1 Thessalonians 1:9 – Turning Back to God

9 …for they are reporting concerning us, what kind of an entrance we have had to you, and how you turn back to God from idols…

Paul did not have to tell anyone what had happened in Thessalonica. The people he met elsewhere reported it to him themselves. They knew what kind of an entrance Paul and his coworkers had had to the Thessalonians. This immediately makes clear what Paul meant in verse 8 by “in every place.”

This is usually referred to as the conversion of the Thessalonians. But conversion has become a typically religious term in our usage. The Greek word, by contrast, is much more concrete and is not confined to religious language: to turn around. You were facing one direction, turn around, and then face the other way. That is exactly how Paul puts it: they “turn back to God from idols.” Their entire orientation had been reversed.

The order is telling as well. They did not first turn away from their idols and then find God. It was the other way around. Their turn was to God and, by necessity, from the idols. In the previous verse, their faith was already described as faith “toward God.” But why did the idols suddenly end up behind them? Because they came to know the One whom Paul then calls “the living and true God.”

Share: