Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Using words of flattery (en logw kolakeiav). Literally,
in speech of flattery or fawning. Old word, only here in N.T., from kolakv, a flatterer. An Epicurean, Philodemus, wrote a work Peri Kolakeiav (Concerning Flattery). Milligan (Vocabulary, etc.) speaks of "the selfish conduct of too many of the rhetoricians of the day," conduct extremely repugnant to Paul. The third time (verses I Thessalonians 2:1-2, I Thessalonians 2:5) he appeals to their knowledge of his work in Thessalonica. Frame suggests "cajolery."
Nor a cloke of covetousness (oute profasei pleoneciav). Pretext (profasiv from profainw, to show forth, or perhaps from pro-fhmi, to speak forth). This is the charge of self-interest rather than the mere desire to please people. Pretext of greediness is Frame's translation. Pleonecia is merely "having more" from pleonekthv, one eager for more, and pleonektew, to have more, then to over-reach, all old words, all with bad meaning as the result of the desire for more. In a preacher this sin is especially fatal. Paul feels so strongly his innocence of this charge that he calls God as witness as in II Corinthians 1:23; Romans 9:1; Philippians 1:8, a solemn oath for his own veracity.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Thessalonians 2:5:
John 15:22
Acts 17:5
Acts 27:30
Romans 1:29
2 Corinthians 1:23
1 Thessalonians 2:1
1 Thessalonians 2:5
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