1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

Paul appeals to their Endurance of the Persecution in proof of the Genuine efficacy of their Reception of the Word of God.

Paul again gives thanks for the reception which the Thessalonians had accorded to his preaching, and finds evidence at once of the efficacy of the word and of the reality of their acceptance of it, in their manner of enduring the persecution which their change of faith had evoked. They had thus become conformed in experience to the churches in Judaea and to the first followers of Christ, who together with their Master Himself had suffered persecution.