So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God - That is, we mention your example to other churches, and glory in it, as an evidence of what the gospel is suited to do; see the notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20; compare the notes on 2 Corinthians 9:2.

For your patience - Your patient endurance of trials.

And faith - Fidelity, or constancy. You have shown unwavering confidence in God in your afflictions.

In all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure - See the notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13. It would seem from this that the persecutions and trials to which the apostle referred in his First Epistle were still continued.

We ourselves glory in you in the Churches of God - We hold you up as an example of what the grace of God, can produce when communicated to honest and faithful hearts.

For your patience and faith - From Acts 17:5, Acts 17:13, and from 1 Thessalonians 2:14, we learn, that the people of Thessalonica had suffered much persecution, both from the Jews and their own countrymen; but being thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Gospel, and feeling it to be the power of God unto salvation, no persecution could turn them aside from it. And having suffered for the truth, it was precious to them. Persecution never essentially injured the genuine Church of God.

So that we ourselves glory in you,.... Or "of you"; for though they were the subject concerning which, yet not the object in which they gloried; the apostle elsewhere advises not to glory in men, but only in the Lord; nor was this his practice contrary to his advice, for he did not boast of these persons with respect to their carnal things; he did not glory in their flesh, nor in their riches, nor wisdom, nor strength, nor any external gift; he gloried indeed of their graces, and of the exercise and increase of them; but of these not as of themselves, or as owing to him, and his fellow ministers, but as instances of the grace of God, and for which he gives thanks to him: and besides, he did not glory of these in the presence of God, in whose presence none should glory, but

in the churches of God; the other churches in Macedonia and Achaia, as Philippi, Berea, Corinth, &c. he gave thanks to God for them, and gloried of them before men, or among the saints, to the glory of the grace of God in them, and in order to stir up other churches to an emulation and imitation of them. And the particulars he gloried of them for were as follow,

for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: many and sore were the reproaches, the afflictions, and persecutions that befell them for the sake of Christ, and their profession of him, and his Gospel; and which is more or less the case of everyone that will live godly in Christ Jesus: and these they endured, they bore and stood up under, they were not shocked, and staggered, and moved from the hope of the Gospel by them; which shows that the truth of grace was in them; for where there is not the root of the matter, when tribulation and affliction arise because of the profession of the word, such are offended, stumbled, and quickly gone; but these saints endured their afflictions, and with great patience, without murmuring and repining, and with great constancy, firmness, and resolution of mind. They stood fast in the grace and doctrine of faith, and in the profession of both, which they held without wavering, and none of the things they met with could move them from it. The apostle had mentioned their faith before, and he takes notice of it again, because their patience, constancy, and perseverance in sufferings, arose from it; for the trying of faith works patience, James 1:3. The Ethiopic version leaves out the word "faith", but very wrongly.

Glory (ἐνκαυχᾶσθαι)

N.T.o. The simple verb καυχᾶσθαι to boast, and the kindred nouns καύχημα ground of boasting, and καύχησις act of boasting, are favorites with Paul.

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:

1:4 So that we ourselves glory. On account of these things he spoke their praises in the churches, those of Achaia, where he then was. It is always a stimulus to report to the churches the good work elsewhere,

Churches of God. A designation given by the apostles to the churches oftener than any other (Ac 20:28 1Co 1:2 10:32 11:16,22 15:09 2Co 1:1 Ga 1:13 1Th 2:14 2Th 1:4 1Ti 3:5), though also spoken of as churches of Christ (Ro 16:16).

Your patience. There was a patient endurance of trial for Christ.

1:4 Which ye endure - That ye may be accounted worthy of the kingdom.

4. glory in you-make our boast of you, literally, "in your case." "Ourselves" implies that not merely did they hear others speaking of the Thessalonians' faith, but they, the missionaries themselves, boasted of it. Compare 1Th 1:8, wherein the apostle said, their faith was so well known in various places, that he and his fellow missionaries had no need to speak of it; but here he says, so abounding is their love, combined with faith and patience, that he and his fellow missionaries themselves, make it a matter of glorying in the various churches elsewhere (he was now at Corinth in Achaia, and boasted there of the faith of the Macedonian churches, 2Co 10:15-17; 8:1, at the same time giving the glory to the Lord), not only looking forward to glorying thereat at Christ's coming (1Th 2:19), but doing so even now.

patience-in 1Th 1:3, "patience of hope." Here hope is tacitly implied as the ground of their patience; 2Th 1:5, 7 state the object of their hope, namely, the kingdom for which they suffer.

tribulations-literally, "pressures." The Jews were the instigators of the populace and of the magistrates against Christians (Ac 17:6, 8).

which ye endure-Greek, "are (now) enduring."

1:1-4 Where there is the truth of grace, there will be an increase of it. The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day. And where there is the increase of grace, God must have all the glory. Where faith grows, love will abound, for faith works by love. It shows faith and patience, such as may be proposed as a pattern for others, when trials from God, and persecutions from men, quicken the exercise of those graces; for the patience and faith of which the apostle gloried, bore them up, and enabled them to endure all their tribulations.