1 Thessalonians 2:19

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?] Not rejoicing, but glorying (R. V.), or boasting. "Crown of glorying" is a Hebrew idiom (Isaiah 62:3; Proverbs 16:31, &c.); it is the crown which expresses one's exultation, not the king's "diadem" (as in Revelation 19:12), but the wreath of the victor in the games (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). So he calls the Philippians his "joy and crown a boast to me in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain" (Philippians 2:16; Philippians 4:1). And here: "Who will furnish our crown at Christ's coming who, indeed, but you?"

Are not even ye This clause is best read, with Westcott and Hort, as a rhetorical parenthesis are not even ye? then the main question is resumed and completed: "before our Lord Jesus at His coming?"

It is thenthat the Apostle will wear the crown which the Thessalonians furnish for him. His wealth is in hope. He loves them for what they are, but still more for what they will be in the "unveiling of the sons of God" (Romans 8:19), "set faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24). Then how proud(in the just sense of that word) will their Apostle be of them! See the prayers of ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; also Colossians 1:28-29, where the goal of Paul's labours is that he "may present every man perfect in Christ."

our Lord Jesus Christ should be our Lord Jesus (R. V.). On a point like this we should always consult a critical text, such as that of the Revisers. Copyists were peculiarly liable to error in the names of Christ.

Observe the return in glory, and as Judge, of the same Lord JesusWhom the Jews wickedly killed, 1 Thessalonians 2:15: "I saw in the midst of the throne … a Lamb, as though it had been slain," Revelation 5:6. He had said to His judges: "Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64). This title identifies the Divine Judge and Conqueror over sin and death with the historical and human Jesus (comp. John 5:27; Acts 17:31). The combination Lord Jesusis more frequent in these Epistles than anywhere else in the N.T., a circumstance due to their prevailing reference to the Second Coming. For further notes on the title see ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

his coming Lit., presenceGreek, parousia i.e. "presence" in its active sense (different from the "presence," or "face," of 1 Thessalonians 2:17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:9) His arrival.

Here is the earliest example of a word, parousia, that has passed into the language of theology, denoting the promised Advent of Christ in glory, when He will come to complete His work of redemption and to judge mankind. His own teaching on the subject is recorded in Matthew 24; Matthew 25; Mark 13; Luke 12:35-59; Luke 17:20-37; Luke 19:11-27; Luke 21:5-36; John 5:27-29; John 14:1-3; John 16:22, &c. Seven times the Apostle uses this solemn word in these two letters once besides, in 1 Corinthians 15:23. From the three writings we lean nearly all that he has to teach on this mysterious subject. The parousiais spoken of by Christ, in answer to His disciples, in Matthew 24; and is referred to also in the Epistles of James, Peter, and John.