For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 2:14 Go To 1 Thessalonians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
For you, he says, became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judæa. This is a great consolation. It is no wonder, he says, that they should do these things to you, inasmuch as they have done it also to their own countrymen. And this too is no little proof that the Preaching is true, that even Jews were able to endure all things. For you also, he says, have suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews. There is something more in his saying, as they also did in Judæa; it shows that everywhere they rejoiced, as having nobly contended. He says therefore, that you also suffered the same things. And again, what wonder is it, if to you also, when even to the Lord they dared do such things?
Do you see how he introduces this as containing great consolation? And constantly he adverts to it; and upon a close examination one may find it in nearly all his Epistles, how variously, upon all occasions of temptation, he brings forward Christ. Observe accordingly, that here also, when accusing the Jews, he puts them in mind of the Lord, and of the sufferings of the Lord; so well does he know that this is a matter of the greatest consolation.
