1 Thessalonians 2:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“As from what the Apostle himself suffered he proved above that he preached what is divine, so from what the Thessalonians endured he now proves that the Thessalonians received his preaching as the Word of God,” says Oecumenius.

Saint Chrysostom speaks in the Apostle’s person: “How would you, the Thessalonians, have endured such dangers if you had not given heed to our words as to the words of God Himself? If even the Jews resolved to endure everything patiently for the faith, this serves as no small proof that the preaching is true.

But perhaps the Jews did not know Him, the Lord? On the contrary, they knew Him very well. What then? Did they not kill and stone their own prophets, whose writings they carry everywhere? Certainly they did not act so out of love for the truth. Therefore the Apostle not only offers consolation in temptations, but also persuades them not to think that the Jews acted so out of love for the truth, and not to be tempted by this.

If the Gospel must be preached to the whole world, and the Jews oppose this, then they are common enemies of the world. Having said, ‘wrath has come upon them,’ the Apostle showed that wrath must certainly follow, for it was appointed and foretold.”

“Clearly,” says Bishop Theophan, “the Apostle has in view the Lord’s prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Hebrew people. They go against the course, determined by God, of the restoration of mankind. Therefore they are not worthy to be preserved.

When the Apostle wrote this, the beginnings of oppression from the Romans had already appeared. They made it clear that what the Lord had foretold was near fulfillment. Not loving God, the Jews are also ill-disposed toward men and always go against what God sends for men’s benefit.

They have zeal, but not according to knowledge (Rom 10:2). They think they offer service to God (Jn 16:2), but in deed they oppose Him. Their displeasing of God and opposition to men is clearly visible in their hindering the preaching of the Gospel. They do not want it to pass to the nations and save them. This is why a final wrathful punishment follows upon them.”

It is worthy of note that the Apostle considers the persecutors of the Thessalonian Christians to be pagans. This, of course, was so according to the Apostle’s description, whereas during his own time the Jews chiefly rose against him. Thus there is no disagreement between Saint Paul’s testimony (1 Thess 2:14–16) and the book of Acts (17:5), on the basis of which ill-disposed investigators draw various unfavorable conclusions.

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.

Such is the law governing the appearance on earth of the truth about Christ Jesus: the division of men and the rising of some against others (Mt 10:35-37). Those who do not receive the word of God arm themselves against those who receive and bear it, and persecute them. So it was in Judea, so it is everywhere, and so it is among you.

The fact that men rose against you is no reproach to the word and no undermining of its truth. On the contrary, it proves that the word is extraordinary, not earthly, but divine.

For shows that the Apostle is giving a reason here. For what? For what he had just said, that the word preached by them and received by the Thessalonians is divine and produces divine power and action in them.

How do hostility and persecution from one's own people serve as proof of this? In this way: the received word, by the action of grace, changed the thoughts, morals, and conduct of those who believed. This separated them from their own people and armed the latter against them.

Persecutions prove the divine character of the word because they point to an essential change in the minds and hearts of believers. Such a change could not have occurred if the word were not divine. On the other hand, the persecuted endure and stand firm in what is theirs. Whence comes this? From the same power of the word received with faith.

Thus the divine character of the word is proved both by the existence of persecution and by the fact that those who received the word remain faithful to it despite this persecution. Saint Chrysostom says: "He proves that they received the word properly by the trials to which they were subjected. How, he says, would you have endured such dangers if you had not attended to our words as to the words of God Himself?"

Oecumenius adds: "That you received our word as the word of God is evident from the fact that you were able to endure such afflictions. As above the Apostle proved from what he himself suffered that he preaches what is divine, so now from what they suffered he proves that they received his preaching as the word of God." The same is found in Theophylact.

By comparing the Church of Thessalonica with the Churches of Judea, he grants it great honor and inspires it to patience. Even proselytes from the Gentiles were accustomed to look upon Jerusalem and Judea as the sanctuary of God's truth. All the more reverently, then, should Christians from the Gentiles have regarded those who were there.

There the Lord acted, there the Holy Spirit descended, there the first Churches were founded, and from there the Apostles went forth into the whole world. The Churches there were exemplary, and to become like them was glory for Christians living far away. Here the prophecy of Saint Isaiah was fulfilled, concerning the glory of Zion and the desirable movement of the nations toward it for enlightenment and truth (Isa 2:2-3).

Having pointed to the Churches in Judea, the Apostle characterizes them thus: the churches of God in Christ Jesus, in order to show that not all communities there are true Churches. "Since the Jewish synagogues also appeared to be in God, the Apostle says of the Churches of believers that they are not only in God, but also in Christ Jesus. For he who rejects the Son has also rejected the Father" (Oecumenius, and similarly Theophylact).

Here too the Apostle has the same aim: to hold the Thessalonians' attention on the thought of the division everywhere produced by the word of truth that they preach. This was necessary for him in order to remove the perplexity prompted by the unbelief of the Jews.

How is it, they might say, that the Jews, worshippers of the true God and guardians of His revelations, do not believe you? Surely your words are not from God? The Apostle breaks this perplexity by saying that not all disbelieve. Then, in verses 15 and 16, he portrays the unbelieving Jews in dark colors.

The better part of the Jews believed and formed glorious Churches in Christ Jesus. These very ones suffer from their own blood relatives, the Jews, as you suffer from your own countrymen. If all Jews failed to believe, the perplexity would be strong. But since whole Churches have been formed from them, this is a powerful proof of the truth of the word.

For those who believed suffer from their own people, and in such a case one must have stronger motives and grounds for faith than for unbelief. Unbelief would have left them in peace, amid the old order, which they themselves had formerly valued highly.

Saint Chrysostom says: "If the Jews too resolved to endure all things patiently for the faith, this serves as no small proof that the preaching is true." Theophylact continues the same thought: "It is no small proof of the truth of the Gospel that Jews willingly suffer for what they themselves formerly persecuted."

Having thus separated the believing Jews from the unbelieving, the holy Apostle lays the full weight of judgment strictly upon the latter.