Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Thessalonians 5:27

"I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the brethren." — 1 Thessalonians 5:27 (ASV)

I charge you.—Adjure is much nearer the original word, which is as solemn as can be. What is the cause of such profound solemnity? The question has never been very satisfactorily answered. It certainly seems as if the contempt of discipline and partial alienation of clergy and laity implied in 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13, might suggest to St. Paul a doubt whether his Epistle would reach all the Thessalonian Christians.

At any rate, the adjuration marks his sense of the extreme importance of the letter; and perhaps the fact that this was his first pastoral letter may have made him more anxious to ensure its reception and success. It amounts to a claim to inspiration (Compare to 1 Thessalonians 4:15).

The emphasis seems to rest on the word all (the word holy is an interpolation). The reading is, of course, a public reading during the celebration of the Communion, at which we know from several early Fathers that the writings of the Apostles were read aloud (2 Peter 3:15–16). Baur thought the adjuration a mark of a forger who wished to gain authority for his cento; Bishop Wordsworth, on the contrary, well points out what a splendid guarantee for the genuineness and integrity of the Epistles this constant recitation constituted.