Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
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1 Thessalonians 1:4-5
4 We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, · WEB
Paul says he knows they are chosen, and the evidence he gives is not their experience but the manner of the preaching.
We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen. A confident claim about other people's standing, and Paul immediately says what it rests on.
The gospel came to them not in word only, he says, but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Three things beyond the words: effect, agency, and a settled certainty that may belong to the preachers or the hearers, since the Greek allows either.
That is the ground of the election claim, and the logic runs opposite to how such claims are usually made. Paul does not examine their inner states or ask what they felt. He points to something observable about how the message arrived.
And the verse ends by turning to conduct: you know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. Chapter 2 will spend twelve verses unpacking that clause.
settled What this mark means