Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
No Flattery, No Cloak
1 Thessalonians 2:5-6
5 For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness), · WEB
Three things Paul says he never did, each with a different witness attached.
Neither were we at any time found using words of flattery. The first denial concerns speech, and the witness Paul calls is the readers themselves — as you know. They heard him; they can judge whether he told them what they wanted to hear.
Nor a cloak of covetousness. The image is of using the ministry as a covering over a motive, and here the witness changes: God is witness. Paul cannot prove a negative about his own greed, and he does not try. He submits the question to the only party who can settle it, which is a more honest move than protesting.
Nor seeking glory from men, neither from you nor from others. The third denial is about reputation, and it is the hardest of the three to disprove or defend.
Then the clause that gives it weight: when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. He had a right he did not exercise — the same restraint he describes elsewhere in refusing financial support that was legitimately his 1 Corinthians 9:14–15. A man who never had standing to trade on is not modest; a man who had it and set it down is saying something.
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