forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.
"The Thessalonians’ persecution lasted a long time, and so did their steadfastness. Some six years later Paul can still speak of the churches of Macedonia (not least, the church of Thessalonica) as enduring ’a severe test of affliction’ and continuing to give evidence of the reality of their faith in that ’their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality’ (2 Corinthians 8:1-2). The ’extreme poverty’ might well have been the result of mob violence and looting; elsewhere in the NT members of another Christian group are reminded how, in the early days of their faith, they ’joyfully accepted’ the plundering of their property in addition to other forms of brutal maltreatment (Hebrews 10:32-34)." [Note: Bruce, pp. 50-51.] 