d Matt. x. 40. Gal. iv. 14. 2 Pet. iii. 2. d e God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judæa are in Christ Jesus: for 'ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: * Gal. i. 22. f Acts xvii. 5, 13. g Heb. x. 33, 34. h Acts ii. 23. & iii. 15. & v. 30. & vii. 52. g 15 h Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and of i. 5 ("our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power)." "We thank God without ceasing." We must remember that this was written shortly after the extraordinary putting forth of God's power in the conversion of the Thessalonians, when it was yet fresh in the Apostle's mind. "The word of men . . . the word of God." This word was the word preached by the Apostle. If the utterances of St. Paul were thus the word of God, much more that which he wrote with deliberation and purpose and which has been preserved in the Church as her standard of doctrine. "Which effectually worketh also in you that believe." When they received it, it proved itself to be the word of the living God by the transformation which it wrought in them. 66 14. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of.... Judæa," &c. Why does the Apostle single out the churches of Judæa as those which the Church of Thessalonica so closely followed? Because their persecution was really owing to the Jews; the heathen Thessalonians were incited to harass them, not of themselves, but by the Jews, and they must not expect treatment different from what the Jews accorded to their own flesh and blood in Judæa. 15. "Who both killed the Lord Jesus," &c. "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." "And their own prophets" (perhaps "the prophets "). The Lord Himself especially designates Jerusalem as the slayer of the prophets. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee " (Matth. xxiii. 37). 66 CHAP. II.] TO FILL UP THEIR SINS ALWAY. k 1their own prophets, and have || persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men : 16 1Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, " to fill up their sins alway: m for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. 17 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, en 103 Matt. v. 12. & xxiii. 34, 37. Luke xiii, 33, 34. Acts vii. 52. 15. "Their own prophets." So K., L., most Cursives, Syriac, Goth. ; but &, A., B., D., E., F., G., P., eight Cursives, Ital., Vulg., Sah., Copt., Arm., Eth., read, "the prophets." "And they please not God." Though He had chosen them to Himself as especially His own people, though He had given them the law, and the prophets, and sent His Son as one of themselves to win them back to Him. "And are contrary to all men." How? Because if we ought to speak to the world, and they forbid us, they are the common enemies of mankind. A heathen writer, Tacitus, notices their sullen alienation from the rest of mankind (“adversus omnes alios hostile odium "). 16. "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.. for the wrath is come," &c. "To fill up their sins alway." Remember the Lord's withering denunciation, “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers (Matth. xxiii. 32). "The wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." This must be said in anticipation of the Romans coming and taking away their place and nation. The prophecies of our Lord respecting the destruction of Jerusalem must have been well known to St. Paul, and were so circumstantial that he would consider them as history, and regard what the Lord predicted as already fulfilled. 17. "But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart," &c. "Taken from you." The original word is much more tender and affectionate, it is "bereaved from you," bereaved in being separated from you, returning as it were deavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great p ch. iii. 10. q Rom. i. 13. & xv. 22. r 2 Cor. i. 14. Phil. ii. 16. & iv. 1. s Prov. xvi. 31. desire. 18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. r 8 19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of t Or, glorying? our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 1 Cor. xv. 23. ch. iii. 13. Rev. i. 7. & xxii. 12. 20 For ye are our glory and joy. to the idea of the father and his children, only he invests the parent with the feelings of bereavement. "Endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire." 18. "Wherefore we would have come . . . . but Satan hindered us." In what way? By what external circumstances Satan or the adversary hindered the accomplishment of his desire we know not. Ancient commentators, as Chrysostom, who lived so much nearer to the time of the Apostles, know nothing of it. It teaches, however, this important lesson, that God for the furtherance of His all-wise purposes, allows Satan to have some power in controlling events, just as He allows men to work their own will whilst they bring about the furtherance of His designs. The hindrance of Satan is evil, but it is ordered by God to bring about a greater good, just as the very existence of evil itself is. 19, 20. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing.. ye are our glory and joy." He might well desire earnestly to come and see them again. For they were his hope-the hope that he had not run in vain or spent his strength for nought; his joy, that God had made him the honoured instrument of so successful a work-his crown of rejoicing, the summit, the very acme of his joy or glory. Thus Cornelia said of her children, when another had been displaying her jewels, "These are my jewels." Looking at them as his spiritual children he might have had in his mind Proverbs xvii. 6, "Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers." CHAP. III.] LEFT AT ATHENS ALONE. 105 CHAP. III. W a b HEREFORE 2 when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens ver. 5. alone; b Acts xvii. 15. c sent Timotheus, our brother, and Rom. xvi. 21. 1 Cor. xvi. 10. 2 Cor. i. 19. 1, 2. "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good.... to comfort you concerning your faith." "We thought it good to be left at Athens alone." St. Paul yearned to know whether their faith stood firm; and yet he yearned for the company of his disciples and fellow labourers; for no one could endure to wage such a warfare as his was alone and single handed. This passage tells us of a circumstance which we do not gather from the history in the Acts, that is, of a journey of Timotheus to Thessalonica whilst St. Paul was at Athens. The account of St. Paul leaving Macedonia and arriving at Athens is given in Acts xvii. 13, &c.: "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. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed." If we had only the account in the Acts, we should have supposed that his two companions did not join him till he had been some time at Corinth (Acts xviii. 5), but this is quite inconsistent with the earnest wish that they should come to him at Athens "with all speed." Now from this Epistle we gather that they did so join him in Athens as he wished, but the desire to know the spiritual state of the Thessalonians was uppermost in the Apostle's mind, and he sent Timothy back that he might bring him an exact account of matters. It has been asked why did the Apostle say that he thought it good to be left alone when apparently Silas was with him? To which we answer that very probably he had sent Silas away on some other mission. 1 minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: d Eph. iii. 13. 3 That no man should be moved by these e e Acts ix. 16. & afflictions: for yourselves know that we are ap xiv. 22. & xx. 23. & xxi. 11. 1 Cor. iv. 9. 2 Tim. iii. 12. 1 Pet. ii. 21. f Acts xx. 24. pointed thereunto. 4 'For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know. 2. "And minister of God." So &, B., P., four Cursives, Vulg., Goth., Copt. "Our fellow labourer." So K., L., most Cursives, Syriac. D. reads "fellow worker with God." 4. "We should suffer." Properly, "Our brother and "we are to suffer." minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ." He very probably bears this testimony to Timothy, to show that he has sent one who could, if any one could, supply his place to them. "To establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith." No one could do this so well as Timothy, of whom shortly after the Apostle wrote, "My beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church" (1 Cor. iv. 17). Nothing would so tend to confirm the Thessalonians as the repetition of St. Paul's teaching. "To comfort you concerning (or in the matter of) your faith.” 3. "That no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves," &c. It was almost an article of faith in that age that Christians must partake of the sufferings of Christ. It was part of the faithful saying, "If we suffer we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim. ii. 12). And when Ananias was sent to restore St. Paul at his conversion, the Lord said, "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake" (Acts ix. 16). Thus also Acts xiv. 32, “confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of heaven." 4. "For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer," &c. This does not mean that he foretold to the Thessalonians the particular shape which this tribulation would |