1 Thessalonians 1:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Paul, &c. In this epistle St. Paul neither uses the title of an apostle, nor any other, as writing to pious and simple-hearted men with the utmost familiarity; and Silvanus, (also called Silas,) and Timotheus St. Paul joins these two faithful fellow-labourers with himself in this epistle, because they had been with him at Thessalonica, and were well known to and much loved by the believers there; to the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father The one living and true God, in whom they have believed, whose children they are become, and whom they acknowledge and worship as their God and Father, thereby distinguishing themselves from the idolatrous heathen; and in the Lord Jesus Christ Whom they also believe in, adore, and serve, as the Son of the Father, and their Redeemer and Saviour, thereby distinguishing themselves from Jews. The expression also implies that they had union and communion with God and Christ.