2 Thessalonians 1:4

so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure [The faith and love of the Thessalonians were such that, spontaneously, of their own accord, Paul and his companions delighted to tell of it to the churches at Corinth, Cenchreæ and in other parts of Achaia. Though the persecutions which arose while Paul was in Thessalonica were still continuing, yet they neither exhausted the patience of the Christians so as to drive them to forsake God, nor their faith so as to lead them to mistrust God. We should observe that the churches are commonly called, by Paul, as here, churches of God, though sometimes churches of Christ];