1 Thessalonians 1

      6, 7. Ye became followers of us. Followed them as they followed the Lord. Having received the word in much affliction. In the midst of opposition and persecution. See Acts, chapter 17 . With joy of the Holy Ghost. With rejoicing as soon as they accepted the gospel. 7. So that ye were ensamples. Their earnestness was such that they were worthy of imitation by all who had become Christian. Macedonia. The great Roman province, of which Thessalonica was the capital, lying north of the Ægean Sea. Achaia. The Roman province of which Corinth was the capital. It embraced most of Greece.

      8-10. For from you sounded out. The effect of the gospel in Thessalonica was so striking that the report of it went through all Macedonia and Greece, and awakened inquiry, so that a knowledge of the gospel was thus spread abroad. So that we need not to speak anything. Wherever he went he found that the news of the church in the great city of Thessalonica had preceded him, so that he did not need to tell it. 9. For they themselves. The people "every place" ( verse 8 ). How ye turned to God from idols. Most of them had been heathen. See the accounts in Acts 17:4 . 10. And to wait for his Son from heaven. The apostles saw the Lord ascend, but he left a promise that he would return, with the time wholly unrevealed. Hence, in preaching the gospel, they made his return to the world very prominent, and perhaps believed themselves in his speedy coming. Until after Jerusalem was destroyed the churches waited, as though the Lord would soon be revealed. We should still wait, "watch and pray." We know not the hour when he may either come, or we be called to him.