1 Thessalonians 1:8

“For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything”

“For”: Besides receiving the word, despite the opposition, and besides turning adversity into victory (1 Thessalonians 1:6), these Christians also proclaimed the word they had received. “Here was. preacher's dream come true! His converts had picked up the work where he had to leave it, and had spread abroad the word of the Lord so effectively that he had no need to say anything more in that area” (Fields p. 39). “Sounded forth”: To echo forth. “You have become. sort of sounding-board” (Phi). “From Thessalonica the word rang out” (NEB). ”To sound out of. trumpet or of thunder, to reverberate like our echo” (Robertson p. 12). “It means. loud, unmistakable proclamation” (Vincent p. 17). Morris notes, “It is. vivid word, and expositors from Chrysostom on have often thought the imagery to have been derived from the sounding out of. trumpet, though some prefer to think of the rolling of thunder. Either way there is nothing apologetic about it! The perfect denotes the continuing activity. The word is pictured as still sounding forth” (p. 61).

“The word of the Lord”: The gospel message they had received. “But in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth”: “That the Thessalonians' faith was becoming known far beyond Greece, may be west by land to Rome and east by sea to Ephesus” (Stott p. 37). “So that we need not to speak anything”: “No words of ours are needed” (NEB). “Paul naturally was anxious to relate to all who came to him what great things God had accomplished in Thessalonica. But before he could even get started, the visitors were telling him what they had heard! Well, Paul did not mind that at all. He rather enjoyed it” (Hendriksen p. 54). Stott makes. good point when he says, “There is an important lesson to learn here. We are. very media-conscious generation. Nevertheless there is another way, which (if we compare them), is still more effective. It requires no complicated electronic gadgetry; it is very simple. It is neither organized nor computerized; it is spontaneous. And it is not expensive; it costs precisely nothing. It is the excited transmission from mouth to mouth of the impact which the good news is making on people. Something extraordinary is going on in Thessalonica:. new society is coming into being, with new values and standards, characterized by faith, love and hope” (pp. 37-38).

We need to learn the lesson. In this day and age of mass communication and technology we often forget that the most effective way to spread the gospel is the zealous and excited transmission by word of mouth, and this method is financially feasible for any congregation. In the introduction we noted that the city of Thessalonica was situated in. very strategic position in reference to trade and travel. All this congregation had to do, was to make use of the existing opportunity, that is the case for most congregations, even to this day.