1 Thessalonians 1:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What does “what kind of entrance we had to you” mean? It means that it was joined with dangers, with a thousand deaths. Yet nothing troubled you. On the contrary, you treated us as though nothing had happened. After this you received us as though you had suffered no evil, but had enjoyed countless blessings.

The entrance mentioned here was the second one. The Apostle and his companions left Thessalonica for Berea while being persecuted. Later, when they came again to the Thessalonians, they were received by them in such a way that the Thessalonians themselves were honored by the Apostles. These latter were ready to lay down their own souls for them.

Thus the expression “what kind of entrance we had to you” has a double meaning. It contains praise both for the Apostle and his companions and for the Thessalonians. But the Apostle turned it into praise of the Thessalonians.

“How,” he says, “you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” That is, you turned very easily, with great readiness, and felt no need of special effort in order to decide to serve the living and true God.

“And how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” That is, you turned easily and with greater readiness. Here he also very fittingly inserted an exhortation, skillfully reminding them from what and to what they had passed, so that they might live worthily of it.

“And how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” The divine Apostle has clearly taught us how the saying should be understood: “that they may know You, the only true God” (Jn 17:3). For the Apostle called the Existing God “living and true” not by comparing Him with the Son, but by comparing Him with gods that do not exist. He named Him living because those gods are not living, and true because they are falsely called gods.

But are the Stundists right to apply this passage to the holy icons and call them dead, boasting that they are servants only of the living God? An icon is not nothing in the world. The wood is dead, and the paints are dead. But the countenance depicted by the paints is not dead. It corresponds to an actual manifestation of the eternally living God.

The circumstances of the Thessalonians’ conversion may be called extraordinary, with clear 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 in much assurance.” And “you ... became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, so that we have no need to say anything. ... They themselves report ... how, in so remarkable a way, you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess 1:5-9).

According to St. John Chrysostom, here “we see everything at once: the resurrection, the ascension, the second coming, the judgment, the reward of the righteous, and the punishment of 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 St. Paul sets forth. ... Here there is approval, consolation, and instruction. 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 sufficient approval is already contained in this.”

According to Bishop Theophan’s explanation, “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 awaiting the Son of God from heaven. Yet one cannot fail to see that here too the work of hope is given primary development. This is not contrary to the character of this Epistle. The second coming is described by the Lord Himself in such a way that one cannot but keep it in mind every hour and every minute. ... This subject is also set forth clearly in other Epistles of the New Testament. Thus the expectation of the Son of God from heaven is, one may say, a distinctive mark of the inward disposition of Christians.”

It is worthy of note that our new interpreter, F. Titov, observes in the Thessalonians’ turning from idols to the worship of the true God a gracious illumination from the Holy Spirit. With the crude idolatry of that time, pagans could not otherwise rise to the concept of God as invisible and living Spirit. In Athens, speech about the true God, the Spirit, was received as babbling (Acts 17:18). In Ephesus it was received with a riot (Acts 20:26-29). According to Lucian’s testimony, the common people saw the real Zeus in Phidias’s statues. Therefore pious people whispered their prayers into the ear of the statue.

Everywhere they know of the faith of the Thessalonians, so that the Apostle does not even need to report it. They know also how honorably and wisely the Apostle acted, that is, his entrance. They know how impatiently the Thessalonians await from heaven Jesus, their constant deliverer, ρυόμενον, from the wrath of God that threatens mankind.

“And how you turned.” This means how wondrously the change of the Thessalonians’ hearts was accomplished, and how easily and readily they turned. They seemed to feel no need of special effort in order to serve the living and true God, as Chrysostom says. This too happened despite outward oppression.

In this “how,” on the lips of those reporting, one hears the joy of Christians elsewhere at the news of the Thessalonians’ conversion. They rejoiced as at the increase of the common brotherhood, one throughout the world in Christ, and at the spreading of the glory of the faith of Christ.

“How you turned to God from idols” is the same as in other places: from these vain things to the living God, Who made heaven and earth (Acts 14:15), or from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God (Acts 26:18, 20). It is clear that the conversion did not consist merely in a change of confession and manner of worship. It was accompanied by an inward change, after which their former state, in comparison with the new one, was like darkness compared with light.

There was therefore something to report. The Thessalonians knew what joyful and blessed event St. Paul was bringing to their remembrance when he spoke of these reports. “To serve the living and true God,” see further 1 Thess 1:10.