Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 1:8-9 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Ephesians 1:15-16 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Philemon 1:4 I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,
Colossians 1:3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
Romans 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
I. The apostle begins with thanksgiving to God. Being about to mention the things that were matter of joy to him, and highly praiseworthy in them, and greatly for their advantage, he chooses to do this by way of thanksgiving to God, who is the author of all that good that comes to us, or is done by us, at any time. God is the object of all religious worship, of prayer and praise. And thanksgiving to God is a great duty, to be performed always or constantly; even when we do not actually give thanks to God by our words, we should have a grateful sense of God's goodness upon our minds. Thanksgiving should be often repeated; and not only should we be thankful for the favours we ourselves receive…
(Rom 1:9; Ti2 1:3.) The structure of the sentences in this and the following verses, each successive sentence repeating with greater fulness the preceding, characteristically marks Paul's abounding love and thankfulness in respect to his converts, as if he were seeking by words heaped on words to convey some idea of his exuberant feelings towards them.
We--I, Silvanus, and Timotheus. Rom 1:9 supports ALFORD in translating, "making mention of you in our prayers without ceasing" (Th1 1:3). Thus, "without ceasing," in the second clause, answers in parallelism to "always," in the first.
Adam Clarke on 1 Thessalonians 1:2
We give thanks - See Phi 1:3, Phi 1:4, and Col 1:3; where the same forms of speech are used.
John Gill on 1 Thessalonians 1:2
We give thanks to God always for you all,.... For all the members of this church, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, greater or lesser believers, officers or private Christians; for their being a church, for the gifts bestowed on them, for the graces hereafter mentioned that were wrought in them and exercised by them; the glory of all which is given to God, and thanks for the same, which shows them to be gifts of his, and not in the least owing to any merits of men: the apostle ascribes nothing to their free will, previous dispositions and qualifications, diligence and industry; nor does he attribute anything to himself and to his companions, who were only ministers by whom these believed; but he…
The Church Fathers
"Grace be unto you, and peace." Do you perceive that the very commencement of his Epistle is with encomiums? "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." For to give thanks to God for them is the act of one testifying to their great advancement, when they are not only praised themselves, but God also is thanked for them, as Himself having done it all. He teaches them also to be moderate, all but saying, that it is all of the power of God. That he gives thanks for them, therefore, is on account of their good conduct, but that he remembers them in his prayers, proceeds from his love towards them.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly remembering your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father: For all good things are from God, therefore they first give thanks to Him for their progress, who has deemed it worthy not only to give his gift to people under sin, but to adopt them as his children, at the same time assisting them in enduring all destruction, so that they may become more worthy. Therefore, they say that they remember these things in their speeches because they were increasing in the work of faith in the other churches, in order to complete the work that had been started by the will of God. They were eager in the pursuit of love, patience, and the hope of the coming of the Lord, which is before God, who deigned to incarnate his Son for the salvation of humanity. For it is pleasing to God if progress is made in Christ.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Thankfulness · .Always — .Always
Thanksgiving · Should be offered: Always — Should be offered: Always
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
2. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
2. Gratias agimus Deo semper de omnibus vobis, memoriam vestri facientes in precibus nostris,
3. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
3. Indesinenter [488] memores vestri, propter opus fidei, et laborem caritatis, [489] et patientiam spei Domini nostri Iesu Christi coram Deo et Patre nostro,
4. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
4. Scientes, fratres dilecti, [490] a Deo esse electionem vestram.
5. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in…
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
After thanking God for the faith, love, and hope of the Thessalonian believers (1:2-3), Paul recalls how the Good News was proclaimed to them (1:4-5) and how they accepted its message (1:6-10). Paul returns to these themes in 2:1-12 and 2:13-16.
1:2 We always thank God for all of you is the first of three thanksgivings for the church (see 2:13; 3:9).
