Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Thessalonians 2:16

"forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." — 1 Thessalonians 2:16 (ASV)

Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.—The Apostle indicates the special way in which their opposition showed itself.

To fill up.—Literally, unto the filling up. This was not exactly their intention in forbidding, but the end to which such conduct was steadily (“always”) tending. (Compare to Acts 7:51 and Matthew 23:32.)

St. Paul seems to mean that there may be a certain measure of wickedness which God will allow a nation, a church, or an individual to complete before cutting them off from all spiritual help; the Jews were diligently laboring to complete this measure.

For.—The Greek word is but; and the point is this: “The Jews had been working up to the full measure of their sin; but (they had not much left to do) the wrath suddenly burst upon them to its fullest extent.”

The word for “is come” (which should be the simple past tense “came”) is the same as that used in Matthew 12:28 and Luke 11:20, referring to a sudden, unexpected appearance.

“The wrath” is the wrath from which Jesus is delivering us (1 Thessalonians 1:10), and it had already come upon the Jews, though its outward manifestation in the destruction of Jerusalem would not occur for some time yet. The particular moment at which St. Paul means that the wrath “came” must have been the moment of their final rejection of the Messiah.