For what is our hope, or joy
The apostle here gives a reason why they were so concerned at
parting with the Thessalonians, and were so desirous of seeing
them again, and attempted it so often, cause they were their
"hope"; not the foundation of it, which was Christ; nor the thing
hoped for, which was eternal life; nor the ground of their hope,
which was the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; but
they were persons whom they hoped well of, and of whom their hope
was steadfast; as of their election of God, of their redemption
by Christ, of their effectual calling, of their perseverance in
faith and holiness, notwithstanding all reproach and persecution;
and of meeting the Lord, and being together with him for ever:
and they were also their "joy"; their conversion was a matter of
joy to them, because of the glory of God, Father, Son, and
Spirit, displayed therein; because of the abundant grace bestowed
on these persons; and because that hereby the kingdom of Satan
was weakened, and the kingdom of Christ enlarged and his churches
increased and beautified; and their own ministry was blessed and
confirmed, and their hearts and hands strengthened, and they
encouraged to go on in it: and they continued to be their joy,
inasmuch as they stood fast in the Lord, walked on in the truth,
and had their conversations as became the Gospel of Christ; and
they were persuaded would be their joy hereafter, at the second
coming of Christ; when they should give up their account of them
with joy, and not with grief: and it is added,
or crown of rejoicing;
or of "glorying", or "boasting"; not that they gloried in them,
for they gloried not in men, but in the Lord, in his
righteousness, riches, wisdom, strength, and grace, in the
person, blood, and cross of Christ; but they gloried of them, as
trophies of divine grace, as a prey taken out of the hand of the
mighty, and as lawful captives delivered from the power of Satan,
and of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of Christ. The
Alexandrian copy reads, as we render it,
crown of rejoicing:
which is but a stronger phrase, to press the joy they had in
their conversion and perseverance, in allusion to crowns wore at
times of rejoicing, as at marriage feasts, and the like: hence we
read F9 of the crowns of the bridegrooms,
and of the brides, which were forbidden the use of in the war of
Vespasian; the latter were made of gold, in the form of the city
of Jerusalem, and from thence called golden cities F11; and
the former, some say, were made of salt and sulphur, to put them
in mind of the destruction of the Sodomites, for their unnatural
lusts F12; others of a salt stone as clear as
crystal, or of the stone Bdellium, painted in the colour of
sulphur F13; and some were made of myrtles and
roses, but in the war of Vespasian only those made of reeds were
used F14; these crowns at weddings seem to
be the "beautiful crowns" in ( Ezekiel
23:42 ) where the Septuagint use the same phrase as here,
(stefanon kauchsewv) , "a
crown of rejoicing", or "glorying": the Hebrew phrase
(trapt trje) , may be
rendered "a crown of glory", as the phrase here is by the Vulgate
Latin and Arabic versions; but does not mean the crown of glory,
life, righteousness, and immortality, the apostle expected at the
hands of Christ another day; nor that his being an instrument of
the conversion of these persons was the ground of such an
expectation, or was what entitled him to such a crown; since he
knew that conversion work was owing to the powerful grace of God,
and the crown of eternal life was his free gift; but that it
would be an honour to him, and give him abundant joy and pleasure
at the coming of Christ, to be encircled with such a number of
souls he had been useful to, and who were his spiritual children;
just as children's children are the crown of old men, ( Proverbs
17:6 ) all this is put by way of question, which strongly
affirms,
are not even ye;
or "ye also", as well as others, as the Corinthians and
Philippians; see ( 2
Corinthians 1:7 ) ( phi 1:6
phi
1:7 ) ( 4:1 ) .
In the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his
coming?
to judge the quick and dead, when both they and these should meet
him, and stand before him with confidence, being clothed with his
righteousness, and clad with robes of immortality and glory.