instructed, and had not yet had any experience of him,931 he does not apply the title; and it was as yet the beginning of his preaching to them. “To the Church of the Thessalonians,” he says. And well. For it is probable there were few, and they not yet formed into a body; on this account he consoles them with the name of the Church. For where much time had passed, and the congregation of the Church was large, he does not apply this term. But because the name of the Church is for the most part 324 a name of multitude, and of a system932 now compacted, on this account he calls them by that name. “In God the Father,” he says, “and the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Unto the Church of the Thessalonians,” he says, “which is in God.” Behold again the expression, “in,”933 applied both to the Father and to the Son. For there were many assemblies,934 both Jewish and Grecian; but he says, “to the (Church) that is in God.” It is a great dignity, and to which there is nothing equal, that it is “in God.” God grant therefore that this Church may be so addressed! But I fear that it is far from that appellation. For if any one were the servant of sin, he cannot be said to be “in God.” If any one walks not according to God, he cannot be said to be “in God.”935 “Grace be unto you, and peace.”936 Do you perceive that the very commencement of his Epistle is with encomiums? “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.” For to give thanks to God for them is the act of one testifying to their great advancement, when they are not only praised themselves, but God also is thanked for them, as Himself having done it all. He teaches them also to be moderate, all but saying, that it is all of the power of God. That he gives thanks for them, therefore, is on account of their good conduct, but that he remembers them in his prayers, proceeds from his love to- wards them. Then as he often does, he says that he not only remembers them in his prayers, but apart from his prayers. “Remembering without ceasing,” he says, “your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.” What is remembering without ceasing? Either remembering before God and the Father, or 931 αὐτοῦ, perhaps “of the thing.” 932 [Here the same Greek word (systema) is translated “body,” “congregation,” and “system.”—J.A.B.] 933 [Most editions have “the word God,” and one ms. has “in God,” both obviously alterations, and really unsuitable to the connection.—J.A.B.] 934 ἐκκλησίαι. Churches, or assemblies. New converts would be more familiar with the word in its secular sense. 935 [Most editions omit this sentence, but it is found in several mss., and the amplification is quite after the manner of Chrys.—J.A.B.] 936 [This seems to belong (as Hales suggested) after the next sentence, which is a remark upon the forego- ing.—J.A.B.] 570 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3