Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Thessalonians 4:1
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would abound more and more.
1. Furthermore then ] R. V., finally; as the same Greek phrase is rendered by A.V. in Php 3:1; Php 4:8, &c. Lit., for the rest therefore, for what remains.
we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus ] More exactly, and in the Greek order: brethren, we beseech you, and exhort in the Lord Jesus.
The first of these verbs, “beseech” (or “ask”), frequent with St John, is only found in St Paul besides in ch. 1Th 5:12; 2Th 2:1; and Php 4:3. The Apostle asks as in a matter touching himself and his Interest in his readers; he exhorts, as it concerns them and their own duty and relation to Christ; for it is on the basis and within the sphere of this relationship in fact, because they are Christians that such an appeal is addressed to them. Comp. note on “church in the Lord Jesus Christ,” ch. 1Th 1:1; and for the title “Lord Jesus,” on ch. 1Th 2:15 ; 1Th 2:19.
St Paul’s deep affection for the Thessalonians and his longing to see them prompted the prayer with which the last chapter concluded, that the Lord Himself would make them to be found blameless in holiness at His coming. And it is “therefore” in accordance with this prayer and these desires that he now urges them to a still more earnest pursuit of Christian virtue.
that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God ] “That” requires a comma after it, as in R. V.; for it looks forward to the final clause of the verse “that ye abound more and more.”
“Received” corresponds to the first of the two words so rendered In ch. 1Th 2:13 (see note), and signifies the reception as matter of Instruction. Beside the doctrine of the Gospel the apostles taught its practice what men should do and what should be the “work” and effect of their faith (ch. 1Th 1:3), as well as what they should believe. In their earliest lessons the Thessalonians had received the moral along with the theological elements of Christianity, “how you ought to walk.” On this last word comp. note to ch. 1Th 2:12.
“Ought to walk and please God” is not the same as “walk so as to please God,” though this Is implied; but rather “how you ought to walk, and ought to please God.” The duty of pleasing God had been a subject of St Paul’s admonitions, and he had set all other duties in this light. Similarly in ch. 1Th 2:4 he spoke of himself and Silas as governed in their work by the thought of “pleasing God,” while in 1Th 4:15 the condemnation of the Jews was found in the fact that they were “not pleasing God.” Our conduct is always, and in everything, pleasing or displeasing to Him; and the religious man finds in this the highest sanction of right-doing. The word Sanctification (1Th 4:3) expresses in another way the same religious necessity attaching to moral obligation.
The clause even as ye do walk is restored to the text by the Revisers, on the best authority. Comp. 1Th 4:9-10, “for indeed you do it;” also ch. 1Th 5:11. The Apostle would not appear to censure his readers. He is sure that they are walking in the true path, mindful of his instructions; he wishes to keep them in it, and to urge them forward. The sum of his entreaty is (resuming the “that” left incomplete in the earlier part of tie sentence), that ye abound more and more (R. V.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Section V. A Lesson in Christian Morals. Ch. 1Th 4:1-12
We now pass from the first to the second of the two main divisions of the Epistle (see Introd. Chap. VII.), from narrative to exhortation. Chaps. 1 3 are complete in themselves, and the letter might fitly have terminated with the prayer just concluded (ch. 1Th 3:11-13). For the Apostle has accomplished the chief objects with which he began to write, viz. to assure his readers of the intense interest he takes in their welfare, to express his sympathy with them under their persecutions, and to explain how it was that he had not himself returned to them. But he cannot let the occasion pass without adding counsel and exhortation on certain subjects in which the Thessalonian Church was specially in need of guidance. Chief amongst these were the misunderstandings that had arisen touching the parousia, or second advent of Christ (ch. 1Th 4:13 to 1Th 5:11). But before he deals with this topic, there are a few things he wishes to say to them about morals and matters of conduct toward each other, which we have before us in this Section. It is significant that the Apostle puts these things first in his exhortation, although the question of the Parousia was of such absorbing interest.
The topics embraced in this Section are (1) and chiefly, that of chastity and the sanctification of the body, 1Th 4:3-8; (2) brotherly love, 1Th 4:9-10; (3) diligence in secular work, 1Th 4:11-12.
That chaps, 4, 5 form an addendum, supplementing the primary intention of the Epistle, is shown by the introductory phrase:
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Furthermore then – To loipon. As to what remains. That is, all that remains is to offer these exhortations; see the 2Co 13:11 note; Gal 6:17 note; Eph 6:10 note; Phi 4:8 note. The phrase is a formula appropriate to the end of an argument or discourse.
We beseech you – Margin, request. The Greek is, we ask you – erotomen. It is not as strong a word as that which follows.
And exhort you – Marg, beseech. This is the word which is commonly used to denote earnest exhortation. The use of these words here implies that Paul regarded the subject as of great importance. He might have commanded them – but kind exhortation usually accomplishes more than a command,
By the Lord Jesus – In his name and by his authority.
That as ye have received of us – As you were taught by us. Paul doubtless had given them repeated instructions as to their duty as Christians.
How ye ought to walk – That is, how ye ought to live. Life is often represented as a journey; Rom 6:4; Rom 8:1; 1Co 5:7; Gal 6:16, Eph 4:1.
So ye would abound more and more – That is, follow the directions which they had received more and more fully. Abbott.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Th 4:1-8
Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you
Earnest exhortations to a high sanctity
Purity is the perfection of the Christian character.
It is the brightest jewel in the cluster of saintly excellencies, and that which gives a lustre to the whole. It is not so much the addition of a separate and distinct grace as the harmonious development of all. As Flavel has said, What the heart is to the body that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart holiness is to the soul. In the prayer just offered the apostle indicates that God will fill them with love to this end. He now urges the attainment. Human agency is not destroyed but stimulated by the Divine.
Observe–
I. That a higher sanctity consists in living under a sense of the Divine approval.
1. Religion is a life. A walk implies continual approach to a goal. Religion is not an ornament, a luxury, a ceremony, but a life, all penetrating, ever progressing, but sometimes concealed.
2. Religion is a life modelled after the worthiest examples. As ye have received of us. The Thessalonians not only received the wisest counsels from their teachers but they witnessed their holy and consistent lives; and their attention was constantly directed to the all-perfect example–Christ Jesus. It is the tendency of all life to shape itself after the character of its strongest inward force. The love of God is the mightiest power in the life of the believer; and the outer manifestation of that life is moulded according to the pattern of the inner Divine ideal.
3. Religion is a life which finds its chief joy in the Divine approval. And to please God. It is possible, then, so to live as to please God. What a powerful incentive to a holy life. Donne, on his death bed, said, I count all that part of my life lost which I spent not in communion with God, or in doing good.
4. Religion is a life capable of vast expansion. So, ye would abound, etc. God has made every provision for our increase in holiness. There is no limit in our elevation but our faith.
II. That the necessity of a higher sanctity is enforced by Divine authority. For this is the will of God even your sanctification.
1. A higher sanctity involves a conformity to the Divine nature. God is holy, and the aim of the believer is to be like Him. There is to be not only an abstinence from impurity but a positive experience of purity. By faith we participate in the Divine nature, and possess qualities analogous to the Divine perfections–mercy, truth, justice, holiness.
2. A higher sanctity is in harmony with the Divine will what God proscribes must be carefully avoided; what He prescribes must be done. His will is here emphatically expressed; it is supported by abundant promises of help; and it is declared that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The will of God is at once the highest reason, the strongest motive, and the final authority.
3. The Divine will regarding a higher sanctity is enforced by duly authorized messengers, and well understood precepts (1Th 4:2). The apostle did not assume authority in any dictatorial spirit. He delivered unto others what he had received. These precepts were well known. Obedience should ever be in proportion to knowledge. Knowledge and practice are mutually helpful to each other. To know and not to do is to incur the heaviest condemnation. Not My will, but Thine be done.
III. That the possession of a higher sanctity is repeatedly urged by earnest exhortations. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you. Doctrine without exhortation makes men all brain, no heart; exhortation without doctrine makes the heart full, leaves the brain empty. Both together make a man. The apostle laboured in both. Here we have a fine example of the combination of a tender, brotherly entreaty, with the solemn authority of a divinely commissioned ambassador. Some people, says a certain writer, are as thorns; handle them roughly and they pierce you; others as nettles; rough handling is best for your safety. A ministers task is an endless one. Has he planted knowledge?–practice must be urged. Is the practice satisfactory?–perseverance must be pressed. Do they continue in well-doing?–they must be stimulated to further progress. The end of one task is the beginning of another. Lessons: The believer is called to the attainment of a higher sanctity–
1. By the voice of God.
2. By the voice of His faithful ministers.
3. And by the aspirations of the life divinely planted within him. (G. Barlow.)
A fuller consecration
A superstructure is nothing without a foundation; neither is a foundation anything without a superstructure. Each, indeed, has its appropriate place, but both are alike important; for if, on the one hand, the superstructure will fall without a foundation, so, on the other hand, it is for the sake of the superstructure alone that the foundation is laid. St. Paul, as a wise master builder, was careful at all times to lay his foundation deep and strong; but, having done this, he was careful also to raise upon it a beauteous edifice, such as God Himself would delight to inhabit. This is evident in all his letters; and hence in this to the Thessalonians, having been the instrument of their conversion, he would excite them to the highest possible attainments in universal holiness.
I. His appeal He had not sought to amuse them by curious speculations; nor had he given them maxims whereby they might please and gratify their fellow creatures. His object had been to bring them to such a holy and consistent walk as would be pleasing and acceptable to their God. What kind of a walk that is it will be profitable for us to inquire.
1. Walk in Christ by a living faith.
2. Walk after Christ by a holy conversation.
II. His entreaty. In this the apostle acknowledges that the Thessalonians had already done well; but he wishes them to redouble their exertions in their heavenly path. Let us notice here–
1. The fact conceded.
2. The duty urged. He might well have enjoined these things in an authoritative manner, but for loves sake he rather besought them. He calls them brethren, and as brethren he entreats them–
(1) By the consideration of all that Christ has done and suffered for them.
(2) By the consideration of all the interest He yet took in their welfare.
(3) By the consideration of the honour He would derive from them.
(4) By the consideration of the glory that will accrue to Him in the day of judgment. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
A deepening consecration
I. The idea of a deeper consecration is a familiar one. Moses was set apart for special work. Aaron and his brother priests were consecrated. Paul as an apostle, and others, were separated by the Holy Spirit. That is the Old Testament idea of consecration–setting apart a person or thing for sacred uses. The person might not at first be holy in himself; but because of his daily association with sacred things, holiness was required of him. In New Testament times holiness of person and holiness of service move along together. Conversion is the dedication of oneself for the first time to God. A revival of religion is a rededication to more faithful service. The discipline of sorrow, meditation, the work of faith and labour of love, etc., still further deepen its spiritual life, and strengthen its activities.
II. There are occasions when the call for deeper consecration is clear and loud. Such was the preaching of the Baptist, and of Peter and Paul, summoning to repentance. A great popular excitement that moves deeply a people is providential preparation. An exigency in life when one is hurled from his self-dependence down upon his dependence upon God; a responsibility that compels one to put up new bulwarks to faith and a new criticism upon life; a calamity that opens all the doors and windows of life–those things teach you of your exposure and of your need that some pavilion drop its curtains around you. These indeed are felt to be Divine exhortations to higher, closer walk with God.
III. This deeper consecration is not necessarily the doing of new things, but doing the old things better. The advice of Paul to the Thessalonians was to abound more and more in the very things in which they had been active. We can fritter away strength in variety. We can make the moral nature nervous by seeking continually a new excitement. Perfection and finish are not gained in trying new things, but by repetition. We become perfect penmen by making the same letters over and over again. Skill in the mechanic arts, in sculpture and in painting, is gained by repetition of the fundamentals of each. Wear the channels of the old religious routine deeper then. Lean with more entire self-abandonment upon the tried methods of Church activity. The Christian teacher will find the occasion of deeper consecration in the deeper work along the old lines of fidelity, study, and prayer. The officers of the Church will find their open door into more satisfactory life along the tried ways of tender consideration, faithful regard to vows, bearing still better responsibilities. The Christian father and mother will find their life growing less troubled and worldly if they make the family altar a place of greater regard, and the religious oversight of the family a matter of more constant attention. Which things also ye do, but I beseech you, abound more and more. Depth comes in running constantly in the old curriculum.
IV. You are to be led to this deeper consecration by an old motive. I beseech and exhort you by Jesus Christ. It was the love of God in Jesus Christ that first broke your heart from the ways of sin, and it is this same love that must lift the life to higher and finer activity.
V. The danger to which this consecration is exposed. The danger of routine, of system, of familiar acquaintance with Biblical truths, the very thing the worth of which we have been advocating.
1. Simply because consecration must run in the old channels and be drawn on by the same motive, there is danger that we miss the vital contact with the Lord Jesus, that the spirit dies out while the system goes on. Church and prayer meeting attendance may degenerate into a profitless habit. Your soul may be satisfied with the form and die for want of sustenance. Class teaching may become as spiritless as school teaching–the mere teaching of the lesson. Great alarm about our own spiritual condition should smite us when we find ourselves doing Christian duties for the sake of getting rid of them and of appeasing the conscience.
2. Then, again, the performance of Christian duties leads us into expressions of faith and desire that they may become stereotyped. Biblical language is the fittest medium by which to express our prayer and our faith. And the quickened soul can find comfort and relief for itself in repeating the same form. But let the fire die out, and living contact with Jesus shrink, and the form of words will remain, and we will have the startling inconsistency of devout expression enveloping a shrivelled and dead heart.
3. There may be movement in Christian life but no progress. Like the water wheel that turns round in the same place that it did ten years ago, may be the Christian life that runs the weekly round of Church services. Like the door that swings on the same hinge, but never moves from the door post, may be the Christian life excessively busy, continually in and out, but never advancing into the interior truths of Gods Word. Christian life is not a treadmill round; Christianity is not meant to teach us how to talk, but to teach us how to walk, and walking is orderly, constant progress towards a terminus, a glory. The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
VI. The practical methods by which the deeper consecration can be maintained without falling into spiritless form.
1. Let there be an act of consecration; a holy hour when we surrender ourselves anew to God. We know that specious argument of the evil one about resolving and re-resolving, and doing the same. We know that timidity of the honest mind that shrinks from a new self-dedication where it has so often failed; and yet how is life to be lifted up to finer issues unless there is the strong desire and resolve of the spirit? We do not drift into consecration and holy life?
2. Assist the memory. We fail in our consecration because we forget. Business engrosses the mind. A multitude of cares drives out the one special thought of the heart. Time slips along, weaving into the web of life new things with bright or dark colours. The very success of the first efforts of consecrated days has a subtle danger. Against this flood of insidious attack we must rear a defence that shall remain with us. I have known a book, for instance, selected because its contents and aim were along the line of the consecrated purpose, to be to the memory a continual reminder. I have known a text of Scripture chosen for its appropriateness to some individual weakness or to fill up the gaps of failure, or to string the soul to its best music hung as a motto on the wall, that every time you looked you were reminded of the weakness, the failure, the hope of your life. I have known men who have sat down and drawn up for themselves rules of life, meeting their deficiencies and aspirations by specific regulations, making their daily activity run along these prescribed channels, and their biographies have proved how good, how conscientious, how holy they were. I need only mention the names of Jeremy Taylor and Jonathan Edwards. I have known a voluntary service given to some spiritual meeting whose regular recurrence was continual reminder, or to some charity whose blessed work was constant call for service, or to some personal visitation of the poor and the sick.
3. Assist the spiritual nature by renewed study of the character of Jesus. The sculptor who is to make a model of your face and head, the painter who is to paint your portrait, asks of you many sittings, and the more sittings you can give him the more perfect will be bust or portrait. The daily study of Jesus will fashion the life after the glorious model. (S. B. Bossiter.)
The Christians walk and its object
I. The Christians walk.
1. You young Christians have just got a walking power. There was a time when you thought you could stand, and you tried, but fell helplessly by the wayside. But Jesus of Nazareth passed by and said, Wilt thou be made whole. You responded in faith, and like the man at the Gate Beautiful you found a new energy and walked and leaped and praised God.
2. This new power was given you to enable you to realize that they that wait upon the Lord shall walk and not faint. The sun may be very hot, and you ready to give way, but remember this promise; and remember it when the goal of the journey seems a great way off. Dont be discouraged.
3. Paul had given these Christians directions how to walk. He did not leave them to wander about in the darkness. We, too, have directions. Look up the word walk in your concordance. We are to–
(1) Walk by faith. We do not behold the form of Jesus leading us on to victory, nor is our reward visible, but we apprehend both by Faith.
(2) Walk in the Spirit, opposed to which is walking after the flesh, by worldly considerations, and a desire for gratification.
(3) Walk in wisdom. Do not give unnecessary offence, or obtrude your religion in a disagreeable way. The perfect Christian is a perfect gentleman.
(4) Walk honestly, or rather honourably. There is a certain un affected dignity that belongs to the friend of God, and commands the respect of men. The child of the heavenly royal household cannot stoop to social meannesses, or commercial sharp practices.
(5) Walk circumspectly, i.e., accurately. Be particular about little things, little vanities, self-indulgences, worldlinesses, sins of tongue and temper. There are some who have only a vague, not an accurate notion of what a Christians walk ought to be; others walk timorously always expecting to make mistakes. Some strike out wildly never thinking of where they are going; others go painfully as though they were walking on egg shells or glass bottles. Let us avoid these two mistakes–not to allow ourselves to be so bound and hampered as to lose our spiritual liberty; but not to disregard trifles which put together make such a great thing in the end.
II. The motive. To please God. We shall not walk rightly without a right motive. God looks at that as well as at the effect.
1. What are you going to live for? To be happy? To get to heaven? You may get both, but these are not what you were sent into the world for.
2. If you want to find out what should be the object of your life, look at Jesus. From first to last He lived simply to please the Father. He came to do the Fathers will, and He did it.
(1) You may do a mans will because you are his ,servant paid to do it, and therefore your duty to do it, or because he is your friend and you delight to do it. Between these two classes of motives lies the difference between the law and the gospel.
(2) There are two ways of seeking to please God, We often notice in earthly relationships that there is less of conscious anxiety to please where love and confidence are strongest, while on the other hand strenuous efforts to please are frequently the results of misgivings as to the disposition of the person they are designed to please. The same may be said of our relationship towards God. There are some who really wish to please Him, and yet say, I wonder whether this or that has pleased Him. But the blessedness of the Christian position is this, that we are accepted in the Beloved so that He can regard us with complacency in order that we may go on to please Him.
3. Let the thought of pleasing God ever take precedence of the thought of pleasing ourselves and others.
4. You are pleasing God much if you are trusting Him much. To doubt Him is to cast a reflection on His changeless love. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
How to walk so as to please God
I. With faith. Without this it is im possible to please Him.
II. With humility. He abases the proud, show ing His abhorrence of them, but exalts the humble because He delights in them.
III. With obedience.
1. Active. To obey is better than sacrifice. Children, obey for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
2. Passive. When in sickness, trial, etc. Nothing is more acceptable than the spirit which says, Thy will be done. The servant that doeth not his Lords will shall be beaten with many stripes.
IV. In communion with his people. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard. Would He have done so had He been indifferent or displeased? Where two or three are met together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
V. Benevolently. With such sacrifices God is well pleased. (G. Burder.)
Walking so as to please God
I. What is it to please God?
1. Negatively. Not as if we could do anything in its own nature pleasing to God (2Co 3:5).
2. Positively. So that He may accept us in Christ (Mat 3:17).
(1) Our persons (Eph 1:6).
(2) Our actions (1Pe 2:5; Luk 2:14).
(a) So as not to be angry with us for them.
(b) So as to be favourable to us (Pro 8:35; Zep 3:17).
(c) So as to give us a reward (Mat 6:4; Mat 10:42).
II. Why should we please God? Because–
1. He is so great and mighty (Jer 5:22).
2. So just.
3. So gracious (Psa 130:4).
4. His pleasure is the highest happiness (Psa 30:5; Psa 63:3).
5. This is the end of Christs incarnation and our profession (Act 3:26; 2Ti 2:19).
III. How may we please Him?
1. In general (Heb 11:5).
(1) We must be renewed (Rom 8:8).
(2) Do what He has commanded.
(3) Therefore do it that we may please Him.
(4) Do it with understanding and discretion (1Co 14:15).
(5) With cheerfulness (2Co 9:7; Psa 40:8).
(6) In faith (Heb 11:6).
(7) To His glory (1Co 10:31).
2. Particularly, these things please Him–
(1) Repentance (Eze 33:11; Psa 51:17).
(2) Humility (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:2; 1Pe 5:8).
(3) Trust in His promises (Psa 147:11).
(4) Submission to His providences (1Sa 3:18; Psa 39:9).
(5) Prayer (1Ki 3:10; 1Ti 2:1-4).
(6) Frequent meditations upon Him (Psa 19:14).
(7) Justice (Mic 6:7-8; Psa 51:19).
(8) Mercy and forgiveness (Psa 103:9-11; Mat 6:14).
(9) Charity to the poor (Php 4:18).
(10) Thankfulness (Psa 69:30-31).
IV. Use: Endeavour to please God. Consider–
1. Otherwise you cross His end in making you (Pro 16:4).
2. So long as He is displeased you are in danger of hell.
3. If you please Him you need please none else (Pro 16:7).
4. Nor take care of anything (Mat 6:33; 1Jn 3:22).
5. He will bless all His providences to you (Rom 8:28).
6. Pleasing God is the work of heaven (Psa 103:20-21).
7. Please Him here, and enjoy Him hereafter. (Bp. Beveridge.)
Pleasing God
There are in the world self-pleasers, men-pleasers, God-pleasers. The last only deserve our imitation.
I. God can be pleased. That being the case–
1. He notices our conduct.
2. Observes the character of our actions.
3. Has a disposition with regard to men.
II. He can be well pleased (Col 3:20). Those please Him best who are most like in character and action to Him in whom He was well pleased.
III. He can be easily pleased. He requires no impossible services. His approbation is not wrung from Him with difficulty.
IV. He can always be pleased. He waiteth to be gracious. When the Christian walks in the way of His commandments, he walks with God.
V. He ought to be pleased. This is required by–
1. Himself. His commands all amount to this. His glory is promoted by this.
2. Man. Pleasing God is the directest way of securing the welfare of the world.
3. Our own well being. To please God is to have a tranquil conscience, the approbation of the God, an endless reward. (B. Pugh.)
Pleasing God is
I. Possible. He has been pleased with men–Enoch, Noah, Daniel, etc. This is wonderful–wonderful that the Infinite should condescend to notice any one individual so insignificant as man. Still more wonderful that He should be pleased with anything that man can do. God is a pleasable Being, and man can contribute something to His pleasure.
II. Incumbent. Ye ought. Why?
1. Because He is the absolute Proprietor of your existence. He has a right to everything you have.
2. He is the most righteous of sovereigns. He does not require you to do anything that is not right and just.
3. He is the most tender of fathers. The only way to please yourselves is to please Him. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
So ye would abound more and more–
I. What is it to abound?
1. Negatively. Not as if we could do more than is required. For–
(1) We cannot do all that is required (Psa 119:96).
(2) We can do nothing as it is required (2Co 3:5).
(3) Yet if we could it is no more than our duty (Luk 17:10).
2. Positively.
(1) Endeavour to go beyond others (1Co 12:31).
(2) Be more serious in pleasing God than in anything else (Ecc 9:10; Rom 12:11; Mat 6:33).
(3) Every day excel ourselves and grow better (2Pe 3:18).
II. What should we abound more and more in?
1. In works of piety towards God; in–
(1) Godly sorrow for sin (2Co 7:9-11)).
(2) Turning from our present lusts (Rom 6:12).
(3) Faith in Christ for pardon (Eph 1:7); for grace (Act 3:26; Joh 15:4-5; Php 4:13).
(4) Dependence on Gods mercy (Pro 3:5).
(5) Making Him our only joy and love (Mat 22:37).
(6) Prayer (Rom 12:12).
(7) Hearing His Word (Luk 4:16), and receiving His sacrament.
2. In works of equity to our neighbour–
(1) Wronging none (Mat 5:44).
(2) Endeavouring the good of all (Gal 6:10).
(3) Being charitable to the poor (1Ti 6:18; 2Co 9:6-8).
III. Why should we abound more and more?
1. We are commanded (Heb 6:1; 2Pe 1:5-6; Eph 6:10; 1Co 15:58).
2. Unless we grow better we shall surely grow worse.
3. We can never abound too much; nor indeed enough (Php 3:11).
4. The more we abound the more glory we shall have (Luk 19:16-19; 1Co 15:41-42).
IV. How shall we abound more and more?
1. Often think of spiritual things–
(1) Of God (Psa 63:6; Psa 139:18).
(2) Of Christ.
(3) Of the world to come (Amo 6:3).
Conclusion:
1. Motives.
(1) We have abounded in sin too long (1Pe 4:3).
(2) Our life is continued for that end.
(3) The more we abound the more comfort we shall have.
(4) Abounding is the best sign of the truth of grace (Jam 2:26).
(5) Heaven will make amends for all.
2. Uses.
(1) Of reproof.
(a) To those who never please God, but abound in sin.
(b) To those who take more pains to abound in riches than in graces.
(2) Of examination. Compare your present with your past.
(3) Of exhortation. Abound more and more. (Bp. Beveridge.)
Of abounding more and more
If any one wishes to see what it is to begin well in Christian faith and practice and at the same time what care should be taken not to depend too much on mere beginnings however praiseworthy, he cannot do better than examine carefully these two Epistles to the Thessalonians. The apostle seems hardly to know how to say enough of their faith and charity, or of the noble and self-denying way in which they had received the gospel (see 1Th 1:5-8; 1Th 3:7-10). There could not well be more promising converts; and yet the very next words show how anxious he was that they might not trust in their first promising conversion, Praying exceedingly that we might see your face: to what purpose? not for his own pleasure, but to perfect that which was lacking in their faith. The same feeling runs through the whole of the letter; his joy in what they had done is everywhere tempered by a real and serious anxiety lest they should stop short and begin to think that they had done enough.
I. Now, with regard to the absolute necessity of continual improvement, it appears in the first place from this circumstance that if we rightly value the first good beginning, we must from the very nature of the case go on from one degree of holiness to another. Men may very well do something which looks like repentance upon poor imperfect worldly reasons, and may deceive themselves and others into a notion that they are true Christian penitents; as, for example, intemperance may be left off for health or characters sake, or a quarrel may be made up with a view to our worldly interest, or the fear of approaching death may drive men against their will to long-neglected ordinances of religion; and it is no wonder if such a repentance as this very soon begins to stand still: if, having reached such and such a point, the man imagines himself good enough, and takes no more pains to be better: but this is quite contrary to the nature of true repentance upon Christian principles.
II. This is yet more absolutely necessary, because, if men do not improve they are in practice sure to go back. They cannot stay where they are; they must either grow worse or better. For it is the nature of all strong impressions to act vehemently on the mind at first, and after a little time to fade away as it were and gradually become weaker and weaker. Thus the fear of God and the dread of sin and punishment, in which repentance usually begins, if we do not resolutely and on purpose endeavour to keep them up, are sure to lose their force on our minds.
III. It may help us in judging more truly of our duty in this respect if we put ourselves as nearly as we can in the place of these Thessalonians, who had learned Christianity from the lips of St. Paul himself. For, indeed, we are very nearly in their place; we, like them, have received of the apostles how we ought to walk and to please God. The only difference is, that they received this knowledge by word of mouth, we by reading the apostolic letters and listening to the apostolic Church. Now what sort of a spirit and temper should we have judged these Thessalonians to be of, if we found that as soon as their teacher was gone away to Athens, they had become careless about his instructions, thought much of what they had done already, and took no pains whatever to improve? Whatever censure we pass on them we must acknowledge surely to be due to ourselves, in such measure as we neglect the duty of amending daily because our Teacher is out of sight. Yet this is what we are sure to do, if we be not constantly exhorted and reminded of it; nay, there is great reason to fear that all exhortation may prove in vain.
1. For, first of all, having been bred up from our cradle in the knowledge and understanding of our Christian duty, we are apt to fancy ourselves familiar with the practice of it too. We are convinced in our minds that we know it well enough; and this of itself inclines us to be too soon satisfied with our accustomed way of doing it.
2. Again, a sincere Christian will be on his guard that he make no dangerous comparisons between himself and his neighbours. It will never do to take it for granted that we keep our place in respect of piety and goodness–that we are no worse than we were, in fact–because we are no worse in comparison with them. It may be that all around you are gone astray from God, and in the way to everlasting ruin: if such turn out to be the case, you may excuse and flatter yourself now that you are no worse than they; but it will be little comfort to you in the day of account, when you find that your condemnation is as bad as theirs. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times.)
The necessity of progress
It is a sure law that, as Luther said, He who is a Christian is no Christian. He who thinks that he has gained the fulness of the faith has lost it. Progress is a requirement of spiritual vitality; and the recompense of past progress is the assurance of progress to come. In the words of a famous Hebrew saying, The reward of a precept is a precept. He, that is, who has fulfilled one commandment is allowed to receive another. He who has reached one height of truth catches a glimpse of a loftier height beyond. Each attainment in the Divine life becomes the occasion for the revelation of fresh duty. The crown of labour for a being such as man is not rest but longer and nobler toil. It is true, we know, that to him that hath more shall be given. And it is no less true that of him that hath done much shall more be required. Each achievement of the successful worker was indeed Gods gift. And what we receive, what we realize, what we gain–however we call the process–is not for contemplation, or for hoarding, but for further service. What is reaped supplies the seed corn for a richer harvest. The gifts of God answer to His requirements, and the requirements of God answer to His gifts. Grace for grace–grace to be used in return for grace already used–is the law which regulates Gods blessing; from strength to strength is the description of the Christians course. We must abound more and more. We must seek untiringly for signs of growing nearness to God, and show what we have found. The trained eye learns to see beauties which were once undistinguished. The trained ear learns to interpret voices which were once inarticulate. And is it so–do we confidently trust that it always will be so–spiritually with ourselves? Are we able as the years go on to fix our eyes more steadily on God, shrinking with livelier sensibility from sin more than from suffering, realizing our fellowship one with another in Him with a more intense vividness, looking, and showing that we look, beyond the wild confusion of the hour to the one will of peace and righteousness which cannot at last want accomplishment? Are we able to listen to the Divine wisdom conversing with us as with sons in the words of apostles and prophets, speaking to us in our own tongues, interpreting our own thoughts, answering the questions with which our hearts are full? Are we able to rest with increasing peace in the contemplation of Him who is perfect light, and to bring before Him who is perfect compassion the unceasing prayer of sympathetic remembrance for all with whom we are united as fellow workers in the present and as fellow heirs of the future? Are we able to pause in the solemn stillness of thought till we are alone with God, and to offer ourselves to the fire of His love; that so little by little all may be consumed in us–all passion and pride, all self-seeking and self-trust–which does not minister to His glory, which does not, that is, make clearer to men His infinite perfection? Are we able to regard the world in its unspeakable vastness, life with its inevitable sorrows, nature with its contrasts (to our eyes) of beauty and terror, or grace and mocking grotesque ness, as even now gathered up in Christ, and seek for ourselves the development of every faculty by which we may be taught to spell out better the One Name written in all that is finite? We tremble perhaps as we put such questions to ourselves. But they stir us at least with a sense of what our faith is. They make plain to us to what we are called. They show an obligation to progress, a capacity for influences of which, it may be, we are habitually unmindful. They condemn us perhaps. But the sentence of condemnation is the message of hope. It is a revelation of Gods love as well as of mans failure. The strength for service and the opportunities for service are still given to us through the gospel. (Bp. Westcott.)
Abounding more and more
An aged Christian man who had been much benefited through life by Gods blessing, after thankfully referring to his more than fifty years of health, prosperity, and abounding mercies, remarked, I am convinced that if I have to be any happier than I have been or am, I must get more religion. The Hindus have a legend that a very little man once got a promise from a great king that he should have as much territory as he could overstep in three strides. Then the little man began to grow till his head reached the sky, and at last, when he took his three strides, with the first he overstepped all the land, with the second he overstepped all the seas, and with the third he compassed all the heavens. If we grow in knowledge, in wisdom, in grace, and in everything that is good, as we ought, we may at length be able to compass much that will be most advantageous to ourselves and to others. (H. K. Burton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IV.
The apostle exhorts them to attend to the directions which he
had already given them, that they might know how to walk and
please God, 1, 2.
Gives them exhortations concerning continence, chastity, and
matrimonial fidelity, 3-8.
Speaks concerning their love to each other, and love to the
Churches of Christ; and exhorts them to continue and increase
in it, 9, 10.
Counsels them to observe an inoffensive conduct, to mind their
own affairs, to do their own business, and to live honestly,
11, 12.
Not to sorrow for the dead, as persons who have no hope of a
resurrection; because to Christians the resurrection of Christ
is a proof of the resurrection of his followers, 13, 14.
Gives a short but awful description of the appearing of Christ
to judge the world, 15.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV.
Verse 1. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort] We give you proper instructions in heavenly things, and request you to attend to our advice. The apostle used the most pressing entreaties; for he had a strong and affectionate desire that this Church should excel in all righteousness and true holiness.
Please God more and more.] God sets no bounds to the communications of his grace and Spirit to them that are faithful. And as there are no bounds to the graces, so there should be none to the exercise of those graces. No man can ever feel that he loves God too much, or that he loves man too much for God’s sake.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He descends to some particular duties about their walking, which he ushers in by a general exhortation in this first verse; wherein we may observe his style: he calls them brethren, and speaks to them with much condescension and earnestness, and in the name of Christ, &c. And the subject he insists on is their walking, the course of their life and conversation, which he describes by the rule of it,
as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk; he refers them to the directions he had given them about it as the rule; for he did in his ministry not only open gospel mysteries, but explain moral duties. And not only to walk in them, but to abound more and more, to press forward to a greater exactness and excellency in their Christian conversation. And he here useth motives:
1. From the Person in whose name he speaks to them, which is the Lord Jesus Christ; for he was but Christs minister and ambassador.
2. From the knowledge they had received of their duty, and therefore they could not plead ignorance.
3. Their walking as they had been instructed by him would please God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. FurthermoreGreek,“As to what remains.” Generally used towards the close ofhis Epistles (Eph 6:10; Phi 4:8).
thenwith a view to thelove and holiness (1Th 3:12;1Th 3:13) which we have justprayed for in your behalf, we now give you exhortation.
beseech“ask”as if it were a personal favor.
by, c.rather as Greek,“IN the Lord Jesus”in communion with the Lord Jesus, as Christian ministers dealing withChristian people [EDMUNDS].
as ye . . . receivedwhenwe were with you (1Th 2:13).
howGreek, the”how,” that is, the manner.
walk and . . . pleaseGodthat is, “and so please God,” namely, byyour walk; in contrast to the Jews who “please not God”(1Th 2:15). The oldestmanuscripts add a clause here, “even as also ye do walk”(compare 1Th 4:10; 1Th 5:11).These words, which he was able to say of them with truth, conciliatea favorable hearing for the precepts which follow. Also theexpression, “abound more and more,” implies thatthere had gone before a recognition of their already in some measurewalking so.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren,…. Or request of you in the most kind and tender manner, from real and hearty love and affection for you, and with a view to your good, and the glory of God:
and exhort you: or beseech and entreat you. The apostle does not lay his commands upon them as he might have done, and sometimes does, but endeavours to work upon them by way of entreaty, and which he doubtless thought the most effectual method to win upon them, and gain them; for some minds are more easily wrought upon by entreaty than by authority: and this he does in the most moving and powerful manner, even
by the Lord Jesus; or “in the Lord Jesus”; in his name and stead, as personating him, and as though he did beseech and entreat them by him, and his fellow ministers; or for his sake, intimating, that if they had any regard to him, any value for his name, if that had any weight with them, or they had any concern for his honour and interest, then he begs their attention to the following exhortation; or by the Lord Jesus, by all that is in him, or done for them by him; in whom they were chosen, by whom they were redeemed, in whom they were made new creatures, to whose image they were to be conformed, whose followers they professed to be, whose Gospel they embraced, and by whose name they were called.
That as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and to please God. The walk of believers is twofold, either internal or external. Their internal walk is by faith, which is the going out of the soul by faith to Christ for every supply of grace. Their external walk is not as it was before conversion, according to the course of this world, or as other Gentiles walk, but in a holy religious life and conversation; and this requires spiritual life, strength and direction from Christ; for neither dead men, nor, if alive, yet weak, can walk; nor is it in a spiritual man, that walketh to direct his steps; and such a walk also denotes continuance, in well doing, and a progression or going on in it, and supposes ways to walk in. Christ, he is the chief and principal way, and there are other paths which regard him, or relate and lead unto him; as the way of truth, the path of ordinances, and of religious worship, both public and private, and the ways of righteousness, holiness, and good works: the manner in which saints are to walk is as Christ himself walked, after the Spirit, and not after the flesh, according to the rule of the word, which is the standard of faith and practice, with prudence, wisdom, circumspection, and worthy of God, and of that calling wherein they are called: and of such a walk there is a necessity; it “ought”, it must be both on the account of God, it being his will, and for his glory, and the contrary would show great ingratitude to him; and on the account of the saints themselves, to adorn them, and their profession, and preserve them from shame and disgrace, to show their faith, and demonstrate their calling and election to others; and likewise on account of others, partly for the winning of some, by recommending in this way the Gospel to them, and partly for the bringing of others to shame and silence, who falsely accuse their good conversation. Now when the apostle, and those that were with him, were at Thessalonica, they gave these saints directions and instructions about their walk and conversation, to order it in such a manner as might “please God”; which is not to be understood of rendering their persons acceptable to God hereby, for the saints’ acceptance with God is only in Christ the beloved; nor of their gaining the love and favour of God by such means, for the love of God is from everlasting, and is free, and sovereign, and does not arise from, or depend upon the holiness and obedience of men; or of making peace with God by such a walk, for peace is only made by the blood of Christ; but of doing those things, and in such a way God approves of: unregenerate men cannot please God, nor anything they do, because they are destitute of the Spirit of God, and are without Christ, and his grace and have not faith in him, without which it is impossible to please God; but what a believer does in faith, from a principle of love, in the name and strength of Christ, and to the glory of God, is approved of by God, and is acceptable to him through Christ, and for his sake; and there are many things of this kind, as prayer, praise, acts of beneficence to the poor, and indeed every good work and holy action: and inasmuch as they had been thus taught and instructed how to behave and conduct in their outward walk and conversation, they are entreated and exhorted to go on and abound in the work of the Lord:
so ye would abound more and more: that is, be more and more in the exercise of every grace, and in the discharge of every duty, making advances in holiness of life, and perfecting it in the fear of God. Beza’s ancient copy, and another manuscript, as also the Alexandrian copy, and some others, add between the preceding, and this last clause, “as ye also walk”; and so the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions seem to have read; commending them for their present and past walk and conversation, in order to persuade and encourage them to go forward.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Exhortations to Holiness; Caution against Impurity. | A. D. 51. |
1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Here we have,
I. An exhortation to abound in holiness, to abound more and more in that which is good, 1Th 4:1; 1Th 4:2. We may observe,
1. The manner in which the exhortation is given–very affectionately. The apostle entreats them as brethren; he calls them so, and loved them as such. Because his love to them was very great, he exhorts them very earnestly: We beseech and exhort you. The apostle was unwilling to take any denial, and therefore repeats his exhortation again and again.
2. The matter of his exhortation–that they would abound more and more in holy walking, or excel in those things that are good, in good works. Their faith was justly famed abroad, and they were already examples to other churches: yet the apostle would have them yet further to excel others, and to make further progress in holiness. Note, (1.) Those who most excel others fall short of perfection. The very best of us should forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before. (2.) It is not enough that we abide in the faith of the gospel, but we must abound in the work of faith. We must not only persevere to the end, but we should grow better, and walk more evenly and closely with God.
3. The arguments with which the apostle enforces his exhortation. (1.) They had been informed of their duty. They knew their Master’s will, and could not plead ignorance as an excuse. Now as faith, so knowledge, is dead without practice. They had received of those who had converted them to Christianity, or been taught of them, how they ought to walk. Observe, The design of the gospel is to teach men not only what they should believe, but also how they ought to live; not so much to fill men’s minds with notions as to regulate their temper and behaviour. The apostle taught them how to walk, not how to talk. To talk well without living well will never bring us to heaven: for the character of those who are in Christ Jesus is this: They walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2.) Another argument is that the apostle taught and exhorted them in the name, or by the authority, of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was Christ’s minister and ambassador, declaring to them what was the will and command of the Lord Jesus. (3.) Another argument is this. Herein they would please God. Holy walking is most pleasing to the holy God, who is glorious in holiness. This ought to be the aim and ambition of every Christian, to please God and to be accepted of him. We should not be men-pleasers, nor flesh-pleasers, but should walk so as to please God. (4.) The rule according to which they ought to walk and act–the commandments they had given them by the Lord Jesus Christ, which were the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, because given by authority and direction from him and such as were agreeable to his will. The apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ were only commissioned by him to teach men to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them, Matt. xxviii. 20. Though they had great authority from Christ, yet that was to teach men what Christ had commanded, not to give forth commandments of their own. They did not act as lords over God’s heritage (1 Pet. v. 3), nor should any do so that pretend to be their successors. The apostle could appeal to the Thessalonians, who knew what commandments he gave them, that they were no other than what he had received from the Lord Jesus.
II. A caution against uncleanness, this being a sin directly contrary to sanctification, or that holy walking to which he so earnestly exhorts them. This caution is expressed, and also enforced by many arguments,
1. It is expressed in these words: That you should abstain from fornication (v. 3), by which we are to understand all uncleanness whatsoever, either in a married or unmarried state. Adultery is of course included, though fornication is particularly mentioned. And other sorts of uncleanness are also forbidden, of which it is a shame even to speak, though they are done by too many in secret. All that is contrary to chastity in heart, speech, and behaviour, is contrary to the command of God in the decalogue, and contrary to that holiness which the gospel requires.
2. There are several arguments to enforce this caution. As, (1.) This branch of sanctification in particular is the will of God, v. 3. It is the will of God in general that we should be holy, because he that called us is holy, and because we are chosen unto salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit; and not only does God require holiness in the heart, but also purity in our bodies, and that we should cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. vii. 1. Whenever the body is, as it ought to be, devoted to God, and dedicated and set apart for him, it should be kept clean and pure for his service; and, as chastity is one branch of our sanctification, so this is one thing which God commands in his law, and what his grace effects in all true believers. (2.) This will be greatly for our honour: so much is plainly implied, v. 4. Whereas the contrary will be a great dishonour. And his reproach shall not be wiped away, Prov. vi. 33. The body is here called the vessel of the soul, which dwells therein (so 1 Sam. xxi. 5), and it must be kept pure from defiling lusts. Every one should be careful in this matter, as he values his own honour and will not be contemptible on this account, that his inferior appetites and passions gain not the ascendant, tyrannizing over his reason and conscience, and enslaving the superior faculties of his soul. What can be more dishonourable than for a rational soul to be enslaved by bodily affections and brutal appetites? (3.) To indulge the lust of concupiscence is to live and act like heathens? Even as the Gentiles who know not God, v. 5. The Gentiles, and especially the Grecians, were commonly guilty of some sins of uncleanness which were not so evidently forbidden by the light of nature. But they did not know God, nor his mind and will, so well as Christians know, and should know, this his will, namely our sanctification in this branch of it. It is not so much to be wondered at, therefore, if the Gentiles indulge their fleshly appetites and lusts; but Christians should not walk as unconverted Gentiles, in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, c. (1 Pet. iv. 3), because those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. (4.) The sin of uncleanness, especially adultery, is a great piece of injustice that God will be the avenger of so we may understand those words, That no man go beyond or defraud his brother (v. 6), in any matter—en to pragmati, in this matter of which the apostle is speaking in the preceding and following verses, namely, the sin of uncleanness. Some understand these words as a further warning and caution against injustice and oppression, all fraud and deceit in our dealings with men, which are certainly criminal, and contrary to the gospel. And Christians should not impose upon the ignorance and necessity of those they deal with, and so go beyond them, nor should they by equivocations or lying arts defraud them; and although this may be practised by some and lie long undiscovered, and so go unpunished among men, yet the righteous God will render a recompence. But the meaning may rather be to show the injustice and wrong that in many cases are done by the sin of uncleanness. Not only are fornication and other acts of uncleanness sins against his own body who commits them (1 Cor. vi. 18), not only are they very injurious to the sinner himself both in soul and body, but sometimes they are very injurious, and no less than defrauding, acts of injustice to others, particularly to those who are joined together in the marriage covenant and to their posterity. And, as this sin is of such a heinous nature, so it follows that God will be the avenger of it. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, Heb. xiii. 4. This the apostle had forewarned and testified by his gospel, which, as it contained exceedingly great and precious promises, so also it revealed from heaven the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness among men, Rom. i. 18. (5.) The sin of uncleanness is contrary to the nature and design of our Christian calling: For God hath called us not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness, v. 7. The law of God forbids all impurity, and the gospel requires the greatest purity; it calls us from uncleanness unto holiness. (6.) The contempt therefore of God’s law and gospel is the contempt of God himself: He that despises despises God, not man only. Some might possibly make light of the precepts of purity and holiness, because they heard them from men like themselves; but the apostle lets them know that they were God’s commands, and to violate them was no less than to despise God. He adds, God hath given Christians his Spirit, intimating that all sorts of uncleanness do in an especial manner grieve the Holy Spirit, and will provoke him to withdraw from us; and also the Holy Spirit is given unto us to arm us against these sins, and to help us to mortify these deeds of the body, that we may live, Rom. viii. 13.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Finally (). Accusative of general reference of , as for the rest. It does not mean actual conclusion, but merely a colloquial expression pointing towards the end (Milligan) as in 2Cor 13:11; 2Tim 4:8. So in 2Thess 3:1; Phil 3:1; Phil 4:8.
We beseech (). Not “question” as in ancient Greek, but as often in N.T. (1Thess 5:12; 2Thess 2:1; Phil 4:3) and also in papyri to make urgent request of one.
How ye ought ( ). Literally, explanatory articular indirect question ( ) after according to common classic idiom in Luke (Luke 1:62; Luke 22:2; Luke 22:4; Luke 22:23; Luke 22:24) and Paul (Ro 8:26).
That ye abound ( ). Loose construction of the clause with present subjunctive after two subordinate clauses with (as, even as) to be connected with “beseech and exhort.”
More and more (). Simply
more , but added to same idea in . See also verse 11.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Furthermore [] . Rev. not so well, finally, although the word is sometimes rightly so rendered. The formula is often used by Paul where he attaches, in a somewhat loose way, even in the midst of an Epistle, a new subject to that which he has been discussing.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
The Model Walk and the Believer’s Hope
1) “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren”. (loipon oun, adelphoi, erotomen humas) “For the rest therefore brethren, we as you”, while chapters four and five are reflective, look backward, chapters four and five are prospective, look forward, to chaste conduct in hope of the coming of Christ. Act 1:10-11.
2) “And exhort you by the Lord Jesus” (kai parakalournen en kurio lesou) “and exhort or beseech (you) in (the) Lord Jesus”; in the light of His commands and certain return to the earth, Joh 14:15; Joh 15:10; Joh 15:14; Joh 14:1-3.
3) “That as ye have received of us” (hina kathos parelabete par’ hemon) “That as ye received from us”; by word of instruction and by example of personal conduct, 1Th 2:9-11.
4) “How ye ought to walk” (to pos dei humas peripatein) “How or (the way) it becomes you all to walk”; to conduct yourselves in personal behavior toward each other and those outside the church, 1Th 2:12; Eph 4:1.
5) “And to please God” (Kai arekein theo) “and to please God” — (kathos kai peripatein) “as indeed ye do walk” or “even as ye also (already) walk.” 1Co 1:9; 2Th 2:14; 2Ti 1:9; Col 1:10.
6) “So ye would abound more and more” (hina perisseuete mallon) “in order that you all abound (even) more”; Paul desired to urge the brethren on in the ways of the Lord which they were already pursuing. 1Co 15:58.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1 Furthermore. This chapter contains various injunctions, by which he trains up the Thessalonians to a holy life, or confirms them in the exercise of it. They had previously learned what was the rule and method of a pious life: he calls this to their remembrance. As, says he, ye have been taught. Lest, however, he should seem to take away from them what he had previously assigned them, he does not simply exhort them to walk in such a manner, but to abound more and more. When, therefore, he urges them to make progress, he intimates that they are already in the way. The sum is this, that they should be more especially careful to make progress in the doctrine which they had received, and this Paul places in contrast with frivolous and vain pursuits, in which we see that a good part of the world very generally busy themselves, so that profitable and holy meditation as to the due regulation of life scarcely obtains a place, even the most inferior. Paul, accordingly, reminds them in what manner they had been instructed, and bids them aim at this with their whole might. Now, there is a law that is here enjoined upon us — that, forgetting the things that are behind, we always aim at farther progress, (Phi 3:13) and pastors ought also to make this their endeavor. Now, as to his beseeching, when he might rightfully enjoin — it is a token of humanity and modesty which pastors ought to imitate, that they may, if possible, allure people to kindness, rather than violently compel them. (566)
(566) “ Que de les contraindre rudement et d’vne façon violente;” — “Rather than constrain them rudely and in a violent manner.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
SOME SATISFACTORY MODELS
1Th 1:1-4
THE Church at Thessalonica originated in the face of furious opposition. The report of it, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Acts, shows that Paul evinced great courage in entering in to the Jewish synagogue and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead.
The fruit of this preaching was a certain number of Jewish converts and a larger number of Greek, and of the chief women not a few.
But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
The consequence was that Paul and Silas, in order to end the uproar and create greater safety for the new believers, departed by night and went in turn to Berea and Athens and on to Corinth.
It is easy to understand how the Apostles heart would be ill at ease until he had heard how the uproar turned out, and knew the safety of his Christian brethren.
To that end he had sent Timothy from Athens to bring him a report; and now, to encourage the little body of believers, he writes this First Letter, probably in the year A. D. 54.
It had, as Scofield suggests, a threefold object: to confirm the new believers in the fundamental truths of Scripture, to exhort them to holy living, and especially to comfort them concerning some believers who had fallen asleep. Inasmuch as the time since his departure was short, in all probability, these believers had been put to sleep by the opposition.
The somewhat natural division of this First Epistle we shall attempt to follow in this discourse, and consequently talk to you on a Model Salvation, a Model Servant, and a Model Sanctification. However, we shall follow this outline of the Book with discussions devoted to the great Biblical doctrines of the Return, the Resurrection, and the Rapture, which are introduced into the fourth chapter.
Since framing the outline for this sermon we have discovered that Dr. Scofield, in the Scofield Bible, presents a similar, in fact, an almost identical, outline of the same.
We call attention first to
A MODEL SALVATION
His salutation completed (1Th 1:1-3), he addresses himself to this subject of salvation in the remainder of the chapter. What he has to say might be considered under the following suggestions: salvation as evidenced in consecration, as it existed in the form of ensamples, and as it sounded out the saving word.
It was evidenced in true consecration.
Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
Paul was one of those preachers who needed not to make a defense of his own conduct, and required not from others a recommendation of character. His unselfishness in service, his consistency of conduct, his evident character, had all been as an open book, and friend and foe alike had seen in him, and heard from him, nothing that demanded explanation or required defense.
On the other hand, his very consecration to the cause which he had but recently espoused was in clear evidence of his sincerity in action. Robert Morrison, that great missionary, at the call of whose name the pulse of the Church of God is quickened, gives us an insight into his very soul in this circumstance. After his conversion he raised the question, Lord, where shall I serve? And he tells us how it was answered. I learn from Thy Word that it is Thy holy pleasure that the Gospel should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Thou hast given commandment to Thy servants unto the end of the world to preach the Gospel to every creature promising them Thy presence. When I view the field, O Lord, my Master, I perceive that by far the greater part is entirely without laborers, or at best has but here and there one or two, whilst there are thousands crowded up in one corner. My desire is, O Lord, to engage where laborers are most wanted.
That was the spirit that sent him to the heathen land and made him a burning and a shining light against its blackness of darkness. And that is the spirit of conquest, wherever found in the Church.
Pauls salvation effected in him an ensample.
Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.
So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
Herein is a twofold instance of ensample: to them, first, Paul had become an example, and second, they, in turn, became ensamples to all that were in all Macedonia and Achaia.
The business of the world is carried on largely by samples. The great factories of earth sell their products through samples; fruits of the earth are sold after the same manner, by samples. It is no wonder that Christianity is judged by samples. The overwhelming majority of men do not read the Prophets or the Apostles. The Letters of Paul are largely left, as it were, in unbroken envelopes. But they do read you, and they read me. We are the living epistles * * known and read of all men. If it were possible today to say of the church-members, as Paul said of the Thessalonian Christians, Ye were ensamples to all that believe, what spiritual power would be engendered thereby! Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth (Rom 14:22).
Chauncey M. Depew, writing of his personal experience when he was in his ninety-first year, in the form of a Holiday Greeting to the World, said among other things, The essence of happiness in this world, and salvation in the next, is to live in Christ, to absorb His spirit, His love, His all-embracing humanity.
That spirit will, if truly entertained, never fail. The woman, who gave birth to John Chrysostom and brought him up in the ways of truthfulness and piety, excited from a heathens lips these words, as he looked upon her and thought of her life, Oh, what wonderful women these Christians have.
The mother of Gregory, that spiritual giant of the fourth century, was seldom seen, we are told, except as she attended worship, or carried baskets of food or clothing to the poor, or went visiting the sick; while the Godly mother of Bernard is said to have trained him, giving him utterly to God, and in the eagerness of her impassioned devotion, to have inspired him with the highest spirit of service. You have all heard that story, that doubtless had a truthful origin, of how a Sunday School teacher put to her class the question, What is your favorite version of the Bible? One answered, The King James, Another, The American Revision, a third, Moffats New Testament. One lad, whose Christian mother justified his remark, said, I like my mothers version best; she lives it! The best exposition of sacred Scripture is a holy life.
Paul was a power with his converts in proportion as he could truthfully say to them, Be ye followers of me and the Macedonian Christians were effective with their unregenerate neighbors in proportion as they were ensamples to all that believe.
But, as faith without works is dead so Christianity demands more than a holy life. It demands an aggressive ministry; and I find a third point in this model salvation that requires emphasis:
It sounded out the saving word.
The Apostle says,
From you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the Living and True God;
And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come (1Th 1:8-10).
It will be remembered that this was the chief characteristic of the Apostolic Church. When Saul of Tarsus raged in his persecution against the people of Christ, he succeeded in scattering the Church, not in silencing it. In fact, his opposition accomplished1 exactly the opposite result, for
They that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
And there was great joy in that city.
Later this same Philip bore the word of testimony in the presence of the treasurer of the Ethiopians, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen, and preached unto him Jesus, and his baptism followed; and doubtless a church for Northern Africa was born out of that witness.
The greatest single need of the Church of God today is that of witnessing. In the language of the Word, the last affirmation of the ascended Christ was, Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Would God that every man of us, and every woman member of the Church militant might be able to say with Catherine Hankey:
I love to tell the story Of unseen things above,Of Jesus and His glory,Of Jesus and His love.I love to tell the story,Because I know tis true;It satisfies my longings As nothing else can do.
I love to tell the story:Tis pleasant to repeat,What seems, each time I tell it,More wonderfully sweet.I love to tell the story:For some have never heard The message of salvation From Gods own holy Word.
I love to tell the story;For those who know it bestSeem hungering and thirsting.To hear it like the rest.And when, in scenes of Glory,I sing the new, new song,Twill be the old, old story That I have loved so long!
I love to tell the story;Twill be my theme in Glory,To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and His love.
But we pass to the second point in our study:
A MODEL SERVANT
Here we speak of Paul himself, and you will find in the Epistle a defense of our claim.
First of all, He was a courageous servant. This is evidenced in the statement,
For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:
But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention.
For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:
But as we were allowed of God to be put m trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness.
Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the Apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:
So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us (1Th 2:1-8).
It is impossible to follow the Apostle Paul through the assiduous labors recorded in Acts, or trace his steps, as those are revealed in these Epistles, without marveling at the courage of the man. He does not ask, as did Caleb in the Old Testament, for the hardest task to be assigned to any servant of God; but, like the true warrior, takes his way to the very spot where the fight is thickest, and there exposes his person to any danger incidental to victory. There can be little question that the martyrs of all the ages have been inspired and enheartened by the Pauline example. When he faced the block without fear, saying, as he drew nigh to that decapitation, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His Appearing, he was clearing the path for martyrs who should follow, and was exhibiting a spirit of courage that would sustain them in kindred ordeals.
There is an echo of Paul in the experience of Latimer and Ridley. When you remember that their faith had been subjected to every conceivable indignity, made to endure every suffering that was possible to leave them life, including an attempt to freeze them to death in the tower of London, where they spent a winter without fire, and how at last they were led forth to be not only thawed out by the flame, but consumed in the same, joyfully they went, and the old man Latimer, cheerfully encouraged his friend by saying, Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light by the grace of God such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out.
One of the most popular hymns of modern times is known as Stand up, Stand up for Jesus. The hymn was written by Rev. George Duffield, a Presbyterian minister. It originated after this manner: one Sunday a young Episcopalian clergyman preached to five thousand men in Jaynes Hall, Philadelphia. His text was Exo 10:11. The sermon was said to be one of the most wonderful of modern times. All Philadelphia was deeply stirred by a very great revival. The preacher, young Dudley A. Tyng, threw himself into the work with great heartiness. He was one of the noblest, bravest, manliest of men. The following Wednesday, after preaching the great sermon, he left his study for a moments rest, going out to his barn. There was a mule at work there in the power machine, shelling corn. He paused to stroke the mules neck, when the sleeve of his silken gown caught in the cogs of the machine and his arm was literally torn out by the roots. Just before he died, his father at his bedside asked him if he had any message to send to the men in the great noon-day prayer-meeting and to the ministers associated in that work. Tell them, he said, to stand up for Jesus!
On the Sunday following his death, Rev. George Duffield preached from Eph 6:14 and read the verses of the hymn as he had written them the day before. The Superintendent of the Sunday School had them printed. Later a Baptist newspaper, publishing the same, music was found for the words, and the Church has joined heartily in the music ever since because of the inspiring sentiment that the words contain:
Stand up! stand up for Jesus!Ye soldiers of the Cross;Lift high His royal banner,It must not suffer loss.From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,Till every foe is vanquished,And Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up! stand up for Jesus!Stand in His strength alone;The arm of flesh will fail you;Ye dare not trust your own;Put on the Gospel armor,And, watching unto prayer,Where duty calls or danger,Be never wanting there.
Stand up! stand up for Jesus!The strife will not be long;This day the noise of battle,The next the victors song.To him that overcometh,A crown of life shall be;He with the King of Glory Shall reign eternally.
The greatest needs of the Church of God, in this hour, is the courage to be a Christian.
He was a conscientious servant.
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,
That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His Kingdom and glory (1Th 2:9-12).
This language strangely contrasts a certain course of conduct characterizing these latter days. There is an enormous amount of complaint on the part of evangelists because so little work now opens for them. The failure of evangelism is not wholly due to the apostate condition of the Church. The professionalist may blame himself for much of it. His methods have broken the entire system down and have produced with the sanest and most spiritual of church people a certain antipathy to the whole procedure. In America, at least, evangelism has been commercialized, and because one man with the enormous backing of the churches of great cities was able, by the adoption of rather questionable methods, to secure enormous sums for a meeting of a few weeks, hundreds of others grew equally ambitious and commenced to ape in the matter and carry about with them a great company of salaried assistants, women workers, boy specialists, pianist, chorister, soloists, tabernacle men, book table women, and demand of those who sought their services what was known as an expense account of travel, entertainment and advertising, that together with the offering required at the end, would exceed a century outlay on the part of the early Christian church. In addition to this unscriptural and indefensible charge many of these professionals have exercised a ministry that has been fruitless so far as any definite results were concerned.
Two men, who have been much in the ascendant in recent years in America so far as crowds were concerned, one of them from over seas and the other native to the soil, are men, who though they address thousands through the co-operative endeavor of the churches that call them, have never been known to hold a meeting anywhere that added any considerable number of people to the churches thus engaged and burdened. The unfortunate result is that evangelism itself is discredited and faithful evangelists are finding it even more difficult to secure work than the faithless, since their methods are uniformly less spectacular and consequently less popular with the jazz-loving age.
In all this we are not attempting at all to say that all evangelists ought to labor as Paul and his companions did, night and day without charge to anybody, for we believe that the Church of God is often guilty of withholding more than is meet and suffering spiritual poverty as a result. But we are saying that the show of the spirit of sacrifice on the part of evangelists, and above all, a blameless behavior among them that believe, together with a ministry of exhortation and comfort and warning would result in a worthy walk on the part of them called unto the Kingdom and glory of Christ.
He was a commissioned servant.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own Prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His Coming?
For ye are our glory and joy (1Th 2:13-20).
Paul here affirms afresh that he had originated no Gospel, but had passed on to them that which he had received, even the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. He reminded them that their experience was like others, the experience of suffering, and still more like that of their Lord and His Prophets, who had been killed, and now His Apostles who were suffering persecution. And yet, the great Apostle reminds them that these things are all forgotten in the joy and rejoicing over them as trophies through the Gospel.
Possibly one secret of Pauls power was his consciousness of a commission from the Lord associated as it was with His promised presence. We believe that there is such a thing as a daily commission and a daily direction of the Spirit. Each morning brings us new duties; each day makes its new demands, and both duties and demands require new guidance. But we have a sure promise from the ascended Lord, When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you. It is doubtful if Paul ever spent a day without the sense of Divine presence. Therein is the secret of the Apostles power, and therein is the measure of any spiritual success enjoyed by the present disciples of the Church of Jesus Christ. But our future study brings us to
A MODEL SANCTIFICATION
Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to Comfort you concerning your faith;
That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you, in all our affliction and distress, by your faith:
For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us His holy Spirit.
But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more:
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to Work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.
For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the Coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words (1Th 3:1 to 1Th 4:18).
This sanctification voices itself in a steadfastness in obedience to the holy will and in an adequate objective.
Their steadfastness was the Apostles comfort.
Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;
That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you;
Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you, in all our affliction and distress, by your faith:
For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you (1Th 3:1-11).
It would be easy to go into history and bring abundant and beautiful illustrations of steadfastness both in the faith and in the service. Savonarola would be a fine subject for such an illustration. Knox and Calvin could scarcely be equalled. Their indomitable wills and their determined conduct would not only illustrate but embellish the whole discussion. But the average man might feel a fear of failure when such outstanding examples were set before him and secretly say in his own soul, I am not made of the same kind of stuff, and can never attain to the heights of faith or reveal the rock-ribbed stability of such exceptional and outstanding souls!
I bring you, therefore, an illustration from common life, one that will show the way to the humblest among us. It comes from The Treasury, and is related in the following words:
There is no use in keeping the church open any longer. You may as well give me the key, said the missionary in Madras, as he stopped at the door of a little house of God in a village where natives had once professed Christianity, but had declined in interest and quit attendance, returning to their idols. The woman to whom he addressed these words was poor in purse but steadfast in spirit, and she objected. The missionary added as he looked on her sorrowful face, There is a place of Christian worship in the village there, only three miles off, and those who want really to serve God can walk that distance!
Oh, sir, she pled most earnestly, do not take the key away. I at least will go to the church daily; I will sweep it. I will trim its lamp and keep it burning; and I will go on praying. Some day God may hear and a blessing may come.
So the missionary said, Oh, well, keep the key then, and went his way. Some years afterward he returned to that same village and to his surprise he found the church crowded with repentant sinners. A great harvest of souls had been reaped and the steadfastness of this Godly woman was the secret of the whole success.
Their sanctification was the will of God.
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but
God, who hath also given unto us His holy Spirit (1Th 3:12 to 1Th 4:8).
The word sanctify conveys the idea of becoming morally or spiritually wholesome, pure. Such is the product of Christianity itself. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. We are convinced both from Scripture and observation that the work of grace in the heart of the believer produces a holy life, and in proportion as life itself is surrendered to the government and guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is unblameable and effective.
There are a great many people who seem to think that sanctification is wholly an emotional experience and an end in itself, and they widely proclaim that they have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and are wholly sanctified. But time will shortly prove whether there is anything in the profession. If they increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, if they behave in an unblameable way, if they walk uprightly, if they abstain from evil, if they defraud not their fellows, if they despise not men, but on the contrary set themselves assiduously to the tasks of a Christian and, day by day, by deeds that demonstrate their faith, prove their continued fellowship with the Father, then the sanctification which true Godliness would disclaim may yet be seen in them.
It is a fact as Rev. A. E. Barnes-Lawrence says, God is still seeking for men whom He can entrust with power. The Church of God is crying out for them, amazed at the feebleness of its own ministry and worship. The millions about us are looking for deliverance from their sin and misery, and the Holy Spirit is waiting to effect it by us. The gift of spiritual power is not less for all Christians to-day than at Pentecost. There was an opened Heaven thenis there not an opened Heaven now? There were opened hearts and opened lips thenwhy are there comparatively few opened hearts and opened lips now? If this gift is for all, then we Christians ought to possess it. If it is lacking, why is it lacking? These are questions each one of us should earnestly ask. It is not so much our usefulness that is at stake, as it is the glory of God and the hastening of His Kingdom.
Their spiritual success was the Apostles great objective.
But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love owe another.
And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more:
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing (1Th 4:9-12).
Such is the objective of the true Church to this hour, and such also is the desire of every genuine regenerated believer.
My gracious Lord, I own Thy right To every service I can pay,And call it my supreme delight To hear Thy dictates and obey.
What is my being, but for Thee,Its sure support, its noblest end?Tis my delight Thy face to see,And serve the cause of such a Friend.
I would not sigh for worldly joy,Or to increase my worldly good,Nor future days nor powers employ To spread a sounding name abroad.
Tis to my Saviour I would live,To Him who for my ransom died; Nor could all worldly honor give Such bliss as crowns me at His side.
His work my hoary age shall bless, When youthful vigor is no more;And my last hour of life confessHis saving love, His glorious power!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th. 4:1. And to please God, so ye would abound more and more.R.V. inserts even as ye do walk after God.
1Th. 4:2. What commandments.R.V. charge; margin, charges. The Greek word signifies an announcement, then a command or advice publicly delivered (Findlay).
1Th. 4:3. Your sanctification, etc.The reception of Christianity never delivers, as with the stroke of a magician, from the wickedness and lusts of the heathen world which have become habitual; rather a long and constant fight is necessary for vanquishing them (Huther). The sanctification here is first negativeabstinence.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Th. 4:1-3
Earnest Exhortations to a Higher Sanctity.
Purity is the perfection of the Christian character. It is the brightest jewel in the cluster of saintly excellencies, and that which gives a lustre to the whole. It is not so much the addition of a separate and distinct grace as it is the beauteous and harmonious development of all the graces in the most perfect form. As Flavel has said: What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, holiness is to the soul. Purity is the sound, healthy condition of the soul and its vigorous growth towards God. In the concluding prayer of the preceding chapter the apostle indicates that God will, through His Spirit, fill the Thessalonians with lovethe great distinctive feature of a genuine and higher sanctity. He now urges upon them the necessity of earnest and persistent endeavours after its attainment. Human agency is not annihilated, but stimulated by the divine. Observe:
I. That a higher sanctity consists in living under a sense of the divine approval.
1. Religion is a life. How ye ought to walk (1Th. 4:1). A walk implies motion, progression, continual approach to a definite goal. Religion is not an ornament to wear, a luxury to enjoy, a ceremony to observe, but a life. It penetrates every part of our nature, throbs in every pulse, shares every joy and sorrow, and fashions every lineament of character. We make sad mistakes; but there is goodness hived, like wild honey, in strange nooks and corners of the world.
2. Religion is a life modelled after the worthiest examples.As ye have received of us how ye ought to walk (1Th. 4:1). The Thessalonians not only received the wisest counsels from their teachers, but they witnessed their holy and consistent lives; and their attention was constantly directed to the all-perfect exampleChrist Jesus. It is the tendency of all life to shape itself after the character of its strongest inward force. The love of God is the mightiest power in the life of the believer; and the outer manifestation of that life is moulded according to the sublime pattern of the inner divine ideal.
3. Religion is a life which finds its chief joy in the divine approval.And to please God (1Th. 4:1). It is, possible, then, so to live as to please God. What a powerful incentive to a holy life is the thought, the Lord taketh pleasure in His people! We can rise no higher in moral excellence than to be acceptable to God. To enjoy the sense of His approval fills the cup of happiness to the brim. In vain the world frowns or demons rage, if God smiles. The learned and pious Donne, when taking solemn farewell of his friends on his deathbed, said: I count all that part of my life lost which I spent not in communion with God or in doing good.
4. Religion is a life capable of vast expansion.So, ye would abound more and more (1Th. 4:1). Life in its healthiest and intensest form is happiness. As we advance in the religious life our happiness increases. All the while, says Fuller, thou livest ill, thou hast the trouble, distraction, and inconveniences of life, but not the sweets and true use of it. God has made every provision for our increase in holiness; we are exhorted to it, and most really promote our highest good and the divine glory in attaining it. There is no limit in our elevation to a higher sanctity but our faith.
II. That the necessity of a higher sanctity is enforced by divine authority.For this is the will of God, even your sanctification (1Th. 4:3).
1. A higher sanctity involves a conformity to the divine nature.God is holy, and the loftiest aim of the believer is to be like Him. There is to be not only an abstinence from all that is impure, but a positive experience of its oppositepurity. By faith we participate in the divine nature, and possess qualities analogous to those which constitute the divine perfectionsmercy, truth, justice, holiness. The grand purpose of redemption is to bring man into holiest fellowship with God.
2. A higher sanctity is in harmony with the divine will.For this the will of God, even your sanctification. Not only the attitude and tendency of the soul, but all its active outgoings must be holy. Such is the will of God. What he proscribes must be carefully avoided; what He prescribes must be cheerfully and faithfully done in the manner He prescribes it. His will is here emphatically expressed; it is supported by abundant promises of help; and it is declared that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The will of God is at once the highest reason, the strongest motive, and the final authority.
3. The divine will regarding a higher sanctity is enforced by duly authorised messengers and well-understood precepts.For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus (1Th. 4:2). The divine will is expressed in definite commandments. The apostle did not assume authority in any dictatorial spirit. He delivered unto others, and powerfully enforced what he had received by the Lord Jesus. He taught them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord had commandedall those things, only those, and no others. These precepts were well known, For ye know what commandments we gave you. Obedience should ever be in proportion to knowledge. Knowledge and practice are mutually helpful to each other Knowledge, the mother of practice; practice, the nurse of knowledge. To know and not to do is to incur the heaviest condemnation. A certain Stoic, speaking of God, said: What God wills, I will; what God wills not, I will not; if He will that I live, I will live; if it be His pleasure that I die, I will die. Ah! how should the will of Christians stoop and lie down at the foot of God s will! Not my will, but Thine be done.
III. That the possession of a higher sanctity is repeatedly urged by earnest exhortations.Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you (1Th. 4:1). Doctrine without exhortation makes men all brain, no heart; exhortation without doctrine makes the heart full, leaves the brain empty. Both together make a man. The apostle laboured in both, and it is difficult to say in which of the two he displayed most earnestness. In addition to all he had urged before, he beseeches and exhorts the Thessalonians to press onward to higher attainments; in which we have a fine example of the combination of a tender, brotherly entreaty, with the solemn authority of a divinely commissioned ambassador. Some people, says a certain writer, are as thorns; handle them roughly and they pierce you; others as nettlesrough handling is best for your safety. A ministers task is an endless one. Has he planted knowledge?practice must be urged. Is the practice satisfactory?perseverance must be pressed. Do they continue in well-doing?they must be stimulated to further progress. The end of one task is the beginning of another.
Lessons.The believer is called to the attainment of a higher sanctity
1. By the voice of God.
2. By the voice of His faithful ministers.
3. And by the aspirations of the life divinely planted within him.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Th. 4:3. Uncleanness Inconsistent with a Profession of the Gospel.
I. Our sanctification is the will of God because He is the avenger of all such as do things contrary to that purity which He enjoins.
II. Because God has called us, not to uncleanness, but to holiness.
III. Because God has given unto us His Holy Spirit.The Spirit is called the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Holiness, not only because He is essentially and perfectly holy in Himself, but because He is the Author of holiness in believers. These considerations are motives to stir up and animate our wills to obey and co-operate with the will of God.R. Mant.
Why was the Spirit sent? or, We must needs be Holy.
I. The coming of the Holy Ghost is to make us new creatures by giving us the strength to become so.
II. Since sanctification is declared to be the special work of the Holy Ghost, this clearly proves the difficulty of that work.
III. The work of sanctification is something more than merely driving out the evil one.
IV. Love and devotion to God are necessary to holiness.
V. Strengththe strength of the Holy Spiritis necessary to defend holiness.A. W. Hare.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text (1Th. 4:1-2)
1 Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk,that ye abound more and more. 2 For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Translation and Paraphrase
1.
(Now) therefore, brethren, (changing the subject to some remaining matters.) we ask you and urge (you) by the (authority and goodness of the) Lord Jesus, that, just as you have received from us (teachings concerning) how you ought to walk (that is, how to live your lives each day) and (how) to please God,as indeed you are walking(we urge you not merely to continue doing as you are, but) that you will increase (and even exceed) more (and more in doing so.)
2.
For you know what (the) commandments (were, which) we gave to you through the (authority and commission of the) Lord Jesus.
Notes (1Th. 4:1-2)
1.
In all of Pauls letters to Gentile churches, there is a closing exhortation to purity of life, a warning against such sins as the Gentiles commonly practiced. These exhortations to the Thessalonians begin with the fourth chapter, and continue through the fifth.
2.
It is hard for us to visualize the degeneration of pagan society and morals. In one of the rooms uncovered in Pompeii, the city that was buried by the volcano Veseuvius in 79 A.D., there is a frieze picturing immoral scenes. This was the atmosphere in which many of the Gentiles of Pauls time wanted to live.
3.
Pauls prayer that they might be unblameable in holiness is carried right over into this new chapter with very specific instructions as to what they should do to be holy. Paul was always careful in his instructions to his converts to dwell on the practical side of Christianity, for
Vice is a monster of such frightful mien,
That to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
4.
Chapters four and five of I Thessalonians make up Part Two of the epistle, which is entitled in the outline Exhortations and Teachings.
5.
The first part of chapter four (1Th. 4:1-12) deals with the Walk of the Christian. The word walk refers to the way we live, as if life were a journey through which we are walking. Paul uses the word walk in this manner nearly thirty times in his epistles.
6.
No one could ever say that Paul was shy about asserting his authority, and claiming divine approval. Paul declares that the Thessalonians had received of us how ye ought to walk, and that his commandments were by the Lord Jesus.
Although Paul may appear to have been rather forward, we are thankful that he was not shy about these things, because Paul told us the truth, and we must know the truth to be saved. Throughout this chapter Paul asserts his inspiration.
This leads us to repeat a necessary teaching: We must follow what the apostles said if we are going to be saved. The apostles spoke the words which Jesus gave to them. The Holy Spirit led them into all truth. Joh. 16:13-14. No church council, pope, or modern day prophet has any thing new from God to add to what the apostles said. Therefore We must do what the apostles said, and abound more and more in the way they taught us to walk and to please God.
7.
The American Standard version inserts a phrase, even as ye do walk, after the words please God in 1Th. 4:1. This addition has much support in the oldest New Testament manuscripts. It indicates that the Thessalonians had made a great change in their way of living since they had received the gospel.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IV.
(1) We now approach the practical portion of the Epistle. The first point on which the Thessalonians need instruction is in the matter of social purity (1Th. 4:1-8).
Furthermore hardly expresses the original. St. Paul is not adding a further injunction, for he has as yet given none. It is literally, For the rest, then; and serves to introduce the conclusion of the letter.
Beseech.The marginal request is better, the word being one of calm and friendly asking, implying that the person so addressed will recognise the propriety of complying.
Exhort is correct, though encourage suits the context a little better, as assuming that they are already so acting, but not with enough heart.
By the Lord.Better, in the Lord. It is not an adjuration, as in Rom. 12:1, but states the authoritative ground of his request. We encourage you, on the strength of our union in the Lord Jesus. (Comp. 1Th. 1:1.)
How ye ought to walk.Literally, the how. It indicates that part of the apostolic tradition was a systematic moral code, almost as if it were the title of a well-known book. We gave you the How ye ought to walk, so as to please God. The best texts add immediately after, even as also ye walk.
Abound more and more.Or, still more. You did receive of us the rules of a holy life; you are living by them, and that to a very large degree; but we beg you and encourage you, on the faith of Christians, to be still more lavish in your self-denial.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 4
THE SUMMONS TO PURITY ( 1Th 4:1-8 ) 4:1-8 Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you have received instructions from us as to how you must behave to please God, even so you do behave, that you may go on from more to more. For you know what orders we gave you through the Lord Jesus; for this is God’s will for you, that you should live consecrated lives, I mean, that you should keep yourselves from fornication, that each of you should know how to possess his own body in consecration and in honour, not in the passion of lustful desire, like the Gentiles who do not know God, that in this kind of thing you should not transgress against your brother or try to take advantage of him. For of all these things the Lord is the avenger, as we have already told you and testified to you. For God did not call us to impurity but to consecration. Therefore he who rejects this instruction does not reject a man, but rejects the God who gives his holy Spirit to us.
It may seem strange that Paul should go to such lengths to inculcate sexual purity in a Christian congregation; but two things have to be remembered. First, the Thessalonians had only newly come into the Christian faith and they had come from a society in which chastity was an unknown virtue; they were still in the midst of such a society and the infection of it was playing upon them all the time. It would be exceedingly difficult for them to unlearn what they had for all their lives accepted as natural. Second, there never was an age in history when marriage vows were so disregarded and divorce so disastrously easy. The phrase which we have translated “that each of you should possess his own body in consecration and in honour” could be translated, “that each of you may possess his own wife in consecration and in honour.”
Amongst the Jews marriage was theoretically held in the highest esteem. It was said that a Jew must die rather than commit murder, idolatry or adultery. But, in fact, divorce was tragically easy. The Deuteronomic law laid it down that a man could divorce his wife if he found “some uncleanness” or “some matter of shame” in her. The difficulty was in defining what was a “matter of shame.” The stricter Rabbis confined that to adultery alone; but there was a laxer teaching which widened its scope to include matters like spoiling the dinner by putting too much salt in the food; going about in public with her head uncovered; talking with men in the streets; speaking disrespectfully of her husband’s parents in his presence; being a brawling woman (which was defined as a woman whose voice could be heard in the next house). It was only to be expected that the laxer view prevailed.
In Rome for the first five hundred and twenty years of the Republic there had not been a single divorce; but now under the Empire, as it has been put, divorce was a matter of caprice. As Seneca said, “Women were married to be divorced and divorced to be married.” In Rome the years were identified by the names of the consuls; but it was said that fashionable ladies identified the years by the names of their husbands. Juvenal quotes an instance of a woman who had eight husbands in five years. Morality was dead.
In Greece immorality had always been quite blatant. Long ago Demosthenes had written: “We keep prostitutes for pleasure; we keep mistresses for the day-to-day needs of the body; we keep wives for the begetting of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes.” So long as a man supported his wife and family there was no shame whatsoever in extra-marital relationships.
It was to men and women who had come out of a society like that that Paul wrote this paragraph. What may seem to many the merest commonplace of Christian living was to them startlingly new. One thing Christianity did was to lay down a completely new code in regard to the relationship of men and women; it is the champion of purity and the guardian of the home. This can not be affirmed too plainly in our own day which again has seen a pronounced shift in standards of sexual behaviour.
In a book entitled What I Believe, a symposium of the basic beliefs of a selection of well-known men and women, Kingsley Martin writes: “Once women are emancipated and begin to earn their own living and are able to decide for themselves whether or not they have children, marriage customs are inevitably revised. ‘Contraception,’ a well-known economist once said to me, ‘is the most important event since the discovery of fire.’ Basically he was right, for it fundamentally alters the relations of the sexes, on which family life is built. The result in our day is a new sexual code; the old ‘morality’ which winked at male promiscuity but punished female infidelity with a life-time of disgrace, or even, in some puritanical cultures, with a cruel death, has disappeared. The new code tends to make it the accepted thing that men and women can live together as they will, but to demand marriage of them if they decide to have children.”
The new morality is only the old immorality brought up-to-date. There is a clamant necessity in Britain, as there was in Thessalonica, to place before men and women the uncompromising demands of Christian morality, “for God did not call us to impurity but to consecration.”
THE NECESSITY OF THE DAY’S WORK ( 1Th 4:9-12 ) 4:9-12 You do not need that I should write to you about brotherly love; for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Indeed you do this very thing to all the brothers who are in the whole of Macedonia. But we do urge you, brothers, to go on to more and more, and to aim at keeping calm and minding your own business. We urge you to work with your hands, as we instructed you to do, so that your behaviour may seem to those outside the Church a lovely thing and so that you may need no one to support you.
This passage begins with praise but it ends in warning; and with the warning we come to the immediate situation behind the letter. Paul urged the Thessalonians to keep calm, to mind their own business and to go on working with their hands. The preaching of the Second Coming had produced an odd and awkward situation in Thessalonica. Many of the Thessalonians had given up their daily work and were standing about in excited groups, upsetting themselves and everybody else, while they waited for the Second Coming to arrive. Ordinary life had been disrupted; the problem of making a living had been abandoned; and Paul’s advice was preeminently practical.
(i) He told them, in effect, that the best way in which Jesus Christ could come upon them was that he should find them quietly, efficiently and diligently doing their daily job. Principal Rainy used to say, “Today I must lecture; tomorrow I must attend a committee meeting; on Sunday I must preach; some day I must die. Well then, let us do as well as we can each thing as it comes to us.” The thought that Christ will some day come, that life as we know it will end, is not a reason for stopping work; it is a reason for working all the harder and more faithfully. It is not hysterical and useless waiting but quiet and useful work which will be a man’s passport to the Kingdom.
(ii) He told them that, whatever happened, they must commend Christianity to the outsider by the diligence and the beauty of their lives. To go on as they were doing, to allow their so-called Christianity to turn them into useless citizens, was simply to bring Christianity into discredit. Paul here touched on a tremendous truth. A tree is known by its fruits; and a religion is known by the kind of men it produces. The only way to demonstrate that Christianity is the best of all faiths is to show that it produces the best of all men. When we Christians show that our Christianity makes us better workmen, truer friends, kinder men and women, then we are really preaching. The outside world may never come into church to hear a sermon but it sees us every day outside church; and it is our lives which must be the sermons to win men for Christ.
(iii) He told them that they must aim at independence and never become spongers on charity. The effect of the conduct of the Thessalonians was that others had to support them. There is a certain paradox in Christianity. It is the Christian’s duty to help others, for many, through no fault of their own, cannot attain that independence; but it is also the Christian’s duty to help himself. There will be in the Christian a lovely charity which delights to give and a proud independence which seems to take so long as his own two hands can supply his needs.
CONCERNING THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP ( 1Th 4:13-18 ) 4:13-18 We do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who are asleep, because we do not wish you to sorrow as the rest of people do because they have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we can be sure that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we tell you this, not by our own authority but by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who survive until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not take precedence over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead who are in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive, who survive, will be caught up by the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be always with the Lord. So then encourage one another with these words.
The idea of the Second Coming had brought another problem to the people of Thessalonica. They were expecting it very soon; they fully expected to be themselves alive when it came but they were worried about those Christians who had died. They could not be sure that those who had already died would share the glory of that day which was so soon to come. Paul’s answer is that there will be one glory for those who have died and those who survive.
He tells them that they must not sorrow as those who have no hope. In face of death the pagan world stood in despair. They met it with grim resignation and bleak hopelessness. Aeschylus wrote, “Once a man dies there is no resurrection.” Theocritus wrote, “There is hope for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope.” Catullus wrote, “When once our brief light sets, there is one perpetual night through which we must sleep.” On their tombstones grim epitaphs were carved. “I was not; I became; I am not; I care not.” One of the most pathetic papyrus letters that has come down to us is a letter of sympathy which runs like this. “Irene to Taonnophris and Philo, good comfort. I was as sorry and wept over the departed one as I wept for Didymas. And all things whatsoever were fitting, I did, and all mine, Epaphroditus and Thermouthion and Philion and Apollonius and Plantas. But nevertheless against such things one can do nothing. Therefore comfort ye one another.”
Paul lays down a great principle. The man who has lived and died in Christ is still in Christ even in death and will rise in him. Between Christ and the man who loves him there is a relationship which nothing can break, a relationship which overpasses death. Because Christ died and rose again, so the man who is one with Christ will rise again.
The picture Paul draws of the day when Christ will come is poetry, an attempt to describe what is indescribable. At the Second Coming Christ will descend from heaven to earth. He will utter the word of command and thereupon the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God will waken the dead, then the dead and the living alike will be caught up in the chariots of the clouds to meet Christ; and thereafter they will be forever with their Lord. We are not meant to take with crude and insensitive literalism what is a seer’s vision. It is not the details which are important. What is important is that in life and in death the Christian is in Christ and that is a union which nothing can break.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
PART SECOND.
THE PROSPECTIVE AND HORTATORY SECTION, 1Th 4:1 to 1Th 5:28.
1. Exhortation to sanctification, 1Th 4:1-8.
1. Furthermore . Finally, then. The writer has finished the history, and proposes to conclude; but his conclusion, in the glow of thought, becomes nearly as long as his history. The then, or therefore, indicates that this second, or hortatory part, is deduced from the first part, and specially from 1Th 3:13, the stablish holiness.
Beseech you and exhort Literally, we ask you, as a favour; and we exhort you as your duty. By Rather, in. It is not adjuratory, but states the exhortation to be in Jesus.
How Literally, the how; the method and type of the new Christian holiness, unknown to the world hitherto.
Abound If we have the true type of holiness, we cannot be too holy, although we may make too high a profession; and we may change the type by giving it an overdoing spirit. The true type recognises the proper modifications.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Finally then, brothers and sisters, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk – that you abound more and more.’
‘Finally.’ The word is regularly used by Paul in this sense having the idea of ‘for the remainder’ (loipos means ‘the rest, the remainder’). But it is not necessarily an indication of finality, having also the meaning ‘furthermore, moreover’. Here it signifies an addition to, and connection with, what has gone before without necessarily indicating that the letter is nearly over.
‘We beseech and exhort.’ We may paraphrase ‘request and urge you strongly, calling upon you to –’. The first verb is to soften up the second verb, making it more friendly.
‘In the Lord Jesus.’ Both are ‘in Christ’, and his urgings relate to this fact. Being His what he speaks about is required of both him and them because they are His.
‘Lord Jesus’ (1Th 2:15; 1Th 2:19 ; 1Th 3:11; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:1-2) and ‘the Lord’ ( 1Th 1:6 ; 1Th 3:8; 1Th 3:12; 1Th 4:6 ; 1Th 4:15 (twice), 1Th 4:16, 1Th 4:17 (twice); 1Th 5:2; 1Th 5:12; 1Th 5:27) are Paul’s regular descriptions of Christ in the central part of this letter, although he opened with reference to ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ (1Th 1:1; 1Th 1:3) and closes similarly (1Th 5:9; 1Th 5:23; 1Th 5:28). He also uses ‘Jesus’ ( 1Th 1:10 ; 1Th 4:14 (twice)) and ‘in Christ Jesus’ (1Th 2:14; 1Th 5:18). ‘Christ’ appears alone as a genitive (1Th 2:6; 1Th 3:2) and once as ‘in Christ’.
It seems probable that we can see ‘Lord Jesus’ and ‘Lord’ as simply abbreviations and variations of the full ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ (which he uses comparatively more often in the second letter), with the grander phrase being used to open and close, especially as ‘Lord Jesus’ is also used in parallel with God the Father (1Th 3:11). ‘Jesus’ is twice used in connection with His death and resurrection (1Th 1:10; 1Th 4:14 a), stressing His manward side, although the third use (1Th 4:14 b) connects more with the other uses, probably affected by the previous use in the verse. ‘In Christ Jesus’ and ‘in Christ’ are again simply variations (although ‘the dead in Christ’ may have become a technical term) for he can also say ‘in the Lord Jesus Christ’ (1Th 1:1; 1Th 1:3), ‘in the Lord’ (1Th 3:8; 1Th 5:12) and ‘in the Lord Jesus’ (1Th 4:1).
‘That as you received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk – that you abound more and more.’ This was what he exhorts them to do. Firstly he stresses that they had learned from him and his companions, both by example and teaching, how they should walk and thus please God, then he assures them that he does know that they are walking like this, and finally he stresses the need to abound more and more. He goes out of his way to be tactful and not cause offence, while achieving his object in stressing the need to continue to grow. It reminds us that Paul only behaved like a sergeant major when it was necessary.
‘You ought to walk.’ The phrase is strong, ‘how it is necessary for you to walk’. It was not a matter of choice or opinion. ‘Walking’ was a verb regularly used of living life in a certain way. It stressed the need for continual right behaviour and attitude, step by step, hour by hour, through life.
‘Abound more and more.’ In 1Th 3:12 he spoke of ‘abounding in love’, now it expands to abounding more and more in everything good, although those who genuinely do the one will do the other (compare 1Th 3:10). And he wants them to realise that they will never achieve the goal in this life, rather they are to be, and will be, changed from glory into glory as they become more like Him (2Co 3:18), ever growing, ever becoming more Christ-like.
This is especially true in that he connects this with an indictment of sexual misbehaviour (verses 3-8). Many men of God have a continual battle with their natural sexual proclivities which they have to fight at various times all their lives until death brings release, something which others know little about and therefore have little sympathy with. For the former it will be a battle to the end, even though victory is continually obtained. Becoming a Christian does not remove the cravings of the flesh, it gives strength to overcome them for those who walk wisely and prayerfully and avoid causes of temptation (2Ti 2:21-22).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Sanctification of Man’s Body: Labour of Love in the Holy Spirit The second aspect of our sanctification will be man’s physical body. Paul places emphasis upon this aspect in 1Th 4:1-12. This passage of Scripture could be described as a discussion of sanctifying their vessels (or bodies). He first focuses on the sanctity of marriage; for in this pagan society sexuality morality was widespread, and even incorporated into temple worship. The next major issue that Paul addresses is ethical behaviour between one another. We can imagine how much fraud and deceit ruled these pagan societies. Thus, in this passage he focuses on moral purity (1Th 4:3-8) and “brotherly love” (1Th 4:9-12).
1Th 4:1 Comments – Some modern translations insert the phrase, “just as you actually do walk.” ( ASV, NIV)
ASV, “Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk , –that ye abound more and more.”
NIV, “Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living . Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”
In this phase, Paul, due to his love for them, speaks good things about them that he believes to be true. Love thinks no evil, and so Paul does not give them a hard time trying to tell them that they are living evil. He rather encourages them to strive for a closer walk with God, even as now they are walking. This is an attitude of love. Note this attitude also in 1Th 4:10.
1Th 4:10, “And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;”
1Th 4:2 Comments – The New Testament church, because of its Jewish heritage, immediately incorporated the Old Testament Scriptures into its daily worship. However, these new believers quickly realized that some of the Old Testament teachings, such as the Law of Moses, must now be interpreted in light of the New Covenant. We see this challenge taking place at the first council of Jerusalem in Acts 15.
Act 15:1-2, “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.”
In addition to the recognition of the Old Testament, the apostles realized that they had been given the authority to reveal the new covenant with as high authority as they held the Jewish Old Testament. According to 2Co 3:1-11, they were appointed ministers of this new covenant.
The major requirement for all of the New Testament writings to be considered “divinely inspired Scripture” was apostolic authority. These twenty seven books had to have been either written by one of the twelve apostles, or either been imposed by these apostles upon the churches as an “instrument” of the Church, to be read and obeyed by all.
Therefore, Paul’s qualifications as a minister of the new covenant was elevated to a level higher than others due to the fact that God had given him the calling of writing much of the New Testament. Paul realized that his writings were on an equal level of authority as the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore, Paul held the authority to speak on the level of authority that Christ Jesus spoke while on this earth.
Paul was also a man under authority. When the first church council met in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15, the apostles and elders decided to send an epistle to all of the churches dealing with four subjects: abstaining from meats offered to idols, from blood, from strangled meats and from fornication.
Act 15:28-29, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
As Paul makes a reference in 1Th 4:2 to these commandments, Paul immediately speaks about the topic of fornication in the following verses (1Th 4:3-5). Thus, we see how Paul was obedient in honoring the decree of the church apostles and elders in keeping this teaching before the believers.
1Th 4:1-2 Comments Paul the Teacher – In 1Th 4:1-2 we see Paul as the teacher, as he refers to his instructions that he gave to them while he was with them, a clear example of his teaching ministry.
1Th 4:4 Note:
1Co 9:27, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
2Ti 2:21, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
1Th 4:4 The word “vessel” is used figuratively throughout the New Testament as your own physical body. Paul is saying that each person should know how to gain the ascendancy over his own body rather that his body ruling him.
1Th 4:5 “Not in the lust of concupiscence” Word Study on “lust” Strong says the Greek word (G3806) means in the bad sense means, “in a bad sense, depraved passion, vile passions.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 3 times in the New Testament, being translated in the KJV as “inordinate affection 1, affection 1, lust 1.”
Word Study on “concupiscense” Strong says the Greek word (G1939) means, “desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 38 times in the New Testament, being translated in the KJV as “lust 31, concupiscence 3, desire 3, lust after 1.”
Comments – This phrase is translated in modern English translations with phrases such as “lustful cravings,” “the passion of lust,” “the affection of desire,” “the passion of evil desires,” and “passion and lust.” It is paraphrased as “do not have sex with a person to whom you are not married.”
1Th 4:3-5 Comments – Abstaining from Fornication It is unusual that Paul immediately deals with the issue of fornication (1Th 4:3-4) when discussing the sanctification of believer’s bodies in 1Th 4:1-12. It seems that Paul was referring to the gross sin of Gentile temple worship, which so pervaded in this region of the Roman Empire. Such “worship” consisted of temple prostituted and eating foods offered unto idols, which amounted to acts of pleasing the sensual desires of the flesh. The Gentiles believed that this was a proper way to use their bodies, or vessels, to please their gods. Paul will deal with these two aspects of Gentile “worship” in his first epistle to the Corinthians. However, to the church in Thessalonica Paul limits his comments to a few short statements.
1Th 4:8 Word Study on “therefore” Strong says the Greek word “therefore” “toigaroun” ( ) (G5105) “truly for then, consequently.” Strong says it is a compound of ( ) (G5104), meaning “in sooth,” ( ) (G1063), which is a particle “assigning a reason,” and ( ) (G3767), meaning, “certainly, accordingly.” BDAG translates this word “for that very reason.” Thayer tells us that this particle introduces “a conclusion with some special emphasis or formality” The Enhanced Strong says it is found 2 times in the New Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “therefore 1, wherefore 1.”
Comments – This same Greek word is used in Heb 12:1.
Heb 12:1, “ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
Perhaps in Heb 12:1, after such a lengthy and winded list of Old Testament examples, the author chose a particle with strong enough emphasis to reach back to the beginning of this long passage preceding it.
1Th 4:3-8 Comments Moral Purity 1Th 4:3-8 gives us several practical helps to direct our lives towards sanctification:
1. Abstain from fornication, which is immoral and unlawful sexual acts (verse 3)
2. Control one’s own body and desires in sanctification and honour (verse 4).
3. Do not become lustful for earthly things (verse 5)
3. Do not sin and take advantage of your brother (verse 6).
1Th 4:10 Comments – Although the average believer recognizes obvious abuses of love in his Christian life, there is a deeper walk with the Lord where we become much more sensitive to walking in love with others. In 1Th 4:10 Paul exhorts the believers to strive to grow in their love walk by saying “that ye increase more and more.” John the apostles defines this type of mature love as “perfect love” (1Jn 4:18). John explains that it means a believe can come to the place where he no longer makes decisions based on the fear of man, but he strives to please God in pure love and devotion to Him as all costs. We find an excellent example of mature, self-less love in the life of Onesiphorus (2Ti 1:15-18). In contrast to Phygellus and Hermogenes, who were ashamed of Paul’s bonds and hid their faith in Christ for fear of Roman persecutions, Onesiphorus boldly kept the faith in the face of possible persecutions, even going as far as visiting Paul during his Roman imprisonment, which Luke mentions in general in Act 28:30. Onesiphorus walked in self-less love, while many others in Asia were self-centered because they were moved by fear.
1Jn 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
1Th 4:11 “And that ye study to be quiet” Comments – Webster defines the use of the English word “study” in 1Th 4:11 to mean, “t o endeavor diligently; to be zealous.”
2Ti 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
1Th 4:11 “and to do your own business” – Comments – The NKJV reads, “mind your own business.” This phase implies not only the need to stay out of other people’s affairs, including the affairs of this life (2Ti 2:4), but it implies that a man should give his own business much attention and hard work. Thus it also means that we are to work hard and focus on our responsibilities.
2Ti 2:4, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
1Th 4:11 “and to work with your own hands” – Comments (1) – Note that the world is looking for a get-rich-quick scheme such as gambling or the lottery, where they can get something for nothing. Most of the time these riches stay just beyond one’s grasp.
Pro 23:5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”
“and to work with your own hands” – Comments (2) – William Alexander notes how there was a pervasive aristocratic spirit in this Greco-Roman culture, a spirit that looked down upon the slaves and working class. This spirit is found in the writings of Aristotle, “who knew Macedonia so well.” [72] Thus, Paul’s teachings to work with one’s hands elevated the working man to a position of dignity and honor and wisdom. We see in Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians how he had to speak harshly towards those believers who had retreated to this aristocratic spirit of hierarchy and pride that hindered them from working with their hands (2Th 3:6-12).
[72] William Alexander, 1 Thessalonians, in The Biblical Illustrator, ed. Joseph S. Exell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Pub. House, 1954), in Ages Digital Library, v. 1.0 [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: Ages Software, Inc., 2002), “Introduction.”
1Th 4:12 “That ye may have lack of nothing” Comments – In 1Th 4:12, the Greek word ( ) is translated in the neuter in the KJV. However, it could as well be singular, genitive, masculine meaning “from no one,” or neuter, “of nothing.”
The NIV reads , “so that you will not be dependant on anybody ” (The masculine gender)
The NASB reads , “and not be in any need” (It could be either gender)
1Th 4:11-12 Comments Practical Examples – Having asked the believers to grow in their love walk, Paul now provides several practical examples in 1Th 4:11-12. We may compare this to the structure of the book of Exodus where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which Jesus summarized as loving God with our heart, mind and soul, and loving our neighbour as ourselves. God then gave Moses a set of statutes, recorded in the following chapters of Exodus, which essentially are practical ways in which to walk in love with God and one’s neighbours. In 1Th 4:11-12 Paul tells them to mind their own affairs rather than getting too involved in other people’s affairs. If we will do three things (1Th 4:11), God will bless us in two ways (1Th 4:12). If we:
1. “study to be quite” To lead a quiet (and contented) life, not running about getting caught up in wanting to be somebody in life and admired by everyone, trying to outdo others and look good. Note:
1Ti 2:2, “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
2. “to do your own business” To mind your own business and affairs, and not interrupting the lives of others unnecessarily. This does not evade the need to help others in need.
3. “To work with your own hands” Physical labor is rewarding and healthy.
Pro 14:23, “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.”
The results:
1. “ye may walk honestly toward them that are without” – The world will see you and respect and consider you of high standing, giving you “Favour with man.”
2. “ye may have lack of nothing” – You will also not be dependent upon others, but also you will have your needs met.
Pro 13:4, “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Sanctification of the Believer – After opening his first epistle to the Thessalonians with a brief Salutation (1Th 1:1), and after introducing the work of divine election in the lives of the Thessalonians from the perspective of the Holy Spirit (1Th 1:2-10), Paul spends the entire body of the letter fully developing the three-fold aspect of divine election. He discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying the believer by explaining the process of that a person goes through in order to be fully sanctified, spirit, soul and body (1Th 5:23).
Outline – Note the proposed outline:
A. Sanctification of Man’s Spirit 1Th 2:1 to 1Th 3:13
B. Sanctification of Man’s Body 1Th 4:1-12
C. Sanctification of Man’s Mind 1Th 4:13 to 1Th 5:11
1. The Rapture of the Church 1Th 4:13-18
2. The Day of the Lord 1Th 5:1-11
D. Commending Them Unto Their Leaders 1Th 5:12-13
E. Practical Examples of Sanctification 1Th 5:14-24
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Warning Regarding Various Sins.
Concerning concupiscence:
v. 1. Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
v. 2. For we know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
v. 3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication;
v. 4. that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;
v. 5. not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. It is a wise pastor that can make a cordial commendation precede a necessary correction. The report of Timothy had, in general, been very favorable, but he had not withheld from the apostle the fact that certain abuses stood in need of correction. But Paul’s tone of cordial affection does not change: Moreover, now, brethren, we beg you and beseech in the Lord Jesus that, as you have accepted of us how you should lead your lives and please God, even as you have led them, that you excel still more. The apostle here opens the hortatory part of his letter, basing its admonitions and warnings entirely upon the doctrine which he had just laid before them in such an appealing way. It is in this sense that he calls the Thessalonian Christians brethren, that he begs them, that he entreats them in the Lord Jesus, on the basis of whose redemption and for whose sake all Christians endeavor to lead such lives as are in conformity with their calling, such lives as will please the Lord. There is not a hint of faultfinding in the entire passage. It is not a new burden which the apostle is trying to lay upon their unwilling shoulders; he is merely reminding them of instructions which they had received from him and from his fellow-laborers. Those instructions included also apostolic advice as to how they should conduct themselves in harmony with the obligation resting upon them as Christians, in order to please God. The Thessalonians had learned from the apostle and his companions in just what way they should conduct themselves in the various situations and exigencies of life, just how they should arrange their lives in the light of the Word of God. St. Paul willingly concedes and praises the fact that they had been willing to accept and follow instructions, that they were, on the whole, leading Christian lives. Since, however, a Christian is always in the making and never attains to ultimate perfection in this life, therefore the apostle begs and entreats that they should aim to excel ever more in their Christian life.
Paul now substantiates his admonition: For you know what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus. The instructions or commandments concerning their sanctification had not been given by Paul at random or according to his own ideas, but on the authority of Christ, and therefore these injunctions were in full force for all times. With all these facts the Thessalonian Christians were fully familiar, and more, the apostle had commended their willing obedience to the Word which had been preached in their midst, chap. 2:13. Without further argument, therefore, he now refers to the summary of the doctrine concerning their sanctification: For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you desist from fornication, that every one of you know that he should get his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like also the Gentiles that do not know God. This is God’s will, not His entire good and gracious will toward the Thessalonian Christians, but that part to which their attention needed to be drawn at this time, a point in which they should excel more and more. It is God’s will that the Christians should grow in sanctification, that they should flee from sin more and more, that they should consecrate themselves to Him, that they should walk in newness of life. Paul’s specific warning concerns the sin of fornication, of intercourse outside of holy wedlock. To this sin the converts at Thessalonica were exposed, partly on account of the filthy heathen cult which was practiced there, partly on account of the fact that there was always danger of becoming tainted with licentiousness in a large seaport. The Christians must abstain, desist, from such sexual impurity, they must flee from its contaminating influence. For, as they know, the only way in which the desire for procreation should find its expression should be in this way, that everyone have his own wife, that marriage be entered upon in sanctification, with due propriety, as a Christian duty and vocation, and in honor, Col 2:23; 1Pe 3:7, with the proper regard for the wife as an heir of salvation, or at least as standing high above all beasts, with a full sense of the moral dignity of the relationship. All sinful abuse, all carnal excesses, are excluded by this plain statement of the apostle. And he emphasizes his meaning by a disgusted reference to the passion of lust such as was found among the Gentiles that did not know God. Marriage was not instituted for the gratification of wild and untamed passion; such behavior characterizes people that are without all reverence toward God, whom they do not know, and for whose will they do not care. Christians will be careful to lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed also in the married state.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
CONTENTS.With this chapter the second portion of the Epistleits practical application-commences. The apostle exhorts and entreats the Thessalonians to make progress in the Christian life, and to practice those commandments which, when he was with them, he gave them by the authority of Jesus Christ. God had called them to holiness and to the renunciation of their heathen practices. They must especially be on their guard against impurity, to which as Gentiles they were formerly so prone. He who rejected his injunctions rejected, not man, but God, whose commands they were. As they were already taught of God in the active practice of Christian love, so they must abound therein. They must not allow themselves to be led away by excitement, as if the day of Christ were at hand, but with quietness and honesty perform the duties of their earthly calling, and so commend the gospel to unbelievers. And with regard to their anxiety concerning the fate of their deceased friends, they were to be comforted by the thought that the dead in Christ would be no losers at the advent, but would rise first, and, along with the living, would be caught up to meet the Lord at his coming, and so they shall all be united in one holy fellowship with him.
1Th 4:1
Furthermore; literally, finally; for the restintroducing the closing or practical part of the Epistle. The apostle uses the same word elsewhere at the close of his Epistles. Then; or rather, therefore; connecting this exhortation with the closing verses of the last chapter: In order that you may be established un-blamably in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, you must do your part, you must earnestly strive after holiness. We; to be restricted to Paul. Beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus; or rather, in the Lord Jesus; that is, in fellowship with himthe sphere or element within which the apostle besought and exhorted the Thessalonians. He wrote as the organ or instrument of the Lord Jesus. That as ye have received of us. Paul here appeals to the exhortations which he gave them during his residence among them at Thessalonica. How ye ought to walk and to please God; how you ought to conduct yourselves so as to please God. The walking was the means of pleasing. The R.V., after these words, on the authority of manuscripts, adds, “even as ye do walk.” So ye would abound more and more. The apostle acknowledges their Christian walking; they had already entered upon the road; their conduct was sanctified; but he exhorts them to abound therein with still greater care and fidelity.
1Th 4:2
For ye know; appealing to their memory in confirmation of what he had said. What commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus; or, through the Lord Jesus; that is, not merely by his authority, but by means of him, so that these commandments did not proceed from Paul, but from the Lord Jesus himself. We have here, and indeed in this chapter throughout, an assertion of the inspiration of the apostle: the commandments which he gave to the Thessalonians were the commandments of the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3
For this is the will of God. The phrase, “the will of God,” has two significations in Scripture: the one is the determination of Godhis decree; the other is his desire, that in which he delightsa will, however, which may be frustrated by the perversity of his creatures. It is in this latter sense that the word is here employed. Even your sanctification; complete consecration; holiness taken in its most general so. use. Our holiness is the great design of Christ’s death, and is the revealed will of God. Some (Olshausen, Lunemann) restrict the term to moral purity, and consider the next clause as its explanation (comp. Rom 12:1). That ye should abstain from fornication; a vice fearfully prevalent among the heathen, and which, indeed, they hardly regarded as wrong. Especially it was the great sin of Corinth, from which the apostle wrote, the patron goddess of which city was Venus.
1Th 4:4
That every one of you should know how to possess. The word here rendered “possess” rather signifies “acquire.” The R.V. renders the clause, “that each one of you know how to possess himself of;” hence it admits of the translation, “to obtain the mastery over.” His vessel. This word has given rise to a diversity of interpretation. Especially two meanings have been given to it. By some it is supposed to be a figurative expression for “wife,” in which sense the word is used, though rarely, by Hebrew writers. Peter speaks of the wife “as the weaker vessel” (1Pe 3:7). This is the meaning adopted by Augustine, Schott, Do Wette, Koch, Hofmann, Liinemann, Riggenbach; and, among English expositors, by Alford, Jowett, Ellicott, and Eadie. This meaning is, however, to be rejected as unusual and strange, and unsuitable to what follows in the next verse. The other meaning”one’s own body”is more appropriate. Thus Paul says, “We have this treasure,” namely, the gospel, “in earthen vessels” (2Co 4:7; comp. also 1Sa 21:5). The body may well be compared to a vessel, as it contains the soul. This meaning is adopted by Chrysostom, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, Olshausen, Meyer; and, among English expositors, by Macknight, Conybeare, Bishop Alexander, Wordsworth, and Yaughan. In sanctification and honor. What the apostle here requires is that every one should obtain the mastery over his own body, and that whereas, as Gentiles, they had yielded their members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, they should now, as Christians, yield their members servants to righteousness unto holiness (Rom 6:19).
1Th 4:5
Not in the lust of concupiscencenot in the passion of lust (R.V.)even as the Gentiles which know not God; and therefore from whom nothing better was to be expected. The moral sense of the heathen was so perverted, and their natures so corrupt, that they looked upon fornication as a thing indifferent.
1Th 4:6
That no man go beyond; or, transgress. And defraud; or, as it is in the margin of our Bibles, oppress, or, overreach; wrong (R.V.). His brother. Not an exhortation against dishonesty, or prohibition against all attempts to overreach in usual mutual intercourse, as the words would at first sight seem to imply, and as some consider it (Hofmann, Lunemann, Riggenbach); but, as is evident from the context, a continuation of the former exhortation, a prohibition against impurity. In any matter; or, more properly, in the matter, namely, that about which I have been discoursing. “An example of the modest reserve and refined delicacy which characterize the holy apostle’s language in speaking of things which the Gentiles did without shame, and thus, by a chaste bashfulness of words, commending the duty of unblemished purity in deeds” (Wordsworth). Because the Lord is the Avenger of all such; either of all such as are thus defrauded or of all such sinful practices. As we also have forewarned you and testified.
1Th 4:7
For God hath not called us unto; or, for the purpose of. Uncleanness; moral uncleanness in general. But unto; or, in; in a state of Holiness; or sanctification; the same word as in the third verse; so that holiness is the whole sphere of cur Christian life.
1Th 4:8
He therefore that despiseth; or, as it is in the margin, rejecteth (R.V.). What is rejected is either the above commands to moral purity, or the Christian calling to holiness, or, better still, Paul himself, as the organ of God. Despiseth; or, rejecteth. Not man; that is, not me, as if the commands were given from myselfwere of mere human origin. But God; the Giver of these commands. So also Peter said unto Ananias, “Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God” (Act 5:4); and our Lord says, “He that rejecteth you rejecteth me” (Luk 10:16). Who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. If this is the correct reading, then the apostle here again asserts his own inspiration, and that in the strongest and plainest terms. The best manuscripts, however, read, “who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you” (R.V.)a strong enforcement of holiness, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit was given them for the express purpose of producing holiness within them.
1Th 4:9
The apostle now proceeds to a new exhortation. But as touching brotherly love. Brotherly love is the love of Christians to Christians, that special affection which believers bear to each other; a virtue which was carried to such perfection in the primitive Church as to call forth the admiration of their heathen adversaries. This virtue is often inculcated in Scripture (Heb 13:1; 1Jn 3:14), and is distinguished from love in general (2Pe 1:7). Ye need not that I write unto you; a delicate and gentle reproof. For ye yourselves are taught of God. We are not here to think of the new commandment of brotherly love given by the Savior, nor on the Divine compassion exciting us to love; but “taught of God” by the influences of the Spirit on their hearts and consciences to love one another.
1Th 4:10
And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. Not only to those in Thessalonica, but to all believers in your country and neighborhood. But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; that ye make progress in brotherly lovethat it increase in purity, in warmth, and in extent.
1Th 4:11
And that ye study; literally, that ye be ambitious. To be quiet; to avoid unrest, to live in peace. Worldly ambition excludes quietness and prompts to restlessness; so that the apostle’s admonition really is, “that ye be ambitious not to be ambitious.” The unrest which disturbed the peace of the Thessalonian Church was not political, but religions; it arose from the excitement naturally occasioned by the entrance of the new feeling of Christianity among them. It would also appear that they were excited by the idea of Christ’s immediate advent. This had occasioned disorders, and had caused several to neglect their ordinary business and to give themselves over to an indolent inactivity, so that Christian prudence was overborne. Perhaps, also, the liberality of the richer members of the Church was abused and perverted, so as to promote indolence. And to do your own business; to attend to the duties of your worldly calling, to avoid idleness. And to work with your own hands. From this it would appear that the members of the Thessalonian Church were chiefly composed of the laboring classes. As we commanded you. A precisely similar exhortation is given in the Epistle to the Ephesians: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Eph 4:28).
1Th 4:12
That ye walk honestly; that is, honorably; seemly. Toward them that are without; without the pale of the Christian Church, toward those who are not Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, the unbelieving world. So also, in another Epistle, the apostle says, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without” (Col 4:5). That ye may have lack of nothing; either neuter, of no thing; or perhaps rather masculine, of no man; that ye be under no necessity of asking assistance either from heathens or from fellow-Christians; inasmuch as working with your hands will put you in possession of what is necessary for life; whereas idleness necessarily involves poverty and dependence on others.
1Th 4:13
With this verse the apostle proceeds to another subject, namely, to comfort those who were mourning the death of their friends. It would appear that the Thessalonians were in perplexity and distress concerning the fate of their deceased friends, fearing that these would miss those blessings which they expected Christ to confer at his advent. Their views of the time and nature of the advent and of the future state in general were confused. They expected that Christ would come immediately and establish his kingdom on earth; and consequently they feared that those who had died would be excluded from it. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren; a phrase often used by the apostle, when he makes a transition to new and important matters (comp. Rom 1:13; Rom 11:25; 1Co 10:1; 1Co 12:1; 2Co 1:8). Concerning them which are asleep; or, are fallen asleep. The death of believers in the New Testament is frequently called “sleep.” “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (Joh 11:11). Of Stephen it is said that “he fell asleep” (Act 7:60). “Many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1Co 11:30). “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1Co 15:18). “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (l Corinthians 15:51). “He fell asleep” is a common epitaph on early Christian tombstones. It is to be observed that it is not of the dead generally that the apostle speaks, but of the dead in Christ, and especially of those members of the Thessalonian Church who had died. That ye sorrow not. Some suppose that sorrow for our deceased friends is here utterly prohibited; inasmuch as if we had a firm belief in their blessedness we would rejoice and not mourn. But the sorrow here prohibited is a despairing and an unbelieving sorrow; we are forbidden to sorrow as those who have no hope, no belief in a blessed resurrection. The tears of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus have authorized and sanctified Christian sorrow. “Paul,” observes Calvin, “lifts up the minds of believers to a consideration of the resurrection, lest they should indulge excessive grief on occasion of the death of their relatives, for it were unseemly that there should be no difference between them and unbelievers, who put no end or measure to their grief, for this reason, that in death they recognize nothing but destruction. Those that abuse this testimony so as to establish among Christians stoical indifference, that is, an iron hardness, will find nothing of this nature in Paul’s words.” Even as others; literally, as the rest; namely, the heathen. Which have no hope; no hope of immortality beyond death, or no hope of the resurrection. The heathen, with very few exceptions, had no hope of a future life, and hence they mourned over the death of their friends as an irreparable loss. This disconsolate feeling is apparent in their writings (for examples, see Lunemann, Alford, and Jowett, in loco).
1Th 4:14
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again. The apostle’s argument proceeds on the supposition that Christ and believers are one body, of which Christ is the Head and believers are the members; and that consequently what happens to the Head must happen to the members. Our knowledge and belief of a future state, and especially of the resurrection, is founded on the resurrection of Christ. Even so them also which sleep in Jesus; or more literally, through Jesus. Will God bring with him; namely, with Jesus. These words are differently construed. Some read them thus: “Even so them also which sleep will God through Jesus bring with him” (De Wette, Lunemann); but this appears to be an awkward construction; as we must then render the clause, “will God through Jesus bring with Jesus.” It is, therefore, better to refer the words, “through Jesus,” to the first clause. It is through Jesus that believers fall asleep; it is he who changes the nature of death, for all his people, from being the king of terrors into a quiet and gentle sleep, from which they will awaken to eternal life.
1Th 4:15
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord; or rather, by a word of the Lord. The apostle does not refer to those portions of the gospel which record our Lord’s discourses concerning the last things; nor to some sayings of Christ preserved by tradition; but to a direct revelation made unto himself by the Lord. We know from Scripture that Paul had many such revelations imparted to him. That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. These words are the occasion of an important discussion. It has been affirmed that the apostle here asserts that he himself expected to be alive, with the majority of those to whom he was writing, at the Lord’s advent; that, according to his expectation, Christ’s second coming was close at hand. “Those who are alive and remain” are distinguished from “those who are asleep,” and in the former class the apostle includes himself and his readers. And a similar declaration is contained in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1Co 15:51). Such is the view adopted by Grotius, Olshausen, Koch, Neander, Lechler, Baur, Winer, Reuse, Lunemann, Riggenbach; and, among English divines, by Alford, Jowett, Stanley, and Conybeare. Some of them suppose that Paul changed his opinion on this pointthat whilst in his earlier Epistles he taught the immediateness of the advent, in his later Epistles he renounced this hope and looked forward to his own departure. There does not seem to be any ground for this opinion. On the contrary, it would appear from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, written only a few weeks after this Epistle, that Paul did not expect the advent immediately, but mentions a series of events which would intervene before its occurrence (2Th 2:1-3). And in this Epistle he represses the curiosity of the Thessalonians about the precise time of the advent by telling them that it was beyond the sphere of his teaching (1Th 5:1, 1Th 5:2). We consider, then, that the apostle speaks here as a member of the Christian body, and uses a very common form of expressionthat we Christians which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord; but not at all intending to express his confidence that he himself and his converts would be actually alive at the advent. “He spake,” says St. Chrysostom, “not of himself, but of Christians who would be alive at the day of judgment.” Such is the view adopted by Chrysostom, Calvin, Bengel, Hofmann, Lunge, Macknight, Ellicott, Bishop Alexander, Wordsworth, and Vaughan. At the same time, it must be remembered that the time of the advent was expressly concealed (Mat 24:36; Act 1:7), and that it might occur at any period; and, by reason of their proximity to the first advent, the primitive Christians would be deeply impressed with the possibility or even probability of its occurrence in their days. Christians were to be living always in readiness for this great event, and thus it became a matter of expectation. “Strictly speaking, the expectation of the day of the Lord was not a belief, but a necessity in the early Church; clinging as it did to the thought of Christ, it could not bear to be separated from him; it was his absence, not his presence, that the first believers found it hard to realize” (Jowett). Hence Paul might not regard the advent as far removed into the distant future, as wholly impossible to happen in his days, but as an occurrence which might at any time take place; but he did not teach anything definite or certain on the subject. Shall not prevent; go before or anticipate, obtain the preference over, get before, so that those that are asleep might be left behind and fail of the prize. Them that are asleep; those who are dead, so that they, the living, should be glorified before them, or perhaps hinder their glorification.
1Th 4:16
For; assigning a reason for the above assertion, “because.” The Lord himself; not merely the Lord as the chief Person and Actor on that day, in contrast to his saints, but emphatic, “the Lord himself,” the Lord in his own proper Person. Shall descend from heaven; where the crucified and risen Jesus is now enthroned, seated at the right hand of God. With a shout; a word denoting a commanding shout as that of a leader to his host when he leads them into the battle, or of the army when it rushes to the fight. Some refer this shout to what followsthe voice of the archangel and the trump of God; but there are three particulars here mentioned. Others attribute it to Christ himself. With the voice of the archangel; or rather, of an archangel. There is only one archangel mentioned in Scripture (Jud 1:9); the word denotes, not “chief angel,” but “chief or ruler of the angels.” Accordingly, same suppose that Christ himself is here meant, as to him alone, it is asserted, does this title belong; but the Lord and the archangel are here evidently distinguished. Others strangely imagine that the Holy Ghost is here meant. Others fix on the archangel Michael (Jud 1:9). Christ is represented as accompanied by angels to the judgment; and it is futile to inquire who this leader of the angels is. And the trump of God; even as the trumpet sounded at the giving of the Law from Sinai. Also the advent of Christ to judgment is represented as heralded by the sound of a trumpet (Mat 24:31; 1Co 15:51, 1Co 15:52). “We are to recognize three particulars, following each other in rapid successionthe commanding shout of the King himself, the voice of the archangel summoning the other angels, and the trump of God which awakens the dead and collects believers” (Riggen-bach). And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Some suppose that the reference here is to the first resurrection; that the righteous, “the dead in Christ,” shall rise before the wicked, “the dead not in Christ;” and that a thousand years, or the millennium, will intervene between the first and second resurrections (Rev 20:4, Rev 20:5). But this is an entirely erroneous supposition. All that is here asserted is that the dead in Christ shall rise before the living in Christ shall be changed; there is no contrast between the dead in Christ and the dead not in Christ, nor any allusion to the resurrection of the wicked.
1Th 4:17
Then we which are alive and remain; or, are left; that is, the saints who shall then be found alive on the earth. The apostle classes himself among the living, because he was then alive. Shall be caught up. The expression describes the irresistible power with which the saints shall be caught up, perhaps by the ministry of angels. Together with them; with the dead in Christ who are raised. In the clouds. Our Lord is described as coming to judgment in the clouds of heaven (Mat 24:30; Rev 1:7). According to the Old Testament representation, God is described as making the clouds his chariot (Psa 104:3). To meet the Lord; in his descent from heaven to earth. In the air. Not that he shall fix his throne in the air, but that he passes through the air in his descent to the earth. And so shall we ever be with the Lord; shall share a blessed eternity in the vision and participation of his glory. The apostle does not here describe the solemnities of the judgment; but stops at the meeting of Christ and his risen saints, because his object was to comfort the Thessalonians under bereavement.
1Th 4:18
Wherefore comfort one another with these words; on the ground of that Divine revelation which I have made unto you.
HOMILETICS
1Th 4:3, 1Th 4:7 – Holiness the design of revelation.
Holiness is the end aimed at in all the dispensations of God.
(1) God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy (Eph 1:4);
(2) Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity (Tit 2:14);
(3) the Holy Spirit is conferred to sanctify us (Tit 3:5; 2Th 2:13);
(4) the Word is the instrument of sanctification (Joh 17:17); and
(5) God chastens us in order that we might be made partakers of his holiness (Heb 12:10). In short, holiness is salvationour restoration to the moral image of God.
1Th 4:9 – Brotherly love.
1. Its nature. It is a love to all believers as believers, as being the children of the same Father, the brethren of the same Savior, the members of the same family, the sharers of the same grace, and the expectants of the same glorious immortality. To all men we are related by a common humanity, but to Christians we are still more closely related by a common Christianity.
2. Its manifestations. It will show itself in acts of kindness done to believers, in preferring their company to that of worldly men, and in conversing with them on religious subjects.
3. The evidence arising from brotherly love. It is a proof that we are not of the world, that we love God and that we are Christ’s friends and disciples.
1Th 4:11 – Quietness and faithfulness in worldly duties.
1. Quietness. A true Christian is of a quiet and retiring disposition; he shrinks from worldly bustle; he is free from worldly ambition; like the lily of the valley, he loves the shade; he knows that this is not his home, and he looks for a better country, even a heavenly.
2. Faithfulness. A true Christian faithfully performs his worldly duties, because be believes them to be assigned him by the Lord; and he labors assiduously at his calling, because he recognizes it as the law of Providence that if any man do not work neither shall he cat.
1Th 4:12 – Honesty.
1. Its nature. We must guard against commercial dishonesty; all attempts to go beyond and defraud our brother; all overestimating what we sell, and underestimating what we buy; all shrinking from the payment of debts; all mean practices to gain customers.
2. Its importance. Temptations to dishonesty in this commercial age. Dishonesty combined with religious profession gives occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. We must walk honestly toward them that are without. The independence and loftiness of character which honesty imparts.
1Th 4:13 – The death of friends.
1. The Christian‘s sorrow for the death of friends. All sorrow not here forbidden; only commanded not to sorrow as those who have no hope. The Christian sorrow is a submissive sorrow, which discerns the hand of God; a holy sorrow, which improves the affliction; a disinterested sorrow, which, whilst it mourns over the loss, is comforted at the thoughts of the happiness of the departed; an enlightened sorrow, which looks forward to the future, and regards our separation from our departed friends as being neither final nor complete.
2. The Christian‘s improvement of the death of friends. It teaches us the vanity of the world, the power of religion, and the necessity of preparation for our own death.
1Th 4:14 – Resurrection of believers.
The ground of their resurrection rests on their union to Christ and on his resurrection. Not only are their souls immortal, but their bodies shall be redeemed from the grave. The voice of the archangel and the trump of God will call them from their graves, and, endowed with spiritual bodies, they shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The resurrection is purely a doctrine of revelation; it formed no part of the religion of nature; the natural analogies which are adduced are defective in essential points.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY
1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2 – The importance of living in harmony with the Divine will.
The practical part of the Epistle begins at this point.
I. MARK THE AFFECTIONATE MANNER OF THE APOSTLE‘S ADDRESS. “We beseech you and exhort by the Lord Jesus.” He does not speak in the language of command, much less assume the air of a lord over God’s heritage, but meekly and affectionately in the way of entreaty. But there was all the force of authority in the very entreaty because it was grounded in the Lord Jesus as its source and element.
II. THE IMPORTANT NATURE OF HIS REQUEST. “That according as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, ye would abound yet more.”
1. It is the duty of a minister to enforce moral duties as well as gospel doctrines. Scripture knows nothing of antinomianism except to condemn it. It is necessary for ministers to expound duty as well as doctrine.
2. It is possible to please God in holy walking. This does not imply that the saints’ acceptance depends upon themselves, but that God is pleased with what a believer does in faith from a principle of love, in the grace of Christ, for the Divine glory. “The Lord taketh pleasure in his people.” Even when our hearts condemn us, “he upbraideth not” (Jas 1:5).
3. It is necessary to increase in godliness. “So ye would abound yet more.”
(1) The apostle recognizes their begun sanctification. The best texts add the words, “even as also ye walk.”
(2) He enforces the necessity of making further increase in holy walking. There must be an “exercising of themselves unto godliness,” a resolute “going on unto perfection” in the exercise of every grace, in the discharge of every duty, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1).
III. ENFORCEMENT OF THE EXHORTATION. “For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”
1. The apostle‘s position was purely ministerial, for he merely delivered what he bad received from the Lord.
2. The moral duties he enjoins are based in the gospel of Christ, which supplies the motives to a full-hearted obedience.T.C.
1Th 4:3 – Sanctification, a Divine Arrangement.
“For this is God’s will, your sanctification.” The first duty expressed is personal holiness.
I. THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION.
1. It implies the consecration of all our faculties and powers, both of body and mind, to God‘s service.
2. It implies personal purity in heart and life. We are to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1).
II. THE GROUND OF THE EXHORTATION.
1. It is God‘s will. That ought to stimulate to exertion and encourage to prayer. “Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.”
2. It was the design of Christ‘s death; for he “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit 2:14).
III. THE MEANS OF SANCTIFICATION.
1. It is by the truth. “Sanctify them by thy truth: thy Word is truth.”
2. It is by his ordinances.
3. It is by his providences. (Psa 119:71; Heb 12:10; Rom 2:4.)
4. It is, above all, by the Spirit of holiness, as its sole Author.T.C.
1Th 4:3 – Warning against sins of impurity.
The apostle comes at once to particulars. “That ye should abstain from fornication.” Though adultery and incest were crimes among the heathen, fornication was not accounted a sin at all. Therefore we can understand the emphatic place which is assigned to this sin in the synodal letters to the Gentile Churches (Act 15:20-29), The Gentiles “walked after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.”
I. CONSIDER THE HEINOUSNESS OF THIS SIN.
1. It is a sin against God. So Joseph regarded it (Gen 39:9). The law to restrain from this sin is grounded in the reason, “For I the Lord am holy” (Le 19:2), The Divine nature which believers share through grace is quite inconsistent with “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2Pe 1:4). This sin is likewise inconsistent with the design of the gospel of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit (2Co 7:1; Eph 4:29, Eph 4:30).
2. It is a sin against our neighbor. This is implied in the seventh commandment.
3. It is a sin against our own bodies. (1Co 6:18.) Sinners dishonor their own bodies (Rom 1:24).
4. It is a sin against the soul. “Whoredom takes away the heart” (Hos 4:11).
II. CONSIDER THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SIN.
1. It Wastes the body. (Job 20:11.)
2. It wars against the soul. (1Pe 2:11.)
3. It causes shame. (Pro 6:33; Eph 5:12.)
4. It entails poverty. (Pro 6:26.)
5. It excludes from the kingdom of God. (1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:10.)T.C.
1Th 4:4-8 – How personal purity is to be maintained.
The sanctification which is God’s will requires that “every one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust.” The vessel is not a wife, but a man’s own body. If it meant a wife, it might be said that every man would be bound to marry. The wife is no doubt called the “weaker vessel,” the evident meaning of the term of comparison being that the husband is also “a vessel;”
I. HOW THE BODY IS TO BE USED.
1. Negatively.
(1) It is not to be regarded as outside the pale of moral obligation, as antinomian perverters say, basing their error on the words of the apostle, “It is not I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;” “In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.”
(2) It is not to be injured or mutilated by asceticism, after Romish example. The apostle condemns “the neglecting of the body” and “the not sparing of the body” (Col 2:23).
(3) It is not to be made “an instrument of unrighteousness” through sensuality”not in passion of lust.” Sensuality is quite inconsistent with the very idea of sanctification.
2. Positively.
(1) The body is to be kept under control; the Christian “must know how to possess himself of his own vessel.” He “must keep under the body;” he must make it servant and not master, and not allow its natural liberty to run into licentiousness.
(2) He must treat it with all due honor”in sanctification and honor;”
(a) because it is God’s workmanship, for “we are fearfully and wonderfully made;”
(b) because it is “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1Co 6:19);
(c) because it is an heir of the resurrection;
(d) because it is, and ought to be, like the believer himself, “a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use,” for the body has much to do in the economy of grace.
II. DISSUASIVES AGAINST PERSONAL IMPURITY.
1. The knowledge of God received by the Christian ought to guard us against it. The apostle here attributes Gentile impurity to ignorance of God. “Even as the Gentiles who know not God.” The world by wisdom knew not God, was alienated from the life of God, and thus sunk into moral disorder. The apostle shows in the first chapter of Romans how God, as a righteous retribution, gave over the idolatrous Gentiles to all sorts of moral dishonor.
2. Another dissuasive is the regard we ought to have for a brother‘s family honor. “That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in this matter.” A breach upon family honor is a far worse offence than any breach upon property. The stain is indelibly deeper.
3. Another dissuasive is the Divine vengeance. For “the Lord is the Avenger concerning all these things.” If the vengeance does not reach men in this world, it will in the next, where they will have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. They shall “not inherit the kingdom of God” (1Co 6:9).
4. The nature of the Divine call is another dissuasive. For “God did not call you for uncleanness, but in sanctification.” They had received “a holy calling,” a “high calling;” and though “called unto liberty,” they were “created unto good works.” They were “called to be saints;” for God says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
5. Another dissuasive is that the sin involves a despisal of God, who has given us his Holy Spirit that we may attain to sanctification. “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.” God has ordered all our family relations, and any dishonor done to them involves a contempt of his authority. We have in this passage GodFather, Son, and Holy Spiritinterested in man’s salvation and holiness.T.C.
1Th 4:9, 1Th 4:10 – Inculcation of brotherly love.
The apostle next reminds the Thessalonians of the duty of abounding in brotherly love.
I. THE NATURE OF THIS LOVE.
1. It is the affection of those who are children of the same Father. (Gal 4:26.) Members of the same “household of faith” (Gal 6:10). “Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him’ (1Jn 5:1).
2. It is a practical love. “Not in word only, bat in deed and in truth” (1Jn 3:18). It showed itself in “labors of love,” add especially through the whole of Macedonia.
3. It was a duty thoroughly understood by believers, because they were “taught of God to love one another” in both Testaments.
4. It was the test of regeneration. (1Jn 3:14.)
5. It was a token of discipleship. (Joh 13:35.)
6. It was essential to the growth of the Church. (Eph 4:16.)
II. THE MOTIVES TO THIS LOVE.
1. The command of Christ. (Joh 13:34.)
2. The example of Christ. (Eph 5:2.)
3. The glory of Christ in the world is promoted by it. (Joh 13:35.)
4. It will be a powerful means towards the world’s conversion (Joh 7:21.)
III. THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS LOVE.
1. In bearing one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2). The Thessalonians several years afterwards showed this spirit, as we see by 2Co 8:1, 2Co 8:2, toward the Churches of Macedonia.
2. “In honor preferring one another” (Rom 12:10).
3. “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another” (Col 3:13).
4. “Not suffering sin upon a brother” (Le 19:17).T.C.
1Th 4:11, 1Th 4:12 – Inculcation of the duty of quiet and honest industry.
“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”
I. A WARNING AGAINST THREE INCONSISTENT AND UNPROFITABLE MODES OF LIFE.
1. They were to guard against a spirit of restlessness. “That ye study to be quiet.” There had, perhaps, arisen an unsettlement of mind on account of their belief in the nearness of Christ’s advent, as well as some uneasiness on account of the fate of their deceased brethren. It led to a desultoriness of life little effective for any good end. The apostle, therefore, counsels sedateness and calmness. We ought to live “a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1Ti 2:2).
2. They were to guard against a meddling and pragmatical spirit. “Do your own business.” Love naturally inclines us to “look not on our own things, but also on the things of others” (Php 2:4), but it must not prompt either to the neglect of our own business or to undue interference with that of others. We must not be “busybodies in other men’s matters.”
3. They were to guard against idleness. “Work with your own hands.” The converts probably belonged mostly to the artisan class. The belief in the nearness of the advent had unhinged their minds, and led them to neglect the duties of their secular calling. Industry is a commanded duty. “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called” (1Co 7:20). The Thessalonians needed to be reminded of it, for he had occasion to speak of it in his first visit. Idleness has peculiar temptations.
II. MOTIVES TO THE DISCHARGE OF THESE DUTIES. “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have need of nothing.”
1. We are to have consideration to the opinion of those without. They may misjudge us, yet their judgments may be often true. We must not repel them by our inconsistencies of conduct. We must give “none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully” (1Ti 5:14).
2. We are to provide a supply for our own wants,
(1) so as to support ourselves respectably,
(2) and to enable us to supply the need of others.
Christianity is above all things a self-respecting religion, and has the promise even “of the life that now is.” Mendicancy is essentially degrading.T.C.
1Th 4:13 – Sorrow for the dead.
The apostle next refers to the share of the Christian dead in the coming of Christ, respecting which some misapprehensions seem to have existed at Thessalonica.
I. THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IS A CAUSE OF DEEP SORROW TO SURVIVORS. Such sorrow is instinctive, and is not forbidden by the gospel: for “Jesus wept” at the grave of Lazarus, and the friends of Stephen “made great lamentation over him.” True religion does not destroy, but restrains, natural affections.
II. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHRISTIAN AND HEATHEN SORROW. That of the heathen is extravagant, because there is “no hope” in the death of their relatives. It is “the sorrow of the world,” which is utterly uncheered by hope. The sorrow of the Christian is sober, and chastened by the hope of the gospel.
III. THE CAUSE OF THESSALONIAN SORROW.
1. It was not that there was a denial or doubt of the resurrection from the dead, such as existed at Corinth.
2. Nor was it that the resurrection was regarded as past already, according to the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus.
3. But it was that it was feared the Christian dead would not be raised to share with the living in the coming glories of the advent.
IV. THE RESURRECTION HAS CHANGED DEATH INTO A SLEEP. “Those that are asleep.”
1. There is nothing in the word to justify the idea of the soul‘s unconsciousness in the period between death and resurrection.
2. Sleep implies an awaking. This will occur at the resurrection. Thus the hope of the Church is the hope of the resurrection.
V. THE IMPORTANCE OF EXACT KNOWLEDGE RESPECTING THE FUTURE DESTINY OF THE SAINTS. “I would not have you ignorant.” Ignorance of the truth mars our spiritual comfort.T.C.
1Th 4:14, 1Th 4:15 – Reasons against sorrow for the dead.
The apostle gives several reasons why the Thessalonians ought not to sorrow for their dead.
I. THE FUNDAMENTAL REASON IS THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again.” These are the primary facts of Christianity. They are inseparably linked together, for the resurrection was the crown of the redeeming sacrifice; for if he was delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification. Deny either or both, we “are yet in our sins.”
II. THE SECOND REASON IS, WHEN CHRIST COMES AGAIN FROM THE FATHER‘S RIGHT HAND, HE WILL BRING WITH HIM THE SLEEPING SAINTS. “Even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
1. The dead saints sleep in Jesus. They arc associated with him both in life and in death. They “die in the Lord;” “they are present with the Lord.”
2. They will accompany Jesus at his second coming. This includes
(1) their resurrection from the dead,for “he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus” (2Co 4:14);
(2) their joining the retinue of Jesus to share his triumph. As risen from the dead, he becomes “the Firstfruits of them that slept.”
III. THE THIRD REASON IS THAT THE LIVING SAINTS WILL NOT PRECEDE THE DEAD SAINTS AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep.” This fact would effectively dissipate their sorrow for their departed friends.
1. It is a fact wade known by special revelation. Such revelations were frequently made to the apostle, as in the case of his special mission field (Act 22:18-21), the position of Gentile saints (Eph 3:3), the Lord’s Supper (1Co 11:23), and the reality and proofs of Christ’s resurrection (1Co 15:3).
2. It is a fact that does not imply either the nearness of the second advent, or the apostle‘s own share as a living man in its glories. He says, “We which are alive and remain to the coming of Christ;” he merely identifies the living believers of the last age with himself, as if he said, “Those of us Christians who may be alive at the advent.” He could not have believed that he would not die before the advent, for
(1) that would imply that “the word of the Lord” had misled him;
(2) he actually preferred to be absent from the body, and toward the end of his life spoke of death as “gain,” and of his desiring “to depart and be with Christ,” words quite inconsistent with this theory;
(3) he virtually declares in the Second Epistle that the advent could not happen in his lifetime (2Th 2:1-17.);
(4) he knew that no man, not even the Son of man, knew the time of the advent (Mar 13:1-37 :42).
3. It is a fact that the living saints will not get the start of the dead saints in the coming of the Lord. This is his express revelation from the Lord. “The dead in Christ shall rise first,” or before the living are changed (1Co 15:1-58.). The Thessalonians need not, therefore, sorrow for their departed friends, neither be afraid themselves to die.T.C.
1Th 4:16-18 – The order of events at the second advent.
The apostle justifies his statement by a fuller revelation of the truth. He sets forth the order of events.
I. THE DESCENT OF THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.”
1. It will be a descent of our personal Lord. “No phantom, no providential substitute, no vicarious spirit;” the same Person that ascended is he that will descend
2. It will be a descent with awe-inspiring accompaniments.
(1) “With a signal shout” by the Lord himself, which will be taken up and prolonged by
(2) “the voice of the archangel;” for he is to come, “bringing with him all the holy angels” (Mat 25:31); and
(3) “the trump of God,” for “the trumpet shall sound” (1Co 15:52), and “he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet” (Mat 24:31). It is God’s trumpet because employed in his heavenly service. It will be the sound of a literal trumpet, like that which was heard upon Sinai (Exo 19:16, Exo 19:19). These various sounds are to herald the descent of the Lord, and to gather the elect together from the four winds of heaven.
II. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD SAINTS. “And the dead in Christ shall rise first.” There is no allusion to the resurrection of the wicked. The apostle is concerned at present with the destinies and glories of a single class. So far from the sainted dead being overlooked, the priority of resurrection is to belong to them.
III. THE CHANGE OF THE LIVING SAINTS. This wonderful transformation is here rather implied than asserted. “For we shall not all die, but we shall be changed” (1Co 15:51).
IV. THE SIMULTANEOUS ASSUMPTION OF BOTH CLASSES OF SAINTS. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.”
1. As one united band, the saints, in spiritualized bodies, will be caught up in cloudsthose “clouds which are his chariot”just as he himself ascended “in a cloud,” and “a cloud received him out of their sight” (Act 1:9). The new bodies of believers will be able to pass with ease through the air.
2. The saints will then “meet the Lord in the air“not in heaven as he leaves it, nor in earth as he approaches it, but between heaven and earth. The apostle does not say whether they will at once descend to earth and return with him to heaven. He is silent upon the question of the judgment or the entry into final glory.
V. THE PERPETUAL RESIDENCE OF THE SAINTS WITH THE LORD. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1. It will be a meeting without a parting. The intercourse begun will have an endless duration. Believers shall “go no more out.”
2. It implies an intimate fellowship with the Lord.
3. It will be the fulfillment of our Lord‘s prayer: “That they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory” (Joh 17:24).
VI. THE CONSOLATORY INFLUENCE OF ALL THESE TRUTHS. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Chase away your sorrow; the dead are not lost or forgotten; they shall share in the glories of the advent. There was surely deep and lasting consolation in such truths.T.C.
HOMILIES BY B.C. CAFFIN
1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2 – Exhortation.
ST. PAUL‘S AFFECTIONATE IMPORTUNITY.
1. He beseeches. He has finished the personal part of his letter; he has told them of his love, his constant remembrance of them, his prayers for them, his thanksgiving; he has reminded them of the close spiritual ties which bound them to him. Now he beseeches them to persevere. He knows the exceeding difficulty of maintaining a Christian life in this sinful world; he knows the momentous issues that depend on perseverance; he loves his converts with an intense love; therefore he beseeches. He uses all means of persuasion in turns. Now he commands, now he beseeches. Sometimes entreaty is more prevailing than commandment, gentleness than authority. No qualities are more important in the work of the ministry than a genuine love for souls, a real and evident anxiety for the spiritual welfare of our people. St. Paul beseeches; it is an example to all Christian ministers.
2. He exhorts them in the Lord Jesus. Christian people need all manner of encouragement, comfort, exhortation. That exhortation prevails which is in the Lord Jesus. His presence, his grace, himself, is the sphere of the Christian’s spiritual activity. He who lives habitually in “that fellowship which is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ,” is best able to lead others to God and heaven. For he who hath the Son hath life. The Lord Jesus is the Life; and he who hath that life himself, hath from the life that abideth in him the warmth, the fervor, the holy enthusiasm, without which religious exhortation has no power, no reality. “In the Lord Jesus.” Mark how frequently those words, “in Christ,” “in the Lord,” are on the lips of St. Paul. It is a constant formula with him. But it is a formula full of life, full of holy meaning. “Not I, Christ liveth in me.”
3. He reminds them of his former teaching. He had given them a charge, and that through the Lord Jesus. He had received of the Lord that which he delivered unto them. The commandments were not his; they were the commandments of Christ. He had received them from Christ; and through Christ’s appointment, guidance, presence, he delivered them to the Thessalonians. He appeals to their recollection. They knew them; they had the knowledge; that knowledge involves a deep and solemn responsibility. The Lord tells us in the Gospel of the condemnation that hangs over the careless servant who knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will. Hence the force of the apostle’s words, “Ye know.” Much had been given to them, much would be required. It is a warning to be always remembered, to be urged constantly upon ourselves, upon those who are brought in any way under our influence. “Ye know.” Knowledge, if it issue in obedience, is exceeding precious; knowledge without obedience involves an awful danger. “Ye know;” therefore we must use that knowledge, that precious talent entrusted to our keeping. The tremendous alternative lies before usthe blessed words, “Welt done!” or the sentence that fills the heart with shuddering awe, “Thou wicked and slothful servant!”
4. He urges them to continual progress. He had taught them how to walk and to please God. The subject of his practical teaching was how to walk, not how to talk. They must walk in the Spirit, he had told them; their daily life in all its details and circumstances must be guided by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth,” is the key-note of the true Christian life. Thus living they would please God. To please God is the highest Christian ambition; the consciousness of pleasing him is the highest Christian joy. But walking implies progress. Standing still is dangerous; it must issue in backsliding. They must go on from strength to strength; they must forget those things that are behind, and press on to those that are before. The grace of God abounds; it is without limit. He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. So must the Christian abound more and more in the exercise of the graces communicated to him by God; he must work the works of righteousness with ever-increasing energy, as the grace of God more and more fills his heart.
LESSONS.
1. Do all things in the Name of the Lord Jesus; learn by experience the meaning of those deep words, “in the Lord.”
2. Remember that knowledge implies responsibility.
3. Strive to maintain continual progress in all Christian graces, in faith, hope, love, humility, patience.B.C.C.
1Th 4:3-8 – The law of purity.
I. PURITY OF HEART.
1. The will of God the rule of the Christian life. To please God is the strongest desire of the true Christian; and we please him by obedience. The Lord delighteth not in outward observances as he doth in “obeying the voice of the Lord.” The Christian’s prayer is, “Thy will be done.” The standard of that obedience is the obedience of the angels in heaven. It is above our reach; but it is what we are bidden to aim at, what we are told to pray for in our daily prayers. It should be the effort of our lives to lift ourselves up, by the grace of God assisting us, nearer and nearer to that heavenly rule. Without that grace we are helpless; but “I can do all things,” says St. Paul, “through him that strengtheneth me.”
2. The will of God is our sanctification. He willeth that all men should be saved; but salvation is possible only through sanctification; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Sanctification is the separation from all that is evil, the entire consecration of the whole man to the service of God, the gradual conforming of the human will to the blessed will of God. Christ is our Sanctification. “He of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification.” Faith brings us near to him, and he becomes our Righteousness; then the work of sanctification begins. It is a progressive work, slow and gradual. The more the believer grows in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more does that blessed knowledge exert its hallowing power. The beauty of holiness, the sweetness of fellowship with God, the glories of his coming kingdom, are more and more deeply felt. Then, when the affections are set upon things above, and the heart’s love is centered upon God, the soul reacheth forth after Christ, longing above all things to be like him, yearning after holiness with a strong, intense desire, eagerly striving to purge itself from the defilement of sin, and to advance ever onwards in the work of sanctification; and that because the Lord. Jesus Christ dwelleth there himself, and the pulses of his love beat in the converted heart. He is our Sanctification. He abideth in his people’s heart by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All holy desires, all good counsels, all just works, come from himfrom his inspiring, elevating present. This is the will of God; this is what God would have us to be. It is a very high and heavenly state; yet in its various degrees it must be by the grace of God within our reach. For he is the God of truth; his promises are not deceitful; his commandments do not mock us with a standard impossible of attainment.
II. PURITY OF LIFE.
1. Chastity. The apostle is writing to converts who but a short time before had been heathens. It was necessary to speak very plainly and solemnly on this subject; for the heathen commonly regarded that impurity, which is so great a sin in the sight of God, almost as a thing indifferent. But the will of God is our sanctification, and sanctification involves purity. Without sanctification we cannot see the Lord; but the pure in heart shall see him. God is light; in him is no darkness at all. There is something awful in the stainless purity of the starry heavens. As we gaze into them, we feel ourselves oppressed with an overwhelming sense of our own uncleanness. It is a parable of the ineffable purity of God. In his sight the heavens are not clean. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil; therefore only the pure in heart can see his face. That inner purity covers the whole spiritual life. It implies freedom from all lower motivesall that is selfish, earthly, false, hypocritical; it is that transparency of character which flows from the consciousness of the perpetual presence of God. But that inner purity, which is so large an element in sanctification, involves the perfect purity of the outward life. Religion is not morality, but it cannot exist without morality. It transcends morality, but it implies it. This was not the teaching of the religion which the Thessalonians had abandoned. That admitted immorality. Their very gods were immoral. They were served, not by purity of life, but by sacrifices and outward rites often leading to impurity. Hence the urgency of the apostle’s appeal Amid the evil surroundings of a heathen town, living in an atmosphere of depraved public opinion, new converts were exposed to constant and great dangers. St. Paul reminds them that holiness, without which there is no salvation, is impossible without chastity. Fornication is not, what they once deemed it, a thing indifferent. It is an awful sin against God. Christianity has taught us this. We know it well. We wonder at the light way in which heathen writers speak of abominations which now we shrink from naming. But the sin exists still in terrible strength. It hides itself, indeed; it walketh in the darkness; Christianity has driven it there. But still, alas! it slays its thousands and its ten thousands. It cuts a soul away from God with a fearful rapidity. It fills the man with impure images, unholy desires. It drives out of the heart the thought of God. The soul that is tainted with this foul leprosy cannot pray. It cannot endure the thought of the presence of God in his heart-searching nearness, in his awful purity. Impurity destroys the possibility of the slightest approach to that sanctification without which we cannot see God. Hence the necessity of the apostle’s earnest words, “The will of God is your sanctification; and there can be no sanctification if ye live in uncleanness.”
2. Honor. The unclean life of the heathen cities was full of sin and shame. The Christian life is truly honorable. The Christian’s body is a holy thing. It has been dedicated to God. It is “for the Lord” (1Co 6:13). The Christian must acquire a mastery over it in honor. He must yield his “members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” The Christian husband must give honor to his wife. Christian marriage must be honorable, for it is a parable of the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. The life of holiness and purity is a thing to be honored. Those who honor holiness honor God, who is the most holy One, the one Fountain of holiness.
3. The knowledge of God. The heathens knew not God. They might have known him. He had manifested in the works of creation his eternal power and Godhead. But they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. Their false gods resembled men, not only in their form, but also in their sins and uncleanness. Men had framed a conception of Deity from their own corrupt nature, and that conception reacted powerfully upon their character. Their gods were like them, and they were like their gods. The Thessalonian Christians had learned a holier knowledge. They must not live like the heathen, who knew not the true and living God. Their knowledge must act upon their life. They must be pure.
4. Impurity is a sin against man. “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” Impure desires assume the form of love; uncleanness usurps and degrades the sacred name of love. The sensual man ruins in body and in soul those whom he professes to love. He uses words of tenderness. He is the most cruel, the deadliest enemy in his wicked selfishness. He cares not for the nearest and holiest ties. He sins against the sanctity of matrimony. He brings misery upon families. Seeking only the gratification of his own wicked lust, he transgresses and wrongs his brethren. But his sin will bring swift punishment upon him. The Lord is the Avenger in all such things. He called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. Sanctification is the very sphere in which the new life moves and energizes. Uncleanness is utterly alien to it. The Lord who called us in sanctification will punish with that awful vengeance which belongeth to him all who for their wicked pleasure sin against their brethren.
5. It is a sin against God. God hath given us his Holy Spirit. He hath given that great gift “unto you,” the apostle saysto you Thessalonians. He gave it once, he is giving it still. It is this great fact which makes uncleanness in Christians a sin of such exceeding awfulness. Their bodies are the temples of God the Holy Ghost. To bring impure thought into that most sacred presence, to defile that body which he has taken to be his Church and shrine, is an outrage, an insult to that Divine Majesty. Such a man hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. Of what punishment shall he be thought worthy? The Spirit of purity cannot abide in an impure heart. He will depart, as he once departed from Saul. There are awful things in Holy Scripture said of those who resist the Holy Ghost, who will not listen to his still small voice speaking in the heart, but continue to vex him by willful and persistent disobedience, till at last his voice is heard no more, and his gracious influences are quenched. It is enough to fill the thoughtful Christian with shuddering awe when he reflects on that sanctification which the Word of God requires, and contrasts it with the fearful prevalence of sins of impurity.
LESSONS.
1. Long after holiness, pray for it, struggle for it with the deepest yearnings of the heart, the most earnest efforts of the life.
2. Flee from the slightest touch of impuritythe thought, the look, the word. It is a deadly poison, a loathsome serpent; it stingeth unto death.
3. Remember God the Holy Ghost dwells in the Christian’s heart. Keep thyself pure.B.C.C.
1Th 4:9-12 – The law of love.
I. ON ITS POSITIVE SIDE.
1. It is taught by God. God is love, and love is of God. The Church of God is the school of love. God himself is the great Teacher. He teaches us by his own example. “So God loved the world, he gave his only Son;” “The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me.” The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us the blessed love of God. God the Holy Ghost teaches his people to comprehend with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. He shows us something of his own blessed love, and bids us learn of him. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” We are his disciples, his pupils; we learn of him. What should we learn, if we learn not to love? It is the great task of life. Our lives are wasted if we have not learned that holiest lesson before we die; for heaven is the home of love. There is no place there for the soul that hath not learned to love. God is the Teacher. He had taught the Thessalonians. They did love the brethren. They needed not, the apostle says in his tenderness, a human teacher.
2. Yet St. Paul exhorts them. For love is a debt which is never fully paid. The great lesson of love is never fully learned. We are dull scholars. Our natural selfishness keeps us back. We need every incentive, every help. There must be a continual growth. To stand still is to lose ground. We must urge ourselves, we must urge others, to abound more and more. The Lord Jesus is our Example. “As I have loved you,” he says. The depth, the purity of that holiest love is altogether above us, out of our reach; we cannot attain unto it. We see its effects in the lives of his saints. We know how the love of Christ constrained the holy apostle St. Paul to live no longer to himself, but to him who died for him and rose again. We despair of ever reaching that high degree of holy love; but it must be the strongest yearning of our hearts to advance continually, to abound more and more.
II. ON ITS NEGATIVE SIDE.
1. Christian ambition. Ambition (filotimi&a) is a common word in Greek ethics and history, a prominent characteristic of Greek political life. There is a Christian ambition; its object is not to be first in the arena of political strife, but to preach the gospel, to please God, to live a quiet, holy life (compare in the Greek, Rom 15:20; 2Co 5:9). Political filotimi&a, Bengel says, blushes to be quiet. The Greeks were eager, bustling, restless, each longing to be first. The apostle seeks to turn the ambition of the Thessalonians into another channel. Their ambition should be to be quietto keep themselves free, as far as might be, from political excitement and social rivalry, that they might cultivate the inner life of love and peace and com-reunion with God. Love would lead them to abstain from meddling with other men’s mattersto do their own duty in the station where God had called them. Love would keep them free from envy and party spirit, and help them to maintain a current of quiet, peaceful thought within their souls.
2. Christian dignity. Love would keep them from everything that might bring the gospel into discredit. The Christian has duties towards those who are without. His light must shine before men, that they may be led to glorify him from whom the light cometh. The life of the Thessalonian Christians must be honest, becoming. The apostle insists on the dignity of honest labor. It was little regarded. Educated Greeks and Romans spoke of it as coarse and vulgar. The Lord Jesus worked with his hands, so did St. Paul. Christianity has invested the life of industry with a grace of its own. St. Paul here uses the same word in connection with honest labor which in the Acts of the Apostles is employed to designate the ladies of rank at Beraea, the “honorable women” who believed. The Christian must be careful to use words in their true sense. It is not wealth or rank that is truly respectable, but virtue and holiness. Thus living, thus laboring, they would have need of nothing; rather, perhaps, of no man. They would attain that honorable independence which enables one to “look the whole world in the face, for he owes not any man.”
LESSONS.
1. Covet earnestly the best gifts; pray for growth in charity.
2. Let your ambition be a Christian ambition; try to be first in humility, first in self-sacrifice, first in the quiet discharge of daily duties.
3. Never despise labor; it was the lot of the Lord Jesus; it has its own moral beauty and dignity.B.C.C.
1Th 4:13-18 – The resurrection.
I. COMFORT FOR THE SORROWING.
1. The dead in Christ sleep. The Lord Jesus Christ hath abolished death; he has changed it into sleep. “She is not dead, but sleepeth,” he said of the little daughter of Jairus. The sting of death is sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. The Lord died and rose again. He died; he encountered the king of terrors in all his awful power; but by his death he hath abolished death to his saints. Stephen fell asleep under the crushing shower of stones. So is it with believers now; they are laid to sleep through Jesus. Through his atonement, through his loving care, through his gracious presence, death is but sleep to them. They die in the Lord; they rest from their labors. They are not unconscious; they do not “sleep idly,” for they are blessed; they are “with the Lord, which is far better.” Yet that quiet rest of the holy dead in Paradise is as a peaceful slumber compared with the entrancing joy of the glorious resurrection. Yes, they sleep; they have not yet attained unto that perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul which shall be theirs in God’s everlasting glory. There the redeemed of the Lord, perfected in strength and gladness, entranced in the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord, the beatific vision, need rest no longer. “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” But now they rest. They are in peace; they are happy, for they are with Christ.
2. Therefore the Christian‘s sorrow is full of hope. We must sorrow when our loved ones fall from our side. The Lord wept over the grave of Lazarus. Not to sorrow would be the hard stern temper of stoicism. The Christian sorrows over the grave, but it is a sorrow chastened by faith, cheered by hope. The heathen might envy the very flowers of the field. “They die, indeed, but it is to spring up again with renewed life and beauty; while man, when he dieth, sleepeth on for evera still, silent sleep; he waketh nevermore.” Such was the wailing of the heathen poet. It is not so with the Christian. He finds comfort himself, he comforts others, with the blessed words of Holy Scripture. His sorrow is not hopeless, like that of the heathen: he looks for a happy meeting in that blessed place where there is “no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying.”
3. That hope springs out of faith. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. The resurrection of Christ is the earnest of our resurrection. He is the Firstfruits, the First-begotten from the dead; they that are his shall follow him. The resurrection of Christ was one principal topic of the apostolic preaching; it is now one of the most precious articles of the Christian faith, the very center of our most cherished hopes. He was seen by many, by Mary Magdalene, by the other holy women, by the apostles, by more than five hundred brethren at once. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
II. THE COMING OF THE LORD.
1. Its solemn accompaniments. He shall come, the Lord Jesus himself, with his holy angels. He shall descend from heaven with a shout. His voice will pierce through the universe; all they that are in the graves shall hear it. The trumpet shall sound. The voice of the trumpet, exceeding loud, filled the people of Israel with trembling at Mount Sinai. More awful by far will be the voice of the archangel and the trump of God that wakes the dead. What that trumpet may be we cannot tell; but sound it will, “for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.”
2. Its end and purpose. The dead in Christ shall rise first. They shall hear his voice, though they have lain in their graves, some of them, almost from the beginning. They shall come forth, and that first. Then follows the assumption of the living. Those who are found alive, who have not entered into the deep, quiet rest of Paradise, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We shall meet one another; we shall meet him; we shall be for ever with him. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
LESSONS.
1. Let sorrow in bereavement be Christian sorrow, softened by faith and hope.
2. The holy dead are at rest. Do not call them “poor;” they are blessed.
3. Let us strive to walk with God now, that we may be ever with the Lord.B.C.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
1Th 4:1-5 – Sanctification.
With this chapter commences the hortatory part of the Epistle.
I. EXHORTATION TO ADVANCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT HAD BEEN DELIVERED TO THEM OF THE DIVINE WILL. “Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk,that ye abound more and more.” The announcement which is made by “finally” of the close of the Epistle is to be taken as meaning that the remaining part is to be taken up with that which is now introduced. There is a natural transition from the prospect of being unblamable in holiness, with which the personal part of the Epistle ends, to this hortatory part. The exhortation is very affectionate in tone. The Thessalonians are addressed as brethren. And there is not the simple form, “We exhort you,” but it is preceded by a less frequent form (only once used by Paul beyond these Epistles to the Thessalonians), “We beseech you,” which is the language in which friend earnestly presses home a request on friend. “We exhort you” is more the language in which a teacher earnestly presses home duty on his hearers. “We exhort you” is, moreover, defined and heightened by the addition of the words “in the Lord Jesus.” The three Christian teachers found the element of their exhortation, net in themselves, but in him who, as Savior, has a right to rule all lives. It is implied that the tone of Christ toward us is that of earnest exhortation, in which he perfectly reflects God; for it is said, in 2Co 5:20, that God exhorts, which should have been the translation there. There had been delivered by the teachers to the Thessalonians the knowledge of the true God, and, as they had formerly sought to please their false deities, so, when they came to the knowledge of the true God, it became their duty to please him. There had also been delivered to them how they ought to walk and to please God, i.e. to say, tiffs had been presented to them in considerable detail, so that they could readily follow the course of life that was pleasing to God. To their credit it could be said that they were following in their God-pleasing course, and what is pressed home on them is, that they should abound more and more in it. “The Lord make you to abound,” is language which has already been used; and this exhortation to abound more and more, which recurs in the tenth verse, may be said to be the watchword given to the Thessalonians. However much we have walked and pleased God, we have not done it enough. Let us abound more and more in the course that is pointed out to us in the Bible as pleasing to God.
II. APPEAL TO THEIR MEMORY IN CONNECTION WITH WHAT HAD BEEN DELIVERED TO THEM OF THE DIVINE WILL. “For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” There is not a happy change made from “commandments” in the old translation to “charge” in the revised translation here. There is an obscuring of the idea, which is that the Divine will has been delivered in the form of commandments. There were the ten commandments of the moral Law. These, possessed by the Israelites, placed them far in advance of the heathen around them. Coming out of heathenism, it would be a great boon to the Thessalonians to have these fixed in their memory. Presented along with Christian considerations, they would become Christian commandments. There were other Christian commandments, of which we have examples toward the close of the Epistle, which would be reiterated and reinforced until they also were fixed in the memory. In these commandments Paul and Silas and Timothy were only the medium of delivery. Given by the authority of the Lord Jesus, they were to be regarded as his commandments. These being now to be referred to, they are indirectly asked to call them to mind.
III. PURPORT OF THE DIVINE WILL.
1. Generally. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.” It was affirmed by William of Ockham that “if God had commanded his creatures to hate himself, the hatred of God would ever be the duty of man.” It was a violent supposition to make of him, whose will is absolutely wedded to holiness, and who can only command his creatures to be holy. The will of God is here said to be our sanctification. This is a word which is very often used in a passive sense. “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.” The Greek word here has, however, the active sense. The way in which we are actively to advance the work of our sanctification, is by yielding up our will to the will of God in all that he requires of us from moment to moment. ‘By abounding more and more in the course that is pleasing to God, we shall more and more die unto sin and live unto righteousness, more and more be made according to the Divine idea, from our inmost life to its most outward manifestation.
2. Particularly.
(1) Fornication. “That ye abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not God.” This is one of the commandments in which the Divine will finds expression. In 1Co 7:2 marriage is put forward as the remedial course against fornication. The form here is, that there can be the possession of a wife in consistency with sanctification and honor. This is put in favorable contrast with another possession belonging to Gentilism, possession in the passion of lust, i.e. in which the morbid sensual desire acquires the force of a passion. The fact of fornication being so rife in the Gentilism with which they were surrounded, and out of which they had lately come, is the reason why the Thessalonians are specially guarded against it. What was to be accounted for in the Gentiles by their ignorance of God, was not to be excused in them who had been blessed with the knowledge of God.
(2) Adultery. “That no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter.” This sin is not named, but only that mentioned in which it differs from the preceding. Being an overreaching and wronging, not a neighbor, but a Christian brother, in the matter involved, it is “doubly flagitious.”
IV. WARNING. “Because the Lord is an Avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and. testified.” In Ephesians the warning is, “Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.” In Colossians it is similar: “For which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.” The idea here is that the Lord is Avenger in all the things that have been referred to. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” As Judge, he is to be thought of as Righter between man and God. When men give themselves up to sensuality, God has a controversy with them. And, by appeal from God against men, Christ comes in as Righter in the controversy, to vindicate the holy character of his Father’s laws, to punish for the unholy use of his Father’s gifts. From the immediate context we are also led to think of Christ as Righter between man and man. He is the Righter of the slave who is trampled upon without pity by his unlawful owner. He is the Righter of the man who has the purity and peace of his house invaded by the adulterer. When with the Thessalonians, the teachers had made this their teaching clear. In view of judgment they had warned them, and solemnly testified to them, that these things would not go unpunished.
V. THE HOLY OBJECT OF THEIR CALLING. “For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.” The thought is similar to what is expressed in the third verse. There is this difference, that the will of God there is here connected with a historical point. Let them remember the great turning-point from heathenism to Christianity. Then God graciously called them in the gospel of his Son. And to what did he call them? It was not to a life of uncleanness, but, in keeping with the holy life of Christ, in keeping with the holiness of God vindicated on the cross, it was to find the sphere of their calling in the pursuit of holiness.
VI. THE REJECTER. “Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.” This is drawn as a conclusion from the object of their Christian calling. There is not singled out an actual rejecter among the Thessalonians. But, should such a rejecter arise among them, let it be known that he is not a rejecter of man in his interests and rights, but a rejecter of God, who has laid down laws and limits for his creatures. He is especially a rejecter of God, who gives, to those whom he has called in Christ, his Holy Spirit. Sanctification is pre-eminently the Holy Spirit’s work. And for any of them to indulge in the sins referred to, would have this as its gravest condemnation, that it was a thwarting and grieving of the Spirit in his holy strivings.R.F.
1Th 4:9-12 – The Christian circle and accounting by them that are without.
I. BROTHERLY LOVE.
1. The disposition. “But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” There is a rhetorical touch here which is called “passing over”not saying what might be said with a view to gaining over. For while it is said, “Ye have no need,” the design is more effectually to impress on the Thessalonians the necessity of brotherly love. While they are graciously commended, they are at the same time shown how proper it is for them to love the brethren as being taught of God. Their education in this important department was a reality. To be taught of God does not exclude human help, the help of others, or, as contrasted with that, self-help. Only human help does not avail, unless it is taken up and made effectual by the Holy Spirit. Teachings and experiences must be inwardly interpreted, and made luminous to us. We must therefore stand in an immediate relation to God as his disciples who are taught of him; who, according to another representation, have an anointing from the Holy One to know all things. It is fitting that he who has made our minds, and retains sovereign power over them, should teach us. It is also fitting that he should teach according to his own nature. As Love, he has created us, sustains us in being, earnestly desires our well-being, places us under numberless obligations to him. Shall he not then school us to love? As under the Divine teaching we form a brotherhood of Christian disciples. And this is the only fellowship of minds that is right to the core, that will stand all the tests, that will stand out in eternal permanence. In the brethren there is something of Christian excellence on which to rest our love, and we are to recognize and value and delight in that, even under an uninviting exterior, and, in the name of Christ, to desire its increase and perfectness.
2. Its manifestation. “For indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia,” An argument has been founded on this statement against the early date of the Epistle; but it tells the other way. For the love is not said to be manifested toward all the brethren, but” toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia;’ i.e. to say, its manifestation was yet limited to the Christian circle nearest to the Thessalonians. We are to think of Philippi, a hundred miles distant on the one side, and Beraea, twenty miles on the other. To the Christians in these places they had found opportunities of showing their Christian love. It was just such an outgoing as might commendably be connected with the short period of a few months. The word “do” is emphatic after “taught.” The lesson is that Divine teaching is to be followed by suitable practice. Love must be allowed free outlet. “Love,” says Barrow, “is a busy and active, a vigorous and sprightful, a courageous and industrious disposition of soul which will prompt a man, and push him forward to undertake or undergo anythingto endure pains, to encounter dangers, to surmount difficulties for the good of its object. Such is true charity; it will dispose us to love, as St. John prescribeth, in work and in truth; not only in mental desire, but in effectual performance; not only in verbal pretence, but in real effect.”
3. Its increase. “But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more.” What Paul had prayed for (1Th 3:12) is now made subject of affectionate exhortation. The watchword formerly applied to the whole of a God-pleasing course is now specially applied to brotherly love. Let them abound more and more. Let them seek opportunities of manifesting their interest in Christ’s people beyond Macedonia. And let them look to the purifying and intensifying of their love to the brethren. And, with a longer Christian history than they had, have we not need of the same watchword? If we have abounded, let us abound more and more. Let us embrace, in intelligent practical interest, a wider and wider extent of the Christian world. The great obstacle to love is selfishness, or exorbitant fondness for our own interests, for which we have all reason to humble ourselves before God. When shall we be taught to abandon this? When shall we be taught as in the great school of Christ, by the great lesson of the cross, to give love the unlimited sway of our being, so that we shall uugrudgingly delight in our Christian brethren, seek their advancement in Christian excellence, and help them in all ways that we can?
II. ACCOUNTING BY THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT THE CHRISTIAN CIRCLE.
1. Quietness and doing our own business. “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business.” “Be ambitious” is the marginal reading for “study,” and the idea of honor which is in the Greek word is to be regarded as thrown into prominence by the association. “Be ambitious to be quiet.” This is a paradox; for whereas restlessness belongs to ambition, we are to make it the object of our ambition to be quiet. “Political ambition,” says Bengel, “blushes to be quiet;” and, it may be added, Christian ambition rejoices to be quiet. What is it that is here commanded to us? It is not a mere negation. To be quiet is not necessarily to be without strong force in our nature; but it is to have those forces so placed under Divine restraints, so moderated by reason, justice and charity, modesty and sobriety, as that we can do our own business, can confine ourselves to the sphere of our own proper duties. We may indeed interpose, when the honor and interest of God is much concerned, when the public weal and safety are much endangered. We may interpose for the succor of right against palpable wrong, for our own just and necessary defense. We may interpose when our neighbor is plainly going to ruin, “snatching him,” as Jude says, “out of the fire.” We may also interpose when we can do our neighbor considerable good. For all that is really doing our own business. But we are not to be impelled by ambition, or covetous desire, or self-conceit, or any other disturbing influence, beyond our own proper bounds. We are not to attempt, unasked, to manage for another, to overbear his will, to impose on him our opinions, to make free in conversation with his character, to pry into his affairs. We are not to thrust upon him our advice, to reprove him unbecomingly, or rashly, or unreasonably, or harshly. We are not to interpose in the contentions of others so as to make ourselves parties, or so as to raise or foment dissensions. For all that, against what is here commended, is turbulent meddling with what God has not made our business. “We may consider,” says Barrow, “that every man hath business of his own sufficient to employ him; to exercise his mind, to exhaust his care and pains, to take up all his time and leisure. To study his own near concernments, to provide for the necessities and conveniences of his life, to look to the interests of his soul, to be diligent in his calling, to discharge carefully and faithfully all his duties relating to God and man, will abundantly employ a man; well it is if some of them do not encumber and distract him. Seeing, then, every man hath burden enough on his shoulders, imposed by God and nature, it is vain to take on him more load, by engaging himself in the affairs of others; he will thence be forced, either to shake off his own business, or to become overburdened and oppressed with more than he can bear. It is indeed hence observable, and it needs must happen, that those who meddle with the business of others are wont to neglect their own; they that are much abroad can seldom be at home; they that know others most are least acquainted with themselves. Philosophers therefore generally have advised men to shun needless occupations as the certain impediments of a good and happy life; they bid us endeavor to simplify ourselves, or to get into a condition requiring of us the least that can be to do.”
2. Working with our own hands. “And to work with your hands, even as we charged you.” This is to be regarded as a particular injunction under the foregoing. In the Second Epistle the language is, “that they quietly work.” The language here seems to point to this, that many of the members of the Thessalonian Church were handicraftsmen. From this injunction, and the way in which the second coming is introduced in the next paragraph, it would seem that the disturbing influence in the Church of Thessalonica was religious excitement., called forth by the new world of thought into which Christianity had brought them. They were especially excited by the prospects connected with the second coming. Paul, for one, saw the danger of their being carried away by the excitementnot so as to be meddlesome, but so as to be negligent of their earthly calling. Therefore he charged them well to work with their own hands, which also he enforced by his example. In this he showed his sense of the importance of quiet industry. However much we may be under the influence of the great truths and prospects of our religion, let us not be without the steadying condition of our earthly calling.
3. We are to be quietly industrious so as not to produce a bad impression on them that are without. “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing.” What there is of connection between the two parts of the paragraph seems to be this. We are to exhibit love within the Christian circle; we are also, within the Christian circle, to be quietly industrious, so as not to give occasion of offence to them that are without. We are to remember that the eye of the world is upon us, and that we are subjected to its judgment. And there are certain external features of the Christian circle upon which the world is quite fitted to pronounce judgment. Upon none is it more ready to fix than upon anything like the neglect of the ordinary duties of life. Therefore it is recommended that we quietly work with our own hands, with this specially in view, that we may walk becomingly (i.e. honestly) toward them that are without, and have all that is necessary for our wants. By industry and honesty we shall commend our religion to them that are without; for these are things which they can appreciate and by which they are likely to be attracted. Whereas, by idleness and indisposition to pay our debts, we shall bring a reproach upon our religion which does not belong to it, and repel from us them that are without. In early times the heathen called healthy beggars traders on Christ, in allusion to what is here guarded against. Let us not by meddlesomeness, or by any want of industry, or honesty, or prudence, or straightforwardness, present Christ in an unlovely aspect to them that are without.R.F.
1Th 4:13-18 – Anxiety about the state of the Christian dead.
I. STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN DEAD NO CAUSE FOR SORROW. “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope.” Paul (the principal writer) sets himself here to administer consolation to the Thessalonians. In doing so he practices the duty he lays down in the concluding words of the paragraph. Himself in possession of comfort about the state of the Christian dead, he could not leave them in ignorance of it. As his Christian brethren, they must be sharers with him. Timothy had probably communicated to him the occasion of their anxiety. It was in the Thessalonian Church as in other Churchesthere were those who, from time to time, were falling asleep. The change in the translation extends the scope of the language beyond the actually dead. How did it fare with their dead, and how also would it fare with those whom death would yet overtake? Christians are distinguished from the rest of mankind. It is said of the latter as a class, that they sorrow having no hope. What did the men of the old heathen world think with regard to their dead? Theoeritus says, “The living have hopes, but the dead are without hope.” AEschylus says, “Of the once dead there is no resurrection.” Lucretius says, “Nor does any one stand forth awaked, whom once the cold pause of life has found.” Catullus says, “Suns may set and return; when once our brief day has set we must sleep one everlasting night.” It is a sad thought that some modern thinkers have given expression to the same blank hopelessness. Strauss has said, “A life beyond the grave is the last enemy which speculative criticism has to oppose and, if possible, to conquer.” The whole hope of John Stuart Mill was an earthly future, not for the individual, but for the race, created by science “when all the greater evils of life shall have been removed.” If such were our creed, or want of creed, we might well sorrow when our friends have been taken away. Our only feeling could be that we had seen the last of them. Their memory might remain (John Stuart Mill, writing after the death of his wife, said, “Her memory is to me a religion”); but that cannot lift the gloom from the extinction of personal existence. Let no rude hand rob us of the comfort which our Christianity brings. It tells us here that we are not to sorrow for the state of our Christian dead. We may indeed sorrow for our being deprived of their earthly society. The Master himself gave relief to his nature in weeping, even in view of a speedy resurrection. Paul tells us that the removal of his friend Epaphroditus would have been to him sorrow upon sorrow. But, as for the state of our Christian dead, we are here told that they are fallen asleep. The description is in respect of the body, and contains three ideas.
1. Continued existence. A man continues to exist, though he is in a state of sleep. The body is still, but the mind may be active in dreams. And so, when the bodies of our Christian dead are in the stillness of the grave, there is no cessation of their existence. All doubt on this subject must be put to rest by the words of our Savior on the cross to the dying penitent at his side, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” The souls of the departed are not in a state of sleep; but they are wakened up to a higher life.
2. Repose. In sleep we lose our hold upon the world; we forget its cares and pleasures; we are being calmed and soothed in our feelings. And so we are to think of our Christian dead as for ever released from the work and toil, the pain and sorrow, of this life, and as now calmed and soothed in the presence of God. “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow with them.”
3. Wakening. We think of sleep as followed by a waking. And so we are to think of a wakening for our Christian dead, though it may be after long years. They are awake now in respect of their souls; our fuller comfort is that they shall yet be awake in respect of those bodies which we have sorrowfully laid in the grave. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.”
II. REASON FOR THE CHRISTIAN DEAD BEING ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR LORD AT HIS COMING. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” The apostle goes back to the cardinal facts of Christ’s death and resurrection. These are facts for which those who reject our continued existence after death have little respect; but they are dear to the Christian heart, and the more firmly our faith lays hold upon them, the more animated is our hope for our Christian dead. We believe that Jesus died; thus briefly does the apostle state the fundamental article of our Christian faith. “Such is the historical and supernatural basis of Christianityits very definition, its breath of life, the source from whence springs all its greatness, strength, and uniqueness.” The apostle states the fact plainly, “Jesus died,“ which is all the more observable that it is followed by a statement not plain but consolatoryour Christian dead are fallen asleep. We believe in a God who, in infinite love, became man, that he might verily (not in semblance) die, and who was not less truly God than man when he was nailed to the cross. We believe in a God-Man who came under the broken Law, and endured death as the curse due for sin. And our faith follows him beyond his death. We believe that Jesus rose again. That is the second great article of our Christian faith. Having in his death made full atonement for sin, he could not be holden of death. He rose victoriously out of the state of insensibility and lifelessness in which his body lay in the tomb. He rose with the same body, but changed to a nobler quality. We further believe that he died and rose again, not for himself, but for those whom he represented. He experienced death and conquest as JesusSavior, Leader of his people. United to him, his people are not to be separated from him in destiny. He is here associated with their death. They are laid to sleep by Jesus, as the preposition should be. There is called up the image of Jesus himself caring for his own when the life departslaying them to rest in the grave, and watching over them there with his omnipotent love. And, as he is associated with their death, so they are to be associated with his coming. Them that are laid to sleep by Jesus wilt God bring with Jesus. We are brought in view here of what distressed the Thessalonians. It was not a question simply of the resurrection; in that case the language would have been, “them will God raise up.“ But we are carried a point beyond that, to their being brought as raised with Jesus. We may, therefore, understand that what distressed the Thessalonians was the bearing of the coming of Christ on them who did not live to see that event. Would they not stand at a great disadvantage? Would they have any share at all in his coming? Were they not to be sorrowed over as those who had missed the great object of their hope? For the relief of the Thessalonians Paul tells them this, to begin with, that the Christian dead are to be brought with Jesus. We are not to think of them as brought from heaven, for they are viewed in respect of their being in their graves. But we may think of them as joining their descending Lord, and brought with him to earth.
III. REVELATION MADE TO PAUL THAT THE CHRISTIAN LIVING ARE NOT TO HAVE THE PRECEDENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN DEAD AT CHRIST‘S COMING. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.” It is true that in all he says in this Epistle he is under the direction of the Spirit of the Lord. In what he is now to say he proceeds on a word of the Lord such as there is in the Epistles to the seven Churches. He was privileged to announce directly from the heavenly Christ what had hitherto been concealed. The heavenly Christ was so interested in the Thessalonians that he had given his servant this revelation for them. The apostle divides Christians into two classes”we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord,” and “they that are fallen asleep.” He includes himself in the former class, and from this it has been very confidently inferred that he had a definite expectation of living unto the coming of Christ. But he includes, not only himself and Silas and Timothy, but also the Thessalonians, about whom he has said that there were those among them who from time to time were falling asleep. Did he, then, having a definite expectation for all, believe in all being saved from death by an immediate coming of Christ? Is it not more reasonable to suppose that he thought of the living and left as in a continual flux? This is borne out by the use of the present instead of the future”we who are for the present the living and left, who have no certainty that we will not remain unto the coming of Christ, but have also no certainty that another moment will not transfer us to the class of them that are fallen asleep.” The revelation made to Paul related to a question of priority of time. It is strongly denied of the Christian living that they will come into the presence of the Lord at his coming before the Christian dead. This was further relief to the distressed Thessalonians. Their departed Christian friends would not only be brought with Jesus; it was also true that this bringing would not be deferred until after the Christian living had taken their places in nearer relation to their Lord.
IV. GREAT DRAMA OF THE FUTURE. Here we are supplied more particularly with the contents of “the word of the Lord.”
1. Prelude: The Lord descending in majesty. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” The central Figure is the Lord himself. He now sits enthroned in heaven, Lord over all. But he shall yet descend from heaven. There is thus confirmation of the announcement made by the heavenly visitants to the disciples gazing after their vanished Lord: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” We are left to think of the majesty of our descending Lord chiefly from the accompaniments of the descent. He shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump. The shout is such a shout of command as is given by a leader to his host. There are some who think of the shout of command as given by Christ. This is the view which is adopted by Milton in his conception of another scene.
“The Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watched: he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended; and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom.”
There is this consideration which tells against that interpretation, that God has been introduced as bringing them that are asleep with Jesus. We are thus led to think of God as the Actor behind the scene, which is confirmed by the expression following”the trump of God.” This makes it more natural to think of the accompaniments of the scene as arranged by God. Are we, then, to think of God as giving the shout of command? The objection to that view is, that the shout is represented not as preceding (as befitting God) but as accompanying the descent. It seems better, then, to think of the shout as given by the archangel in the Name of God, and as comprehending the two things which follow. First, the moment that the Lord descends from his heavenly throne, the archangel, apprised of what is to happen, marshals his innumerable host. The shout of command he gives in this case with the living voicethe voice of the archangel. The angels are an orderly multitude. “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth” (with whom the idea of orderliness is not associated). We read of “twelve legions of angels.” The angels are led by an archangel. We read in Scripture of the angel Gabriel, and also of the seven angels that stand before God, but only in another place of an archangel who is there named Michael. Our Lord prepared us himself for this glorious accompaniment of his coming: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him;” “When he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels;” “When he cometh in his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels.” Au army associated with royalty gives an impression of power and grandeur. So how mighty and glorious a Personage must he be, in whose honor all the legions of angels are marshaled! They are mighty angels, and holy angels, and especially are they in sympathy with the work of honoring Christ. As they sang over his birth on earth, so do they accompany him in his triumphal descent to earth, having this to rejoice their hearts, that they also are to share in the glorious consummation. The archangel, having marshaled his host to move in harmony with the descending Lord, at a subsequent stage is to give another shout of command, this time not with the living voice, but with the trumpet put into his hand by God. Milton thinks of the trumpet that was used “when God descended” in Horeb, calling the congregation of Israel, as being the same trump of God. Very vividly in 1Co 15:1-58. is it associated with the resurrection: “At the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound.”
2. First act: Resurrection of the Christian dead. “And the dead in Christ shall rise first.” “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” The trumpet is simply the instrument; it is the power of God, communicated through the trumpet, that raises the dead. A trumpet supposes a faculty of hearing; but this trump of God has miraculously to supply the faculty of hearing. The remains of our Christian friends which we lay in the grave soon mingle with the dust. They hear not any sound of earth that passes over them. But there is a trumpet-call, with Divine, all-penetrating power in it, that one day they shall hear in their graves, and hearing they shall start up as once they were, and yet how changed! It was beside the purpose of the revelation to bring into view the resurrection of others than Christians, or the nature of the resurrection-body. The Thessalonians were so taken up with the coming, that the resurrection was thrown out of view. It did not enter, or did but little enter, into their understanding of the last things. Therefore their attention is concentrated upon the simple fruitful fact of the resurrection. It meant the presence of their departed Christian friends in the body on the earth ready to meet Christ. And that all fear of their being anticipated might be removed, it is stated not only that the dead in Christ shall rise, but that they shall rise first, i.e. to say, they shall rise before the assumption of the Christian living. The Christian dead now in the resurrection-body, and the Christian living, will be on the earth at the same time, equally ready for the approach of Christ.
3. Second act: Assumption of the Christian living. “Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” The Christian living are to be swiftly, irresistibly caught up. This implies their transformation in their bodies. They are to be caught up at the same time with the Christian dead who have been raised. The two classes will form one great blessed company, between whom what distinguished them has passed away. How they will be marshaled does not appear. We do read of leading places being assigned to the twelve apostles. That they will be as orderly in their multitudinousness as the innumerable company of the angels, we do not doubt. Caught up in the enveloping upbearing clouds in one body, they are to meet their descending Lord with the marshaled army of angels in the air. As persons of distinction go forth to meet their prince, so they now, all of them glorified persons, are caught up to meet their Lord in his triumphal descent.
4. Finale: Perpetual enjoyment of the society of Christ. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” There is a blank here, which it did not lie within the purpose of the revelation to have filled up. That the Lord actually descended to earth may be regarded as certain. The air was his pathway to earth. When it is said that the fallen asleep God will bring with Jesus, the meaning plainly is (taken in connection with the language which has just been used) that, joining our Lord in the air, they will be brought with him to earth. We may think of the earth as transformed, in preparation for the Lord’s coming. Some would interpose here a lengthened personal reign of Christ on earth with his saints. We are only on sure ground when we think of Christ as coming for judgment. “But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats.” All that is here passed over, and we are presented simply with the final state of the two classes that have been united. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” The meeting referred to shall be followed by no parting. It is Christ’s wish and promise that we should be with him. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” Christ has prayed to the Father that we should be with him. “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.” And when we have been brought into his presence, in spite of death and all opposing powers, separation will be impossible. As members, we must be with our Head; as loving, we must be with the great Object of our love. To be with the Lord is to be in the most favored position for the enjoyment of his love, for the comprehension of his mind, for the reception of his Spirit, for the accomplishment of his plans. To be with the Lord is also to be with that great and blessed company who shall be gathered round him, comprehending the eider sons of creation, the great and good of all ages, and those Christian friends we have “loved ere since and lost awhile.” What is the position we shall be carried forward to through the course of eternal ages is more than tongue can tell, more than heart can conceive.
V. MUTUAL COMFORTING. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” We might read “exhort one another.” But in view of the sorrow of the Thessalonians we rightly read “comfort one another.” We might even read “cheer one another;” for the words are not only of a comforting, but of an inspiriting nature. It is not Christian teachers, but Christians generally, who are addressed. Knowing what comfort is, let us not selfishly allow our Christian brethren to be ignorant of it. Even in our ordinary partings in the world there is an element of sadness that calls for comfort. As Shakespeare has it
“So part we sadly in this troublous world
To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.”
How thankful ought we to be that we are not in the position of those who have no hope; that we can tell those who have lost Christian friends of the sweet and cheering truth of Christ’s coming! It is sad to think of them sleeping in the dust of the earth; but, laid to sleep by Christ, then they shall awake. They shall rest and stand in their lot at the end of the days. They shall hear the resurrection-call, and stand in the body as once they stood upon this earth. They shall be present as witnesses and actors at the most glorious event the universe shall ever have seen. They, and we too, shall be borne up in the clouds to meet and welcome our descending Lord. And from that first united meeting of him in our embodied, completed state, we shall be forever with the Lord.R.F.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
1Th 4:1 – Christian progress.
This verse introduces a series of practical exhortations by an urgent entreaty to general Christian progress. The details of conduct must be considered. But the spirit and character of the whole life are of primary importance. First see to the health of the whole tree; then prune and train the several branches.
I. THE GREAT OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS.
1. It requires a full, round development of spiritual graces. It is not satisfied with a shrunken, shriveled life of the soul. The meager Christianity of those who are only concerned with the minimum requirements of religion is foreign to the very nature of a true spiritual life. This should abound; it should overflow; it should be developed in all directions. A one-sided life is maimed and marred, however advanced it may be in a particular direction. We should aim at completing the circle of graces. This is what is meant by being “perfect.”
2. It proceeds by gradual growth. We are to abound “more and more.” The, attainment which is respectable today will become despicable if it is not exceeded to-morrow. The growth is doublea greater achievement according to our present capacities and an enlargement of those capacities. The precious wine rises higher in the vessel; and the vessel itself expands.
II. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS.
1. It consists in conduct. We are required to grow in knowledge. But this is not the most important form of spiritual progress. It has come about, unfortunately, that the phrase “advanced Christianity” stands for a certain doctrinal movement. It should be chiefly used for moral and spiritual progress. The great advance is to be in the walk and conversation of lifethe daily, normal conduct.
2. It is guided by knowledge. St. Paul exhorts his readers to abound more and more in the conduct which follows his directions, “As ye have received of us.” This progress is not to be according to our own fancied ideal of perfection. It is in pursuit of clear duty, and that duty is declared in Christian teaching.
3. It is grounded on previous experience. In the Revised Version we read the addition, “even as ye do walk.” Future progress depends on our present position. We must not be always laying a new foundation. The Christian life is not a series of revolutions. Because more is required of the Christian, the good already attained is not ignored.
4. It aims at pleasing God. Thus it is characterized by a regard for the will of God. It is not satisfied with reaching any human standard. It is required to be pure, true, and spiritual.
III. THE STRONG INDUCEMENTS TOWARDS CHRISTIAN PROGRESS.
1. They are urged with personal appeals. St. Paul beseeches and exhorts. He appeals to the brotherhood of Christians and its tie of mutual affection between himself and his readers.
2. They are centered in regard for Christ. “By the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a sort of adjuration. The close relation of the Christian to Christ is his grand motive for striving after true progress. The grace of Christ supplies the power; the love of Christ brings the obligation. By all that he is to us we are urged to be worthy of him in an even richer and fuller Christian life.W.F.A.
1Th 4:9 – Love of the brethren.
Christianity introduced a new word into the speech of mankind“philadelphia,“ “love of the brethren.” This word distinguishes a remarkable characteristic of the early Church. It describes how the first Christians regarded themselves as the members of one family. It was no visionary socialism, no communistic scheme, that led them to have all things common. They felt like the members of one household, like the nearest kindred in one home, and in the spirit of home life they shared their possessions. This was only possible so long as the family spirit pervaded the Church. Circumstances altered the habits of the Church as it grew in numbers and spread over a wider area. But all through the Epistles of St. Paul the same family affection of Christians is apparent. Love of the brethren is a leading feature of Christianity.
I. ITS SCOPE AND AREA.
1. It is specially confined to fellow-Christians. It is to be distinguished from philanthropy. We should love all men. Our neighbor, be he of the house of Israel, a Samaritan or a heathen, has claims upon us. But love of the brethren is to be distinguished from this general love of one’s kind. It is the Christian’s love of the Christian.
2. It is due to all Christians. It should not be given to a particular chosen circle of intimates only, nor simply to the members of one sect, nor to those only who excite our admiration. All Christians, of all ranks and orders, rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, saintly and imperfect, orthodox and heterodox, in every branch of the Catholic Church of Christ, have claims upon our love.
II. ITS ORIGIN.
1. A common fatherhood. We all have the same Father in heaven. In proportion as we realize the broad fatherhood of God shall we enter into the brotherly love of his family. He is the Father of whom “every family in earth and heaven is named.”
2. A common brotherly relation to Christ. Every Christian can claim Christ as his Brother. The great elder Brother binds all the members of the family together by attracting them all to himself. We learn to love our fellow-Christian by seeing the Christ in him.
3. Common interests. We share the same blessings, enjoy the same redemption, walk in the same pilgrimage, and are traveling towards the same home.
III. ITS INFLUENCE. True love of the brethren cannot be without effect. Only the lack of it could have permitted the fearful quarrels and enmities that have divided Christendom. Regard a man as your brother, and you will be loath to hound him to death. Were this love stronger many blessings would result.
1. Mutual forbearance. We permit our brother to hold his own opinion and follow his own conscience.
2. Mutual helpfulness. Selfish Christianity is a contradiction in terms. To bear one another’s burdens is just to fulfill the law of Christ.
3. Power to influence the world. Civil war in the Church means paralysis of the army that should conquer the world for Christ. When Christians again learn the almost lost art of loving one another, they will attract converts from the world outside by better means than reasoning and preaching.W.F.A.
1Th 4:11 – The industrial life.
Christianity has something to say on the industrial life. It has been charged with discrediting industry. No calumny could be more false. It certainly discourages engrossing worldly cares, and bids men remember their heavenly citizenship. But it only inculcates a more faithful discharge of earthly duty by insisting on lofty views of life and the pure principles which should inspire it. Three duties in regard to the industrial life are here urged by St. Paul.
I. AN AMBITION TO BE QUIET. The word “study“ means literally, “be ambitious.” This is a remarkable collocation of ideasambition and quiet. It is as though the apostle said, “You have been ambitious to make a noise in the world; reverse your aim: be ambitious of quiet.” This striking piece of advice is urged in close connection with directions regarding the industrial life. Probably the Church at Thessalonica was largely composed of working-men. There was a danger lest the new privileges of Christianity should make some of these men foolishly anxious to make themselves conspicuous.
1. We should aim at doing much good without attracting attention to ourselves. The Christian should not clamor for recognition. He should be content that his work prospers, though he remains obscure.
2. We should be too busy with work to have much time for talk. Busybodies are generally drones. How silent is the work of God in nature! Silently the forest grows. So let our work be done.
3. We should work peaceably. The noisy man is too often the quarrelsome man. In the ambition to sound a name abroad, bitter envy and jealousy are excited.
4. Ignorant people should not suppose that the privileges of Christian brotherhood qualify them to teach others. “Be not many teachers” (Jas 3:1).
II. A DOING ONE‘S OWN BUSINESS.
1. The claims of the Church are no excuse for the neglect of a man‘s secular business. It is wrong to become so much the slave of business as to have no time or energy for mission work, Sunday school teaching, etc. But it is also most certainly wrong to fail in our duty in the secular sphere. The Christian should be the most punctual, prompt, and energetic man of business. He should serve Christ in it. If he is responsible to others, his religion should strengthen his fidelity not to give eye-service as a man-pleaser.
2. Religion does not remove a man from the station in which he is placed by Providence. It may so improve his habits of work and may bring such blessings upon him as may enable him gradually to rise in the social scale. But it may permit no such external change; it should not be expected to do so in every case. And however that may be, religion can make no sudden change in a man’s circumstances. The Christian slave was in outward circumstances a slave still. The artisan remained an artisan.
3. Christianity forbids us to be envious of the more prosperous condition of other people. It is not for us to snatch at their privileges to the neglect of our own duty. Every man has his Divine vocation It is the Christian’s duty to find his special vocation and to follow it, whether it lead him up the Beulah heights or down through the valley of humiliation. In the Church let each man find his own place and do his own work. There is a diversity of gifts. One has a gift of speech, another a gift of deft handiwork. Let neither be ambitious to usurp the place of the other.
4. Christians should be too busy with their own work to have time to judge their neighbors. We are workmen, not judges. To his own Master each man stands or falls.
III. AN HONEST DILIGENCE IN MANUAL LABOR. This duty is clearly brought out in the Revised Version, which omits the word “own” before “hands,” so that we read the clause, “Work with your hands.” Thus we have a direct recommendation of manual labor.
1. Manual labor is necessary. There is hard, rough work of this kind that must be done. It is cowardly to shirk it. Cultivated people do not object to hard work for amusement, e.g. rowing, Alpine climbing. Why should it be shunned when it is useful?
2. Manual labor is honorable. Any work done with a good purpose is honorable. The work of the carpenter is often more honorable than that of the financier. The dirtiest work is not always done by the roughest hands. The crowding of the sons of working men into the ranks of clerks is not a healthy sign if it betokens a shame of honest toil.
3. Manual labor is wholesome. The punishment of Adam is no curse. It is a blessing that man has to “eat his bread in the sweat of his face.” While the early monks were busy, building, digging, weaving, monasticism presented a picture of pure Christian living. Riches brought superiority to physical industry, and corruption speedily followed. The best of Christ’s apostles were working men.W.F.A.
1Th 4:12 – Christians before the world.
In the previous verse St. Paul has been urging upon his readers the duty of quiet industry. He now gives two reasons for this advicefirst, that they may walk honestly before the world; and secondly, that they may have need of nothing. The apostle turns to the same subject in his Second Epistle. “If any man will not work, neither let him eat,” he says (2Th 3:10). God only provides for us when we cannot provide for ourselves; or, rather, he provides for us by helping us to provide for ourselves. He feeds the ravens by giving them strong wings and claws and beaks, and by. providing them prey. But the birds must catch their quarry. We need not be anxious about the morrow if we are diligent in doing our own business. So much for the second reason for diligence. The first demands more extended inquiry, and may be taken by itself as a fertile subject for meditation. We are to be diligent in our secular business in order that we may “walk honestly towards them that are without.”
I. CHRISTIANS OWE DUTIES TO THE WORLD, Christians have no right to treat “them that are without” as outlaws. If we should pray for those who despitefully use us, much more should we treat them honestly. And if we are to be kind to our enemies, certainly we are required to be just to those who are not inimical to us. The Christian must pay his debts to an infidel. The temperate man must fulfill his obligations to the drunkard. The spiritually minded man must be just to the worldly minded man. Christians should respect the rights of the heathen in foreign countries.
II. THE WORLD JUDGES CHRISTIANS ACCORDING TO THEIR DISCHARGE OF THESE DUTIES. These it can appreciate. It knows nothing of the behavior of Christians in the Church. It cares nothing for orthodox creeds or devout psalm-singing. But it can estimate the value of a thorough piece of work, and it can see the merit of a prompt payment. If we are wanting in these things, the world will only regard us as hypocrites when we make much of our religion in spiritual mattersand rightly, for if we arc not honest men we cannot be saints.
III. THE WORLD JUDGES OF CHRISTIANITY ACCORDING TO THE EXTERNAL CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS IN THIS RESPECT. Here is a graver consideration. The honor of Christ is concerned. The defaulting Christian gives a shock to Christian evidences. One glaring instance of misconduct in secular affairs does more to hinder the progress of true religion than volumes of sermons can do to advance it. Even the negligent and idle Christian brings discredit on his Master. The Christian artisan should be known from the secularist by the greater diligence and thoroughness of his work.
IV. CHRISTIANS HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT GOOD TREATMENT FROM THE WORLD UNLESS THEY BEHAVE HONESTLY TOWARDS IT. The Church at Thessalonica lived in constant danger of an assault from the hostile heathen population of the city. It was most desirable that no shadow of an excuse should be given for an attack. Idleness, noisy restlessness, interference with other people, would provoke opposition. Quiet industry was most safe. When a master found that the Christians were his best hands he would not be inclined to molest them. We shall best conciliate opponents and silence enmity and at last win respect by a quiet, unassuming, diligent discharge of our daily duty.W.F.A.
1Th 4:13, 1Th 4:14 – Sorrow for the dead transfigured by the resurrection of Christ.
In the neighborhood of ThessalonicaSalonica it is now calledthere may be seen at the present day ancient tombs on which are to be read inscriptions expressing hopeless regret for the dead. The Church addressed by St. Paul was a little community which had learnt to enjoy a strange, new view of the state and prospects of the departed, planted in the midst of a great pagan populace that held the melancholy sentiments of these epitaphs. Contrasting the Christians with “the rest” of the people, the apostle reminds them that they should not give way to the despairing sorrow that was natural to men who had no hope.
I. OUTSIDE CHRISTIANITY SORROW FOR THE DEAD IS HOPELESS.
1. History and experience establish this fact. Pagan tombs everywhere express themselves with various degrees of despair, but never with cheerful hope. Nations like the Egyptians that had a firm faith in a future life can scarcely be said to have enjoyed any hopes respecting that life. A general dream of immortality pervades our race; but it is everywhere dim and cheerless. Many men at all times have broken away from it altogether, and have said with Catullus, “When once our brief day has set we must sleep one everlasting night.”
2. Reasoning cannot conquer the common hopelessness of sorrow for the dead. The arguments outside Christianity may be divided into two classes:
(1) Naturalistic; e.g. from the nature of consciousness, from the indestructibility of all known existences, from the general instinct of immortality, from analogies of sleep, transformations of insects, succession of winter, spring, etc. Less and less weight is being ascribed to all such reasoning. It will not bear the strain of anxious doubt. The mourner turns his eyes in vain to nature for comfort.
(2) Theistic.
(a) In the wisdom of God. Man’s life being but imperfectly developed here, the Divine idea of humanity would be vain and futile without a larger world for realizing it.
(b) In the justice of Godthe necessity of a future judgment.
(c) In the goodness of God. A father would not mock his child by creating him so that he has a great hunger for a future which is unattainable. Nevertheless even these arguments do not satisfy, for who can venture to speak with assurance of the high counsels of the Almighty? and, moreover, they presuppose a knowledge of the character of God which only Christianity clearly furnishes.
II. CHRISTIANITY DRAWS THE STING OF HOPELESSNESS FROM SORROW FOR THE DEAD.
1. It does not destroy that sorrow. To do so would be impossible. We must grieve at parting from those who are dear to us. Indeed it would be unhealthy for us entirely to conquer natural sorrow. We should have to conquer natural love first. A softening, subduing, purifying mission comes with this grief, and is one of the best means of helping us to receive Christian truth.
2. But Christianity removes the sting from this sorrow by depriving it of hopelessness. The hope which St. Paul refers to is plainly the hope of receiving back those who have been taken from us by death. They are gone, but not gone forever. Every weary year as it passes bring us nearer to the happy reunion. The words of St. Paul plainly show that he believed in the mutual recognition of friends in the future life.
III. THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST ARE THE SECRET OF THIS CHRISTIAN TRANSFIGURATION OF SORROW FOR THE DEAD.
1. The strongest argument to convince men generally of a future life is to be found in the resurrection of Christ taken in connection with his life and teaching. He spoke of judgment and of eternal life. He confirmed his words by rising from the dead. The confirmation is twofold.
(1) The resurrection is a Divine authentication of the claims and mission of Christ.
(2) It is an instance, a crucial test, a proof that a future life is possible.
2. For Christians the death and resurrection of Christ are grounds for enjoying the hope of a reunion of all the dead who die in the Lord.
(1) The triumph of Christ is here shown. Now, the object of his death and resurrection was to redeem the world. But this redemption would be vain if there were no resurrection. “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable.” The resurrection of Christ proves that the object of his death was obtained, it must therefore be followed by the resurrection of his people in order that the redemption thus accomplished may be fully realized in them.
(2) The union of Christians with Christ secures their resurrection. His experience becomes the experience of his people, because he lives in them and they live in him (1Co 15:22).W.F.A.
1Th 4:15, 1Th 4:16 – The order of the second advent.
The subjects here brought before us are entirely beyond the reach of speculation. We have no data whatever to go upon beyond the authoritative declarations of the Word of God. St. Paul himself was not prepared to reason about them. He could simply declare what was revealed to him. But this he did declare with marvelous, unhesitating positiveness. He prefaces his declaration by distinctly claiming the authority of inspiration for it. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” So remarkable a revelation as that of the following verses needed some such assurance of its origin to commend it to us. We must take it in the spirit in which it is written, or we must leave it alone. It is useless to begin rationalizing with it. It is foolish to attempt to go one step beyond what is written. A sermon on such subjects must be as purely expository of the words of Scripture as possible. We note here three events in time, and their external consequence. The order of these three events is what St. Paul is most immediately concerned with. The occasion of his writing on them appears to have been the trouble felt by his readers as to the condition of those Christians who died before the second advent of Christ which they were expecting shortly to happen. Would these departed brethren miss the joy of welcoming their glorified Savior? The order of events described by the apostle removes this difficulty.
I. THE FIRST EVENT IS THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.
1. He is to come in Person. He does not forget the world for which he died. He will return to his weary, waiting Church.
2. He is to come in glory. His first advent was humble and obscure. Few knew the Babe in the manger. Lowly and self-sacrificing was the whole life that followed. But every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The humble Jesus is to come again as the exalted Lord.
3. He is to come conspicuously. The shout, the full voice of an archangel, the blast of a trumpetthese awful sounds surely betoken no obscure mystical advent which can be questioned after it has occurred. When Christ comes a second time no one will say, “Is the Lord among us or no?” All will hear the great shout and the pealing angel-notes.
II. THE SECOND EVENT IS THE RETURN OF THE DEPARTED. Instead of missing the joy of that great advent, as their friends sadly feared, those Christians who had fallen asleep will be the first to share it. The trumpet will awake the dead before it arouses the living. There will be no advantage in being among the living at the time of the second coming of Christ. Some, even in our own day, have fondly hoped for some such privilege. But St. Paul distinctly tells us that the privilege is the other way. The departed will be the most privileged. This is fair; for if they have endured the pangs of death to reach Christ, it is right that they should see him first.
III. THE THIRD EVENT IS THE ASSOCIATION OF LIVING CHRISTIANS WITH THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. They take the second place in honor, not having wrestled with death and conquered the dread foe, as their departed brethren have done. But they also join in the glad triumph of their Lord. Of the physical process described as being “caught up into the clouds” we know nothing, and therefore cannot tell how it will be realized till it is accomplished. The attempt to explain it has only made the subject ridiculous. But the two spiritual facts accompanying it are clear. A joyous meeting with Christ and the departed, and a change of state and sphere; the earthly life and its limitations giving place to the heavenly life and its more exalted powers.
IV. THE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCE IS THE PERMANENT DWELLING OF CHRISTIANS WITH CHRIST. The second advent here described is not a passing event which ends. It is not a mere visit of Christ. It is not like the first advent, which, after a few years, was followed by the death and, after his resurrection, the ascension of Christ. Christ will never leave his people again.
1. It secures joy. The joy of love is to be with those we love. The highest Christian happiness is to be “forever with the Lord.” This is heaven.
2. It protects from trouble. God wipes away tears from all eyes. Associated with Christ for ever, his people can never weep again.
3. It guards from sin. Where the triumphant Christ always is, the defeated tempter can never come.
4. It accomplishes the reunion of friends. All being with Christ, all are also together. The home is perfected by the gathering of the blessed dead with the glorified living around the abiding Christ.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Th 4:1. Furthermore then, is, as if he had said, As to what remains.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Th 4:1 . (see critical remark) would now directly oppose what follows with what precedes: “for the rest,” “what is yet besides to be said;” whereas is a less prominent particle of transition “besides.” Both forms, however, introduce something different from what precedes, and serve properly to introduce the concluding remarks of an Epistle; comp. 2Co 13:11 ; Phi 4:8 ; Eph 6:10 ; 2Th 3:1 . Here introduces the second portion of the Epistle, and that in an entirely natural and usual manner, as this second portion is the concluding portion of the Epistle. ( ) is incorrectly explained by Chrysostom, Theophylact: ; Theodoret, to whom Oecumenius, though wavering, adheres: ; Luther: “furthermore;” Baumgarten-Crusius: “generally, what is the main thing.”
] therefore , represents what follows as an inference from the preceding, and especially from 1Th 3:13 . As it is the final destination of Christians to be , in order to reach this end prayer directed to God does not suffice, but also man’s own striving is requisite; so the apostle beseeches and exhorts his readers to increase in striving after a holy walk. Comp. Theodoret: . Calixtus refers to the idea of the judgment taken from 1Th 3:13 : Ergo, quum sciates non stare res nostras fine temporali aut terreno, sed exspectari adventum domini a coelis ad judicium, precamur vos et obtestamur, etc. Incorrectly Musculus: Quum igitur gratiam hanc acceperitis a domino, ut in fide illius firmi persistatis, quemadmodum ex relatione Timothei cum ingenti gaudio accepi: quod jam reliquum est, rogo et hortor, etc.
] in the classics is used only in the sense of to inquire (see the Lexicons); here, as in 1Th 5:12 , 2Th 2:1 , Phi 4:3 , Joh 4:40 ; Joh 14:16 , Act 23:20 , etc., in the sense of to request, to beseech , analogous to the Hebrew (so also the English to ask), which unites both meanings. denotes the entreating address of a friend to a friend; , the exhortation in virtue of the apostolic office, thus the exhortation of a superior to subordinates.
] in the Lord, belongs only to (against Hofmann), and means, as in Rom 9:1 , 2Co 2:17 ; 2Co 12:19 , Eph 4:17 , as found in Christ, by means of life-fellowship with Him, Paul being only the organ of Christ; not for the sake of the Lord (Flatt), which would require ; also not per dominum Jesum, as a form of oath (Estius, Grotius, and others), against which is the Greek usage; comp. Fritzsche on Rom 9:1 ; Khner, II. p. 307. Falsely, moreover, Theophylact: , , . . .
] the contents of the request and exhortation in the form of its purpose.
] see on 1Th 2:13 . Oecumenius, after Chrysostom (and so also Theophylact, also Pelt): , , . But this extension of the idea is arbitrarily inserted against the natural meaning of the word, and against 1Th 4:2 .
] is not superfluous (Grotius), but specifies in a substantive sense the following words, in order to collect them into one idea, as in Rom 4:13 ; Rom 8:26 ; Rom 13:9 ; Gal 5:14 ; Phi 4:10 ; Luk 1:62 . Comp. Winer, p. 99 [E. T. 134]; Bremi, ad Demosth. de Cherson. p. 236.
] and (thereby) to please God, is co-ordinate to , although logically considered it is the consequence of ; can only be the means of .
] sc. . Falsely Theophylact, adhering to Chrysostom: .
] a further intensification, as is a favourite custom with Paul; comp. 1Th 4:10 ; Phi 1:23 ; 2Co 7:13 , etc.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
SECOND PART
DIDACTIC AND HORTATORY
Ch. 4, 5
___________
I
Warning against Fornication and Covetousness
1Th 4:1-8.
1Furthermore, then, we beseech1 you, brethren, and exhort you [Finally then, brethren, we beseech you, and exhort]2 by [in,] the Lord Jesus, that,3 as ye have received of [according as ye received from]4 us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [even as also ye do walk,]5 so ye would abound more and more [ye would abound yet more].6 2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification [Gods will, your sanct., , ]; that ye should abstain 4[ye abstain] from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel [every one of you know how to possess himself of his own 5.]7 in sanctification and honor, 5not in the lust of concupiscence [in passion of lust, ], even as the [also the, Gentiles which [who] know not 6God; that no man [one] go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter [in the matter his brother, ]: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such [an avenger for all these things, ], as [even as, ] we also have forewarned [also told you before]8 and testified [fully testified].9 7For God hath not called [did not call, ] us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness [for uncleanness, but in 8sanctification].10 He therefore [Wherefore then he]11 that despiseth, despiseth [rejecteth, rejecteth]12 not man, but God, who hath also given [also gave]13 unto us His Holy Spirit [His Holy Spirit unto you].14
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (1Th 4:1-2.) Finally (for which the evidence here preponderates, comp. 2Co 13:10), not materially different from , 2Th 3:1; Php 4:8 is used either with a temporal meaning: henceforth, now (Mat 26:45), or in the sense of moreover; but not, as Chrysostom explains it: evermore. In the second signification it introduces the close of the discourse; Grotius: locutio properantis ad finem. That is the case even here; from what is personal Paul turns to the closing exhortation, which indeed is prolonged.15 He advances from wishing to exhorting (Roos). That they may become unblamable (1Th 3:13; with which the forms an immediate connection), he beseeches and exhorts in those particulars, in which there is yet room for improvement in the deficiencies of their faith; thus letting the begin meanwhile by letter, first in 1Th 4:1-12 in reference to their walk, then in 1Th 4:13 sqq. in reference to their knowledge. In the classics means only to ask a question, but in the Septuagint it already stands for (Psa 122:6), and in the New Testament it often means to beseech (2Th 2:1).And exhort, by virtue of apostolic authority; but the evangelical exhortation is a friendly entreaty, which respects freedom. The entreaty and the exhortation are exercised in the Lord Jesus; the fellowship of His life is the element (2Co 2:17); the Apostle acts as Christs organ: he reckons not himself sufficiently worthy even to beseech or exhort. The object of the exhortation is marked substantively by (Luk 22:23-24; Rom 8:26; Winer, 18. 3). The aim of the walk is to please God (as the Apostle pleases Him, 1Th 2:4). [Webster and Wilkinson: without art., such a being as God is.J. L.]Even as also ye do (actually) walk, recognizes what they already are; and this is implied also in the : yet more (than you now do) should you become rich and abound (here intransitive)16 therein. But not: You are to do more than is commanded.For, confirms the exhortation by an appeal to their own knowledge of what commandments (1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 1:18; the verb at 1Th 4:11 and 2Th 3:4) they had received (comp. 1Co 15:1; Gal 4:13).By the Lord Jesus, is not quite equivalent to of 1Th 4:1; we might have expected him to say: Jesus gave them by us; but he says on the contrary: We gave them by Him the Mediator of all truth and all authority; not did I command; comp. Rom 15:30. Synonymous with , 2Th 3:6; , 1Co 1:10.
2. (1Th 4:3.) For this is Gods will, &c. (1Th 5:18); [Webster and Wilkinson: The art. with draws attention to the circumstance that God had just been spoken of as one to whose will it should be our main object to conform, our God, the God we serve.J. L.] ;with this begins the special detail of the . The subject is ; the predicate (according to the best authorities, without the article). What follows does not embrace the entire will of God on all its sides; mult sunt voluntates, Act 13:22; Bengel.17In apposition to ,18 and substantially the subject of the statement, is , which differs from , 1Th 3:13, in that the latter denotes the religious and moral character, but the religious and moral process, the work of sanctification. Not materially different is Hofmanns view, according to which were merely appositional (to ?), and the proper definition of the would be first given by the following infinitives. In our Epistle Paul has as yet no occasion, as in Romans 3-6, to develop, in polemic opposition to Jewish legality, justification as the basis of sanctification; nor is that the case in the Corinthian Epistles; Paul has no set form; but the soul of his thought and action is this: By the grace of God I am what I am (1Co 15:10). Olshausen, like some of the older interpreters, would understand . as opposed to the immediately following , in the special sense of chastity. But that is . Not even in Rom 6:19; 1Ti 2:15, is the narrower sense found. And likewise, 1Th 4:7, is more comprehensive, including also covetousness, as in 1Th 2:3; 1Th 2:5. Though of 1Th 4:7 shows indeed that 1Th 4:6 must come under the contrast between uncleanness and sanctification, yet it does not at all follow from that, that the idea of the former is here limited to unchastity (see on 1Th 4:6). Rather, abstinence from fornication is merely one (chief) instance of the sanctification which he recommends.
3. (1Th 4:3-5.) That ye abstain, &c.The (accusative with) infinitive is epexegetical or appositional to . On the subduing of fornication, comp. 1 Corinthians 6, 7. Chrysostom: When he says, from all fornication, he leaves it to those who know, to think of the various kinds of lewdness. With the negative Paul couples the positive in the form of a cordinate accusative with infinitive: that every one of you know, as scire, understand how to, be able to(we only properly know, what we can also do)acquire, get,19 not possess, which must have been expressed by the perfect ; no other tense means to possess, not even Sir 6:1; Sir 51:20. By , however, vessel, utensil, tool, , some (Tertullian, Chrysostom [and the other more eminent Greek commentators, Theodoret, Theophylact, cumenius.J. L.], Calvin, Grotius [Bishops Hall and Wilson, Hammond, Whitby, &c.J. L.], Bengel, Olshausen, Pelt [Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson]20 understand the body; others (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Zwingli, Wetstein, Schott, De Wette, Lnemann, Ewald, Hofmann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott]),21 the wife. The former say that Scripture in still other places speaks of the body in this sensedoes not treat it contemptuously as the prison of the soulrecognizes indeed the trouble that it makes for us as the seat, not the origin, of sinbut requires that it stand in the Lords service as a sanctified organ of the Spirit (1Co 6:13); comp. 2Co 4:1 (where, it is true, the epithet is not to be overlooked); the Rabbins, moreover, use of the body; Philo says repeatedly: ; Barnabas, 7. 1Th 11: ; but also, 1Th 21, simply: . In our text might, if necessary, take the place of . But how does , to get, to obtain, suit with this? For to possess is not the meaning of the word, but acquirerean argument already employed by Wetstein. Accordingly would have to signify to get the mastery over; Chrysostom: Only through sanctification do we gain the body for a ; sin, on the contrary, gains it, when we are impure. As this is of itself somewhat artificial, so it is entirely at variance (De Wette, Lnemann [Koch, Alford, Ellicott]) with the fact, that to really belongs also the negative definition (1Th 4:5), (the genitive as in 1Th 1:3; passion peculiar to lust, concupiscence; . is the natural element of sin (Rom 7:7), which swells to passion; comp. , Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26). So then: You are to acquire the in sanctification, not in passionate lust; this does not suit the assumed meaning of ; for, in truth, it is only by sanctification that the mastery over the body is gained; by lust comes the opposite, the loss of the mastery. Gain the mastery over the body, not in passion, were to give an absurd turn to the prohibition.22
We are thus driven to the other explanation, for which, it is true, Scripture furnishes as little as for the first any perfectly exact parallel. For passages where man is described generally as a figure of clay (Isa 45:9, and often), or expressions as Rom 9:23, and such like, are too dissimilar. The one that comes nearest seems to be 1Pe 3:7; but even there the wife is described as the weaker vessel, to wit of the Divine grace, merely in the relation of contrast, over against the stronger vessel, but not as the vessel or instrument of the man. Among the Rabbins, however, the latter idea is found (with the blunt explanation: cui immittitur semen): vas meum quo ego utor, Megill. Esth. I. 11; and, besides, is used of taking a wife (Rth 4:10, Septuagint; Sir. 36:29 [Sir 36:24]).
It is objected, 1. that this would be to speak too meanly of the wife, as of a dependent instrument of the man, contrary to the reciprocity of 1Co 7:4; 1 Corinthians 2. that the opposition to . would be taken somewhat too narrowly, especially if we understand the matter thus: You are to contract marriage in sanctification, not in lust; in this way the exhortation would be, not for such as still remain single, or for widowers, and for others, even only in regard to the formation of the marriage tie; 3. (a point made by Olshausen, and also by Calvin before him), that the exhortation would thus not at all apply to the woman. It may be replied (with De Wette and Lnemann), 1. that the wife is not in every respect viewed as the instrument of the man, but only in the special relation suggested by the opposition to . Keep yourselves from vaga libido; procure rather every one his own instrument, to wit, for the instinct in question, not as one in . procures a , not his own, in passionate lust. Here, as in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul speaks plainly and undisguisedly, but yet briefly and decently. 2. This exhortation is generally applicable; that is to say, those who do not possess the gift of continence (1Co 7:2; 1Co 7:9) are, for the sake of avoiding , to take to themselves every one his own regular wife (if they are still single or widowers), and not use a that is not their own; but neither are they to marry in a merely fleshly way, and just so they are not to lead their married life in that spirit. It concerns both the formation of the marriage relation and the subsequent life therein, when it is said: Obtain your (at first and ever afterwards) in sanctification and honor. 3. This exhortation Paul directs with perfect propriety to the men as the specially active parties, who readily allow themselves greater liberty in this thing. The inference as regards Christian women was self-evident.
Lnemann thinks that in sanctification and honor is merely an explanation of what is implied in the expression, his own vessel. But the sense is richer, if we thus distinguish: 1. Let every one acquire his own vessel, and that, indeed, 2. in the proper way, as it should be acquired (and then also kept accordingly). It is not enough that one have a wife; it is likewise important, in what way he has got and now holds her. For a man may be drunk even on his own wines. The proper mode of the is therefore described: in sanctification inwardly, before God, so that there is an imitation of the love of Christ (Ephesians 5) and a mutual furtherance in the service of God and in the rule of the spirit; whence follows in the relation between man and man: and in honor (Col 2:23; 1Pe 3:1); in maintaining ones own honor, and in the respect or manifestation of honor that is shown to the wife; as opposed to the of him who sinks himself below the beasts, desecrating and degrading the by a sinful abuse through . . in fornication, or even in carnal excesses within the limits of marriage.
Even as also the Gentiles; in comparisons, 1Th 4:13; Rom 4:6; , as frequently for .
4. (1Th 4:6). That no one go beyond, &c., is added by asyndeton, with this variation, that now stands with the infinitive. ; cannot depend on if on account of the article it could not be parallel to and , then neither is it parallel to , which without the article depends on . Bengel sees in the asyndeton a proof that Paul is proceeding with the same topic, the bringing confirmation and climax to what was last said. It is, on the whole, supposed by many (Chrysostom: the subversion of marriage is worse than the robbery of treasures, Jerome, Erasmus [Bishop Wilson], Wetstein, Olshausen, Pelt, Von Gerlach [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott, Vaughan, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, and most others]), that (to overreach, injure) stands here, not in its ordinary meaning, but figuratively of violated marriage, as Pro 6:29-32 compares the thief and the adulterer (that, however, is not to describe the adulterer figuratively as a thief); comp. 2 Samuel 12 (but that is an express parable), and the tenth commandment (of the Reformed division),23 which embraces both kinds of sins. Paul (they think), having said before that fornication is contrary to sanctification, and therefore to God, now goes on to say that it wounds also brotherly loveis, so to speak, a greedy grasping at conjugal property, an injury to the rights of a brother. The specification, , would then be used euphemistically: in the matter (that mentioned in 1Th 4:4; 1Th 4:8; 2Co 7:11). On any other view, it is thought, there would be a quite abrupt introduction by asyndeton of a new subject, whereas even the of 1Th 4:7 shows that 1Th 4:6 speaks of the uncleanness of lewdness.
Against the last remark, see Exeg. Note 2 (on 1Th 4:3); is all impurity of the natural man, the dominion of the flesh over against the spirit; covetousness also belongs to it. On the other hand, there is no example (for a parable like that of Nathan is not one) of the asserted figurative use of ; and even the asyndeton does not prove what these interpreters wish. Indeed, closely viewed, something even false would be the result of this. That is to say, were &c. of 1Th 4:6 merely appositional to 1Th 4:4-5if nothing but a new side of were to come out of itthen the adulterous must be a characteristic of all ; a man, in other words, must thereby invade the rights of his brethren; which yet is not the case, for there is many an instance of . which violates no brothers right of possession; that is the case only in a single definite relation, and must consequently have been mentioned as something new, not simply as an apposition to what precedes. Even Lnemann is here too punctilious, when on account of the he would take . as cordinate, not with , and , but with : The will of God Isaiah 1. your sanctification, abstinence from fornication, and so forth; and 2. the . But in this way there results the awkwardness of understanding of 1Th 4:3 in the narrower sense of chastity, whereas in 1Th 4:7 it is understood by Lnemann himself (who takes 1Th 4:6 as an exhortation against covetousness) in the wider sense. We cannot be driven to this by that article.
Even if we had to acknowledge in this a slight ruggedness of style, we should yet say with Hofmann, that the very article shows that something new, and of a different nature, now comes in. The difficulty disappears, as soon as (in reading) we punctuate somewhat more strongly after , and again after . Thus (with Origen, Calvin, Zwingli, Grotius, De Wette, Lnemann, Ewald, Hofmann, and others) we recognize in 1Th 4:6 a new exhortation to a second evidence of sanctification (along with chastity as the first) in honesty of dealing, instead of a reckless and covetous overreaching. Many take absolutely, without an object, modum excedere; Luther: to grasp too far; II. 9. 501; Plato, Rep. 366. A. But since the one takes the two verbs close together, we shall do better by referring also, with Hofmann, the addition . and the object to both verbs; and then , to go beyond, is the same thing as to take no notice of, recklessly to disregard; in what? even in , the desire to have more. The verb is transitive also in 2Co 12:17-18; enclitic, for , as Grotius explains it, is not according to New Testament usenot even in 1Co 15:8; . means: in the business (Rom 16:2), or even lawsuit (1Co 6:1), on hand at any particular time.24
His brotheris this to be understood of brother in the widest sense, as equivalent to ? That, however, is contrary to the usage. Even denotes a member of the people of God. But should the limitation, as in Deu 23:19 sq., indicate a difference in the treatment of brethren and of strangers? By no means; it does not consist with the context, that those who are not brethren should be otherwise treated (comp. 1Th 3:12); Paul, looking simply at the intercourse of Christians with one another, requires that the same should be fraternal, and he uses the name of brother as an argument against unbrotherly overreaching; tiologia fugiend transgressionis, Bengel; just as in 1 Corinthians 6, where in like manner the transition from fornication (1 Thessalonians 5) to covetousness is by asyndeton, hurried and abrupt. In other places also Paul puts close together these two capital vices, Eph 4:19; Eph 5:3; Eph 5:5; Col 3:5.
Confirmation of the warning: Because that (Rom 1:19; Rom 1:21) the Lord (Bengel: Christus judex) is an avenger (vindex, Rom 13:4) for all these things; the most diverse sins (suits better, if the previous discourse was at least of two kinds of sin, and not merely of two forms of the same sin); comp. 1Co 5:11; 1Co 6:9-10; Gal 5:19 sqq.25
Even as we also told you before, not merely before this Epistle; that idea lies simply in the aorist (when we were with yon, even then our oral teaching was to no other effect); but the (comp, with , Gal 5:21) contains a reference to the coming of Christ to judgment: before it happens; and (by way of corroboration) fully testified (1Th 2:12 [11]). Calvin: tanta enim est hominum tarditas, ut nisi acriter perculsi nullo divini judicii sensu tangantur.
5. (1Th 4:7-8.) For God did not call, &c.What prompted the exhortation, a return to the fundamental idea of 1Th 4:3. The change from to is not without design. The former might possibly mark the condition: on the ground of. But to specify a ground, even in a negative way, does not accord with the free grace of the call. But, since the purpose of an action is the motive of it, may also express for the purpose of, hac lege ut essemus, Gal 5:13; Eph 2:10; Winer, 48, C. [Webster and Wilkinson: on the understanding of.J. L,]). , on the contrary, is internal; it may be understood by breviloquence (in order to be in) as equivalent to (Winer, 50, 5; 1Co 7:15 with Col 3:15); but also of the essential nature of the (Bengel, Hofmann): in the offer and operation of sanctification the existed; that was the element in which the moved. The Apostle does not think so specially as we do of sanctification as a gradual subdual of the flesh, but it is for him separation from the world for God, the being made partakers of His Spirit; as Gal 1:6; Eph 6:4.
Wherefore then he that despiseth [rejecteth];26, to invalidate, treat as null; more rarely with a personal object: to reject (Luk 10:16); in the Septuagint frequently for . Isa 21:2; Isa 24:16. To the participle some supply , others , , (1Th 4:2), not incorrectly as regards the sense, but grammatically it is better to take it (with De Wette, Lnemann, Hofmann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott]) as without an object, substantively: the despiser [rejecter]. In what follows we must not take for , which weakens the force of the statement, but thus: The man, through whom the commands were conveyed to him, does not even come into view by the side of the despising of God, from whom they spring. In the case of , to think with cumenius, Pelt, of the overreached brother, 1Th 4:6, or even with Hofmann of the misused woman, and the brother injured through covetousness, is still more out of the way.27
In the addition: who (also,28 together with the calling) giveth (continuously), or gave (once) His Holy Spirit unto you, lies the climax of the exhortation. With the reading, unto us, one might think of the Apostles, who speak from the Spirit (1Co 7:40), whose word therefore is not to be despised, or again (since this apologetic assurance is here uncalled for) of Christians generally. The better attested , however, is for the readers: He giveth (or gave) into you [in euch hinein, for ] His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who incites to sanctification, to dwell in you; and thus (De Wette, Olshausen), along with the commandment, the gift also of discernment, illumination through the prophets among you (1Th 5:20), and the spirit of discernment in yourselves (1Th 5:21), so that ye are able to judge whether I speak from myselfso that ye are (1Th 4:9); and thus to you, moreover, sanctification is made a possible thing, for surely ye have not in vain received His Holy Spirit (Ewald); ye are, therefore, also the more inexcusable, if ye despise His commandments, grieve the Holy Spirit, and resist His discipline (Eph 4:30; Lnemann, Hofmann).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (1Th 4:1.) There is danger in knowing the way, and not going forward (Jam 1:22). Standing still tends to backsliding. The point is, to walk continually, step by step, even to the mark. Chrysostom: The earth returns more than is given to it.But this as fruit, from the living force of the seed; no opera supererogationis. The true is not any acting over and above the commandments (1Th 4:2), but a more and more willing fulfilment of the commandments. Zwingli: No one can here be perfect, and he that standeth, let him take heed lest he fall. Daily we fall and sin; let us also daily arise.That requires an ever fresh exhortation and admonition in the midst of the frivolity of an age, which heedlessly despises the judgment of God.Rieger: When one has once received from another something pertaining to instruction in the matter of salvation, this forms a tie between hearts, such that one may hope to effect a still further advance. A word received with love into the heart communicates to us also an impulse to become ever more perfect. [Matthew Henry: The Apostle taught them how to walk, not how to talk.Adam Clarke: God sets no bounds to the communications of His grace and Spirit to them that are faithful. And as there are no bounds to the graces, so there should be none to the exercise of those graces.J. L.]
2. (1Th 4:2). Bengel remarks, that in the Epistles to the only recently founded church at Thessalonica the Apostle speaks frequently of his commands; but seldom in Epistles to churches of longer standing. Evangelical freedom is no antinomianism. The ordinances of God require the obedience of faith. Absolute autonomy and creaturehood are mutually irreconcilable. The way to true Christian freedom lies through the obedience of faith.
3. (1Th 4:3.) Sanctification is separation from the things of the world, purification from the pollution of the flesh, the surrender of ourselves to the service of God, to the dominion of the spirit over the flesh, for a pure offering to God who is holy, that is, who abides like Himself, asserting Himself in His spirituality, and therefore with an absolute superiority, not only to everything impure, but to all that is created. Lev 19:2, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.Rieger: Under the impulse of His Spirit it pervades the whole man, so that all his powers and members are occupied in the service of righteousness. To this points even the emotion of shame, wherein is proclaimed a consciousness of the fall, and a longing after original innocence.The same; We must not regard sanctification as such a lofty virtue, that only a very few are required to strive after it (comp. Heb 12:14).
4. (1Th 4:3-6.) We need not be surprised at this warning against gross sins. The gospel does not out off magically at one blow all danger of seduction. Gross sins on one side, great workings of the Spirit on the othersuch is the mighty contrast in the primitive churches. Nowadays everything is brought much nearer to a level. Besides, the lust of the flesh and the thirst for gain are the capital vices, not merely of heathenism, but to this very day especially of so many a rich commercial town.
5. (35.) Sensuality is a peculiarly powerful lust of the natural man, and strives against sanctification. Heathen laxity accounts it a matter of indifference, unless some right of wedlock is infringed; nay, by a reciprocal influence of error and lusts (Eph 4:22), and in consequence of a wicked ignorance of the holy God, heathenism, while deifying the natural instinct, sanctions even a holy debauchery, and that even to the most unnatural abominations (comp. my Discourse on the calling of the prophet Hosea, Basel). Even the nobler heathens, e. g. Plato in the Symposium, sometimes commend in the wise man as a sublime continence that without which a Christian were no Christian, while they speak of shameful things without any holy abhorrence. How feeble is their protest even against pederasty! And, sure enough, what a state of things was that of the Roman world at that time! A quite different spirit of earnest opposition was shown already even by the law of the Old Covenant (Lev 18:30; Deu 22:21; Deu 23:17); and the gospel thoroughly enforces the demand for resistance even to the secrecy of the thoughts (Mat 5:28). On one occasion the Apostle appeals to the Christian sense of honor: Ye will not, surely, take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot (1Co 6:15)? and then again as here: Ye will not be willing, I hope, to live as do the heathen? Such admonitions are still needed by us. For the prevailing tendency is to think far too lightly of the fleshly lusts, which yet war against the soul.Rieger: When a stale Christianity is ever anew reviving all heathenish vanities in operas, plays, novels, shameful pictures and images, it falls again likewise, along with heathenish unbelief, into heathenish fornication.To subdue it is not an affair of a single resolution, but of continuous practice.Chrysostom: of an earnest disciplinegrounded in a knowledge of ones own bodily and mental disposition, and showing itself by caution in intercourse, avoidance of all temptations, of all impurity in look, gesture, touch, of all seductive reading, whereby the evil treasure of the heart is enlarged, by laying hold of the Divine help, turning to account past experiences, perseverance in prayer, serious contemplation of the shortness of life and the preciousness of the faculties vouchsafed, by exerting the same with faithful diligence, and, above all, by overcoming in the blood of Jesus (Rev 12:11).
A principal means, and one of Divine appointment, is the holy and honorable use of marriage; incontinenti medicina et continentia ipsa, C. Hel 4:29. But it must not be contracted in a way of carnal frivolity, nor carried on in a spirit of carnal license. Paul speaks of these things without any absurd prudery or spurious spirituality; what belongs to nature he mentions without disguise, does not dispute what is due to a natural necessity, but insists on discipline and a hallowed method in the satisfaction of this instinct. We ought to be thankful for this sober teaching, equally remote as it is from a false burdening of the conscience through monkish perverseness (comp. 1Co 7:3-5, in opposition to a merely nominal marriage), and from a privileged explanation of immoderate fleshly lust. Nor are we at liberty to decline even the humiliation implied in the assignment of motive, 1Co 7:2.
Zwingli: Paul does not altogether forbid the affectionquis enim sine affectu cohabitat uxori su?but whatever in that regard is immoderate and disorderly.What is essential in holy wedlock is the helping of one another to grow in the rule of the spirit (Rieger: sanctification with reference to God and His service); this Divine aim in connection with what is humanly noble, to be mindful of ones own honor, and not less of the honor and dignity of the woman in a due regard to her personality. This requires a constant modesty; for the Divinely ordained instinct (Gen 1:28; Gen 2:24) is no longer since the fall to be regarded as uninjured (Gen 3:7). Whoever abandons himself without reserve to lust, in his case it degenerates for his punishment into a ruling passion, of which he becomes the slave.
6. (1Th 4:5.) That the Gentiles know not God (Gal 4:8; Eph 2:12; Eph 4:17 sqq.); this statement seems to be contradicted, not merely by so many beautiful expressions of the heathen respecting Divine things, but by the Apostles own words, when he pronounces them inexcusable, Rom 1:19 sqq., for the very reason that they know God by His creation. But the principle of reconciliation is found in the last mentioned passage itself. When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and thus their thoughts became vain and their foolish heart was darkened. They held down29 the truth in unrighteousness. They consequently do not know God as the God before whom we stand, the Holy One with eyes of flame, who is Spirit and not flesh; whom we know only in proportion to our sanctification; for it is only when we are willing to strive after that which is the will of God, that we receive also the witness of the Spirit, and attain to the full knowledge of Him as the Searcher of our life. Even of men, whom we know merely by sight or from hearsay, not from personal intercourse, we do not say that we know them. In this full, living sense, therefore, the heathen know not God ( , the one, true God). This is a guilty ignorance, of which the general and the individual guilt are in an inverse proportion. But even the better viewshow fragmentary are they, and how little do they amount to an undoubting, salutary, popularly pervasive knowledge!
7. (1Th 4:6.) Paul frequently brings together the two capital vices, lust and covetousness; comp. also Heb 13:4-5. Between these two diverging sins, there is affinity and contrast. Both are characterized by unfaithfulness, unbelief, as if God did not see or avengeas if He were not a Spirit, nor holy. The man who is unfaithful to God in regard to his body, that nearest of possessions, is easily so likewise in reference to property of every kind, and vice versa. Or perhaps sin develops itself in a one-sided way. Libertines may be loyal and generous in money matters; honest people are frequently covetous, niggardly, bent on their own advantage. Indeed, covetousness is the vice of upright people, and is often joined to a pharisaic religionism; it is also much more rarely confessed than other sins. Binet gives us the statement of a Catholic confessor, that in twenty years innumerable sins had been confessed to him, but not in a single instance covetousness. Then perhaps, in circumstances of special temptation, the mischief breaks out also in the other direction. Not being thoroughly faithful, they have no power of resistance.
8. (1Th 4:7-8.) The Divine call, and, along with that, the communication of the Holy Spirit, enhance responsibility (Luk 12:48). And indeed the final measure of all sin is not the injury done to our neighbors, but the contempt put upon God (Exo 16:7; 1Sa 8:7). People are fain to put forward as an excuse their dislike to men.Zwingli: The parson I will not listen to, the false teacher, the heretic;such is the talk of those who do not dare openly to reject God.To what extent may the cause of the teacher be identified with that of God? A wicked, hierarchical abuse is certainly possible, and occurs when the privilege of the teachers position is throughout, and without question, asserted as infallible; contrary to Mat 16:17; Mat 16:23; Gal 2:11 sqq.; 1Co 10:15; 2Co 1:24. Nevertheless, Luk 10:16 remains in force, in so far as the servants of Christ take upon themselves, above all things, the obligation implied in this promise. And all penitential confession is complete only in the direct personal reference to God (B. li. 6 [4]); when the sinner begins clearly to perceive, that Gods commandments are no human fancies. The more light a man has received, so much the more heinous is his transgression. To grieve the Holy Spirit, with an ever-increasing constancy to do Him despite, may grow into the sin that is never forgiven. Comp. on this point my Discourse in the apologetische Beitrge von Gess und Riggenbach, Basel, 1863. For this reason the exhortation, which began with beseeching in Christ, becomes at the close a menace pointing to the vengeance of the Judge. The gospel knows nothing of the idea, that the fear of Gods judgment is an inadmissible motive. Its preaching is throughout two-edged.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Th 4:1. To beseech, where one might command, a model for Christs ministers (2Co 5:20).Heubner: The exhortation proceeds, 1. on the command of Christ, not of men (nor yet arbitrarily); 2. by His love to us; 3. by our love to Him; 4. by His future appearingBurlenburger Bibel: God beseeches and exhorts, though according to His right and His power he might well threaten and command. Therein appears his kindness and love toward man [Tit 3:4], With so much the greater force should this gracious style of injunction shame and subdue the otherwise hard natural heart.[See Bishop Beveridges Brief Notes on this verse.J. L.]
1Th 4:3. Sthelin: First holy, then peaceable; this will of God thou wilt not be able to annul.Heubner: All commandments have one object, sanctification. The special Christian motives to sanctification: 1. It is an obligation of gratitude; 2. it is the sign of the reconciliation received [Rom 5:11]; 3. Christ is made unto us sanctification [1Co 1:30]; 4. we owe it to the world; without it, we do the world an injury, and dishonor Christ.The same: The call of Christianity, a call to sanctification.Burlenburger Bibel: To this point is the sum and substance of all Holy Writ directed, that the people of God should also live godly. It is not possible that an unholy person should come into fellowship with God, the Holy One.[ For this is the will of God, your sanctification;the text of Massillons third Sermon pour une profession religieuse.J. L.]
Heubner: Christ the Guardian of our chastity.Chrysostom: Men are led to fornication by luxury, wealth, levity, idleness, leisure. These occasions must be cut off. In particular, he gives an impressive warning against adultery, as the consequence of the early practice of fornication. Bear with me, if I seem to speak what is impure, as if I had laid aside shame and blushing; for it is with reluctance that I submit to this, but for their sakes, who are not ashamed of the deeds, am I compelled to utter the words. You are ashamed to hear of it? It is, however, the deeds that you are ashamed of, not of the words. He speaks of these things, he says, as a surgeon probes a festering wound. It is not youth that is responsible for them, otherwise all young men must be licentious; but we fling ourselves into the funeral pile.Burlenburger Bibel: A man may restrain himself from all outward eruptions of evil lust, and yet be inwardly full of the stench of the filthiest thoughts and desires.
1Th 4:2. Who is allowed to say that he knows God? The man who loves Him, keeps His commandments, stands in sanctification.
1Th 4:3-6. The similarity and difference of the two capital vices mentioned by the Apostle.Covetousness itself is an uncleanness.
[1Th 4:7. Leighton: It is sacrilege for you to dispose of yourselves after the impure manner of the world, and to apply yourselves to any profane use, whom God hath consecrated to HimselfJ. L.]
1Th 4:6-8. Dread of the Judge and Avenger is not set aside even by the gospel, 1. Servile fear, indeed (Rom 8:15), hath torment and is not in love (1Jn 4:18); but every one who does not fear is not therefore a child of God; better than careless or insolent frivolity, the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom 2. Nay, within the sphere of grace, it is needful to use it with fear and trembling, that it be not turned into lasciviousness (2Co 5:11;Php 2:12 [Judges 4]). 3. But the fear of God, the only Judge, is identical with trust in Him, the only Saviour and Protector (Mat 10:28-31).[Leighton: Men are ready to find out poor shifts to deceive themselves, when they have some way deceived their brother, and to stop the mouth of their own conscience with some quibble and some slight excuse, and force themselves at length to believe they have done no wrong. Therefore the Apostle, to fright them out of their shifts, sets before them an exacter Judge, who cannot be deceived nor mocked, who shall one day unveil the conscience, and blow away these vain self-excuses as smoke; and that just Lord will punish all injustice.J. L.]Berlenburger Bibel: The despising [rejecting] occurs also through a hypocritical faith, when the way of sanctification is refused as savoring of legalism. The flesh makes ever-fresh trials, whether it may be able to regain its old ascendency.
1Th 4:1-8. Stockmeyer (in a series of manuscript Sermons, of which he has most kindly allowed us the use): Exhortation to sanctification: 1. Why is it still a necessity for a church even of true Christians? Their standing is already in sanctification, but they need to become ever more perfect: a. they are still far from having attained to the measure of Christs example; it behooves them to strive against the temptation to a self-satisfied stationariness; b. the tendencies to sin are powerful; earlier habits of sin still retain an influence; whereas no department of life is to remain unsanctified, and no toleration is to be given to stubbornness, indolence, excuses, or palliations; otherwise sanctification gradually expires, 2. What are the particular points made prominent by the Apostle according to the special need of his readers? the two capital sins of the heathen world, fleshly lust and greed of gain. a. To offer wanton apologies for the former is to sink back into heathenism, which knows nothing of God. b. The second is a reckless encroaching on ones neighbor. Against this Paul warns, at the same time that he fully recognizes brotherly love (1Th 4:9-10); for a man may contribute to charitable objects, and yet all the while seek advantages in trade, that are an overreaching of his neighbors. But he who on these points is free from reproach, let him try himself whether there are not others, in which his sanctification is still defective. 3. What is the serious admonition with which the Apostle confirms and strengthens his word of exhortation? The pro-claimer of evangelical grace speaks of punishment from an avenging God. On all ungodliness of men rests Gods wrath; he, therefore, who scorns the way prepared by Gods grace for escaping that wrath, forsakes the way of grace, and must be overtaken by the wrath; yea, he is worthy of a far sorer condemnation than heathens and Jews, just because to him the Spirit was given. Yes, help to achieve the victory is proffered to him in the strength of the Spirit.
1Th 4:1-7 is the Epistle for the Sunday Reminiscere.
Footnotes:
[1]So at least in the text of the American reprint. But, as the Commentary gives the first aorist,, this is perhaps one of the too numerous errors in these otherwise comely editions of Ellicott.J. L.]
[2]1Th 4:1.[ (comp. E. 1 Thessalonians 4 :2Th 3:1; 2Co 13:11; Eph 6:10; Php 3:1; Php 4:8, and see Exegetical Notes, 1. In this case nearly all the uncial manuscripts, including Sin., and modern editors omit the , as at 2Co 13:11) , , .J. L.]
[3]1Th 4:1.B. D.1 and others give , and resume at the end of the verse: . [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott].Sin. A. and others omit the first .
[4]1Th 4:1.[ (when we were with you) .J. L.]
[5]1Th 4:1. is given by a large number of the oldest authorities [Sin. A. B. D. E. F. G., Vulgate, &c.; and so Wells, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, Am. Bible Union.J. L.]; it was probably omitted as cumbrous.
[6]1Th 4:1.[ . German: noch mehr; Wakefield, Conybeare at 1Th 4:10, Ellicott: still more; Sharpe, Alford: yet more.In 1Th 4:2, for , Sin. reads ., with one or two cursives.J. L.]
[7]1Th 4:4.[ . See the Exegetical Notes, 3.Sin.1 repeats before .J. L.]
[8]1Th 4:6.[ again referring to the time of his personal ministry at Thessalonica.The form of the second aorist, is given by Griesbach, Scholz, Ellicott* (?).J. L.]
[9]1Th 4:6.[. The is recognized as intensive by many of the commentaries and versions. Beza asseveranter; Benson, Ellicott: solemnly; Macknight, Peile: fully; Alford: constantly; &c.The before in this verse is wanting in Sin.1 A. B. D.,1 and is cancelled by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott.J. L.]
[10]1Th 4:7.[, . See the Exegetical Notes, 5.J. L.]
[11]1Th 4:8.[So Macknight and Ellicott render . Comp. the E. V. at Heb 12:1the only other instance of .J. L.]
[12]1Th 4:8.[In both cases ; for which Erasmus and other Latin versions here change the spernit of the Vulgate into rejicit or repudiat, as many German versions (though not Riggenbachs) do Luthers verachtet into verwirft. The E. V. marginal rejecteth is preferred by several English translators, including Alford, in the Commentary, Ellicott, and the Am. Bible Union.J. L.]
[13]1Th 4:8.The authorities are divided between [the lect. rec., retained by nearly all the editors, after A. K. L. and [Lachmann, after Sin.1 B. D. E. F. G.], both with or [Lachmann] without .
[14]1Th 4:8.[ .] The preponderance of authority is for [Sin. B. D. E. F. G. &c. the Syriac and other versions] instead of [A., Vulgate, &c.Almost all the critical editions have .J. L.].
[15][Vaughan: Literally, As a remaining thing: marking an approach towards the conclusion of the Epistle, hut not necessarily a very near approach.Webster and Wilkinson: Now then, what else I have to say is; , Let me say further.J. L.]
[16][contrasted with the transitive of 1Th 3:12.J. L.]
[17][Ellicott would explain the absence of the article simply by reference to the substantive verb preceding.J. L.]
[18][Ellicott [after Alford] says, to the preceding . But his previous remark, that one reason why , the subject, is placed somewhat emphatically forward is, that it may direct the readers attention to the noun in apposition that follows, naturally suggests the other and, I think, better view.J. L.]
[19][German: erwerben, for . Jowett and Ellicott: get himself. In the Revision I suggested: possess himself ofa phrase which Vaughan has adopted. Wordsworth: acquire and hold; Webster and Wilkinson: secure the possession of.J. L.]
[20][I should say, a majority of all the commentators.J. L.]
[21][Ellicott: and apparently the majority of recent expositors. Most of the older commentators go the other way.J. L.]
[22][I must still question whether the above argument, however plausible, is quite as demonstrative, as has been supposed. As I remarked in the Revision: If the writer really meant to say: Instead of serving divers lusts and pleasures (Tit 3:3, .), and thus making the body your tyrant (Rom 16:18; 2Pe 2:19) and your God (Php 3:19), let every one of you seek to get possession and control of it, in a holy and honorable use, not in a vile abuse, it does not appear that such a construction would he in any respect more harsh and difficult than what is often met with; e. g. Rom 3:8; 1Jn 3:12. Comp. 1Co 9:27. Jowett: The words , though forming an antithesis to , need not necessarily, when applied to the heathen, carry us back to . In 1Th 4:5 these latter words are lost sight of, and some general idea gathered from them, such as living .J. L.]
[23][Luthers Catechism retains the Roman Catholic arrangement of the decalogue, which divides the tenth commandment into two to make up for the omission of the second.J. L.]
[24][Per contra, Ellicott: The clause is not merely parallel to the anarthrous , but reverts to the preceding (Ellicott on this point agreeing with Lnemann), of which it presents a specific exemplification more immediately suggested by the second part of 1Th 4:4. First, is prohibited; then a holy use of its natural remedy affirmatively inculcated; and lastly, the heinous sin of , especially as regarded in its social aspects, formally denounced. So rightly Chrys. ( ), and after him Theod., Theophyl., cum., and the majority of modern commentators. To regard the verse with Calv., Grot., and recently De Wette, Lnem., Koch, as referring to the fraud and covetousness in the affairs of life, is (a) to infringe on the plain meaning of ; () to obscure the reference to the key-word of the paragraph, , 1Th 4:7; () to mar the contextual symmetry of the verses; and, lastly, to introduce an exegesis so frigid and unnatural, as to make us wonder that such good names should be associated with an interpretation so seemingly improbable. So Alford and Jowett. Comp. Notes z and b in the Revision of this verse.J. L.]
[25][Our Translators, following the Bishops Bible, seem to have taken as masculine, for the transgressors (Wells, Barnes, Sharpe, Conybeare), or for the injured parties. But all the other older English versions have the word things, and nearly all commentators agree in making the pronoun neuter.Our authors remark on made frequently by those who take his view of to . …is of no weight. Why may not the reference be to the various forms of fleshly uncleanness?J. L.]
[26][See Critical Note 11.J. L.]
[27][Ellicott: a man, any man, with a latent reference to the Apostle.J. L.]
[28][The author brackets the also in the translation. See Critical Note 12.J. L.]
[29][German: niederhalten, for .J. L.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 2201
ADVANCEMENT IN HOLINESS ENFORCED
1Th 4:1. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
OUR blessed Lord, when about to leave the world, commanded his Apostles to go and proselyte all nations to his religion, teaching them at the same time to observe and do all things that he had commanded them. Thus, in their ministrations, principle and practice were to go hand in hand. But many are disposed to separate what he has thus united; some making the Gospel little else than a system of moral duties; whilst others omit duty altogether, and occupy themselves entirely in establishing their own peculiar views of its doctrines. Both of these parties we conceive to be wrong. A superstructure is nothing without a foundation; neither is a foundation any thing without a superstructure. Each indeed has its appropriate place; but both are alike important: for if, on the one hand, the superstructure will fall, without a foundation; so on the other hand, it is for the sake of the superstructure alone that the foundation is laid. St. Paul, as a wise master-builder, was careful at all times to lay his foundation deep and strong: but, having done this, he was careful also to raise upon it a beauteous edifice, such as God himself would delight to inhabit [Note: 1Co 3:10-11. Eph 2:22.]. This appears in all his epistles, not excepting those which are most devoted to the establishment of sound doctrine. In the epistle before us he seems to have had little else in view, than to assure the Thessalonians of his tender regard for them, and to excite them to the highest possible attainments in universal holiness. He was ready enough to acknowledge, that his instructions had produced the most salutary effects upon them; but he was anxious that they should still press forward for higher attainments, as long as any thing should remain to be attained.
The words which we have just read consist of an appeal, and an exhortation. Let us consider,
I.
The appeal
St. Paul had not sought to amuse them by curious speculations; nor had he given them maxims whereby they might please and gratify their fellow-creatures. His object had been to bring them to such a holy and consistent walk, as would be pleasing and acceptable to their God. What kind of a walk that is, it will be profitable for us to inquire.
If we would so walk as to please God, we must,
1.
Walk in Christ, by a living faith
[This is particularly required by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians: As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him [Note: Col 2:6.]. By this is meant, that we should walk in a continual dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for all those blessings which we stand in need of. He is the fountain of them all: they are treasured up in him, on purpose that we may have them secured for us against every enemy [Note: Col 3:3.]. Do we need a justifying righteousness? To him we must look for it, and from him we must receive it: We must call him, The Lord our Righteousness [Note: Jer 23:6.]. Do we need grace to sanctify and renew our souls? From him we must receive it, according to our necessities [Note: Joh 1:16.]. Our wisdom, our strength, our peace, our all, is in him, and must be derived from him in the exercise of faith and prayer [Note: 1Co 1:30.]. Thus it was that St. Paul himself walked: The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me [Note: Gal 2:20.]. And thus it is that we also must live, depending on him for every thing, and glorying in him alone [Note: Isa 45:24-25.].]
2.
Walk after Christ, by a holy conversation
[This also is particularly specified by another Apostle as essential to an acceptable walk with God: He that abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked [Note: 1Jn 2:6.]. Our blessed Lord has left us an example, that we should follow his steps. Like him, we must live altogether for God, making it our meat and our drink to do his will. Like him, we must rise superior to all worldly cares, or pleasures, or honours, not being of the world, even as he was not of the world. Like him, we must exercise meekness and patience, and forbearance, and love even to our bitterest enemies, never swerving in the least from the path of duty for fear of them, nor yielding to any thing of a vindictive spirit on account of them, but rendering to them, under all circumstances, good for evil, and committing ourselves entirely to the disposal of an all-wise God [Note: 1Pe 2:21-23.]. In a word, the same mind must be in us as was in him, under every possible situation and circumstance of life [Note: Php 2:5.]: and then, as he pleased the Father always, so shall we infallibly be approved by him in the whole of our conversation [Note: Rom 12:2.].]
The Apostle, appealing to them that he had so taught them, exhorts them to press forward in the course he had pointed out. Let us proceed then to consider,
II.
The exhortation
In this he acknowledges, that they had already done well: but he wishes them to redouble their exertions in their heavenly way. Let us notice here,
1.
The fact conceded
[When he says, Ye have received of us, he does not mean merely that they had heard his instructions, but that they had so heard them as to be influenced by them. It was at all times a delight to the Apostle to acknowledge the good that was in his converts, and to bestow commendation on them as far as it was due. And it is with unfeigned joy, that we can make the same acknowledgment respecting those to whom we have ministered, We bless God that many have been brought to live by faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and so to walk as they have him for an ensample [Note: Of course, a congregation should be well known before such concessions are made. They come best from a stated pastor, who is well acquainted with their spiritual condition.]: and it is our earnest desire and prayer to God, that our ministrations may produce the same blessed effect on all. But whatever advances you may have made in the divine life, we must call your attention to,]
2.
The duty urged
[Paul would not that any one of his converts should faint or be weary in well-doing. The path of the just is like that of the sun, which advances without intermission to its meridian height and splendour [Note: Pro 4:18.]. Having begun to run well, we must continue; yea, like racers in a course, we must forget that which is behind, and press forward with ever-increasing ardour to that which is before, exerting ourselves the more, the nearer we approach the goal [Note: Php 3:13-14.]. Behold then our duty: Have we begun to walk in Christ Jesus? let us live more entirely upon him every day we live. Let us resemble the branch of a vine, which incessantly derives its sap and nourishment from the stock, and derives it only in order to its more abundant production of the choicest fruit [Note: Joh 15:4-5.]. Have we begun to walk after Christ? let us seek a more entire conformity to his image, yea, a perfect transformation into it from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord [Note: 2Co 3:18.]. We must know no bounds, no limits to our exertions: we must seek to grow up into him in all things, to attain the full measure of his stature [Note: Eph 4:13; Eph 4:15.], be holy as he is holy, and perfect as he is perfect.]
The affectionate and earnest manner in which the Apostle urges this duty upon them, will furnish us with an important and appropriate conclusion
He might well have enjoined these things in an authoritative manner; but for loves sake he rather besought them [Note: Philem. ver. 8, 9.]. But what an argument did he use! I exhort you by the Lord Jesus! By this sacred name I would also beseech you, beloved brethren: I would entreat you,
1.
By the consideration of all that he has done and suffered for you
[Can you reflect on the humiliation, the labours, the sufferings to which he submitted for you, and not long to requite him to the utmost of your power? He never assigned any bounds to his love, and will you fix any bounds to yours? He never ceased from his work, till he could say, It is finished: and will you stop short in yours? O brethren, this is our wish, even your perfection [Note: 2Co 13:9.]. Let the same be your wish, your labour, your continual pursuit.]
2.
By the consideration of all the interest that he yet takes in your welfare
[Night and day is he occupied in promoting the salvation of your souls. Though seated on his Fathers throne, and partaking of all his Fathers glory, he is not forgetful of you. On the contrary, he is making continual intercession for you, and administering the affairs of the whole creation for your good. Does he see you deviating in any respect from the path which he trod? Father, he cries, forgive them, and lay not this sin to their charge. Does he see the powers of darkness striving to ensnare you? He sends a host of angels to your aid, that they may minister unto you, and hold you up in their hands, that you dash not your foot against a stone. Does he see you ready to faint in your spiritual course? Go, says he, go, my Spirit, strengthen the hands, and encourage the heart, of that drooping saint: Take of the things that are mine, and shew them unto him: glorify me before him: and fulfil in him all my good pleasure.
Now then, when the Saviour thus cares for you, will you intermit your care for him? When he is thus managing your concerns, will you not with increasing confidence commit them to his care? When he is doing every thing that can possibly be done for you, will you leave any thing undone that can be done for him?]
3.
By the consideration of the honour he will derive from you
[He himself tells us, that his Father is glorified in our fruitfulness [Note: Joh 15:8.]. And St. Paul speaks of Christ also as magnified in his body, whether by life or death [Note: Php 1:20.]. What a thought is this! Can you, my brethren, glorify the Father, and magnify the Lord Jesus, and will you not strive to do it? Know assuredly, that your professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ does cause him to be exceedingly magnified: and the more the exceeding grace of God appears in you, the more of praises and adoration and thanksgiving will abound to him [Note: 2Co 9:13-14.]. Let this blessed prospect animate your souls: and whereinsoever you have hitherto glorified him, seek to abound more and more.]
4.
By the consideration of the glory that will accrue to him in the day of judgment
[In that great day the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe [Note: 2Th 1:10.]. The brighter his image shone upon them here, the more radiance will appear around them there; and all will be as jewels to compose his crown [Note: Mal 3:17.]. When the demoniac had confessed his inability to withstand the Lord Jesus, and yet had prevailed over seven men who attempted to cast out the evil spirit, we are told that the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified [Note: Act 19:17.]. How then will it be magnified, when the extent of his power in you shall be seen, and your once dark polluted souls shall shine forth as the sun in the firmament for ever and ever! Now then is the time for you to exalt his name, and to augment his glory to all eternity. It is but a little time that you will be able to do any thing for him: when death comes, all your opportunities to advance his glory will cease for ever. Up then, and be doing. We have shewn you how to walk and to please God, and you have begun the blessed work: but O, we entreat you to abound more and more! And may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen [Note: Heb 13:20-21.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
The Apostle is here exhorting the Church, to the blessed Fruits, and Effects, of Regeneration. He sweetly comforts the Lord’s People, on the Subject of the Body sleeping in Jesus.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. (2) For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. (3) For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: (4) That everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; (5) Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: (6) That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. (7) For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. (8) He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
In the opening of this Chapter, we find the Apostle, calling upon the Church, to exercise those distinguishing features of character, which are the immediate fruits of regeneration. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Now, for the better apprehension of the subject itself, as well as the special arguments, by which alone the Apostle calls upon believers to the practice of holiness; I very earnestly beg the Reader to attend to what the Apostle, hath said, in these verses. First. It is to the Church Paul here speaks; and not unto the unawakened, carnal, and ungodly world. He considers them as in a state of regeneration; for he saith as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and please God. A plain proof that he considered them as such, who from being called out of the Adam-nature of sin, had received Christ Jesus as the whole of salvation; and were looking to him for grace in the exercise of all gospel sanctification. Secondly. As the principle of the new life by regeneration, was wrought in the heart; so the effect of it would manifest itself in the life, in all holy conversation, and godliness. Nothing can be more manifest, that this is the whole drift of the Apostle’s precept. As ye have received of us how ye ought to walk. There can be no walk, for there is no life, in one, dead in trespasses and sins. But, as the Church was no longer dead in trespasses and sins; so, from the new life imparted, it was expected, suitable actions of life would appear. Ye have received of us the knowledge of these things; look to it then, that there be a suitable correspondence.
And this appears with yet further evidence, from what follows. For this is the will of God even your sanctification. God’s will is, that Christ is made of God unto his people, wisdom, righteousness. sanctification, and redemption. 1Co 1:30 . Then, as this is God’s will, and Christ is the sanctification of his people; this life of Christ in the soul, will manifest itself, in all corresponding conduct. Christ reigns, and rules within; and is the source of everything blessed to his people. Hence, therefore, it is known from the actions without, that Christ reigns within. For they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Gal 5:24 .
And, it should be observed yet further, that the sins of our corrupt nature, which the Gentiles were much addicted to, were not considered by them, in the light which the Gospel regarded. Hence Paul, writing to a Church chiefly gathered from Gentiles, found occasion, more particularly to advert to this subject. And where the Holy Spirit was given, which a state of regeneration implies, it became an interesting part of the Apostle’s exhortations, to show the Church, how effectually his Almighty power was manifested, in the lives of God’s people, in that work of the new-birth, wrought upon the heart. Agreeably to what John, the beloved Apostle, taught, whoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin because he is born of God. 1Jn 3:9 . Reader! it is very blessed to see, where the security of God’s people is found; that all strength in a life of grace, and righteousness, may be sought for only from the Lord! For further views on sanctification see 2Th 2:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The True End of Man
1Th 4:3
The will of God called all things into being, and conserves all things in existence by its power. And the message to our fainting souls today, is that this Almighty will is on our side in the great battle with evil; that this will is concerned in our salvation.
I. Before we proceed to a further consideration of the text, there are two words in it which we must examine carefully. The words ‘will’ and ‘sanctification’. To take the latter first, what precisely is meant by our sanctification? If we open our Bibles we shall find that it is applied both to things and persons. In the very second chapter of Genesis we have the word applied to the seventh day. ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.’ We find our Lord saying of Himself, ‘For their sakes I sanctify Myself. This is the will of God, that you should be separated from the world; that instead of having the world as your master and your end, you should be consecrated to God, having Him for your Lord, belonging to Him, being children of God, walking as children of light. The other word which we must notice is the word ‘will’. God wills all men to be saved. God wills your salvation, and in that will provides for each one sufficient grace to enable him to attain salvation.
II. ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’ From this it follows that God’s providence will order the circumstances of our life, with an end to our sanctification. (1) By supplying us with opportunities of grace sufficient to enable us to work out our salvation. God gives all that we need. (2) By opportunities of discipline. Consider some of the opportunities of discipline which come to us by God’s will, for the purpose of sanctifying us. (a) The discipline of pain. How differently pain works in souls. (b) The discipline of sorrow. What opposite results sorrow produces in different souls! (c) The discipline of temptation. (d) The discipline of work.
III. ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’ What courage this thought arouses in the fainting soul! I have on my side the mightiest force, the force which called this world into being. Though all things and men and the powers of evil were against me, if God were on my side I need not fear what they can do unto me.
A. G. Mortimer, Lenten Preaching, p. 14.
References. IV. 3. H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, p. 279. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 53. C. D. Bell, The Saintly Calling, p. 23. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church’s Year, p. 252. C. Gutch, Sermons, p. 1. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i. p. 101. IV. 7. H. W. Webb-Peploe, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 770. IV. 8. E. W. Attwood, Sermons for Clergy and Laity, p. 107. IV. 9-18. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Thessalonians, p. 183. IV. 10. F. W. Farrar, Sin and its Conquerors, p. 74. IV. 10-12. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 202.
Religion in Business
1Th 4:11
It is no uncommon thing to hear business men declare that they have no time to attend to religion. But such a statement reveals a complete ignorance of the very nature of religion, and especially of the peculiar traits which distinguish the Christian religion. Too busy with life to attend to the claims of religion! That is like the famous complaint of one who could not see the forest for the trees, or of that other who could not see London for the houses. The trees are the forest. The houses are London. This active, eager, business life is your religion. Too busy to be religious! God’s answer would be, ‘If you cannot be religious when you are busy, how could you be if you were at leisure? If you cannot make bricks of clay, how could you make them of straw?’ It is a new note that is struck in the New Testament, where business, the buying and selling, the work by which the daily bread is earned, is enjoined as the means of realising the kingdom of heaven. The amazing change seems to be produced almost insensibly by the mere facts of the Incarnation. And because this was the distinctive element of the Gospel at its inception, it was also the new discovery of the Reformers at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
I. Your handicraft, or business, or profession, is before all things the service which you have to render to God, the means by which your religion is to be exercised. The biographer of Michelangelo says, in speaking of his designs: ‘Incomplete as they are, they reveal Michelangelo’s loftiest dreams and purest visions… there is an air of meditation and of rapt devotion. The drawings for the Passion might be called the prayers and pious thoughts of the stern Master.’ Every lawful and honest calling is a service rendered to the community and to Christ. I imagine no one can be in doubt whether a calling is of this character or not. If it is, whether making or distributing, whether feeding or clothing, whether instructing or amusing or recreating, you may do it as the agent of Christ.
II. There is then no distinction between our religion and our daily business. The one is the Spirit, the other is the body which the Spirit is to animate. I will hazard one suggestion on the mode of breathing the Spirit into the body. See that you begin the busy day by definitely commending it to Christ, and committing yourself to His care and direction. But you say, The very nature of my employment is contrary to my conscience. I cannot ask God’s blessing on the things I have to do. But if you cannot ask God’s blessing on your business, you can ask Him to deliver you from it. Have faith in God. It is a question of a right will and of a simple faith. Tennyson beautifully described a living poet as ‘a reed through which all things blow into music’. You, as a Christian, in the world, busy with its duties and even to all appearance submerged beneath its concerns, become ‘a reed through which all things blow into religion’.
R. F. Horton, Brief Sermons for Busy Men, p. 1.
The Ambition of Quietness
1Th 4:11
The Church at Thessalonica, to which Paul wrote the letter, was in an unsettled and distracted state. The Gospel had come to it in such reality that it was tempted to be untrue to duty. Paul was not speaking to philosophic students. He was speaking to handicraftsmen, many of them weavers. And he said: ‘Make it your ambition to be quiet, and to do your own work as we commanded you, that you may walk honourably towards them who are without’.
I. Now the truth which unites the clauses of our text is that quietness is needed for true work. Study to be quiet and to do your business; you will never do the one without the other. In a measure that is true of outward quiet, at least when we reach the higher kinds of labour. Every man who is earnest about the highest work makes it his ambition to be quiet Of course there is a certain type of man that is largely impervious to outward tumult. Mr. Gladstone could read and write in Downing Street in total oblivion of the marching of the Horse Guards. But that does not mean that he did not require quietude; it means that he could command an inward quietude, and that he was master of such concentration as visits most of us only in rare moments.
II. But the words of our text have a far deeper meaning than can ever be exhausted by quietness of circumstances. They tell us that the best work is never possible unless there be a quietness of the heart. It is one of the legends of our Saviour’s childhood that in Joseph’s workshop He was a perfect worker. It is only a legend, and yet, like every legend, it leans for its secret of beauty on a truth, and the truth is that here was perfect peace, and perfect peace produced the perfect work. (1) Think, for example, of the disquiet of despondency; does not that tangle all that we put our hand to? (2) The same is true of the unrest of the passions; work becomes drudgery in their disquiet. (3) Again, the need of inward quiet for toil is seen in the working of an uneasy conscience. There is not a thing you do, not a task or duty you can set your hand to, which is not adversely and evilly affected if at the back of all there be an unquiet conscience. Study to be quiet, then, and do your business. Make it your ambition to have the rest of Christ.
G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, p. 310.
Asleep in Jesus ( for All Saints’ Day )
1Th 4:13
I. The Communion of Saints. All Saints’ Day is a day on which we show whether those words that some of us say every day have any meaning at all. ‘I believe in the Communion of Saints.’ I cannot conceive that anyone in this Church is not interested in the worship, the praise, and the prayer that the Church offers on All Saints’ Day, because there is probably not one of us who has not somebody beyond the veil, some one in Paradise, some one we strive, though but with a feeble longing, to get into closer communion with, some we have ‘loved long since and lost awhile’. Surely there is no person with any feeling of sympathy in his or her soul who can think at all about All Saints’ Day and be as if he or she had not thought.
II. Life After Death. Where is the soul? Where shall I go when I die? I know I shall not merely sleep. I have heard the text ‘where the tree falls there shall it lie,’ but God has spoken louder than that: He has said He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And my Lord and Master, when He came down to earth to reveal my Father’s mind to me, knew I should want to know something of the life after death. He did not tell me much, but He told that little very clearly. You remember the parable of Dives and Lazarus, you remember the conversation which Jesus represented as taking place between two men. There is not only a conversation, which of course means life, but there is an appeal to memory of the things in this world. And then we know that our Lord did not go to heaven on His death, ‘but to preach to the spirits in prison’ in a place of safe keeping. You do not preach to people who are incapable of hearing who are asleep. So you see our Lord would have us clearly understand that those loved ones whom we think of individually and collectively on All Saints’ Day are alive in the full sense of the word.
III. In God’s Safe Keeping. How then shall we deal with those who are dead? You know that a family never gets smaller. It has some of its members behind the veil, but all are to be joined together again. Scripture does not reveal very much, but we have very sound ground to go on. Surely we may understand this: the very word life means progress, development in one direction or another. Those in Paradise gain a clearer knowledge, a closer communion with God. I love to think and my Lord has given me a right to think it that it I strive after Him here, hindered by all that is summed up in the word ‘flesh,’ I shall gain Him more closely there. We do not know what the saints are doing, we know nothing about Paradise, but we know that God has them in safe keeping. And one day we hope to join them, and what are you and I doing to prepare for the fuller life beyond the veil?
“Them That Sleep in Him”
1Th 4:13
J. H. Newman writes:
‘There are, who have not the comfort of a peaceful burial. They die in battle, or on the sea, or in strange lands, or, as the early believers, under the hands of persecutors. Horrible tortures, or the mouths of wild beasts, have ere now dishonoured the sacred bodies of those who had fed upon Christ; and diseases corrupt them still. This is Satan’s work, the expiring efforts of his fury, after his overthrow by Christ. Still, as far as we can, we repair these insults of our Enemy, and tend honourably and piously those tabernacles in which Christ has dwelt. And in this view, what a venerable and fearful place is a Church, in and around which the dead are deposited! Truly it is chiefly sacred, as being the spot where God has for ages manifested Himself to His servants; but add to this the thought, that it is the actual resting-place of those very servants, through successive times, who still live unto Him. The dust around us will one day become animate. We may ourselves be dead long before, and not see it. We ourselves may elsewhere be buried, and, should it be our exceeding blessedness to rise to life eternal, we may rise in other places, far in the east or west. But, as God’s word is sure, what is sown is raised; the earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, shall become glory to glory, and life to the living God, and a true incorruptible image of the spirit made perfect. Here the saints sleep, here they shall rise. A great sight will a Christian country then be, if earth remains what it is; when holy places pour out the worshippers who have for generations kept vigil therein, waiting through the long night for the bright coming of Christ! And if this be so, what pious composed thoughts should be ours when we enter churches! God indeed is everywhere, and His angels go to and fro; yet can they be more worthily employed in their condescending care of man, than where good men sleep?’
Sermon on the Resurrection of the Body.
References. IV. 13. C. D. Bell, The Name Above Every Nome, p. 220. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 304. IV. 13, 14. T. H. Ball, Persuasions, p. 166. IV. 13-17. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 148.
Sleeping Through Jesus
1Th 4:14
Accurately rendered the words run, ‘them which sleep through Jesus’. There are two thoughts that I wish to dwell upon as suggested by these words.
I. The Softened Aspect of Death, and of the State of the Christian Dead. It is to Jesus primarily that the New Testament writers owe their use of this gracious emblem of sleep. But Jesus was not the originator of the expression. You find it in the Old Testament, where the Prophet Daniel, speaking of the end of the days and the bodily resurrection, designates those who share in it as ‘them that sleep in the dust of the earth’. And the Old Testament was not the sole origin of the phrase. Many an inscription of Greek and Roman date speaks of death under this figure: but almost always it is with the added, deepened note of despair, that it is a sleep which knows no waking, but lasts through eternal night. Now, the Christian thought associated with this emblem is the precise opposite of the pagan one. It is profoundly significant that throughout the whole of the New Testament the plain, naked word ‘death’ is usually applied, not to the physical fact which we ordinarily designate by the name, but to the grim thing of which that physical fact is only the emblem and the parable viz , the true death which lies in the separation of the soul from God; whilst predominantly the New Testament usage calls the physical fact by some other gentler form of expression, because the gentleness has passed over the thing to be designated. What, then, does this metaphor say to us? (1) It speaks first of rest. But let us remember that this repose, deep and blessed as it is, is not, as some would say, the repose of unconsciousness. However limited and imperfect may be the present connection of the disembodied dead, who sleep in Christ, with eternal things, they know themselves, they know their home and their Companion, and they know the blessedness in which they are lapped. (2) But another thought which is suggested by this emblem is most certainly the idea of awaking. The pagans said, as indeed one of their poets has it: ‘Suns can sink and return, but for us, when our brief light sinks, there is but one perpetual night of slumber’. The Christian idea of death is that it is transitory as a sleep in the morning, and sure to end. As St Augustine says somewhere: ‘Wherefore are they called sleepers, but because in the day of the Lord they will be re-awakened’.
II. Note the Ground of this Softened Aspect. They ‘sleep through Him’. In order to grasp the full meaning of such words as these of the Apostle, we must draw a broad distinction between the physical fact of the ending of corporeal life, and the mental condition which is associated with it by us. What we call death is a complex thing a bodily phenomenon plus conscience, the sense of sin, the certainty of retribution in the dim beyond. The mere physical fact is a trifle. Jesus Christ has abolished death, leaving the mere shell, but taking all the substance out of it. It has become a different thing to men, because in that death of His He has exhausted the bitterness, and has made it possible that we should pass into the shadow, and not fear either conscience or sin or judgment.
A. Maclaren, Triumphant Certainties, p. 232.
References. IV. 14. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 137; ibid. (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 362. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Thessalonians, p. 190. IV. 15. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. x. pp. 105, 449; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 153. IV. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1900. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 99; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 184. IV. 16, 17. J. M. Whiton, Beyond the Shadow, p. 195.
A Funeral Service
1Th 4:17
These words come to us as words of comfort, words of hope, in our hours of bereavement. They emphasise one of the great lessons taught us by the Resurrection, that because Christ rose from the dead the future of the believer is assured. We are often puzzled about the state of our blessed dead, but God’s Holy Word tells us all we need to know about them. No doubt it leaves much to be revealed at that great day when all secrets shall be disclosed; but the Apostle tells us clearly (verses 13 and 14) that the soul which has passed away in the faith of Christ is with Jesus. ‘Them also which sleep in Jesus’ is the phrase used, and there could not be a more beautiful description of the faithful departed. Truly St. Paul had ground for rebuking unseemly grief. We are not to sorrow as those who have no hope; we have a sure and certain hope, and it is fixed upon the risen Saviour. It was this great doctrine of Jesus and the Resurrection that St. Paul first preached to the Thessalonians (Act 17:3 ); and now, when he is writing to them calling them to sanctification, he reminds them again that it is Jesus and the Resurrection which is their one hope for this world, the world to come, and through all eternity.
Let us learn some practical lessons for our own comfort from these words of the Apostle.
I. The Chief Joy of Heaven. To us the chief joy of heaven will be that we shall be in the presence of Jesus. ‘Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am’ (Joh 17:24 ). To be with Christ, that is the deepest aspiration of the Christian heart.
And when we think of that supreme joy of heaven we cannot wish our friend back again in this troublesome world. We cannot doubt but that he has already seen the King in His beauty.
II. The Union of Christ and the Believer. Do not these words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians emphasise the closeness of the union which exists between Christ and the believer? ‘In Jesus’ (ver. 14), ‘In Christ’ (ver. 16) could anything be closer? This beautiful idea sends us back to the words of the Master Himself. ‘I go to prepare a place for you…. I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.’ No separation; absolute identity; and, ‘for ever with the Lord’. And as the believer is, and will be, one with Christ, so in that great Resurrection Day shall we be one with each other. That will be the great reunion
Father, sister, child, and mother
Meet once more.
We are looking forward to that day. At every Eucharist when we thank God for His servants departed this life in His faith and fear, we pray that ‘with them we may be partakers of the heavenly Kingdom’.
III. Do we find Comfort in these Words? St. Paul, having spoken to the Thessalonians of this glorious hope, bade them ‘comfort one another with these words’. Do they bring comfort to us? They may heal the sorrow caused by the departure of our loved one, but is it a source of comfort to us to know that the chief joy of heaven is the presence of Jesus?
References. IV. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1374. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 33. IV. 18. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. i. p. 451. V. 1-8. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 73. V. 2. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 243; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 102. V. 3. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 259.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Apostolic Prayers
1Th 4:11Th 51Th 5
“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you” ( 1Th 4:9 ). We have just heard the Apostle express a wish in prayer that he might see the face of his friends in Thessalonica, that he might perfect that which was lacking in their faith. Here he says there was nothing lacking in their love. Why, this is the supreme test of faith and righteousness: “We know that we have passed from death unto life” not because we can answer many questions, or hold high and wordy disputations, but “because we love the brethren.” “If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” These people had reached the very highest line of spiritual education. Perhaps something of this progress was due to the circumstances under which they lived. There were circumstances of persecution; daily affliction was the lot of the Christian life: these are circumstances which try the quality of men, and which bring them more closely together. The light disperses men, the darkness gathers them together; in the morning we leave one another; at night we all come home again. More persecution would mean more affection. In the darkest days of the olden time “they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written,” and they who conversed with one another were reckoned jewels of God.
How did they come to this high level of education? Were they taught by the Apostle? Partly. Did this come from their natural dispositions? for we have seen them to be humane, genial, and enthusiastic. Perhaps, in some degree. But what is the deeper and larger interpretation of this mutual loyalty, this sacred fraternal affection? The answer is given in this same verse ( 1Th 4:9 ): “for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” This is the teaching that fills the heart, that illumines the mind, that constrains the soul, that perfects the miracle of holiness. If we are not taught of God we are not taught at all, we have not got beyond the point of information and machines may almost be stuffed with intelligence. To be taught of God is to be filled with the Spirit of God, to enjoy the inspiration of God, to think God’s thoughts, and to live with God as if actually partakers of the Divine nature. Thy children shall be all taught of thee, thou holy Father of the universe; they shall know thy voice, they shall distinguish it from the voice of strangers; the voice of strangers they will not follow, but when they hear the tones of thy voice they will respond instantly, unanimously, and passionately. What have we been taught, if we have not been taught the mystery of love? Our religion is foam and our professions are vanity and our prayers are lies. Test the whole progress, as the whole purpose, of Christianity by this growth of love. How do we stand in this line? Have we large forgiveness? Are we ready to pardon? Have we a genius for overlooking infirmities? Are we inspired to detect and magnify one another’s excellences? Then we are taught of God, and we magnify the Cross, and we are worthy followers of Jesus Christ: but if this cannot be said of us, then all our profession is a bubble, glittering perhaps, but hollow certainly. He who loves man loves God. We cannot love man until we have the higher love, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself”: we cannot begin at the neighbourly end; if we do even apparently begin there we do really begin with the end that is Divine. Many men act under Divine inspiration who are not aware of the fact, who would almost resent the suggestion: but wherever you find sacrifice, love, true condescension, rich and self-sacrificing sympathy, you find God, if it be in paganism heathenism, or in the finest civilisation in the world. Wherever you find light you find the sun: wherever you find charity you find the Cross.
It is interesting to observe how, in the course of this letter, the Apostle is now profoundly theological, now passionately consecrated to high pursuits, and anon minute and detailed in practical exhortation. For example, he urges upon the Church in Thessalonica “that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” The Apostle was not conscious of any violence of transition from theme to theme. We are the victims of uniformity; we think it is a long way from heaven to earth so it is to some natures but heaven and earth ought to be equal terms to those who are really and externally in Christ. There ought to be no earth, no time, no space; all these details should be lost in the overwhelming and sublimating thought of eternity, then out of that thought we could come to do the day’s plain work with both hands, simply, industriously, faithfully. The idea of the Apostle in exhorting the Thessalonians to “study to be quiet” is beautiful as a picture, “Covet the honour of quietness”: where other men can see no honour but in fame, you see honour in quiet, simple, domestic obscurity. This is making the best of the smallest occasions. It is not, Study to be quiet and to obliterate yourselves; but, Covet the honour of doing so: count it a worthy ambition; do not allow the shade to be undervalued or the little corner to be dispraised as if it were unworthy of recognition: magnify obscurity, and count it fame to have a quiet resting-place with God. “And to do your own business”: do not go outside seeking to attract attention by interfering with things that you do not understand; keep to that you were born to, trained to, prepared for. If you understand your own business, you will find room enough in it for the exercise of your energies. “And to work with your own hands,” or with your own brains; for brains are hands. We are not to understand the word “hands” as if it were limited to the portion of the body thus commonly designated, but, Work with your own faculties, earn your own livelihood, make your own bread, establish and confirm your own social and personal position; do not be loafers in society, do not accept what other men are doing for you, but by genius, by invention, by suggestion, by patient industry in some way or other, render an equivalent for every mouthful of bread you enjoy. Society would thus be constituted on a large and secure basis. Christianity can handle all the affairs of life skilfully and successfully. Ignore the supernatural if you please, but in doing so you ignore the only power that can get hold of the entire occasion, and use it with sovereign and beneficent mastery.
We now have an illustration of the Apostle’s instantaneous method of transition. Mark with what amazing, almost blinding, suddenness, he turns to speak of the great subject of the Lord’s coming, and the awakening of those who sleep in Christ, and the being caught up in the air to meet the Lord around his invisible but infinite throne. I cannot read the words that follow without feeling that the Apostle Paul was under the impression that the Lord would come in the most literal way in a given period, and that period not remote. I am aware that there are arguments on the other side, but I cannot read these words and other words of kindred import without feeling that the Apostles were looking for the almost immediate appearance of Christ. Whether that advent took place in the destruction of Jerusalem, who can decide? That was a tragic and momentous era in human history, and in point of moral sublimity and political eclat it was enough to cover the whole suggestion of the Second Advent. I prefer rather to think that God has always trained the world by promises that have larger meanings in them than those that were obvious. He trained Abraham in this way; he said, I will show thee and give thee a country flowing with milk and honey, and Abraham rose and obediently followed the Lord: and when all came to all he said, I do not want anything on the earth, I seek a country out of sight. But if the Lord had promised him a country out of sight, a land celestial, the appeal would have been too great and sublime for his then mental condition: God promises us something that is measurable and visible that he may train us towards that which is infinite and unseen. Paul is the Abraham of this greater covenant. The Apostles were promised an advent, an all but immediate and visible appearance of Christ, and yet they were trained to see that Christ is always coming, that the universe exists as a highway along which he may advance so as to redeem and sanctify and educate and perfect his Church. Providence has thus been magnified and sanctified, so that events are no longer mere occurrences, they are epiphanies, they are revelations of the Lord, they are pages in an infinite book of revelation: blessed are they who have eyes to see these wonders: yea, thrice blessed are they who see the Lord in every sunrise and in every sunset, and who behold him on the whole circle of the year. We are straining ourselves after what we supposed to be sublime appearances; whereas Christ is appearing around us every moment; every event is a chariot in which he rides, every consecrated epoch of time is a throne on which he sits. Why do we not enjoy the immediate, continual, spiritual revelation of Christ?
Having indulged in this anticipation of the Lord’s coming, the Apostle returns with a fine grace, more than rhetorical, to practical exhortation and stimulus “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” ( 1Th 5:6 ). The Apostle would have us constantly awake; the Apostle made no provision for sleep, at least for sleep of a slothful kind. He lived this theory of wakefulness. There never was a man so entirely and absolutely awake as was the Apostle Paul. Nothing escaped that eager attention. It is said of great men, notably of Aristotle, that they would lie down to rest with brazen balls in their hands which would drop into metal vessels at the side of the couch, and thus moderate their sleep. If they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, shall we be slothful who profess to be in quest of a crown eternal? If men subjected themselves to this painful discipline that they might attain the highest intellectual capacity and faculty, shall we do nothing who ought to be training ourselves to the higher wisdom and the nobler communion? The sluggard gets nothing, the sluggard has no harvest: this is right. When you see the sluggard returning with bare hands, do not pity him; say, This is the Lord’s doing. If you could see the sluggard coming home with laden wains, so that his horses could hardly draw the rich harvest, you might then begin to suspect that the universe is an orphan left to itself, blind, helpless, wholly ironical in all its impulse and issue, a mischievous and pestilent lie: but so long as you see a man who has been over-slumbering, succumbing to want as to an armed man, then know that behind the little blue film or veil there is great beneficent Sovereignty overruling all things, smiting the wrong, and preparing to reward and honour, enrich and satisfy all faithfulness.
Now the Apostle continues his practical exhortations, saying many things that might be commented upon to our spiritual advantage; notably, saying ( 1Th 5:14 ) two things. “Warn them that are unruly.” We cannot do without that word “warn”: that is a great bell-word; ring the alarum, tell men of penalty, speak to men of hell, do not keep back the terror of the Lord. There be men who are gifted with this genius of warning; their voices arc terrible, their aspect confirms their dreary exhortation. “Support the weak”: literally, Put your shoulder to and shore-up the weak. Your shoulder was not made for epaulettes; your shoulder is not to be the seat of ornament, the point of decoration: if, O man, thou hast a brawny shoulder, it belongs to thy weak brother. You have seen buildings propped up: that is the precise idea of the Apostle here: shore-up the weak, let the weak man feel that he can rest upon you until he recover himself or until he have time to reclaim his position. He who has wealth holds it as a trustee, he who has strength holds it as a steward; he who counts his own gold shall have no heaven but the chink of his own metal, and that, thank God, shall be taken from him, and he shall hear no music evermore. But he who supports the weak and is patient toward all men, he who is kind, gentle, charitable, is never out of heaven; he cannot go to heaven because he is never away from it, he breathes its balmy air, he sings its exquisite music, he breathes the very spirit of the father-home.
From 1Th 5:16-22 , the Apostle speaks as it were in separate lines; that, at all events, is the mechanical form given to this exhortation by those who constructed the Authorised Version. For example “Rejoice evermore”: literally, Fare you well: cheer yourselves: drink God’s wine, have a banquet of love, let the spirit of high festivity be the spirit of Christian hearts and Christian families. Now what detailed instruction! “Pray without ceasing,” and “In everything give thanks.” These two should go together. Praying without ceasing means, be always in a prayerful spirit. The bird is not always flying, but how long does it take a bird to spread its wings? It should take us just so long to begin to pray when we see the fowler lift his piece, when we see the enemy stoop for a stone. Keep at it, be importunate, is the idea. There was a woman who stirred up the unjust judge to answer her; she left, literally, a spot in his face. If you keep on with ever so small a tapping upon one place, you will make an impression; a continual dropping wears the stone. The woman kept appealing until she made a spot in the man’s face, until where her finger smote there burned a fever flush, and he said in his heart, Curse her! What wants she eh? Hear what the unjust judge said. Sanctify this method of appeal, and as it were live on God’s promises, until, using the language of the illustration and using it with reverence, God would blush to deny his own covenant. “In everything give thanks” in affliction, in darkness, in winter, in the time of snow and ice and north wind; when there is no herd in the stall, when the fig tree doth not blossom: “in everything give thanks”: the darkness is best, the winter is but another name for rest, bereave-merit will but whet the appetite for reunion. So live in God and for God as to give thanks to him with, as it were, equal breath and emphasis, whether he give you great broad sunshine or make the whole sky a cloud.
“Quench not the Spirit.” Let inspiration have free play: speak out of your hearts what God puts into them: let the Spirit work in his own way and at his own time; sometimes the action will appear to be eccentric, sometimes it will be wholly incalculable, but do not quench the Spirit. Quenching may be done in one of two ways: first, by withdrawment of fuel, the fire dies when the fuel is not replenished; secondly, by drowning with water, pour on the stream and the fire dies. Neglect the ordinance of grace, and you quench the Spirit; invite the action of those who hate God and Christ, and they will pour cold water upon your flaming zeal. The Apostle says, “Quench not the Spirit”: you should live in the spiritual, the supernatural, the eternal, the invisible; you should live in the large, the glorious, the celestial. And if you do this then you will “Despise not prophesyings.” These two should be bracketed, namely, “Quench not the Spirit,” “Despise not prophesyings,” literally, preachings, utterances, all kinds of utterances; so that if a man shall come and speak to you in an unknown tongue do not laugh at him or scorn him, but say, What, is this new revelation? is this a new departure in accustomed providences? let us hear the man, if he speak loudly, or if his voice be low; if he shall speak uniformly and in consistency with what we already know, so be it; if he shall say something quite novel, startling, and contrary to practice, still let us hear him. That was the apostolic spirit. Paul was not an exclusive but an inclusive teacher: he was not a shepherd who drove away parts of the flock, but he looked among the wolves if haply he might find a sheep that was missing. Let us hear all voices. This has not been the rule of the Church. The Church has been foolish! The Church has loved to keep a place for martyrs, a fire for heretics, a block for those whom it hated because of supposed false doctrine. The Apostle would first have a sublime constant action of the Spirit, and then he would inquire reverently and intelligently into the quality of the preachings or prophesyings. What wondrous things have been done in the name of orthodoxy! The youngest are familiar with the story of Sir Isaac Newton, sitting in the garden, the apple falling upon him, and his discovering from that circumstance what is called the attraction of gravity, or the law of gravitation, and formulating an almost new economy of the universe from that one simple circumstance. Who could suspect anything wrong in that? Yet a man, a great man, called Leibnitz, charged Sir Isaac Newton with propounding a doctrine (I quote the words) “subversive of natural if not of revealed religion.” Poor Leibnitz! great Newton! If you have a truth, out with it. Who are they that keep natural and revealed religion? Who are these ecclesiastical constables? Who are those proud, mighty people who know everything and revel in their own omniscience? Despise not prophecy.
Now two more things “Prove all things:” test all things: having heard the prophesyings, do not necessarily believe them, but test them, sift them, probe them. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God, search into the whole case; call for proof, for illustration, for simplification, and see the reality of things; then “hold fast that which is good,” that which is proved, that which is established. “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” which is absurd and impossible; it should be, literally rendered, Abstain from every form of evil, abstain from every species or kind of evil. Many a man is apparently doing evil who is really doing good. This translation therefore cannot stand; it is not “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” because the appearance is always superficial and changeable, but, Abstain from every form, species, kind, quality, of evil abhor that which is evil.
Now the Apostle, having exhorted his Thessalonian friends, begins to pray for them ( 1Th 5:23 ). “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it…. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Paul, great, heroic, longsuffering, magnificent Paul how he writes, how he speaks, how he exhorts, how he prays! This is the very genius of Christianity: this is the miracle of Christ.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VIII
A LESSON ON CHRISTIAN MORALS
1Th 4:1-18
This exposition commences at 1Th 4 , which brings us to the sixth item of the extended analysis, the title of which is, “A Lesson on Christian Morals,” that is, it consists of an exhortation to purity/of life, to brotherly love, and to honest work.
Let us observe here, as in all of Paul’s letters, how the practical is deduced from the doctrinal. He had no conception of the practical apart from the doctrinal, otherwise this letter might have closed with the end of 1Th 3 , making good doctrinal sense, but it was ever Paul’s custom, after he had written the body of the discourse and of the theory, to transmute this further into the fruits of godliness.
Let us look at the first lesson on Christian morals: “Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more. For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification; that ye abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. Therefore, he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.”
That is a remarkable lesson, and particularly let us observe the necessity, in the case of these Gentile converts, for this exhortation, owing to the past habits of their lives. I mean that their religious habits were associated with the most debasing crimes and uncleanness, and it was a difficulty in the way of gospel preachers then, as our missionaries in heathen lands find it today, after men are converted to keep them from relapsing into those vile, beastly sins of the body.
I witnessed our missionaries dealing with that problem in Mexico, where the peons, or low class of Mexicans, know not what decency of life means. They were converted or professed to be, but what a difficult thing it was for the missionary to impress upon their consciences the sanctity of the family, or the chastity of the marriage relation.
Note this reference: “God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.” It is as noticeable in the conversion of a sinner as it is in the call to the ministry. The call, made through the gospel and by the power of the Holy Spirit, singles out a man and brings him in touch with God, and wherever it is a true and effectual calling it always ends in justification, sanctification, and the glorification of the body. Paul says, “Whom he called them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified.” The glorification of the body is its complete sanctification and freedom from all dishonor, weakness, and immorality. Whoever then sins, sins against the call that he received that made him a Christian. On that account, notice the nature of the offense: “Therefore, he that rejecteth [that command], rejecteth not man, but God, [because it was God who called him], who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.” If he be a Christian, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in him. In many places in Paul’s letters the exhortation to purity of life is based on the doctrine that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and that whosoever defileth or destroyeth the temple of God, him will God destroy.
The second exhortation is brotherly love: “But concerning the love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another; for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound [in this love] more and more.” There is a beautiful thought there, that the love which a Christian has for a fellow Christian is the result of going to school to God that God himself teaches the lesson. Hence our old-time Baptist preachers, in preaching upon the evidence of conversion, dealt particularly on love: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.”
I remember once in a great meeting a little girl timidly came forward and offered to join the church. She was very small, and one of the brethren moved that the case be deferred that she seemed too young to understand. I said, “Let us be sure we are right before we defer this case. This child is old enough to trust and old enough to love, and we will hear what she says for herself.” So I put this question: “Little daughter, how do you know that you love God’s people?” She said, “I have thought about that, and I have asked myself this question, ‘If I should come to a place where the road of life forks, one way very pleasant and the other very unpleasant, and God’s people went the unpleasant way, which crowd would I prefer to follow?’ and I thought that I should prefer to go with God’s people over a bad road than with ungodly people over a good road, because I love God’s people more than the other people.” Whereupon, the objectors began to distrust their wisdom, and when I examined her on faith she seemed to possess the sweetest trust in Jesus that I ever heard related. Where did she get it? She was God taught. Young as she was, she had been a pupil of the Almighty, and she had learned to love and trust Jehovah, and she had just as clear ideas about what is meant by loving the people of God by which we may know that we have passed from death unto life, as any grown person. There was not an objection in the house when we took the vote on receiving her for baptism. Young people are more apt to prove faithful than those who are converted when they are advanced in life.
He continues his exhortation: “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing.” What a sturdy Christianity Paul had! A loafer and a deadbeat got no respect from him at all. If able, anybody ought to work, not only that he may not lack anything, but in order that he may walk honestly before them that are without. Idleness leads to theft and dishonesty, and Paul elevates labor very high in dignity.
I read two things in the papers recently that pleased me very much. One was that the Ladies’ Aid Society of the Baptist Church at Mart, wanting to make a contribution, got in a wagon and went two miles in the country to a farm and picked a lot of cotton for which they received $12. That was no degradation to those women. The other thing was, that Deacon M. H. Standifer, of the First Church at Waco, took a wagon load of Baylor University boys out one Saturday and picked cotton, although it rained. Surely the Christian religion is in favor of good honest work. There is not a bit of shame in it.
Paul told these Thessalonians squarely that if anybody would not work, he must not ea that he was not entitled even to his one meal a day, much less three meals, if he was an idler. If a man had a hundred million dollars, he would be both sinful and unhappy if he did not work. One of the kings of France had a carpenter’s shop fixed up for him, and he went out there and worked at that business. His wife had a dairy, and there she would take her maids of honor and teach them how to keep their milk vessels clean, and have sweeter cream and make better butter than anyone else in the whole kingdom.
We come now to the richest and sweetest things in all the Word of God, which brings us to the seventh item of the analysis. This extends from 1Th 4:13-5:11 , and bears upon the great doctrine of the second advent, using certain facts to enable him to comfort all the people who were needlessly distressed concerning their dead.
I want to make perfectly clear the significance of this great passage of scripture. I will venture the assertion that almost every preacher who has conducted many funeral services has used this scripture. Let us see how rich it is in thought and meaning, and see if we can’t get some new light: “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope.” Ignorance concerning the state of the dead necessarily brings great anxiety and sorrow. We may be ignorant about human history, or the sciences, about the commonest facts of the world, but it is awful for us to be ignorant concerning the state of the dead. Upon that subject God has flashed the light of the brightest knowledge, and because of that bright light the keenness of sorrow is taken out of our hearts when our Christian loved ones die.
The special point of their ignorance that caused them sorrow was their belief that to die before Christ came would be a calamity. If one could just live until Christ came it would be all right, but he would suffer loss to die before Christ came. Paul wants to show them that it does not make the snap of a finger’s difference about whether we die before Christ comes or not, and it is foolish to set our hearts upon being alive when Christ comes. That desire arises from ignorance of the state of the righteous dead. If we notice the state of the righteous dead, we would see no difference in dying before Christ comes or being alive when he comes.
The next thought is that when a good man dies his spirit goes to Jesus. In that respect he is ahead of us who are alive. Hence, Paul says, “Brethren, for me to die is gain, for when I am absent from the body I am present with the Lord.” No loss there. As Jesus said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.” As the book of Ecclesiastes says, “Then shall the body return to the dust as it was, but the spirit unto God who gave it.” Get that fixed, that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building with God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The advantage, then, is with the one that dies. Paul says, “On my part it will be a gain to die; personally, I would be much better off, for when I am dead I shall be with the Lord.”
Here are some doctrines: If the soul of a Christian lodges in some halfway house, and is under some disability while there, and has to stay there until the resurrection day, well may we weep over our dead; well may we desire to be alive till Jesus comes. If the soul is imprisoned somewhere and does not go directly to heaven, I can understand those Thessalonians weeping over their dead. If the Roman Catholic theory that when a soul dies it goes into some intermediate place and is in suffering and flames, be true, well may we weep and make gifts to the priests to pray our people out of that awful place. But if the soul, just as soon as the body dies, goes right to heaven, and right to the presence of God himself, we ought not to be ignorant of that. What a corrective of unnecessary sorrow I
Therefore, I have always combated the theory of any middle place where the soul lodges and stays till the judgment day. I am sure it is not a teaching of the New Testament. I am sure if it had been the teaching of the New Testament the Thessalonians would have had something to sorrow about, and Paul could not have comforted them. They are gone to God, the Judge. They are where God is, where the angels are, the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, to the spirits of the just made perfect, to Jesus, the Mediator.
Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” The poor, ignorant thief prayed, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Not “then,” but “today, shalt thou be with me in paradise,” says Jesus.
In the book of Revelation, we see that the tree of life is on the river of life that rises under the throne of God. Let us get that point deep in our hearts, and let us not preach any halfway house for the dead. “It came to pass that the rich man also died and in hell he lifted up his eyes.” He did not lodge anywhere.
That idea of a middle life was derived in medieval Christianity, in the dark ages, coming from heathen origin. The heathen (and these were the heathen that had Just been converted, these very Greeks), believed that if one died and was unburied, for example if drowned and the body not recovered, then the soul or shade would wander around unblessed until the body was buried. In the book of Vergil, a shade meets the poet as he is descending into the lower world, a flitting, restless spirit, and says, “Oh bury me, bury me! And if you cannot put me under the ground, then it may serve to sprinkle a little sand on me, and count it for a burial.” It was precisely that thought that led to the institution of sprinkling instead of immersion. Those poor Thessalonian people had all the terrors about those who died.
Notice, in the next place, that when Jesus comes he will bring with him those spirits of the Christians whose bodies died here upon the earth. They are up there, and when he starts back here, the spirits will be with him. It is only the body that sleeps. So the truth of the hymn, “Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep!” Charles Wesley, in his dying hymn, presented the change, or transfiguring, of the bodies of the living, so there is no advantage in living on the earth until the second coming of Christ, and the souls of the living people do not get to Christ first, because Christ brings those Christian souls who are dead with him.
There is an equal participation between those who live until he does come and those who died before he comes. The dead are raised, and the living are changed, so together they are caught up. Where is any advantage? We may ask where Paul gets all this. He says, “I received this gospel, and with it I received knowledge of the word of God, and I am taking away all this trouble concerning the dead. The Lord himself shall descend.”
It will be a real coming. The coming of the Lord is a personal thing. He comes in death, he comes in the judgment, but I have always contended that the personal coming of the Lord is the hope of the world.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.”
In studying the Gospels we find what the shout is: “Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye out to meet him!” And we have found out who sounds the trumpet.
It was not Gabriel. That is Negro theology. The object of the blowing of that trumpet is not to wake the dead, but to summon the holy angels. All the angels will come down when he comes, and there will be that great trumpet sound that waxes louder and louder and louder until their hearts within them shall be stirred. Job says, “Hide me in the grave until thy wrath has passed; thou wilt call and I will answer thee.”
Just as Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus and said, “Lazarus, come forth!” so he will speak and call our names, and our bodies will arise, and when he comes that second time there will be a mighty shout, “Behold the bridegroom!” All of the earth and heaven will ring with sonorous peals of that shout, the sealed doors of death will be opened, and the Spirit’s power will then throw off the cerements of the grave in response to the voice of Jesus Christ.
Notice the double voice: To the living: “Behold the bridegroom!” To the dead: “Come forth!” You see how the voice is adapted to each case. It also says the voice of the archangel.
There is a passage in the book of Revelation that has sometimes been interpreted to mean what the archangel says. That says, “I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven . . . and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth . . . and lifted up his hand to heaven and swear . . . that there should be time no longer,” i.e., the end of time. That ‘is beautiful, but I question the interpretation. I think that it means when that angel plants one foot upon the sea and the other foot upon the shore, it is an answer to the prayers of those Christians, “How long, 0 Lord, how long?” Then the angel says, “Time was, time is, but there shall be time no longer. You will get your answer now.” I think that is the meaning. There are hierarchies in the angelic body, principalities and powers. Michael is called the prince, Gabriel is a prince, and in connection with him we have all the traditions about the trumpet.
It is that trumpet sound that brings the angels. They have double work to do. In the parable of the tares it is said that the tares and the wheat grow together until the harvest. The harvest is the end of the world. The good seed are the Christians; the bad seed are the devil’s children. They grow together until the harvest. At the end of the world the angels shall gather up the tares ready for burning, and that is one reason why another parable tells us that at the coming of the Lord the angels shall gather up the wicked out of every place on the earth, and that is the office of the angels. That is why in that great prophecy he tells about two women, one of whom is taken and the other left. The angel swoops down and that woman is taken one gathered to the harvest for heaven, and the other gathered for the pit of hell.
Imagine the joy! It comforts me a great deal. As it is, my body is not a very satisfactory body. The head gets sick; the heart sore; the hand gets a finger nail mashed off; the muscles take the rheumatism; it looks like everything in it is a disappointment. But at that time the body is at rest. It is sown in the image of the first Adam, and raised in the image of the Second Adam. When that time comes and the disembodied spirit now being able to get back into the old house which has been regenerated, will rejoice, and it will be a time of great joy.
I noticed a bird last year, which seemed to come from afar. I knew the bird, for it had a broken wing. We had allowed it to build its nest in a certain place. When she saw the nest still there she commenced to rejoice and sing her glad song of home-coming. In like manner the soul, like a bird which flies into its old nest, leaps into the body glorified, and then, as Paul says, it is sanctified, body, soul, and spirit. What a happy time when the long separated parts are brought together!
QUESTIONS
1. What three moral virtues are inculcated in 1Th 4:1-12 ?
2. What is Paul’s conception of the relation between doctrine and morals? Illustrate from this letter.
3. What is the special application of 1Th 4:1-8 to the Thessalonians, and what illustration from modern missionary work?
4. What is the relation of the Gospel to a sinner and the life? What the nature of the offense when a Christian sins, and why?
5. What is the great lesson on Love in 1Th 4:9-10 ?
6. What is the great lesson on honest work in 1Th 4:11-12 ?
7. What illustration of this in modern history?
8. What great consolation is given in 1Th 4:13-18 ?
9. What is the relation of the ignorance of the future state to human sorrow?
10. What the special point of their ignorance which caused their sorrow, and how does Paul relieve their fears?
11. With whom is the advantage, those who live till Christ’s second advent, or those who die before, and why?
12. What great heresy suggested by this passage, and what the proof to the contrary?
13. What is the origin of this heresy, and what examples cited?
14. When the poet wrote, “Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep!” what was his meaning?
15. How does Paul show that there is an equal participation between those who live till Christ comes and those who die before he comes?
16. What is the shout of 1Th 4:16 ?
17. Who will sound the trumpet, and what its purpose?
18. What is the double voice? Illustrate.
19. What questionable interpretation here cited, and what the true interpretation?
20. Are there hierarchies among the angels, and what the proof?
21. What the double work of the angels at Christ’s second advent?
22. Illustrate the joy of the soul returning to its glorified body.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
Ver. 1. How ye ought to walk ] Every good man is a great peripatetic, walks much. Christ also walks; so doth the devil, apostates, heretics, worldlings; but with this difference: Christ walketh in the middle, Rev 1:13 ; Rev 2:1 ; the devil to and fro, up and down, Job 1:7 , his motion is circular, and therefore fraudulent, 1Pe 5:8 . Apostates run retrograde, they stumble at the cross, and fall backward, Heretics run out on the right hand, worldlings on the left, Jas 1:14 . Hypocrites turn aside unto their crooked ways,Psa 125:5Psa 125:5 . They follow Christ, as Samson did his parents, till he came by the carcase; or as a dog doth his master, till he meeteth with a carrion. The true Christian only walks so as to please God; his eyes look right on, his eyelids look straight before him, Pro 4:25 . He goes not back, with Hezekiah’s sun, nor stands at a stay, as Joshua’s, but rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, as David’s sun, Psa 19:5 . Yea, he “shineth more and more unto the perfect day,” as Solomon’s, Pro 4:18 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 12 .] Exhortations : and
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1 8 .] to a holy life .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1 .] has no reference to time, . , Chr., Thl., but introduces this second portion, thus dividing it from the first, and implying the close of the Epistle. St. Paul uses it towards the end of his Epistles: see in addition to reff., Eph 6:10 ; Phi 4:8 .
, in furtherance of the wish of ch. 1Th 3:12-13 ; .
] in the classics, only used of asking a question : but in N. T. (as the Heb. , Ln., which however, in the sense of requesting , is rendered in the LXX by ) it has both meanings of our verb ‘ to ask ’ (reff.).
. . . ] we exhort you in (as our element of exhortation; in whom we do all things pertaining to the ministry (see Rom 9:1 ): Eph 4:17 not ‘ by ,’ as a ‘formula jurandi,’ which is contrary to N. T. usage, see Fritzsche on Rom 9:1 ) the Lord Jesus, that as ye received (see on ch. 1Th 2:13 ) from us how ( is not superfluous: it collects and specifies what follows, q.d. ‘the manner of your,’ &c.) ye ought to walk and to please God (i.e. to please God in your walk and conduct: to walk, and thereby to please God), as also ye are walking (this addition, says Ln., is required as well (see var. readd.) by internal considerations. For . requires the assumption of a prior commencement (see 1Th 4:10 ): and such a commencement would not be implied in the preceding text, without . Evidently the Apostle would originally have written , . . . . . ., : but while writing, altered this his intended expression, that he might not say too little, wishing to notice the good beginning already made by the Thessalonians. The repetition of after so long an intervening clause is too natural to have given rise (as De W. thinks) to the insertion) that ye abound yet more , viz.: : not, as Chrys., , , .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
CHAP. 1Th 4:1 to 1Th 5:24 .] SECOND PORTION OF THE EPISTLE: consisting of exhortations and instructions .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Th 4:1 . Resuming the thought of 1Th 2:11-12 as well as of 1Th 3:10-13 . Cf. a pre-Christian letter in Oxyrh. Papyri, iv. 294 (13 , 6 f. ). The , repeated often for the sake of clearness, is sub-final (so II., 2Th 3:12 ) = infinitive, cf. Moulton, i. 206 f. Paul meant to write , but the parenthesis of praise ( . .) leads him to assume that and to plead for fresh progress along the lines already laid down by himself.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Thessalonians Chapter 4
The knowledge of Christ is inseparable from faith; yet is it pre-eminently a life of holiness and love, and not a mere creed, as the human mind tends to make it. We have seen how it wrought in the practical ways of those who first preached the gospel to the Thessalonians, in unselfish goodness and exposure to suffering (1Th 1:2 ), as well as in deep feeling afterwards for the young converts, so soon called to bear the brunt of affliction. For their abounding in love in order to holiness the apostle prayed the Lord (1Th 3 ). Now he proceeds to appeal to themselves: –
“Further, then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, even as also ye do walk,* ye abound still more. For ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is [the] will of God, your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in passion of lust, even as also the Gentiles that know not God; that he should not over-reach and wrong his brother in the matter; because the Lord is an avenger in respect of all these things, even as we told you before and fully testified. For God called us not for uncleanness but in sanctification. Wherefore then he that disregardeth disregardeth not man but God that [also] gave His Holy Spirit unto you” (1Th 4:1-8 ).
*Text. Rec. omits this grave clause, so encouraging to those addressed. The authority for it is overwhelming.
Some copies insert , others omit , contrary to the best authorities.
Even Dean Alford thinks was changed into , or early ignorance may have done it undesignedly.
It is an immense thing for those who were once mere men on earth, severed from God and in spirit from each other by sin, only united when united for objects of human will or glory, now as His children with one purpose of heart to walk so as to please God. Yet such is Christianity practically viewed; and it is worthless if not practical. It is true that there is in the light and truth which Christ has revealed by the Holy Ghost the richest material and the fullest scope for the renewed mind and heart. But there is in “the mystery” no breadth nor length, no height nor depth, which does not bear on the state of the affections or the character of the walk and work; and no error more dishonours God or damages man than the divorce of theory from practice. Scripture binds them together indissolubly, warning us solemnly against those who would part them, as evil, the sure enemies of God and man. No! truth is not merely to inform but to sanctify and what we received from those divinely given to communicate it is “how we ought to walk and please God.” In that path the youngest believer walks from the first, slave or free, Greek or Scythian, learned or unlearned; from that path none can slip save into sin and shame. It is not, however, a mere defined direction, as in a law or ordinance. As a life is in question, the life of Christ, there is exercise and growth by the knowledge of God. On the state of the soul depends the discernment of God’s will in His word, which is overlooked where levity marks the inner condition, or the will is active and unjudged. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Then only is there surefootedness spiritually; and a deepening sense of the word in the intelligence issues in a fuller obedience. One knows God’s mind better, and the heart is earnest in pleasing Him. We abound more and more.
This was no new solicitude of the apostle. They knew what charges he gave them through the Lord Jesus. Is not His will, His honour, concerned in a walk pleasing to God? He on earth could say, “I do always those things that please Him;” in heaven He is now occupied with those who are following in the same path here below. We may fail; but is that our aim’? He does not fail to help us by His word, as He would also by His grace if we looked to Him and leaned on Him. Do we hear His voice?
On one thing especially was the apostle urgent, the personal purity of those who bore the name of Jesus; and the more so as the Greeks utterly failed in it. Their habits and their literature, their statesmen and their philosophers, all helped on the evil; their very religion conduced to aggravate the defilement by consecrating that to which depraved nature is itself prone. Few can have any adequate notion of the moral horrors of the heathen world, or of the insensibility of men generally to pollutions so shameless Christ changed all for those who believe in Him, leaving an example that they should follow His steps. “For this is God’s will, your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in passion of lust even as also the Gentiles that know not God, that no man over-reach and wrong his brother in the matter; because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, even as we told you before and fully testified.” Holiness, of course, goes far beyond freedom from sensuality. Still to stand clear of that which was everywhere sanctioned in ordinary life was no small thing. Nor is the apostle satisfied with the negative duty of abstinence, but calls on “each of them to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,” instead of letting it drift loosely into sin and shame, “not in passion of lust, even as the Gentiles also that know not God.” Act 15 is proof positive on scripture testimony of that day, painfully confirmed by the disclosures of Pompeii and Herculaneum, to the moral degradation that pervaded even the most civilized portion of the heathen world. When God is dishonoured, man is reprobate; and God, in forgiving and rescuing from the wrath to come through Christ’s death and resurrection, gives also a new life in Christ on which the Holy Spirit acts by the word so as to produce fruits of righteousness by Him to God’s glory.
Hence the exhortation further, “that he should not over-reach and wrong his brother in the matter, because the Lord is an avenger in respect of all these things, even as we told you before and fully testified.” There is no real ground to introduce a new topic here, confounding with Calvin and others . with ., still less to suppose with Koppe enclitic = , “any,” like our own Authorised Version (compare 2Co 7:11 ). It is the apostle’s delicate way of referring to the same uncleanness, especially in married circumstances where the rights of a brother were infringed. This demanded and receives special notice. For as the brotherhood of Christians casts them into free and happy and intimate intercourse, there would be peculiar danger in these very circumstances, lest Satan should tempt where flesh was not kept by faith in the place of death, that love only should act in holy ways with Christ before their eyes. There is perhaps no danger more gravely pressed. They are the ways which bring wrath on the sons of disobedience, and all words which make light of the evil are vain: the Lord avenges all these things, and God will judge the guilty. It is not the true grace of God which spares the strongest and repeated warnings; for God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. It is plain that there is no branching off to commercial dealings, or to dishonesty in the affairs of every-day life. Impurity in the social relations of the saints is the evil still in view: and the conclusion is, “Wherefore then he that disregardeth disregardeth not man but God, that also gave his Holy Spirit unto you.” Thus does grace, in calling to a moral duty, rise entirely above the mere weighing of such motives as act on men. It is not that delicate consideration of man is omitted: the apostle begins with the slighting of man in the matter, but he forthwith brings in also the immense yet solemn privilege of the Christian, God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. How would impurity affect Him Who dwells in the saints, and makes the body God’s temple?
Next follows a call to abound in brotherly love, in which the apostle does glide into the connected proprieties of daily labour animated by care for others. “Now concerning brotherly love ye have no need that we write to you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another; for, indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren that are in the whole of Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound still more, and that ye make it your aim to be quiet and mind your own affairs and work with your own hands, even as we charged you, that ye may walk honourably toward those without, and may have need of nothing” (vers. 9-12). The possession of Christ does wonderfully bind hearts together; and as affection one toward another is a spiritual instinct, so all that is learnt of Christ deepens it intelligently. Intercourse may test its reality sometimes, but as a whole develops it actively, and the more as sharing the same hostility from the world. Here, too, the apostle looks that it should abound more and more, and along with it the studious aim to be quiet and to mind their own affairs, which brotherly love would surely promote: the very reverse of that meddling disposition which flows from the assumption of superiority in knowledge or spirituality or faithfulness. Further, he calls on them to work with their own hands, even as we charged you (and who could do it with so good a grace?), that they may walk honourably toward those without and may have need of nothing [or none]. There is not such a thought as encouraging the needy to draw on the generosity of others. Let it be the ambition of those who love, and would keep the love of others, to spare themselves in nothing and avoid encroaching on the help of any, so as to cut off all suspicion from those without. Brotherly love would be questioned if heed were not paid to propriety; it flourishes and abounds where there is also self-denial.
Having thus exhorted the saints to personal purity, and connected divine love with the quiet discharge of daily duty, so often apt to be neglected on that very plea and the vain pretension to higher ways, the apostle now turns to their immoderate sorrow and surprise at the death of some among them. So filled were they with the expectation of the presence of the Lord, that they had not conceived the possibility of any saints thus passing away. They looked only for His coming, and drew inferences which, not being of the Lord, exposed them, as all human reasonings do, to danger. The need then was to maintain the truth, whilst guarding from such a misuse; but grace vouchsafed fresh and fuller light for them and for as.
“But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those that fall asleep;* that ye be not grieved even as the rest also that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also those put to sleep through Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say to you in [the] word of [the] Lord, that we, the living that remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede those put to sleep; because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with archangel’s voice, and with trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living that remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet [the] Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So then encourage one another with these words” (vers. 13-18).
* The oldest authorises have , the class of those that sleep, character, and not time, as in , , etc. Later but more numerous copies support which is exactly right in 1Co 15:20 , but not required here.
The Thessalonian saints knew, as a settled certainty of the Lord’s coming and kingdom. They were waiting for Him, the Son of God, from heaven as a constant hope, the nearest hope of their hearts. They had never taken into account that He might tarry according to the will of God who would gather fresh souls to the fellowship of His love, while letting the world ripen in iniquity and lawlessness, whether in proud unbelief or in hollow profession, till the apostasy come and the man of sin be revealed. As to all this they lacked instruction, having enjoyed the teaching of the apostle for but a short season, and no epistle being yet written. This is the first St. Paul ever wrote; and while promoting the joy and growth of faith, of nothing does he write as a more necessary help than to supply a lack, which, if not filled up by divine revelation, laid active minds open to the enemy, through speculations which he would soon suggest, in order to undermine the truth already known, or their souls’ confidence in God.
Their grief was excessive like the rest of men, Jews, or rather heathen, that have no hope. Why such extravagant sorrow about those who, if called hence, knew God’s love and salvation in the Lord Jesus? Is life eternal a vain thing? Is remission of sins, or the possession of the Holy Spirit? Surely it must be only ignorance on their part, and not that any called of God to His kingdom and glory (not to speak of the church, Christ’s body) could forfeit by dying, as they imagined, their blessedness when the Lord Jesus comes. And so it was for want of knowing better that they had yielded to thoughts which had plunged them in Christ-dishonouring sorrow.
Even here, however it is remarkable that the apostle does not unveil the state of the separate spirits, as we see done in Luk 23:43 , Act 7:59 , 2Co 5:8 , and Phi 1:23 . He meets fully the error that death in any way destroys or detracts from the blessed hope of the Christian. He would have the saints no longer ignorant concerning those who may most truly be said to fall asleep; if they do, it is but more evidently to have the portion of Him Who died and rose, as we assuredly believe; for they will rise if they meanwhile die. And is such a resurrection a loss? “Even so those also put to sleep through Jesus,” as it is here beautifully described, “will God bring with Him.” They were laid to sleep by Jesus; and, far from forgetting or even postponing their joy and blessedness, God will bring them with Jesus in that day.
But how so, since they sleep in death, and He comes from heaven in power and glory? Hereon follows a most enlightening and fresh communication, “in the word of the Lord,” which clears up the difficulty by unfolding the order of events, and thus the way by which the sleeping saints are to come with Jesus. The Thessalonian believers had fancied the departed would miss the blissful reunion, or at least come behind the living that remain. But it is not so. “For this we say to you in [the] word of [the] Lord, that we, the living that remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede those put to sleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with archangel’s voice, and with trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living that remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in [the] air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So then encourage one another with these words.” Such is the wondrous intimation in this striking episode which brings us up parenthetically to the introductory words which assured them that the Lord would come, and the saints, including those that sleep, along with Him. Here we learn how it can be: He first descends for them, and afterwards brings them with Him.
But there are details. He shall Himself descend from heaven with “a shout of command.” The word employed, being peculiar in the New Testament to this passage, cannot but have special force. Outside scripture it is used for a general’s call to his soldiers, for an admiral’s to his sailors, or sometimes more generally as a cry to incite or encourage.
It seems most appropriate as conveying a word of command to those in immediate relationship. Not a hint drops of a shout for the world, for men at large, to hear. It is here for His own to join Him on high. “with archangel’s voice” brings in the highest of heavenly creature glory to attend the Lord on that transcendent occasion. If angels now minister to the saints, as we know they did to Him also, how suitable to hear of “archangel’s voice” when they thus gather round Him! Nor is “God’s trump” silent at such a moment, when all that is of mortal man in His own shall be swallowed up of life at the presence of Christ.
Accordingly “the dead in Christ rise first.” It is no question of the first man but of the Second; and all of that family who have slept “rise first .” So unfounded was the despairing sorrow of those in Thessalonica. So far they precede the living saints, in being the earliest to experience the power of life in the Son of God. The truth is, however, that the difference in time is but just appreciable; for “then we, the living that remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in [the] air.” The translation of all the changed saints is simultaneous. The grief of such as doubted the full blessedness of those meanwhile put to sleep was really ignorance and unbelief; for even if they could not anticipate the fresh revelation from the Lord, they ought, from their divinely given knowledge of His love and of His redemption, to have counted on His grace towards the dead saints no less than towards the living. They might have sought needed light as to the particulars from those raised up and given of the Lord to impart it. We can, however, readily conceive how haste wrought injuriously in them as in ourselves. But what an unspeakable mercy that grace met the need to the correction of the mistake then, and to the prevention of it afterwards! So is it habitually in the Epistles especially, as in all scripture.
It is important to note that “the general resurrection” is as foreign to this part of God’s word as to every other. The faithful dead, the faithful living, are alone spoken of. Not that there will not be a resurrection of unjust as well as of just. But there is no such thing in scripture as a resurrection of all men together. Of all things resurrection separates most distinctly. Till then there may be more or less mixture of the evil with the good, though it be a dishonour to the Lord and an injury to His people. But appearances deceive, and absolute separateness is not found, and God uses the trial produced by it for blessing to those whose eye is single. But at His coming the severance will be complete, at His appearing it will be manifest. Hence, the resurrection of the sleeping saints is called a resurrection out of, or from among, the dead; which could not be said of the resurrection of the wicked, for they leave no more to be raised. Thus both classes are raised separately, and the traditional idea of one general resurrection of the dead is fictitious. Dan 12 speaks of a resuscitation of Israel, Mat 25 of the Lord’s judgment of the nations: neither refers to the literally dead.
But the moral consequence of the error is as positively bad as the truth sanctifies. For the action of a general resurrection connects itself with a general judgment, and thus vagueness is brought in on the spirit of the believer, who loses thereby the truth of salvation as a present thing, and the consciousness of possessing eternal life in Christ, in contrast with coming into judgment. Compare Heb 9:27 , Heb 9:28 , and Joh 5:24 . One of the enemy’s main efforts is to annul this solemn difference: he would shake, if he could, the believer’s enjoyment of God’s grace in Christ; he would lull to a fatal calm the unbeliever, indifferent alike to his sins and the Saviour. The first resurrection of the saints, severed by at least a thousand years (Rev 20 ) from that of the rest of the dead, the wicked who rise for judgment and the lake of fire, is the strongest possible disproof of the prevalent confusion, an immensely grave appeal to the conscience of the unbeliever a most cheering solace to those who are content to suffer with Christ meanwhile.
Further, it is unquestionable that death is in no way the believer’s hope, but Christ’s coming, when every effort and trace of death shall be effaced from the saints deceased, as well as the living Christians, who have mortality, as others, at work in them. Then shall it be swallowed up of life; for to receive them to Himself He comes, Who is the resurrection and the life. Thus the believer on Him, though dead, shall live; and the living believer on Him shall never die. Death is not the Bridegroom, but merely a servant (for all things are ours) for ushering us, absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. But here it is no mere individual going after dying to Him, but His coming, the Conqueror of death, for us all, whether sleeping or waking, that we may be changed into His glorious image even in the body.
But there is another, and in itself far more precious, privilege signalised here. ” Thus shall we always be with Him.” This last is the deepest joy of the separate state when a saint departs, then to be with Christ. So even was it with the dying but believing robber: Christ assured him that he was to be that day with Himself in Paradise. Only such a state was but intermediate and imperfect, however blessed. For it was not the body glorified; nor was it all the saints gathered. At His coming all will be complete and perfect for the heavenly family, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” What can lack, or what be added, to such words of infinite and everlasting joy? “So then encourage one another with these words.” The Holy Spirit says on this head no more. That which is perfect shall then be come.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Th 4:1-8
1Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
1Th 4:1 “Finally then” This is literally “for the rest.” This begins Paul’s practical section. Most of Paul’s letters can be divided into a doctrinal section and a practical section although it is hard to do this in 1 Thessalonians. Paul used this phrase to introduce the last major subject, not as an immediate prelude to a closing (e.g., 2Co 13:11; Eph 6:10; 2Th 3:1).
“brethren” Paul often uses this term to start a new subject (cf. 1Th 1:4; 1Th 2:1; 1Th 2:9; 1Th 2:14; 1Th 2:17; 1Th 3:7; 1Th 4:1; 1Th 4:10; 1Th 4:13; 1Th 5:1; 1Th 5:4; 1Th 5:12; 1Th 5:14; 1Th 5:25-27; 2Th 1:3; 2Th 2:1; 2Th 2:13; 2Th 2:15; 2Th 3:1; 2Th 3:6; 2Th 3:13).
“request and exhort” Paul uses these present active indicatives to emphasize continuing action and to soften his commands as an Apostle (cf. 1Th 4:2; 1Th 4:11; 2Th 3:4; 2Th 3:6; 2Th 3:10; 2Th 3:12).
“as you received from us instruction” This is an aorist active indicative, which points to the time Paul was with them personally. This is the Greek term that means “receive traditional teachings from another” (cf. 1Th 2:13; 1Co 15:1). Paul not only taught them how to be saved (justification), but also how to live as saved people (sanctification).
“as to how you ought to walk” This is a present infinitive. Walk is a biblical metaphor for lifestyle faith (cf. 1Th 2:12; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15; Col 1:10; Col 2:6). Christianity was originally called “The Way” (cf. Act 9:2; Act 19:9; Act 19:23; Act 22:4; Act 24:14; Act 24:22; Act 18:25-26). This speaks of an abiding lifestyle faith. Our initial response in repentance and faith must be followed by continuing obedience and perseverance. Eternal life has observable characteristics! In Christ every day is sacred, special, and used for worship and ministry.
“and please God” God’s will for His children is not heaven when they die only, but Christlikeness now (cf. Rom 8:28-29; Gal 4:19; Eph 1:4; Eph 2:10; 1Pe 1:15).
NASB”(just as you actually do walk)”
NKJV[Omitted]
NRSV”(as, in fact, you are doing)”
TEV”This is, of course, the way you have been living”
NJB”as you are already living it”
A Greek manuscript problem is connected to this phrase. This phrase is missing in the Greek manuscripts Dc, K, L, and the Textus Receptus texts. It is present in MSS , A, B, D*, F, G and also in the Syriac, Coptic, and Vulgate translations. It is surprising that the early manuscripts have it and the later ones omit it. This implies that it was dropped out accidently. The UBS4 rates its inclusion as “A” (certain).
This is either present indicative or imperative mood. It is probably indicative in that it asserts Paul’s confidence in their Christlike lifestyle (cf. NASB, NRSV, TEV, and JB).
“that you excel still more ” They were doing well, but Paul urged them on to even greater holiness (cf. 1Th 4:10). See Special Topic: Abound (Perisseu) at 1Th 3:12.
1Th 4:2
NASB, NKJV”commandments”
NRSV, NJB,
TEV”instructions”
This is a rare military word for authoritative commands handed down through the ranks (cf. 1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 1:18).
“by the authority of the Lord Jesus” These were not Paul’s personal thoughts but Jesus’ teachings. Paul’s Apostolic authority rested on Jesus’ authority (cf. 1Th 4:8).
1Th 4:3-6 This is one sentence in Greek.
1Th 4:3 “For this is the will of God” There is no article, therefore, this is one of God’s wills (cf. Eph 5:17), after salvation (cf. Joh 6:40).
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE WILL (thelma) OF GOD
“your sanctification” This word shares the same root word with “holy” and “saints.” Sanctification, like justification, is an initial instantaneous act of grace (cf. 1Co 1:2; 1Co 1:30; 1Co 6:11). Positionally, believers are in Christ. However, it should develop into lifestyle character, progressive sanctification (cf. 1Th 4:7; 1Th 3:13; Rom 6:19-23). God’s will for every Christian is Christlikeness!! We cannot separate justification from sanctification!
SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS/SANCTIFICATION
“abstain from sexual immorality” This is literally “fornication.” Premarital and extramarital sex were distinguished in the OT by separate words, but this word’s meaning was broader in scope in the NT. “Fornication” meant all inappropriate sexual activity, including homosexuality and bestiality. Often pagan worship included sexual activity (cf. 1Th 5:22).
1Th 4:4
NASB, NKJV”to possess”
NRSV”to control”
TEV”how to take”
NJB”to use”
This is a present middle (deponent) infinitive. It is literally “to continually acquire or possess.”
NASB, NKJV”his own vessel”
NRSV”your own body”
TEV”a wife”
NJB”the body that belongs to him”
This can refer to “his own body” or “his own wife.” Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, rabbinical usage, 1Pe 3:7, and the Septuagint interpret this in the sense of “wife” (cf. TEV). But the early Church Fathers (i.e., Tertullian and Chrysostom) interpreted it as “body” and this fits the context best (cf. NRSV, JB, NIV). Vessel is used in the sense of “body” in 2Co 4:7.
“in sanctification and honor” Knowing Jesus changes the way one lives. Believers are stewards, dependant on another’s will. God’s will is to use every believer to show His transforming power to a lost world. Christian marriage is a powerful witness in a fallen confused world!
1Th 4:5 “not in lustful passion” This refers to fallen mankind’s inability to control themselves sexually (pagan worship). Self control is a characteristic of a Spirit filled, Spirit led life (cf. Gal 5:23).
“like the Gentiles” This is literally “the nations.” Here, however, it does not refer to non-Jews but to all non-Christians. The lifestyle of the pagans of Paul’s day was very immoral.
“who do not know God” This does not exclude “natural revelation” (cf. Psa 19:1-6 and Romans 1-2), but speaks of personal knowledge (cf. Gal 4:8-9). In the OT “know” has the connotation of intimate, personal relationship (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5). Gentiles are estranged from God (cf. Eph 2:11-13; Eph 5:8; Col 1:21).
1Th 4:6 “transgress” This term means “to go beyond bounds.”
“defraud” This term means “to take advantage of.” It is related to the term “greed.”
“his brother” This may relate to taking sexual liberties with another believer’s family (cf. 1Th 4:9). But the term “brother” in context could refer to any other human, similar to “neighbor” (cf. 1Th 4:12).
“in the matter” This has the definite article and therefore refers to 1Th 4:3-5 (i.e., sexual purity). The word itself rfefers to business affairs. Therefore, it could be used metaphorically for sexual matters or Paul changes subjects in 1Th 4:6 and is now dealing with financial issues. I think the first option is best.
“because the Lord is the avenger in all these things” This refers to even-handed justiceboth temporal (cf. Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28) and eschatological (cf. Mat 25:31 ff.). YHWH is an ethical God (cf. Gal 6:7.) In 1Th 4:6-7 a and 8a, three different reasons are given why the believers should live holy lives.
“as we also told you before and solemnly warned you” This is a strong statement concerning sexual purity (cf. Heb 13:4). See Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Huper Compounds at Gal 1:13.
1Th 4:7 “God. . .called” God always takes the initiative (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65) both in salvation and in sanctification.
1Th 4:8 “he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God” This is literally “treat as of little value.” Paul asserts that along with the truth of the gospel goes the lifestyle imperatives. These are God’s truths, not Paul’s, 1Th 2:13; 1Th 3:1-2.
“who gives His Holy Spirit to you” This is a present active participle. This refers to the indwelling Spirit as both an initial and ongoing experience (i.e., Act 2:38; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; 1Jn 3:24). As with the resurrection, so also the promise of divine indwelling. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in all the redemptive events. Believers are indwelt by (1) the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:9-10); (2) the Son (cf. Mat 28:20; Col 1:27); and (3) the Father (cf. Joh 14:23).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
1Th 5:22 [For Structures see below]. 1Th 4:1 beseech. App-134.
exhort. App-134.
by. App-104.
Lord. App-98.
Jesus. App-98.
that = in order that. Greek. hina.
God. App-98.
more and more = the more.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
CHAP. 1Th 4:1 to 1Th 5:24.] SECOND PORTION OF THE EPISTLE: consisting of exhortations and instructions.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Let’s turn to first Thessalonians chapter four. Paul the apostle was called of God by the Spirit to go to Macedonia, as he saw in a vision a man from Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” It was good that Paul did have a dramatic call of God, because I’m certain that once he arrived in Macedonia and experienced some of the adverse reception, he could’ve very well questioned “Lord, did you really call me here?”
His first stop was at Philippi where evil men were stirred up against him, and they had him arrested and beaten, and he was thrown in the dungeon and then ordered out of town. He next went to Thessalonica where after three Sabbath days in the Synagogue almost the whole town gathered to hear his message, but the Jews were stirred by envy, and again Paul had to leave town to save arrest. They had gone to the house of Jason, where Paul was staying, to arrest him, but he had already escaped. Having been such a short time in Thessalonica, they went to Berea; trouble stirred in Berea. Paul left Timothy and Silas there as he went on to Athens to sort of get the whole situation cooled down a bit.
When Timothy and Silas had strengthened the brethren in Berea, they met Paul in Athens, but Paul’s heart was stirred concerning those in Thessalonica, that he had had such a short time to minister to only three Sabbath days. Wondering how they were doing, he was stirred in his heart for them. He sent Timothy back to Thessalonica. He went on to Corinth and began a ministry in Corinth. Timothy met Paul in Corinth, reported to him the condition of the church in Thessalonica.
Basically things were going on very well, but some problems had arisen, and so Paul immediately wrote to them to encourage them in the faith. And now as we come into the fourth chapter, we have a definite change in the division of the book, because in chapter four, Paul begins his exhortation. Up to this point it’s been sort of an apologetic, and now he begins to exhort them and he declares that in verse one.
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more ( 1Th 4:1 ).
Again, as we mentioned last week, I am amazed that Paul was able to give them so much instruction in so many areas of doctrine in such a very short time. With them less than a month, and yet, he established them in sound doctrine. But, as he said, he was laboring night and day among them. “But, even” he said, “as I talk to you before, how you ought to walk and please God.” The basic desire for each of us should be to please God. That’s the key to the Christian life.
The man who is outside of Jesus Christ lives to please himself. The man who is in Jesus Christ lives to please God. The man who lives to please himself is rarely pleased. The man who lives to please God has found real satisfaction. I think one of the greatest pleasures in life is to know that you’ve done that which pleased the Father. I walked today in the will of God. As Jesus said, “I do always those things that please the Father,” and so ought we to live to please God.
For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication ( 1Th 4:2-3 ):
Now, you remember the fifteenth chapter of Acts when the early church had gathered to determine what relationship the Gentile believers should have to the law. Peter said, “I suggest that we put no burden upon them that neither we . . . the yolk of bondage of them, that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.” Paul testified of the miracles that were wrought through grace among the Gentiles. And then James said, “Let’s put on a no greater burden that you’ve already received. Keep yourself from things that are strangled and from fornication and if you do this you do well. God bless you.”
The Greek culture, the Roman culture, was a culture in which fornication was a very common practice. In that pagan society, much of the worship of their gods involved fornication as they sought to become one with their gods. And many of the spiritual rights within their temple were fornication. It was a very common practice in that culture. And so Paul is exhorting them again to live a pure life, a sanctified life, a life that is set apart unto God and to keep themselves from the common practice of fornication. If ever there was a time when Paul’s exhortation was needed, it is today, as we have again evolved into a pagan society and their very practices have become extremely common again. It’s a very accepted thing in our society.
I was reading an interesting commentary that was written back in nineteen fifty-one. And in this commentary, it told about an article in the Woman’s Home Journal in the nineteen . . . October, nineteen fifty-one issue (I believe it was) that was an article against the smut and pornography that had begun at that time to enter into the United States, and how the city of Chicago was able to deal with it and get rid of all the smut peddlers and all of the pornography out of the city. Nineteen fifty-one. But look at how much we have degraded since then.
And with the introduction of all of the pornography, I don’t know if you can get a novel that’s been written in the last forty years that isn’t centered around sexual subjects, incest and all kinds of sexual experiences. It’s in all of the novels. It’s just something that has pervaded the literature and with it an attitude of laxity towards real moral living. And so, Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians is an important exhortation in our day: that we are different from the world. We are not to live to please our own flesh. We are to live to please God. We are to keep our lives separate from the world and from the corruption of the world, in order that we might live a life that is pleasing unto Him. And so, this is God’s will for you: that you live a separated life, a life of dedication and consecration to God, and keep yourself from fornication.
Paul, in Galatians five, lists fornication as a part of the works of the flesh. But at the end of that list of the works of the flesh, he says something that we better pay close attention to: he said, “For we know that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Paul said, “Don’t be deceived on this issue.” And there are a lot of people that are deceived thinking that they can live any kind of a life that they want, and God will accept their lower standard of living. But God demands a high standard from His children. And Paul said that every one of you should know how to posses his vessel in sanctification and honor, your vessel being your body.
“We have this treasure,” Paul said, “in earthen vessels are in our bodies that the glory may be of God and not of us” ( 2Co 4:7 ).
So…
That every one of you ought to know how to posses his vessel [how to keep your body] in sanctification and honor [in purity]; And not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God ( 1Th 4:4-5 ):
Vast difference between us and the world around us, and there should be.
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified ( 1Th 4:6 ).
Now again Paul said I . . . you remember I told you about this. “I testified to you about this. Be honest and fair in your dealings with your brothers.” We’re not to defraud our brothers. My heart is grieved over the problems that have arisen within the body of Christ, and especially in these days when a lot of the various businesses advertise with Christian symbols, and you expect from a Christian you want to patronize them because, first of all, you want the Christians to have the business. You hope for their success in business, but you also expect honesty, forthrightness. In dealing with a Christian you expect them to be honest.
You know the problems of taking a car to a mechanic. There’s just a lot of corrupt practices. There’s a lot of unnecessary charges; there’re a lot of charges for work that isn’t done. And so if you find a Christian mechanic, you get excited and say, “Oh, I can trust him.” And we should be able to, and so in any business. But, Paul here is warning, “Don’t defraud, don’t cheat, be square, be honest. I told you this when I was there. I forewarned you that God is the avenger.”
Now this is the problem, I think, with our society, is that we have failed to take into consideration that there is a day of reckoning coming; that there is a day of judgment coming. People have gotten by with so much. They’ve been able to get by and, of course, with the leniency of our court today, they’re getting by with more and more. Just hope that you don’t get arrested for, or pressed by the IRS; that’s about the only thing you go to prison for anymore you know. Or like this poor woman Betty DeDe who hid her child because the courts ordered her to deliver him over to her homosexual husband. So she’s facing imprisonment, though murderers and rapists can walk our streets. She’s a danger to our society hiding her husband from her…I mean hiding her son from her homosexual husband, and not turning him for the visitation rights. And she needs to be dealt with and put in prison and taught a lesson. What a danger to our society, but don’t you worry, you know. I cannot understand…there’s no sense getting into that. I just…
So, don’t defraud your brother, because God’s gonna judge you. God is the avenger of all such which do that. And we’ve warned you about the judgment of God that’s gonna come. Paul was faithful in warning them, and I think that we need to warn people about the judgment of God; you’re not gonna get by. Ultimately God is going to judge. He is the avenger of those that do such things.
For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness ( 1Th 4:7 ).
God said, “Be ye holy for I am holy, saith the Lord” ( 1Pe 1:16 ). And God has called us to holy living, to pure living, living before Him in all righteousness and purity and holiness.
And he therefore that despises [that is despises holiness, the holy life] despises not man, but God, who has also given unto us his Holy Spirit ( 1Th 4:8 ).
A lot of times when, you know, you start really emphasizing the living of a holy life and things of this nature, people get upset with you, as though we were the ones that made the rules. No, we didn’t make the rules. We weren’t called to make the rules; we were called to declare to you the rules that God has made, and if you have any argument with holiness, your argument is with God. And this is what Paul is saying to them. You’re not really having an argument with man; you’re having an argument with God. He is the one that has given His Holy Spirit.
Psychologists tell us that a person’s mental equilibrium or well-balanced life depends upon the difference between their ego and their super ego. Your ego being your real self, and super ego being your ideal self. And if there is a vast difference between your ego and your super ego, then you are mentally disturbed because of this difference that exists between the two. And the closer a person’s ego is to their super ego, the more well adjusted that person is mentally.
And so, when a person is having a conflict and he has very high ideals, the super ego (this me as I really, you know, am within my heart and all) this the way I really know I should live and want to live, but this is the way I’m living. And if there is a vast difference between the two, then I have real mental problems, and I go to a head-shrink and I tell him, “Hey, I know I just am not getting along with anybody and all.” And so, he seeks to understand what my super ego is: how do I perceive myself, and then these things that I’m doing and that are troubling me. And the general practice is to bring my super ego down closer to my ego. You’re unrealistic; nobody lives that purely. You know that’s foolish to think that you should, you know, not do those things. Everybody is doing those things. And what they’re trying to do is bring down the level of the super ego or bring down your ideals more in keeping with the reality of your own nature. When we come to Jesus Christ, He seeks to bring the ego up to the super ego.
Now, if we are guilty of trying to bring man’s super ego down to the level of the ego, then we’re not really following the scriptural pattern. For the gospel of Jesus Christ is always lifting and elevating a man into a life of purity and righteousness and holiness. And so God has given to us His Holy Spirit. And what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? To conform us into the image of Jesus Christ. “For you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you will be witnesses” ( Act 1:8 ). You can achieve the ideal. You can walk in holiness and purity, as God has required us to walk. And God, by the power of His Spirit, will lift us into a higher level of living, closer to the ideal and, in fact, more and more we come closer to the ideal. As we, with an open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, we’re being changed from glory to glory into the same image.
So the gospel is so elevating as it brings man up into the level that God would have him to live. God’s not called us unto uncleanness, He’s called us to holiness and He’s given us His Holy Spirit.
But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you ( 1Th 4:9 ):
You remember in the first chapter, Paul said that everywhere they had such love. Not only for . . . their love was known and all. It was something that was a mark of the church there in Thessalonica, and the word of their love has spread abroad.
But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all of Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase [do it] more and more ( 1Th 4:9-10 );
In other words, increase. “Though you have a great reputation of having love and all, I would that you would even continue to increase in this love.”
We had a wonderful time at the family camp this last week, as the Spirit ministered to us from the first epistle of John. And as God’s Spirit ministered to us out of this epistle, the message that the Spirit kept bringing us back to and emphasizing was the importance of love towards one another. As John said, “He that saith he love God and hates his brother is a liar; the truth isn’t in him. By this we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.”
The mark of the true body of Christ is that of great love for one another. Jesus said, “By this sign shall men know that you are my disciples that ye love one another” ( Joh 13:35 ). And so the love among the body of Christ is, first of all, a sign to the world that indeed they are the disciples of Jesus, but it also becomes the personal sign unto me that I have passed from death into life, because of the love that I have for the brethren.
Now, as John told them, “Beloved, let us not love in words but in deeds and truth.” It isn’t just saying, “Oh, I love you, brother.” In fact, there was a fellow around here for quite a while that used to always come up and say, “Oh, we love you so much. Oh, we love you so much,” and he hated me more than anybody else. It was like Shakespeare said, “Thou protesteth too much.” In the words, oh he had the words, but in the action, in the deeds, there were cruel cutting things. It isn’t what I’m saying; it’s what I am doing that God is observing. And so we found that in first John. People say a lot of things, but what they say isn’t necessarily true unless their life backs up what is being said. “So let us not love in words,” John says, “but in deed and in truth.” And so you’ve been taught of God to love one another.
And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all of Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more; And that you study to be quiet ( 1Th 4:10-11 ),
Now this means to live sort of a quiet life. You know, with some people everything is a crisis, and they live from one crisis to the next. But he says, “Study to be . . . just live a quiet life.” And that really is a simple life, and we need to learn to just live a simple life, a quiet life.
And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you ( 1Th 4:11 );
Now, evidently there were some problems in the church in Thessalonica of some lazy brethren who would take advantage of the love. Oh, we’re supposed to love one another, well great. “Just love me, brother, and pay my rent you know, and bring me food and support me.” And they weren’t really willing to work. They just wanted to go surfing all the time and be supported by the church. And when Paul wrote his second letter, which we’ll be getting into next week, Paul in his second letter talked about these fellows a little more directly. And he said, “Look, if they don’t work, don’t feed ’em. Let everyone work laboring with his own hands that he might provide that which is honest in the sight of the Lord.”
So Paul’s encouragement for us to be diligent in our business, to work laboring with our own hands.
That you might walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing. But I would not have you ( 1Th 4:12-13 )
So now he leaves this area, and now we go into the interesting area of where are those who have died.
In the church of Thessalonica, Paul had taught them concerning the coming again of Jesus Christ in the establishing of God’s kingdom upon the earth. A glorious truth and a blessed hope. But since Paul had been there, some of the members had died. And they were grieving. They thought, “Oh, what a shame. They died before Jesus came and thus they’re gonna miss the glorious kingdom of God.” And they were really sorrowing and grieving over those who had died prior to the return of Jesus, figuring, “Aw, they missed it. They died before He came.”
So this section, Paul is devoting to correct their misconceptions concerning those who were asleep in Christ. And the term asleep does not at all connotate soul sleep, but it is only a figure of speech to describe death, and the death of the believer. You remember when Jesus came to the house of Jairus and the daughter? They said, “Don’t trouble the Lord any more, your daughter is dead.” And Jesus said, “Fear not, only believe.” And they came to the house and everybody was wailing and crying and Jesus said, “The little girl isn’t dead, she’s only sleeping.” And they laughed in discorn, and so He put them out. You remember when He was at the Jordan River with His disciples and they received a message from Mary and Martha, “Come quickly. Lazarus is dying.” And He had stayed for a couple of days at the Jordan River and He said, “Now let us go that we might see Lazarus.” And as they were talking, Jesus said, “Well, he’s asleep.” And the disciples said, “Well, that’s good; if he’s sleeping he’s probably getting better.” But Jesus was referring to the fact that Lazarus had died.
It’s a phrase that was used in the Old Testament. You remember how many times . . . and it referred to the king “and he slept with his fathers”? It was a term that was used, too, for the death, usually of the believer, but does not connotate soul sleep doctrine. For those that are dead are certainly in a conscious state, as is declared by Jesus. Now you have Ecclesiastes, Old King Solomon coming as a humanist saying that, you know, that the grave is the end, there’s no thought, there’s no consciousness or whatever.
But you have Jesus, on the other hand, saying that there was a certain rich man that faired sumptuously every day, and a poor man was brought daily and laid at his gate. He was full of sores, and the dogs came and licked his sores, and he ate the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. And the poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. Moreover, the rich man died and in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment, and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus being comforted said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus unto me that he may take his finger and dip it in water and touch my tongue. I am tormented in this heat.” So Jesus speaks of Hades as being a conscious state. Lazarus being comforted, the rich man in a conscious state of torment.
Now, you may try and pass that off as a parable, but there is no reason to pass that off in a parable. Never in a parable was any person named. And if it was a parable, what is the purpose of the parable but to illustrate a truth? And if what Jesus said was not a truth, how can you illustrate a truth with a lie? And what was Jesus trying to illustrate? Somebody definitely taught that Hades was a conscious state.
So I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, sorrow not, even as others which have no hope ( 1Th 4:13 ).
Now, there is two kinds of sorrow for the dead: that sorrow for them because you have no hope, the world sorrow for the dead. They’re gone. It’s all over, that’s the end. But the sorrow of the believer is not as those who have no hope. You see, our sorrow really isn’t for the person that is gone. Our sorrow is for ourselves because we’re still here, and we’re going to miss them. We sorrow for what’s been taken from us. I won’t be able to call them on the phone anymore. I won’t be able to go over and see them. I won’t be able to go over to receive the input that they have given into my life that has blessed me and meant so much to me. And I sorrow for what I have lost, but if they are a child of God, I rejoice for them that they are there in the presence of our Lord. So we sorrow not as those who have no hope.
For if we believe [and surely we do] that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him ( 1Th 4:14 ).
Now, Jesus is coming again for His church. And when He comes, here Paul tells us that God is going to bring them (those who are asleep in Jesus), that He’s going to bring them with Him. And this is important to note, because a lot of people become confused on this issue.
For this we say unto you [and Paul says this is] by the word of the Lord [this is a revelation from the Lord to us], that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep ( 1Th 4:15 ).
They have actually preceded us. We’re not going to precede them.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words ( 1Th 4:16-18 ).
In writing to the Corinthians in his second epistle, Paul said,
“We know that when this earthly tent, our body, is dissolved that we have a building of God that is not made with hands, that is eternal in the heavens. So then, we who are living in these bodies do often groan, earnestly desiring to be freed from the body. Not that we would be unembodied spirits, not that we might be naked, but that we might be clothed upon with a body which is from heaven. For we know that as long we are living in this body, we are absent from the Lord, but we would chose rather to be absent from this body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore, we labor, that whether present or absent, we be accepted of Him.”
The Bible, you see, teaches that man basically is a spirit living in a body possessing a consciousness. The body is the instrument that God has given to me to be the medium by which I can express myself. The body is not me; it’s only a tent in which I’m living for a while, a tent that is gradually wearing out. And when this tent wears out, when the body, through age, accident, illness, can no longer fulfill the purposes for which God planned and designed, then God, in His love, is gonna release this spirit from this body. And when this tent is dissolved, I have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And so death for the child of God is just moving day, when you move out of the tent and into the house, the building of God not made with hands. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. I’m going to prepare one for you”( Joh 14:2 ).
I heard the other day of some high-pressured evangelist who had some vision of dying and going heaven, and the Lord showing him his glorious new mansion. And he described, you know, the columns and everything. Well, I hope my body doesn’t look like that when I get there. The word is actually “there are many abiding places, I’m going to prepare one for you.” The building of God not made with hands, eternal in heaven. It’s a reference to our new bodies that our spirits will move into you. Bodies that are designed by God to exist in the environmental conditions in heaven, even as God designed these bodies to exist in the environmental condition of the planet earth. And He made them out of the earth for the earth. So, God has made a new body for me that is designed by God to exist in the environmental conditions of heaven. A universal model, one that is adaptable, probably for all climates and environments, whereas this body is quite limited. It is necessary that I keep it right here close to earth.
A couple months ago at the Beale Air Force Base, we saw them suiting up the pilot for the SR-71, gonna fly that thing up eighty-five thousand feet or so. And so as they suited him up, it’s the very same suits that they use in the . . . for the astronauts’ moon flights and all. And we watched them as they put on the suit, fastened on the helmet, fastened everything down and then pressurized it. Checked all the gauges to see that there was no leaks. The man who was giving us the briefing said that when you get up to eighty thousand feet, if you did not have this pressurized suit on, the fluids in your body would begin to boil and they would pass right on out through the skin, because the body is made and designed to withstand the fourteen pounds per square inch. You get up there, you don’t have that pressure pushing against the body, and so you have to put on the pressure suit.
God could give us all pressure suits. But, we saw this guy as he then walked out to the van. And they were carrying the two tanks of nitrogen and oxygen, and he had to walk sort of funny because of the suit and all, and clumped on out. And they helped him to get in the van and then they helped him out of the van and up the ramp and into the SR-71, where he sat down and then took off and went skyward.
But God has designed a new body, a building of God not made with hands, eternal in heaven, vastly superior to the body we now have. One that will not know aging processes, one that will not experience pain. Directly from God…perfect. One that will not age or grow tired. And so, we who are in these bodies do often groan earnestly, desiring to be delivered or move out, not that I would unembodied, an unembodied spirit out there in the ethereal universe someplace, but that I might be clothed upon with the body which is from heaven.
Now, another aspect of the whole thing that needs to be taken into consideration, and that is, I live in a time dimension continuum while I’m in this body and living on the planet earth. And so I talk about last week and next week and I think of things in terms of past, present and future. The moment I leave the earth plain, the body plain, I enter into the eternal where there is neither past or future, but everything is present. So to be absent from the body is to be present in the eternal presence of the Lord. So you can’t really say that something is future once you enter into the eternal, for everything is now.
Those who are asleep in Jesus, the Lord is gonna bring with Him when He comes. For we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord aren’t going to precede them, they have preceded us.
“But the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the dead in Christ have risen first really and we who are alive and remain a that point shall be caught up to meet them together with the Lord: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Now that’s the important thing. “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” The Lord is coming again to this earth to establish His kingdom reign, and He shall rule and reign over the earth for a thousand years, so shall we ever be with the Lord. We will come and we will reign with Him as a kingdom of priests upon the earth. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And so the rapture of the church; the catching up. Paul in 1Co 15:1-58 said, “Behold, I show you a mystery. We’re not all going to all sleep, but we’re all going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.” We won’t die, but there is a necessary change. We will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, as move out of our tents and into our new buildings of God not made of hands, the new bodies that God has prepared for us.
How old will I be? What will I look like? Well, you know there is some people that sort of object to the change of body. They wanna sort of hang on to what they look like. Personally, I don’t anticipate having gimpy football knees anymore. I imagine I will have a head of hair and a few other things that have been missing for a while. Won’t be wearing these glasses. It’s interesting, we really don’t know, except that Paul said, “Some of you will say, ‘How are the dead raised and what kind of a body will they come?'” In other words, when they come with Jesus, what kind of a body will they have? Will we know them? Will we recognize them? And he said, “When you plant a seed into the ground it does not come forth into new life until it first of all dies. And then,” notice, “the body that comes out of the ground is not the body that you planted, but God gives it a body as pleases Him, so is the resurrection of the dead.”
I don’t expect this body to be resurrected and refurbished, refitted. I’m looking forward to moving into a whole new model, a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The body that comes out of the ground is not the body that you planted. All you planted was a bare grain, by chance weed or some other grain, and God has given it a body as pleasing to Him, so is the resurrection of the dead. We are planted in corruption, but we are gonna be raised in incorruption. We were planted in weakness, but we’re gonna be raised in power. We are planted in dishonor; we are gonna be raised in glory. We are planted as a natural body; we’re gonna be raised as a spiritual body. And the difference between the celestial and the terrestrial, and so forth, and as we are born in the image of the earth and been earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavens.
So, you can interpret and understand that as you wish, but I’m looking forward to that building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. That new body where my spirit shall dwell and I shall live and be with Him and His kingdom forever. That’s the important thing. This corruption must put on . . . metamorphosis, change of body, and the Bible teaches us what death is to the child of God.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Th 4:1. , to please, to show yourselves pleasing, acceptable) to the Lord.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Th 4:1
Finally-[This does not imply that the letter was drawing to a close, but it marks a transition in the subject matter. Hindered from speaking to them by word of mouth, he writes this Epistle to supply that which was lacking.]
then, brethren,-[As he had prayed for their growth in holiness, now he exhorts them to the same end; for the only way to reach that condition is through obedience to the revealed will of God.]
we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus,-Paul beseeches them as a matter concerning himself and his interest in them; he exhorts, as it concerns them and their own duty and relation to Christ because they are Christians, that such an appeal is addressed to them.
that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk-Received signifies the reception as a matter of instruction. But beside teaching the facts of the gospel they taught its practice-what men should do and what should be the work and effect of their faith (1:3)-as well as what they should believe.
and to please God,-The duty of pleasing God had been emphasized in Pauls instructions, and he had set all other duties in this light. He spoke of himself not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts. (2:4.) Similarly of the Jews, he says, they please not God, and are contrary to all men. (2:15.) [Our conduct is always in everything pleasing or displeasing to him, and the earnest Christian finds in this the highest delight in the service of God.]
even as ye do walk,-This he adds lest they should be grieved by an apparent assumption on his part that they had failed to heed his former instructions.
that ye abound more and more.-The close relations of the believer to Christ is the grand motive for striving after true progress. The grace of God supplies the power; the love of Christ brings the obligation. By all that he is to us we are urged to be worthy of him by an even richer and fuller Christian life. [There is no finality to progressive holiness while the believer remains on earth. Life is marked either by growth or decay. Hence, Christians are to be rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17), to be sound in faith, in love, in patience” (Tit 2:2); for as they walk in love toward one another and toward all men, they walk so as to please God (Eph 5:2). To please God is the highest ambition of the true Christian; the consciousness of pleasing him is the highest Christian joy. But walking implies progress. Standing still is dangerous. They must go on from strength to strength, forgetting the things that are behind and pressing on to those that are before.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
At this point in his letter the apostle turned to exhortation. Timothy’s report concerning the Thessalonians’ condition had indicated that they needed some words of kindly warning.
The first subject is personal purity. Their life was lived in a city characterized by great moral looseness. The condition of the unregenerate Gentiles is revealed in the arresting phrase which describes them as living “in the passion of lust,” and declares that the reason was that “they know not God.” Hence the necessity for a life of purity among the members of Christ. Their attitude toward each other was to be that of love, while that toward those who “are without” was that they should be quiet, and attend to their daily work, thus bearing testimony to the power of the Gospel in life. No testimony is more powerful for God than that a life fulfilling the “daily round, and the common task,” which is characterized by the renunciation of idols, and illuminated by the hope of the coming of the King.
It is evident that some of these Thessalonian Christians had fallen on sleep, and that, somehow, those remaining were afraid lest these departed ones had missed the realization of the glorious hope of the advent of Jesus. To correct that impression the apostle now dealt with the great subject, especially to show the relation of the advent to those who had thus fallen on sleep. They had been living in the “patience of hope.” The apostle now declares that they who have fallen asleep will take precedence at the advent. Therefore, sorrow for the departed ones must not be the sorrow of despair. These loved ones are at present with the Lord, and at His Coming will accompany Him. What we may reverently describe as the program of the advent is then given. The Lord Himself will descend. Then the dead in Christ will rise, and receive the eternal body. Then the living will be caught up in the clouds, and the final truth is declared in the words, “So shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
IV. EXHORTATIONS (4:1-5:22)
Formally speaking, Paul passes from the superscription (1:1), thanksgiving (1:2-3:10), and prayer (3:11-13) to the exhortations (4:1-5:22); materially speaking, he passes from the defence of his visit (1:2-2:16) and of his failure to return (2:17-3:13) to a tactful (cf. 4:1, 10, 5:11) treatment of the shortcomings of the faith of the readers (3:10; cf. 3:8, 12-13). These exhortations are not haphazard, but are designed to meet the specific needs of the community made known to Paul by Timothy and by a letter which Timothy brought. In fact, it would appear from 4:9, 13, 5:1 ( ; cf. 1Co 7:1, 1Co 7:25, 1Co 7:8:1, 1Co 7:12:1, etc.) that the Thessalonians had written specifically for advice concerning love of the brethren, the dead in Christ, and the times and seasons. Three classes of persons are chiefly in mind in 4:1-5:22: (1) The weak (4:3-8; cf. 5:14); (2) the idlers ( 5:14) who have been the main instruments in disturbing the peace of the brotherhood (4:9-12, 5:12-13; cf. 5:19-22); and (3) the faint-hearted ( 5:14) who were anxious both about their dead (4:13-18) and about their own salvation (5:1-11). The only distinctly new point, not touched upon in the previous oral teaching of Paul, is the discussion of the dead in Christ (4:13-18).
For convenience, we may subdivide the Exhortations as follows: (1) Introduction (4:1-2); (2) True Consecration (4:3-8); (3) Brotherly Love (4:9-10a); (4) Idleness (4:10b-12); (5) The Dead in Christ (4:13-18); (6) Times and Seasons (5:1-11); (7) Spiritual Labourers (5:12-13); (8) The Idlers, The Faint-hearted, and The Weak (5:14a-c); (9) Love (5:14d-15); (10) Joy, Prayer, and Thanksgiving (5:16-18); and (II) Spiritual Gifts (5:19-22).
(1) Introduction to the Exhortations (4:1-2)
In his introductory words, Paul appeals, in justification of his exhortations, not to his own authority but to the authority which both he and his readers recognise as valid, the indwelling Christ ( , ). He insists that he is asking of them nothing new, and that what he urges conforms to the instructions which they have already received and which they know. Finally, in emphasising that they are living in a manner pleasing to God, he can only ask and urge them to abound the more. These opening verses are general; the meaning of and becomes specific in 4:3 ff.
1Finally brothers we ask you and urge in the Lord Jesus that, as you have received from us instructions as to how you ought to walk and please God, as in fact you are walking, that you abound the more. 2For you know what instructins we gave you, prompted by the Lord Jesus.
1. , With , finally, a particle of transition often found toward the end of a letter (Grot.: locutioest properantis ad finem), and with an affectionate (cf. 2Co 13:11: , ), Paul turns from the epistolary thanksgiving and prayer to the epistolary exhortation, from the more personal considerations to what remains to be said (Ambst quod superest) about the deficiencies of the converts.
The reading is uncertain. The prefixed may be disregarded (Zim); but as P in 2Co 13:11 so most uncials here (ADEGFKL; WH.mg. Tisch Zim Weiss, Dob.) read Weiss (121) thinks that the omission of in B and in many minuscules and versions is due to a scribal error. Elsewhere, however, Paul uses both (1Co 1:16, 1Co 1:4:2, 2Co 13:11) and (1Co 7:29; plus , II 3:1, Php 4:8; or plus , Php 3:1). Epictetus prefers to (cf. Bultman, Der Stil der Paulinischen Predigt, 1910, 101). If is read, the reference may still be in general to what has preceded (Lft.; cf. Dob. who notes the in Rom 12:1, Eph 4:1, etc.) and not specifically to 3:13, as many prefer (Ell.; cf. Lillie who remarks: as working together with God to the same end). For in papyri, see Mill. ad loc. On the interpretation of vv. 1-12, see also Bahnsen, ZWT 1904, 332-358.
. In the Lord Jesus we ask and urge you. On the analogy of . (II 3:12; cf. Rom 14:14, Eph 4:17), both verbs are to be construed with In fact, and are virtually synonymous (cumenius, apud Lillie: ), as the usage in papyri shows (cf. also Php 4:2 f. Luk 7:3 f. Act 16:39). The position of , after the first, not after the second verb, suggests not that the converts are in the Lord, which on other grounds is true, but that the apostles are in the Lord, the point being that the exhortation is based not on personal authority but on the authority of the indwelling Christ, which is reognised as valid by both readers and writers.
On the phrase, cf. P. Oxy. 744 (Witk., 97): ; and P Oxy. 294 (Mill. Greek Papyri, 36): Like , is used of prayer to Christ (2Co 12:8); cf. P. Leid. K (Witk., 89): like our ask and the Hebrew is used in later Gk. for both ask a question, interrogare, and ask a favour, rogare (cf. 2 Ezr 5:10, Psa 136:3). The construction , only here in Paul but quite common elsewhere (cf. Mar 7:26, Luk 7:36; P. Oxy. 744:13 f.), is analogous to (II 3:12, 1Co 1:10, 1Co 1:16:12, 2Co 9:5, 2Co 12:8). On the in (A insert ) , cf. Rom 14:14, Php 2:19, Eph 1:15, and see on 1:1.
. With , Paul starts to introduce the object of the verbs of exhorting (BMT 201); but before he gets to the goal he reminds the readers tactfully (1) that what he has to say is conformable to what they received from him when he was with them; and (2) that they are in fact walking according to instructions received. When then he comes to the object of the verbs and repeats the , he can only ask and urge them to abound the more.
Precisely what Paul intended to say when he began with the first , whether , we do not know. Dob. observes that the Clementine Vulgate and Pelagius (but Souter thinks not) read sic et ambuletis = , and take the second in subordination to the first; a reading due to a corruption, within the Latin versions, of ambulatis. To avoid the pleonasm (Zim), ;AKL, et al., omit the first ; KL, et al;, further soften by omitting
The first clause reminds them tactfully that what he has to say is not new but strictly conformable () to the traditions and instructions which they had received (; cf. Gal 1:9, 1Co 15:1; II 3:6, Php 4:9, Col 2:6), those, namely, as v. 2 notes explicitly, that he had previously commanded The teachings are here referred to generally and in the form of an indirect question: As to how ( ) you ought to walk and so () please God (cf. Col 1:10). The is consecutive and marks the as the result of the (Ell.; cf. Bl 77:6).
Paul as a Pharisee (Gal 1:14) and as a Christian has his (II 2:15, 3:6, 1Co 11:2) or (Rom 6:17; cf. 16:17, 1Co 4:17, Col 2:7, Eph 4:21). Although he attributes his gospel to the immediate inspiration of the indwelling Christ or Spirit, yet the contents of the gospel are mediated by the Old Testament (e.g. Rom 3:21, Rom 13:9), late Judaism, words of Jesus (4:15), and by the teaching of the primitive church (1Co 11:23, 1Co 15:3). On , see 1:9; on introducing indirect questions, cf. Rom 8:26 and Bl 47:5; on , Act 4:21; on , II 3:7, Col 4:6.
. This second tactful reminder, introduced by (cf. 3:4), is thoroughly in keeping with v. 10, 5:11, II 3:4, and indicates of itself that the actual exhortation can only be for more such conduct. Hence the object of is, as expected: , that you abound even more in walking according to the intsructions received.
On , see 2:4 and Deiss. NBS. 51; on , see v. 10 and cf. 2Co 3:9, Php 1:9. Paul uses regularly the present subj. of (1Co 14:12, 2Co 8:7, 2Co 9:8, Php 1:26); but B, et al., here and BD, et al., in Php 1:9 read the aorist subj. as in 2Co 4:15.
2. . For you know what instructions we gave you. strengthens and confirms the point already made in the first clause with (v. 1). This explicit appeal to the knowledge of the readers shows how concerned Paul is in insisting that he is making no new requests.
The emphasis, as Lnemann observes, rests on , and prepares the readers for the following , v. 3 (Ell.). Not until we come to do we learn the content of (v. 1) and (v. 2).-For , cursive 33 reads (cf. Gal 4:13). reminds us of the apologetic appeals in 1:5, 2:1, 2, 5, 11, 3:3, 4; here also the reference is apologetic, but in a different sense; Paul would have his converts feel that he is not issuing new and arbitrary orders, but orders already given and prompted by the indwelling Christ ( ). is a military word occurring rarely in Gk. Bib. (literally in Act 5:28, Act 5:16:24; of ethical orders, 1Ti 1:5. 1Ti 1:18 1Ti 1:1 Clem. 42:3). is a late Gk. periphrasis for (a common word in Gk. Bib.; cf. v. 11, II 3:4 ff.) similar to for (cf., in Joh 14:31, Bl with AD).
Prompted by the Lord Jesus (Lft.); loquente in nobis Spiritu Christi (Vatablus, apud Poole). The designates the Lord as the causa medians through which the were declared; they were not the Apostles own commands, but Christs ( , , , Theophylact), by whose influence he was moved to deliver them (Ell.). is grammatically different from but essentially identical with the former is dynamic both in form and in meaning; the latter is static in form but dynamic in force (see on 1:1). Christians are in Christ or the Spirit because Christ or the Spirit is in them as a permanent energising activity. Since the divine is in them, it is through () the divine as a mediating cause that they are empowered to do all things (Php 4:13). The presence of both (v. 1) and is here designed not to emphasise the apostolic authority of the writers but to point the readers to the divine source of authority which both readers and writers recognise as legitimate, the indwelling Christ. To be sure, Paul recognises his apostolic authority (2:6, II 3:9); no doubt it had of itself immense weight with the Thessalonians; but here he insists that just as when he was with them (2:7) so now as he writes he is but one of them, relying as they do on Christ in them as the common source of divine authority.
Schettler, Die paulinische Formel, Durch Christus, 1907, gives an exhaustive study of with and its synonyms, and While pressing his point somewhat rigorously, he succeeds in showing that indicates causal agency, and that the phrase through Christ denotes the activity of the spiritual Christ as agent in creation and salvation, and as an influence either in general or specifically in the life of prayer and the official legitimation of Paul (cf. AJT 1907, 690 f.). For this , cf. 4:14, 5:9, II 2:2. A few minuscules (69. 441-2. 462) read here (cf. II 3:12 where for . . , c Dc KL, et al., read . . ); on this interchange of and , see further Rom 5:9 f. 2Co 1:20, 2Co 5:18 f. Col 1:16. Col 1:19 f. On (II 3:6, Col 3:17) and (1Co 1:10), see below on II 3:6.
(2) True Consecration (4:3-8)
The divine exhortation ( v. 1) and the divine command ( , v. 2) now becomes the divine will ( , v. 3). The meaning of (v. 1) and (v. 2) which are resumed by (v. 3) is first stated generally as your consecration, that is, that you be consecrated. This general statement is then rendered specific by two pairs of infinitives in apposition to , namely, and , and The principle is that true consecration being moral as well as religious demands sexual purity. Along with the principle, a practical remedy is suggested: The prevention of fornication by having respect for ones wife; and the prevention of adultery by marrying not in lust but in the spirit of holiness and honour. As a sanction for obedience, Paul adds (vv. 6b-8) that Christ punishes impurity; that God calls Christians not for impurity but for holiness; and that the Spirit, the gift of God unto consecration, is a permanent divine power resident in the individual Christian (5:23) so that disobedience is directed not against the human but against the divine.
The appeal to the Spirit as the highest sanction in every problem of the moral life is characteristic of Paul; cf. 1Co 6:19 and McGiffert. Apostolic Age, 263 ff. The reason for presenting the Christian view of consecration involving a Christian view of marriage is to be found not simply in the fact that the converts had as pagans looked upon sexual immorality as a matter of indifference, but also in the fact that such immorality had been sanctioned by their own religious rites (see on , 2:3). The temptation was thus particularly severe and some of the converts may have been on the point of yielding. The group as a whole, however, was pure, as 1:3, 3:6 and (v. 2) make plain.
3Gods will is this, that you be consecrated, that is, that you abstain from fornication, 4that each of you respect his own wife; that each of you get his own wife in the spirit of consecration and honour 5not in the passion of lust, as is the case with the Gentiles who know not God, 6to prevent any one of you from disregarding or taking advantage of his brother in the matter. For the Lord is an avenger for all these matters, as indeed we have predicted and solemnly affirmed; 7for God has not called us Christians for impurity but to be consecrated; 8consequently the rejecter rejects not man but God who puts his Spirit, the consecrating Spirit, into you.
3. Well, to be explicit, Gods will is this. With the explanatory , and (v. 2) are resumed by , a predicate probably, placed for emphasis before the subject ; and are further explained in By saying Gods will, Paul lays stress once more on the divine sanction already evident in the introduction (vv. 1-2), in and through the Lord Jesus.
Though and are in apposition with , it is yet uncertain whether is subject (Lft. and most comm.) or predicate (De W., Dob.). Since resumes the objects and , and since the prompting subject is Christ ( ) who expresses the will of God, it is perhaps better to take as subject and as predicate. On , cf. especially 5:18; also 4:15, 2Co 8:10, Col 3:20, etc. In Paul regularly (except 1Co 7:37, Eph 2:3) and in Lxx frequently, refers to the divine will. In Paul we have either (Rom 12:2, Eph 6:6; with , Gal 1:4 (cf. 1 Ezr 8:16); or , Rom 1:10); or (5:18; with , Rom 15:32, 1Co 1:1, etc.) like (Rom 1:1). We expect here either (A) or (D; so BD in 5:18 where has ). The omission of only one article here may be due to the influence of the Hebrew construct state (Bl 46:9). But neither here nor in 5:18 is the total will of God in mind; multae sunt voluntates (Bengel). Paul does not use ; cf. (Tob. 12:18, 2 Mac. 12:16).
= . Gods will is your consecration; that is, either that you may be consecrated or better that you consecrate yourselves. The word denotes both the process of consecration (as here) and the state of the consecrated (as vv. 4. 7; see SH on Rom 6:19). The consecrating power is God (5:23), Christ (1Co 1:2, 1Co 1:30), or the Spirit (v. 8, II 2:13; cf. Rom 15:16). Though in itself, as Vorstius (apud Poole) observes, is a general term, yet the immediate context, , and the contrasts between and (vv. 4-5) and between and (v. 7) suggest the restriction to impurity.
In the N. T. is chiefly in Paul; but only here do we have the article or the personal pronoun (cf. Eze 45:4). On , cf. vv. 4, 7 Test. xii, Benj. 10:11 Ps. Sol. 17:33 1 Clem. 35:2; on II 2:13, 1Pe 1:2; on , Rom 6:19. Rom 6:22, Amo 2:11. For = , cf. Test. xii, Lev 18:7 ( ) with 18:11 and Rom 1:4 ( ).
That you hold aloof from fornication; for true consecration to God is moral as well as religious. Every kind of impurity is a sin not simply against man but against God (cf. v. 8 and Psa 50:6: ).
What was unclear in (v. 1), (v. 2), and (v. 3) and what was still general in , now (vv. 3b-6a) becomes clear and specific in the two pairs of infinitives, and , and , placed in asyndetical apposition with Dibelius thinks it unnecessary to take the infin. as appositive, since the infinitive often appears in such hortatory enumerations (see Pseudophokylides); on such infinitives, but without subject, cf. Rom 12:15, Php 3:16 and Bl 69:1. In the Lxx takes either the genitive alone or the gen, with , (both constructions in Sap. 2:16); classic Gk. prefers the former, Paul the latter (5:22). Paul uses the plural (1Co 7:2) but not (so F here); the word itself suggests all forms of sexual immorality. On the generic , cf. 1Co 6:13, 1Co 6:18.
4. . That each of you respect his own wife. Usually is understood in the sense of learn how to, savoir (Php 4:12) and so is construed with as its complement: that each one of you learn how to get (or possess) his own vessel (wife or body) in holiness and honour; in the light, however, of 5:12 where = respect, it is tempting to take it also here = regard, appreciate the worth of. In this case a comma is to be put after to indicate the separation of from With this punctuation, the parallelism of and , and becomes at once obvious.
here and 5:12, like in 1Co 16:18, Mat 17:12, is employed in a sense akin to that in the common Lxx phrase (v. 5, II 1:8, Gal 4:8) or (Gal 4:9) , the knowledge involving intelligent reverence and obedience; cf. Ign. Smyr. 9:1: For , B2 or B3, the Latins, et al. read as 2:11, II 1:3.-(1) In the usual view which takes with and which rightly sees in vv. 3b-8 a reference solely to , the point is that first is prohibited; then a holy use of its natural remedy affirmatively inculcated; and lastly the heinous sin of , especially as regarded in its social aspects, formally denounced (Ell.). (2) In favour of the alternative view which takes = respect and so separates it from is the position of not before as we should expect from Php 4:12, and as DG, et al., here actually have it, but after; the apparent parallelism of the four infinitives; the fact that is complete in itself, balancing ; and the fact that in 5:12 = to respect, appreciate. In this alternative view we have two pairs of parallel infinitives, and , and In the first pair, , though first in order, is really subordinate to , the point being: abstain from fornication by appreciating the worth of your wife. In the second pair, , as (v. infra) intimates, is explicitly subordinate to , the thought being: marry in the spirit of holiness and thus prevent adultery with a brothers wife. The arrangement of the four infinitives is chaiastic; in each pair a practical remedy for temptation is provided.
Spitta (Zur Geschichte und Litteratur, I, 1893, 131:2) was evidently the first to suggest the separation of from ; but his own view that = (Gen 4:17, etc.) is apparently untenable, for = know carnally is rendered in Lxx not by but by (Jdg 21:11 is not an exception). Born and Vincent rightly take here as in 5:12 to mean respect, but assume for the improbable sense (v. infra): to do business. Wohl., after taking the position that both impurity and dishonesty in business are discussed in vv. 3b-8, suggests for consideration in a foot-note (90:2) an interpretation similar to the alternative view here proposed, but does not elaborate it.
. His own vessel, that is, his own wife. Paul has in mind married men and the temptation to unholy and dishonourable relations with women. The intimates a contrast between a and a As , parallel to and explanatory of shows, the way of escape from is the appreciation of the worth of the wife. This estimate of marriage is essential to true consecration and is Gods will.
is rare in Paul; it is used literally of a utensil in the household (Rom 9:21), and metaphorically, with some qualifying description, of an implement for some purpose (e.g. Rom 9:22 f. , ; 2Co 4:7 -a metaphor from money stored in earthen jars, as Bigg (ICC on 1Pe 3:7) notes). The absolute in a metaphorical sense appears to be unique in the Gk. Bib. (1) On the analogy of the other Pauline passages, the reference here is to a vessel adapted to a purpose; and the emphasis on and the contrast with suggest the woman as the vessel, not, however, for fornication but for honourable marriage. This meaning for has a parallel not in 1Pe 3:7 (where both the man and the woman are vessels), but in rabbinical literature (cf. Schttgen, Horae Hebraicae, I, 827), where = = woman. This interpretation of is taken by the Greek Th. Mops. as well as by Augustine and most modern commentators. (2) On the other hand, many commentators (e.g. Tertullian, Chrys., Theodoret, Calv., Grot., Mill., Dibelius) understand as = body. In support of this opinion, passages are frequently adduced (see Ln. and cf. Barn. 7:3, 11:19) in which the context rather than the word itself (, , vas) indicates that the vessel of the spirit or soul is the body. But even if of itself is a metaphor for body (cf. Barn. 21:8), it is difficult so to understand it here, if and have their usual meaning. (1) in the Gk. Bib. as in classic Gk. means to get a wife (Sir. 36:29), children (Gen 4:1), friends (Sir. 6:7), enemies (Sir. 20:23, 29:6), gold (Mat 10:19), etc.; also to buy (Act 1:18, Act 8:20, Act 22:28). The sense dem Erwerb nachgehen (Born), pursue gain-getting (Vincent) is doubtful, although we have the absolute the buyer (Deu 28:68, Eze 7:12 f., Eze 8:3); (not in N. T.) in Lxx as in classic Gk. means to have gotten (a wife, Rth 4:10), possess (Pro 16:22), own ( , the owner, Ep. Jer. 58***). Cum significat acquirere non potest significare corpus suum sed uxorem (Wetstein). This conclusion, however, is bereft of its force if in Hellenistic Gk. = (so Mill. who quotes P. Tebt. 5:241 ff. and P. Oxy. 259:6; and, following him Dibelius). (2) But the difficulty with remains: to possess his own body. This may be obviated by assuming that here, as often in later Gk., like (cf. 1Co 7:2) has lost much of its emphatic force (Mill. on , 2:7; and Moult I, 87 ff.). If, however, and retain here their normal meaning, then probably = woman, wife.
. That each of you get in marriage his own wife (sc. ). Wetstein notes Sir. 36:29: (cf. also Rth 4:10). Paul has now in mind unmarried men and the temptation especially to adultery. The is contrasted with the brothers wife implied in v. 6. True consecration, which is Gods will, is not simply that a man should marry in order to avoid adultery (cf. 1Co 7:2: ), but, as the prescribes, should marry in purity and respect for his wife, and not in the passion of lust. As the clause with explained that the married man is to appreciate his wife and so be kept from fornication, so the clause with indicates that the unmarried man is to marry in holiness and honour and so be kept from invading the sanctity of his brothers home.
The subject and the object hold over; cf. Sir. 51:25 ( ), where is to be supplied.
. In holiness and honour. The designates the atmosphere in which the union of the man and woman takes place (Ell.). is here equivalent to , the state of those who are consecrated to God. Religious feeling is to pervade marriage; but whether this feeling is to be expressed in prayer is not stated. Wohl. notes Ignatius to Polycarp 5:2: It is fitting for men who marry and women who are married to unite themselves ( ) with the consent of the bishop The marriage is likewise to be in honour; that is, the woman is not a but a , and honour is due her as a person of worth ().
Pauls statement touches only the principles; Tobit 8:1 ff. is more specific. Even were taken as = possess, a usage not quite impossible for later Greek, it would only extend the idea to the duties of a Christian husband (Moff.).
5. . Without connecting particle, the positive statement is further elucidated by a negative and the contrast between Pauline and pagan ideals of marriage sharply set forth: not in the passion of lust as is the case with the Gentiles who do not recognise and obey the moral requirements of God. That pagan marriage was marked by the absence of holiness and respect for the wife and by the presence of passionate lust is the testimony of one familiar with the facts, one who is as good a source for the life of the people as any satirist (Dob.).
signifies any feeling; to 4 Mac. it consists of and ; in Paul it is always used in a bad sense (Rom 1:26, Col 3:5). in Paul has usually a bad sense, but sometimes a good sense (2:17, Php 1:23; cf. , Col 3:5). On , see 3:6. Ellicott, with his wonted exactness, notes the as having here its comparative force and instituting a comparison between the Gentiles and the class implied in On , a Lxx phrase (Jer 10:25, Psa 78:6), cf. II 1:8, Gal 4:8, 1Co 1:21, and contrast Rom 1:21. If the Thessalonians in their pagan state had held to be sanctioned by religion, and had also considered to be compatible with honourable marriage, the clause with would be particularly telling. See Jowett, II, 70 ff. On the Connexion of Immorality and Idolatry.
6. . To prevent ( ) any one of you (sc. from , v. 4) from disregarding and taking advantage of his brother in the matter. Just as appreciation of the wife () is tacitly regarded as a preventive of fornication (), so pure and honourable marriage () is expressly ( ) regarded as preventing the invasion () of the sanctity of the brothers home.
The meaning of is uncertain. Many take it as final in the sense of (Schmiedel) or (Lft.); others regard it as not merely parallel to the anarthrous but as reverting to the preceding , of which it presents a specific exemplification more immediately suggested by the second part of v. 4 (Ell.); Dob., who inclines to the view of Ell., concludes that the article indicates the beginning of a new and second main point, the matter of dishonesty in business; Dibelius suggests that the article is merely a csura in delivery, designed to show that the is not parallel to the in v. 5, but the beginning of a new clause. On the other hand, (cf. 3:3) may be due to the idea of hindering implied in the clause with , a clause thus to be closely connected with , as indeed the asyndetical construction itself suggests. In classical Greek, is used with many verbs and expressions which denote or even imply hindrance or prevention (GMT 811, where inter alia the following are noted: schylus, Agam. 15: (stands by to prevent my closing my eyes in sleep); and Soph. Antig. 544: , ). In this case there is no reason for assuming a change of subject in v. 6.-, only here in N. T., is used in the Lxx literally, cross over (2 Reg. 22:30, Pro 9:18 A), pass by (2 Reg. 18:23, Job 9:11); and metaphorically surpass (3 Mac. 6:24), leave unnoticed, disregard (Mic 7:18: ). Since the meaning disregard suits perfectly here (cf. Ell. who notes Isus 38:6 43:34 and other passages), it is unnecessary to take absolutely, or to supply, instead of the natural object , either or or (see Wetstein, who also quotes Jerome: concessos fines praetergrediens nuptiarum). occurs elsewhere in Gk. Bib. apart from Paul (2Co 2:11, 2Co 7:2, 2Co 12:17 f.) only Jdg 4:11, Eze 22:27, Hab 2:9; it means get the advantage of, defraud, the context not the word itself indicating the nature of the advantage taken, whether in money, as usually in Paul, or not (2Co 2:11). Here the object of greediness (cf. , 2:5) is the brothers wife as the context as a whole and particularly suggest.
. In the matter, the meaning of which is sufficiently defined by the context (Lft.), as in 2Co 7:11. It is probable that the phrase is not a specific reference either to , as if the article were anaphoristic, or to , as if the article referred to the matter immediately in hand, but is a euphemistic generalisation for all sorts of uncleanness (Lillie), as in this clause and in v. 7 suggest.
not the enclitic , which is without parallel in the N. T., is to be read.- like res and is a euphemism for anything abominable. Wetstein cites in point not only 2Co 7:11, but also schines, Timarch, 132 ff. and Isus, de haered. Cironis, 44; cf. also Pirque Aboth 5:23 and Taylors note.-In this connection it may be noted that many commentators (e. g. Calv., Grot., De W., Ln., Born, Vincent, Wohl., Dob.) deny the view of Chrys., Th. Mops., Bengel, and most English interpreters (see the names in Lillie) that Paul in vv. 3b-8 is referring solely to impurity, and assert, either on the ground that Vulg translates by in negotio or that Paul frequently associates uncleanness with avarice (cf. Test. xii, Benj. 5:1 and ), that with a new point begins, dishonesty in business (cf. especially Dob. Die urchristlichen Gemeinden, 1902, 283). In this view, = business; and the article is either anaphoristic, if with Born and Vincent = to do business, or generic, business in general. Against this opinion is the consideration that no other adequate example of in this sense in the singular has been produced (Mill.). To obviate this consideration, Dibelius looks beyond 1Co 6:1 ( ) to the papyri for in the sense of case at court, without explaining , and refers v. 6 to disputes: nicht Uebergriffe machen und beim Zwist den Bruder bervorteilen.-To interpret v. 6 of sexual immorality is considered forced exegesis by Calv. and Dob. On the other hand, Ell. pertinently remarks: To regard the verse as referring to fraud and covetousness in the general affairs of life is to infringe on the plain meaning of ; to obscure the reference to the key-word of the paragraph (v. 7); to mar the contextual symmetry of the verses; and to introduce an exegesis so frigid and unnatural as to make us wonder that such good names should be associated with an interpretation seemingly so improbable.
. Not neighbour in general, not both neighbour and Christian brother, but simply the Christian brother is meant. Obviously the point is not that it is permissible thus to wrong an outsider, but that it is unspeakable thus to wrong a brother in Christ. Zanchius (apud Poole) compares aptly 1Co 6:8:
6b-8. With , (v. 7) and (v. 8), Paul passes to motives for obeying these commands, not his but Gods commands. First he appeals, as he had done before when he was with them, to the sanction of the judgment when Christ will punish all these sins of the flesh (v. 6b). Next he reminds them that Gods call had a moral end in view, holiness (v. 7). Finally he points out that the indwelling, consecrating Spirit, the gift of God, is the resident divine power in the individual, so that disobedience strikes not at the human but at the divine (v. 8).
. = because as in 2:8. As a sanction for present obedience to the will of God as specified in vv. 3b-6a, Paul points to the future judgment (2Co 5:10, Rom 14:10). is not (GF) but Christ (3:12), as the emphatic (vv. 7-8) intimates. He is the one who inflicts punishment directly or indirectly (cf. II 1:8), the avenger () for all these things, that is, for fornication, adultery, and all such uncleanness.
means here, as always in Gk. Bib. (Rom 13:4, Sir. 30:6 Sap. 12:12, 4 Mac. 15:29; cf. Psa 8:3), avenger. This characterisation of God is so common in the Lxx ( or , Psa 98:8, Nah 1:2, Mic 5:15, etc.), that the phrase here need not be a literary allusion to Psa 93:1: ,
. Paul tactfully reminds them, as in vv. 1-2, that this eschatological sanction is not new to them. When he was with them he had predicted and solemnly affirmed that Christ would avenge all manner of unchastity. Apparently neither the temptation nor the exhortation was new. But whether Timothy had brought news of the yielding to temptation in some case or cases, since Pauls departure, as (v. 8) rather strongly intimates, or whether the exhortation is simply prophylactic, is uncertain.
On the comparative (A omits) after see 3:4; the after is the simple copula; on the position of , cf. v. 1 (cf. Gal 5:21 where it is contrasted with ), is predictive as in 3:4; on the mixed aorist (AKL read ) see Bl 21:1. only here in Paul but common elsewhere in Gk. Bib., is possibly stronger than (2:12; but cf. Kennedy, Sources, 37); it means either call to witness (Jer 39:10, 44, Deu 4:26, Deu 31:28) or solemnly affirm or protest; etiam apud Att. notio testes invocandi evanescit (Blass on Act 2:40).
7. . The , parallel to (v. 6), introduces a second motive for obedience, the moral goal of Gods call. For God called us Christians not that we should be impure ( denoting the purpose or object) but that we should be holy ( indicating the state of holiness resulting from the calling). Such being the moral purpose of the call, it would be sin to disregard these commands which express Gods will.
On , which is mediated by the preaching of the gospel (II 2:14), see 2:12; on , which sums up see 2:3. is here, as in v. 4, holiness, the state of those whom God consecrates to himself through the Spirit. indicates either the condition or basis on which, or the object or purpose for which, they were (not) called (Ell.); cf. Gal 5:13, Eph 2:10 and Bl 43:3; also Sap. 2:23 (Mill.). is not for (Piscator) but is a natural abbreviation for as the sense requires (Lft. who notes Eph 4:4). For introducing the result of , Col 3:15 is pertinent. Other expositors (e. g. Bengel, Hofmann, Riggenbach, Wohl. Dob.) understand as an act of God and as indicating the essential character of the call.
8. . With , therefore, consequently, Paul draws a sharp inference from vv. 3-7. Since the specific commands, making for a consecration that is moral, are the express will of God who not only judges but calls unto holiness, he that sets aside these injunctions sets aside not man but God, the God who through his Spirit is the energising, consecrating power in the hearts of the believers.
As in Isa 21:2 ( , ), so here the present participle is timeless and equivalent to a substantive, the rejecter, the despiser. The omission of the object (Vulg qui haec spernit) serves to call attention not so much to what is set at naught as to the person who sets at naught (Ell.). The omission of the article before suggests a reference not to man generically nor to some particular man (e. g. who has been wronged), but to any individual, with perhaps a latent reference to the Apostle (Ell.; cf. Dob. who compares 2Co 12:2) who was Gods spokesman. The contrast between man and God is unqualified (cf. 2:13, Gal 1:10, Exo 16:8, Exo 16:1 Reg. 8:7); it is not a mans will but Gods will that is here in question. , elsewhere in N. T. only Heb 12:1 and a dozen times in Lxx, is similar to but stronger than (2:13), (3:1) or (4:18), and like these introduces a logical conclusion from a preceding discussion. Usually it begins the sentence (Heb 12:1, Job 22:10; cf. Epictetus); sometimes it is the second word (4 Mac. 13:16, 17:4, Job 24:22, etc.). (cf. Soph. Lex. sub voc.) is a late Gk. word common in Lxx; it signifies put away, set aside; hence reject, spurn, despise (cf. Jud 1:8 with 2Pe 2:10).
. Who puts his Spirit, the holy, consecrating Spirit into you, that is, (Gal 4:6). This addition, phrased in language reminiscent of the Lxx (cf. Eze 37:14: ), is a tacit reminder that they as well as Paul are (v. 1) and as such responsible for their conduct not to Paul but to God who dwells in them by Christ or the Spirit. Three points are evident in this appended characterisation of God, each of them intimating a motive for obedience. (1) Not only is God the one who calls and judges, he is also the one who graciously puts into their hearts his Spirit whose presence insures their blamelessness in holiness when the Lord comes (3:13). In gratitude for this divine gift, they should be loyally obedient. (2) This indwelling Spirit is a power unto holiness, a consecrating Spirit. Devotion to God must consequently be ethical. (3) The Spirit is put not (A) into us Christians collectively, but into you Thessalonians, specifically. Hence each of them is individually responsible to God who by the Spirit is resident in them. In despising, the individual despises not a man but God.
(BDEGFI) is a general present participle and timeless; it describes God as the giver of the Spirit (cf. , 2:12). (AKL, Vulg) is due to (v. 7; cf. A in 2:12, ); the aorist points to the time when God gave (Rom 5:5, 2Co 1:22, 2Co 5:5) or sent (Gal 4:6) the Spirit into their hearts. The new point emphasised by is made explicit by DGFKL, Vulg et al., which insert after (cf. GP in II 2:14 which read before and A in II 3:3 which inserts before ). Here BAEI omit , as do BADKL in II 2:14 and BD and most in 3:8. In our passage, most textual critics including Weiss (112) insert ; but WH. do not allow it even as an alternative reading. The phrase is apparently found elsewhere in Gk. Bib. only Eze 37:6, Eze 37:14. For , cf. Rom 5:5, Rom 5:11:8, 2Co 5:5, Eph 1:17; Isa 42:5; for , cf. 2Co 1:22, 2Co 1:3 Reg. 22:23, Eze 36:26 ff., Eze 36:4 Reg. 19:7, 2Ch 18:22; for , cf. Num 11:29, Isa 42:1. The is for dative or for ; give to be in, put in.-The whole phrase is unusual in Paul; he uses, indeed, (Rom 8:11), (2Co 13:13), and (Eph 4:30; cf. 1:13 and Isa 63:11); but more often he has simply (1:5 f., etc.; Ps. Sol. 17:42). On the phrase here, cf. Ps. 142:10; , and Isa 63:10: Pauls emphasis on is especially appropriate to the theme , consecration which is ethical as well as religious. Some codices (AI) put before
(3) Love to the Brothers (4:9-10a)
As the exhortation to ethical consecration (vv. 3-8) recalls (3:13), so the new point concerning love to the brothers recalls (3:12). The form in which the new section () is introduced, , suggests (cf. 1Co 7:25, 1Co 8:1, 1Co 12:1, 1Co 16:1 (2Co 9:1) 16:12) that the Thessalonians had written Paul expressly for advice in this matter. They would scarcely have done so, if there had been no disturbing elements in the brotherhood, namely, as vv. 10b-12 intimate, idleness on the part of some leading to poverty and meddlesomeness in the affairs of the brotherhood. In his reply, Paul at first says (vv. 9-10a) that it is unnecessary for him to write anything about the matter because they have been taught of God to love one another and are, moreover, practising this love among the brethren not only at home but throughout all Macedonia. This excellent practice, however, does not prohibit his exhorting them not simply in general to abound the more in brotherly love ( ) but also in particular to be tranquil in mind, to attend to their own affairs, and work with their hands (vv. 11-12), any more than the fact that they were walking so as to please God (v. 1) prevented his urging them not simply in general to abound the more in such walking ( ) but also in particular to abstain from fornication, etc. (vv. 3-8). To affirm, as some do, that although vv. 10b-12 are closely joined syntactically with vv. 9-10a yet exegesis is not justified in joining them materially appears to miss not only the obvious connection of the two sections but also the parallelism of approach already observed between vv. 9-11 and vv. 1-3. It is for convenience only that we subdivide into Love to Brothers (4:9-10a) and Idleness (4:10b-12).
9Now concerning love to the brothers, you have no need of our writing to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love another; 10in fact you are also doing it toward all the brothers who are in the whole of Macedonia.
9. . The brother who is the object of love is not the brother by birth, nationality, or alliance, but the brother . Affection for the brotherhood (1Pe 2:17) does not exclude (3:12).
In the Lxx (4 Mac. 13:23. 26, 14:1) as in classical Gk. (cf. also 2 Mac. 15:14) designates love of the brother by birth (cf. of the brotherhood by alliance in 1 Mac. 12:10. 17); in the N. T. it denotes always love of the Christian brother (Rom 12:10, Heb 13:1, 1Pe 1:22, 2Pe 1:7; cf. 1 Clem. 47:5 48:1). See Kennedy, Sources 95 f.
. You have no need that we (sc. ) write to you. The explanation of this simple statement of fact (Mill.) is then introduced by But instead of saying, for you yourselves know how to love one another (cf. 5:1) or for we know that you are loving one another (cf. 2Co 9:1), he says for you yourselves ( contrasting with understood before ) are taught of God to love one another, thus resuming the point made in v. 8 that it is not the apostles who teach but God speaking by the indwelling Spirit or Christ. In virtue of this divine inspiration, they are (Barn. 21:6), that is, (Isa 54:13) or (Ps. Sol. 17:35).
(Riggenbach) not or is to be supplied before The difficulty created by instead of (5:1) may account for the reading (H, et al.; cf. 5:1) and (DGF, et al.; cf. 1:8). B (cf. am habuimus) has which may suggest (Dob.) that Paul had already written a letter, and that he now justifies his failure to mention therein If however interpreted, is original (so Weiss), then is a correction and a conformation to 5:1 as H shows. I seems to read [] Most editors read with AHKL, et al., and with most uncials. occurs only here in Gk. Bib.; Lft. notes it in the later Barn. 21:6, Athenag. Leg. 11 and Theoph. ad Autol. 2:9. On compounds with -, cf. Rom 1:30, 2Ti 3:16, 2Ti 3:2 Mac. 6:23 and Ignatius. For the idea, see Isa 54:13, Joh 6:45, Jer 31:33 ff. limits (cf. Php 1:23 and BMT 413). On the characteristic Johannine , cf. Rom 13:8, 1Pe 1:22.
10. . For you are also doing it, that is, . With (3:4), Paul confirms the statement that they had already been divinely instructed in regard to it (Lillie) and strengthens the reason for (v. 9). Two points are in mind (cf. 1:8): (1) not only are they taught it, they also practise it; (2) they practise it not only at home but also throughout all Macedonia. These two points are so combined that the proof of love at home is found in the love exhibited toward all the Macedonian Christians, an argument from the greater to the less (Calvin).
On , cf. 1Co 10:31. B alone puts a before , marking the advance from to BKLH (?) repeat after (cf. 1:8, 2:1); ADGF, et al., omit; it is hard to tell whether it has been inserted as an improvement of style (Zim Dob.) or whether it is original, the omission being due to partial haplography; cf. Phm 1:6 (AC omit ). may be enthusiastic (cf. 1:7-8), but Thessalonica as well as Philippi and Bera may have been a centre of influence for Macedonia as a whole; cf. 2Co 1:1 The disposition to love all the Macedonian Christians may have expressed itself both in hospitality to visiting brothers, Philippians, Berans, and others (Dob.), and in ministering to the necessity of other churches (McGiffert, EB 5041). Mill. (XLVII) quotes a remark of Jerome, in his commentary on Galatians (Migne, PL. 26, 356), that reveals the charitable disposition of the Macedonians of his day: Macedones in charitate laudantur et hospitalite ac susceptione fratrum.
(4) Idleness (4:10b.12)
Though the readers are practising brotherly love, yet () Paul urges them both generally to abound the more (cf. v. 1) in that virtue, and specifically to strive to be calm, and to mind their own business, and to work with their hands. This last injunction at least () is not new (cf. II 3:10), as he forthwith proceeds to add ( ; cf. v. 2); it is repeated here (v. 12) to the end (1) that the readers may behave themselves becomingly, having in mind the opinion of non-Christians, and (2) that they may be dependent on no one for support.
Precisely what the situation is to which Paul speaks, beyond the fact that it has to do with brotherly love, is not clear. It may be assumed that the belief in the coming of the Lord had created in the minds of some of the converts a feeling of restlessness and excitement which manifested itself outwardly in idleness and meddlesomeness in the affairs of the brotherhood. The idlers, we may imagine, being in want, had asked support from the church, and being refused on the ground that they were able to support themselves, had attempted to interfere in the affairs of the group. The peace of the brotherhood was disturbed and Christianity was falling into disrepute with unbelievers. Being in doubt as to how brotherly love was to be exhibited in such a case, the leaders wrote Paul for advice.
The clue to the interpretation of vv. 10b-12 is given in II 3:6-15 without which our verses would remain obscure. But neither I nor II tells us precisely wherein the meddlesomeness, alluded to in and expressed in (II 3:11), consists. For idleness, while it naturally leads to poverty and to demands upon the brotherhood for support (Theodoret, Estius, Lft.), does not of itself involve interference with the affairs of the church. But as the position of before intimates, meddlesomeness, the result of idleness, is the disturbing factor. Some light may be thrown on the situation by hints given in 5:12 ff. In 5:12-13, for example, the readers are urged to appreciate the worth of ( as v. 4) those who labour among you, those, namely, who act as leaders and function as ; and to regard them highly in love on account of their work. Furthermore, the readers are commanded to be at peace not with them, but among themselves; and also to warn the idlers (5:14). In 5:19-22 they are exhorted not to quench the operations of the Spirit, not to despise the gift of prophecy; and again are bidden to test all sorts of charismata, holding fast to such as make for edification and holding aloof from every evil kind of charismata. In 5:23 the God of peace is invoked; and in 5:27 this letter is ordered read to all the brethren. From these statements we may surmise that the idlers ( , 5:14) are the disturbing element in the brotherhood, their idleness being due to a religious cause, namely, the excitement occasioned by the expectancy of the coming of the Lord. They became poor and asked the workers among them for assistance, only to be refused on the ground that the applicants were able but unwilling to support themselves, and were thus acting in direct violation of what Paul had taught (II 3:10: , a passage which suggests that (I 4:11) is to be restricted to ). The leaders were probably not tactful, as (5:13) implies and II 3:13, 15 confirms. Possibly the demand of the idlers was made in the Spirit, on the analogy of Did. 11:12: , Such a misuse of spiritual gifts may well have led the workers among you to distrust the validity of the ; in which case the exhortation in 5:19-22 is ad hoc. The invocation of the God of peace in 5:23 is pertinent; the solemn adjuration that the letter be read to all the brethren intimates that some of the idlers had asserted that they would give no heed to the epistolary injunctions of Paul, a suggestion confirmed by II 3:14, 17.
10bWe urge you, however, brothers to abound the more, 11and to strive to be calm and to mind your own business, and to work with your hands as we charged you, 12in order that you may behave yourselves becomingly in reference to the unbelievers and may have need of no one to support you.
11. . Strive to be calm. Paul recognises that the source of meddlesomeness and idleness is inward, the excitement created in the minds of some by the expectation that the day of the Lord was at hand. With Lam 3:26 he might have said: It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord (Lxx: ). Inward tranquillity once restored, outward idleness and meddlesomeness would cease.
, only here in Paul, is used elsewhere in Gk. Bib. to denote silence after speech (Act 11:18), rest after labour (Luk 23:56), peace after war (Jdg 3:11, etc.), and the like; also tranquillity or peace of mind, the antithesis being expressed (Job 3:26, Pro 1:32, Isa 7:4) or implied (Exo 24:14, Lam 3:26 and here); cf. II 3:12: Many commentators, influenced doubtless by Platos Rep. VI, 496 D, where the philosopher retires from public life and pursues his studies in retirement (cf. Dio Cass. 60:27: ), find the opposite of implied in the opposite of and interpret objectively as leading the quiet life after busying themselves with affairs not their own, as, for example, entering into public life, discussing the Parousia in the market-place and elsewhere, and thus bringing the Christian circle into discredit with the Gentiles (Zwingli, Koppe, Schott, Dob. and others). But the Thessalonians are not philosophers but working people, and the context ( ) points to church rather than to public affairs.
occurs elsewhere in Gk. Bib. only Rom 15:20, 2Co 5:9 and 4 Mac. 1:32 (A). In later Gk. it is used absolutely in the sense love honour, be ambitious, or act with public spirit (Mill.); and with a complementary infinitive in the sense of strive, be eager, try (so in papyri (Mill.); cf. Polyb. I, 83:2, where is balanced by ). The meaning here = in 2:17; see Wetstein, ad loc. and SH on Rom 15:20. On the Pauline phrase cf. 5:14, Rom 15:30, Rom 15:16:17, 1Co 1:10, 1Co 1:16:15; also I 5:12, II 2:1 (where (v. 1) takes the place of ). With , Paul uses the clause (v. 1, II 3:12); or the infinitive, either alone or with (2:11) or (3:2); or the imperative (5:14, 1Co 4:16).
. The outward expression of inward restlessness was meddlesomeness and idleness. Paul refers first not to idleness but to meddlesomeness ( II 3:11) because in this case the disturbing element in the peace of the brotherhood was not simply that some were idle and in their want had asked support from the church, but also that, being refused, they had attempted to interfere in the management of its affairs. Furthermore, in putting second , the cause of meddlesomeness, he seems to intimate that is to be taken not with all three preceding infinitives (, , and ) but solely with the last, as indeed the clause of purpose v. 12 (especially ) and the parallel II 3:10 ( ) suggest. To meet this situation, he urges first that they attend to their own affairs and not interfere with the affairs of the church; and second, repeating an injunction already given, that they work with their hands, that is, support themselves instead of begging assistance from the church ( v. 12).
is unique in the Gk. Bib. but common in the classics (see Wetstein); cf. (Plato, Rep. IV, 433 A) and (Soph. Lex.). GF. read (1Co 4:12, Eph 4:28; cf. Sap. 15:17) denotes manual labour; but whether skilled or unskilled is not certain. Influenced by (Weiss, 91), AKL, et al., prefix to , an unnecessary insertion in view of In 1Co 4:12, Eph 4:28, where fails, is to be read, though B omits it in Eph 4:28.
12. . The purpose of is twofold, (1) that the converts may behave themselves becomingly with a view to the opinion of non-Christians ( ) the point being that the idleness of some of the Christians tended to bring Christianity into discredit with the unbelievers; and (2) that they may have need of no one to support them, the point being that they should support themselves instead of trespassing on the hospitality of the church.
Ell. thinks that refers mainly to and , and refers to This reference is due to the fact that is interpreted as leading a quiet life after a bustling interest in public affairs. Ewald and Dob. take the clause with as the object of ; but the change from the infinitives to after strongly intimates that Paul is passing from the object to the purpose of the exhortation cf. 1Co 10:32 f.: ). , which is used elsewhere in the Gk. Bib. only Rom 13:13 () and 1Co 14:40 (parallel to ), denotes becomingly, honestly in the sense of honeste, so that no exception can be taken; cf. Epictetus, Diss. II, 5:23 in Paul (1Co 5:12 f. Col 4:5) indicates non-Christians, irrespective of race (contrast , 1Co 5:12). The Jews had a similar designation for non-Jews; cf. (Josephus, Ant. 15:316; also 1Ti 3:7) and (Sir. prol.); and see Schttgen on 1Co 5:12 and Levy, Neuhebr. u. Chald. Wrterbuch on . = with an eye to, as in Col 4:5; not coram, in the eyes of. On the gender of , Vorstius (apud Poole) remarks: perinde est sive in neut. gen. sive in masc. accipias. Nor does it matter logically, for in either case the reference is to dependence upon the brotherhood for support. Grammatically, the usage of is inconclusive; contextually, the masculine is probable ( ) Vulg has nullius aliquid.
(5) The Dead in Christ (4:13-18)
This section is separated from the previous paragraphs concerning brotherly love (vv. 9-12) but is closely related to the following question concerning times and seasons (5:1-11), as the repetition of (v. 17) in 5:10 intimates. The faint-hearted ( 5:14) are anxious both about their dead (4:13-18) and about their own salvation (5:1-11).
Since Pauls departure, one or more of the Thessalonian Christians had died. The brethren were in grief not because they did not believe in the resurrection of the saints, but because they feared that their dead would not have the same advantages as the survivors when the Lord came. Their perplexity was due not simply to the Gentile difficulty of apprehending the meaning of resurrection, but also to the fact that Paul had not when he was with them discussed explicitly the problem of the relation of survivors to dead at the Parousia. Since they had received no instruction on this point (contrast vv. 1-2, 6, 9, 11, 5:2), they write to Paul for advice concerning the dead.
That the question is not: Will the Christians who die before the Parousia be raised from the dead? but: Will the Christians who die before the Parousia be at the Parousia on a level of advantage with the survivors? is made plain by the consideration that in v. 14 Paul says not but (which presupposes resurrection); and that he singles out for emphasis not only in v. 14 but also in the summarised agraphon (v. 15), in the explanation of v. 15 given in vv. 16-17 (as far as ), and in the consequence drawn in v. 17 ( ), not but (v. 14), (v. 17; cf. 5:10), and (v. 17). It may well be that during the previous seventeen or more years of Pauls Christian career relatively few Christians had died (cf. Act 12:2; also the death of Stephen when Paul was yet a Pharisee); but it is improbable that, because this passage is perhaps the first extant reference in Paul to the resurrection of believers, it is also the first time Paul had expressed himself, let alone reflected, on the subject; but see Lake, Exp 1907, 494-507. In fact, if v. 15 is to be accepted, Jesus himself had given his disciples to understand that the survivors would not anticipate the dead at his coming, thus intimating that some might die before he came (cf. Mar 9:1).
Similar but not identical questions bothered the writers of the Apocalypse of Baruch and Fourth Ezra; but their answers differ from that of Paul. Baruch says (11:6 f.): Announce in Sheol and say to the dead: Blessed are ye more than we who are living. Ezra writes (13:16 ff.) that the seer first pronounces woe unto the survivors and more woe unto the dead, but concludes that it is better or happier for the survivors, a conclusion confirmed from on high with the words (13:24): magis beatifici sunt qui derelicti super eos qui mortui sunt. Pauls encouraging word is that living and dead are at the Parousia on a level of advantage, (v. 17, 5:10), simul cum.
In replying to the request for information, Paul states that his purpose in relieving their ignorance is that they, unlike the non-Christians who sorrow because they have no hope of being with Christ, should not sorrow at all. The reason for this striking utterance, already tacit in (v. 13), is first expressed in v. 14 where from a subjective conviction, drawn from Christian experience and hypothetically put: if we believe, as of course we do, that Jesus died and rose again, he draws directly an objective inference: so also God will lead on with Jesus those who died through him. This internal argument from the believers mystic experience in Christ, the main purpose of which is to prove that the saints will be , is further strengthened by an appeal to the external authority of an unwritten word of the Lord, summarised in Pauls language, to the effect that the surviving saints will not anticipate the dead at the Parousia (v. 15). Then in apocalyptic language, drawn from tradition but coloured with his own phraseology, Paul explains the word of the Lord by singling out such details in the procedure at the Parousia as bring to the forefront the point to be proved, (vv. 16-17 as far as ); and draws the conclusion, anticipated in v. 14, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Finally (v. 18), uniting conclusion with exhortation, he bids them not to be encouraged but to encourage one another with the very words he himself has used.
13Now as to those who sleep, brothers, we do not wish you to be in ignorance, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have not hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also God will lead on those who fell asleep through Jesus along with him. 15For this that follows, we, the writers, tell you, not on our own authority but in a word of the Lord, namely, that we, the writers and our Christian contemporaries, who live, that is, who survive until the coming of the Lord, shall by no means anticipate the dead; 16because the Lord himself at a command, namely, at an archangels voice and a divine trumpet, will come down from heaven, and the dead who are in Christ will arise first of all; 17then we the living, the survivors, will with them at the same time be caught and carried by means of clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we shall be always with the Lord. 18So then encourage one another with these words.
13. . With , and the affectionate, Paul passes to a new section, concerning the dead in Christ, about which they had written (cf. v. 9) for instruction. The Pauline phrase that introduces the theme, , is negative in form but positive in meaning, as the clause with (cf. Rom 11:25) demonstrates.
This phrase, with some variation, is in the N. T. employed only by Paul and serves to emphasise a personal statement within a paragraph (Rom 1:13, 2Co 1:8), or to introduce a new point in a new paragraph (Rom 11:25, 1Co 10:1) or section (1Co 12:1 and here). The positive form () (1Co 11:3, Col 2:1; cf. Php 1:12) is very common in the papyri (Mill.). The fact that the clause with in 1Co 12:1 precedes and here follows (cf. 2Co 1:8) the clause with does not exclude the probability (see v. 9) that the new point concerning the dead, unconnected as it is with the preceding concerning brotherly love, is a reply to a written request the converts to Paul.
. The present participle is probably timeless, the sleepers, that is, the dead, a euphemism not confined to Biblical writers. The word itself does not throw light on the state of the Christian dead before the Parousia, but it is especially appropriate in Paul who considers the believers as being not only before death and at death (1Co 15:18), but also from death to the Parousia (v. 16 ). At the Parousia, they will be (v. 17) or will live (5:10) , the ultimate goal of the Christian hope.
The designation of death as a sleep did not arise from the resurrection hope; for it is found in books that were unacquainted with this hope (Charles, Eschat 127, note 1; cf. Volz, Eschat 134). As Paul is not here discussing the intermediate state, it is not certain from what he writes that he shared with Eth. Enoch 51:1 and 4 Ezra 7:32 the view that at death the body went to the grave and the soul to Sheol; or that he regarded the existence in Sheol as ein trbes Schattenleben (Schmiedel). Clear only is it that in some sense, not defined, the dead as well as the living are under the power of the indwelling Christ ( ).- in the N. T. as in the classics (see Liddell and Scott, sub voc.) and Lxx (cf. Gen 47:30, Deu 31:16, Deu 31:2 Reg. 7:12, 1Ch 17:11, etc.; Sir. 46:19) is frequently a euphemism for ; so also (5:10; Psa 87:6, Dan 12:2); see especially Kennedy, Last Things, 267 ff. KL (DG) read the perfect part, with 1Co 15:20; 1912 reads the aorist with v. 14 and 1Co 15:18. The present is either timeless indicating a class, the sleepers, or it designates the act of sleep as in progress (cf. 1Co 11:30); the aorist views the act of sleep as entered upon in the past without reference to its progress or completion; the perfect regards the act as completed in the past with the added notion of the existing state (see BMT passim and cf. 2 Mac. 12:44 f.); in all cases are meant.
. The purpose of = is stated without qualification, that you do not grieve. With , a comparison is instituted which is also an antithesis: as the non-Christians grieve (sc. ) who do not have, as you do, the hope of being with Christ. Just as (v. 5) does not mean, in the same manner or degree of as the Gentiles, so here does not mean that the Christians are indeed to grieve but not in the same manner or degree as the unbelievers (cf. Theodoret, apud Swete: , ). Paul speaks absolutely, for death has a religious value to him, in that after a short interval the dead are brought to the goal of the Christian hope, (cf. Php 1:21 ff.). In view of this glorious consummation, present grief, however natural, is excluded (cf. Joh 14:28).
In the light of the context which lays stress not on resurrection as such but on being with Christ, it is probable that the hope which the unbelievers do not have is not resurrection or immortality as such but the hope of being with Christ. It is striking that Paul seems to overlook the belief in immortality exemplified in the mysteries especially of the orphic circles, but also in the cult of Attis, Isis, and Mithra, perhaps in that of the Cabiri as well (Dob. 188). This oversight may be due either to the fact that neither the Jewish nor the pagan hope is a hope of , or to the fact that he has chiefly in mind the despair of the common people among the pagans whose life and aspirations he knew so well. In the latter case, a second-century papyri confirms Pauls estimate: Irene to Taonnphris and Philo, good comfort. I was as sorry () and wept over the departed one as I wept for Didymas. And all things whatsoever were fitting, I did, and all mine, Epaphroditus and Thermuthion and Philion and Apollonius and Plantas. But, nevertheless, against such things one can do nothing. Therefore comfort ye one another ( ); see Deiss. Light, 164; and cf. Mill. Papyri, 96, and Coffin, Creed of Jesus,1907, 114-138. With this average pagan view may be contrasted the following from a contemporary Christian apologist, Aristides (noted by Dob.): And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort the body as if he were setting out from one place to another near (translation of D. M. Kay in Ante-Nicene Fathers, IX, 277). used absolutely here and 5:6, Rom 11:7, 1Co 7:12, 1Co 7:15:37, 2Co 13:2, 2Co 1:13, gets its meaning from the context; here it probably = (v. 12) and denotes non-Christians in general. On , cf. Eph 2:12; on in comparisons, rare after negations, cf. v. 6; with (Rom 14:15, Eph 4:30, 2Co 2:2 ff. 2Co 2:6:10, 2Co 7:8 ff.) indicating inward grief, contrast , , and and (Luk 6:25, Luk 8:52, Luk 23:27).
14. . The introduces the reason for , already hinted at in (v. 13): for if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also God will lead on those who fell asleep through Jesus along with him. The Greek sentence runs smoothly (cf. 1:8), but there is an obvious compression of thought. Since in the apodosis suggests a comparison, Paul might have said: As we are convinced that Jesus died and that God raised him from the dead, so also must we believe, since the indwelling Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of the believer, that God will raise from the dead those who died through Jesus and will lead them on along with him. There are, however, compensations in the compactness, for from a subjective conviction based on experience and stated conditionally, if we believe, as we do, that Jesus died and rose, Paul is able to draw directly an objective inference, so also God will, etc.
The fact of fulfilment lies not in the form of the condition but in the context (BMT 242). The context here indicates that the Thessalonians are perplexed by doubts not as to the fact of the resurrection of the dead but as to whether the dead will have equal advantage with the survivors at the Parousia. By the insertion of in the protasis, Paul makes clear that it is God who raised Jesus from the dead (1:10, 1Co 6:14, 2Co 4:14, Rom 8:11, Rom 10:9, etc.). On in the sense of conviction, cf. in Rom 6:8, Rom 10:9.
. The death and resurrection of Jesus are inseparable in Pauls thought about salvation. As Christ died and rose actually, so does the believer die and rise with him mystically (Gal 2:19, Rom 6:3 ff. Col 2:20, Col 3:1 ff.). The presence of Christ or the Spirit in the Christian guarantees that when he actually dies (1Co 15:18) or (here), he will continue (v. 16) during the interval between death and resurrection, and will at the Parousia be raised from the dead by God through the power of the same indwelling Christ or Spirit (Rom 8:11), and will attain the ultimate goal of Christian hope, . This characteristically Pauline idea is the probable link that unites the protasis and apodosis of our verse.
Paul regularly uses ( 1Co 6:14) for the resurrection; he uses elsewhere only in Eph 5:14, a quotation, and below v. 16 in an utterance distinctly traditional in flavour. On the other hand, he uses ( Php 3:11), but not (Mat 27:53). On the name , see 1:10 and cf. Rom 8:11, 2Co 4:14. For without an expressed correlative, cf. Gal 4:3, Rom 6:11, 1Co 2:11, 1Co 2:9:14, 1Co 2:14:9, 1Co 2:12, 1Co 2:15:42, 45. The reading of B, et al., brings out the point that as God raised Jesus, so also he will raise the believers; cf. 1Co 15:18: , where not only the dead but also () the living () Though without an expressed correlative is frequent in Paul (cf. v. 17, II 3:17, Gal 1:6), yet the is placed here (cf. v. 10) by B to mark the connection with (Weiss, 136).
. Those who fell asleep through Jesus, that is, through the indwelling power of that Jesus who died and rose again, the causal energy which operates in the believers from baptism to actual resurrection from the dead (v. supra on ). Though the union of with is striking, yet it is consonant with Pauls thinking, is demanded by the parallelism of the sentence (Ell., Dob.), and is the logical though not the grammatical equivalent of in 1Co 15:18 (cf. v. 1 with v. 3 ).
Those who join with the participle (e. g. Ephr., Chrys., Calv., Grot., Ell., Lft., Mill., Dob., Dibelius) do so on various grounds. Calvin (apud Lillie) says: dormire per Christum is to retain in death the union (coniunctionem) which we have with Christ; for they who by faith are engrafted into Christ have their death in common with him. that they may be partners in his life. Lake (The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1911, 88) thinks it probable that it means martyrdom rather than a natural death; so before him Musculus (apud Lillie): The faithful die through Christ, when on his account they are slain by the impious tyrants of the world. Lake further conjectures that the reference to the death of the Lord Jesus and of the prophets (2:15) certainly suggests that persecution in Thessalonica had already led to the martyrdom of some Christians (loc. cit). Dob. contents himself with a general statement: Sie sind gestorben, indem ein Verhltniss zu Jesus dabei war. For Dibelius, the Pauline conception revealed in v. 14 wurzelt in den Mysterien.-On the other hand, many expositors (e. g. Th. Mops., De W., L., Lillie, Schmiedel, Born, Wohl., Schettler, Moff.) join with The reasons adduced are (1) that it is unnecessary to designate the dead as Christian and (2) that is made equivalent to In reply it is urged that we have (v. 16) and that the equivalence between and is not grammatical but conceptual. In this alternative view, Jesus is Gods agent in both resurrection and (Th. Mops. and finally Schettler (op. cit. 57): Gott wind sick bedienen, um die Toten zu erwecken und die Erweckten zu sammeln).-The view that joins with is preferable not simply because it gives a distinctively Pauline turn to the passage but also because it is grammatically better. On the latter point, Ell. remarks vigorously: The two contrasted subjects and thus stand in clear and illustrative antithesis, and the fundamental declaration of the sentence remains distinct and prominent, undiluted by any addititious clause.
In these words, the fundamental declaration of Pauls reply (vv. 11-18), just supported by an appeal to the internal evidence of the believers experience of the indwelling Christ, is succinctly stated. The believers are not to sorrow; for the departed saints, as well as the survivors, will at the Parousia be in the company of Christ and follow his lead. What is added in v. 15 confirms the same declaration on the external evidence of a summarised word of the Lord. How it is that the survivors will not anticipate the dead (v. 15) is then further explained in vv. 16-17 where Paul selects from a traditional description of the Parousia such points as bring into prominence his central contention,
Since (v. 17, 5:10, 2Co 13:4, Php 1:23) is the goal of (Deiss. Neutestamentliche Formel in Christo Jesu, 126), refers to the final act when Jesus the victor over enemies (II 2:8, 1Co 15:24 ff.), accompanied by his saints, leads the way heavenward to hand over the kingdom to God the Father. The resurrection and (II 2:1), the redemption, change, or transformation of the body (Rom 8:23, 1Co 15:51, Php 3:21), and the judgment are all presupposed. Paul is not here concerned with the details; even in the description vv. 16-17 only such pertinent features are sketched as prepare the readers for the conclusion which he draws: It is thus unnecessary to take = , as Th. Mops. does: quoniam et illos suscitabit per Jesum ita ut et sint cum eo; for begins both for living and for dead immediately at the Parousia and continues forever ( v. 17).
15. To confirm and explain, by an appeal to external authority, what was stated in v. 14. on the basis of religious experience, Paul proceeds: This that follows, we, the writers of the letter, tell you, not on our own authority but in (the sphere of, by means of; cf. 1Co 2:7, 1Co 14:6) a word of the Lord, namely, that we (, including both the writers and their Christian contemporaries) who live, that is, who survive until the coming of the Lord, shall by no means anticipate the dead.
Since gives not a second reason for v. 13 but explains and confirms the point of v. 14 on a new ground, is to be taken not with the preceding but with the following, and is not causal (Zahn, Introd. I, 223) but resumptive as in 1Co 1:12.
. In this verse it is probable that the point only of the word of the historical Jesus is given, not the word itself; cf. Rom 14:14, 1Co 9:14. In the light of Mar 9:1, it is not unlikely that Jesus may have expressed the opinion that those who survived until the coming of the Son of Man would not anticipate the dead. Since, however, no such word of the Lord exists in extant gospels (cf. Zahn, Introd. I, 224), the utterance here summarised in Pauls own words is an agraphon.
The presence of of itself intimates that Paul has in mind not a general suggestion of the Risen Lord (Gal 1:12, Gal 1:2:2, 2Co 13:3, Eph 3:3) given by revelation (so Chrys., De W., Ln., Ell., Lft., Mill., Dob., Moff., and others) but a definite word of the historical Jesus (so Calv., Drummond, Wohl. Dibelius, and others). Even if he had written simply (Eph 4:17), the content of the inward revelation would have an historical basis, as Rom 14:14, with its allusion to Mar 7:15, suggests: Furthermore the analogy both of Rom 14:14 and of 1Co 9:14 (where Paul alludes to but does not literally cite Mat 10:10, Luk 10:17 = 1Ti 5:18), and the fact that Paul does not affirm that the Lord says we who live, etc. (contrast Act 20:35: (cf. 1Ti 6:3) ) but affirms that we tell you on the strength of a word of the Lord that we who live, etc., conspire to make probable that here as in Rom 14:14, 1Co 9:14 we have not a citation of but an allusion to a word of the Lord. The exact form of the agraphon is not recoverable unless it is embedded in vv. 16-17 (Ropes, Dibelius).
Schmiedel, in an excellent note, after remarking that the word of the Lord does not come from Mat 24:29-31 or from 4 Ezra 5:41 ff. (as Steck once held), observes that it is not to be found in v. 16 a (as von Soden held, SK 1885, 280 f.), or in v. 16 without (so Sthelin, J. d. Th. 1874, 193 f.), or hardly in v. 15 alone, since vv. 16-17 are too detailed, or in vv. 16-17, since its beginning after the previous formulation in v. 15 would not be sufficiently accentuated, but in vv. 15-17. If, however, it is admitted that v. 15 gives the point of the agraphon, the only question at issue is whether it is actually cited in vv. 16-17. At first sight, the concrete and independent character of these verses (Ropes) does suggest a citation, even if it is granted that the citation is free (the Pauline phraseology being evident in and ). On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the salient point of vv. 16-17, the , does not explicitly appear in the summary of the word v. 15. The impression, difficult to escape, is that Paul, remembering a traditional description of the Parousia, selects such points as explain the basal declaration of the summarised word of the Lord in v. 15. On the question, see Ropes, Die Sprche Jesu, 1896, 15:2 ff. and HDB V, 345; Titius, Neutestamentliche Lehre von der Seligkeit 1895, I, 24; Resch, Paulinismus, 338-341; Mathews, Messianic Hope in N. T. 1905, 73; and Askwith, Exp 1911, 66.
. The insertion of and the presence of denoting the temporal limit make clear that the exact contrast here is not between the living and dead at the Parousia; not between we Christians who are alive at the Parousia and the dead; but between we Christians who live, that is, who continue to survive until the Parousia, and the dead. Paul thus betrays the expectation that he and his contemporary Christians will remain alive until Christ comes.
Pauls personal belief that the advent is at hand is constant (1Co 10:11, 1Co 16:22, Rom 13:11, Php 4:5), a conviction shared also by other Christians of the first century (1Pe 4:7, Heb 10:25, Jam 5:8, 1Jn 2:18) and apparently by the Master himself (Mar 9:1). In our passage, Paul speaks, as often, without qualifications. If questioned, he would probably have admitted that he himself as well as other Christians might taste of death before the Lord came. Such cases, however, would have been to him exceptional. His hope is fixed not on a far-off divine event; not on the fact that each several generation, at whatever period existing, occupies during that period the position of those who shall be alive at the Lords coming (Bengel), but on the nearness of the Parousia, even if the exact day and hour be unknown. Calvin tacitly admits the obvious force of in observing that Paul by using it makes himself as it were one of the number of those who will live until the last day. But Paul does this, Calvin ingeniously explains, to rouse the expectation of the Thessalonians, and so to hold all the pious in suspense, that they shall not count on any delay whatever. For even supposing him to have known himself by special revelation that Christ would come somewhat later, still this was to be delivered as the common doctrine of the church that the faithful might be ready at all hours (quoted by Lillie, ad loc.). Apart from Grotius and, less clearly, Piscator, most of the older expositors found difficulty in admitting that Paul at this point shared the views of his time. Origen (Cels. V, 17), for example, in the only extant quotation from his commentary on our letters, namely, on I 4:15-17 (cf. Turner, HDB V, 496), allegorises; Chrys. Th. Mops. and others so interpret as to exclude Paul; still others think that the is not suited to Paul, although Olshausen protests against this enallage personae or On the older views, see Ln. ad loc. Denney, however (177), queries: Is it not better to recognise the obvious fact that Paul was mistaken as to the nearness of the second advent than to torture his words to secure infallibility? See also Kennedy, Last Things, 160 ff.
. The living are further defined as those who continue to survive until the Parousia. With reference to these survivors including Paul, it is asserted on the strength of the Lords utterance that they will by no means take temporal precedence over the dead.
The participle is present, the action being viewed as going on to the limit of time designated by ; contrast 2:19, 3:13, 5:23, 1Co 15:23. The word occurs elsewhere in N. T. only v. 17; cf. 4 Mac. 13:18, 12:6. here, but not in 2:16, is used classically in the sense of (Mat 17:25), praevenire, precede, anticipate. On with aorist subj. as the equivalent of an emphatic future indic. (so K here), cf. 5:3 and BMT 172. For after , B reads , conforming to v. 14 (Weiss, 81).
16. . With because, parallel to (v. 15; cf. 2:14), the word of the Lord summarised in v. 15 is explained and elaborated. The point of the Pauline phrase (cf. 3:11) is apparently that the very Jesus under whose control the believers stand in life, at death ( , v. 14), and from death to resurrection ( ), and whose indwelling spiritually guarantees their resurrection, is the Lord who at the resurrection functions as the apocalyptic Messiah.
. The descent of the Lord from heaven is characterised by three clauses with Unlike the three disconnected clauses with in 1Co 15:52, the second and third are here joined by , a fact suggesting that these two clauses are in some sense an epexegesis of the first. At a command, namely, at an archangels voice and at a trumpet of God. Precisely what Paul has in mind is uncertain. It is conceivable that God who raises the dead (v. 14), or Christ the agent in resurrection, commands the archangel Michael to arouse the dead; and that this command is executed at once by the voice of the archangel who speaks to the dead (cf. 1Co 15:52) through a divine trumpet. But whatever the procedure in detail may be, the point is clear that at the descent of the Lord from heaven, the dead are raised first of all, and then the survivors and the risen dead are together and simultaneously ( ) snatched up and carried by means of clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Kabisch (Die Eschatologie des Paulus, 1893, 231) thinks that God gives a command to Christ and that the archangel is only the messenger, the voice which God makes use of (cf. Kennedy, Last Things, 190). Teichmann (Die paulinischen Vorstellungen von Auferstehung und Gericht, 1896, 23) imagines that Christ on his way to earth commands the dead (who through the cry of the archangel and the blowing of the trumpet of God are awakened from their slumber) really to arise. Pauls statement, however, is general; how far he would subscribe to the precise procedure read into his account from extant Jewish or Christian sources, no one knows.
Most commentators agree with Sthelin (J. d. Th. 1874, 189) in taking the of attendant circumstance as in 1Co 4:21; but it may mean at the time of as in 1Co 15:52 , , found in Gk. Bib. here and Pr. 24:62, is used classically (cf. Wetstein, ad loc.) in various applications, the command of a to his rowers, of an officer to his men, of a hunter to his dogs, etc. Ell. quotes Philo (de praem et poen. 19) as using it of Gods assembling the saints. The , like other touches in the description, appears in the account of the theophany on Mt. Horeb (Exo 19:16-19; cf. Briggs, Messiah of the Apostles, 88); here the trumpet, as in 1Co 15:52, is used not to marshal the hosts of heaven, or to assemble the saints (Mat 24:31, which adds to Mark ; Bengel says: tuba Dei adeoque magna), but to raise the dead.-The (in Gk. Bib. only here and Jud 1:9) may be Michael as in Jude; cf. Eth. En. 9:1, 20:6. On Michael, see Lueken, Der Erzengel Michael; Bousset, Relig 2 374 ff.; Everling (op. cit. 79 ff.) and Dibelius, Die Geisterwelt, etc. 32 ff.
. With of simple narration, the results of the descent of the Lord are stated; first () the resurrection of the dead saints, which removes their disadvantage by putting them on a level with the living; and then (, v. 17), the rapture of both the risen dead and the survivors, presumably in changed, transformed, redeemed bodies (1Co 15:51, Php 3:21, Rom 8:23), to meet the Lord in the air. Striking here is it that Paul says not simply (Isa 26:19) but This phrase designates not those who died in Christ (1Co 15:18) but the dead who are in Christ; and intimates, without defining precisely the condition of the believers in the intermediate state, that as in life and at death so from death to the Parousia, the believer is under the control of the indwelling Christ or Spirit. This indwelling spiritual Christ, whose presence in the believer guarantees his resurrection, is also the very enthroned (Rom 8:34) Lord himself ( ) who comes down from heaven to raise the dead.
17. . Then, presumably at no great interval after the resurrection, (as in v. 13; it is unnecessary here to add ) shall be caught up simultaneously () with the risen saints ( ) and carried by clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The rapture is a supernatural act as in Act 8:39, Rev 12:5; cf. 2Co 12:2 ff. The means (), not the agent (; cf. Baruch 4:26), by which the rapture is executed is the clouds which, as in Elijahs case (4 Reg. 2:11), are conceived as a triumphal chariot. Slavonic Enoch 3:1 ff. (ed. Morfill and Charles; noted also by Mill.) is in point: These men (that is, angels) summoned me and took me on their wings and placed me on the clouds. And lo, the clouds moved. And again, going still higher, I saw the ether and they placed me in the first heaven.
occurs in Gk. Bib. only here and 5:10; Vulg has here simul rapiemur cum; in 5:10, am. fuld. omit simul. In Gk. Bib. is regularly an adverb (Pro 22:18, etc.); in Mat 13:29, Mat 20:1, it is a preposition. Ell. remarks: We shall be caught up with them at the same time that they shall be caught up, marking as usual connection in point of time. The phrase gives the most precise statement of the equality of advantage that we have; it does not appear in the summary of the agraphon in v. 15. GF m Ambst omit ; B has In the syn. gospels, the cloud appears, apart from the transfiguration and Luk 12:54, only in connection with the Parousia of the Son of Man. The influence of Dan 7:13 is felt where Lxx has (Mat 24:30, Mat 26:64) and Th. (Mar 14:62; cf. Rev 1:7). The , however, is given by Mar 13:26 = Luk 21:27; see further Rev 11:12 (), 4 Ezra 13:3 (cum), and Exo 34:5 ( ); and cf. Act 1:11 with 1:9.
. With , the purpose of is expressed, to meet the Lord. The designates the place of meeting, probably the space between the earth and the firmament of the first heaven, as in Slav. Eph 3:1 ff. quoted above. As it is probably to the air, not to the earth that the Lord descends from heaven, so it is into the air that all the saints are caught up into the company of the Lord and from the air that God will lead them on with Jesus ( v. 14) to heaven where the fellowship with Christ begun in the air will continue forever; for, in summing up the point intended in the description of vv. 16-17, he says not (and there, as if the air were the permanent dwelling-place; so apparently Kabisch (op. cit. 233) alluding to Ass. Mos. 10:9) but , drawing the conclusion from vv. 16-17, implicit in v. 14 ( ), with the added emphasis upon the permanence of the fellowship,
In the Lxx , , , and occur chiefly in phrases with and gen. or dat. The readings vary, but with or is rare. In the N. T. the readings also vary; cf. Mat 25:6, Mat 27:32, Act 28:15; also Mat 8:34, Mat 25:1, Joh 12:13. Here DGF read Moulton (I 14:3), who notes BGU, 362 ( ; for , cf. 3 Mac. 5:2), thinks the special idea of the word is the official welcome of a newly arrived dignitary. The case after it is entirely consistent with Greek idiom, the gen. as in our to his inauguration, the dat. as the case governed by the verb; see also Exo 19:17 -The before is naturally taken with , the usage being either classical, or for of place (Bl 39:3). Above the firmament is the , a word not found in Gk. Bib. is rendered a few times in Sym. by ; in Lxx (2 Reg. 22:12 = Psa 17:12) by On the meaning of , cf. Slav. Eph 3:1-2, Ascen. Isa 7:9, Isa 7:13, Isa 7:10:2; and see Moses Stuart in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843, 139 ff. and Ezra Abbot in Smiths DB, I, 56 f.
. And so (cf. 1Co 7:17, Rom 11:25 f.), as the result of the resurrection, the rapture, and the meeting of the Lord in the air, we shall be with the Lord, not for the moment only but forever (), the point of v. 14 and the fruition of the Christian hope.
For , B reads which is ganz gedankenlos (Weiss, 56); cf. Php 1:23. The belief in the nearness of the coming of Christ is constant in Paul, but there is less emphasis on the traditional scenery in the letters subsequent to our epistles. Even in 1Co 15:24-26 where there is an allusion to the last conflict (cf. II 2:8), the concrete imagery is less conspicuous (cf. Rom 8:18 ff. 2Co 5:1-10). In the epistles of the imprisonment, the eschatology is summed up in hope (Col 1:5, Col 1:23; cf. Eph 1:18, Eph 4:4), the hope of being with Christ (Col 3:3 f. Php 1:23; cf. 2Co 13:4). On , Moff. remarks: This is all that remains to us, in our truer view of the universe, from the nave of the Apostle, but it is everything.
18. . So then, as the result of the conviction drawn from the religious experience in Christ (v. 14), from the summarised word of the Lord (v. 15), and from the confirmatory description of the Parousia (vv. 16-17), do not grieve (v. 13), but encourage one another (5:11) with these ( not ) words, the very words that have been used.
On = (5:11) = (4:8) = (3:7) with imperative, cf. 1Co 10:12, 1Co 11:33, 1Co 14:39, 1Co 15:58, Php 2:12, Php 4:1. Paul does not simply offer encouragement; he bids them actively to encourage one another (cf. 2Co 1:3 ff).-It is obvious that vv. 16-17 do not pretend to give a description in detail of the Parousia. Of the points not mentioned, we may assume that Paul would admit the following: the assembling of the saints; the redemption, change, or transformation of the body (Rom 8:23, 1Co 15:51, Php 3:21); and the judgment on all men (Rom 14:10, 2Co 5:10) without the resurrection of the wicked. On the other hand, since Paul does not elsewhere indicate a belief in the intermediate kingdom (cf. Charles, Eschat. 389 ff.), it is not to be looked for between and here (cf. Vos, Pauline Eschatology and Chiliasm, in the Princeton Theol. Rev. for Jan. 1911). It is, however, probable that after the meeting of the Lord in the air, the Lord with his saints go not to earth but to heaven, as (v. 14) suggests, the permanent abode of Christ and the believers. Even in this description of the Parousia it is worth noting that the interest centres in the ultimate form of the hope, and that only such elements are singled out for mention as serve to bring this religious hope to the forefront. Like the Master, Paul, out of the treasures of apocalyptic at his disposal, knows how to bring forth things new and old.
Grot Hugo de Groot (Grotius).
Ambst Ambrosiaster.
Zim F. Zimmer, Der Text der Thessalonicherbriefe (1893).
P P (a p r). Cod. Porphyrianus, saec. ix, now at St. Petersburg. Edited by Tischendorf (1865). Contains I and II except I 3:5 – 4:17.
(e a p r). Cod. Sinaiticus, saec. iv, now at St. Petersburg. Edited by Tischendorf, its discoverer, in 1862. Photographic reproduction by H. and K. Lake, Oxford, 1911. Contains I and II complete.
A A (e a p r). Cod. Alexandrinus, saec. v, now in the British Museum. Edited by Woide in 1786. Facsimile by E. M. Thompson, 1879. Contains I and II complete.
D D (p). Cod. Claromontanus, saec. vi, Graeco-Latin, now in the National library at Paris. Edited by Tischendorf in 1852. Contains I and II complete.
E E Cod. Sangermanensis, saec. ix, now at St. Petersburg. A copy of D.
G G (p). Cod. Boernerianus, saec. ix, now in the Royal Library at Dresden. It is closely related to F, according to some the archetype of F (Souter). Edited by Matthaei, 1791. Im Lichtdruck nachgebildet, Leipzig (Hiersemann), 1909. Contains I and II complete.
F F (p). Cod. Augiensis, saec. ix, Graeco-Latin, now in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. An exact transcript by Scrivener, 1859. Contains I and II complete.
K K (a p). Cod. Mosquensis, saec. ix, now at Moscow. Collated by Matthaei, 1782. Contains I and II complete.
L L (a p). Cod. Angelicus, saec. ix, now in the Angelican Library at Rome. Collated among others by Tischendorf (1843) and Tregelles (1845). Contains I and II complete.
WH The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881; I, Text, II, Introduction and Appendix).
Tisch Tischendorf.
Weiss B. Weiss in TU. XIV, 3 (1896).
Dob Ernst von Dobschtz,
B B (e a p r). Cod. Vaticanus, saec. iv, now in the Vatican Library. Photographic reproduction by Cozza-Luzi, Rome, 1889, and by the Milan firm of Hoepli, 1904. Contains I and II complete.
Lft Lightfoot.
Ell Ellicott.
Lillie John Lillie, Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, Translated from the Greek, with Notes (1856).
Mill George Milligan.
ZWT Zeitschrift fr Wissenschaftliche Theologie.
Witk St. Witkowski, Epistul Privat Grc (1906).
BMT E. D. Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in N. T. Greek (18983).
Bl F. Blass, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (1896, 19022).
AJT The American Journal of Theology (Chicago).
De De Wette.
Lxx The Old Testament in Greek (ed. H. B. Swete, 1887-94).
SH Comm. on Romans in ICC. by W. Sanday an A. C. Headlam.
Born Bornemann.
Vincent M. R. Vincent, Word Studies in the N. T., vol. IV, 1900.
Wohl Wohlenberg.
ICC International Critical Commentary.
Th. Mops Theodore of Mopsuestia, in epistolas Pauli commentarii (ed. H. B. Swete, 1880-82).
Chrys Chrysostom.
Calv Calvin.
Ln Lnemann.
Moult James Hope Moulton, A Grammar of N. T. Greek, I (1906).
Moff James Moffatt.
GMT W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (1890).
Vulg Vulgate.
I I (p). Cod. Saec. v. Ms. 4 in the Freer Collection at Detroit, Michigan. This manuscript is a badly decayed fragment, now containing many short portions of the epistles of Paul. It is written on parchment in small uncials and probably belongs to the fifth century. Originally contained Acts and practically all of the epistles but not Revelation. While no continuous portion of the text remains, many brief passages from Eph. Phil. Col. Thess. and Heb. can be recovered (H. A. Sanders, Biblical World, vol. XXI, 1908, 142; cf. also Gregory, Das Freer-Logion, 1908, 24). The fragments of Thess., a collation of which Prof. Sanders kindly sent me, contain I 1:1-2, 9-10 2:7-8, 14-16 3:2-4, 11-13 4:8-9, 16-18 5:9-11, 23-26 II 1:1-3, 10-11 2:5-8, 15-17 3:8-10.
Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek (1895).
H H (p). Cod. Saec. vi. Most of the forty-one leaves now known are in the National Library at Paris; the remainder are at Athos, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, and Turin. The fragments at Kiev contain 2Co 4:2-7, 1Th 2:9-13 ( ) and 4:4-11 ( ); cf. H. Omont, Notice sur un trs ancien manuscrit, etc. 1889.
am am Vulgate codex Amiatinus (saec. viii).
C C (e a p r). Cod. Ephraemi Rescriptus, saec. v, now in the National Library at Paris. The N. T. fragments were edited by Tischendorf in 1843. Contains I 1:2 -2:8 .
EB The Encyclopdia Biblica (London, 1899-1903; ed. J. S. Black and T. K. Cheyne).
Exp The Expositor (London; ed. W. R. Nicoll).
Charles, R. H. Charles, Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish, and Christian (1899).
Volz, Paul Volz, Jdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba (1903).
Kennedy, H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Pauls Conceptions of the Last Things (1904).
Deiss. A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (1910) = Licht vom Osten (19093).
Ephr Ephraem Syrus.
SK Studien und Kritiken.
HDB Hastings Dictionary of the Bible (1898-1904).
Bousset, W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (19062).
fuld fuld Vulgate codex Fuldensis (saec. vi).
m m Citations of the Speculum (edited by Weihrich in the Vienna Corpus, xii, 1887; contains I 2:1-14 1-16 5:6-22 II 1:3-12 3:6-15)
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
Called to Sanctification
1Th 4:1-8
The first paragraph of this chapter exhorts to purity, the second to industry, the third to expectation of the Second Advent. But the three are closely combined, because those who wait for the Lord will instinctively wear white robes. The body is compared to a vessel, and we must keep it clean for the Masters use, walking day by day so as to please Him. Before Enoch was translated, he had the testimony borne him that he had pleased God, Heb 11:5. It is Gods will that we should be holy-the whole object of our redemption has this for its purpose. Therefore we ought to be holy, and if we ought we can, and if we can we must; and if we must we will! If you cannot possess yourself of your own nature, be possessed by the Holy Spirit. God giveth His Holy Spirit for this purpose.
No one must come in between husband and wife to defraud either of the lawful love which each should receive from the other. The home has been rescued and exalted by Christ, and the Christian Church must still be its custodian, not only inculcating the ideal, but revealing the sufficient power for its defense.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Exhortations (1 Thessalonians 4:1~12)
In this section the apostle set forth the walk that pleases God. During his ministry among the Thessalonians, Paul had been careful to emphasize the practical side of Christianity. Sometimes we are apt to neglect this. We are so taken up with doctrine that we do not sufficiently stress our responsibilities as believers. Both sides of Christianity are important.
There is a special warning in this passage against sins of impurity. In Pauls day, immorality was so common among the heathen that even Christians were apt to look on it with a measure of indifference or even complacency. As Alexander Pope wrote:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Among pagan nations the vilest kind of lasciviousness was connected with the worship of their false gods. But our God is infinitely holy and we who know Him are called to be careful to avoid every tendency to uncleanness. Thus the apostle wrote, This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication (1Th 4:3).
We often find this verse quoted in part, particularly by those who misunderstand the meaning of sanctification. They think of sanctification as a second definite work of grace that follows justification. Building on a false premise, they attempt to find Scriptural support in the first part of this verse. But what Paul was saying was that Gods will is for believers to walk in separation from all that is vile and immoral. The Thessalonians were to separate themselves from the lasciviousness and licentiousness that had characterized many of them before they were saved.
It is the will of God that believers walk in purity, looking on their bodies as devoted to Him (see Pauls exhortation in 4:4-5). Some people might say, We live in a civilized land where men have learned the difference between clean and unclean living; we do not need an exhortation such as this. But anyone who is aware of actual conditions inside and outside the professing church realizes how relevant the admonition is. There is always the temptation to lower the Christian standard. We need to be constantly reminded of the importance of living pure lives.
It is impossible to sin in the manner of which Paul wrote without wronging others. The sins he mentioned here cannot be committed alone and other people are always injured by such unholy deeds. The apostle therefore gave the warning that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter (4:6).
The believers body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it is to be devoted to the glory of our blessed Lord. If a man despises such an admonition, he despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit (4:8).
In 1Th 4:9-10 Paul referred to that love which is the evidence of the new nature given to all who are born of God. The brotherly love of the young Thessalonian converts was obvious to all, but the apostle told them that in this (as in every other grace) there should be continuous progress.
Paul went on to give another very practical word of advice: Study to be quiet, and to do your own business (4:11). The word translated study here means to be ambitious. We are to be ambitious to do our own business; that is, we are to mind our own business! Many people seem to have the ambition to mind any business except their own, but minding other peoples business always results in strife and dissension.
When Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to work with your own hands, he was saying that the Christian is not to be dependent on others. He is to earn his own living by honest work; if possible he is to be self-supporting. He is not to expect other people to maintain him in idleness.
The Second Coming (1Th 4:13-18)
Following the exhortations in verses 1-12, the apostle turned to another matter, a question that was troubling the young Christians in Thessalonica. Timothy had informed Paul that they were concerned about some of their number who had died. Those who remained alive wondered, What will happen to the departed ones when Christ comes again?
When Paul was with the Thessalonians, he told them that Jesus was coming again to set up His kingdom on this earth, and they leaped to the conclusion that those who died before the Lords return might not share in His reign, that only those who were living when He returned would welcome Him and have a part in the kingdom. After all, how could people who were no longer in this world reign with Him here? The apostle wrote verses 13-18 to correct their misunderstanding and share the new revelation that the Lord had unfolded to him.
Paul started, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (4:13). When he used the expression asleep, he meant dead. Later when he spoke of Jesus, he used the expression died, but when he spoke of believers, he used the expressions sleep and asleep. Christ died; He went into death and all that it involved when He took our place on the cross. But we who trust in Him will never see death. If we enter the realm of what we call death, our bodies will just be asleep until the Lord Jesus returns. Our spirits will leave our bodies and go to be with Christ: Absent from the body present with the Lord (2Co 5:8).
Paul did not rebuke believers for sorrowing when they lose their loved ones in Christ, but he did tell them not to sorrow as others do who will have no reunion at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the hope of reunion if we believe that Jesus died and rose again (1Th 4:14)-and we do believe it! We are not Christians if we do not. The fact of Jesus death and resurrection is the foundation truth of Christianity.
1Co 15:3-4 tells us that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And Rom 4:25, referring to Christ, says, Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. The body of Jesus came up from the tomb. In that body He ascended into Heaven and in that body He now sits on the throne of God.
Rom 10:9-10 states, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Anyone who does not believe in the death and resurrection of Christ has no right to the name Christian.
In the King James version the second part of 1Th 4:14 reads, Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. A better translation might be, Them which have been put to sleep by Jesus will God lead forth with Him. The blessed Lord Himself takes His weary saints and puts them to sleep until that glorious resurrection morning when they will be awakened at the sound of His voice. Then God will lead them forth with Him.
How can the Lord Jesus come with all His saints to establish His kingdom if some of His saints are in Heaven and some of them are on earth? Paul explained that when the Lord comes for His own, He will raise the dead and change the living and they will be caught up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air (4:17). Then God will lead them forth with the Lord Jesus when He descends in power and glory.
It was a new revelation (This we say unto you by the word of the Lord) that we who are alive when the Lord returns will not precede those who are asleep (4:15). I cannot find one word in the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) about this aspect of the Lords coming for His saints. In the Synoptics the coming of the Son of God with His saints to set up His kingdom on earth is always in view. The Gospel of John, however, provides a link to 1Th 4:13-18. John told us that before the Lord went away, He said to the apostles in the upper room, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Joh 14:2-3). They knew He was coming again to set up His kingdom; He had told them that before. But now He gave them information about a secret that He had kept in His heart until this time: I will come again, and receive you unto myself. It is this aspect of His coming that was given by revelation to the apostle Paul and through him to us.
There will be a generation of Christians living on the earth in their natural bodies when the Lord comes again. We have no way of knowing when this blessed event will take place. It might please Him to defer His coming until we have left this world, but we are to live in daily expectation of His return.
The King James version states, We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep (1Th 4:15, italics added). The meaning of the English word prevent has changed in the last three hundred or more years. When the Bible was translated in 1611, to prevent meant to go before. When David was speaking of his morning prayer in Psa 119:147, he said, I prevented the dawning of the morning. He did not mean that he prevented the sun from rising; he meant that he was up and praying before the sun rose. Today to prevent means to hinder. But Paul meant that we who are alive when Christ returns will not enter the kingdom one moment ahead of those who have died. We will all go in together.
1Th 4:16 indicates that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. I like those words: the Lord Himself! He is the One for whom I am waiting! The angels said, This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Act 1:11). It is the Lord Himself for whom we look.
He will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. The archangel in the Old Testament is connected with the Jewish people in a very special way. Dan 12:1 states, At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. The voice of Michael the archangel will be heard at the same time that the Lord gives His awakening shout. When Christ comes, the saints of all past ages as well as the saints of this age will be included in the fulfillment of prophecy.
When the trump of God sounds, the dead in Christ shall rise first. The last clause can be literally translated, The dead in Christ will stand up first. Millions whose bodies are sleeping in the earth will hear His voice. Lazarus heard it when he was in the tomb, and he immediately sprang to life. So all the saved who have died will stand up, come back to life, in the first resurrection.
Then we whose bodies are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds (1Th 4:17). The definite article before clouds obscures the meaning of Pauls words. I do not think we are going to ascend to the fleecy clouds above our earth. Even our airmen go higher than that. But there will be so many millions of us that we will go up in clouds of people. This event is what we call the rapture of the church. We will be rapt (carried) away to meet the Lord in the air. The word translated meet means to go out to meet one in order to return with him as in Act 28:15.
We will be caught up together (italics added). We have fellowship together down here. We work together here under our Lords authority. And when He returns we will be caught up together. We will know those with whom we go to meet the Lord. Sometimes people ask me, Will we know one another in Heaven? We will know as we have never known before! Then shall I know even as also I am known (1Co 13:12). We will know as God Himself has known us.
There are wonderful events to be unfolded in the ages to come. We will stand before the Lords judgment seat in our glorified bodies to receive rewards for the deeds done in this life. He will descend to take His kingdom; and like the armies of Rev 19:14 following the rider on the white horse, we will come with the Lord to share in His glory on that triumphal day. This is our hope; this is the hope of the church.
But whatever events unfold, we will always be with the Lord: So shall we ever be with the Lord.* And the apostle said to comfort one another with these words (1Th 4:18). Do they bring comfort to your heart? They should if you are living for Him. If you are not, there will be no comfort in these words for you.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
1Th 4:9-12
Turning now, and as it were, with a sense of relief from warnings against impurity and covetousness, but still keeping in view the aim of his whole exhortation, viz., “the will of God, even your sanctification,” the Apostle resumes the subject of brotherly love. The cultivation of the Christian graces is the best safeguard against any relapse on the part of believers into the besetting sins of the Gentile world. It is here said that the Thessalonian Christians abounded in the grace of love. It was their crown of glory.
I. Their love had a wide sphere for its activity. All their brother Christians throughout the whole of Macedonia had been revived and comforted by it. Paul learned this, doubtless, from Timothy’s report. But what form did this brotherly intercourse assume? Possibly the circulation of Luke’s Gospel, in whole or in part, to which honourable work Thessalonica appears to have been directly called. But this brotherly love also manifested itself in pecuniary assistance rendered to those who were in want. The hearts of many brethren in Macedonia were blessing their benevolence.
II. None the less, Paul wrote to them, “But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.” Their brotherly love was to show its life in continuous growth. There can be no halting-point in this, or in any other Christian grace.
III. Idleness is a foe to all growth in grace. Spenser speaks of “sluggish idleness, the nurse of sinne.” It is the very cancer of the soul. Activity, on the other hand, if it be in the line of duty, even means progress. God helps the worker, and looks after him. The Christian must be ever ready to assist others, but he must never be ready unnecessarily to be assisted by others. Others’ needs he must recognise as his own special burden, but his own special burden he is not to be eager to put on others.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 150.
1Th 4:10
Christian Growth.
I. In what are we to increase? There is little or no advantage in the increase of some things. It but increases our danger, and, adding to our cares, lays weightier burdens on the back of life. More riches will certainly not make us happier; and perhaps, paradoxical as it may sound, they may not even make us richer. Nor is the increase even of wisdom, though a higher and nobler pursuit, without its own drawbacks. It is harder to work with the brain than with the hands; to hammer out thoughts than iron. It is not increase of these things at which the text calls us to aim; but of such riches as makes it less difficult, and more easy, to get to heaven; of the wisdom that humbles rather than puffs up its possessor. It is the increase of those spiritual endowments which are catalogued by St. Paul as being the fruits of the Spirit.
II. How are we to increase in these? (1) We are to increase equally. All our graces are to be cultivated to the neglect of none of them. If one side of a tree grows, and the other does not, the tree acquires a crooked form, is a misshapen thing. Analogous in its results to this is the unequal growth of Christian graces. The finest specimen of a Christian is he, in whom all the graces, like the strings of an angel’s harp, are in most perfect harmony. (2) We are to increase constantly. Slow and silent growth is a thing which you can neither see nor hear; while the higher a believer rises, his ascent becomes not more difficult, but more easy, he never reaches a point where progress ceases. Begun on earth, it is continued in heaven; the field that lies before us, stretching beyond the grave, and above the stars, illimitable as space, and endless as eternity. (3) We are to make efforts to grow. While all our hopes of salvation centre in the cross of Christ, and all our hopes of progress hang on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, let us exert ourselves to the utmost, reaching forth to higher attainments, and aiming at daily increase in every holy and Christian habit.
T. Guthrie, The Way to Life, p. 264.
1Th 4:10-11
I. In what forms must we labour to advance Christ’s Kingdom? In age after age the saints of God have possessed their souls in joy and patience, not gadding about as busy-bodies or other people’s bishops, but doing quietly their humble duty, and spending peacefully their holy lives. It has never, in any age, been possible for God’s servants to look round them without sorrow. Is there any consolation under this state of things? There is this consolation, that in spite of ourselves, and in spite of our traditional theology, we are driven to trust and hope in God, that He did make the world, and He who made it will guide. Man must do his duty, but man cannot do the work of Providence, and therefore he must wait in quietness and hope. When Saint Francis of Assisi was troubled and disquieted about the great Order which he had founded, and into which the elements of evil began early to intrude, he dreamed that God came to him in a vision of the night, and said, “Poor little man, why dost thou trouble thyself? Thinkest thou not that I am able, if I will it, to protect and keep thy Order?”
II. Let us, then, as our help against morbid anxiety, leading, as it so often does, to spurious excitement, let us remember always that the world is in God’s hands, not in the devil’s, and not at all in ours; and further, that things may not be so bad as they seem to us. If you ask me what you are to do, I answer, Join in any part of Christ’s work, so wide, so blessed, so truly humble. Choose it wisely; join in it heartily; let there be no single life among you which is a life of mere easy self-indulgence, but let every life be consciously dedicated to the service of others, and ready to make sacrifices for their good. Keep your own consciences free from the stain of shame of having added to the world’s guilt and misery by the greed of your selfishness, by the baseness of your passions, or by the bitterness of your hate. Show thus actively and passively that you fear God, and love your brother-man, and you may be doing infinitely more, and infinitely more blessed and permanent work for Christ than if you took on yourself to teach, it may be, before you have ever learned, or with loud prolamations of your own conversion set up yourself as a blind leader of the blind. Remember that the vast majority of Christians are simply called to do their duty in the state of life to which God has called them.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 33.
References: 1Th 4:10, 1Th 4:11.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, No. 13. 1Th 4:11.-A. Craig, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 330; W. Dorling, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 120. 1Th 4:11, 1Th 4:12.-W. Braden, Ibid., vol. ix., p. 33; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. viii., p. 99. 1Th 4:13.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 275; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 232.
1Th 4:13-14
The Sleep of the Faithful Departed.
St. Paul, in the text, speaks of the saints unseen as of those that “sleep in Jesus”; and Christians are wont to call their burial-grounds cemeteries or sleeping-places, where they laid up their beloved ones to sleep on and take their rest. Let us therefore see why we should thus speak of those whom we call the dead.
I. First, it is because we know that they shall wake up again. What sleep is to waking, death is to the resurrection. It is only a prelude, a transitory state ushering in a mightier power of life; therefore death is called sleep, to show that it has a fixed end coming. It is a kindly, soothing rest to the wearied and world-worn spirit: and there is a fixed end to its duration. There is a waking nigh at hand, so that the grave is little more than the longest night’s sleep in the life of an undying soul.
II. Again, death is changed to sleep, ‘because they whom men call dead do really live unto God. When the coil of this body is loosed death has done all, and his power is spent; thenceforth and for ever the sleeping soul lives mightily unto God.
III. And once more, those whom the world calls dead are sleeping, because they are taking their rest. Their rest is not the rest of a stone, cold and lifeless, but of wearied humanity. They “sleep in Jesus.” Theirs is a bliss only less perfect than the glory of His kingdom when the new creation shall be accomplished. Consider a few thoughts which follow from what has been said. (1) We ought to mourn rather for the living than for the dead. The passing of the soul is awful even to the saints. Wherefore let no man weep for the dead; that awful change for them is over. They have fulfilled their task, ours tarrieth. (2) It is life, rather than death, that we ought to fear. For life and all it contains-thought and speech and deed and will-is a deeper and more awful mystery. Let us fear life and we shall not be afraid to die; for in the new creation of God death walks harmless.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. i., p. 308.
References: 1Th 4:13, 1Th 4:14.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 278; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. ii., p. 390.
1Th 4:13-15
The Apostle now turns to speak of Christian hope. It is a transition to a new and all-important theme-the hope of the Christian in regard to the saints at the second coming of their Lord. The coming of the glorified Saviour is, as it were, the red thread running through the whole tissue of these two epistles. It is more or less prominent in all its parts, giving the whole its colouring and plan.
I. The Gospel has revealed to man the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the re-union in Heaven of long-divided hearts. The Apostle thus exhorts believers to cherish feelings in regard to departed friends of a far different kind from those which took gloomy possession of heathen breasts. Christ’s people are “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.” The eye of their faith can see the bright light in the cloud of even the heaviest earthly trial. They do not refuse to shed tears, but they also do not refuse to dry them at their Saviour’s bidding.
II. The Apostle gives one reason why Christian sorrow in presence of death is to be different from that of the others. It lies in the threefold repetition in this passage of the word “asleep,” as applied to the Christian dead, a figure possibly suggested here by our Lord’s own parable of the ten virgins, the imagery in both passages being the same. It was generally thought among the Thessalonian Christians that at the Lord’s second and glorious coming, the departed saints-the resurrection not having then taken place-would not have a share in the peculiar joys of meeting with Him, and greeting Him on His return to earth. That joy, they thought, would only be shared in by the living. The Apostle bids them not be sunk in sorrow about their absent friends. If these had been among those on earth who had clung through reproach to the crucified One, they would assuredly not be torn from His fellowship when He came in glory. They are not severed from their Lord now; they cannot be severed from Him when He comes again.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 163.
Reference: 1Th 4:13-18.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 273.
1Th 4:14
The Intermediate State.
I. Where are the saints? and what are they doing? And the Spirit answers, they “sleep in Jesus.” Now you must not for a moment understand this expression as though it meant that the spirits of the sainted dead are passing the interval, till the resurrection, in a state of unconsciousness or inactivity. The idea is utterly abhorrent alike to feeling, to reason, and to Scripture. For we can conceive no idea of soul but in the motion of thought and feeling. A soul without consciousness is a contradiction in terms. Even here thought never ceases; nor is it possible that God would have been at such amazing pains to make and remake a being for His glory and then consign that being for thousands, it may be, of years, to a condition in which he cannot glorify Him. And St. Paul himself speaks conclusively, at the beginning of his Epistle to the Philippians, when he compares and balances those two things-to remain for the Church’s sake, or to die and be with Christ. Now it would be no question of balance at all if he did not expect assuredly to be consciously happy with Christ; for then to remain and serve the Church, would it not be unquestionably better than to be passing that same period in a useless and joyless suspension of all life and power?
II. Let us follow, if we may catch a glimpse of, the untrammelled spirit. The word of God is distinct that it is passed into Paradise-“To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise”-by which we are to understand, not heaven-Elijah only of all the saints is said to have gone to heaven, and that, it may be, because his spirit was never separated from his body-but we are to understand some happy place (the word means garden, and associates itself therefore in the mind with the first Eden) where the separate spirits of the just are with Jesus, awaiting His second coming and their bodies, after which they are to enter into that final and perfect glory, which we call heaven. For neither they without us, nor we without them, shall be made perfect; but all the people of God, of every age, will go into heaven together. Till then, we are instructed to believe that the souls of the faithful “sleep in Jesus”-the word may mean with Jesus, or more strictly, through Jesus-in Paradise.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 55.
References: 1Th 4:14.-Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 472; Ibid., vol. xxii., p. 308; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 213; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 181. 1Th 4:16.-J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, vol. vi., p. 106.
1Th 4:16-18
The Apostle draws aside yet more the curtain of futurity. He increases and confirms the comfort which “by the word of the Lord” he offers to believers, by revealing additional truth about the resurrection day. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout.” There are three accompaniments of His coming. (1) A shout, an authoritative shout, one that indicates command. “Behold the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him.” Here we have the very command which, once uttered, must be obeyed: the command which not only musters the retinue of angels and glorified saints, but also summons all men, of every age and race, to meet their God. (2) “The voice of the archangel.” Angels have been ready and will be again. Christ’s ministering spirits. In regard to the voice of the archangel here, Scripture gives us no hint. It may be the shout of command caught up by him from the lips of the Lord Himself and repeated to the gathering hosts. (3) “The trump of God.” Under the old dispensation there is special prominence assigned to the trumpet as an instrument consecrated to religious uses. The last trump will call together the rejoicing saints into the heavenly Sion. It will be a signal of weal or woe, according to the character of those who hear. It is worth while appending Bishop Alexander’s note on 1Th 4:16 :-“Of all the solemn associations connected with the verse, few can surpass the following, recorded in many of the foreign papers of the day: At the earthquake of Manilla, the cathedral fell upon the clergy and congregation. The mass of ruin overhead and around the doomed assemblage was kept for a time from crushing down upon them by some peculiarity of construction. Those outside were able to hear what was going on in the church, without the slightest possibility of clearing away the ruins or of aiding those within, upon whom the building must evidently fall before long. A low, deep bass voice, doubtless that of the priest officiating, was heard uttering the words, ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.’ As this sentence came forth the multitude burst into a passion of tears, which was soon choked. For some deep groans issued from within, apparently wrung from the speaker by intense pain, and then the same voice spoke again in a calm and even tone, as if addressing a congregation, and all heard the words, ‘The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.'” An incident of this kind shows us how, in every age of the Church’s history, and in circumstances of the most awful extremity, the comfort which the Apostle offers to the Thessalonians has in no way lost its power.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 176.
References: 1Th 4:16-18.-Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 260. 1Th 4:17.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1374; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 345; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 364; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 94.
1Th 4:18
Personal Identity in the Resurrection.
I. The context states the identity of the saint after the resurrection and before it. We shall be the same persons hereafter that we are here. It is a very true and simple thing to say, and yet if we think of it, it includes a truth that throws a wonderful light on the future state of the saint, and answers many of the questions which a devout curiosity naturally asks concerning the future. The identity of the saint here and hereafter, as one and the same person, is involved in the phrase that we shall be raised again. We, not other beings in our name and place, but we, in our actual personal identity, shall be raised to life again at the last day. (1) Our bodies will be the same. I do not say materially the same, and that the very identical atoms which compose our frame of flesh now will compose our frame then. For we are told that these are always changing, and are never quite the same two hours together. (2) Our mental and moral selves will be the same. Whatever is part of our being will survive in a higher state. We shall be ourselves still. We shall be ever with the Lord.
II. From this follows, I think, without a doubt, the truth of mutual recognition and of society in the better world. Sociability is of God, and will be, I believe, a new channel through which we shall enjoy Him. It is our sinfulness, and our sinfulness alone, that ever sets our love to each other, and our love to God in opposition. They will be harmonised in heaven, when both the body and the soul will be pervaded, penetrated with God, and every feeling, every affection, every thought, will be a new revelation of His glory. The Apostle does not say, I shall be ever with the Lord, or you, singly and individually, but we. He is writing to converts, for whom he expresses the tenderest affection, and to whom he says, “Ye are our glory and joy”; and can the idea of their society have possibly been absent from his mind, when he wrote the words, “we shall be ever with the Lord”?
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 288.
References: 1Th 4:18.-G. Prothero, Church of England Pulpit, vol. i., p. 249. 1Th 5:1.-F. W. Farrar, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 85.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
IV. THE SEPARATED WALK AND THE BLESSED HOPE
CHAPTER 4
1. The separated walk 1Th 4:1-12)
2. The coming of the Lord for His saints 1Th 4:13-18)
1Th 4:1-12
Furthermore, then, brethren, we beg you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye received from us, how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more. For ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (not in passionate desire, even as the Gentiles who know not God), not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification. He therefore that (in this) disregards (his brother), disregards, not man, but God, who has also given His Holy Spirit to you (corrected translation).
Having spoken of being unblamable in holiness at the coming of the Lord he exhorts them to live now in sanctification. The motive is to please God. The believer should constantly in his daily life ask himself this question, Do I please God? Exhortation to purity in abstaining from fleshly lusts follows. Fornication, licentiousness in various forms were closely connected with the idolatrous worship from which these Thessalonians had been saved. The lust of the flesh was a part of this former religion, as it is still today among different heathen religions. But why these exhortations? Because they were surrounded by these things on all sides, and because the old nature with its tendencies towards these evils was still present with them, as it is with all true believers. No circumstances or position can make the believer secure against these things, without exercise of conscience and self-judgment, and hence these solemn admonitions from the Lord. Each was to possess his own vessel (his own wife) in sanctification and honor, this would be a safe-guard against the numerous immoralities practised among the heathen. If in this matter any one overstepped the rights of another and thus wronged his brother by committing adultery, the Lord would be the avenger; it would be a complete disregard of God who has not called His people to uncleanness, but unto sanctification, to be separated from all these things. Needful were these exhortations for the Thessalonians as they are still to all of us.
And the best remedy against these evil things is brotherly love. He had no need to say much about it, for they themselves were taught of God to love one another. But he exhorts them to be quiet and to mind their own affairs, working with their own hands, as he their leader had exemplified it when he was among them.
1Th 4:13-18
But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are fallen asleep, to the end that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For this we say to you in the Word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate these who have fallen asleep; for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with an assembling shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
These words contain one of the great revelations of the Bible and require therefore closer attention. It is a special and unique revelation which he gives to the sorrowing Thessalonians, occasioned by the mistake they had made when some of their fellow believers had died, and they feared that these departed ones had lost their share in the coming glorious meeting between the Lord and His saints. They sorrowed on their account like those who have no hope. (Their pagan neighbors had no hope of meeting loved ones again after death. Classic Greek and Roman writers abound with dreary expressions of the hopelessness of death.) We must remember that the New Testament was not yet in existence; only one of the gospels, was written; and not one of the epistles. And so the Lord gave to the apostle the special revelation which would quiet their fears and put before them the details of the coming of the Lord for all His saints, those who had fallen asleep and those alive when He comes.
Our Lord spoke that blessed word to His eleven disciples, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also (Joh 14:3). It is the only time He mentioned His coming for His own, and in speaking of it He did not tell them of signs to precede that coming, such as wars, false Christs and the great tribulation. It was the simple announcement that He would come again and receive those who are His to Himself. He did not say a word about the manner of that coming and how He would receive His own into glory to be with Him. Nor did the Thessalonians hear definite teaching on this from the lips of Paul. They knew He would come again; they waited for Him. But as to the manner of His coming and concerning those who had already fallen asleep and their relation to that event they were in ignorance. Beautiful it is to see how graciously the Lord answered the question of these sorrowing ones and how much more He adds for the comfort of all His people.
The first statement is in 1Th 4:14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. Let us first notice that blessed statement that Jesus died. Of the saints it is said that they have fallen asleep; but never is it said that Jesus slept. He tasted death, the death in all its unfathomable meaning as the judgment upon sin. For the saints the physical death is but sleep. (Some have perverted the meaning of sleep, and, instead of applying it, as Scripture does, to the body, they apply it to the soul. Soul-sleep is nowhere taught in the Bible and is therefore an invention by those who handle the Word deceitfully.) And He who died also rose again; as certainly as He died and rose again, so surely shall all believers rise. God will bring all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus with Him, that is with the Lord when He comes in the day of His glorious manifestation. It does not mean the receiving of them by the Lord, nor does it mean that He brings their disembodied spirits with Him to be united to their bodies from the graves, but it means that those who have fallen asleep will God bring with His Son when He comes with all His saints; they will all be in that glorified company. When the Lord comes back from glory all the departed saints will be with Him. This is what the Thessalonians needed to know first of all. Before we follow this blessed revelation in its unfolding we call attention to the phrase fallen asleep through (not in) Jesus; it may also be rendered by those who were put to sleep by Jesus. His saints in life and death are in His hands. When saints put their bodies aside, it is because their Lord has willed it so. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psa 116:15). When our loved ones leave us, may we think of their departure as being put to sleep by Jesus.
But blessed as this answer to their question is, it produced another difficulty. Hearing that the saints who had fallen asleep would come with the Lord on the day of His glorious manifestation, they would ask, How is it possible that they can come with Him? Are they coming as disembodied spirits? What about their bodies in the graves? How shall they come with Him? To answer these questions the special revelation by the Word of the Lord is given, by which they learned, and we also, how they would all be with Him so as to come with Him at His appearing. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, are in no wise to anticipate those who have fallen asleep. He tells them that when the Lord comes for His saints, those who have fallen asleep will not have an inferior place and that, we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. When Paul wrote these words and said, We, the living, who remain, he certainly considered himself as included in that class. The two companies who will meet the Lord when He comes, those who have fallen asleep and those who are living, are mentioned here for the first time. How the living saints will not precede those who have departed and the order in which the coming of the Lord for His saints will be executed is next made known in this wonderful revelation.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with an assembling shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then, we, the living, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. This is an altogether new revelation. Nothing like it is found anywhere in the Old Testament Scriptures. In writing later to the Corinthians Paul mentioned it again. Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1Co 15:51-52).
The Lord Himself will descend from heaven. He is now at the right hand of God in glory, crowned with honor and glory. There He exercises His Priesthood and Advocacy in behalf of His people, by which He keeps, sustains and restores them. When the last member has been added to the Church, which is His body, and that body is to be with Him, who is the head, He will leave the place at the right hand and descend from heaven. He will not descend to the earth, for, as we read later, the meeting place for Him and His saints is in the air and not the earth. When He comes with His saints in His visible manifestation, He will descend to the earth. He descends with a shout. It denotes His supreme authority. The Greek word is keleusma, which means literally a shout of command, used in classical Greek for the heros shout to his followers in battle, the commanding voice to gather together. He ascended with a shout (Psa 47:5), and with the victors shout He returns.
The shout may be the single word Come! Come and see He spoke to the disciples who followed Him and inquired for His dwelling place. Before Lazarus tomb He spoke with a loud voice, Come forth. John, in the isle of Patmos, after the throne messages to the churches had been given, saw a door opened in heaven and the voice said Come up hither (Rev 4:1). Come is the royal word of grace, and grace will do its supreme work when He comes for His own. But there will also be the voice of the archangel (Michael) and the trump of God. The archangel is the leader of the angelic hosts. As He was seen of angels (1Ti 3:16) when He ascended into the highest heaven, so will the archangel be connected with His descent out of heaven. All heaven will be in commotion when the heirs of glory, sinners saved by grace, are about to be brought with glorified bodies into the Fathers house. Some teach that the voice of the archangel may be employed to summon the heavenly hosts and marshal the innumerable company of the redeemed, for They shall gather His elect together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Mat 24:30-30. (Prof. W.G. Moorehead, Outline Studies.) But this is incorrect. The elect in Mat 24:1-51 are not the Church, but Israel. Dispersed Israel will be regathered and angels will be used in this work. Furthermore the angels will do this gathering after the great tribulation and after the visible manifestation of the Lord with His saints. The coming of the Lord for His saints takes place before the great tribulation.
The trump of God is also mentioned. This trumpet has nothing to do with the judgment trumpets of Revelation, nor with the Jewish feasts of trumpets. It is a symbolical term and like the shout stands for the gathering together. In Num 10:4 we read, And if they blow with one trumpet, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. The shout and the trump of God will gather the fellow-heirs of Christ. The dead in Christ shall rise first. This is the resurrection from among all the dead of those who believed on Christ, the righteous dead. All saints of all ages, old and New Testament saints, are included. This statement of the resurrection of the dead in Christ first disposes completely of the unscriptural view of a general resurrection. As we know from Rev 20:5 the rest of the dead (the wicked dead) will be raised up later. He comes in person to open the graves of all who belong to Him and manifests His authority over death which He has conquered.
The dead in Christ will hear the shout first and experience His quickening power; they shall be raised incorruptible. What power will then be manifested! Then we, the living, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. All believers who live on earth when the Lord comes will hear that commanding, gathering shout. It does not include those who only profess to be Christians and are nominal church-members, nor are any excluded who really are the Lords. (The so-called first-fruit rapture, which teaches that only the most spiritual of all true believers, who have made a deeper experience, etc., will be caught up, and the other believers, though they are true believers of God, will be left behind to pass through the great tribulation, has no spiritual foundation and is wrong.) The question, Who will be caught up into glory? is answered in 1Co 15:23 — All who are Christs. The change will be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1Co 15:52). Then this mortal will put on immortality. It will be the blessed clothed upon of which the apostle wrote to the Corinthians: For in this tabernacle we groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed (death) but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life (2Co 5:4). Then our body of humiliation will be fashioned like unto His own glorious body. it is the blessed, glorious hope, not death and the grave, but the coming of the Lord, when we shall be changed. And it is our imminent hope; believers must wait daily for it and some blessed day the shout will surely come.
When He descends from heaven with the shout and the dead in Christ are raised and we are changed, then we shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. It will be the blessed time of reunion with the loved ones who have gone before. What joy and comfort it must have brought to the sorrowing Thessalonians when they read these blessed words for the first time! And they are still the words of comfort and hope to all His people, when they stand at the open graves of loved ones who fell asleep as believers.
Often the question is asked, Shall we not alone meet our loved ones but also recognize them? Here is the answer: Together with them implies both reunion and recognition. These words would indeed mean nothing did they not mean recognition. We shall surely see the faces of our loved ones again and all the saints of God on that blessed day when this great event takes place. The clouds will be heavens chariots to take the heirs of God and the joint-heirs of the Lord Jesus Christ into His own presence. As He ascended so His redeemed ones will be taken up. Caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; all laws Of gravitation are set aside, for it is the power of God, the same power which raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead and seated Him in glory, which will be displayed in behalf of His saints (Eph 1:19-23). Surely this is a divine revelation.
How foolish it must sound to our learned scientists. But, beloved, I would want nothing but that one sentence, caught up in clouds. to meet the Lord in the air, to prove the divinity of Christianity. Its very boldness is assurance of its truth. No speculation, no argument, no reasoning; but a bare authoritative statement startling in its boldness. Not a syllable of Scripture on which to build, and yet when spoken, in perfect harmony with all Scripture. How absolutely impossible for any man to have conceived that the Lords saints should be caught up to meet Him in the air. Were it not true its very boldness and apparent foolishness would be its refutation. And what would be the character of mind that could invent such a thought? What depths of wickedness! What cruelty! What callousness! The spring from which such a statement, if false, could rise must be corrupt indeed. But how different in fact! What severe righteousness! What depths of holiness! What elevated morality! What warmth of tender affection! What clear reasoning! Every word that he has written testifies that he has not attempted to deceive. Paul was no deceiver, and it is equally impossible for him to have been deceived (Our Hope, February 1902).
And the blessedness to meet the Lord in the air! We shall see Him then as He is and gaze for the first time upon the face of the Beloved, that face of glory, which was once marred and smitten on account of our sins. And seeing Him as He is we shall be like Him. How long will be the meeting in the air? It has been said that the stay in that meeting place will be but momentary and that the Lord will at once resume His descent to the earth. We know from other Scriptures that this cannot be. Between the coming of the Lord for His saints and with His saints there is an interval of at least seven years before the visible coming of the Lord and His saints with Him. The judgment of the saints, by which their works and labors become manifest must take place. There is also to be the presentation of the church in glory (Ephes. 5:27; Jud 1:24). Furthermore the marriage of the Lamb takes place not in the meeting place in the air, but in heaven (Rev 19:1-10). He will take His saints into the Fathers house that they may behold His glory (Joh 17:22). But what will it mean, So shall we be forever with the Lord!
In this part of the passage, where he explains the details of our ascension to the Lord in the air, nothing is said of His coming down to the earth; it is our going up (as He went up) to be with Him. Neither, as far as concerns us, does the apostle go farther than our gathering together to be for ever with Him. Nothing is said either of judgment or of manifestation; but only the fact of our heavenly association with Him in that we leave the earth precisely as He left it. This is very precious. There is this difference: He went up in His own full right, He ascended; as to us, His voice calls the dead, and they come forth from the grave, and, the living being changed, all are caught up together. It is a solemn act of Gods power, which seals the Christians life and work of God, and brings the former into the glory of Christ as His heavenly companions. Glorious privilege! Precious grace! To lose sight of it destroys the proper character of our joy and of our hope (Synopsis of the Bible).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
we: 1Th 2:11, Rom 12:1, 2Co 6:1, 2Co 10:1, Eph 4:1, Phm 1:9, Phm 1:10, Heb 13:22
we beseech: or, we request
exhort: or, beseech.
by the: 1Th 4:2, Eph 4:20, 2Th 2:1, 1Ti 5:21, 1Ti 6:13, 1Ti 6:14, 2Ti 4:1
ye have: 1Th 4:11, 1Th 4:12, Act 20:27, 1Co 11:23, 1Co 15:1, Phi 1:27, Col 2:6, 2Th 3:10-12
ye ought: 1Th 2:12
to please: Rom 8:8, Rom 12:2, Eph 5:17, Col 1:10, Heb 11:6, Heb 13:16, 1Jo 3:22
so ye: 1Th 4:10, Job 17:9, Psa 92:14, Pro 4:18, Joh 15:2, 1Co 15:58, Phi 1:9, Phi 3:14, 2Th 1:3, 2Pe 1:5-10, 2Pe 3:18
Reciprocal: Gen 5:22 – General Exo 18:16 – make Exo 18:20 – the way Exo 21:1 – which Lev 22:31 – General Deu 4:5 – General Deu 8:1 – General Deu 11:32 – General Deu 13:4 – walk Deu 27:1 – Keep all 1Ki 9:4 – And if thou 2Ch 17:4 – walked Ezr 7:6 – the law Job 22:22 – receive Psa 31:23 – O love Psa 103:18 – remember Psa 119:1 – walk Psa 128:1 – walketh Psa 143:10 – Teach Eze 3:10 – receive Eze 33:7 – thou shalt Zep 2:3 – seek righteousness Zec 10:12 – walk Mat 5:19 – do Mat 13:23 – some an Mat 28:20 – them Mar 4:20 – which Luk 1:75 – General Joh 15:10 – ye keep Joh 17:8 – received Act 15:32 – exhorted 1Co 1:10 – by the 1Co 9:21 – not 1Co 14:3 – exhortation 1Co 14:37 – let Eph 4:17 – in the Phi 4:9 – which Col 3:17 – in the 1Th 2:3 – General 2Th 3:4 – that 2Th 3:6 – in the 2Th 3:13 – ye 1Ti 2:3 – this 1Ti 6:3 – the words 2Ti 2:14 – charging 2Pe 1:8 – and abound 2Pe 3:16 – speaking 1Jo 2:3 – if we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
TO PLEASE GOD
To please God.
1Th 4:1
A truly human and familiar expression is this! In such language Scripture appeals to the common sentiments of our human nature. It is sometimes thought derogatory to the Divine Being that the thoughts and emotions of our human nature should be attributed to Him. But God made man in His own image, and we may to some extent reason from the human to the divine.
I. Gods condescension and grace.It must be borne in mind that God has a right to our service and obedience. If He deigns to represent Himself as pleased when that which is His due is offered to Him, this is an attractive representation of His love and kindness for which we cannot be sufficiently grateful.
II. The standard of Christian excellence and virtue.A scholar often feels how hard it is truly to please his master. The standard of the preceptor is so lofty compared with that of the disciple, that there is felt to be room for study, for aspiration, for endeavour, for progress. The godly man feels that to please God is something far beyond and above him. To serve God, to obey God, is to please God. It is an inferior and unworthy aim to endeavour to please man, an aim which may often lead astray, for man is but man. But the spirit and conduct that shall please God are in the highest degree admirable, and, indeed, morally perfect.
III. The motive of Christian conduct.It is sometimes hard for every one of us to do what is right from a sense of duty. We are not called upon to act simply from that motive. We are not servants merely; we are sons. Remembering how much we owe to our Lord and Saviour, can we do other than desire to please Him?
Illustration
If we wished to sum up religion in one sentence, we might say that it consists in a settled and deliberate purpose to please God. The advocates of every religion will accept this account of what they are really aiming at in their religious efforts. In the Old Testament there is a passage which represents Balak coming to the Prophet Balaam with this question: Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Now that seems to our eyes a very strange and repulsive conception of religion which these questions infer. In truth there is set out the current idea of pagan worshippers, and they accept the idea of God that paganism offered to its votaries. The Prophet makes answer to the questions by taking for granted this view of religion as essentially consisting in pleasing God; but he points out a very different source of information as to how man can please God. Not in the temper and cruelty of monarchs was the kind of worship found which would be acceptable to Himthere was a worthier and a nearer article of guidance which every man could consult, and which no man need misunderstand. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Not the things which impress you most in the public life of the world, but rather those which must command the veneration of your own higher nature. These words of the Prophet are to be your guidance, when you seek to form some opinion of the Soul and Character of God, and to determine the kind of worship acceptable to Him. Not without you, but within you is the Divine witness.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
AS WE OPEN the fourth chapter of this epistle we find the Apostle turning to exhortation and instruction. The earlier chapters had been largely occupied with reminiscences both as regards the work of God, wrought m the Thessalonians, and also the behaviour and service of Paul and his fellow-workers in their midst. Now the Apostle addresses himself to the present needs of his much-loved converts.
In the first chapter he had been able to say about them much that was highly commendatory, but this did not mean that there were no dangers and difficulties confronting them, nor that they were beyond the need of further advancement in the things of God. On the contrary they were as yet but babes. There was much they had yet to learn as to the truth and much they needed to know as regards the will of God for them. A great word for them, and for all of us, is that with which verse 1Th 4:1 closes-more and more.
In the first place they were to abound more and more in all those practical details of life and behaviour which are pleasing to God. During his short stay in their midst Paul had succeeded in conveying to them an outline of the walk that pleases God though of course there was much to be filled in as to detail. It is one thing however to know and quite another to do, and we are set here to please God in all our activities and ways. The will of God is our sanctification, that is, that we should be set apart from all that defiles in order that we may be wholly for God, and the Apostle had given them definite commandments as from the Lord in keeping with this.
Do we pay sufficient attention to the commandments of the Lord Jesus and of His Apostles which we find so plentifully in the New Testament? We fear that the answer to this question is that we do not. There are indeed some believers who have a rooted objection to the idea that any commandment has application to a Christian. The very word they will have none of. It has, they feel, so exclusive a connection with the law of Moses that to bring any kind of commandment to bear upon a Christian is to at once put him under law; and we Christians are, as they rightly remind us, not under law but under grace.
In this however they are mistaken. Under grace we have been brought into the kingdom of God. The Divine authority has been established in our hearts, if indeed we have been truly converted; and though love is the raking force m that blessed kingdom yet love has its commandments no less than law. The law issued its commands without furnishing either the motive or the power that would ensure obedience. Only love can furnish the compelling force that is needed. Still the commands of love are there. This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous (1Jn 5:3). Under law men were given commandments on the keeping of which depended their life and position before God. Under grace the believers life and position are assured in Christ, and the commandments he receives are to shape and direct that new life in a way that will be pleasing to God.
In the New Testament we have, thank God, many plain commandments of the Lord covering all the major matters of life and service. There are however many minor matters as to which the Lord has not issued any definite instructions. (A comparison of three verses, viz., 1Co 7:6; 1Co 7:25; 1Co 14:37, might be helpful at this point). These omissions are not by oversight but of set purpose. It is evidently the Lords purpose to leave many things to the prayerful exercises of His saints; they must search the Scriptures to discover what pleases Him and judge by analogies drawn from His dealings of past days. This is in order that they may be spiritually developed and have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. As to such matters each of us must seek to ascertain Gods will and be fully persuaded in our minds.
This we fully admit; but let us not therefore overlook the plain commandments of the Lord where He has spoken. Some Christians are, we fear, rather apt to practice self-deception in this matter. They seem much exercised about a certain point. They seek light. They pray very piously. Yet all the while if they opened their Bibles there would stare them in the face a plain commandment from the Lord upon the very point in question. Somehow they manage to ignore it. In that case all their prayers and exercises are of but little worth, and indeed savour of hypocrisy.
We have enlarged a little upon this point because of its importance. Turning again to our Scripture we notice that having stated that Gods will for His people is, in a general way, their sanctification, the Apostle specifies one sin which is the deadly enemy of any such thing. Thus particular sin was exceedingly common among the Gentile nations, so common that it was thought nothing of at all, and it was only when the light of Christianity was shed upon it that the real evil of it became manifest. Amongst the Christianized nations of today it is looked upon with far less abhorrence than it was fifty years ago; a definite witness this to how far they have turned aside from even the outward profession of Christ Verses 1Th 4:3-7 are all concerned with this particular sin. Let us each carefully read these verses and take home to our hearts the Apostles pungent words.
The word sanctification really occurs three times in these verses, but it has been translated holiness in verse 1Th 4:7, where it is put in contrast with uncleanness. To sanctification we have been called and if we ignore this we shall find serious consequences in three directions.
In the first place we have to reckon with the Lord, who will deal with us in His righteous government of His saints. If another has been wronged He will constitute Himself the Avenger of their cause. Secondly there is God to be reckoned with. It may seem as if the wrongdoer is merely despising or disregarding the rights of a man, but in reality he is disregarding the rights of God. Thirdly, there is the Spirit of God to be considered, and He is the Holy Spirit-the word for holy coming from the same root as the words for sanctification in the verses above. The Spirit being given, He sets us apart for God.
With verse 1Th 4:9 Paul turns from this sin which so often masquerades falsely under the name of love, to brotherly love, which is the real article as found among the people of God. As to this he gladly acknowledges there was no need of his exhortations for they had been taught of God to do it. It was the very instinct of the divine life in their souls. The only thing he has to say to them is that they should increase more and more. Here again we meet with these words. There is to be more and more happy obedience to the commands of the Lord, and more and more brotherly love amongst the people of God. LOVE and OBEDIENCE-these are the things! And more and more of them! How happy shall we be if thus we are characterized!
It is very significant how we pass from brotherly love to the very homely instructions of verses 1Th 4:11-12. Before now brotherly love has been known to degenerate into unbrotherly interference with ones brethren. Well, here we have the wholesome corrective. Seek earnestly to be quiet, and mind your own affairs and work with your own hands, as one translation renders it.
The Apostle now (verse 1Th 4:13) approaches the matter which was apparently the main reason for the writing of the epistle. They were at that moment in a good deal of sorrow and difficulty as to certain of their number who had died. They were well aware that the Lord Jesus was coming again, indeed they were expecting Him very soon, and this made these unexpected deaths very mysterious to their minds. They felt that in some way or other these dear brethren of theirs would be losers. The Saviour would come and the glory would shine without them! It was a very real grief to them, but it was a grief founded upon ignorance and it only needed the light of the truth to dispel it for ever.
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, says the Apostle, and he forthwith instructs them in the very details which they needed to know, perfecting m that particular matter that which was lacking in their faith.
The first thing he assures them is that God will bring these departed saints with Jesus when He comes again. In the last verse of chapter 3 he had spoken of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with ALL His saints and here he fortifies this assurance. The all includes those who sleep in Jesus for it is as certain that such will be brought with Christ as that Jesus Himself died and rose again. The death and resurrection of Christ are to faith the standard of absolute truth and reality and certainty. All parts of the truth are equally certain and the Apostle desired them to realize this.
This most definite assurance, comforting as it must have been, would not solve the difficulty existing to their minds as to how it was to be accomplished. How were these departed saints to be found in Christs glory so as to come with Him at His advent? In what way would this great change be accomplished? This question is answered in the succeeding verses, and the Apostle prefaces his explanation with the words, This we say unto you by the word of the Lord. By this he indicated that he was conveying to them something as a direct and fresh revelation from the Lord, and not merely restating something that had been previously revealed. The item of truth which he makes known to them was just that which they needed to complete their understanding of the coming of the Lord.
When the Lord comes the saints will be divided into two classes-(1) we which are alive and remain (2) them which are asleep. Evidently the Thessalonians to begin with had not contemplated the possibility of there being this second class at all. Even later they probably imagined that the first class would form the majority and the second the minority; and hence there would be the tendency to treat the second class as a negligible factor. Verse 1Th 4:15 corrects this tendency. The fact was, as the Apostle assures them, that the saints in class one would not prevent-that is, go before or have precedence over-those in class two. If there was to be any precedence given at all it would be accorded to class two as verse 1Th 4:16 shows, for there it is stated that the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Verses 1Th 4:16-17 then speak of the coming of the Lord Jesus for His saints. They reveal to us just how He is going to gather them to Himself so that subsequently He may come with all of them as the last verse of chapter 3 stated. Unless the distinction between the coming for and the coming with is seen no clear view of the Lords coming is possible.
How emphatic is that statement:- The Lord Himself shall descend. In that supreme hour He will not act by proxy but come Himself! He will descend with an assembling shout. Myriads of angels will serve, for the archangels voice will be heard. The hosts of God will be on the move, for the trumpets of God shall sound. Yet all these will be subsidiary to the mighty action of the Lord Himself. Verse 1Th 4:16 gives us His sudden descension from heaven into the air, and the exertion of His power, the utterance of the voice that wakes the dead.
The last clause of verse 1Th 4:16 and verse 1Th 4:17 give us the response that will be at once found in the saints. The first effect of His power will be seen in the resurrection of the dead saints. Then they, with those of us who are alive and remain until that hour, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so be for ever with Him. How simple it all is; and, thank God, as certain of accomplishment as simple.
We notice of course that this Scripture does not give us all the details connected with this blessed hope. We might wish to enquire for instance in just what condition the dead in Christ are raised? This we find answered very fully in 1Co 15:1-58. That chapter also informs us of the change that must take place as to the bodies of all saints who are alive when He comes. We must be changed into a spiritual and incorruptible condition ere we are caught up. That chapter also tells us that all will take place in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, which assures us that though the dead in Christ shall rise first, the precedence they are granted will be a matter of but just a moment.
In verse 1Th 4:17 observe the word together. The Thessalonians sorrowed and so often do we. Being taught of God to love one another their hearts were torn when death snatched some from their midst. We too know what these wrenches are. We do not sorrow as those who have no hope, nor did they. The life-giving voice of the Son of God is going to reunite us. We shall meet Him, but not in ones or twos or in isolated detachments. We shall be caught up TOGETHER.
What a chorus, what a meeting,
With the family complete!
Notice also that we are going to meet the Lord. The word used here only occurs thrice elsewhere in the New Testament, viz., in Mat 25:1; Mat 25:6, and Act 28:15. In each case it has the meaning of going forth and returning with. When the brethren from Rome met Paul that was exactly what happened. They went forth as far as Appii Forum and having met him they joined his company and returned with him to Rome. Just so shall we all meet our Lord in the air. Joining His company-never to part from Him-we shall subsequently return with Him when He is manifested to the world in His glory.
Are not these words enough to comfort all our hearts; enough indeed to fill them with abiding joy?
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
1Th 4:1. The gist of this verse is that the brethren in Thessalonica had been informed by Paul about how they should live. To please God, it was necessary that they grow or abound more and more in that good manner of walk.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Th 4:1. Furthermore then. More literally, as to what remains, or for the rest: marking an approach towards the conclusion of the Epistle, though not necessarily a very near approach (Vaughan).
In the Lord. Only as the organ of the Lord does Paul presume to exhort them; and only as believers united to Christ, and living in Him, does he expect that they will listen to his admonition.
As ye received. Paul views it as a possible thing that they may know to do good, and do it not. Many persons, like the son in the parable, seem to think that their knowledge of duty, and recognition of it in conscience, is some sort of compensation for their non-performance of it. The Thessalonians, however, were walking as Paul had directed them; but he knew the tendency there is to be content with a half-completed course, to allow some sin to remain because much has been cast out, to weary before the whole work is accomplished, and therefore be is bent upon having them abound yet more.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
HORTATORY AND INSTRUCTIVE
Timothy reported some things that called for exhortation and instruction. In the first place, fornication was indulged in by some who had no proper understanding of its sinfulness (1Th 4:1-8). This inconsistency is probably explained by the circumstance that the church was composed of Gentiles chiefly, rather than Jews. (See Acts 17 and compare such passages in the epistle as 1Th 1:9.) Paganism, out of which they came, knew not the meaning of sin, and as for fornication it may be said to have been part of their religion, just as the grossest licentiousness is now connected with certain forms of heathen worship. Under these circumstances these young Christians may have been slow to apprehend their duty in the premises and the real meaning of sanctification. This exhortation had its effect, however, for in Pauls second epistle to the church he does not mention the offense.
In the second place, the imminency of our Lords return which had taken hold of this church, had reacted in some cases in the direction of idleness (1Th 4:9-12). If He were coming so soon, why such carefulness as to physical necessities? The answer is practically that of John Wesley, that if one knew He would come tomorrow, the duties of today should be performed just the same. Study (or be ambitious) to be quiet, attend to your business, work for two reasons: that. you may be enabled to pay your honest debts, especially to the worlds people with whom you deal; and that you yourselves may have your physical necessities supplied (1Th 4:12).
THE DEAD AND THE LIVING SAINTS AT CHRISTS COMING
But the chief difficulty in the church was doctrinal, arising also out of a misapprehension about the Lords Second Coming. The difficulty concerned the relation of the dead to the living saints at His coming (1Th 4:13-18). There was a fear that the departed would be at some disadvantage in the matter of time when that event took place. But Paul teaches (1) that the dead saints will return with Christ (1Th 4:14); (2) that their bodies shall be raised first (1Th 4:15-16); and (3) that the translation of the living saints shall then follow (1Th 4:17-18). In other words, something like that which took place in the lives of Enoch and Elijah in earlier dispensations, will take place in the life of the whole church, i.e., the true body of Christ in the present dispensation. Paul taught this by the word of the Lord (1Th 4:15), which means not any word which our Lord spake on the subject while on earth, but a special revelation vouchsafed to Paul after He had arisen from the dead.
The subject is continued into chapter 5 where the first three verses treat the condition of the world when Christ comes, and the next eight are an exhortation to the church. The world will be taken unawares, but the church should not be so taken (1Th 5:4-5). To guard against this the church should be wide awake concerning this doctrine and the hope of His coming (1Th 5:6-8). The reason for this is that while wrath awaits the world in that day, salvation in the fullest sense awaits the church (1Th 5:9). Whether we are awake, i.e., alive on the earth when He comes, or asleep and come with Him, we shall live together with Him as the close of the preceding chapter indicated.
QUESTIONS
1. What three subjects called for exhortation and instruction?
2. How do we explain the presence of fornication in this church?
3. What reason is there to believe that Pauls words were heeded?
4. What probably led to idleness?
5. How does Paul meet the situation?
6. What was the doctrinal difficulty in this church?
7. What three things does Paul teach about the second coming of Christ for the church?
8. What shows that the world will be unprepared for His coming?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
In these words, we have a general exhortation given to the Thessalonians, that, according to the doctrine and injunctions formerly given them for a holy conversation suitable to the gospel, they would make it their care and endeavour to abound more and more in the exercise of piety, and outstrip themselves in doing their duty toward God and one another; We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, &c.
Where note, 1. With what great condescension and earnestness St. Paul applies himself to them; he styles them his brethren, and exhorts and beseeches them. The ministers of Christ must not only be teachers, but beseechers also, meekly and affectionately entreating persons to be kind to themselves, and comply with their present duty.
Yet observe, 2. With what authority he backs his entreaty; he beseeches and exhorts by the Lord Jesus, that is, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by his authority, and for his sake; so that he that despiseth the gentle exhortations of Christ’s ministers, despiseth not men, but God; as the authority of a prince is despised, when his messages by his ambassadors are rejected.
Note, 3. The general and comprehensive duty which they are exhorted to, namely, to walk so as to please God in their daily conversation, to be found in the practice of all the duties and virtues of a good life.
Where note, that St. Paul, in the course of his ministry, did not only explain and unfold gospel mysteries but urge and enforce moral duties: Ye have received of us how ye ought to walk. This must be a minister’s care, to acquaint his people, that as the privileges of Christianity are very great, so the duties it requires are strict and exact; and those which we call moral duties, are an integral part of our religion; he that is not a moral man, is no Christian; let us preach and press second-table duties, with arguments drawn from the first, namely, that they performed in humble obedience to the command of God, and with a single eye at the glory of God, and from an inward principle of love to God, and then we can never preach up morality too much, nor our people practice it too much.
Observe, lastly, the apostle exhorts them to abound more and more, that is, in grace and holiness; Christians are to be thankful for, but not satisfied with, their present measures of grace received; God allows us liberty to enlarge our desires after an abundance of his grace: and happy is it where there is found a holy covetousness going along with the grace of God, as there is an insatiable covetousness going along with the gold and treasure of this world: this, says the apostle here, will please God, when ye abound more and more.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
“As to the Rest”
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Th 4:1-2. Furthermore , as for what remains to be said, in subserviency to the important end of your being presented before God in the final judgment, perfected in holiness; we beseech you, by the Lord Jesus By his authority, in his name, and for his sake; that as ye have received of us While we were among you; how ye ought to walk If you desire to adorn your Christian profession; so ye would abound more and more Striving continually to make advances in every Christian grace and virtue. Here the apostle reminds the Thessalonian believers that from his first coming among them he had exhorted them to conduct themselves in a holy manner, if they wished to please and continue in the favour of the living and true God, in whom they had believed; and that he had explained to them the nature of that holiness which is acceptable to God. And the same method of exhortation and instruction he undoubtedly followed in all other cities and countries. For you know You cannot but remember; what commandments we gave you Commandments very different from those enjoined by the heathen priests, as pleasing to their pretended deities.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk,–that ye abound more and more. [The first part of this Epistle was retrospective and historical. In it Paul fully revived the spirit of love which had existed between him and these Thessalonians. This he did that this second part, which is prospective and hortatory, might be made more effective. “Finally” is the word with which Paul customarily introduces the closing part of his Epistles (2Co 13:11; Eph 6:10; Phi 4:8; 2Th 3:1). The word “then” connects this chapter with the close of the third chapter, showing that what Paul now says is spoken that the Thessalonians may be blameless at the Lord’s coming. “In the Lord Jesus” shows that Paul wrote as the organ or instrument of the Lord. In the phrase “ye do walk” Paul concedes their virtue that he may water it and increase it.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
1 Thessalonians Chapter 4
The apostle then turns to the dangers that beset the Thessalonians in consequence of their former habits (and which were still those of the persons that surrounded them), habits in direct contradiction to the holy and heavenly joy of which he spoke. He had already shewn them how they were to walk and to please God. In this way he had himself walked among them. (1Th 2:10) He would exhort them to a similar conduct with all the weight that his own walk gave him, even as he would desire their growth in love according to the affection he had for them. (Compare Act 26:29) It is this which gives authority to the exhortation, and to all the words of a servant of the Lord.
The apostle takes up especially the subject of purity, for the pagan morals were so corrupt that impurity was not even accounted to be sin. It appears strange to us that such an exhortation should have been needful to such lively Christians as the Thessalonians; but we do not make allowance enough for the power of those habits in which persons have been brought up, and which become as it were a part of our nature and of the current of our thoughts, and for the action of two distinct natures under the influence of these, though the allowance or cultivation of one soon deadens the other. But the motives given here shew upon what entirely new ground, as regards the commonest morality, Christianity places us. The body was but as a vessel to be used at will for whatever service they chose. They were to possess this vessel instead of allowing themselves to be carried away by the desires of the flesh; because they knew God. They were not to deceive their brethren in these things, [6] for the Lord would take vengeance. God has called us to holiness: it is with Him that we have to do; and if any one despised his brother, taking advantage of his feebleness of mind to encroach upon his rights in this respect, it would be to despise not man but God, who would Himself remember it, and who has given us His Spirit; and to act thus would be to despise that Spirit, both in ones self and in ones brother in whom He also dwells. He who was wronged in this way was not only the husband of a wife, he was the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost and ought to be respected as such. On what high ground Christianity places a man, and that in connection with our best affections!
As touching brotherly love-that new mainspring of their life-it was not necessary to exhort them: God Himself had taught them, and they were an example of love to all. Only let them abound in it even more and more; walking quietly, working with their own hands, so as to be in no mans debt, that in this respect also the Lord might be glorified.
Such were the apostles exhortations. That which follows is an absolutely new revelation for their encouragement and consolation.
We have seen that the Thessalonians were always expecting the Lord. It was their near and immediate hope in connection with their daily life. They were constantly expecting Him to take them to Himself They had been converted to wait for the Son of God from heaven. Now (from want of instruction) it appeared to them that the saints who had recently died would not be with them to be caught up. The apostle clears up this point, and distinguishes between the coming of Christ to take up His own, and His day, which was a day of judgment to the world. They were not to be troubled with regard to those who had died in Christ [7] as those who had no hope were troubled. And the reason which he gives for this is a proof of the strict connection of their entire spiritual life with the expectation of Christs personal return to bring them into heavenly glory. The apostle, in comforting them with regard to their brethren who had lately died, does not say a word of the survivors rejoining them in heaven. They are maintained in the thought that they were still to look for the Lord during their lifetime to transform them into His glorious image. (Compare 2Co 5:1-21 and 1Co 15:1-58) An especial revelation was required to make them understand that those who had previously died would equally have their part in that event. Their part, so to speak, would resemble that of Christ. He has died, and He has risen again. And so will it be with them. And when He should return in glory, God would bring them-even as He would bring the others, that is, the living-with Him.
Upon this the apostle gives some more detailed explanation of the Lords coming in the form of express revelation, shewing how they would be with Him so as to come with Him when He appears. The living will not take precedence of those who sleep in Jesus. The Lord Himself will come as the Head of His heavenly army, dispersed for a time, to gather them to Himself. He gives the word. The voice of the archangel passes it on, and the trumpet of God is sounded. The dead in Christ will rise first, that is to say, before the living go up. Then we who shall be alive and remain shall go with them, all together, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we be for ever with the Lord.
It was that that the Lord Himself ascended; for in all things we are to be like Him-an important circumstance here. Whether transformed or raised from the dead, we shall all go up in the clouds. It was in the clouds that He ascended, and thus we shall be ever with Him.
In this part of the passage, where he explains the details of our ascension to the Lord in the air nothing is said of His coming down to the earth; it is our going up (as He went up) to be with Him. [8] Neither, as far as concerns us, does the apostle go farther than our gathering together to be for ever with Him. Nothing is said either of judgment or of manifestation; but only the fact of our heavenly association with Him in that we leave the earth precisely as He left it. This is very precious. There is this difference: He went up in His own full right, He ascended; as to us, His voice calls the dead, and they come forth from the grave, and, the living being changed, all are caught up together. It is a solemn act of Gods power, which seals the Christians life and the work of God, and brings the former into the glory of Christ as His heavenly companions. Glorious privilege! Precious grace! To lose sight of it destroys the proper character of our joy and of our hope.
Other consequences follow, which are the result of His manifestation; but that is our portion, our hope. We leave the earth as He did, we shall for ever be with Him.
It is with these words that we are to comfort our selves if believers die- fall asleep in Jesus. They shall return with Him when He shall be manifested; but, as regards their own portion, they will go away as He went, whether raised from the dead or transformed, to be for ever with the Lord.
All the rest refers to His government of the earth: an important subject, a part of His glory; and we also take part in it. But it is not our own peculiar portion. This is, to be with Him, to be like Him, and even (when the time shall come) to quit in the same manner as Himself the world which rejected Him, and which has rejected us, and which is to be judged.
I repeat it: to lose sight of this is to lose our essential portion. All lies in the words, so shall we ever be with the Lord. The apostle has here explained how this will take place. [9] Remark here, that 1Th 4:15-18 are a parenthesis, and that 1Th 5:1 follows on 1Th 4:14; chapter 5 shewing what He will do when He brings the saints with Him according to 1Th 4:14.
In this important passage then we find the Christian living in an expectation of the Lord, which is connected with his daily life and which completes it. Death then is only an accessory which may take place, and which does not deprive the Christian of his portion when his Master shall return. The proper expectation of the Christian is entirely separated from all which follows the manifestation of Christ, and which is in connection with the government of this world.
The Lord comes in Person to receive us to Himself; He does not send. With full authority over death, which He has conquered, and with the trump of God, He calls together His own from the grave; and these, with the living (transformed), go to meet Him in the air. Our departure from the world exactly resembles His own: we leave the world, to which we do not belong, to go to heaven. Once there, we have attained our portion. We are like Christ, we are forever with Him, but He will bring His own with Him, when He shall appear. This then was the true comfort in the case of a Christians death, and by no means put aside the daily expectation of the Lord from heaven. On the contrary this way of viewing the subject confirmed it. The dead saint did not lose his rights by dying-by sleeping in Jesus; he should be the first object of his Lords attention when He came to assemble His own. Nevertheless the place from which they go forth to meet Him is the earth. The dead should be raised-this was the first thing- that they might be ready to go with the others; and then from this earth all would depart together to be with Christ in heaven. This point of view is all important, in order to apprehend the true character of that moment when all our hopes will be consummated.
Footnotes for 1 Thessalonians Chapter 3
4: It is well here to recall that, though Christ is Son over Gods house, as Lord He is not Lord over the assembly but over individuals. Besides this, He is in a general sense Lord of all. But His action towards individuals ministers to the well-being of the assembly.
5: It is very striking how holiness here, and manifestation in glory, are brought together as one thing in scripture, only the veil drawn aside when the glory is there. Even Christ was declared Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection. We beholding the glory with unveiled face are changed into the same image from glory to glory. So here; we are to walk in love, to be unblamable in holiness. We should have said here; but no, the veil is drawn at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. In Eph 5:1-33 He washes us with the word, to present us a glorious body without spot to Himself.
6: pas touton is a euphemism for these things
7: It has been thought that the apostle speaks here of those who had died for His names sake as martyrs. It may have been so in consequence of the persecutions, but dia tov Iesous would be a singular way of expressing it; dia with a genitive is used for a state of things, a condition that we are in, that characterises us. Being in Christ, their removal was but falling asleep, not dying. They had this position by means of Jesus, not for His names sake. (Compare, however, 2Co 4:14)
8: In order that we may all return-be brought back with Him-together.
9: Compare 2Co 5:1, We have already remarked as a fact that this passage is a new distinct revelation. But the bearing of this fact appears here and proves that it has much importance. The Christians life is so connected with the day (that is to say, with the power of the life of light of which Christ lives), and Christ who is already in glory is so truly the believers life, that he has no other thought than to pass into it by this power of Christs, which will transform him. (See 2Co 5:4) It required a new and accessory revelation to explain that which was wanting to the intelligence of the Thessalonians, how the dead saints should not lose their part in it. The same power would be applied to their dead bodies as to the mortal bodies of the living saints, and all would be caught up together. But the victory over death was already gained, and Christ, according to the power of resurrection, being already the believers life, it was but natural, according to that power, that he should pass without dying into the fullness of life with Christ. This was so much the natural thought of faith that it required an express, and as I have said, an accessory revelation to explain how the dead should have their part in it. To us now it presents no difficulty. It is the other side of this truth which we lack, which belongs to a much more lively faith, and which realises much more the power of the life- of Christ and His victory over death. No doubt the Thessalonians should have considered that Christ had died and risen again, and not have allowed the abundant power of their joy in realising their own portion in Christ to hide from them the certainty of the portion of those who slept in Him. But we see (and God allowed it that we might see) how the life which they possessed was connected with the position of the Head triumphant over death. The apostle does not weaken this faith and hope, but he adds (that they may be comforted by the thought that the triumph of Christ would have the same power over the sleeping as over the living saints; and that God would bring back the former as well as the latter with Jesus in glory, having caught them up together as their common portion to be for ever with Him. To us also God gives this truth, this revelation of His power. He has permitted thousands to fall asleep, because (blessed be His name ) He had other thousands to call in, but the life of Christ has not lost its power, nor the truth its certainty. We as living ones wait for Him because He is our life. We shall see Him in resurrection, if haply we die before He comes to seek us; and the time draws near. Observe, also, that this revelation gives another direction to the hope of the Thessalonians, because it distinguishes with much precision between our departure hence to join the Lord in the air, and our return to the earth with Him. Nor this only, but it shews the first to be the principal thing for Christians, while at the same time confirming and elucidating the other point. I question whether the Thessalonians would not better have understood this return with Christ than our departure hence all together to rejoin Him. Even at their conversion they had been brought to wait for Jesus from heaven. From the first the great and essential principle was established in their hearts- the Person of Christ was the object of their hearts expectation, and they were separated thereby from the world. Perhaps they had some vague idea that they were to appear with Him in glory, but how it was to be accomplished they knew not. They were to be ready at any moment for His coming, and He and they were to be glorified together before the universe. This they knew. It is a summary of the truth. Now the apostle develops more than one point here in connection with this general truth. 1st, they would be with Christ at His coming. This, I think, is but a happy application of a truth which they already possessed, giving a little more precision to one of its precious details. At the end of chapter 3 we have the truth plainly stated (although it was still indistinct in their hearts, since they thought the dead in Christ would be deprived of it) that all the saints should come with Jesus-an essential point as to the character of our relationship to Him. So that Jesus was expected-the saints should be together with Jesus at the time of His coming-all the saints should come with Him. This fixed and gave precision to their ideas on a point already more or less known. 2nd, That which follows is a new revelation on the occasion of their mistake with regard to those who slept. They thought indeed that the Christians who were ready should be glorified with Christ when He came back to this world; but the dead-were they ready? They were not present to share the glorious manifestation of Christ on the earth. For, I doubt not, the vague idea that possessed the mind of the Thessalonians was this: Jesus would return to this world, and they who were waiting for Him would share His glorious manifestation on the earth. Now the apostle declares that the dead saints were in the same position as Jesus who had died. God had not left Him in the grave; nor would He those who had, like Him, been there. God would also bring them with Him when He should return in glory to this earth. But this was not all. The coming of Christ in glory to the earth was not the principal thing. The dead in Christ should be raised, and then, with the living, should go to meet the Lord in the air, before His manifestation, and return with Him to the earth in glory; and thus should they be ever with the Lord. This was the principal thing, the Christians portion; namely, to dwell eternally with Christ and in heaven. The portion of the faithful was on high- was Christ Himself, although they would appear with Him in the glory. For this world it would then be the judgment.
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
1Th 4:1-2. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us the moral maxims of life and conduct, not only in word but also in writing, how ye ought to walk, and to please God, see that ye keep them with conscientious regards; for we received those principles not only from the law and the prophets, but also from the Lord Jesus. Such a christian conduct is requisite to satisfy every mans own mind of his regeneration; it is also required of the church, and expected of the world, otherwise you will be despised. A single stain of concupiscence after baptism, and a holy profession, cannot be wiped away.
1Th 4:3. This is the will of God, even your sanctification. The two principal words, unearthly, 2Co 7:1; and , Joh 17:17, sanctify them through thy truth, are equivalent to purity, piety, religion. Both those words in the LXX are illustrative of the Hebrew, kadesh and kadaish, prepared, separated, or sanctified. It is applied to persons, and vessels, sprinkled with blood, and separated from common use for the service of the sanctuary; and also to the Israelites, as a holy nation. The apostles bring forward those words to instruct the christian church in all the glory and beauty of holiness, to which they are called in Christ Jesus. Be ye holy, as he that hath called you is holy.
Abstain from fornication. This is repeated from 1Co 6:18, where comments occur.
1Th 4:4-5. Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, his body, here called a vessel, in sanctification and honour: not in the lust of concupiscence. This language would seem strange now, in any pastoral letter to a christian church; but the state of morals among the gentiles that knew not God, rendered it necessary. In England we wink at certain haunts of infamy. In Paris, and in Amsterdam, they license certain dancing houses; but in opulent Corinth, a thousand women were kept adjacent to the temple of Diana. Certainly, we are yet in a better state than the heathen world. But at the same time those magistrates, like the heathen without God in the world, are not aware that indictments are already preferred against them for thousands of slow and painful murders, by suffering open prostitution to exist.
1Th 4:6-8. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Daniel Heinsius quotes here the case of David, and recites the parable of Nathan, a sad case of defrauding his neighbour. But the word applies as well to the concupiscence of money, to frauds in trade, and obtaining goods under false pretences. No man ought to waste his neighbours goods. If success be denied him in trade, he ought to stop when he can offer his creditors something decent, and not to go on robbing his relatives and friends to the last shilling, till the foulest acts of shame overtake him all at once. Then the odium falls on religion.
1Th 4:13. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Why does the apostle speak of the death of these saints, and of the depths of sorrow which afflicted the church under their loss? Why does he speak of the most tremendous judgments of the Lord on those who had troubled them, and of punishing them with everlasting destruction? And why was Timothy so specially sent away from his work to know their affairs, and to comfort them? Though history be silent, yet there is but one conclusion, that the jews, the fountains of persecution, as Tertullian says, had excited the magistrates, or the tumult, to put some of the church to death.
1Th 4:14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Death is uniformly in the hebrew and christian scriptures regarded as a sleep; but the dead who sleep in the dust, says the prophet, shall awake. Dan 12:1-2. Our Saviour enjoyed a short repose after the agonies of death, and put on immortality as a garment; and if the head arose, the members shall follow. This is our hope: Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept. If the gentiles by idolatry have lost this hope, it assuredly was revealed in the patriarchal covenants. Eternal life was revealed in the law, however denied by the sadducees, and now it is a special subject of revelation to the church, by the ministry of St. Paul.
1Th 4:15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. They shall not take precedence, or have any advantages superior to what those shall enjoy who slept in the dust. This acceptation of the word prevent is happy, though less used now. Prevent us, oh Lord, in all our doings. The Lord prevented, or went before St. Paul to Rome; or if we might be allowed to say so, he got there before him, and so arranged that Paul should not be sent to the common prison. Providence likewise so ordered it, that his bonds should turn out for the furtherance of the gospel.
But did St. Paul, and the saints at Thessalonica, expect to live till Christ came on the clouds of heaven? I answer, no: the time is indefinite. It is a form of speech justified by the coming of the Lord as a thief in the night. Add to this the day of his coming to burn Jerusalem was near at hand. Paul was a prophet; he foretold the falling away in the church, and the revelation of the man of sin in the temple of God. He foretold the call and conversion of the jews, and the salvation of Israel; in a word, he foretold his own martyrdom. St. Peter, in like manner, spake of the longsuffering of God, and said, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, proofs indubitable that our christian prophets were divinely inspired. It was wise to speak of those things as near, for we are in crowds rushing into eternity. We already hear the martial trumpet sound to awake the dead, that every one may appear in his own order, to meet the Lord in the air, and rejoice for ever in his presence.
1Th 4:16. The dead in Christ shall rise first. The apostle is not here speaking of any precedence which the saints are to have in the resurrection over the rest of the dead, but of the resurrection of the righteous dead, as opposed to living saints, who shall receive their summons to meet the Lord at his coming. The apostle assures the Thessalonians, who had some doubts on this point, that they who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, or have precedence of, them that are asleep. On the contrary, the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. He is plainly speaking, not of the dead in Christ, as distinguished from those who are not in Christ; but of the dead in Christ, as distinguished from the living.
1Th 4:18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words, the only words which can console us under bereavements of our own flesh. Such is the wisdom of God, that death shall repair his own breaches, and restore more than he has taken away.
REFLECTIONS.
How unspeakably valuable is revelation. Seeing we are passing away from this world, it uplifts the curtains of the world to which we are hasting. St. Paul says, he would not have believers ignorant of a future state, and the happiness of separate spirits. He would have the eyes of their understanding opened, to know what was the hope of their calling, and the glory which awaits them at the resurrection of the just, the nuptial joys of the church when the bridegroom shall return.
This hope of a glorious resurrection is peculiarly consolatory to the mind under the loss of relatives, and all the sufferings of the present life. Thy brother, said the Lord to Martha, shall rise again. What then are these light afflictions, compared with an eternal weight of glory? And the time is near, the day is at hand. And though men may kill the body, the hope laid up for us in heaven is above the wrath of man, and the power of the grave.
The hope is enhanced and made perfect by the superior intercourse and the felicity we shall enjoy in the society of those so dear to us, while sojourning upon earth. Oh what intelligence shall there expand the soul! And it is likely that new powers will open, which could not bloom to perfection in these cold regions of sorrow and death. Oh what beautiful and glorious bodies will they receive, when all infirmity shall be left in the tomb. Their grandeur, though in a humble degree, shall then be like that of the blessed Saviour. Let us therefore put on the Lord Jesus in all his sanctifying glory, that on hearing the first sound of the trumpet we may rebound among the countless myriads, and worship at his feet. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Th 4:1-12. Practical Exhortations to Purity of Life and Brotherly Love.The Church at Thessalonica has begun well and is encouraged to go forward.
1Th 4:1. abound: 1Th 3:12*.
1Th 4:3. abstain, etc.: the inculcation of such an elementary principle of conduct seems strange, but we need to remember that certain heathen cults regarded immorality as part of the ritual of worship, and religion and immorality were to them almost convertible terms. This consecration of vice in paganism made it absolutely necessary for Paul to insist upon moral purity.
1Th 4:4. his own vessel: either (a) his own wife, or (b) his own body. In view of the fact that in 1Pe 3:7 the term weaker vessel is definitely applied to the wife and that there is no example of its application to the body, most commentators adopt the former interpretation. The verse enjoins fidelity to the marriage vow.
1Th 4:6. no man trespass: the words might be translated as in AV, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, but the context shows that RV is to be preferred. AV intrudes a new line of thought, i.e. fair dealing in business, which is irrelevant to the context.
1Th 4:9. love of the brethren: the affection of Christians for each other. The term brother in NT is used to describe the relationship between Christians (Harnack, Mission and Expansion of Christianity, i. 405f.).
1Th 4:11. study to be quiet: the word study in the original means, to be ambitious. It is used also in Rom 15:20, 2Co 5:9, Make it your ambition to pursue your ordinary avocations with a quiet mind.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The end of Chapter 3 has encouraged their abounding love. Here the apostle adds to this the entreaty that they abound in obedience. No amount of love can make up for a disobedient walk, for love and obedience necessarily go together. A child’s love for its parent is only convincing where there is an obedient character. They had seen consistent Christianity in the example of the servants of God and had received godly instruction by word of mouth. This had already taken good effect, but we must not be satisfied with any measure of progress. Faith would stir us always to “abound more and more.” Notice again in these verses the name “The Lord Jesus.” It is a tender appeal rather than any suggestion of a preemptory demand, though indeed “commandments” that faith could never ignore.
Verses 3 to 6. Nothing can be more precious than the will of God to an obedient heart. If we know a certain thing is the will of God, do we not wholeheartedly desire to do this -without any direct command to do so? This certainly should settle any matter for the child of God. But His will is our sanctification. Since it is true that “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10), and also that the Lord Jesus prays, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (Joh 17:17), it is certainly evident that this is God’s will. In Heb 10:1-39 the position of the believer is that
of being sanctified, or set apart as sacred to God. In Joh 17:1-26 sanctification is seen as a progressive work in the soul, for the prospering of which the Lord prays. Then certainly it is only right and proper that the believer should willingly sanctify himself to God in practice.
This involves abstaining from fornication. His body is for the Lord, not for corrupt purposes, a vessel to be possessed in separation from evil and in honorable devotion to the Lord. All passionate desire is to be judged and firmly turned from. These things might be prevalent among “the Gentiles which know not God,” but the Christian is of a completely different character. The possessing of his vessel applies to all the conduct of the believer, and verse 6 warns against going beyond the bounds of propriety to defraud or oppress one’s brother in any matter. In whatever relationships we may be placed we must be careful to respect the proper responsibilities of such relationship. It would, of course, be easier to take advantage of one’s brother than of a stranger (cf. 1Ti 6:2), but this is sin. “The Lord is the Avenger of all such,” and of this they had been warned by Paul beforehand.
Uncleanness is here put in contrast to holiness. It is not only righteousness to which we are called, but holiness, which involves the love of what is good and the hatred of evil. Righteousness does not require such feelings as this, but the believer must be holy as well as righteous. If we should think lightly of unseemly conduct, this is not simply despising men’s opinions but despising God Himself who, in the very fact of giving us His Holy Spirit has provided the power to both discern and to refuse uncleanness.
As to the fact of brotherly love it is God Himself, by the implantation of the divine nature, who teaches saints to love one another. They had no need that Paul should teach them this. In fact in all Macedonia their hearts went out to others who were redeemed by the blood of Christ and the apostle rejoiced in the manifest exercise of such love. Nevertheless it was needful that he beseech them to “increase more and more.” Though he had told them practically the same thing in ch. 3:12, yet this was necessary again. It is similar in Philippians in regard to joy in the Lord (Php 3:1). For how easily it seems that true joy in the Lord can wane rather than increase, and love toward others become feeble in its exercise rather than to abound. Such exhortation we constantly need.
But again, to “study to be quiet, and to work with your own hands” was important. The thrill of a newfound faith, the excitement of a wonderfully prosperous work of God, might too easily occupy souls. There must be a settling, a learning to quietly estimate things rightly and soberly. This studying therefore is a true, consistent application of the heart. Work with the hands is, of course, a good balancing factor to keep souls from a one-sided type of emotional Christianity. The reality of their faith would be proven to “them that are without” by an honest walk steadily maintained. This was to be diligently cultivated. The latter part of verse 12 may be translated “and that ye may have need of no one,” that is, that they would not be dependent upon men.
The subject of the rapture of the saints at the coming of the Lord Jesus is one of a number concerning which Paul would not have us ignorant. There was real need of enlightenment as to this subject, for the truths here found had not before been revealed. But no doubt the sorrow of the saints at Thessalonica was made the occasion of this wonderful revelation. Evidently some among them had already departed to be with Christ, though it was so short a time since they had been converted to God. Suffering persecution as they did, it may, of course, have been possible that some were martyred. The apostle had taught them that, in accordance with Old Testament teaching, the Lord Jesus would come in glory to judge the world, and that the saints would be with Him in this marvelous. event. Now they had suffered the sorrow of some of their number having passed away, and they evidently feared that these would therefore not have part with the Lord Jesus in His coming in glory. But the apostle assures them that there is no reason to sorrow for these sleeping saints as they might for others who had died without mercy. He appeals to the blessed truth of the death and resurrection of Christ as a basis for the comfort he gives them. If He had risen again then those who had “fallen asleep in Jesus” could be certain to also come with Him in glory. But how could this be? To answer this question required a new and definite revelation of God, and this is now for the first time communicated by Paul, beginning with verse 15.
This was a direct “word of the Lord” through the apostle, just as he had also received a direct revelation from the Lord as to the Lord’s supper (1Co 11:23), and another concerning the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers as members of the one body of Christ (Eph 3:1-13).
Historically this event of the rapture of saints to glory will take place seven years before the coming of the Lord in power and glory “with His saints,” but these are commonly looked at as two aspects of His coming rather than as two “comings.”
But those who are living when the Lord comes will have no priority whatever on this account. Those who have previously died in Christ will have the same blessed place of privilege as they. Two verses show us the marvel of events connected with this proper and blessed hope of saints of God today.
First theLord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. It is a personal, real coming of our Lord in bodily form, just as “Jesus Himself” drew near and went with the two on the way to Emmaus following His bodily resurrection (Luk 24:15); or just as “Jesus Himself” appeared bodily in the upper room on the same evening (Luk 24:36). It will be no vision or apparition, but a bodily coming of the blessed Lord Himself. “All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth” (Joh 5:28-29). Of course at the first resurrection it will be only believers who hear that voice and come forth. Later the ungodly will hear it also and come forth to the judgment of the great white throne. The first is a resurrection “from among the dead,” just as Lazarus alone was raised by the powerful voice of the Son of God.
“With the voice of the archangel” is added here. Only Michael is referred to in Scripture as “the archangel” (Jud 1:9). Whether there may be others we cannot say. Since Michael is called Israel’s “prince” (Dan 10:21), and the dispensation of law was “ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Gal 3:19), it has been suggested that the archangel’s voice may have some connection with the raising of Old Testament saints at the coming of the Lord. Whether this is so it would seem unwise to judge, however, without more solid grounds. But at least the occasion is seen to be one of great angelic rejoicing.
“The trump of God” is also heard, and this is a divine, declared testimony. It will be “the last trump” (1Co 15:52) so far as the assembly on earth is concerned. The seven trumpets of Revelation are of a different order, for they are those of judgment, bearing a clarion testimony to a world in rebellion against God. This “trump of God,” however, is to be heard by saints, who by this are to be gathered together unto the Lord. It seems clear that, as others have pointed out, this connects with Num 10:4, where the blowing of one trumpet was the signal for gathering the princes of Israel unto Moses. The saints so gathered, of course, are to reign with Christ, and for this reason are represented as princes. The gathering of “all the assembly to Moses at the door of the tabernacle, on the other hand, by the blowing of both trumpets would speak apparently of the regathering of Israel for millennial blessing (Num 10:3).
“And the dead in Christ shall rise first,” that is, they rise before the living are caught up in order that all may be “caught up together.” Corinthians 15 supplies the fact that “we shall be changed” (verse 52). For if the dead are raised incorruptible, then our condition must, of course, conform to theirs in incorruptibility, and immortality. No doubt this refers directly to our bodily condition, while 1Jn 3:2 adds, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” This is, of course, far more than bodily, but moral and spiritual conformity to His image.
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” In perfect unison thus all the saints shall meet Him. Wonderful joy indeed! In those very clouds that have once obscured heaven from earth we shall meet Hirn, and in the atmosphere above the earth’s level. Let the world argue about the physical impossibility of this great prospect. We shail experience it while they weary their minds and tongues with idle speculations and unbelieving questions. “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is clear enough that our portion is eternally heavenly – in the Father’s house, with the Lord, where He is, not to leave His presence again to return to live on earth, as some have imagined. Certainly there will be an earthly people but those who have been taken by our Lord to heaven, the Father’s house, will have this as their permanent abode.
“Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” Blessed theme of pure comfort and encouragement!
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 1
Abound more and more; that is, follow the directions and exhortations which they had received more and more fully.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
4:1 Furthermore {1} then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would {a} abound more and more.
(1) Various exhortations, the foundation of which is this, to be mindful of those things which they have heard from the apostle.
(a) That you labour to excel more and more, and daily surpass yourselves.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
III. PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS AND EXHORTATIONS 4:1-5:24
The second major part of this epistle contains instructions and exhortations about Christian living in general, the Rapture, personal watchfulness, church life, and individual behavior. All of this is vital for believers who are undergoing opposition for their faith.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. Christian living 4:1-12
Paul used the opportunity this epistle afforded him to give his readers basic instruction concerning Christian living. He did this to promote their maturation in Christ and to guard them from error (cf. 1Th 3:10).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Continued growth 4:1-2
In this last major section of the epistle, introduced by "Finally," Paul urged his readers to continue walking (behaving day by day) as the missionaries had instructed them (cf. Gal 5:25). They needed to "excel still more." The highest motive is to "please God" by a life of obedience to His "commandments." These express His will and chart a safe course for the Christian by leading him or her safely to the goal of spiritual maturity. "To walk and please God," means "to walk so as to please God" (cf. 1Th 2:4; 1Th 2:15).
"When a man is saved by the work of Christ for him it does not lie open before him as a matter for his completely free decision whether he will serve God or not. He has been bought with a price (1Co 6:20). He has become the slave of Christ. Christian service is not an optional extra for those who like that kind of thing. It is a compelling obligation which lies upon each one of the redeemed." [Note: Morris, The First . . ., pp. 118-19.]
This does not mean, however, that every Christian should serve God in the same particular vocation.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 9
PERSONAL PURITY
1Th 4:1-8 (R.V.)
THE “finally” with which this chapter opens is the beginning of the end of the Epistle. The personal matter which has hitherto occupied us was the immediate cause of the Apostles writing; he wished to open his heart to the Thessalonians, and to vindicate his conduct against the insidious accusations of his enemies; and having done so, his main purpose is fulfilled. For what remains-this is the meaning of “finally”-he has a few words to say suggested by Timothys report upon their state.
The previous chapter closed with a prayer for their growth in love, with a view to their establishment in holiness. The prayer of a good man avails much in its working; but his prayer of intercession cannot secure the result it seeks without the cooperation of those for whom it is made. Paul, who has besought the Lord on their behalf, now beseeches the Thessalonians themselves, and exhorts them in the Lord Jesus, to walk as they had been taught by him. The gospel, we see from this passage, contains a new law; the preacher must not only do the work of an evangelist, proclaiming the glad tidings of reconciliation to God, but the work of a catechist also, enforcing on those who receive the glad tidings the new law of Christ. This is in accordance with the final charge of the Saviour: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” The Apostle had followed this Divine order; he had made disciples in Thessalonica, and then he had taught them how to walk and to please God. We who have been born in a Christian country, and bred on the New Testament, are apt to think that we know all these things; our conscience seems to us a sufficient light. We ought to know that, though conscience is universal in the human race, and everywhere distinguishes between a right and a wrong, there is not one of our faculties which is more in need of enlightenment. No one doubts that men who have been converted from heathenism, like the Thessalonians, or the fruits of modern missions in Nyassaland or Madagascar, need to be taught what kind of life pleases God; but in some measure we all need such teaching. We have not been true to conscience; it is set in our human nature like the unprotected compass in the early iron ships: it is exposed to influences from other parts of our nature which bias and deflect it without our knowledge. It needs to be adjusted to the holy will of God, the unchangeable standard of right, and protected against disturbing forces. In Thessalonica Paul had laid down the new law, he says, through the Lord Jesus. If it had not been for Him, we should have been without the knowledge of it altogether; we should have had no adequate conception of the life with which God is well pleased. But such a life is exhibited to us in the Gospels; its spirit and requirements can be deduced from Christs example, and are explicitly set forth in His words. He left us an example, that we should follow in His steps. “Follow Me,” is the sum of His commandments; the one all-embracing law of the Christian life.
One of the subjects of which we should gladly know more is the use of the Gospels in the early Church; and this passage gives us one of the earliest glimpses of it. The peculiar mention of the Lord Jesus in the second verse shows that the Apostle used the words and example of the Master as the basis of his moral teaching; the mind of Christ is the norm for the Christian conscience. And if it be true that we still need enlightenment as to the claims of God and the law of life, it is here we must seek it. The words of Jesus have still their old authority. They still search our hearts, and show us all things that ever we did, and their moral worth or worthlessness. They still reveal to us unsuspected ranges of life and action in which God is not yet acknowledged. They still open to us gates of righteousness, and call on us to enter in, and subdue new territories to God. The man who is most advanced in the life which pleases God, and whose conscience is most nearly identical with the mind of Christ, will be the first to confess his constant need of, and his constant dependence upon, the word and example of the Lord Jesus.
In addressing the Thessalonians, Paul is careful to recognise their actual obedience. Ye do walk, he writes, according to this rule. In spite of sins and imperfections, the church, as a whole, had a Christian character; it was exhibiting human life in Thessalonica on the new model; and while he hints that there is room for indefinite progress, he does not fail to notice their present attainments. That is a rule of wisdom, not only for those who have to censure or to teach, but for all who wish to judge soberly the state and prospects of the Church. We know the necessity there is for abounding more and more in Christian obedience; we can see in how many directions, doctrinal and practical, that which is lacking in faith requires to be perfected; but we need not therefore be blind to the fact that it is in the Church that the Christian standard is held up, and that continuous, and not quite unsuccessful efforts, are made to reach it. The best men in a community, those whose lives come nearest to pleasing God, are to he found among those who are identified with the gospel; and if the worst men in the community are also found in the Church at times, that is because the corruption of the best is worst. If God has not cast off His Church altogether, He is teaching her to do His will.
“For this,” the Apostle proceeds, “is the will of God, even your sanctification.” It is assumed here that the will of God is the law, and ought to be the inspiration, of the Christian. God has taken him out of the world that he may be His, and live in Him and for Him. He is not his own any longer; even his will is not his own; it is to be caught up and made one with the will of God; and that is sanctification. No human will works apart from God to this end of holiness. The other influences which reach it, and bend it into accord with them, are from beneath, not from above; as long as it does not recognise the will of God as its rule and support, it is a carnal, worldly, sinful will. But the will of God, to which it is called to submit, is the saving of the human will from this degradation. For the will of God is not only a law to which we are required to conform, it is the one great and effective moral power in the universe, and it summons us to enter into alliance and cooperation with itself. It is not a dead thing; it is God Himself working in us in furtherance of His good pleasure. To tell us what the will of God is, is not to tell us what is against us, but what is on our side; not the force which we have to encounter, but that on which we can depend. If we set out on an unchristian life, on a career of falsehood, sensuality, worldliness, God is against us; if we go to perdition, we go breaking violently through the safeguards with which He has surrounded us, overpowering the forces by which He seeks to keep us in check; but if we set ourselves to the work of sanctification, He is on our side. He works in us and with us, because our sanctification is His will. Paul does not mention it here to dishearten the Thessalonians, but to stimulate them. Sanctification is the one task which we can face confident that we are not left to our own resources. God is not the taskmaster we have to satisfy out of our own poor efforts, but the holy and loving Father who inspires and sustains us from first to last. To fall in with His will is to enlist all the spiritual forces of the world in our aid; it is to pull with, instead of against, the spiritual tide. In the passage before us the Apostle contrasts our sanctification with the cardinal vice of heathenism, impurity. Above all other sins, this was characteristic of the Gentiles who knew not God. There is something striking in that description of the pagan world in this connection: ignorance of God was at once the cause and the effect of their vileness; had they retained God in their knowledge, they could never have sunk to such depths of shame; had they shrunk from pollution with instinctive horror, they would never have been abandoned to such ignorance of God. No one who is not familiar with ancient literature can have the faintest idea of the depth and breadth of the corruption. Not only in writers avowedly immoral, but in the most magnificent works of a genius as lofty and pure as Plato, there are pages that would stun with horror the most hardened profligate in Christendom. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that on the whole matter in question the heathen world was without conscience: it had sinned away its sense of the difference between right and wrong; to use the words of the Apostle in another passage, being past feeling men had given themselves up to work all manner of uncleanness. They gloried in their shame. Frequently, in his epistles, Paul combines this vice with covetousness, -the two together representing the great interests of life to the ungodly, the flesh and the world. Those who do not know God and live for Him, live, as he saw with fearful plainness, to indulge the flesh and to heap up gain. Some think that in the passage before us this combination is made, and that 1Th 4:6 -“that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter”-is a prohibition of dishonesty in business; but that is almost certainly a mistake. As the Revised Version shows, the Apostle is speaking of the matter in hand; in the Church especially, among brethren in Christ, in the Christian home, the uncleanness of heathenism can have no place. Marriage is to be sanctified. Every Christian, marrying in the Lord, is to exhibit in his home life the Christian law of sanctification and noble self-respect.
The Apostle adds to his warning against sensuality the terrible sanction, “The Lord is an avenger in all these things.” The want of conscience in the heathen world generated a vast indifference on this point. If impurity was a sin, it was certainly not a crime. The laws did not interfere with it; public opinion was at best neutral; the unclean person might presume upon impunity. To a certain extent this is the case still. The laws are silent, and treat the deepest guilt as a civil offence. Public opinion is indeed stronger and more hostile than it once was, for the leaven of Christs kingdom is actively at work in society; but public opinion can only touch open and notorious offenders, those who have been guilty of scandal as well as of sin; and secrecy is still tempted to count upon impunity. But here we are solemnly warned that the Divine law of purity has sanctions of its own above any cognisance taken of offences by man. “The Lord is an avenger in all these things.” “Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.”
Is it not true? They are avenged on the bodies of the sinful. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The holy law of God, wrought into the very constitution of our bodies, takes care that we do not violate it without paying the penalty. If it is not at the moment, it is in the future, and with interest, -in premature old age; in the torpor which succeeds all spendthrift feats, excesses of mans prime; in the sudden breakdown under any strain put on either physical or moral courage. They are avenged in the soul. Sensual indulgence extinguishes the capacity for feeling: the profligate man would love, but cannot; all that is inspiring, elevating, redeeming in the passions is lost to him; all that remains is the dull sense of that incalculable loss. Were there ever sadder lines written than those in which Burns, with his life ruined by this very thing, writes to a young friend and warns him against it?
“I waive the quantum o the sin,
The hazard o concealing;
But Och! it hardens a within,
And petrifies the feeling.”
This inward deadening is one of the most terrible consequences of immorality; it is so unexpected, so unlike the anticipations of youthful passion, so stealthy in its approach, so inevitable, so irreparable. All these sins are avenged also in the will and in the spiritual nature. Most men repent of their early excesses; some never cease to repent. Repentance, at least, is what it is habitually called; but that is not really repentance which does not separate the soul from. sin. That access of weakness which comes upon the back of indulgence, that breakdown of the soul in impotent self-pity, is no saving grace. It is a counterfeit of repentance unto life, which deludes those whom sin has blinded, and which, when often enough repeated, exhausts the soul and leaves it in despair. Is there any vengeance more terrible than that? When Christian was about to leave the Interpreters house, “Stay,” said the Interpreter, “till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way.” What was the sight without which Christian was not allowed to start upon his journey? It was the Man of Despair, sitting in the iron cage, -the man who, when Christian asked him, “How camest thou in this condition?” made answer: “I left off to watch and be sober; I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me; I have so hardened my heart that I cannot repent.” This is no fancy picture: it is drawn to the life; it is drawn from the life; it is the very voice and tone in which many a man has spoken who has lived an unclean life under the cloak of a Christian profession. They who do such things do not escape the avenging holiness of God. Even death, the refuge to which despair so often drives, holds out no hope to them. There remaineth no more a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment.
The Apostle dwells upon Gods interest in purity. He is the avenger of all offences against it; but vengeance is His strange work. He has called us with a calling utterly alien to it, -not based on uncleanness or contemplating it, like some of the religions in Corinth, where Paul wrote this letter; but having sanctification, purity in body and in spirit, for its very element. The idea of “calling” is one which has been much degraded and impoverished in modern times. By a mans calling we usually understand his trade, profession, or business, whatever it may be; but our calling in Scripture is something quite different from this. It is our life considered, not as filling a certain place in the economy of society, but as satisfying a certain purpose in the mind and will of God. It is a calling in Christ Jesus; apart from Him it could not have existed. The Incarnation of the Son of God; His holy life upon the earth; His victory over all our temptations; His consecration of our weak flesh to God; His sanctification, by His own sinless experience, of our childhood, youth, and manhood, with all their unconsciousness, their bold anticipations, their sense of power, their bent to lawlessness and pride; His agony and His death upon the Cross; His glorious resurrection and ascension, -all these were necessary before we could be called with a Christian calling. Can any one imagine that the vices of heathenism, lust or covetousness, are compatible with a calling like this? Are they not excluded by the very idea of it? It would repay us, I think, to lift that noble word “calling” from the base uses to which it has descended; and to give it in our minds the place it has in the New Testament. It is God who has called us, and He has called us in Christ Jesus, and therefore called us to be saints. Flee, therefore, all that is unholy and unclean.
In the last verse of the paragraph the Apostle urges both his appeals once more: he recalls the severity and the goodness of God.
“Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God.” “Rejecteth” is a contemptuous word; in the margin of the Authorised Version it is rendered, as in some other places in Scripture, “despiseth.” There are such things as sins of ignorance; there are eases in which the conscience is bewildered; even in a Christian community the vitality of conscience may be low, and sins, therefore, be prevalent, without being so deadly to the individual soul; but that is never true of the sin before us. To commit this sin is to sin against the light. It is to do what everyone in contact with the Church knows, and from the beginning has known, to be wrong. It is to be guilty of deliberate, wilful, high-handed contempt of God. It is little to be warned by an apostle or a preacher; it is little to despise him: but behind all human warnings is the voice of God: behind all human sanctions of the law is Gods inevitable vengeance; and it is that which is braved by the impure. “He that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God.”
But God, we are reminded again in the last words, is not against us, but on our side. He is the Holy One, and an avenger in all these things; but He is also the God of Salvation, our deliverer from them all, who gives His Holy Spirit unto us. The words put in the strongest light Gods interest in us and in our sanctification. It is our sanctification He desires; to this He calls us; for this He works in us. Instead of shrinking from us, because we are so unlike Him, He puts His Holy Spirit into our impure hearts, He puts His own strength within our reach that we may lay hold upon it, He offers us His hand to grasp. It is this searching, condescending, patient, omnipotent love, which is rejected by those who are immoral. They grieve the Holy Spirit of God, that Spirit which Christ won for us by His atoning death, and which is able to make us clean. There is no power which can sanctify us but this; nor is there any sin which is too deep or too black for the Holy Spirit to overcome. Hearken to the words of the Apostle in another place: “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”