1 Thessalonians 2:4

but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak Again the A.V. misses the force of the Greek perfect: better, as we have been approved by God to be entrusted. "Allow" in older English bears the stronger sense of accept, approve(comp. Romans 14:22), but even so falls short of the meaning of St Paul. His word is the same that is rendered in the last clause of the verse as trieth(R. V., proveth); it includes both proving and approving, it is approving on trial, or testing: comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (same Greek verb, "Proveall things); and 1 Corinthians 3:13, "The fire will proveeach man's work." The Apostle had been tested for his work, and tested by it; God had made proof of him as a minister of Christ, and he was shown to be worthy of his trust: tried, then trusted(comp. 1 Timothy 1:12). "To be put in trust with the gospel" is the highest conceivable responsibility; the sense of it is enough to exclude every base motive and deceitful practice (1 Thessalonians 2:3). On Paul's trust, read 1 Timothy 1:12-17 and Acts 9:15-16: "He is a chosen vessel unto Me."

so we speak under the sense of this solemn trust, with the sincerity and self-abnegation that our charge demands.

not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts R. V., proveth (see previous note): more precisely, pleasing God Him who proves our hearts. This last is an O.T. expression, a standing attribute of God: see Psalms 17:3; Jeremiah 11:20, &c.; also Acts 1:24, "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all." "Unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid" (Book of Common Prayer).

The "heart," in the language of the Bible, is not the seat of the feelings alone; it is "the inner man," the real self, the centre and meeting-point of all our thoughts, feelings, and resolves. It is there that God proves us: "The Lord looketh upon the heart." No impure motive or crafty expedient, such as might deceive men, escapes Him. The sense of this continual and omniscient scrutiny makes any kind of dishonesty impossible to the Apostle. Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; 2 Corinthians 5:9-12: "He that judgeth me is the Lord."

It is God'sgospel that Paul and Silas have to preach; Godhad trusted them with it, and given them strength and courage to proclaim it (1 Thessalonians 2:2); to God'sapproval, therefore, they must look, and to that alone. "Men," such as the magistrates of Philippi and the populace of Thessalonica, would be pleased only if the messengers of Christ were silenced. So the authorities of Jerusalem "charged Peter and John not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus;" but they answered: "If it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye" (Acts 4:18-19). This sense of the sovereignty of God gives religion its invincible power; it is the conviction that makes martyrs. It is finely expressed in the Antigoneof Sophocles (ll. 450 460), where the heroine replies to the tyrant Creon:

"Nor could I think thine edict of such might,

That one who is mortal thus should overrule

The infallible, unwritten laws of heaven."

St Paul tells us elsewhere, and by way of example, that he "pleased all in all things for their good, unto edification" (1 Corinthians 10:33; Romans 15:2). To please men in that which displeases God, is to injure them: "If (in such circumstances) I pleased men, I should not be Christ's slave" (Galatians 1:10). That is, to be the slave of public opinion, often an ignorant, sometimes an unprincipled master.

1 Thessalonians 2:3 are then a general disclaimer of unworthy motives on the part of the missionaries. Their bold testimony at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:1) was due to two things their sincerity of heart, and their loyalty to God. Now we resume the account of the Apostle's relations to the Thessalonians, confirming these professions: