1 Thessalonians 1:9

For they themselves shew of us Rather, report concerning us (R.V.) "They" points to "those in Macedonia and Achaia" and "in every place," any whom the Apostle visited, or to whom he had thought of sending the news. "Instead of waiting to be told by us, we find them spreading the joyful news already!" And this self-diffusing report concerned not the Thessalonians alone, but Paul and his colleagues. It published their success at this great city, and helped their further progress: they report … what kind of an entrance we had unto you.

The "manner" of this "entering in" is not to be found in the kind of reception given to the evangelists at Thessalonica, but in the way in which they presented themselves and entered on their ministry here: comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, and ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2. The reports that told of the heroic faith of the Thessalonians, told also of the wonderful energy and success with which Paul and Silas had preached to them.

and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God Lit., from the idols, to be bondmen to a God living and true. This explains the "faith toward God" of 1 Thessalonians 1:8. "How" implies not the fact alone, but the mannerof their conversion "with what decision and gladness" (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:6), parallel to "what manner of entrance." The Thessalonian Christians had been mainly Gentiles and heathen; comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:14, also Acts 17:4-5, from which it appears, however, that there was a sprinkling of Jews among them, and "a great multitude" of proselytes, already more or less weaned from idolatry.

The "faith toward God" defined in this verse, is the faith of the whole Bible, in which from first to last God asserts Himself as "the Living and True," against the ten thousand forms of human idolatry. The word idol (Greek eidôlon) means properly an appearance, a mere image, or phantom. Homer, e.g., applies the term to the phantasms of distant persons by which his gods sometimes impose on men (Iliad, v. 449; Odyssey, IV. 796). Comp. Lord Bacon's idola tribus, specus, fori, theatri, in the Novum Organum. This word is the equivalent in the Septuagint Version of Hebrew designations for heathen gods and their images of like significance vapours, vanities, nothings. To all these the Name of the God of Israel Who "is the true God, and the living God" (Jeremiah 10:10) is the constant, tacit antithesis: "I am Jehovah" (more strictly Jahveh, or Yahweh, commonly "the Lord" in the English O. T.) the HE IS (see Exodus 3:13-14 for its interpretation; and for its use in argument against idolatry, such passages as Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 45:5-6; Isaiah 45:18; Isaiah 45:21-22). Like the Prophets and Psalmists (e.g. in Psalms 115:4-8; Isaiah 44:9-20; Jeremiah 10:1-10), St Paul was powerfully impressed with the illusion and unreality of heathen religions. He defines idolatry in two passages, 1 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Corinthians 10:19-20, as being half lies, half devilry; and in the horrible immorality then existing in the Gentile world he saw its natural consequence and judicial punishment (Romans 1:18-25).

"True" signifies truth of fact, not word: "true God" is the "very God" of the Nicene Creed, the real God: comp. John 17:3, "that they should know Thee, the only true God;" and 1 John 5:20, "This is the true God, and life eternal."

The service to this "living and true God" which the Thessalonians had embraced, was that of bondmen, acknowledging themselves His property and at His absolute disposal. St Paul habitually calls himself "Christ's" (once "God's," Titus 1:1) "bondman." In Galatians 4:8 he speaks of heathenism as bondage to false gods; in Romans 6:15-23 he shows that to become a Christian is to exchange the bondage of sinfor bondage to righteousnessand to God, bondage under grace. The full conception of the Christian relationship to God is formed by the combination of the idea of sonship(in respect of affection and privilege) with that of bond-service(in respect of duty and submission), to Him "Whose service is perfect freedom."

On the relation of this passage to St Paul's general teaching see Introd.pp. 17, 18. So far, in 1 Thessalonians 1:8, St Paul has related the conversion of the Thessalonians in the language and spirit of the O. T., and as an acceptance of Hebrew faith. In the next verse he advances to that which was distinctively Christian in their new creed: