1 Thessalonians 1:9 Commentary and Bible Study

The people of Macedonia and Achaia knew all about the conversions among the Thessalonians, what sort of inroad the gospel had. Everyone was against it. The apostle Paul had been most severely beaten with Silas at Philippi. Humanly speaking, it is hard to see how he could have got over it so quickly. Thessalonica was a very proud city which had the right of self-rule, and its own prefects or rulers or politarchs, an unusual privilege in the Roman empire, though not unique. The people were pagans, idolaters, though a fair number of people in the city were most sophisticated atheists. Paul and Silas and Timothy were not an impressive team. They were dishevelled. There was great hostility any such thing as the idea of one God. Just about fifty miles southwest of this place, there was Mount Olympus, home of the gods. The gods were thought to be resident in its upper areas, within. These were intensely superstitious pagan people. And of course, the priests of the gods had everything under firm control. Any effort to draw people away from their gods would meet with fury and opposition. All they had was preaching. Paul did in this city what he did in every place and proclaimed a crucified Saviour. How would that appeal to them? How would that seem to people who were used to being impressed by earthly outward power and exhibition of wonders? And yet here in this city, it seems that many people just fell at the feet of the gospel almost instantly. They found him in great numbers. The Jewish synagogue would not listen. Just a few were converted there, but the Gentiles listened, and there was in so short a time this tremendous harvest of souls.Look at these beautiful words – ‘You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.’ Only God is real. The idols are not real. They are just the objects of superstition, they are invention. Only God is true in the sense of being real. Only God is living. He walks with you, he hears and answers your prayers. He deals with you. He can reprove you, he can comfort you. It is a living experience to walk with him. They turned from that, they turned many of them from personal drunkenness, personal fornication, licentiousness, personal homosexuality, personal brutality and meanness. They turned from all these things to serve the living and true God.