Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Thessalonians 2:14

"For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews;" — 1 Thessalonians 2:14 (ASV)

For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. Which are united to the Lord Jesus, or which are founded on his truth: that is, which are true churches. Of those churches they became imitators (mimētai)—namely, in their sufferings.

This does not mean that they were founded on the same model, or that they professed to be the followers of those churches, but that they had been treated in the same way, and thus were like them. They had been persecuted in the same manner, and by the same people—the Jews; and they had borne their persecutions with the same spirit.

The object of this is to comfort and encourage them, by showing them that others had been treated in the same manner, and that it was to be expected that a true church would be persecuted by the Jews. They ought not, therefore, to consider it as any evidence that they were not a true church that they had been persecuted by those who claimed to be the people of God, and who made extraordinary pretensions to piety.

For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; Literally, "of those who are of your fellow tribe, or fellow-clansmen," (sumphuletōn). The Greek word means "one of the same tribe," and then a fellow-citizen, or fellow-countryman. It is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. The particular reference here seems not to be to the pagans, who were the agents or actors in the scenes of tumult and persecutions, but to the Jews by whom they were led on, or who were the prime movers in the persecutions which they had endured.

It is necessary to suppose that they were principally Jews who were the cause of the persecution which had been excited against them, in order to make the parallelism between the church there and the churches in Palestine exact. At the same time, there was a propriety in saying that, though this parallelism was exact, it was by the "hands of their own countrymen" that it was done; that is, they were the visible agents or actors by whom it was done—the instruments in the hands of others.

In Palestine, the Jews persecuted the churches directly; outside Palestine, they did it by means of others. They were the real authors of it, as they were in Judea; but they usually accomplished it by producing an excitement among the pagans, and by the plea that the apostles were making war on civil institutions.

This was the case in Thessalonica. The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city on an uproar. They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also (Acts 17:5–6). The same thing occurred a short time after at Berea.

When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people (Acts 17:13). The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. "The epistle, therefore, represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers." Paley, Horæ Paulinæ, in loc. It was, therefore, strictly true, as the apostle here states it:

1. that they were subjected to the same treatment from the Jews as the churches in Judea were, since they were the authors of the excitement against them; and
2. that it was carried on, as the apostle states, "by their own countrymen;" that is, that they were the agents or instruments by which it was done. This kind of undesigned coincidence between the epistle and the history in the Acts of the Apostles, is one of the arguments from which Paley (Horæ Paulinæ) infers the genuineness of both.

As they have of the Jews. Directly. In Palestine there were no others but Jews who could be excited against Christians, and they were obliged to appear as the persecutors themselves.

"followers" "imitators"