B. Divine Judgment (1:6-10)
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5 All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
We come now to one of Paul's long and complicated sentences, for in the Greek verses 3-10 form one sentence. It is too long and involved to fit comfortably into English, and translations break it into smaller sentences for easier understanding. But we should not miss the point that it is all one complicated piece of Paul's argument. In this section he moves from thanksgiving for the growing faith of the Thessalonians to the way they have stood up to persecution and the truth that this shows that God is with them.
3 A thanksgiving was the common epistolary convention at this point of a letter, but, as we saw in the first epistle, Paul adapts the conventional form to his own particular needs. Now he utters a thanksgiving, but it is far from being a perfunctory compliance with convention. Some expositors have seen in "we ought" (repeated in 2:13) and "rightly so" indications that this epistle is colder and more formal than the former one, all the more so in that Paul uses these expressions nowhere else. Besides overlooking the warmth of the expressions that follow, this view fails to take into consideration the whole context in which the words are set.3 Paul has already written a very warm letter, containing some passages of high praise for the Thessalonian church. It is probable that in the subsequent communication that they had had with him (whether by letter, or by word of mouth) they had said that they were not worthy of such praise. Paul strongly maintains that his words had not been too strong. There is an obligation resting on him, he says. The implication is that it would be wrong not to give thanks to God in such a situation. There is a certain emphasis on "we ought," and this is reinforced by the adverb "always." The quality of the Christian life of the Thessalonians imposed a lasting obligation on the apostles to render thanks to God. Paul passes from personal obligation to the fitness of things in the expression, "and rightly so."5 In praising the advance of the Thessalonians in the faith he was doing no more than giving due recognition to the existing state of affairs.6
In the first epistle Paul had given thanks for their faith, love, and hope. The absence of "endurance inspired by hope" here is probably not significant, for as the letter proceeds it does not appear that he thinks the Thessalonians to be deficient in hope. Moreover, in verse 4 he says that he boasts of their "perseverance." It is significant that the two matters for which he now gives thanks are both mentioned in the former letter as subjects for improvement. In 3:10 he had spoken of his desire to perfect what was lacking in their faith, and in 3:12 he had prayed that their love might abound. Now he is able to thank God for the growth of their faith and the abundance of their love. His verb for "is growing more and more" is an unusual one (here only in the Greek Bible), and gives the thought of a very vigorous growth. The verb "is increasing" is the one he used in the prayer of 1 Thessalonians 3:12, so that he is recording the exact answer to his prayer.?
In several places in both epistles Paul uses expressions that indicate that all the Thessalonians are being included in some word of praise or greeting. He seems to be at pains to include them all, making no distinctions. It is as though he insists that, while he must rebuke some of them for their failings, yet there are no such grievous offenses as put people beyond the pale. Here we have a typical example. Paul points out that the love of which he speaks is to be found throughout the whole community. It is "the love every one of you has for each other." The expression is a strong one. Clearly Paul is making no exceptions. Love was a bond uniting the whole church.
4 All this has a most unexpected result.8 "We" is strongly emphatic, "we ourselves," and is much more emphatic than we would have expected in such a connection. It implies a strong contrast. The difficulty is that no one is mentioned with whom "we" is being contrasted. Some exegetes have thought that the apostles are being contrasted with the fainthearted among the Thessalonians, or with the whole church. This may be so, but here there seems to be no real grammatical reason. Nor can we hold that Paul expected the Thessalonians to boast of their achievements. Our best understanding seems to be that it was very unusual for the founders of a church to boast of that church. Other people might do so (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9), but not the founders. Yet in the case of the church at Thessalonica the qualities of which Paul speaks had been displayed in such outstanding measure that even those whose preaching had brought that church into being could not forebear to utter its praises. They did not do this apologetically, for the word "boast" is not the usual one, but a strong compound (by the use of which, Frame says, Paul "intensifies the point"; cf. JB, "we can take special pride"). In line with this is the fact that his boasting is carried out "among9 God's churches." There is no limit to any one region. We are not, of course, to understand that Paul had systematically told every church in existence about the Thessalonians, but his choice of such an inclusive expression indicates that his praise of them had been completely uninhibited.
In the previous verse Paul found two things in particular for which he thanked God, and now he mentions two for which he boasted about the converts. "Perseverance" is an active, courageous quality, rather than a passive resignation (see on 1 Thess. 1:3). It is closely linked with faith, there being a single article that unites them. We are probably to understand the former as the fruit of the latter. Calvin explains the passage in this way: "We glory in the patience which springs from faith, and we bear witness that it eminently shines forth in you." He goes on to say, "the more proficiency any one makes in faith, he will be so much the more endued with patience for enduring all things with fortitude, as on the other hand, softness and impatience under adversity betoken unbelief on our part." Some commentators understand "faith" here in the sense of "faithfulness" (e.g., Thomas), but this does not seem warranted. The word has this meaning when it refers to God (e.g., Rom. 3:3), but there are good reasons for doubting the contention that in the New Testament it sometimes means "faithfulness" when it is used of people. I ° In such contexts it almost always, perhaps always, has the meaning "faith," "trust" It has this meaning in the preceding verse, and there is no good reason for seeing a change here. It is the human response to the faithfulness of God. It is the believer's reliance on God's faithfulness for all things. It is a continuing on in one's life of faith. It is not any human virtue, be it constancy or any other. This concept is central to Christianity, and occurs many times. The frequency with which the word must denote "faith" is impressive. In this passage the apostle appears to mean that the faith of the Thessalonians had not failed under the stress of persecution, and for that he gloried on their behalf. See further on 3:2 (see also 1 Thess. 3:2, 5, 7, 10).
The way of the Thessalonian church had been far from easy (cf. 1 Thess. 1:6; 2:14, etc.). The use of "all" shows that their troubles had been many, while the present tense of the verb "are enduring" makes it plain that their difficulties were not yet over. Of the two words Paul uses to describe their troubles "persecutions" is the more specific. It points to suffering endured on account of the faith. I I "Trials" might mean troubles of any kind (see on 1 Thess. 1:6). In this passage there is not much difference between them. Both refer to the sufferings that the converts had had to endure as Jews and Gentiles alike tried to turn them from the faith. Paul boasted of their continuing endurance. We learn more about the trials this church had endured from Paul's treatment of the theme in 1 Thessalonians 3. It is clear that he had been deeply interested in both the troubles that church had endured and the way it had endured them.
5 But God is over all, and neither their sufferings nor their bearing under their sufferings should be interpreted other than in the light of this great fact.12 It is at first sight somewhat difficult to follow the apostle's train of thought. To us the fact of suffering seems to deny, rather than to prove, that God is working out his righteous purpose.13 But two things must be said here. One is that the New Testament does not look on suffering in quite the same way as do most modern people. To us suffering is an evil in itself, something to be avoided at all costs. Now while the New Testament does not gloss over this aspect of suffering it does not lose sight either of the fact that in the good providence of God suffering is often the means of working out God's eternal purpose.14 It develops in the sufferer qualities of character. It teaches valuable lessons. Suffering is not thought of as something that may possibly be avoided by the Christian. For believers it is inevitable. They are appointed to it (1 Thess. 3:3). They must live out their lives and develop their Christian character in a world dominated by non-Christian ideas. Their faith is accordingly not some fragile thing, to be kept in a kind of spiritual cotton wool, insulated from all shocks. It is robust. It is to be manifested in the fires of trouble and in the furnace of affliction. Furthermore, not only is it to be manifested there, but, in part at any rate, it is to be fashioned in such places. The very troubles and afflictions that the world heaps on believers become, under God, the means of making those believers what they ought to be. When we have come to regard suffering in this light, it is not to be thought of as evidence that God has forsaken his people, but as evidence that God is with them. Paul can rejoice that in his flesh he fills up "what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). Such suffering is a vivid token of the presence of God.
The second point we must bear in mind is that in this verse the "evidence that God's judgment is right"15 is probably not suffering itself, but the whole of the previous clause. That is to say, it includes also the bearing of the Thessalonians under suffering.16 God had used the persecutions and afflictions as the means of accomplishing that which he had pleased, namely, that the believers should be counted worthy (or perhaps "be shown to be worthy")17 of the kingdom.18 Translations like "that you may be made worthy" (RSV) or "you will become worthy" (GNB) miss the point. There is no idea that their endurance of suffering constituted a merit that gained them membership in the kingdom. The thought is that all is of God. He called them, and then proceeded to lead them in the right way. This means that the suffering they endure is to be seen as his Fatherly discipline. It helped to shape them into what he would have them be. He gave them all the grace needed to endure. Then at the end it is not said that they are worthy but that they are counted worthy. It is still all of God. God gives the verdict in accordance with his eternal purpose. The concluding "for which you are suffering" brings their suffering into intimate relation with the kingdom. It does not modify the previous statement in the direction of attributing merit to suffering. The Greek preposition rendered "for"19 has the meaning "on behalf of," perhaps "in the interest of," and not "with a view to," "in order to gain which." The addition of "also" (which NIV omits) raises a small problem. It may link Paul with the Thessalonians. He was suffering for the faith, and they were suffering also. Or it may link present suffering and future glory. "You are both suffering and also being counted worthy" would then be the thought. Grammatically either is possible, but perhaps the former is slightly more probable (cf. Phil. 1:28).