Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
To Serve and to Wait
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, · WEB
The report circulating about them summarizes conversion in three verbs, and the last one is waiting.
They themselves report what kind of reception we had, and how you turned to God from idols. Paul is quoting other people's account of his own converts, which is why the summary is so compact — it is what travelers were saying.
Three movements are named. Turned to God from idols: a decisive break, and in a Greek city that meant withdrawing from civic and family religion at real cost. To serve a living and true God — the adjectives are chosen against what was left behind, since an idol is neither.
And to wait for his Son from heaven. That waiting is put on the same level as the turning and the serving, as a third constituent of what it means to have become a Christian. It is not an optional interest for the enthusiastic.
The one waited for is identified in three strokes — raised by God from among the dead, named as Jesus, and the deliverer from the coming wrath. Resurrection is the guarantee, the name is the person, deliverance is the outcome. This is the first of five chapter-endings that close on the coming, and the pattern holds to the letter's last verse.
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