1 Thessalonians 2:17 Commentary and Bible Study

The elegance of the language of the translation possibly gets in the way a tiny bit. It is absolutely accurate but it is so refined that I wonder if we see quite what the apostle says. The Greek actually is ‘torn from you’. He did not want to leave them; he was so attached to these new converts; his heart is so with them. It was persecution that caused him to have to leave. They insisted that he leave the city. The Thessalonians were in trouble unless he did so. But he assures them that they had not left them in heart. Their feelings and concerns were still with them. ‘Endeavoured the more abundantly’ – we tried even beyond all our best efforts; we tried even harder than our hardest, they said ‘to see your face.’ We would say today, to be face to face with you. ‘With great desire,’ he adds, as if he has not said enough already. Does it come home: the strong feeling, the empathy, the union that he had with those converts?Now here are some of the secrets of the apostle and Silas and Timothy. They were not interested in what they were going to have for dinner when they got home. They were not interested in the latest items of furniture that it was possible to buy. They were not over-interested, unduly interested in the comforts of this present life. Where did they get their pleasure, their joy, their encouragement, their uplift from? It was relating to believers.Here are people in the city of Thessalonians who are in total spiritual darkness. They have no hold upon God. Their minds are completely wrecked, believing in umpteen deities, in superstitious confusion. There are people with no control over their sins and moods and appetites. They are lost people. Many of them are deeply, deeply unpleasant people, people who are wracked by every kind of problem and sin.But now God has opened their minds by the power of the Spirit, and amazingly they have heard the gospel, and they have grasped it, and they have been moved, and repented, and come to Christ. Their nature has been changed and their whole way of life, and now they have the heart of Christians and long for others. Oh, that the apostle could still be with them. He can see the faces of many of them, to hear their triumph, to hear their experiences, to hear their answered prayers and their joys; to hear their trials and their problems, and how God has carried them through. New people, changed people. He is with them; he is their friend.