For they themselves keep reporting about the way we first entered in among you and how you turned to God from your idols to slave for a living and true God,

1 Thess. 1:5-10.

Note that the proclamation of the “good news” in Thessalonica was not just a matter of spoken words that produced no results. To the contrary, the message had a powerful effect on those who embraced it, causing them to forsake idolatry and to become servants of the true God, Jehovah.