1 Thessalonians 1:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

We give thanks, &c. From hence to 1 Thessalonians 3:13, we have the chief object of this epistle, which was to comfort, strengthen, and establish the Christians at Thessalonica, and induce them to persevere under all the discouragements which he, their apostle, or they themselves, might meet with. And in his entrance upon this design he gives vent to what lay most upon his heart, thanking God for their conversion from idolatry to Christianity amidst so many discouraging circumstances; and praying that they might continue in the faith they had embraced, in which he takes all occasions of speaking well of the Thessalonians, as indeed he does through all the epistle, in which there is a peculiar sweetness, unmixed with any sharpness or reproof; those evils which the apostle afterward reproved, having not yet crept into the churches: remembering without ceasing Or constantly in all our prayers; your work of faith Your active, ever-working faith; and labour of love Your love to God and man, which induces you to labour continually to promote the glory of God, and do good to the bodies or souls of men; and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ Your patience under all your persecutions and other sufferings, the fruit of that blessed hope of eternal life, which is grounded on the death and resurrection of Christ, and is wrought in you by his saving grace; in the sight of God, even our Father Whose eye is continually upon you, who observes, and will not fail to reward, the graces wrought in you by his blessed Spirit. Observe reader, all true faith in Christ, and the truths and promises of the gospel, works; all genuine love to God and man, labours; and the hope which is well grounded and lively, patiently bears all things. Knowing, brethren, beloved of God And of us his servants; your election Your being chosen to be God's peculiar people, by these plain marks. Of predestination and election, see on Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:4-5.