We Were Not a Burden

aul began preaching the gospel in Macedonia somewhere around the year A.D. 50. After some success, he was forced to leave Philippi. He and his group journeyed west 100 miles to Thessalonica. After a short ministry there, they were again forced to leave (Acts 17:1-10). Probably less than a year later, Paul heard that the believers in Thessalonica were being persecuted. Paul wrote a letter to reassure the believers that their faith and sufferings were not in vain. As he writes to encourage them, he reviews his ministry and relationship with that church.

Trying to please God (verses 1-6)

Paul reminds them that he preached despite persecution: You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. Since the gospel always comes with opposition, the readers should not be surprised if they encounter difficulties as well.

For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. The ancient world had its share of traveling snake-oil salesmen, and whether people were accusing Paul or not, Paul defends himself against possible misunderstandings.

A critic might have said: Paul gave his spiel in Thessalonica, but only a few gullible people fell for it, and they had no money, so Paul left to try his luck somewhere else. He didn’t really care about the people who fell for his scam. So Paul responds: Our time in Thessalonica was not a failure. We are not trying to trick anyone—we are serving God, delivering his message, and that’s what we did. We get beaten up for our gospel, but we keep preaching because that’s what God sent us to do.

You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. There is no evidence to support any accusation. Paul does not fit the pattern of a traveling trickster—there was no flattery, no self-promotion, nothing shady going on.

Working hard, helping others (verses 6-12)

Paul could have asked for some financial support, but he did not: As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. Although teachers were normally paid by their students, Paul did not ask for payment—he did not want people to question his motives (1 Cor. 9:12). He was as gentle as a woman nursing a baby. He supplied their needs, but did not ask them to supply his. That is evidence of sincerity, and along with it, the truth of the gospel.

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Paul cared for the people so much that he shared his life with them. (This was probably a cliché expressing friendship.)

Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. This is quite an achievement: Paul, Silas and Timothy could move to a strange city and quickly find jobs that supported them. This was part of Paul’s strategy: he did not want to be confused with the traveling speakers whose main motive was money.

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. He says this not to boast, but to forestall any accusations that would cast doubts on the gospel. This is the example he set for them to follow.

For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. Fathers did not always deal with their children kindly, but Paul is appealing to the ideal: a father was supposed to help his children and encourage them to be good citizens.

What is a life that is “worthy” of God? Taken literally, this is an impossibly high standard. But this is motivational rhetoric, not a formula for earning salvation. It simply means, I urge you to live the way that characterizes God and his kingdom—the way of love.

Accepting the word of God (verses 13-16)

In chapter 1, Paul thanked God for choosing the believers in Thessalonica. Now, he gives thanks that they believed the gospel: And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. The word of God had begun to work in their lives.

What is the evidence that their faith was genuine? It was their willingness to endure persecution: For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews… Paul draws attention to this example because he wants them to continue in it, to be faithful despite the persecution.

In the ancient world, people wanted the gods to give them good crops, good health, and good fortune. When people were suffering, it was assumed that they had offended the gods in some way. So when the believers in Thessalonica experienced difficulties, others would say: “Trusting in Jesus isn’t doing you any good, is it?”

So Paul says that persecutions are not proof that the gospel is false—God’s truth has always encountered opposition. The pattern began where the gospel began—in Judea. (Apparently Paul had already told them a little church history.) The unbelievers didn’t like the gospel there, either.

Paul then comments on the Jewish persecutors: They killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

These words are surprising—unlike anything Paul wrote anywhere else. They are anti-Semitic, some say, and an unfair condemnation of an entire ethnic group. But Paul is not condemning all Jews. He is referring only to the Judeans who killed Jesus and drove the early believers away (see Acts 7 for similar comments). Paul is not presenting a calm analysis of the place of Jews in God’s plan (for that, see Romans 9-11). Rather, his purpose is to strengthen the Thessalonian believers to remain true to their convictions. The context implies that a similar criticism could be said for the Macedonian persecutors.