THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS - Chapter 1 - Verse 8

Verse 8. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord. The truths of religion were thus spread abroad. The word rendered, "sounded-out," exhchtai refers to the sounding of a trumpet, (Bloomfield,) and the idea is, that the gospel was proclaimed like the sonorous voice of a trumpet echoing from place to place. Comp. Isa 58:1; Re 1:10. Their influence had an effect in diffusing the gospel in other places, as if the sound of a trumpet echoed and re-echoed among the hills and along the vales of the classic land of Greece. This seems to have been done

(1.) involuntarily; that is, the necessary result of their conversion, even without any direct purpose of the kind of their own, would be to produce this effect. Their central and advantageous commercial position; the fact that many of them were in the habit of visiting other places; and the fact that they were visited by strangers from abroad, would naturally contribute to this result. But

(2.) this does not appear to be all that is intended. The apostle commends them in such a way as to make it certain that they were voluntary in the spread of the gospel; that they made decided efforts to take advantage of their position to send the knowledge of the truth abroad. If so, this is an interesting instance of one of the first efforts made by a church to diffuse the gospel, and to send it to those who were destitute of it. There is no improbability in the supposition that they sent out members of their church—messengers of salvation—to other parts of Macedonia and Greece, that they might communicate the same gospel to others. See Doddridge.

But also in every place. Thessalonica was connected not only with Macedonia and Greece proper, in its commercial relations, but also with the ports of Asia Minor, and not improbably with still more remote regions. The meaning is, that in all the places with which they trafficked, the effect of their faith was seen and spoken of.

Faith to God-ward. Fidelity toward God. They showed that they had a true belief in God, and in the truth which he had revealed.

So that we need not to speak anything. That is, wherever we go, we need say nothing of the fact that you have been turned to the Lord, or of the character of your piety. These things are sufficiently made known by those who come from you, by those who visit you, and by your zeal in spreading the true religion.

{a} "sounded out" Rom 10:18 {b} "place your faith" 2 Th 1:4