1 Thessalonians 2:1–2 – An Entrance That Was Not for Naught

1 For you yourselves are aware, brethren, that our entrance to you has not come to be for naught,
2 but, though suffering before and being outraged in Philippi, according as you are aware…

Paul is referring back here to what he had written shortly before. In 1:9 he likewise spoke of “our entrance to you.” Now he adds that this entrance “has not come to be for naught.” The word kenos literally means empty. And that this entrance was anything but empty has been shown throughout chapter 1. The evangel came among the Thessalonians in power, they turned back to God, and from them the word of the Lord resounded.

Their entrance into Thessalonica had been preceded by an extraordinarily severe ordeal. Shortly before, in Philippi, they had been flogged and imprisoned without due process. Their feet were secured in the stocks (Acts 16:22–24). Only after the city magistrates had apologized did they leave the city. Via Amphipolis and Apollonia, they then traveled to Thessalonica (Acts 17:1).

Paul calls this here “suffering” and “being outraged.” This was how these messengers made their entrance into Thessalonica: not with prestige or outward success, but with the scars of Philippi still on their bodies. Yet their entrance was not for naught. Precisely what then happened in Thessalonica made visible that the power resided not in the messengers, but in the evangel they brought.

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