of God (4:13). The Thessalonian believers needed
endurance to be able to go through those circumstances. The Thessalonian believers did not give up
trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ even though they had to experience and feel the complete weight of
sufferings, persecutions, afflictions, and grief. Wanamaker says that “it was their firmly fixed hope in
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Jesus Christ that gave them the strength to persevere in their new Christian beliefs and behavior.”

nd
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2 Ground (1 Thess. 1:4-5) For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,
5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with
full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. (ESV)

Notice that Paul begins verse four with the conjunction “for” or “because”. They kept giving thanks
to God on their behalf because they knew that those brothers and sisters in Christ were not only
loved by God but chosen as well. God’s election as Leon Morris states it “proceeds from the fact of
God’s great love. It is not a device for sentencing people to eternal torment, but for rescuing them
from it. It protects us from thinking of salvation as dependent on human whims and roots it squarely
in the will of God.”
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How did Paul know that they were chosen? He gave three rationales to that question; (1) the gospel
went to them with words and power, (2) with the Holy Spirit, and (3) deep conviction. Paul had
already mentioned the two persons of the trinity, God the Father and God the Son (1 Thess. 1:1). He
completes the concept of trinity by including the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5). Paul is remembering the
time when the Thessalonian believers placed their faith in Christ after the proclamation of the gospel
(cf. Acts 17:1-5). He reminded them of the indispensability of the Holy Spirit in salvation. The Holy

24 Wanamaker, NIGTC: The Epistles to the Thessalonians, 76.
25 Morris, The New International Commentary on New Testament: The First and Second Epistles to the
Thessalonians, 43-44.

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