1:1 Introductory Greetings
SUMMARY OF I THESSALONIANS 1:
Salutation. Thanksgiving for the Faith of the Thessalonians. Commendation for Spreading the Gospel. The Great Change in Their Lives.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus. Silvanus is the same as the Silas of Acts. We learn from Acts (chapters 15 to 18) that both Silas and Timothy attended Paul on the second missionary journey during which the Epistle was written. Paul does not speak of his apostleship in this salutation, as in later epistles, because at this early period the Judaizing Christians had not begun to spread doubts whether he was an apostle.
In God the Father. Hence, separated from the Gentiles.
{in] the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, separated from the Jews.
Grace [be] unto you, and peace. See PNT Ro 1:7.
1:1 Paul - In this epistle St. Paul neither uses the title of an apostle, nor any other, as writing to pious and simple - hearted men, with the utmost familiarity. There is a peculiar sweetness in this epistle, unmixed with any sharpness or reproof: those evils which the apostles afterward reproved having not yet crept into the church.
1:1-5 As all good comes from God, so no good can be hoped for by sinners, but from God in Christ. And the best good may be expected from God, as our Father, for the sake of Christ. We should pray, not only for ourselves, but for others also; remembering them without ceasing. Wherever there is a true faith, it will work; it will affect both the heart and life. Faith works by love; it shows itself in love to God, and love to our neighbour. And wherever there is a well-grounded hope of eternal life, this will appear by the exercise of patience; and it is a sign of sincerity, when in all we do, we seek to approve ourselves to God. By this we may know our election, if we not only speak of the things of God with out lips, but feel their power in our hearts, mortifying our lusts, weaning us from the world, and raising us up to heavenly things. Unless the Spirit of God comes with the word of God, it will be to us a dead letter. Thus they entertained it by the power of the Holy Ghost. They were fully convinced of the truth of it, so as not to be shaken in mind by objections and doubts; and they were willing to leave all for Christ, and to venture their souls and everlasting condition upon the truth of the gospel revelation.
