1 Thessalonians 2:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Which also works in you who believe.” Whence is it clear that you received my preaching as the word of God? From your deeds, he says. It is made manifest in works. If you had not received it in this way, you would not have borne so many trials so manfully. For as the Apostle proves by the dangers he endured that he is no flatterer or deceiver, so their measure is revealed by the afflictions they endured.

Thus our word becomes sound by taking this form, but without spending itself upon it. And that Word became flesh in the same way. Therefore, whoever wishes to approach the consideration of any likeness to the Word of God, though in many respects it is unlike Him, should not consider our word that sounds in the ears, whether it is spoken aloud or thought in silence.

For the words of all languages capable of sound can also be thought in silence. Verses can pass before the spiritual gaze when the bodily lips are silent. Not only sequences of syllables, but also musical modes, since they are material and belong to that form of sense perception called hearing, are accessible through their material images to those who reflect and wish to grasp all this in silence.

But one must pass beyond this, in order to approach that human word through whose likeness, however slight, the Word of God is seen in some measure as in an enigma. I do not mean the word that was given to one prophet or another to hear, concerning which it is said: "And the word of God increased and multiplied" (Acts 6:7).

Again it is said of this word: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17). And again: "When you received from us the heard word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the word of God." In the Scriptures there are countless similar sayings about the word of God, which is scattered in the sounds of the most diverse languages, in men's hearts and in their speech.

But there it is called the word of God because through it divine teaching, not human teaching, is handed down.

Is it not for the beginning of faith that appeared among the Thessalonians that the same Apostle thanks God? "Therefore we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received from us the heard word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works in you who believe."

For what reason, then, does the Apostle give thanks here? He gives thanks vainly and emptily if the One whom he thanks did not do that for which he gives thanks. But since this thanksgiving is neither vain nor empty, then surely God, whom he thanks for this, Himself brought it about that, when they heard the word of God received from the Apostle, the Thessalonians accepted it not as a human word, but as the true word of God.

Thus God, working in human hearts through the calling that accords with His purpose, about which we have already said much, grants them not to hear the Gospel in vain.

“The holy Apostle thanks God for the Thessalonians, that the Word of God reached them, and that they received it, which again is from God. Having received it by hearing, they received it into the heart as the Word of God and as a power governing all things. Here the Apostle also understood the extraordinary gifts of grace, and therefore spoke as though saying, ‘You experience all this; consequently, you have living assurance of the word’s unearthly action. Stand firm, then!’” says Bishop Theophan.

Having in view this Jewish influence upon the Thessalonians, the Apostle points out with special insistence that the Jews are a people satisfied with nothing. They killed the Messiah and even their own (τούς ίδιους) prophets. If they now explain their struggle against the Apostle of the Gentiles as zeal for the glory of God, they must in no way be believed. They are not pleasing to God and arouse aversion in men by their pride and their dreadful national egoism. But they will soon be punished. The wrath of God against them has already come to the end, that is, it is ready to break forth over the sinful people.

The conclusion from all this is one: stand firm in the faith, as indeed you stand. Verses 15 and 16 seem to be an addition. Yet they portray briefly, fully, and powerfully the constant character of stubbornly unbelieving Jews and define their final lot.

Therefore one must suppose that the holy Apostles had a special reason for saying this. They wished to cut off the wavering of faith caused by this thought: the Jews are your own people. They ought to believe you, yet they persecute you. To this the Apostle says: do not look to them. They have always been such. Therefore their end also comes upon them.

For this cause. For what cause? If this is referred to what immediately precedes, it means: because God has called you into His kingdom and glory. Everyone ought to rejoice at this. We too rejoice, thanking God that, in accordance with this calling, you believed our word as the word of God. Without this one cannot become a participant in God's saving dispensation concerning men, which we proclaim.

According to this thought, the Apostle continues to bear witness to his fatherly love for the Thessalonians. But it is better to refer it to all that came before, verses 1-12. You know our entrance among you. You know how many sacrifices we offered, how many labors, how much attention and heartfelt care we used. You believed and crowned our concerns with success. We rejoice in this and thank God.

Saint Chrysostom sees this connection in the words for this cause, and after him Oecumenius and Theophylact. Chrysostom writes: "It cannot be said, he says, that we alone acted blamelessly in all things, while you did something inconsistent with the way we dealt with you. For you listened to us not with the disposition with which men are heard, but you attended to us as though God Himself were instructing you."

We thank God. Saint Paul's aim is to point to the Thessalonians' conviction concerning the divine character of the word as proof of that divine character. He thanks God for such conviction in order to show that it was placed in their hearts by God Himself. By thus giving the conviction a heavenly origin, he displays its non-human importance and awakens the obligation to remain faithful to it.

When you received the word of hearing from us, you accepted it. "He calls the preaching the word of hearing, in which men believe through hearing. For how shall they believe, if they have not heard? Rom 10:14" (Theophylact). Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17), God was pleased that there should be preaching and sent preachers.

It was pleasing to God that all should hear His word. Those counted worthy of this are counted worthy of hearing from God, of hearing the word that proceeds from God and is heard according to God's dispensation. The holy Apostle thanks God for the Thessalonians, because they received the word, obtained it, and because it reached them and they agreed to hear it. This too is from God.

And having so received the word, they received it as the word of God. This again is manifestly from God. Having received the word by hearing, the word that reached you from outside, you took it into your heart not as a human word, though it came through men, but as the word of God.

"You received the word from us, yet such a word as is not ours, but God's, for through us God speaks" (Photius in Oecumenius). Listening to our word, you felt the extraordinary power of the word and acknowledged that it was not earthly, but divine. Together with the word, light entered your souls and drove out darkness. An invisible power entered and stirred up in you the energy of dormant spiritual powers.

This is God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who shone in your hearts (2 Cor 4:6). You recognized this and were convinced that our word was the word of God, and you received it as such.

Which also works in you. The action of the word was not momentary. Having once begun, it continues without interruption. In the Savior's parable, after seed is cast into the earth, it then of itself brings forth blade, stalk, ear, and grain. So among the Thessalonians the evangelical word, once received in the heart by faith, of itself, without external mediation, developed more and more.

It occupied the soil of the heart more widely, enlightened concepts, corrected feeling, and brought morals into order. Like medicine received, it healed what was diseased and restored the healthy powers of nature. When it is received not only by the mind and hearing, but by the heart, it does not remain idle. It enters life and works in it (2 Pet 1:8), as an all-moving and all-ordering power.

Yet the holy Apostle understood not only this inner action of the word, but also the extraordinary gifts of grace that everywhere accompanied the evangelical word. Of course, the Thessalonians, having been counted worthy of prophetic grace, prophesied, spoke in tongues, and performed extraordinary wonders (Theodoret and Oecumenius).

The Apostle speaks as if saying: you experience all this. Therefore you have living assurance of the heavenly action of the word, which bears witness that the word itself is not earthly, ordinary, or human. Stand firm, then!

In you who believe means: because you believe, insofar as you believe, under the condition of faith. Without faith the word will not enter the heart, nor can it work in it. If it has entered and works in you, this is only because you believed and do believe.

The power in believing is this. On every point of faith, and to every question about it, the heart answers without any deliberation: God has so commanded. This conviction gives thought its steadfastness and gives moral strength to obedience to God's will. When all the powers of the spirit are united by faith, the spirit receives wholeness and the power proper to it.

At the same time, it becomes a strong vessel for holding the gifts of grace. The Apostle says to the Thessalonians: for the sake of your faith, see what fruits you have received. Therefore prize it.