1 Thessalonians 4:2

οἵδατε γὰρ τίνας παραγγελίας ἐδώκαμεν ὑμῖν. For you know what charges we gave you. See notes on this characteristic οἴδατε, 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:1, above. Οἴδατε τὰς παραγγελίας ἅς κ.τ.λ. (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:1; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 3:15; 2 Corinthians 9:2) would have meant, “You are acquainted with the charges we gave you”—you could describe them; but οἴδατε τίνας παραγγ. (with dependent interrogative; cf. 2 Timothy 3:14, εἰδὼς παρὰ τίνων ἔμαθες) is, “You know what the charges are”—you could define them &c.; cf. note on οἴδατε οἶοι, 1 Thessalonians 1:5. The παραγγελίαι originally given by the Apostles (cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:10; Ephesians 4:20 to Ephesians 5:2; Titus 2:11-14) were not bare rules of conduct (ἐντολαί), but injunctions drawn from the nature of the Gospel and urged affectionately and solemnly, doctrine and precepts forming one παράκλησις (1 Thessalonians 2:3) or παραγγελία (1 Timothy 1:5). In classical Greek παραγγέλλω, παραγγελία, are used of commands or watch words transmitted along (παρά) a line of troops (see Xenophon, Anab. i. 8. 3; Cyrop. ii. 1 Thessalonians 4:2), then of military orders in general, of pedagogic precepts, &c.; in distinction from κελεύω (which St Paul never uses), παραγγέλλω connotes moral authority and earnestness in the command,—a “charge” not a mere “order,” “præcepta” (Vulg.) rather than “mandata” (Beza). The 1st plur. ἐδώκαμεν is rare, but not unknown, in Attic Greek; see Winer-Moulton, p. 102.

The defining διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ recalls ἐν κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ of 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (see note): διά points to the name and authority of “the Lord Jesus” as the sanction “through” which the “charges” were enforced (scarcely “prompted by the Lord Jesus,” as Lightfoot puts it), while ἐν κ. Ἰ. implied that the apostolic precepts moved “in the sphere of” His rule: cf., not overlooking the difference of title, διὰ τοῦ χριστοῦ in 2 Corinthians 1:5, and Romans 1:8; Romans 5:11; somewhat similarly, διὰ θεοῦ in 1 Corinthians 1:9; Galatians 4:7, &c.; and παρακαλεῖν διά, Romans 12:1; Romans 15:30; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 10:1.