NOTES for Th1 3:1-13
Addressing his Thessalonian brothers, Paul writes to them that he rejoices in the steadfastness with which they endure the persecutions and harassment that have fallen to their lot (vv. 5-8). Of course, only a masochist can rejoice in sufferings as such. And the apostle, of course, is not glad that he himself or his brothers suffer. For him, sufferings for the faith are simply a sign that Christians remain Christians, not betraying their calling. Of course, Christians suffer not because they themselves seek conflicts or trouble. The issue lies elsewhere, namely in that incompatibility of the Kingdom with the untransformed world about which the Savior Himself warned His disciples, and Paul warned those to whom he preached Christ and the Kingdom (vv. 1-4). This incompatibility becomes the source of the conflict that the apostle repeatedly mentioned in his letter to the Thessalonian church.
As for joy, persecuted Christians rejoice, of course, not in being right as such, although from the standpoint of both the Torah and God's truth they are certainly right before their persecutors. But the feeling of being right in itself rarely gives rise to joy in the persecuted; it can give firmness, confidence in the correctness of one's own position, even strength to endure sufferings, but the feeling of being right usually does not add joy as such. The most it allows one to experience is satisfaction that one's duty has been fulfilled and that the one fulfilling it has become neither a traitor nor an apostate.
For joy, something more is needed. Christians have it: it is that same Kingdom which the Savior brought into the world and which everyone who has shared in the new life senses as the undoubted and true reality of his own existence even when, at first glance, there is and can be no place for it in the life of a persecuted sufferer. That is why Paul (and after him many other witnesses) regarded joy during persecutions and harassment as an undoubted sign of full Christian life. Steadfastness and calmness of spirit during persecutions have at all times been characteristic of far more than Christians alone. But the joy of the Kingdom in such a situation could belong only to those who have shared in it - Christians living in the Kingdom.