The Thessalonians are Macedonians. Hence, having received the word of truth in Christ Jesus, they persisted in the faith, even amid the persecution of their own fellow-citizens. Moreover they neither received false apostles, nor the things that were said by false apostles. These the Apostle commends, writing to them from Athens, through Tychicus the deacon and Onesimus the acolyte. Chapter One. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians. Through Silvanus and Timothy the word of God had been announced, not only to these but also to the Corinthians together with the Apostle, as he himself says in the second epistle: Through me, and Silvanus, and Timothy. In God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace.
In inverted order he first says: in God the Father, and Christ Jesus, and then: grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you. For all, because the remembrance of all is pleasing to us. In our prayers without ceasing. May you not be hindered from always praying. Mindful of the work of your faith, and of your labor and charity. Not of faith alone, nor in word only of labor and charity, but in deed. And of the endurance of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ. All endurance is for the sake of hope. Before God and our Father. Not before men. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. From this we recognize that you are truly elected by God, because you are genuine.
It is to be noted that they were chosen rather than that they chose. Because our Gospel came unto you not in word only. Because it is not only heard, but a work also appeared. But also in power, and in the Holy Spirit. Whom you received. And in much fullness. Of your perfection, or of our abundance. As you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. We abstained even from things lawful. And you became imitators of us, and of the Lord, receiving the word. Receiving the word through suffering, as both we and the Lord preached. In much tribulation. Which is scarcely received in quiet. With joy of the Holy Spirit.
This is truly to rejoice in the Holy Spirit, like the apostles who went rejoicing, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. So that you became a pattern to all believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. It belongs to the perfect to display a pattern to believers: by your example all were stirred. For from you the word of God was spread abroad. The nature of report is this: that whether announcing good or evil, it runs about everywhere. Not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place. In whose borders Thessalonica almost lies. Your faith, which is toward God, has gone forth. Turned from idols to the Lord. So that we have no need to speak anything.
So that when we begin to say anything about you to their edification, they themselves say that they know it very well. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entrance we had to you. Both the report of our constancy and of your conduct is known to all. And how you were converted to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus. It is to be noted that they are said to be converted to the Lord from idols; but not only these, for believers too are often said in the prophets to be obliged to turn from malice to the faith of God. Who has delivered us from the wrath to come. By His grace and mercy He freed us from the wrath of judgment, because we already have in hope the restoring to liberty through baptism. Chapter II.
For you yourselves know, brethren, our entrance to you, that it was not vain, but that we had before suffered and been treated with reproach. The word is not vain which is confirmed by the constancy of suffering. As you know, at Philippi we had confidence in our Lord to speak to you the Gospel of God. Because some of you saw that we, having suffered at Philippi, did not shrink from tribulations, nor cease to preach. In much solicitude. Not negligently, nor in passing. For our exhortation. Therefore we are not terrified. Not from error. Whoever thinks or teaches that the wicked reign with Christ errs: Be not deceived, neither fornicators nor adulterers, and so on. Nor from uncleanness. As the doctrine of Jovinian. Nor in guile.
Speaking and persuading against conscience. But as we were approved by God, that the Gospel should be entrusted to us, so we speak. We speak with integrity, as approved by God who knows the minds of all, and appointed by Him to this office. Not as pleasing men, but God, who proves our hearts. Which can be deceived. For neither were we ever in speech of flattery, as you know; nor in an occasion of covetousness, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, neither from you, nor from others. Like those who please men, granting the weak all that they desire, and caring nothing for their death. Everyone who flatters, flatters either for the sake of covetousness or of glory.
He therefore is proved to speak for God's sake who does not seek these things. Though we might have been a burden as apostles of Christ. Though we could weigh upon you even in this which God ordained for us. But we became little ones in the midst of you. Humbling ourselves and not seeking the honor due us. As if a nurse should cherish her own children. Humbling herself, and equaling herself in all things to the little one, that by her imitation she might lead him to greater things. For she both babbles in speech, and eats little, and walks slowly with him, that he may grow accustomed. So, longing for you, we were eager to impart to you. To bring you forward. Not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls. As a nurse wishes to pour the perception of her own maturity into the little one, that he may become like her.
Because you became most dear to us. On account of your faith. For you remember, brethren, our labor. He plied the labors of his hands by night, the weariness of the word by day. For if he always worked, when did he teach? And of our weariness, working night and day. Among these, and the Corinthians, and the Ephesians he labored, from whom he wished to remove all occasion either of receiving or of detracting. That we might not burden any of you, we preached among you the Gospel of God. That is, though we could be a burden, as he had said above. You are witnesses, and God. As Samuel said to the people. How holily and justly and blamelessly. That we might give you no offense. To you who believed we were present. Not to the unbelieving.
As you know how, like a father his sons, we exhorted every one of you, beseeching you. The little one he trains as a nurse, the one already advancing as a father. And comforting, we testified. In tribulation we were comforted by the promises of Christ. That you should walk worthily of God. He walks worthily of God who does nothing unworthy of God. Who called you into His kingdom and glory. Which none but the faithful shall possess, to whom it is said: Come, ye blessed. Therefore we also give thanks to God without ceasing: because when you received from us the word of the hearing of God, which you first heard concerning God — or that you might hear God — you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God. As the word of men treats it whoever despises it.
But you so believed as to think that you heard from God Himself. Who works in you who believe. He works by inspiration, or by signs, or if you do any good, He does it in you. Note that he said in you, and not with you, so that glory may always be given to God, whose is all that we can do, and who works in us that we may work, as he says in the canticle of Isaiah: O Lord our God, You will give us peace, and: all our works You have wrought in us. For you became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. To whom he says: For you both suffered with those in bonds, and took the plundering of your goods with joy. Because you also suffered the same things.
At you I marvel the more, because, though neither taught by the law nor provoked by the examples of the prophets, you suffered from your own countrymen, just as they also from the Jews. Countrymen are of the same nation. Who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have persecuted us, and please not God. What wonder if they persecute us, who killed both God and the prophets? And are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. Not only their own. That they may always fill up their sins. Because they not only hinder the Jews, but also envy the Gentiles, unto the heaping up of their own sins. But the wrath of God has come upon them even unto the end.
Either because understanding was taken from the unbelieving, or because by premature punishment they are captives and dispersed throughout the whole earth. But we, brethren, being bereaved of you for a short hour, in sight, not in heart, hastened the more abundantly to see your face with much longing, because we wished to come to you. As elsewhere: Absent in body, but present in spirit, I have already judged. I, Paul, indeed, both once and again; but Satan hindered us. By the tribulations of persecutors, or by the weaknesses of the infirm, not by his own power. For what is our hope? — which does not detain us — or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and our joy.
Good masters place all their hope, and joy, and crown in the perfecting of their disciples. Chapter III. Wherefore, no longer enduring it — that none of us should come to you and comfort you concerning us, and therefore we were tormented with anxiety — it pleased us to remain at Athens alone. We preferred to remain alone, rather than not to know what you were doing. And we sent Timothy our brother. How could he write together with them if he was sent [away]? But here he relates a thing done before, and recapitulates. And ministers of God in the Gospel of Christ. Helpers on behalf of the disciples are even commonly so called. To strengthen you, and to exhort you concerning your faith. Because you had already received faith, you needed only to be confirmed. That no one be moved in these tribulations.
I do not say all, but lest even some. For you yourselves know. You ought not therefore to be moved and to marvel, knowing that we cannot pass otherwise. That we are appointed to this. By Christ, who said: Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves, and much else. For when we were with you, we foretold to you that we should suffer tribulations, as also came to pass, and you know it: therefore I also, no longer enduring it, sent to learn your faith. That the novelty of the matter might not deter you, but our prophecy might strengthen you; whence the Savior too foretold His passion beforehand. Lest perhaps the tempter had tempted you. Lest, if the tempter should say to you: Behold, those in whom you hope God to dwell cannot be delivered from tribulations, he might perhaps trouble your faith.
He who tempts — who tempted even God. And our labor become vain. If by this suggestion he had cast a scruple into you. But now, Timothy having come to us from you and announced to us your faith — who firmly believe Christ — and your charity, because you love us more than usual, and that you have good remembrance of us — for there is also a bad remembrance — always longing to see us, as we also you. Firmly. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted in you, in all our necessity and tribulation, through your faith. We feel no necessity or tribulation, because of the greatness of our joy at your steadfastness. Because now we live, if you stand in the Lord. Even if we be slain, our life depends on you.
For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, in all the joy wherewith we rejoice for your sake before our Lord night and day? Your conduct affords us a threefold cause of gladness: because you yourselves advance, and the Lord is blessed through you, and you offer an example to others. Praying more abundantly that we may see your face. He shows how greatly he ought to be longed for by those brethren whom he himself so longs for. For who, when he has learned of another's good fame, does not wish to see him? And that we may supply what is lacking to your faith. If your faith can have anything less in doctrine: for when what was lacking is completed, what was already there is not disapproved; what was less is added, not what was present taken away.
But because he knew them to be of right faith, since they had Christ as their foundation, therefore it is added — for the building; the foundation is not taken away. Now may God Himself, and our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. The diabolical scandals and temptations being removed, by which our coming is hindered. And may the Lord multiply you, and make your charity abound toward one another. May He multiply you in the number of believers, or in faith and knowledge. And it is to be noted that the Lord does this, and human frailty does nothing without God. And toward all, as we also toward you, to confirm your hearts blamelessly.
That you may love not only Christians, but also men of every sect — not for their error, but for their [common human] substance — and may not deny them the mercy which God in the present shows them, in whatever they lack. That you may do all these things, one must understand what he said above: But may the Lord multiply you and make you abound in charity; because it is His gift that we do these things, whose gift it is that we love. In holiness before God and our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Amen. Not before men. Chapter IV.
For the rest therefore, brethren, we ask and beseech you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God — you to whom the way is Christ, walk it with worthy steps, namely of meekness, charity, peace, and other like things — so also walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I gave you through the Lord Jesus. Because with age and faith you ought to increase in upright character and morals, just as with the age of the flesh both food and effort grow. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
Sanctification restrains the Christian from all incontinence, as Moses, wishing to sanctify the people, commanded them to abstain from every woman, that they might be worthy to receive the law of God. That you abstain from fornication, that each of you may know. It is to be considered that he does not write to them as to the Corinthians. To possess his own vessel in honor and sanctification. Let him sanctify and honor his own body by keeping it chaste, or at least know his wife only for the sake of children. Not in the passion of lust, as also the Gentiles who know not God. Lest you fornicate outside lawful marriage. And that no one overstep — the purpose of continence. Nor overreach his brother in the matter.
Lest anyone, after devout continence agreed upon by consent, by any circumvention do violence to his spouse, or commit fraud in any matter. Because the Lord is the avenger of all these — not only of fornication, but also of the transgression of the purpose, because by their own impulse they made unlawful what was lawful. As we foretold you, and testified. For if to the Corinthians, much more to these had he preached chastity. For God has not called us to uncleanness. Excessive incontinence within marriage may be reckoned as uncleanness, because the body does not allow one to receive the body of Christ. But to sanctification. That you may live by the example of Christ. And so, he who despises these things despises not man, but God.
He despises not my words, but His who speaks in me, to whose Spirit everyone who despises does injury. Who also gave His Holy Spirit within us. Who dwells only in the holy. But concerning brotherly charity we have no need to write to you: for you yourselves have learned from God to love one another, and indeed you do it. On account of Christ, who said: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. New, that is, that we be sustained for one another's sake, because the old Testament had not commanded this. Toward all the brethren, in all Macedonia. Without exception of person. But we beseech you, brethren, that you abound and give effort. Also toward loving strangers and even enemies.
That you be quiet, and mind your own business, and work with your own hands, as we commanded you. He recalls some from superfluous and secular affairs, which, so far as may be understood, they carried on for the sake of gain: much more just, therefore, is it to seek one's living by one's own hands, than to be entangled in such affairs, and through these to hope for some benefit from those who are without — for whatever it was, it harmed others rather than helped them. Some think that he rebukes not the office of teaching, but the vice of the [Gentile] nation: finally in the second epistle he says to them: If any will not work, neither let him eat. And that you walk honestly toward those who are without, and want for nothing from anyone. Lest they who seem to provide should mark you out as a burden.
But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who sleep, that you be not sorrowful. The Savior had said that Lazarus slept, whom He knew would rise again. So also the rest. Otherwise ought he to weep who journeys abroad, otherwise he who dies. Who have no hope — of the things to come. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again — if we believe this which likewise we do not see, and through His resurrection are sure that we have obtained pardon, why should we not likewise believe that which the Gentiles do not believe, because they do not see? So also God will bring with Him, through Jesus, those who have slept. He who raised the Head has promised to raise the other members also. For this we say to you in the word of the Lord. Not in our own.
That we who are alive, who remain. Leaving the Gospel's sentence in suspense, he always made them hold the day of the Lord as imminent, as if that day should find them still in the body. At the coming of our Lord, we shall not go before those who have slept. Their resurrection will be as swift as our being taken up. For the Lord Himself, at the command and at the voice of the archangel — a terrible voice. Elijah saw the terrible coming of God. And at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead who are in Christ — not [merely] men — shall rise first: before those who are dead not in Christ. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall together be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Sinners who have died, together with those who are found alive and shall be dissolved by fire, shall rise together unto punishment; but the just, alive, changed and made incorruptible, in a moment together with the rising just shall be caught up unto glory — they who shall not be judged, but shall judge. And so shall we ever be with the Lord — in the same glory. Wherever He shall be. Therefore comfort one another. It is to be noted that he says the laity ought to comfort one another. In these words. That you be not sorrowful. Chapter V. But of the times and moments, brethren, you need not that we write to you: for you yourselves diligently know. Evidently from the reading of the Gospel. Because the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When it shall find all asleep and secure.
For when they shall say, peace and security, then sudden destruction comes upon them. It is then most to be feared, when no one fears it. As the pangs of her that is with child — that is, childbirth. And they shall not escape. As she, when the pangs come, cannot escape the birth. But you, brethren, are not in darkness. You are not in ignorance, because you know that you ought always to be prepared. That that day should overtake you as a thief. Sleeping in the sleep of sloth. For you are all sons of light, and sons of the day. He is the light, and the day of knowledge and of activity. We are not of the night nor of darkness. As darkness, so also ignorance gives confidence for sinning. Therefore let us not sleep — in mind — as the rest, who do so.
But let us watch, and be sober. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life: therefore cares also inebriate. For they who sleep — hence they and the rest are idle, because they are in darkness. There follows the comparison. Sleep in the night — in sins. And they who are drunk are drunk in the night — that is, from sins. But we who are of the day — we who have the day ought to be neither idle nor drunk. Let us be sober — from all sin. Having put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. Clothed with the garment of the faith and charity of righteousness, which elsewhere he compared to a breastplate. Because God has not appointed us unto wrath — that is, unto perdition. The unbelieving are set in wrath, being already judged.
But unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. That we may obtain salvation. Who died for us. For whether we die or live, whether in the body or out of the body, we live always with Him. That whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him — by good works. Wherefore comfort one another, and edify one another, as also you do. As he is blessed who builds up, so unhappy is he who tears down. But we beseech you, brethren. It is to be noted that this is addressed to the laity, whom he admonishes to render to their prelates the offices of charity. That you know those who labor among you. That you understand their labor. And are set over you in the Lord. By the example of the Lord, not by earthly power.
because a good teacher cannot teach, or preside over others, without labor. And who admonish you, that you hold them more abundantly in charity. The presbyters who labor in the word are worthy of double honor, both of charity and of office. On account of their work: and be at peace with them. Lest, when for some cause they are corrected by the priests, they become enemies and ingrates. But we beseech you, brethren. This he commands to the priests. Correct the unquiet. According to the diversity of diseases, a diversity of medicine must be applied. Now he speaks to the prelates, and until now to the people. Comfort the fainthearted, who, exasperated, give up. Support the weak. Bear with the newly-believing, because they are not yet firm in faith. Be patient toward all.
Even toward those who are corrected. He who is without patience corrects not, but provokes. See that no one — with all diligence and caution — render to anyone evil for evil. He fears lest even those whom he believed incapable should render it, now speaking generally. But always follow after what is good toward one another — to render good for evil. And toward all — not only toward one another, but also toward all men. Always rejoice. As though sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, that is, in hope of the life to come. Pray without ceasing — in the heart, as it is said to the silent Moses: Why do you cry to me? In everything give thanks. In all things that befall you, as blessed Job; in all your acts let thanks be rendered to the Lord.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning all of you. As in Him it was fulfilled in all things, so also let it be fulfilled in all of you. Quench not the Spirit. Do not quench the Spirit of the one exhorting by the objections of your questionings. To quench it by evil works — that is, the works of the Holy Spirit; for whatever we do by His inspiration, He does it, being the author of the good work, as the devil is of the evil. Despise not prophecies. Whether they foretell things to come or discourse of things past, only prove them if the things said are not contrary to the faith; and if there be anything such, refute it. Prove all things, hold fast what is good; abstain from every appearance of evil — because there are many appearances of evils. Now may the God of peace Himself.
Who sustains all, even blasphemers. Sanctify you — protecting you with continual guard; for whom He justified, these He also sanctified. Through all things — that you may be perfect in all things. And may your whole spirit. Whatever grace of the spirit may be entire in itself is nevertheless not [kept] entire, unless it be kept by those who are entire. The rational mind itself is frequently called spirit, wherein there is something like an eye of the soul, to which pertains the image and knowledge of God; and sometimes spirit is taken for the spiritual understanding. And soul — in thought. And body without complaint — [free] from evil work. Be preserved at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who called you, who said:
'Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' — which indeed He will do, provided you persevere. This He promised when He said: 'Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age.' 'Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that this Epistle be read.' To adjure is permitted, though to swear is not permitted. 'To all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.' By 'saints' we may understand the baptized.