We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 1:2 Go To 1 Thessalonians 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Grace be unto you, and peace. Do you perceive that the very commencement of his Epistle is with encomiums? We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. For to give thanks to God for them is the act of one testifying to their great advancement, when they are not only praised themselves, but God also is thanked for them, as Himself having done it all. He teaches them also to be moderate, all but saying, that it is all of the power of God. That he gives thanks for them, therefore, is on account of their good conduct, but that he remembers them in his prayers, proceeds from his love towards them. Then as he often does, he says that he not only remembers them in his prayers, but apart from his prayers. Remembering without ceasing, he says, your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. What is remembering without ceasing? Either remembering before God and the Father, or remembering your labor of love that is before God and the Father, or simply, Remembering you without ceasing. Then again, that you may not think that this remembering you without ceasing is said simply, he has added, before our God and Father. And because no one among men was praising their actions, no one giving them any reward, he says this, You labor before God. What is the work of faith? That nothing has turned aside your steadfastness. For this is the work of faith. If you believe, suffer all things; if you dost not suffer, thou dost not believe. For are not the things promised such, that he who believes would choose to suffer even ten thousand deaths? The kingdom of heaven is set before him, and immortality, and eternal life. He therefore who believes will suffer all things. Faith then is shown through his works. Justly might one have said, not merely did you believe, but through your works you manifested it, through your steadfastness, through your zeal.
