Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
Whom Jason hath received - or 'harboured.'
And these all do contrary to the decrees of Cesar, saying - that is, by saying, for no illegal act was charged against them. All that their enemies pretended was that they were constructive traitors, for the reason next mentioned.
That there is another king, [one] Jesus. As the mention of "Him that was born king of the Jews" alarmed Herod (Matthew 2:2-3), so the regal claims of our Lord alarmed Pilate; and though His explanation of the sense in which He claimed royalty set the mind of Pilate at rest upon that point (John 18:33-38), the reiterated assertions of His enemies, that the claim did involve treason against Caesar, worked so successfully upon Pilate's fears that he was induced by that consideration alone to surrender Him. It is possible that these Jews of Thessalonica really imagined that the "Gospel of the kingdom" involved some political doctrine; but it is more likely that from the very first this bad become a stock argument with the unbelieving Jews against the Gospel when every other failed, and that in this factious sense it was now put before the pagan magistrates, in hopes of working on their loyalty. In this, as will now appear, they were but too successful.