1 Thessalonians 1:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Jesus,” he says, “Who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Here there is encouragement, consolation, and instruction for them. If God raised Him from the dead, if He is in heaven and will come from there, and if you believed that this is truly so, since without believing you would not have endured such sufferings, then in this there is already sufficient encouragement.

And if the persecutors will certainly be punished, as the Apostle also says in the Second Epistle (2 Thess 1:8-9), then you have another encouragement, and it is no small one. On the other hand, he spoke of awaiting His Son from heaven in order to show that the troubles are present, but the good things are in the future, when Christ comes from heaven.

See then how much hope one must have. Hope that the Crucified One rose, that He ascended into heaven, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead.

This is the confession pronounced at our first entrance into the Church, when, being freed from idols, we approached the living God (1 Thess 1:9). Whoever does not keep it throughout his whole life as a secure treasury acts contrary to his own written bond, which he gave in the confession of faith.

For if baptism is for me the beginning of life, and this day of baptism, the day of regeneration, is the first of days, then clearly the most precious thing of all is also the word that I pronounced in the grace of adoption.

a) The circumstances of the Thessalonians' conversion were, one may say, extraordinary, with manifest signs of their divine election. "Our gospel among you," despite its short duration, "was not in word only," the Apostle writes to them, "but also in power, ... and with much assurance."

"And you ... became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, so that we need not say anything. ... They themselves tell ... how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess 1:5-9).

"If God raised Him from the dead, if He is in heaven and will come from there, and if you have believed that this is truly so, then this already contains sufficient approval."

According to Bishop Theophan, "if in the word 'you turned' one sees the work of faith, then here again all three Christian virtues are indicated: faith in conversion, love in service, and hope in waiting for the Son of God from heaven."

"Yet one cannot fail to see that here the work of hope receives special development. This is not peculiar to this epistle alone. The Lord Himself described the second coming so that one cannot but keep it in mind every hour and minute."

"This subject is also set forth clearly in other New Testament epistles. Thus the expectation of the Son of God from heaven may be called a distinctive feature of the inward disposition of Christians."

It is worthy of note that our new commentator, F. Titov, marks in the Thessalonians' turning from idols to the worship of the true God a grace-given illumination from the Holy Spirit. Amid the crude idolatry of that time, the pagans could not otherwise have risen to the concept of God as an invisible and living Spirit.

In Athens, speech about the true God, the Spirit, was met as idle babbling (Acts 17:18). In Ephesus it was met with a riot (Acts 20:26-29). According to Lucian's testimony, the common people saw the true Zeus in the statues of Phidias. Therefore pious people whispered their prayers into the statue's ear.

Saint Paul distinguishes the service to God that he preached with the words, "to serve the living and true God." "Living" is in contrast to soulless idols. "True" is in contrast to supposed and imagined gods.

They are thought to be gods, but are not (Rom 1:25; Acts 14:15), as blessed Theodoret says. Some vainly think that the Apostle speaks here only from an Old Testament point of view, or only according to the principles of rational natural faith.

They suppose that he speaks this way merely to accommodate those newly converted from Jews and Gentiles, without indicating the features that mark service to God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian features of service to God are faith in the Lord the Redeemer, Who cleanses from sins, and regeneration in Him. This is the reception of the grace of the Most Holy Spirit for resisting sin and overcoming it.

But Saint Paul had continually mentioned the Lord Savior and the Holy Spirit before this, as we have seen. In these very words, too, an indication of this may be understood.

In order to serve the living and true God, one must first approach Him and be reconciled with Him. One can be reconciled with Him only through Jesus Christ, by cleansing one's conscience from dead works through His blood (Heb 9:14).

Nor is this alone required. One must also receive the powers for true service to Him, and these powers proceed from the Holy Spirit in the holy mysteries.

Surely all this was explained to the Thessalonians at the first preaching. Now it is only hinted at by the one general feature of service to the living and true God.

Christianity does not place man in a new rank, but in that rank in which he ought to be by nature, though he had fallen from it.

Moreover, when Saint Paul immediately says, "to wait for His Son," by this one proposition he embraces the whole of Christian dogmatics in brief.

This means that the Thessalonians already knew that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our redemption, sanctification, and resurrection.

"To wait for His Son." Saint Paul defines the aims of the converts by two features: "to serve," which is the work of love, and "to wait," which is the work of hope.

If in the word "you turned" one sees the work of faith, then here again are all three Christian virtues. Faith is in conversion, love in service, and hope in awaiting the Son of God from heaven.

Yet one cannot fail to see that here, too, the work of hope receives the greater development. This corresponds to the character of this Epistle, as well as the second, since both are especially occupied with the second coming of Christ.

This subject, however, is also set forth clearly in all the other writings of the New Testament. Thus the expectation of the Son of God from heaven may be called a distinctive feature of the inner disposition of Christians.

The Lord Himself described the second coming in such a way that one cannot fail to keep it in mind every hour and minute.

"To wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead." In the very first Epistle we meet Saint Paul's naming of the Savior as the Son of God.

This defines His pre-eternal relation to the living and true God, of Whom the Apostle has just spoken. Thus Saint Paul preached to the Thessalonians about the living God not only as one in essence, but also as not one in persons.

He indicated that God has from eternity a Son, God consubstantial with Him, and that this Son is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who came into the world to save us sinners.

"To wait from heaven." This means that He rose and ascended. He ascended there from where He came. "Whom He raised from the dead." This is the chief subject of apostolic preaching, the threshold of Christianity.

Every speech of the holy Apostles, both in Jerusalem and everywhere, was brought back to this. For not a word could be spoken in the name of Him Who was crucified without saying that He rose, ascended into heaven, and will come again from heaven.

Saint Chrysostom says: "You see everything at once: resurrection, ascension, second coming, judgment, reward for the righteous, and punishment for the wicked. The chief proof that Christ Jesus is the Son of God is His resurrection from the dead (Rom 1:4).

"This is what Saint Paul sets forth." "Jesus, who delivers us." After the divine name he places the human name Jesus for no other reason than to indicate the two natures, the condition of our deliverance.

Therefore he immediately adds, "who delivers." He did not say, "who delivered," or "who will deliver," but "who delivers," to indicate the continuity of the deliverance He accomplished, or its eternal significance.

He is the Deliverer foreordained before the ages. How consoling it was to hear that believers from now on are already being delivered from the wrath that will strike all who have no share in faith in the Lord.

Saint Chrysostom says: "Here there is approval, consolation, and instruction for them. If God the Father raised Him from the dead, if He is in heaven and will come from there, and if you have believed that this is truly so, then sufficient approval is already contained in this."

The Lord delivers believers from the wrath to come, that is, from condemnation at the Dread Judgment. This action of righteousness is called wrath because of the strictness of the judgment and the immutability of the decree.

It is called wrath still more because of the feeling with which those subject to condemnation will receive it. The terror that will come upon them will follow the custom of the guilty, who see the Judge as wrathful even when He gently pronounces the decree of eternal righteousness.

The Lord Jesus Christ delivers those who believe in Him from this judgment. In Christ Jesus, judgment on the world has already been accomplished (Jn 12:31).

Only the one who abandons the world and cleaves to Christ by faith is removed from the realm struck by this judgment. He withdraws under the shadow of the Cross.

The blows of God's wrath will not pass through it when the sentence of judgment already pronounced upon the world is brought into execution. "He who believes will not be condemned" (Jn 3:14-18; Jn 5:24).

"God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess 5:9).