Homilies on First Thessalonians

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

“For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe: as you know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

The teacher ought to do nothing with a feeling of being burdened, that tends to the salvation of his disciples. For if the blessed Jacob was buffeted night and day in keeping his flocks, much more ought he, to whom the care of souls is entrusted, to endure all toils, though the work be laborious and mean, looking only to one thing, the salvation of his disciples, and the glory thence arising to God. See then, Paul, a man that was a Preacher, an Apostle of the world, and raised to so great honor, worked with his hands that he might not be burdensome to his disciples.

“For you remember,” he says, “my brethren, our labor and travail.” He had said previously, “we might have been burdensome as the Apostles of Christ,” as he also says in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that they which minister about sacred things eat of the things of the Temple? Even so also did Christ ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel.” But I, he says, would not, but I labored; and he did not merely work, but with much diligence. Observe then what he says; “For you remember,” he has not said, the benefits received from me, but, “our labor and travail: for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God.” And to the Corinthians he said a different thing, “I robbed other Churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you.” And yet even there he worked, but of this he made no mention, but urged what was more striking, as if he had said, I was maintained by others when ministering to you. But here it is not so. But what? “Working night and day.” And there indeed he says, “And when I was present with you, and was in want, I was not a burden on any man,” and, “I took wages that I might minister unto you.” And here he shows that the men were in poverty, but there it was not so.

On this account he frequently addresses them as witnesses. For “you are witnesses,” he says, “and God also”; God was worthy to be believed, but this other was that which most fully assured them. For that indeed was uncertain to those who were ignorant of it; but this was without doubt to all. For do not enquire whether it was Paul who said these things. Much beyond what was necessary he gives them assurance. Wherefore he says, “You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe.” It was proper to praise them again. On this account he sets these things before them, which were sufficient to persuade them. For he that stood there in want, and did not receive anything, would much more not receive anything now. “How holily,” says he, “and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe.”

“As ye know how we exhorted and comforted each one of you, as a father does his own children.” Above having spoken of his behavior here he speaks of his love, which was more than what belonged to his rule over them. And what is said marks his freedom from pride. “As a father his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” When he says, “and testifying,” then he makes mention of “fathers”; although we testified, it was not violently, but like fathers. “Each one of you.” Strange! In so great a multitude to omit no one, neither small nor great, neither rich nor poor. “Exhorting” you, he says; to bear. “And comforting and testifying.” “Exhorting,” therefore they did not seek glory; and “testifying,” therefore they did not flatter. “That ye should walk worthily of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” Observe again, how, in relating, he both teaches and comforts. For if He has called them unto His kingdom, if He called them unto glory, they ought to endure all things. We “entreat” you, not that you should grant us any favor, but that you should gain the kingdom of heaven.

Ver. 13. “And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe.”

It cannot be said, he says, that we indeed do all things unblamably, but you on the other hand have done things unworthy of our course of life. For in hearing us, you gave such heed as if not hearing men, but as if God Himself were exhorting you. Whence is this manifest? Because as he shows from his own temptations and their testimony, and the way in which he acted, that he did not preach with flattery or vainglory; so from their trials, he shows also that they rightly received the word. For whence, he says, unless ye had heard as if God were speaking, did ye endure such perils? And observe his dignity.

Ver. 14, 15, 16. “For you, brethren, became imitators of the Churches of God, which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus: for you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.”

“For you,” he says, “became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judæa.” This is a great consolation. It is no wonder, he says, that they should do these things to you, inasmuch as they have done it also to their own countrymen. And this too is no little proof that the Preaching is true, that even Jews were able to endure all things. “For you also,” he says, “have suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews.” There is something more in his saying, “as they also did in Judæa”; it shows that everywhere they rejoiced, as having nobly contended. He says therefore, “that you also suffered the same things.” And again, what wonder is it, if to you also, when even to the Lord they dared do such things?

Do you see how he introduces this as containing great consolation? And constantly he adverts to it; and upon a close examination one may find it in nearly all his Epistles, how variously, upon all occasions of temptation, he brings forward Christ. Observe accordingly, that here also, when accusing the Jews, he puts them in mind of the Lord, and of the sufferings of the Lord; so well does he know that this is a matter of the greatest consolation.