2 Thessalonians 1

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 . ADDRESS AND SALUTATION: INTRODUCTION: THANKSGIVING FOR THEIR GROWTH IN FAITH AND LOVE, AND FOR THEIR PATIENCE IN PERSECUTIONS, WHICH ARE A TOKEN FOR GOOD EVERLASTING TO THEM, AND FOR PERDITION TO THEIR ADVERSARIES AT CHRIST'S COMING: PRAYER FOR THEIR PERFECTION.

1. in God our Father--still more endearing than the address, 1 Thessalonians 1:1 "in God THE Father."

2. from God our Father--So some oldest manuscripts read. Others omit "our."

3. We are bound--Greek, "We owe it as a debt" ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ). They had prayed for the Thessalonians ( 1 Thessalonians 3:12 ) that they might "increase and abound in love"; their prayer having been heard, it is a small but a bounden return for them to make, to thank God for it. Thus, Paul and his fellow missionaries practice what they preach ( 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ). In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 , their thanksgiving was for the Thessalonians' faith, love, and patience"; here, for their exceeding growth in faith, and for their charity abounding. "We are bound" expresses the duty of thanksgiving from its subjective side as an inward conviction. "As it is meet," from the objective: side as something answering to the state of circumstances [ALFORD]. Observe the exact correspondence of the prayer ( 1 Thessalonians 3:12 , "The Lord make you to abound in love") and the answer, "The love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth" (compare 1 Thessalonians 4:10 ).
meet--right.

4. glory in you--make our boast of you, literally, "in your case." "Ourselves" implies that not merely did they hear others speaking of the Thessalonians' faith, but they, the missionaries themselves, boasted of it. Compare 1 Thessalonians 1:8 , wherein the apostle said, their faith was so well known in various places, that he and his fellow missionaries had no need to speak of it; but here he says, so abounding is their love, combined with faith and patience, that he and his fellow missionaries themselves, make it a matter of glorying in the various churches elsewhere (he was now at Corinth in Achaia, and boasted there of the faith of the Macedonian churches, 2 Corinthians 10:15-17 , 8:1 , at the same time giving the glory to the Lord), not only looking forward to glorying thereat at Christ's coming ( 1 Thessalonians 2:19 ), but doing so even now.
patience--in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 , "patience of hope." Here hope is tacitly implied as the ground of their patience; 2 Thessalonians 1:5 2 Thessalonians 1:7 state the object of their hope, namely, the kingdom for which they suffer.
tribulations--literally, "pressures." The Jews were the instigators of the populace and of the magistrates against Christians ( Acts 17:6 Acts 17:8 ).
which ye endure--Greek, "are (now) enduring."