1:9 from idols. Note the exposition in the lives of the Thessalonians of Paul’s testimony in I Thessalonians 1:3. They had demonstrated the reality of their faith by their work of faith in turning “to God from idols;” they had shown true “labour of love” in serving “the living and true God,” and they were manifesting “patience of hope” as they waited “for His Son from heaven.”

1:9 true God. The Thessalonian believers, especially the Gentiles, had evidently heard and received the same creation evangelism message Paul had preached at Athens. They had trusted the true, eternally living God of creation, instead of the false gods and dead idols they once had served. They further believed in the atoning death of Jesus for their eternal deliverance from judgment to come, acknowledging that He alone, as God incarnate and perfect man, could conquer death and rise from the dead (Compare Acts 17:22-31).

1:10 wait for his Son from heaven. This epistle written by Paul, only eighty-eight verses long, has at least fourteen verses referring to Christ’s second coming, or sixteen percent, a larger ratio than any other later epistle, except for II Thessalonians (eleven out of forty-seven, or twenty-three percent). The promise of the return of Christ was the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) of Christians from the very first.