Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Thessalonians 2:18

"because we would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again; and Satan hindered us." — 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (ASV)

We would.—This means not merely a conditional tense, but “we were ready to come—meant to come.”

Even I Paul.—Rather, that is to say, I; Paul, not as if it were a great thing that one like him should have such a wish, but showing that Silas and Timothy had not shared his intention. Why had they not? The answer shows the minute truthfulness of the Acts.

Timothy, apparently, did not at first leave Thessalonica with St. Paul (Acts 17:10, where the Greek seems definitely to exclude him). Both Silas and Timothy were left at Berea (Acts 17:14). It was during this period that St. Paul felt so eager a desire to return to his persecuted children. We cannot tell on what two definite occasions the desire was almost taking shape; but possibly his longing may have been stimulated by seeing his messengers start for the north, first when he sent for his two companions (Acts 17:15), and secondly when he dispatched Timothy himself to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2).

But Satan hindered.—How this happened cannot be decided; but St. Paul has no doubt that his disappointment was a direct manifestation of the work of evil, not a leading of God to stay where he was. Elsewhere he is quite as clear that the obstruction of his own plans is owing to God (1 Corinthians 16:12, where the will spoken of is not Apollos' will, but God’s). The difficulty is to tell in each case whether God is directly saving us from a worse course, in spite of ourselves, or permitting a momentary, and yet if rightly used a disciplinary, triumph of evil.

Satan.—The Thessalonians, though originally Gentiles, had doubtless been taught enough at their conversion to recognize the word. Though it is quite clear from other passages (e.g., 1 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:7) that St. Paul believed in the existence of personal fallen spirits, it cannot be positively affirmed that he here means anything more than a personification of all that is opposed to God—the hostility of wicked men, etc.