Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
followers—Greek, "imitators." Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.
in Judea—The churches of Judea were naturally the patterns to other churches, as having been the first founded, and that on the very scene of Christ's own ministry. Reference to them is specially appropriate here, as the Thessalonians, with Paul and Silas, had experienced from Jews in their city persecutions (Acts 17:5-9) similar to those which "the churches in Judea" experienced from Jews in that country.
in Christ Jesus—not merely "in God"; for the synagogues of the Jews (one of which the Thessalonians were familiar with, Acts 17:1) were also in God. But the Christian churches alone were not only in God, as the Jews in contrast to the Thessalonian idolaters were, but also in Christ, which the Jews were not.
of your own countrymen—including primarily the Jews settled at Thessalonica, from whom the persecution originated, and also the Gentiles there, instigated by the Jews; thus, "fellow countrymen" (the Greek term, according to Herodian, implies, not the enduring relation of fellow citizenship, but sameness of country for the time being), including naturalized Jews and native Thessalonians, stand in contrast to the pure "Jews" in Judea (Matthew 10:36). It is an undesigned coincidence, that Paul at this time was suffering persecutions of the Jews at Corinth, whence he writes (Acts 18:5-6, Acts 18:12); naturally his letter would the more vividly dwell on Jewish bitterness against Christians.
even as they— (Hebrews 10:32-34). There was a likeness in respect to the nation from which both suffered, namely, Jews, and those their own countrymen; in the cause for which, and in the evils which, they suffered, and also in the steadfast manner in which they suffered them. Such sameness of fruits, afflictions, and experimental characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, is a subsidiary evidence of the truth of the Gospel.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Thessalonians 2:14:
Mark 13:29
1 Thessalonians 1:6
1 Thessalonians 2:1
1 Thessalonians 2:13
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