13, 14. ‘ Seeing then that we on our part have bestowed so much labour and affection upon you, we are the more unceasingly thankful that you yourselves have not come short in the act of receiving. Nay rather when the “ word of hearing” was delivered to you, it became something more than the “ word of hearing.” We might be its bearers, but God was its author. And in welcoming it as you did, it proved itself no mere human message, but a Divine power in all believing hearts. How true this is your own lives testified in that, after the example of the Christian Churches of Judæa, you underwent the same sufferings at the hands of your fellow-countrymen that they did at the hands of the unbelieving Jews.’ 13. καὶʼ ἡμεῖς] ‘ we on our part’—καί denoting the response of the Apostles to the favourable character of the news they had received: cf. 3:5, Colossians 1:9 (with Lft.’ s note). For a different view according to which καί really belongs to the verb see Lietzmann on Romans 3:7 (in Handb. z. N.T. 3:1 (1906)). ὅτιπαραλαβόντεςκτλ.] ὅτι not so much causal (2 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:13), as introducing the subject-matter of the εὐχαριστία, namely that the Thessa. lonians had not only outwardly received (παραλαβόντες) the Apostolic message, but had inwardly welcomed (ἐδέξασθε) it, and that too not as the word of men, but as the word of God. For a similar use of παραλαμβάνω in the Pauline Epp. cf. 4:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, Galatians 1:9; Galatians 1:12, 1 Corinthians 15:1; 1 Corinthians 15:3, Philippians 4:9, Colossians 2:6, and for δέχομαι of willing, hearty reception cf. 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 8:17, Galatians 4:14. In the present passage the Vg. makes no attempt to mark the difference of the verbs (accepissetis … accepistis), but Clarom. has percepissetis … excepistis, and Ambrstr. accepissetis … suscepistis. λόγονἀκοῆς] Ἀκοῆς may be understood in the active sense of ‘ a hearing’ (cf. Galatians 3:2, where it is contrasted with ἔργων) in keeping with the part here assigned to the Thessalonians themselves, but it is better taken in its (ordinary) passive sense of ‘ a message’ spoken and heard (Vg. verbum auditûs): cf. Romans 10:16 (LXX. Isaiah 53:1), Hebrews 4:2. παρʼ ἡμῶν] to be connected with παραλαβόντες, notwithstanding the interjected λόγ. ἀκοῆς, as indicating the immediate source of the message delivered and received, while the emphatic τοῦθεοῦ is added to point to its real source lest the Apostles should seem to be making undue claims (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:13). οὐλόγονἀνθρώπωνκτλ.] To understand ὡς before λόγ. ἀνθρ. (as A.V., R.V.) is unnecessary, and fails to bring out as clearly as the absolute rendering the real character of the message here referred to. For (ὁ) λόγος (τοῦ) θεοῦ with reference to the preaching of the Gospel cf. 2 Timothy 2:9, Revelation 1:9, and for the whole clause cf. Apol. Arist. 16. οὐγὰρἀνθρώπωνῥήματαλαλοῦσιν [οἱχριστιανοί], ἀλλὰτὰτοῦθεοῦ. ὃςκαὶἐνεργεῖται] ‘ which also is set in operation’ (Clarom., Ambrstr. quod operatur)—ἐνεργεῖται being best understood in the pass. sense in which it is frequently found in late Gk. (e.g. Polyb. 1:13. 5, 9:12. 3), and which brings out more clearly than the midd., which is generally found here, the Divine agency that is at work. For this energizing power of God’ s word cf. Hebrews 4:12, James 1:21, 1 Peter 1:23, Isaiah 55:11; and for a valuable note on the use of ἐνεργεῖν and its cognates in the N.T. see Robinson Eph. p. 241 ff. ἐνὑμῖντ. πιστεύουσιν] a clause added to emphasize that, powerful though the word of God is, it can only operate where a believing attitude exists and continues: cf. v. 10, and for the thought see Matthew 13:23; Matthew 13:58, Hebrews 4:2.