The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

In the second section of the first, historical part of the Epistle, the holy Paul describes his sojourn together with his co-workers in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:1–16), touching on two principal points: a) the characteristic marks of his preaching and conduct (1 Thess. 2:1–12); and b) the faith and courageous perseverance in faith of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:13–16).

In approaching the exposition of this section, we inevitably encounter the question: what led the holy Paul to touch on this subject and to depict it in such detail? The holy Paul opens his speech with the words: “for you yourselves know.”

The particle “for” — γαρ — indicates in the following speech a reason for what precedes—as if saying: this is what they report about my preaching among you and about your conversion. And so it is, for you yourselves know how everything happened. The two halves of this section correspond precisely to what the holy Paul had heard (1 Thess. 1:9)—namely, “what kind of welcome we had among you” (1 Thess. 2:1–12) and “how you turned” (1 Thess. 2:13–16). But if the holy Paul truly had in mind only to confirm and clarify what was being told by outsiders, then, since all this is already known to the Thessalonians, a mere hint would have sufficed—not so detailed a depiction. The reports of other Christians may be taken as the occasion for the holy Apostle’s speaking on this subject, but the reason for his speaking of it so broadly was surely something else. The first possible reason here could be the desire—by refreshing in the memory of the Thessalonians all that had occurred during their conversion—to strengthen their hope… Had Paul deceived you? Or is he himself not deluded, under some impure influence? How many Jews do we have? And they are reluctant to believe. And he himself appeared only briefly and left—and has no concern… Such words could not, of course, trouble everyone, but one cannot say they troubled no one—especially among those who had believed after the holy Paul’s departure from Thessalonica. Those who were wavering could be undeceived by the more skilled and firm; but their undeceiving required apostolic confirmation. And so the holy Apostle writes. It is evident only that he wishes to remove actual, not imagined, disturbances. The very manner of the speech does not admit the conjecture that the holy Paul, foreseeing that here too, as in other places, agitators of believers’ peace would appear, was preemptively preparing against them a refutation in the proposed interpretation of his actions.

a) The preaching and conduct of the Apostles

The characteristic marks of aa) the preaching and bb) the conduct of the holy Apostles in Thessalonica—1 Thess. 2:1–12.

1 Thess. 2:1. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.

“For you yourselves know.” The preceding discourse provided the occasion, or served as the transition, to what follows. The holy Paul connects the latter with the former, recounting the same things that outsiders told and that the Thessalonians themselves knew—only with a particular aim of his own. “Our coming.” This is not merely the arrival in Thessalonica and the first appearance among the Thessalonians, but the whole of the holy Paul’s sojourn there, from his coming until his departure—the entering into spiritual fellowship with the Thessalonians, how he preached to them, how they believed, how the Church was formed from them and organized.

“Was not in vain.” This is against the first accusation. “Not in vain” — ου κενη. Κενος — empty. They were surely saying: these people wander to no purpose—idle wanderers, dreamers, deceivers or deceived. The Apostle says: we are not such. Whoever is such will not submit to suffering; but we suffered in Philippi, and having come to you, had immediately to enter into struggle and contest. From this alone you may judge that our coming to you—our work accomplished in you—is not a work of idleness, something empty, aimless, or deceptive. The word has a similar meaning in 1 Cor. 15:14, where the holy Paul says that if Christ has not risen, then “our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.” Such a thought fully corresponds to what is said in 1 Thess. 2:3: “not from error.” The holy Chrysostom interprets: ουκ ανθρωπινη, ουδε η τυχουσα — not human (a coming), of the kind that happens for ordinary worldly purposes, and not accidental, not casual, not aimless, not trivial. Oecumenius clarifies Chrysostom’s thought, saying: “not in vain,” that is, our preaching discourses were not false fables or idle dreams, empty words or vain babbling — ου μυθοι ψευδεις και ληροι. How is this evident? — It is evident from the fact that, having just escaped dangers, we again dared to expose ourselves to new ones—which we certainly would not have resolved to do had we not been convinced that our preaching is divine. For, according to Theodoret, “those who take to deception wear a mask only until dangers come, and as soon as they see them they at once betray themselves—and the lie is exposed.”

If we set this word “not in vain” in correspondence with what was said in 1 Thess. 1:5—“not in word only, but in power”—then it will mean: our coming to you was not ordinary, we did not act among you by word alone, but our word, by a special mercy of God toward you, was accompanied by signs and wonders. Such a thought will stand in correspondence with what precedes as well, pointing in the divine signs that accompanied the Apostle’s preaching to the reason why people everywhere spoke about the Thessalonians. The holy Chrysostom also leads us to this, when, approaching the interpretation of the second chapter, he speaks generally of its content: “Here (the Apostle) wishes to express what he also said above—namely, he shows the character of (Christian) preaching, both from the side of the miracles and the resoluteness of the preachers, and from the side of the zeal and earnestness of those who received the preaching.”

In application to what the holy Paul says below, 1 Thess. 3:5—“lest somehow our labor should be in vain”—one may give this word in the present passage the sense that the Apostle’s coming to the Thessalonians was not fruitless but bore abundant fruit: the conversion of so great a number and such zealous Christians. In that case it will correspond to 1 Thess. 2:13–16, which speaks of the Thessalonians’ conversion. Blessed Theodoret says that after the sorrowful circumstances in Philippi the holy Paul was filled with greater zeal, because he foresaw the benefit of his labors. Which of these three thoughts to prefer may be left to each reader’s discretion, as they do not contradict one another, nor do they contradict the flow of the apostolic discourse.

1 Thess. 2:2. But having first suffered and been shamefully treated, as you know, in Philippi, we had boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict.

In the very fact that the Apostles, having suffered beforehand, again enter into the work of preaching for which they had suffered, one must see something great, extraordinary, and beyond human. The unswerving commitment to their cause, and the fearlessness with which the teaching—which brings not joys but sorrows—was offered, shows in the holy Paul and his co-workers men of whom one need only be reminded in order to dispel the accusation leveled against them and their work. This is what the holy Paul does. You know yourselves, he says, what happened to us before our coming to you, and what happened among you; and from how things were, judge the significance of our preaching. The holy Chrysostom says: “Do you see that from the steadfastness of the preachers is borrowed proof of the divinity of their preaching! If,—the Apostle seems to be saying,—our preaching were not such, we would not have exposed ourselves to such misfortunes as give us no room to breathe freely.”

How the Apostles suffered in Philippi is recounted by the Acts of the holy Apostles in Acts 16:12–40. The Thessalonians learned of it either from the Apostles themselves or from the Philippian Christians, with whom they entered into fellowship immediately upon their conversion. The holy Paul outlines in two words what happened to them in Philippi: “having first suffered and been shamefully treated.” By suffering he means the fact that their clothes were torn from them, they were beaten with rods, and after many stripes they were sent to prison, where they were placed in the inner cell and their feet were fastened in the stocks (Acts 16:23–24). By the shameful treatment (υβρις — reproach, dishonor, indignity), apart from being publicly stripped and beaten, certainly not without words of reproach, he doubtless also means the fact that in the holy Paul not even the right of a Roman citizen was respected, as he himself said to the magistrates in Philippi (Acts 16:37). What exact agreement between the Epistle and Acts, even in such details!

“We had boldness in our God.” Boldness — παρρησια — is the courage, the undisturbed fearlessness in proclaiming truth to the face of unbelievers, and moreover hostile ones. It comes not from conviction of the truth alone, but also from the certainty that the preaching is accomplished by God’s personal commission, and that God’s help is always at hand. This is the distinguishing property of all the Apostles. The Lord Himself commanded them to be such and gave them the strength for it. “Before governors and kings you will be brought,” He says. But do not fear. “It will be given to you what to say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you” (Mt. 10:18–20). The boldness of the holy Apostle Paul is frequently mentioned in Acts, beginning from the very moment of his conversion. In Damascus, in Jerusalem, and then everywhere he boldly and fearlessly proclaims the truth of the Gospel (Acts 9:27–28; 13:46; 14:3; 19:8; 26:26). What inspired this boldness in him, as in the other Apostles, was not only deep conviction of the truth, but especially the fact that he had personally received from the Lord Himself a commandment to do so and a promise of help ever ready from on high. The Lord Himself appeared to him and sent him to preach in His name to all nations (Acts 9:6; 15–16; 22:17–21). So he is bold—trusting not in his own strength but bold “in” his “God,” whom, through palpable experience, he acknowledged as his helper and protector, and with whom, being most intimately united in the depths of his heart, in all that he did he acted in the light of spiritual vision of Him, receiving from Him guidance as to what, how, and when to do, and inspiration for the very action itself. As this relation to God is constantly felt, so it is expressed involuntarily. By reminding the Thessalonians of this, the Apostle at the same time also raises their minds to see the source of the teaching imparted to them not in man but in God, and to hold to it as something given directly to them by God. By affirming that he is bold in God, he suggests that he preaches before God with the consciousness of being manifested to Him, and thereby wishes to dispose them also to acknowledge him in their consciences as manifested to them (2 Cor. 5:11)—that is, to acknowledge him as a sincere preacher of the teaching entrusted to him by God, as they had already acknowledged him from the beginning when they received his word “not as the word of man, but as it truly is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13). Hence he adds that he dared to proclaim to them not something of his own, but “the gospel of God.” In this lies the principal thought of the second verse, as the word “not in vain” is the principal thought of the first. All other words merely indicate the circumstances that lead to this thought. Both verses may briefly be rendered: our coming to you, our work among you, our preaching was no empty thing, but we brought you from God the glad tidings of salvation—we imparted to you the gospel of God.

“In much conflict.” As previously he said of the Thessalonians that they “received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Spirit,” so now he says of himself that they too dared in God to impart to them the word of the Lord in much conflict. A similar comparison of his own contest with the contests of the converted is made by the holy Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians (1 Thess. 1:30). By conflict, moreover (αγων — struggle), one may understand here not only the overcoming of outward obstacles and sorrows, but also the wrestling with the minds of those who listened—as may be concluded from the fact that the holy Paul contended with the Jews from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2); as well as the untiring labor in preaching in general, of which he speaks below (1 Thess. 2:9–11). Whoever wishes to review what contests the holy Paul undertook in the preaching of the Gospel in other places as well, let him read 1 Cor. 9:2–9; 2 Cor. 4:8, 11; 23–30; 2 Tim. 4:7.

1 Thess. 2:3. For our exhortation does not come from error, nor from impurity, nor in guile.

Our exhortation is—that is, continues to be, not was—as is indicated by “we speak” in the following verse, with which this one forms a single statement. In this third verse, in connection with the following fourth, the holy Apostle confirms what was said in 1 Thess. 2:1–2 by a general proposition about the divine origin of the Gospel teaching. He gives, as it were, an answer to the question: how is it evident that your work is not empty, that you offer the Gospel of God—as it were inspiring you to speak, despite the adversities that result—and the answer is this: for all this there is one reason—namely, that our teaching is not some error in which we have become entangled, like philosophers; it is not the work of unclean powers or some cunning device, but was directly entrusted to us by God. God’s commandment inspires us to preach, and we are convinced that we preach the truth, just as we are convinced that God is true. But since this testimony of the holy Apostle about himself and his work could be called into question by some, he immediately after points to his conduct among the Thessalonians—which is known to all (1 Thess. 2:5–9)—and from which there can be only one conclusion; as if saying: if you do not believe in words, then believe in deeds, as the Lord also said to the Jews (Jn. 10:38; 14:11).

The word “consolation” — παρακλησις— means invitation, calling, or generally a speech addressed to another. Depending on the content of the speech, παρακλησιςmay be teaching (Acts 15:31), exhortation (1 Tim. 1:9), or consolation. In the present passage, the Apostle named the Gospel proclamation by this term, and fittingly so, for the Gospel proclamation encompasses all three aspects. It is teaching, since it sets forth pure and immutable truths about God, man, and all that exists; it is also exhortation or entreaty (2 Cor. 5:20), since it consists not only in presenting truth but also in urging a change from a former disorderly manner of life to a good and God-pleasing one; and it is also consolation, since it promises the highest comforts to suffering humanity in reconciliation with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the preparation of the Kingdom of Heaven for believers. One may therefore say that the holy Paul used this word in place of the term “the gospel” of God spoken just before.

“Not from delusion,” ουκ εκ πλανης. Πλανηmeans both the deceiving and seduction of others (Mt. 27:64; Eph. 4:14) and one’s own error, or self-deception. In both senses it is the opposite of “truth” (1 Jn. 4:6), whether as love of truth and integrity or as certain knowledge of actual truth. In the present passage it stands in the latter sense. The holy Paul declares by this: in so persistently preaching the Gospel, we do not stand in delusion, in an error into which we ourselves have fallen or been drawn by others, as philosophers and similar men were carried away by their own fantasies, but we know tangibly that we preach the truth, for we personally received the command to do so from God Himself (Acts 22:21), who is truth itself. Our work, says the holy Paul, according to Chrysostom, “is not a deception into which we ourselves have fallen”; according to Theodoret, “the teaching we offer bears no resemblance to the fables of poets, full of many falsehoods”; according to Oecumenius, “our preaching is not something erring — πεπλανημενον— the fruit of deep-rooted self-deception.”

“Nor from impurity.” Some see in this phrase a denial of impure motives; the Apostle seems to want to say that their preaching is carried out not from vainglory or self-interest. But since he will speak of this immediately in 1 Thess. 2:5, it is unnecessary to assume the same thought here. Therefore there is no need to depart from the meaning that the ancient Fathers and teachers of the Church give to this word—namely, that the holy Paul denies that his work derives from unclean power, as in pagan superstitions, magic, and sorcery. This interpretation is consistent with the holy Paul’s purpose in these two verses—1 Thess. 2:3 and 1 Thess. 2 — to indicate the source of his preaching and his courage. In the third verse he refutes false opinions about this that may have circulated among the Thessalonians, while in the fourth he points to the true source. The first source of human error is a shortsighted and proud mind that invariably considers everything it devises to be true. That the apostolic preaching does not derive from this source the holy Paul stated in the words ουκ εκ πλανης. The second source of human error is the father of lies, who has taught people all manner of dark deeds and vices. This, in relation to his own preaching, the Apostle denied: ουδε εξ ακαθαρσιας. By the word “impurity,” says the holy Chrysostom, is expressed the fact that the Apostles’ work was not of the kind belonging to dark deeds, such as are the works of sorcerers and enchanters. “The apostolic teaching,” says Oecumenius, “is not something impure, magical, resembling the spells and magical verses employed by certain priests.” The same thought is found in blessed Theophylact together with blessed Theodoret. That people could think this way about the work of the Apostles, and that the Apostles were pressed to deny it, is not at all surprising, for the same charge was brought against the Lord Himself, and He refuted it. This slander against the Apostles could have arisen from the fact that their preaching everywhere was accompanied by miracles and they established the sacraments, which produced extraordinary effects in those who received them.

“Nor” yet “in guile,” ουδε εν δολω. This too is equally denied, but with a particular nuance that comes from the preposition εν. It is necessary, however, to understand this word in a way that does not depart from the Apostle’s general aim in these verses—the denial of the sources from which the apostolic work is falsely said to derive. Δολος means craftiness, cunning, maliciousness—that which, cloaking an intended evil with sweet words and a fair appearance, conceals it. In ordinary life this is conscious deception or scheming, in which, armed with flattery and people-pleasing, as they say, the crafty circumvent the simple. In a broader sense it is conspiracy or sedition, when δολοςmoves from private relations into the political realm and plots intrigues destructive to established order. It might seem that a charge of this last kind was least of all needed against preachers of the Gospel—yet even against the Lord such an accusation was raised, and against the Apostles as well. It is this that the Apostle has in mind here. He recalled the accusation leveled against him and Silas in Thessalonica, that they were doing everything contrary to the decrees of Caesar, “saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7), and he refutes it. Perhaps there were those in Thessalonica who elaborated this charge more extensively, and the Apostle felt it necessary to address it. Only with this meaning, in harmony with the flow of the discourse, will εν δολωdesignate yet another false source of the apostolic work—from a political standpoint—which is likewise denied by the holy Apostle, as are the others. This meaning is given to it by the holy Fathers and teachers. According to the holy Chrysostom, the Apostle says by this that their work is not a malicious work, not some seditious deed like the affair of Theudas — δεδολωμενον; according to Oecumenius—it is not a crafty thing, the fruit of mature scheming; performed, according to Theophylact, from a drive toward sedition and upheaval, and capable, according to Theodoret, of plunging those who accept it into disaster. Some here depart from the holy Fathers and see in ουδε εν δολωa denial of deceit and cunning in the Apostles, or of the opinion that the Apostles said and did one thing while intending another—preached a faith they did not believe themselves, for self-interested ends, having chosen flattery as their instrument. But this confuses the flow of the discourse, because one verse later the Apostle will again deny in himself fawning flattery. The evident order of the discourse here is as follows: in 1 Thess. 2:3 the Apostle repudiates the false sources of his work; in 1 Thess. 2:4 he points to its true source in God; then in 1 Thess. 2:5 and 1 Thess. 2:6 he repudiates the wicked aims and methods falsely ascribed to them.