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
Are we worthy, then, so much as even to mention the name of Paul? He had, in addition, the help of grace, yet did not presume that grace eliminated the need to take chances. We, on the other hand, who are destitute of the confidence grace brings, on what basis, tell me, do we expect either to preserve those who are committed to our charge or to gain those who have not come to the fold? We, indeed, are those who have been making a study of selfindulgence, who are searching the world over for ease and who are unable or rather unwilling to endure the slightest hint of danger. We are as far distant from Paul’s wisdom as earth is from heaven. So it is, too, that they who are under us fall so far short of the men of those days. The reason is that the disciples of those days were better than the teachers of the present, isolated as they were in the midst of the populace, tyrants, surounded by enemies on all sides, and yet not in the slightest degree dragged down or giving up. Hear at least what Paul says to the Philippians: “Because to you it has been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him but also to suffer in his behalf.” And again to the Thessalonians, “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea.” … And you see them too, all employed in doing good. And so in those days grace worked effectually, and they also lived in good works.
