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Now this forced removal of the apostle as the chief labourer, without
weakening the bond between him and the disciples, formed other links which
would consolidate and strengthen the assembly, knitting it together by that
which every joint supplied. This is connected (all things are but the
instruments of the power and wisdom of God) with the circumstances of which
the Acts of the Apostles give us the principal details.
After the persecutions excited by the Jews the apostle made a short stay at
Thessalonica, and was then obliged to leave that city and go to Berea. Even
there the Jews of Thessalonica followed him, and influenced those of Berea,
so that the Berean brethren had to provide for his safety. The person to
whom they committed him brought him to Athens; Silas and Timotheus remained
at Berea for the moment, but soon at his command rejoined him at Athens.
Meantime a violent persecution raged against the Christians at
Thessalonica, a city of importance, in which, as it appears, the Jews had
already exercised a considerable measure of influence over the heathen
population-an influence that was undermined by the progress of
Christianity, which the Jews in their blindness rejected.
The apostle, learning this state of things from Silas and Timotheus, was
concerned at the danger his new converts ran in being shaken in faith by
the difficulties that beset their path while they were still young in the
faith. His affection would not allow him to rest without putting himself in
communication with them, and already from Athens he had sent Timotheus to in
quire into their condition, and to establish their hearts by reminding them
that while yet with them he had told them these things would happen. During
his absence Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, where Timotheus again
comforted him by the good tidings he brought from Thessalonica, and the
apostle resumed his labors at Corinth with renewed energy and courage. (See
Acts 18:5)
On the arrival of Timotheus Paul wrote this letter. Timotheus had informed
him of the good state of the Thessalonian Christians-that they held fast
the faith, that they greatly desired to see the apostle, and that they
walked together in love. In the midst of his sorrows, and of the opposition
of men-in a word, of the afflictions of the gospel-the apostle's spirit is
refreshed by these tidings. He is himself strengthened, for if the faith of
the labourer is the means of blessing to souls, and in general the measure
of the outward character of the work, the faith of the Christians who are
the fruit of his labors, and who correspond to it is in return a source of
strength and encouragement to the labourer; even as their prayers are a
great means of blessing to him.
Love finds in their spiritual welfare both its food and its joy; faith,
that which sustains and strengthens it. The word of God is felt in it. "I
live," says the apostle, "if ye stand fast in the Lord. "What thanks," he
adds, "can we render to God for you, for all the joy wherewith we rejoice
for your sakes before God?" Beautiful and affecting picture of the effect
of the operation of the Spirit of God, delivering souls from the corruption
of the world, and producing the purest affections, the greatest
self-renunciation for the sake of others, the greatest joy in their
happiness-divine joy, realised before God Himself, and the value of which
was appreciated in His presence by the spiritual heart that abode in it,
the heart which, on the part of that God of love, had been the means of its
existence.
What a bond is the bond of the Spirit! How selfishness is forgotten, and
disappears in the joy of such affections! The apostle, animated by this
affection, which increased instead of growing weary by its exercise, and by
the satisfaction it received in the happiness of others, desires so much
the more, from the Thessalonians being thus sustained, to see them again;
not now for the purpose of strengthening them, but to build upon that which
was already so established, and to complete their spiritual instruction by
imparting that which was yet lacking to their faith. But he is, and he
ought to be, a labourer and not a master (God makes us feel this), and he
depends entirely on God for his work, and for the edification of others. In
fact years passed away before he saw the Thessalonians again. He remained a
long time at Corinth, where the Lord had much people; he re-visited
Jerusalem, then all Asia Minor where he had laboured earlier; thence he
went to Ephesus, where he abode nearly three years; and after that he saw
the Thessalonians again, when he left that city to go to Corinth, taking
his journey by the way of Macedonia, in order not to visit Corinth before
the restoration of the Christians there to order.
"God himself "-it is thus that the apostle's desire and his submission to
the will of God expresses itself -"God himself direct our way unto you."
His desire is not vague. He refers to God as to his Father, the source of
all these holy affections, Him who holds the place of Father to us, and
orders all things with a view to the good of His children, according to
that perfect wisdom which embraces all things and all His children at once.
"Our God and Father himself," the apostle says. But there is another
consideration-not, assuredly, in opposition to this, for God is one, but
which has another and less individual character: and he adds-"And our Lord
Jesus Christ." Christ is Son over God's house, and besides joy and blessing
and individual affection, there was the progress, the welfare, and the
development of the whole assembly to be considered. These two parts of
Christianity act assuredly upon each other.
Where the operation of the Spirit is full and unhindered, the well-being of
the assembly and the individual affections are in harmony. If anything is
lacking in the one, God uses the failure itself to act powerfully on the
other. If the assembly as a whole is weak, individual faith is exercised in
a special manner, and more immediately upon God Himself. There are no
Elijahs and Elishas in the reign of Solomon. On the other hand the watchful
care of the assembly by those divinely engaged in it is the true energy of
its spiritual organization, strengthens the life, and re-awakens the
spiritual affections of its slumbering members. But the two things are
different. Therefore the apostle adds to "our God and Father," "and our
Lord Jesus Christ," who, as we have said according to Hebrews 3, is a Son
over His house. It is a blessing that our path depends on the love of a
Father, who is God Himself, acting-according to the tender affections
expressed by that name; and, as to the well-being of the assembly, that it
depends on the government of a Lord like Jesus, who loves it with a perfect
love: and who, although He took such a place, is the God who created all
things, the Man who has all power in heaven and on earth, to whom
Christians are the objects of incessant and faithful care-care which He
expends in order to bring the assembly finally unto Himself in glory
according to the counsels of God. [see note #4]
Such then was the apostle's first wish, and such were they with regard to
whom he formed it, Meanwhile he must leave his beloved Thessalonians to the
immediate care of the Lord on whom he depended (compare Acts 20:32) To that
his heart turns May God "direct my way to come to you. And the Lord make
you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all." And
his heart could present its affection for them, as the pattern of that
which they ought to feel for others. This power of love maintains the heart
in the presence of God and makes it find its joy in the light of His
presence and earnestly desire that all saints may be in His presence, their
hearts fitted for it and there. For God is love, and the exercise of love
in the Christian's heart (fruit of the presence and the operation of the
Spirit) is in fact the effect of the presence of God; and at the same time
it makes us feel His presence, so that it keeps us before Him and maintains
sensible communion in the heart. Love may suffer and thereby prove its
strength, but we are speaking of the spontaneous exercise of love towards
the objects which God presents to it.
Now, being thus the development of the divine nature in us, and the
sustainment of our hearts in communion with God Himself, love is the bond
of perfectness, the true means of holiness, when it is real. The heart is
kept, far away from the flesh and its thoughts, in the pure light of the
presence of God which the soul thus enjoys. For this reason the apostle
prays, while waiting to give them more light, that the Lord would increase
love in them in order to establish their hearts unblamable in holiness
before God even our Father in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ with
all His saints. Here we find again the two great principles of which I
spoke at the end of chapter 1: God in the perfection of His nature; and the
Lord Jesus in the intimacy of His connection with us-God however as Father,
and Jesus as Lord. We are before God, and Jesus comes with His saints. He
has brought them to perfection: they are with Him and thus before God known
in the relationship of Father.
Observe also that everything refers to this hope: it was an actual and
present expectation. If they were converted it was to serve God and to wait
for His Son from heaven. Everything related to that wondrous moment when He
should come. That which holiness was would be demonstrated when they should
be before God, and the saints would be with their Head; moreover manifested
with Him in glory, even as then they should also fully enjoy the fruit of
their labour, and the reward of love in the joy of all those whom they had
loved.[see note #5]
The scene which would be the consummation of the work is presented here in
all its moral bearing. We are before God, in His presence, where holiness
is demonstrated in its true character; we are there for perfect communion
with God in the light, where the connection of holiness with His nature and
with the manifestation of Himself is apparent; even as this manifestation
is in connection with the development of a nature in us, which by grace
sets us in relationship with Him.
"Unblamable," he says, "in holiness," and in holiness "before God." He is
light. What immense joy, what power, through grace, in this thought, for
the time present, to keep ourselves manifested before Him! But only love,
known in Him, can do this.
But also we add "Our Father." It is a known and real relationship, which
has its own peculiar character, a relationship of love. It is not a thing
to be acquired, and holiness is not the means of acquiring it. Holiness is
the character of our relationship with God, inasmuch as we have received
His nature as His children, and it is the revelation of the perfection of
that nature in Him in love. Love itself has given us that nature, and has
placed us in that relationship; practical holiness is its exercise in
communion with God, having fellowship with Him in His presence according to
the love which we thus know, that is, God Himself as He has revealed
Himself towards us.
But the heart is not alone: there is companionship in this joy and in this
perfection; and above all it is with Jesus Himself. He will come, He will
be present, and not only He who is the Head, but all the saints with Him
will be there also. It will be the accomplishment of the ways of God
respecting those whom He had given to Jesus. We shall see Him in His glory,
the glory which He has taken in connection with His coming for us. We shall
see all the saints in whom He will be admired, and see them in the
perfection which our hearts desire for them now.
Observe also that love makes us rise above the difficulties, the
persecutions, the fears, which the enemy seeks to produce. Occupied with
God, happy in Him, this weight of affliction is not felt. The strength of
God is in the heart; the walk is sensibly connected with the eternal
happiness possessed with Him, and the affliction is felt to be but light
and for a moment. Nor this only; we suffer for Christ's sake: it is joy
with Him, it is intimacy of communion, if we know how to appreciate it, and
all is invested with the glory and salvation that are found at the end-"at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
In reading this passage one cannot but observe the immediate and living way
in which the Lord's coming is linked with daily practical life, so that the
perfect light of that day is thrown upon the hourly path of the present
time. By the exercise of love they were to be established in holiness
before God at the coming of Christ. From one day to another, that day was
looked for as the consummation and the only term they contemplated to the
ordinary life of each day here below. How this brought the soul into the
presence of God! Moreover, as I havealready in part observed, they lived
in a known relationship with God which gave room for this confidence. He
was their Father; He is ours. The relationship of the saints to Jesus was
equally known. The saints were "his saints." They were all to come with
Him. They were associated with His glory. There is nothing equivocal in the
expression. Jesus, the Lord, coming with all His saints, allows us to think
of no other event than His return in glory. Then also will He be glorified
in His saints, who will already have rejoined Him to be for ever with Him.
It will be the day of their manifestation as of His.
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.
(chap 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 Acts 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, [see note #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 one's self and in one's 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 man's
debt, that in this respect also the Lord might be glorified.
Such were the apostle's 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 [see note #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 Christ's 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 2 Cor. 5 and 1 Cor. 15) 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 Lord's
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. [see note #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 God's 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. [see note #9]
Remark here, that verses 15-18 are a parenthesis, and that chapter 5:1
follows on chapter 4:14; chapter 5 shewing what He will do when He brings
the saints with Him according to chapter 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
Christian's 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 Lord's 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.
