1 Thessalonians 1
1Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mentionof youin our prayers; 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father; 4knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, 5how that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; even as ye know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you for your sake. 6And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit; 7so that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything. 9For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.
What is 1 Thessalonians 1 about?
Writing about AD 51 from Corinth alongside Silvanus and Timothy, Paul greets the young church at Thessalonica that he had planted only shortly before amid fierce opposition. He gives thanks for their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, taking their changed lives as evidence that God had chosen them, for the gospel had come not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost. So thoroughly had they turned from idols to serve the living and true God that their example sounded out through Macedonia and Achaia, marking them as those who now wait for His Son from heaven. Their conversion sets the pattern for the whole letter, which will steady these new believers in holiness and in the hope of Jesus, who delivers His people from the wrath to come.
Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 1