I. The Thessalonian converts, having received the Gospel so heartily and held it so firmly, and having shown the influence which it exerted over their hearts and lives by their joy in the Holy Ghost, became ensamples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia. Collectively, for the word is in the singular, they became a pattern to others. Thessalonica was, as far as its Christian inhabitants were concerned, "a city set on an hill." A noble dignity, a sacred duty, a constant danger, all this is implied in such a coveted post of honour.
II. From some form or other of manifold idolatry every new man in Christ Jesus turns to God as the one blissful centre of his renewed life. Hence the Apostle proceeds to define the purpose of this conversion, or turning to God. It is twofold. It is (1) to serve the living and true God, and (2) to wait for his Son from heaven. The one clause distinguishes the Thessalonian Church from the heathen; the other from the Jews. But they do more. They represent the universal Christian life in its two most common aspects service and expectation. It is a life of ceaseless action because it is also a life of patient waiting. It is a life of much affliction in the service of God, because it is also a life of joy in the Holy Ghost, joyful looking forward to the coming of the Son of God from heaven, bringing His reward with Him. It is this hope which, on the one hand, gives strength for service and perseverance in it, and it is the faithful engaging in this service which, on the other hand, justifies and consecrates this hope. Service without its accompanying hope would merge into dry and formal routine. Hope without its service, its ministry, and love, would pass into indolent sentiment, or into restless, hysterical excitement. While the faithful at Thessalonica did not in any way lose sight of the Saviour's incarnation, and death, and resurrection, the "much affliction" of their present lot led them to live much in the future, to long and look for His coming again as the "just and gentle Monarch, to terminate the evil and diadem the right."
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians,p. 38.
References: 1 Thessalonians 1:8. J. Owen, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 273. 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx. No. 1806.