1 Thessalonians 1:5

The letter opens the way letters opened in that day, with the senders, the readers and a greeting. Paul names two companions alongside himself. Silvanus is the Silas of Acts, one of the “chief men among the brethren” in Jerusalem (Acts 15:22). Timotheus is Timothy, who joined Paul on his travels (Acts 16:1–3) and became his beloved son in the faith and faithful fellow worker. Both men had helped to found this church, and Paul later sent Timothy back to strengthen the believers and see how they were holding up under trial (1 Thessalonians 3:2–5). Naming them shows that the three preached one gospel together, and it gives the letter the warmth of people who all loved this church. That is why “we” runs through the verses that follow.

Paul gives himself no title here. In most of his letters he calls himself an apostle, and leaving the word out here is perhaps a sign of the close bond he shared with this church, which gave him no need to defend his authority.

The word for church, ekklēsía, means an assembly or congregation. In the New Testament it is a Christian community, whether one local church, like the one in Thessalonica, or the whole body of believers. What marks out this assembly is where it lives: “in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ”. The small word en, “in”, speaks of a fixed position, in a place, a time or a state, and here it names the sphere in which the church exists. These believers met in a Greek port, but their life, their security and their very being rest in God.

Being “in Christ” runs through all of Paul’s letters. God “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). It is through Christ that we are in God at all. Through him we have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), in him “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9), and through the blood of his cross God has reconciled us to himself (Colossians 1:20). So the church’s whole existence, from its first day, depends on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

“Grace be unto you, and peace” is Paul’s usual greeting, and he opens other letters with the same blessing (Romans 1:7, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3). Grace, charis, is God’s unmerited favour, the ground of our salvation, and also his strength given to us day by day. The word for peace, eirḗnē, probably comes from a verb meaning to join, and it means peace and, by extension, prosperity. In Scripture it carries the fulness of the Hebrew shalom: wholeness, well-being and reconciliation, above all with God. The greeting joins a Greek blessing and a Hebrew one, and fills both with the gospel.

Both gifts come “from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ”. Paul names the Father and the Son side by side as the one source of every blessing, because they are equal and act as one in saving us. Grace and peace reach us through what Christ has done in his death and resurrection. “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), and “of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). God is named twice in the verse, first as the Father in whom the church lives and then as “our Father” who gives it grace.

“We give thanks to God always for you all” (verse 2). The verb, eucharistéō, means to be grateful and to give thanks, and the thanks go “to God”, because the faith of these believers is his work. “Always” is pántote, at all times, on every occasion: each time Paul and his companions prayed, the Thessalonians were in their thanks. “For you all” takes in every member, so the whole church is held before God together.

“Making mention of you in our prayers” uses mneía, a noun from a verb meaning to remember. It is remembrance, and in prayer it means naming people before God by name, with their needs and their growth. Paul opens several letters this way (Philippians 1:3–4, Colossians 1:3, Ephesians 1:16), and here his thanks are warm and unreserved. Elsewhere he urges the churches to pray in the same way, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18).

Verse 3 carries the thought on: “Remembering without ceasing”. The verb mnēmoneúō means to call to mind, and adialeíptōs means without interruption, without leaving anyone out when the occasion comes. People ask whether Paul thought of the Thessalonians every moment of the day. His remembrance was constant in the way his prayers were: whenever he prayed, and whenever he thought of their work, they came to mind and he gave thanks. He speaks of the Romans in the same way (Romans 1:9).

In all this Paul’s prayers echo the work of Christ himself, of whom Scripture says, “he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). The love that makes believers pray for one another is the love Jesus commanded: “love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34–35).

What Paul remembers is the heart of the passage. He names three gifts of God, faith, love and hope, and he joins each to the thing it produces.

Work of faith. Érgon is work, an effort or a deed. Faith in these believers was alive and busy, and it showed itself in what they did. Paul says the same elsewhere: what counts in Christ Jesus is “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

Labour of love. The word for labour, kópos, is toil that wearies. The love Paul means is agape, the love that gives itself for others, and in Thessalonica it cost something. It led believers to serve, to give and to bear hardship for one another and for the spread of the gospel. Its pattern is Christ’s own love: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). So Paul writes, “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5:2).

Patience of hope. “Patience” in the KJV is hypomonḗ, cheerful or hopeful endurance, constancy, steadfastness under difficulty. It is the strength to keep going under pressure, and hope is what supplies it. The Thessalonians had received the word “in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost” (1 Thessalonians 1:6), and they held on because they were sure of God’s promises and of Christ’s return. Paul traces the same line in Romans: “tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Romans 5:3–5).

Verse 4 gives the reason for all this thanks. “Knowing” is eídō, a verb that properly means to see, and Paul’s knowledge rests on what he saw. He is sure of what God has done for these people.

He calls them “brethren beloved”. The word comes from agapáō, to love, and its form says that they have been loved by God and still are. God’s love stands behind his choice. “Your election” is eklogḗ, a selection or choice, from a verb meaning to pick out. It is “your” election: personal, and true of these very believers. Their faith and their changed lives are the visible fruit of God’s prior, loving choice, and their salvation is his gift from first to last.

For a church facing persecution and still new in the faith, these words brought great comfort. Their suffering was no sign that God had left them. It came to people whom God loved and had chosen, and their standing with him was secure.

“For our gospel came not unto you in word only.” The verb is gínomai, to become or come into being: the gospel came to be among them. Words were spoken, and with the words came “power, and … the Holy Ghost, and … much assurance”. Paul writes the same of his preaching in Corinth, “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4), and he calls the gospel “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

Dýnamis, power, is force or ability, and it can mean miraculous power. Here it is God’s own might making the message effective, bringing conviction and new life. The Holy Ghost is the one through whom that power reached the hearers. He convicts, enlightens and gives life, so that the preaching became an encounter with God.

“Much assurance” is plērophoría, full conviction, complete certainty. It describes the preachers, who spoke with full confidence in the truth of what they said, and the hearers, who received it with a God-given certainty that led them to turn from idols to the living God. Hebrews speaks of drawing near to God “in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22), the certainty that rests on Christ’s finished work.

These five verses are full of God. The church lives in him. Grace and peace come from the Father and the Son together. Faith, love and hope are his gifts, rooted in Christ and seen by the Father. Behind them all lies his love and his choice, and the gospel that brought them to faith came with his power and his Spirit. Paul gives thanks to God for the Thessalonians because everything good in them was God’s doing.

That was the ground a persecuted church could stand on, and it is ours. If you belong to Christ, you are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, loved and chosen by him, and the faith that works in you, the love that toils and the hope that holds on are his work. He sees them, he values them, and he who began that work by his Spirit is the God of grace and peace.