Brief Exposition of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Part 1
A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE of PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS.
The ARGUMENT.
PAul having planted a Church at Thessalonica, the chief City of all Macedonia, Acts 17. 1, &c. he was driven from thence as far as Athens, by the violence of the unbelieving Jews, Acts 17. ver. 5, to 15. And having heard what sad things this Church did suffer from those unbelieving Jews, and also from Pagans, Chap. 2. vers. 15. he sent Timotheus to them, to establish and comfort them, Chap. 3. 2. upon whose return, together with the glad tidings brought by him of their constancy in the doctrine of Christ, Paul doth write this Epistle unto them, Chap. 3. 6, 7. His scope wherein is, partly, by a relation of their Conversion to and constancy in the Faith of his own ministerial carriage when he was among them, and of the solicitous care he yet had of them, notwithstanding of his absence from them, to engage them yet further to constancy and perseverance in the doctrine received for the time to come: Which he laboureth to effectuate in the first principal part of this Epistle, Chap. 1. 2, 3. And partly to incite them unto several duties of an holy life, which he doth endeavour in the second part of this Epistle, Chap. 4. and to vers. 23. of Chap. 5. having at the close of Chap. 4. from Vers. 14. occasionally intermixed a doctrinal truth, concerning the state of believers after Death, and Christs coming to Judgement. And lastly, he concludes the Epistle by praying for them, and commending some things unto their care, from Vers. 23. of Chap. 5. to the end.