Homilies on 1 Thessalonians

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.4 · 2.1–3.1 · 3.2–3.6 · 4.1–4.5 · 5.1–6.2 · 6.3 · 6.4 · 9.1–9.5 · 10.1–10.4 · 11.1–11.5

1. 1.1Chrysostom explains why Paul writes with Silvanus and Timothy and without titles, and interprets the thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ work of faith and labour of love, shown in persecution.
2. 1.2The Thessalonians’ steadfastness under persecution shows a faith worked by God’s power; receiving the word in affliction with joy of the Spirit, they imitated Paul and the Lord.
3. 1.3The joy of the Spirit in affliction made the Thessalonians examples to others; Chrysostom warns against spiritual sleep and teaches that the prayers of the saints help only those who also strive.
4. 1.4Prayers help only those who also do their part: Scripture shows intercession succeeding for the righteous and failing for the obstinate, so we should seek the saints’ prayers and also practise virtue.
5. 2.1The fame of the Thessalonians’ faith spread everywhere, as Macedonia’s fame had spread under Alexander; their conversion and waiting for the risen Christ is comfort under persecution.
6. 2.2Paul’s boldness in danger and his refusal of flattery, gain and honour prove that the gospel is from God; he was gentle among them as a nurse.
7. 2.5Paul was gentle like a nurse and would have given his life for the Thessalonians; Chrysostom praises genuine Christian friendship, sweeter than light or life, and rewarded by God.
8. 3.1Paul worked night and day so as not to burden the Thessalonians, treated each like a father, and gives thanks that they received his word as God’s word and suffered like the churches of Judea.
9. 3.2The Thessalonians suffered as the churches of Judea did from those who killed the Lord and the prophets; Paul, like a bereaved child, longed to see them again.
10. 3.3Satan, by violent trials, hindered Paul from returning; the Thessalonians are his joy and crown, and he sent Timothy to strengthen them, having foretold that afflictions would come.
11. 3.4Christians are appointed to affliction; the whole of life is warfare against the devil, the passions, wealth, glory and poverty, and believers must train in peace for battle.
12. 3.5The present life has crowns: bearing the death of a child, refusing magical cures, and giving thanks after loss or theft, as Job did, earn a martyr’s or an almsgiver’s reward.
13. 3.6Theft becomes a true loss only when we turn to diviners and lose our souls; like sailors lightening a ship, we should answer loss with almsgiving and thanksgiving, and keep stores for the needy rather than gold.
14. 4.1Paul sends Timothy because he did not know how the Thessalonians fared: God lets saints be ignorant of many things to keep them humble and keep others from thinking them gods; Paul’s love and the severity of the trials made him anxious.
15. 4.2Paul, more than a natural father, sent Timothy in his own danger; Timothy’s good news of their faith and love comforted him, so that he says he lives if they stand fast.
16. 4.3The Thessalonians’ faith is Paul’s life and joy, yet he prays to supply what their faith lacks in teaching; he prays that their love may grow toward all and their hearts be kept blameless in holiness.
17. 4.4Love keeps the heart blameless and consumes every sin, even sexual immorality; the saints from Abel to Abraham pleased God by love, and Paul, unbroken by all dangers, was broken by the tears of those he loved.
18. 4.5Joseph, unmoved by his mistress, wept over the brothers who had wronged him; Chrysostom urges his hearers to forgive their enemies at once, before the sun goes down.
19. 5.1Paul urges the Thessalonians to go beyond the commandments in virtue, and above all to keep their sanctification by abstaining from all sexual immorality, possessing their bodies in holiness and honour.
20. 5.2Every union outside one’s own marriage is sin that God avenges, and a married man’s union with an unmarried woman is adultery; Chrysostom urges fathers to marry their sons early and chaste, and defends his frank speech as a physician’s.
21. 5.4Fornication with prostitutes is filthy and inexcusable for the young; the theatre feeds lust, and self-control is easy for those who will it and avoid what harms.
22. 6.1Paul praises the Thessalonians’ God-taught brotherly love by not writing about it, and urges them to work with their own hands so as to give rather than receive and to live becomingly before outsiders.
23. 6.2Paul comforts the Thessalonians about the dead; Chrysostom rebukes Christian widows and mothers who mourn like pagans, answering their reasons and saying that God, who is jealous for our love, takes those on whom we lean.
24. 6.3God takes husbands and children because we love them more than him; widows who love God more will not feel widowhood, for God gave them everything, and widowhood frees them and gives them power over demons, while God is father of orphans.
25. 6.4The end of Homily 6 consoles widows (God is father to their children and their companion); Homily 7 explains the resurrection of those asleep in Jesus and answers objections from nature; Homily 8 describes Christ’s descent, the rapture and the last trumpet, and proves the reality of Gehenna from Sodom, the flood and God’s past judgments.
26. 9.1Paul refuses to write about the times of the end: each person’s death is his own consummation, and God hides both days so that we may live in virtue, not delay baptism, and merit reward; the day will come suddenly like labour pains.
27. 9.3Those who live in the dark sins of night will be overtaken by the day; the faithful, sons of light, must keep awake and sober and arm themselves with faith, love and hope, since God, who gave his Son to death, destined them for salvation. Wickedness is death and sleep; it begins in carelessness, and the narrow road between precipices demands constant watchfulness.
28. 9.5The road to life is narrow, and luxury makes it narrower; Chrysostom laments those who laugh while heading for judgment and urges them to pity themselves by showing mercy to the poor.
29. 10.1The faithful must esteem their priests very highly in love, since the priest bears the hatred that correction brings, prays for them, ministers baptism and the mysteries, and opens heaven to them.
30. 10.2Rulers must correct the disorderly gently; believers must repay evil with good, rejoice, pray and give thanks always; Chrysostom attacks the love of money and the excuse that one hoards for one’s children, citing Jacob and Abraham.
31. 10.4God gave children so that fathers might teach them and love bind mankind; houses built by greed are memorials of greed, the greedy man is worse than a thief and must repay manifold, and all, rich and poor, must stop robbing.
32. 11.1The Spirit’s gift is a lamp in the night of this world, quenched by an unclean life, by anger and by lack of almsgiving; prophecies must be tested, not despised; Paul prays for their sanctification, asks for prayer, and adjures them, while Chrysostom laments that adjurations by Christ are now ignored.
33. 11.3A story shows the power of an adjuration by Christ; Chrysostom rebukes those who ignore beggars adjuring them by the Lord but reward flattery and lewd songs, and teaches that the poor at church doors teach thanksgiving and humility, since God seats them at his gates and admits them to his table with kings.
34. 11.5Like the rich man who despised Lazarus, those ashamed of the poor are ashamed of Christ; Christ commands feasts for the poor, which bring true glory and a heavenly reward.