What did the Thessalonian believers turn from when they became Christians?
Thessalonian believers turned from idols to the living God when they became Christians. Their conversion was a decisive break from the idolatry of their culture, and it placed them under pressure and intense persecution because they no longer shared the religious loyalties of their idolatrous friends and relatives.
Les explains that Thessalonica was in northern Greece, not far from Philippi, and wherever Paul gained converts this same pattern held true. The Thessalonians turned from idols to the living God, which took something because they came out of a culture totally different from Christianity. As saved people and new believers, they came under pressure and intense persecution. Paul kept this uppermost in his mind, recognizing that these new converts did not have an easy role living among their idolatrous friends and relatives.