For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God: Crouch notes that the word "turned" "is the normal word for conversion to Christianity (Acts 14:15; Acts 9:35; Acts 11:21; Acts 15:19; Acts 26:18)" (23).The preposition "to" is the same as "with" in John 1:1-2. "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God." It speaks of the closest kind of intimacy, fellowship at the highest level. By abandoning their past idolatry and turning to God, the Thessalonians have come to enjoy fellowship with God such as their Lord has enjoyed from all eternity. "The motive in this conversion was not that they were repelled by the grossness of their idols, but that they were attracted by the character of God" (Hogg and Vine 44). The statement about turning to God from idols would not have applied to every convert in Thessalonica. Some of the converts are Jews (Acts 17:1-4), and they would have turned from the law to the gospel. However, a majority of the converts are apparently Gentiles as this comment about the turn from idolatry would seem to indicate. "The prevalence of the Gentile element in this church is shown by the fact that these two Epistles are among the very few of St. Paul’s writings in which no quotation occurs from the Old Testament" (Jamieson, Faucet, and Brown 384).