1 Thessalonians 2:10 Commentary and Bible Study

The compact and wonderful way in which these verses pass from scene to scene is remarkable. We see the holy living of the evangelists, and the example that they set, and the wonderful lives that they showed to the citizens in that place. The language takes on almost the scale of an oath. Something very solemn is about to be said which they affirm.‘How holily and justly and unblameably.’ He means how rightly or purely or piously they behaved as the representatives of God, worthy of him. And how justly, how conforming to the law of God, to the Ten Commandments. So he calls upon them to remember what it was like when he and Silas and Timothy were among them. He could have said, but he does not go into detail, ‘You remember our patience, you remember the affection that we had for you. You remember our manner of speech. You never heard anything wrong from our lips. You never heard a word of blasphemy. You never had any intemperate language, any testiness, and ill-temper or ill-patience. Remember our honesty in all things, how scrupulously careful we were. You remember our unselfishness.’ Not only did it mean that the Holy Spirit could work, but it was a witness to those people. They were astonished. Their pagan priests did not behave like this. They were not genuine men, earnest men, pious men. It was a powerful witness which also it paved the way for the work of the Spirit. The Spirit can move when the people of God are concerned to strive for holiness. They behaved ‘unblameably’. You could rack your brains and think of anything you could have charged us with, or held against us, or any secret sins that you discovered in us.’ And it was not put on. It came out of a life of prayer and earnest hungering and thirsting after righteousness.