We are now brought into somewhat new circumstances. The work of the Lord goes on, the testimony varies in its character, the zeal of the laborers is the same, the results differ more or less, and so does the opposition to the enemy.
“Now, when they had journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews” (ver. 1).
It is remarkable the more ancient manuscripts (à A B D, etc.) omit the article before synagogue, as do the Authorized and Revised versions; but the testimony is ample and varied to its existence. On the one hand it is well-nigh impossible to conceive its insertion, unless it were originally there. On the other it is easy to understand its omission, because of its unusual connection. It would be quite justified if in fact there was but the synagogue in that district, which would give it notoriety. At Philippi we saw that there was none; only there was the place for prayer by the river, where a few used to assemble on the sabbath.
“And Paul as his custom was went in among them and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, opening and alleging that the Christ must suffer, and rise again from the dead, and that This Jesus, whom I announce to you, is the Christ” (ver. 2, 3). Here the apostle returns to a testimony of pointed application to the Jews. No doubt it is of the highest value to everyone, but the form of it exactly suited the place where his discourses were given. A suffering and a risen Christ was proved out of the scriptures; and this not merely as a truth in what they owned to be the word of God, but the absolute necessity because of man's sin, and the only adequate remedy in God's grace, with the further and clenching conclusion that “This is the Christ Jesus, whom I announce to you.” No miracle was needed here to arrest attention. The scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most permanent of all testimony. Jesus alone, as far as His first advent is concerned, gives full meaning to the word of God; and this it is which completely meets the conscience and the heart of the believer, for purging the one, and giving a blessed and blessing object to the other. But it is not all that the apostle had to say at Thessalonica, as we shall shortly learn; as it is all which is mentioned here, no more need be added now.
“And some of them were persuaded and added to Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few” (ver. 4). Thus, as the apostle wrote afterward, “Our gospel was not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thess. 1:5). The harvest was considerable, not only from among the Jews, but far more from the Gentiles, including not a few women of rank. In no assembly of apostolic times do we find in fact greater simplicity, freshness, and power of the truth than among the Thessalonians.
But the success of the gospel is ever apt to rouse bitter opposition and nowhere so much as among the Jews, who would keenly feel that rancorous spite which is natural to those who were overwhelmed by their own scriptures, for which they could not account, but to which they would not bow. “But the Jews, having been stirred up to jealousy, took unto them certain wicked men of the rabble (lit. market-loungers) and gathering a crowd sot the city in confusion, and besetting the house of Jason, sought to bring them out to the people. And not having found them, they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the city-rulers (or politarchs), crying out, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason has received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the city-rulers when they heard these things. And having taken security for Jason and the rest, they let them go” (ver. 5-9).
Here we see the usual lack of common honesty which marks the religious assailants of the truth. The Jews, who professed the fear of God, did not scruple, through jealousy, to form a party with wicked men of the lowest sort against the gospel. Abandoned heathens were good enough allies against the truth of their own Messiah, whom worldly lusts would not let them discern in the suffering, but risen, Jesus. God was in none of their thoughts; and self-will wrought to darken and destroy the force of His word. Their degradation could not be hidden in the company with whom they consorted to form a crowd and set the city in uproar. Yet were the Jews the exclusive representatives of divine law before all nations. They were now alas! the standing proof of utter failure, not because the law was not holy, the commandment holy, and just, and good, but because they themselves were unholy, unjust, and evil. Even now, their own Messiah being come, they failed to recognize Him through unbelief, urged the Gentiles to crucify Him, and were also forbidding His servants to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. Thus were they filling up their sins always, “but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.” The host of Paul, Jason, was the special object of their animosity; his house they beset in their desire to bring forward the Lord's servants unto the people, i.e. the regular assembly of the city. Not finding them, they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the city-rulers, a peculiar title of the local authorities, which so much the more attests Lake's accuracy, because it occurs in no known remains of Greek antiquity. But an inscription still extant on the marble arch of the western or Vardar gate of Saloniki proves that such was the title of the Thessalonian magistrates, and that there were seven. By a remarkable coincidence three of the names of Paul's companions found here, or in the Epistles, answer to as many in that inscription given from Boeokh, No. 1967, in Conybeare and Howson I. 395. Sosipater, Secundus and Gains are common to both, a fact which points to the prevalence of these names in that region. It was a free city anciently called Therma, which afterward received its name of Thessalonica from Cassander in compliment to his wife, Thessalonica, sister of Alexander the Great, and remains a flourishing city of the Turkish empire in our day under the derived name of Saloniki.
The outcry of the assailants in verses 6, 7 is strikingly instructive, at least in its latter part. That the preachers of divine grace turned the world upside down was natural to say, and became a standing reproach, however untrue. Yet is it intelligible because the gospel penetrates among high and low, and separates from the world by a divine bond to Christ in heaven. But for that very reason it does not meddle with the authority of the world; to which, on the contrary, it enjoins subjection on every soul as God's ordinance here below. It simply but completely attaches the heart of those who believe to the rejected One, now glorified in heaven. But we cannot look for truth in a foolish cry raised by envious Jews and idle loungers of the. Gentiles. They only sought an appearance sufficient to arouse the fears of the magistrates, and thereby drive away the chief heralds of the truth.
But they lay another charge of a more definite kind, which has the more interest because of the light on it furnished by both the Epistles to the Thessalonians, “And these all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
The insinuation was unfounded and malicious undoubtedly; but it had a show of evidence in the prominence given to the kingdom of God in which Jesus was to come. For He was gone, among other objects, to receive that kingdom and to return. Now, whatever the ill-willed folly of representing that this expectation is antagonistic to the rights of Caesar, it is plain that the teaching was very far from modern doctrine, which could never be so misconstrued. Paul and his companions held before the saints the constant looking for Christ to come and reign; and this, not as a secret for the initiated, but as a most influential hope which penetrated all walk as well as doctrine, and to be urged from first to last throughout the whole Christian life. We learn from the earliest chapter of the first Epistle that it characterized the Thessalonian converts from their starting point. They turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await His Son from the heavens, Whom He raised out of the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath. Their conversion was to wait for Jesus no less than to serve God, That hope therefore was suited to the youngest believers, as truly as to the apostle. It was independent of prophetic scheme, with which neophytes, especially from the heathen, could not be acquainted. Yet was it so much the more a hope bright and unembarrassed in which they lived from day to day.
So surely was this the case, that the apostle reminds them (chap. 2) how, as a father his own children, he used to exhort “each one of you, and comfort and testify, that ye should walk worthy of God, Who calleth you to His own kingdom and glory.” What could more prove His kingdom as bearing on present walk? And in fact it is notorious that the lack of it before the eyes of the saints exposes them to seeking ease, and honor, and wealth, and all worldliness. With His kingdom and glory before as, we can heartily bear present shame and suffering, and the walk is elevated accordingly. Even the apostle looked for his crown of boasting in the saints only before our Lord Jesus at His coming. Then would holiness have its consummation and display at His coming with all His saints (chap. 3). Dead and living saints (chap. 4.) would be changed and with Him on high at His coming; and in due time the day of the Lord should fall with sudden destruction on a thoughtless, unexpecting world (chap. 5.).
If possible more precise is the intimation about the kingdom in the Second Epistle. The saints in Thessalonica, through various causes, did not then enjoy so much of the brightness of the hope; but the apostle joins his fellow-laborers with himself in boasting of their endurance and faith in all their persecutions and tribulations. This is viewed as a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God to the end that they should be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, “for the sake of which ye also suffer.” Retribution will come in its day at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven: He it is who makes good, manifests, and administers the kingdom (chap. 1). But that day cannot be (errorists pretended that it was already present) ere the apostasy come, and the man of sin be revealed.
There was already at work the mystery or secret of lawlessness, the upshot of which will be the revelation of that lawless one, who is yet himself to sit down in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This will draw swift judgment on him and his adherents; for the Lord Jesus shall consume him with the breath of His mouth, and annul him by the appearing of His coming (chap. 2). This need not alarm the feeblest believers, seeing that God has called them by the gospel to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, though we need the Lord meanwhile to direct our hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ (chap. 3.). It is the second advent, as men call it, the manifestation of the Lord in glory, which introduces the kingdom judicially, when in the language of Daniel, the “little stone” having executed judgment on all opposing hostile powers here below, will then expand into a great mountain and fill the whole earth. To expect universal spread and supremacy for God's kingdom before the King comes in personal and public overthrow of His foes is an error of no small magnitude. The error sought early entrance, but met with immediate exposure by the apostle who strengthened the Thessalonians in the truth. He pressed from the beginning the coming of Jesus, and God's kingdom then: a truth as solemn for the world as full of cheer for the saints.
But the world was hostile, though nothing more was done then beyond taking bail of Jason and the rest, and letting them go, as the preachers were not found. Persecution soon fell heavily, as the Epistle shows, on the young converts.
“But the brethren immediately sent away by night Paul and Silas unto Berea; who on their arrival went away into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, being such as received the word with all readiness of mind, day by day examining the scriptures whether these things were so. Many out of them therefore believed, and of the Greek women of good position, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God was announced by Paul in Berea also, they came thither also, stirring up and troubling the crowds. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to proceed toward the sea; but Silas and Timothy abode there. But they that were conducting Paul, brought [him] as far as Athens; and having received a charge for Silas and Timothy that they should come as quickly as possible unto him, they departed” (ver. 10-15).
It is blessed to mark the unwearied zeal of the Lord's servants. They had barely escaped the ill-will roused by the Jews at Thessalonica, when we behold them undauntedly repairing to the synagogue in Berea, on their arrival. Here they experienced such readiness of heart in searching the scriptures as evinced a greater simplicity and real nobility of soul. Bowing to the word, receiving it as God's word, which indeed it is, is the truest condition of divine blessing; yet did they daily examine scripture, whether the things preached accorded with the things written. Therefore many from among them believed. There is no way so sure or good. And it is of interest to observe that, here also not a few Greek women of rank, no less than men, believed as well as the God-fearing Jews. It was doubtless an unspeakable deliverance from debasing immorality, as well as empty fable—from a life of selfishness to serve an only and true God, and to await His Son from heaven.
But Jewish rancor could not content itself with driving the apostles from Thessalonica: from Thessalonica came the hostile Jews to Berea in order to counteract the preached word, stirring up and troubling the crowds there also.
Knowledge of old revelation gives no security for receiving the truth God is actually sending or using most at any given time. On the contrary, as we see in these Jews here and elsewhere, if there be pride in what is already possessed, it will act powerfully to reject what is meant of God to test the heart now; especially if grace be at work to open the door of faith to those who had no religions standing from of old. Hence the gospel is of all things most repulsive to the ancient people of God, who madly refused the mercy which waited on them first of all, before it was preached to the Gentiles.
Thereon Paul is again sent off by the brethren toward the sea, whilst his companions staid there still. Athens was the apostle's destination, whither he had a loving escort, and where he charged Silas and Timothy to rejoin him. But Athens, as we shall see, was not destined to be a fruitful field for the incorruptible seed, the living and abiding word of God.