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The Lord's coming again into this world assumes therefore a very different
character from that of a vague object of hope to a believer as a period of
glory. In chapter 5 the apostle speaks of it, but in order to distinguish
between the position of Christians and that of the careless and unbelieving
inhabitants of the earth. The Christian, alive and taught of the Lord, ever
expects the Master. There are times and seasons; it is not needful to speak
to him concerning them. But (and he knows it) the day of the Lord will come
and like a thief in the night, but not for him: he is of the day; he has
part in the glory which will appear in order to execute judgment on the
unbelieving world. Believers are the children of light; and this light
which is the judgment of unbelievers, is the expression of the glory of
God-a glory which cannot endure evil, and which, when it shall appear, will
banish it from the earth. The Christian is of the day that will judge and
destroy the wicked and wickedness itself from off the face of the earth.
Christ is the Sun of righteousness, and the faithful will shine as the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
The world will say, "Peace and safety," and in all security will believe in
the continuance of its prosperity and the success of its designs, and the
day will come suddenly upon them. (Compare 2 Peter 3:3.) The Lord Himself
has often declared it. (Matt. 14:36-44; Mark 13:33-36; Luke 12:40, &c.;
17:26, &c.; 21:35, &c.)
It is a very solemn thing to see that the professing church (Rev. 3:3)
which says that it lives and is in the truth, which has not Thyatira's
character of corruption, is yet to be treated as the world-at least, unless
it repents.
We may perhaps wonder to find the Lord saying of a time like this, that
men's hearts will be failing them for fear, and for looking after those
things that are coming on the earth. (Luke 21:26) But we see the two
principles-both security and fear-already existing. Progress, success, the
long continuance of a new development of human nature-this is the language
of those who mock at the Lord's coming; and yet beneath it all, what fears
for the future are at the same time possessing and weighing down the heart!
I use the word "principles," because I do not believe that the moment of
which the Lord speaks is yet come. But the shadow of coming events falls
upon the heart. Blessed are they that belong to another world!
The apostle applies this difference of position- namely, that we belong to
the day, and that it cannot therefore come upon us as a thief-to the
character and walk of the Christian. Being a child of the light he is to
walk as such. He lives in the clay, though all is night and darkness around
him. One does not sleep in the day. They that sleep sleep in the night:
they that are drunken are drunken in the night; these are the works of
darkness. A Christian, the child of the day, must watch and be sober,
clothing himself with all that constitutes the perfection of that mode of
being which belongs to his position-namely, with faith and love and
hope-principles which impart courage and give him confidence for pressing
onwards. He has the breastplate of faith and love; he goes straight forward
therefore against the enemy. He has the hope of this glorious salvation,
which will bring him entire deliverance, as his helmet; so that he can lift
up his head without fear in the midst of danger. We see that the apostle
here brings to mind the three great principles of 1 Corinthians 13 to
characterise the courage and steadfastness of the Christian, as at the
beginning he shewed that they were the mainspring of daily walk.
Faith and love naturally connect us with God, revealed as He is in Jesus as
the principle of communion; so that we walk with confidence in Him: His
presence gives us strength. By faith He is the glorious object before our
eyes. By love He dwells in us, and we realise what He is. Hope fixes our
eyes especially on Christ, who is coming to bring us into the enjoyment of
glory with Himself.
Consequently the apostle speaks thus: "For God hath not appointed us to
wrath " (love is understood by faith, that which God wills-His mind
respecting us) "but to obtain salvation." It is this which we hope for; and
he speaks of salvation as the final deliverance "by our Lord Jesus Christ
:" and he naturally adds, "who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep"
(have died before His coming or be then alive), " we should live together
with Him." Death does not deprive us of this deliverance and glory; for
Jesus died. Death became the means of obtaining them for us; and if we die,
we shall equally live with Him. He died for us, in our stead, in order
that, happen what may, we should live with Him. Everything that hindered it
is put out of our way and has lost its power; and, more than lost its
power, has become a guarantee of our unhindered enjoyment of the full life
of Christ in glory; so that we may comfort ourselves -and more than that,
we may build ourselves up- with these glorious truths, through which God
meets all our wants and all our necessities. This (ver. 10) is the end of
the special revelation with regard to those who sleep before the coming of
the Lord Jesus, beginning with chapter 4:13.
I would here call the reader's attention to the way in which the apostle
speaks of the Lord's coming in the different chapters of this epistle. It
will be noticed that the Spirit does not present the church here as a body.
Life is the subject-that of each Christian therefore individually: a very
important point assuredly.
In chapter 1 the expectation of the Lord is presented in a general way as
characterising the Christian. They are converted to serve the living and
true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. Here it is the object itself
that is presented, the Person of the Lord. God's own Son shall come, and
shall satisfy all the heart's desire. This is neither His kingdom, nor the
judgment, nor even rest; it is the Son of God; and this Son of God is
Jesus, risen from among the dead, and who has delivered us from the wrath
to come; for wrath is coming. Each believer therefore expects for himself
the Son of God-expects Him from heaven.
In chapter 2 it is association with the saints, joy in the saints at the
coming of Christ.
In chapter 3 responsibility is more the subject- responsibility in liberty
and in joy; but still a position before God in connection with the
Christian's walk and life here below. The Lord's appearing is the measure
and test time of holiness. The testimony rendered by God to this life, by
giving it its natural place, takes place when Christ is manifested with all
His saints. It is not here His coming for us, but His coming with us. This
distinction between the two events always exists. For Christians even and
for the church, that which refers to responsibility is always found in
connection with the appearing of the Lord; our joy, with His coming to take
us to Himself.
Thus far then, we have the general expectation of the Lord in Person, His
Son from heaven; love satisfied at His coming as regards others; holiness
in its full value and full development. In chapter 4 it is not the
connection of life with its full development in our being actually with
Christ, but victory over death (which is no barrier to this); and, at the
same time, the strengthening and establishment of hope in our common
departure hence, similarly to that of Jesus, to be for ever with Him.
The exhortations that conclude the epistle are brief; the mighty action of
the life of God in these dear disciples made them comparatively little
needed. Exhortation is always good. There was nothing among them to blame.
Happy condition! They were perhaps not sufficiently instructed for a large
development of doctrine (the apostle hoped to see them for that purpose);
but there was enough of life, a personal relationship with God sufficiently
true and real, to build them up on that ground. To him that hath shall more
be given. The apostle could rejoice with them and confirm their hope and
add to it some details as a revelation from God. The assembly in all ages
is profited by it.
In the Epistle to the Philippians we see life in the Spirit rising above
all circumstances, as the fruit of long experience of the goodness and
faithfulness of God; and thus shewing its remarkable power when the help of
the saints had failed, and the apostle was in
distress, his life in danger, after four years' imprisonment, by a
merciless tyrant. It is then that he decides his case by the interests of
the assembly. It is then that he can proclaim, that we ought always to
rejoice in the Lord, and that Christ is all things to him, to live is
Christ, death a gain to him. It is then that he can do all things through
Him who strengthens him. This he has learnt. In Thessalonians we have the
freshness of the fountain near to its source; the energy of the first
spring of life in the believer's soul, presenting all the beauty and purity
and vigour of its first verdure under the influence of the sun that had
risen upon them and made the sap of life rise, the first manifestations of
which had not been deteriorated by contact with the world or by an
enfeebled view of invisible things.
The apostle desired that the disciples should acknowledge those who
laboured among them and guided them in grace and admonished them, and
esteem them greatly for their work's sake. The operation of God always
attracts a soul that is moved by the Holy Ghost, and commands its attention
and its respect: on this foundation the apostle builds his exhortation. It
is not office which is in question here (if such existed), but the work
which attracted and attached the heart. They ought to be known:
spirituality acknowledged this operation of God. Love, devotedness, the
answer to the need of souls, patience in dealing with them on the part of
God -all this commended itself to the believer's heart: and it blessed God
for the care He bestowed upon His children. God acted in the labourer and
in the hearts of the faithful. Blessed be God, it is an ever existing
principle, and one that never grows weaker !
The same Spirit produced peace among themselves. This grace was of great
value. If love appreciated the work of God in the labourer, it would esteem
the bother as in the presence of God: self-will would not act.
Now this renunciation of self-will, and this practical sense of the
operation and presence of God, gives power to warn the unruly, to comfort
the fearful, to help the weak, and to be patient towards all. The apostle
exhorts them to it. Communion with God is the power and His word the guide
in so doing. In no case were they to render evil for evil, but to follow
that which was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct
depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us
superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
Such were the apostle's exhortations to guide their walk with others. As
regards their personal state, joy, prayer, thanksgiving in all things,
these should be their characteristics. With respect to the public actings
of the Spirit in their midst, the apostle's exhortations to these simple
and happy Christians were equally brief. They were not to hinder the action
of the Spirit in their midst (for this is the meaning of quenching the
Spirit); nor to despise that which He might say to them, even by the mouth
of the most simple, if He were pleased to use it. Being spiritual they
could judge all things. They were therefore not to receive everything that
presented itself, even in the name of the Spirit, but to prove all things.
They were to hold fast that which was good; those who by faith have
received the truth of the word do not waver. One is not ever learning the
truth of that which one has learnt from God. As to evil, they were to
abstain from it in all its forms. Such were the apostle's brief
exhortations to these Christians who indeed rejoiced his heart. And in
truth it is a fine picture of christian walk, which we find here so
livingly portrayed in the apostle's communications.
He concludes his epistle by commending them to the God of peace, that they
might be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus.
After an epistle like this his heart turned readily to the God of peace;
for we enjoy peace in the presence of God-not only peace of conscience but
peace of heart.
In the previous part we found the activity of love in the heart; that is to
say, God present and acting in us, who are viewed as partaking, at the same
time, of the divine nature, which is the spring of that holiness which will
be manifested in all its perfection before God at the coming of Jesus with
all His saints. Here it is the God of peace, to whom the apostle looks for
the accomplishment of this work. There it was the activity of a divine
principle in us-a principle connected with the presence of God and our
communion with Him. Here it is the perfect rest of heart in which holiness
develops itself. The absence of peace in the heart arises from the activity
of the passions and the will, increased by the sense of powerlessness to
satisfy or even to gratify them.
But in God all is peace. He can be active in love; He can glorify Himself
by creating what He will; He can act in judgment to cast out the evil that
is before His eyes. But He rests ever in Himself, and both in good and in
evil He knows the end from the beginning and is undisturbed. When He fills
the heart, He imparts this rest to us: we cannot rest in ourselves; we
cannot find rest of heart in the actings of our passions, either without an
object or upon an object, nor in the rending and destructive energy of our
own will. We find our rest in God-not the rest that implies weariness, but
rest of heart in the possession of all that we desire, and of that which
even forms our desires and fully satisfies them, in the possession of an
object in which conscience has nothing to reproach us and has but to be
silent, in the certainty that it is the Supreme Good which the heart is
enjoying, the supreme and only authority to whose will it responds-and that
will is love towards us. God bestows rest, peace. He is never called the
God of joy. He gives us joy truly, and we ought to rejoice; but joy implies
something surprising, unexpected, exceptional, at least in contrast with,
and in consequence of, evil. The peace that we possess, that which
satisfies us, has no element of this kind, nothing which is in contrast,
nothing which disturbs. It is more deep, more perfect, than joy. It is more
the satisfaction of a nature in that which perfectly answers to it, and in
which it develops itself, without any contrast being necessary to enhance
the satisfaction of a heart that has not all which it desires, or of which
it is capable.
God, as we have said, rests thus in Himself-is this rest for Himself. He
gives us, and is for us, this entire peace. The conscience being perfect
through the work of Christ who has made peace and reconciled us to God, the
new nature-and consequently the heart-finds its perfect satisfaction in
God, and the will is silent; moreover, it has nothing further to desire.
It is not only that God meets the desires that we have: He is the source of
new desires to the new man by the revelation of Himself in love. [see note #10]
He is both the source of the nature and its infinite object; and that, in
love. It is His part to be so. It is more than creation; it is
reconciliation, which is more than creation, because there is in it more
development of love, that is to say, of God: and it is thus that we know
God. It is that which He is essentially in Christ.
In the angels He glorifies Himself in creation: they excel us in strength.
In Christians He glorifies Himself in reconciliation, to make them the
first fruits of His new creation, when He shall have reconciled all things
in heaven and on earth by Christ. Therefore it is written "Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children sons of God" They have
His nature and His character.
It is in these relationships with God-or rather it is God in these
relationships with us in peace, in His communion, who develops
sanctification, our inward conformity of affection and intelligence (and
consequently of outward conduct) with Him and His will. "The God of peace
himself sanctify you wholly." May there be nothing in us that does not
yield to this benignant influence of peace which we enjoy in communion with
God! May no power or force in us own anything but Himself! In all things
may He be our all, so that He only may rule in our hearts!
He has brought us perfectly into this place of blessedness in Christ and by
His work. There is nothing between us and God but the exercise of His love,
the enjoyment of our happiness, and the worship of our hearts. We are the
proof before Him, the testimony, the fruit, of the accomplishment of all
that He holds most precious, of that which has perfectly glorified Him, of
that in which He delights, and of the glory of the One who has accomplished
it, namely, of Christ, and of His work. We are the fruit of the redemption
that Christ has accomplished, and the objects of the satisfaction which God
must feel in the exercise of His love.
God in grace is the God of peace for us; for here divine righteousness
finds its satisfaction, and love its perfect exercise.
The apostle now prays that, in this character, God may work in us to make
everything respond to Himself thus revealed. Here only is this development
of humanity given-"body, soul, and spirit." The object is assuredly not
metaphysical, but to express man in all the parts of his being; the vessel
by which he expresses that which he is, the natural affections of his soul,
the elevated workings of his mind, through which he is above the animals
and in intelligent relationship with God. May God be found in each, as the
mover, spring, and guide!
In general the words "soul and spirit" are used without making any
distinction between them, for the soul of man was formed very differently
from that of animals in that God breathed into his nostrils the breath
(spirit) of life, and it was thus that man became a living soul. Therefore
it suffices to say soul as to man, and the other is supposed. Or, in saying
spirit, in this sense the elevated character of his soul is expressed. The
animal has also its natural affections, has a living soul, attaches itself,
knows the persons who do it good, devotes itself to its master, loves him,
will even give its life for him; but it has not that which can be in
relationship with God (alas ! which can set itself at enmity against Him),
which can occupy itself with things outside its own nature as the master of
others.
The Spirit then wills that man, reconciled with God, should be consecrated,
in every part of his being to the God who has brought him into relationship
with Himself by the revelation of His love, and by the work of His grace,
and that nothing in the man should admit an object beneath the divine
nature of which he is partaker; so that he should thus be preserved
blameless unto the coming of Christ.
Let us observe here, that it is in no wise beneath the new nature in us to
perform our duties faithfully in all the various relationships in which God
has placed us; but quite the contrary. That which is required is to bring
God into them, His authority, and the intelligence which that imparts.
Therefore it is said to husbands to live with their wives according to
knowledge," or intelligence; that is to say, not only with human and
natural affections (which, as things are, do not by themselves even
maintain their place), but as before God and conscious of His will. It may
be that God may call us, in connection with the extraordinary work of His
grace, to consecrate ourselves entirely to it; but otherwise the will of
God is accomplished in the relationships in which He has placed us, and divi
ne intelligence and obedience to God are developed in them. Finally God has
called us to this life of holiness with Himself; He is faithful, and He
will accomplish it. May He enable us to cleave to Him, that we may realise
it!
Observe again here, how the coming of Christ is introduced, and the
expectation of this coming, as an integral part of christian life.
"Blameless," it says, "at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The life
which had developed itself in obedience and holiness meets the Lord at His
coming. Death is not in question. The life which we have found is to be
such when He appears. The man, in every part of his being, moved by this
life, is found there blameless when Jesus comes. Death was overcome (not
yet destroyed): a new life is ours. This life, and the man living of this
life, are found, with their Head and Source, in the glory. Then will the
weakness disappear which is connected with his present condition. That
which is mortal shall be swallowed up of life: that is all. We are
Christ's: He is our life. We wait for Him, that we may be with Him, and
that He may perfect all things in the glory.
Let us also here examine a little into that which this passage teaches us
with regard to sanctification. It is connected indeed with a nature, but it
is linked with an object; and it depends for its realisation on the
operation of another, namely, of God Himself; and it is founded on a
perfect work of reconciliation with God already accomplished. Inasmuch as
it is founded on an accomplished reconciliation, into which we enter by the
reception of a new nature, the scriptures consider Christians as already
perfectly sanctified in Christ. It is practically carried out by the
operation of the Holy Ghost, who, in imparting this nature, separates us-as
thus born again-entirely from the world. It is important to maintain this
truth, and to stand very clearly and distinctly on this ground: otherwise
practical sanctification soon becomes detached from a new nature received,
and is but the amelioration of the natural man and then it is quite legal,
a return-after reconciliation-into doubt and uncertainty, because, though
justified, the man is not accounted meet for heaven-this depends on
progress so that justification does not give peace with God. Scripture
says, "Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet for the
inheritance of the saints in light." Progress there is, but it is not in
scripture connected with meetness. The thief was meet for Paradise and went
there. Such views are an enfeebling, not to say destructive, of the work of
redemption, that is, of its appreciation in our hearts by faith.
We are then sanctified (it is thus the scripture most frequently speaks) by
God the Father, by the blood and the offering of Christ, and by the
Spirit-that is to say, we are set apart for God personally and for ever. In
this point of view justification is presented in the word as consequent
upon sanctification, a thing into which we enter through it. Taken up as
sinners in the world, we are set apart by the Holy Ghost to enjoy all the
efficacy of the work of Christ according to the counsels of the Father: set
apart by the communication of a new life, no doubt, but placed by this
setting apart in the enjoyment of all that Christ has gained for us. I say
again, It is very important to hold fast this truth both for the glory of
God and for our own peace: but the Spirit of God in this epistle does not
speak of it in this point of view, but of the practical realisation of the
development of this life of separation from the world and from evil. He
speaks of this divine development in the inner man, which makes
sanctification a real and intelligent condition of soul, a state of
practical communion with God, according to that nature and to the
revelation of God with which it is connected.
In this respect we find indeed a principle of life which works in us-that
which is called a subjective state: but it is impossible to separate this
operation in us from an object (man would be God if it were so), nor
consequently from a continual work of God in us that holds us in communion
with that object, which is God Himself. Accordingly it is through the truth
by the word, whether at first in the communication of life, or in detail
all along our path. "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth."
Man, we know, has degraded himself. He has enslaved himself to the lusts of
the animal part of his being. But how? By departing from God. God does not
sanctify man apart from the knowledge of Himself, leaving man still at a
distance from Him; but, while giving him a new nature which is capable of
it, by giving to this nature (which cannot even exist without it) an
object-Himself, He does not make man independent, as he wished to be: the
new man is the dependent man; it is his perfection-Jesus Christ exemplified
this in His life. The new man is a man dependent in his affections, who
desires to be so, who delights in, and cannot be happy without being so,
and whose dependence is on love, while still obedient as a dependent being
ought to be.
Thus they who are sanctified possess a nature that is holy in its desires
and its tastes. It is the divine nature in them, the life of Christ. But
they do not cease to be men. They have God revealed in Christ for their
object. Sanctification is developed in communion with God, and in
affections which go back to Christ, and which wait for Him. But the new
nature cannot reveal an object to itself; and still less, could it have its
object by setting God aside at its will. It is dependent on God for the
revelation of Himself. His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost whom He has given us; and the same Spirit takes of the things of
Christ and communicates them to us. Thus we grow in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened mightily by His Spirit in the inner man, that we may
"comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height; and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge," and be
filled unto the fullness of God. Thus, " we all with open face beholding
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
as by the Spirit of the Lord." "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that
they also may be sanctified through the truth."
We see by these passages, which might be multiplied, that we are dependent
on an object, and that we are dependent on the strength of another. Love
acts in order to work in us according to this need.
Our setting apart for God, which is complete (for it is by means of a
nature that is purely of Himself, and in absolute responsibility to Him,
for we are no longer our own, but are bought with a price, and sanctified
by the blood of Christ according to the will of God who will have us for
His own), places us in a relationship, the development of which (by an
increasing knowledge of God, who is the object of our new nature) is
practical sanctification, wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost, the
witness in us of the love of God. He attaches the heart to God, ever
revealing Him more and more, and at the same time unfolding the glory of
Christ and all the divine qualities that were displayed in Him in human
nature, thus forming ours as born of God.
Therefore it is, as we have seen in this epistle, that love, working in us,
is the means of sanctification. (Chap. 3:12,13) It is the activity of the
new nature, of the divine nature in us; and that connected with the
presence of God; for he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. And in this chapter 5
the saints are commended to God Himself, that He may work it in
them; while we are always set in view of the glorious objects of our faith
in order to accomplish it.
We may here more particularly call the reader's attention to these objects.
They are, God Himself, and the coming of Christ: on the one hand, communion
with God; on the other, waiting for Christ. It is most evident that
communion with God is the practical position of the highest sanctification.
He who knows that we shall see Jesus as He now is, and be like Him,
purifies himself even as He is pure. By our communion with the God of peace
we are wholly sanctified. If God is practically our all, we are altogether
holy. (We are not speaking of any change in the flesh, which can neither be
subjected to God nor please Him.) The thought of Christ and His coming
preserves us practically, and in detail, and intelligently, blameless. It
is God Himself who thus preserves us, and who works in us to occupy our
hearts and cause us continually to grow.
But this point deserves yet a few more words. The freshness of christian
life in the Thessalonians made it, as it were, more objective; so that
these objects are prominent, and very distinctly recognised by the heart.
We have already said that they are God the Father, and the Lord Jesus. With
reference to the communion of love with the saints as his crown and glory,
he speaks only of the Lord Jesus. This has a special character of reward,
although a reward in which love reigns. Jesus Himself had the joy that was
set before Him as sustainment in His sufferings, a joy which thus was
personal to Himself. The apostle also, as regarded his work and labour,
waited with Christ for its fruit. Besides this case of the apostle (chap.
2), we find God Himself and Jesus as the object before us, and the joy of
communion with God-and this, in the relationship of Father-and with Christ,
whose glory and position we share through grace.
Thus it is only in the two epistles to the Thessalonians that we find the
expression "to the church which is in God the Father." [see note #11]
The sphere of their communion is thus shewn, founded on the relationship in
which they found themselves with God Himself in the character of Father. (1
Thess. 1:3, 9, 10; 3:13; 4:15,16; and here v. 23.) It is important to
remark, that the more vigorous and living Christianity is, the more
objective it is. It is but saying that God and the Lord Jesus have a
greater place in our thoughts; and that we rest more really upon them. This
Epistle to the Thessalonians is the part of scripture which instructs on
this point; and it is a means of judging many a fallacy in the heart, and
of giving a great simplicity to our Christianity.
The apostle closes his epistle by asking for the prayers of the brethren,
saluting them with the confidence of affection, and conjuring them to have
his epistle read to all the holy brethren. His heart forgot none of them.
He would be in relationship with all according to this spiritual affection
and personal bond. Apostle towards all of them, he would have them
recognize those who laboured among them, but he maintained withal his own
relationship. His was a heart which embraced all the revealed counsels of
God on the one hand, and did not lose sight of the least of His saints on
the other.
It remains to take notice of one interesting circumstance as to the manner
in which the apostle instructs them. He takes, in the first chapter, the
truths which were precious to their heart, but were still somewhat vaguely
seized by their intelligence, and as to which they were indeed fallen into
mistakes, and employs them (in the clearness in which he possessed them
himself) in his practical instructions, and applies them to known and
experienced relationships, that their souls might be well established on
positive truth, and clear as to its use, before he touched on their error
and the mistakes they had made. They waited for His Son from heaven. This
they already possessed clearly in their hearts; but they would be in the
presence of God when Jesus comes with all His saints. This was clearing up
a very important point without directly touching the error. Their heart got
straight as to the truth in its practical application to what the heart
possessed. They understood what it was to be before God the Father. It was
much more intimate and real than a manifestation of terrestrial and finite
glory. Further they would be before God when Jesus came with all His
saints: a simple truth which demonstrated itself to the heart by the simple
fact that Jesus could not have some only of His assembly. The heart seized
this truth without an effort; yet in doing so it was established, as was
the understanding also, in what made the whole truth clear, and that in
way of the relationship of the Thessalonians to Christ and those that were
His. The joy even of the apostle in meeting them all (those who had died
consequently, as well as the living) at the coming of Jesus, placed the
soul on an entirely different ground from that of being found here, and
blessed by the arrival of Jesus when they were here below.
Thus enlightened, confirmed, established, in the real bearing of the truth
which they possessed already by a development of it which connected itself
with their best affections and with their most intimate spiritual
knowledge, founded on their communion with God they were ready with certain
fixed basis of truth to enter on and set aside without difficulty an error
which was not in accord with what they now knew how to appreciate at its
just value, as forming park of their moral possessions. Special revelation
made all clear as to details. This manner of proceeding is very
Instructive.
