Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Thessalonians 4:2
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
2. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord jesus ] Lit., charges through the Lord Jesus; similarly in 1Th 4:11, “as we charged you,” and in 2Th 3:4, &c. The Greek word signifies an announcement, then a command or advice publicly delivered. In 1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 1:18 the whole practical teaching of Christianity is called a “charge.” Here the Apostle is referring to particular items of conduct as matter of so many “charges.” These charges were given “ through the Lord Jesus,” since His name and authority were used to support them (comp. 2Th 3:6, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”); while they were given “ in the Lord Jesus” (1Th 4:1), as they appealed to the Christian standing of the readers and their conscious relationship to Christ, Whose coming in glory they expected.
The Apostle is “writing no new commandment;” he recalls to his readers’ remembrance what he had so often urged upon them (see note on ch. 1Th 1:5). It is on one prominent subject of those well-remembered charges that he has now to dwell:
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For ye know what commandments – It was but a short time since Paul was with them, and they could not but recollect the rules of living which he had laid down.
By the Lord Jesus – By the authority of the Lord Jesus. Some of those rules, or commandments, the apostle refers to, probably, in the following verses.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Th 4:2
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus
The Lord Jesus and His commandments
I.
Jesus is Lord.
1. By Divine appointment He shall reign.
2. By creative acts He has a right to rule over things and beings whom He has made.
3. By redemptive work: Ye are not your own.
4. By the glad acknowledgment of His saints: Unto Him that loved us.
5. By the ultimate recognition of the universe: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, etc.
II. As Lord Jesus has a right to command.
1. This right is uniformly asserted. Christ never prefers a request, makes a suggestion, or expresses a wish; it is always Come, Go, Do this, If I, your Lord and Master ye aught.
2. This right has been blasphemously usurped. They are impious usurpers who determine other means of salvation, or rules of moral conduct other than those He has laid down. One is your Master.
III. His commands have been plainly revealed. Ye know.
1. Directly by Himself. Love one another, etc.
2. Instrumentally by His accredited ambassadors. We gave you from the Lord Jesus. Their deliverances, however, are only applications of Christs principles to particular persons and places.
3. Permanently in the Bible.
(1) How clearly.
(2) How accessibly. Ignorance is without excuse.
IV. Obedience to His commandments is the criterion of discipleship. Commands are given–
1. Not to be thought about.
2. Not to be the subjects of promise in regard to the doing of them.
3. But to be obeyed. Ye are My disciples if ye do. This doing must be–
(1) Universal. Whatsoever I command you.
(2) Prompt. There is no time to lose.
(3) Cheerful. We are subjects of so good a King.
Conclusion:
1. Christ as Lord is approachable. He is the mighty God, but, He is the Man Christ Jesus. Sovereigns are difficult of access, are surrounded by the pomp of circumstance, excite embarrassment and nervousness when they do not terrify. But we may come boldly to the throne of grace.
2. His commandments are not grievous. They are reducible to a few plain principles which a child may learn by heart. If we grasp them we practically grasp all. And then they are simply the conditions upon which alone our well-being can be secured.
3. What He has bidden us do He has done Himself. It makes all the difference on a field of battle whether the commanding officer says Go or Come. Christ says, I must go if any man will come after Me. I have left you not only commands but an example, an embodied command.
4. In loving loyalty to Christ there is great reward. Lo, I am with you, now; Well done, by and by. (J. W. Burn.)
The authority of Christ
Christ does not appeal to men as the heathen philosophers did. They ask opinions, court criticism, and even the wily and garrulous Socrates gives men an opportunity of differing from him; but Christ, with the authoritative tone and earnestness of the Son of God, says, This is absolute; believe it and be saved, or reject it and be damned. He says that He came from the Father, that He speaks the Word of the Father, and that He is returning to the Father. So there is nothing between Him and God; immediately behind Him, though invisible, lies infinitude, and He sets Himself up as the medium on which the voice of the infinite is broken into human sounds. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods commandments a protection and a delight
Reconciliation to God is like entering the gate of a beautiful avenue which conducts to a splendid mansion. But that avenue is long, and in some places it skirts the edge of dangerous cliffs; and therefore to save the traveller from falling over where he would be dashed to pieces, it is fenced all the way by a quick set edge. That hedge is the Commandments. They are planted there that we may do no harm; but like a fence of the fragrant briar, they regale the pilgrim who keeps the path, and they only hurt him when he tries to break through. Temperance, justice, truthfulness, purity of speech and behaviour, obedience to parents, mutual affection, Sabbath keeping, Divine worship–all these are righteous requirements; and in keeping of them there is great reward. Happy is he who only knows the precept in the perfume which it sheds, and who, never having kicked against the pricks, has never proved the sharpness of the thorns. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Gods commandments reasonable
There is mention made of one who willingly fetched water near two miles every day for a whole year to pour on a dead stick at the command of a superior, when no reason could be given for so doing. How ready then should every one be to do Christ service, whose commands are backed with reason, and whose precepts are attended with encouragements. (J. Spencer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Ye know what commandments we gave you] This refers to his instructions while he was among them; and to instructions on particular subjects, which he does not recapitulate, but only hints at.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This explains what he said before; what they had received of him about their walking he here calls commandments, not so much his own as the Lords, as the word itself imports here used, and is expressed in the text.
By the Lord Jesus: though the apostle had authority, yet it was but derivative from Christ; and therefore not to walk as the apostle had commanded would be disobedience to Christ himself. And he minds them of what they knew, that their knowledge might be exemplified in practice; for as faith, so knowledge, is dead which doth not influence the life; and they knew that he commanded them not in his own name, but in the name of Christ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. by the Lord Jesusby Hisauthority and direction, not by our own. He uses the strong term,”commandments,” in writing to this Church not long founded,knowing that they would take it in a right spirit, and feeling itdesirable that they should understand he spake with divine authority.He seldom uses the term in writing subsequently, when his authoritywas established, to other churches. 1Co 7:10;1Co 11:17; 1Ti 1:5(1Th 4:18, where the subjectaccounts for the strong expression) are the exceptions. “TheLord” marks His paramount authority, requiring implicitobedience.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For ye know what commandments we gave you,…. When among them; such as those of faith and love, the ordinances of the Gospel, baptism, and the Lord’s supper, and all such as relate to the worship and service of God, to the discipline of Christ’s house, to their behaviour one towards another, and their conduct in the world: and which were delivered to them, not as from themselves, and by their own authority, but
by the Lord Jesus; in his name, and by his authority, and as ordered by him; for their commission ran to teach men all things, whatsoever Christ commanded: now since they knew what these commandments were, and whose they were, and the obligation they lay under to regard them, the apostle makes use of it as a reason or argument to engage them to obedience to them; for he that knows his Lord’s will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, Lu 12:47.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
What charge ( ). Plural, charges or precepts, command (Ac 16:24), prohibition (Ac 5:28), right living (1Ti 1:5). Military term in Xenophon and Polybius.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Commandments [] . Better, charges. Only four times in N. T. o LXX The verb paraggellein to command or charge is frequent, and is often used in Class of military orders. See Xen. Cyr 2:4, 2; Hdt 3:25.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For ye know what commandments” (oidate gar tinas parangelias) “For ye all know what injunctions”; The term translated injunctions is a semi-military term, as a charge with a trust. 1Ti 1:18, regarding a good warfare against wrong. It is also a charge regarding chastity, 1Th 4:3-8; love, 1Th 4:9-10; and against excitement and idleness, 1Th 4:11-12.
2) “We gave you by the Lord Jesus” (edokamen humin dia tou kuriou lesou) “We gave you through the Lord Jesus,” by or through authority, instructions, or mandate of the Lord Jesus, their Savior and Master. Rom 12:2; Rom 15:30; Mat 28:18-20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(2) For ye know.He calls on the Thessalonians memory to support his statement, ye received; at the same time awakening their interest to catch the special point next to come, by laying stress on what commandments.
By the Lord Jesus.Not as if the Lord were the person who took the commandments from St. Paul to the Thessalonians, but the person by means of whose inspiration St. Paul was enabled to give such commandments.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. For ye know Again appealing to their memories as to the how enjoined by the commandments which he gave in his preaching while with them. By Rather, through Jesus; as their moral commandments were first given by him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus’.
This defines what they had received. Direct commandments from the Lord Jesus, as found through the authority of the teaching of Jesus passed on through the Apostles, and through Paul, and the early church, the ‘Testimony of Jesus’ (as later found in the Gospels). The word for ‘commandment’ contains the idea of strict orders similar to military orders (Act 16:23-24). We are under orders. It is not a matter of choice. So Paul stresses that he had not passed on his own ideas, they were the commands of the Lord.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Th 4:2 . A strengthening of , 1Th 4:1 , by appealing to the knowledge of the readers: for it is well known to you , ye will thus be the more willing to . This appeal to their own knowledge is accordingly by no means useless, and still less un-Pauline (Schrader, Baur), as it is elsewhere not rare with Paul; comp. Gal 4:13 ; 1Co 15:1 ff., etc.
] not evangelii praedicatio, in qua singula praecepta semine quasi inclusa latitant (Pelt), against which is the context and the plural form; but commands (comp. Act 5:28 ; Act 16:24 ; 1Ti 1:5 ; 1Ti 1:18 ), and that to a Christian life. The stress is on , to which , 1Th 4:3 , corresponds.
] through the Lord Jesus, by means of Him, i.e. Paul did not command , but Christ Himself was represented by him as the Giver of the . Comp. Bernhardy, Syntax , p. 235 f. Schott blends the ideas in a strange manner: Auxilio sive beneficio Christi, siquidem Paulus, ab ipso domino ad provinciam apostoli obeundam vocatus, inter illos docuerat. So also de Wette: by means of the revelation given in the Lord, so that the general divine truth is communicated through Him. Falsely Pelt, is equivalent to ; and Grotius, accepta is to be supplied.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
Ver. 2. For ye know what, &c. ] It is expected therefore that ye do them; else the more heinous will be your sin, and the more heavy your reckoning,Isa 59:11-12Isa 59:11-12 . What brought such roarings and trouble on them, and that when salvation was looked for? Our iniquities testify to our faces, and we know them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 .] takes up the of the former verse, and appeals to their memory in its confirmation. See similar appeals in Gal 4:13 ; 1Co 15:1 .
. ] commands , see reff. The stress is on , to which answers, 1Th 4:3 .
. . . ] by , i.e. coming from , . So , Demosth. p. 489: , of himself, Xen. Cyr. viii. 1. 43: see Bernhardy, p. 236.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Th 4:2 . Almost a parenthesis, as Bahnsen points out in his study of 1 12 ( Zeitschrift f. wiss. Theol. , 1904, 332 358). The injunctions ( in semimilitary sense, as 1Ti 1:18 ) relate to chastity (1Th 4:3-8 ) and charity, (1Th 4:9-10 ), with a postscript against excitement and idleness (11, 12). . for the cognate use of this term ( cf. 1Th 4:8 ) in the inscriptions of Dionysopolis ( ) cf. Exp. Ti. , x. 159. . . ., the change from the of 1Th 4:1 does not mean that the Thessalonians before their conversion got such injunctions from Paul on the authority of Christ, while afterwards they simply needed to be reminded of the obligations of their union ( ) with the Lord. No strict difference can be drawn between both phrases ( cf. Heitmller’s Im Namen Jesu , 71 f.), though the lays rather more stress on the authority. For Jesus to command the apostles seems to us more natural than to say that the apostles issue commands , but the sense is really the same. The apostles give their orders on the authority of their commission and revelations from the Lord whom they interpret to His followers ( cf. Rom 15:30 ; Rom 12:2 ). But this interpretation must have appealed to the sayings of Jesus which formed part of the ( cf. Weizscker’s Apostolic Age , i. 97, 120, ii. 39). Thus 8 a is an echo of the saying preserved in Luk 10:16 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
know. App-132.
commandments. Greek. parangelia. Compare 1Ti 1:18 (charge).
Lord. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2.] takes up the of the former verse, and appeals to their memory in its confirmation. See similar appeals in Gal 4:13; 1Co 15:1.
.] commands, see reff. The stress is on , to which answers, 1Th 4:3.
. . .] by, i.e. coming from, . So , Demosth. p. 489: , of himself, Xen. Cyr. viii. 1. 43: see Bernhardy, p. 236.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Th 4:2. , commandments) Paul uses this word at this very early time, when writing to the Thessalonians, whose piety took it in the right spirit, as did also the piety of Timothy, to whom he gives his commands with the greatest sternness. The same word occurs, 1Th 4:11; 2Th 3:4; 2Th 3:6; 2Th 3:10; 2Th 3:12. In addressing other churches subsequently, when his authority was established, he uses it very seldom.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Th 4:2
For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus.-He impresses upon them that the commandments he had given were from the Lord Jesus. Although Paul was inspired, he would not take such responsibilities on his shoulders as many uninspired men do every day. Paul would give no direction save what Jesus gave him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Eze 3:17, Mat 28:20, 1Co 9:21, 2Th 3:6, 2Th 3:10
Reciprocal: Exo 18:16 – make Lev 10:11 – General Lev 22:31 – General Deu 4:5 – General Deu 8:1 – General Deu 11:32 – General Deu 13:4 – walk Deu 17:12 – the priest Deu 27:1 – Keep all 1Ki 9:4 – And if thou 2Ch 30:12 – the commandment Ezr 7:6 – the law Job 22:22 – receive Psa 119:1 – walk Psa 143:10 – Teach Eze 33:7 – thou shalt Mat 11:1 – commanding Mat 11:29 – my 1Co 1:10 – by the 1Co 11:2 – keep 1Co 11:23 – I have Eph 4:1 – walk Eph 4:17 – in the Col 3:17 – in the 1Th 2:3 – General 1Th 4:1 – by the 2Th 3:4 – that 1Ti 6:3 – the words 1Pe 2:21 – even 2Pe 2:21 – holy 1Jo 2:3 – if we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Th 4:2. Paul always made it plain that he was not preaching on his own authority. He had learned that nothing would be acceptable to God that did not agree with his Son. He understood that the former system under the law was replaced by that under Christ. (See Php 3:9.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Th 4:2. For ye know. I give you no new code of morals, but beseech you to live up to the instructions I formerly gave you. I refer you to my original teaching, for ye know, etc.
By the Lord Jesus. It was the Lord Jesus who moved the apostle to deliver these commandments. Christ was the agent in the matter.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our apostle subjoins a reason, to enforce his foregoing exhortation; what he now required of them, was nothing but what at their first conversion to Christianity he had commanded them, and that in the name, and by the authority of Jesus Christ, to be performed by them; so that they were not his commands, but Christ’s by him, and, as such, to be esteemed of them.
Learn hence, that the instructions and rules for a holy life, laid down by the apostles before the churches, are to be looked upon as the commandments of Christ, as being dictated by his Spirit, and delivered by his authority, and as such to be received of them, and obeyed by them.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [The commandments were given by Paul through the inspiration of the Spirit sent of Jesus. Throughout this chapter Paul asserts his inspiration.]