1 Thessalonians 1

Background:  Acts 17:1-10a, 13-14; and see 18:1, 5a.  Thessalonica was an important Roman free city in Macedonia, which Paul visited during his 2nd missionary journey    (c. AD 50).  After great but brief success, he was expelled and not allowed to return, as explained in Acts 17.  He went to Athens, and then to Corinth.  During his stay in Corinth, Silas (Silvanus) and Timothy brought good news from Thessalonica, and two letters were written to the Thessalonians to encourage them, and to clear up some confusion that had arisen about the Lord’s second coming.

     1:1-10.   Paul greets them and gives thanks to God for their steadfastness in the faith (1-3).  He is assured of God’s choice (election) of them, as the power of the Holy Spirit at work in them had been evident when the word of God came to them (4-5).  The word had come with power, and they had received it with joy, even as it was accompanied by much tribulation (6).  Thus they had become an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia (Greece), for they not only heard the word, but they had spread Paul’s message of the living and true God far and wide (7-9).  They wait for the coming of Jesus from heaven, God’s true Son, raised from the dead, who delivers us from the wrath to come (10).