1 Tessalonicenses 1

ARC · Chapter 1/5

1Paulo, e Silvano, e Timotheo, á egreja dos thessalonicenses em Deus, o Pae, e no Senhor Jesus Christo; Graça e paz tenhaes de Deus nosso Pae e do Senhor Jesus Christo.

2Sempre damos graças a Deus por vós todos, fazendo menção de vós em nossas orações,

3Lembrando-nos sem cessar da obra da vossa fé, e do trabalho de caridade, da paciencia da esperança em Nosso Senhor Jesus Christo, deante de nosso Deus e Pae:

4Sabendo, amados irmãos, que a vossa eleição é de Deus;

5Porque o nosso evangelho não foi a vós sómente em palavras, mas tambem em poder, e no Espirito Sancto, e em muita certeza; como bem sabeis quaes fomos entre vós, por amor de vós

6E vós fostes feitos nossos imitadores, e do Senhor, recebendo a palavra em muita tribulação, com gozo do Espirito Sancto.

7De maneira que fostes exemplo para todos os fieis na Macedonia e Achaia.

8Porque por vós soou a palavra do Senhor, não sómente na Macedonia e Achaia, mas tambem a vossa fé para com Deus se espalhou por todos os logares, de tal maneira que já d'ella não temos necessidade de fallar coisa alguma;

9Porque elles mesmos annunciam de nós qual a entrada que tivemos para comvosco, e como dos idolos vos convertestes a Deus, para servir o Deus vivo e verdadeiro.

10E para esperar dos céus a seu Filho, a quem resuscitou dos mortos, a saber, Jesus, que nos livra da ira futura.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul thanks God for the faith, love, and hope of the Thessalonian church, recalling how the gospel came to them with power. He praises the example the Thessalonians became for other churches in the region.

Explanation

Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, an important commercial city on the Via Egnatia. Paul founded this church during a brief visit (Acts 17) and soon had to flee because of persecution, which left him concerned about their steadfastness in the faith. This letter, likely one of the earliest Paul wrote, begins by celebrating that their faith did not remain mere words but became visible in works of love and perseverance, to the point of becoming an example for the whole region. Today this reminds us that genuine faith always shows itself in concrete actions, not just good intentions.

Fun facts

  • Thessalonica still exists today as the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, and remains an important port.
  • Many scholars consider this the earliest of Paul's letters to survive, written around A.D. 50.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:1Silvanus is the same Silas who appears in the book of Acts traveling with Paul, including at the founding of the church in Thessalonica — here the letter just uses the more formal form of the name. The letter goes out in the name of all three, Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, showing this was teamwork, not Paul acting alone.
  2. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:2Paul is likely writing his earliest letter in the New Testament to a young church facing real persecution; the tone here is warm and fatherly, and he opens by thanking God constantly for them in prayer.
  3. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:3Paul lists three specific things he remembers about the Thessalonians: faith that results in action, love that results in labor, and hope that results in steady patience.
  4. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:4Paul states his confidence that God’s choosing of the Thessalonians is genuine, a certainty based on the practical evidence he has already mentioned and will detail next.
  5. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:5Paul explains why he is so certain: his preaching among them was not mere theory, it came with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, visible in Paul’s own behavior while he was with them.
  6. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:6The Thessalonians became Christians in the middle of real persecution, not in a comfortable situation — and even so they kept their joy, which Paul credits to the Holy Spirit, not to sheer willpower. It’s this contrast between suffering and joy that he highlights as proof their faith was genuine.
  7. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:7Paul praises the Thessalonians, saying that even though they were newly converted, they had already become an example to other Christians throughout the region of Macedonia and Achaia.
  8. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:8Paul remarks that news of the Thessalonians’ faith had already spread so far that he no longer needed to tell anyone the story, people already knew.
  9. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:9Thessalonica was a Greek port city full of temples and cults to different deities, so most of the early Christians there came from a completely pagan background, with no prior Jewish grounding. This verse confirms the church was made up mostly of Gentiles who had abandoned those cults.
  10. 1 Tessalonicenses 1:10Paul closes the chapter already introducing a theme that will return several times in the letter: the concrete expectation of Jesus’s return. ‘The wrath to come’ refers to a future judgment that Christians expect to be spared from because of Christ.

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