Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Thessalonians 1:7

"so that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia." — 1 Thessalonians 1:7 (ASV)

So that you were ensamples to all that believe. These were examples in reference to the firmness with which you embraced the gospel, the fidelity with which you adhered to it in trials, and the zeal which you showed in spreading it abroad. These things are specified in the previous and subsequent verses as characterizing their piety.

The word rendered ensamples here—tupouv—is that from which the word type is derived. It properly denotes anything caused or produced by means of blows (from tupouv) and hence a mark, print, or impression made by a stamp or die; and then a resemblance, figure, pattern, exemplar—a model after which anything is made.

This is the meaning here. They became, as it were, a model or pattern after which the piety of others should be molded, or showed what the piety of others ought to be.

In Macedonia. Thessalonica was an important city of Macedonia (see the Introduction), and, of course, their influence would be felt throughout the surrounding region. This is a striking instance of the effect that a church in a city may have on the country. The influence of a city church may be felt, and will usually be felt far among the other churches of a community, just as, in all other respects, a city has an important influence on the country at large.

And Achaia. Achaia proper was the part of Greece of which Corinth was the capital. The word, however, was sometimes so used as to comprehend the whole of Greece, and in this sense it seems to be used here, as there is no reason to suppose that their influence would be felt particularly in the province of which Corinth was the center.

Koppe observes that Macedonia and Achaia were the two provinces into which all Greece was divided when it was brought under the Roman yoke; the former included Macedonia proper, Illyricum, Epirus, and Thessaly, and the other, Greece proper. The meaning here is, therefore, that their influence was felt in all parts of Greece. Their piety was spoken of, and the effect of their conversion had been felt in all those places.

Thessalonica was a commercial city and a seaport. It had interactions with all the other parts of Macedonia, with Greece, and with Asia Minor. It was partly due to the advantages of its situation that its influence was so widely felt. Its own merchants and mariners who went abroad would carry with them the spirit of the religion of the church there, and those who visited it from other ports would see the effect of religion there.

This is just an instance, therefore, of the influence that a commercial town and a seaport may have in religion on other parts of the world. A revival of religion in such a place will extend its influence far to other places; and appropriate zeal among the friends of the Redeemer there, may have an important effect on seaports, towns, and lands far remote.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of such places in regard to the spread of the gospel; and Christians who reside there—be they merchants, mechanics, lawyers, physicians, mariners, or ministers of the gospel—should feel that God has placed on them the responsibility of using a vast influence in sending the gospel to other lands.

Anyone who goes forth from a commercial town should be imbued with the spirit of the gospel; and churches located there should be so under the influence of religion that those who come among them from abroad will bear to their own lands honorable testimony of the power of religion there.