^H OF pmos^ ^ SEP 25 1937 ^ CI)e Cam^britrge MUt for ^t|)ools antr Colleges. General Editor :— J. J. S. PEROWNE, D.D. Bishop of Worcester. THE EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS, IV/TH INTRODUCTION. NOTES AND MAP BY THE REV. GEORGE G. FINDLAY, B.A. TROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LANGUAGES IN THE WESLEYAN COLLEGE, HEADINGLEY. EDITED FOR THE SYNDICS OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1891 \_All Rights reserved^ Cambrtligc : PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. The General Editor of TJie Cambridge Bible for Schools thinks it right to say that he does not hold himself responsible either for the interpretation of particular passages which the Editors of the several Books have adopted, or for any opinion on points of doctrine that they may have expressed. In the New Testament more especially questions arise of the deepest theological import, on which the ablest and most conscientious interpreters have differed and always will differ. His aim has been in all such cases to leave each Contributor to the unfettered exercise of his own judgment, only taking care that PREFACE. mere controversy should as far as possible be avoided. He has contented himself chiefly with a careful revision of the notes, with pointing out omissions, with suggesting occasionally a reconsideration of some question, or a fuller treatment of difficult passages, and the like. Beyond this he has not attempted to interfere, feeling it better that each Commentary should have its own individual character, and being convinced that freshness and variety of treatment are more than a compensation for any lack of uniformity in the Series. PREFATORY NOTE. The care of this volume of the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges was intrusted in the first instance to the Rev. W. F. Moulton, D.D., Headmaster of the Leys School, Cambridge, who was compelled by the pressure of other duties to relinquish the work. This he did (as he permits me to say) with very great reluctance and regret. It is a loss to all who may have occasion to use this book, that it is prepared by other hands than those of the original Editor. I am happy to state, however, that Dr Moulton has not only favoured me with most valuable counsels and sugges- tions in the preparation of the Commentary, but has, under conditions of peculiar difficulty, found time to revise the proof-sheets; and the following pages, however defective in other respects, will bear some traces of his extreme accuracy, his admirable judgement and finished scholarship. GEO. G. FINDLAY. Headingley, Ja77uajy, 1891. CONTENTS. PAGES I. Introduction. Chapter I. The City of Thessalonica 9 — \i Chapter II. How the Gospel came to Thessalonica 13 — 16 Chapter III. The Gospel of Paul at Thessalonica ... 16—22 Chapter IV. The Occasion of the Two Epistles ... 22—27 Chapter V. The Genuineness of the Two Epistles 27—31 Chapter VI. The Style and Character of the Two Epistles 32—37 Chapter VII. Analysis and Digest of the Epistles ... 37—43 II. Text and Notes 45 — 169 III. Appendix. On the Man of Lawlessness 170 — 180 IV. Index 181— 183 Map facing Title. * ^* The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordi- nary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his In- troduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge University Press. '•The Apostolic Letters, which made glad The young and foe-girt Churches of the Lord." Aubrey De Vere. ART THOU THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE BLESSED?— AND JESUS SAID, I AM: AND VE SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN, INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. The City of Thessalonica. Most of the ancient cities in which St Paul laboured have in the course of ages either perished or sunk into insignificance. Rome still remains, "the eternal city," holding a unique place amongst the world's great capitals. And along with Rome, though in a far inferior position, Thessalonica has retained its identity and its importance throughout the immense changes of the last two thousand years. The town first appears in Greek history under the name of Therma^ — so called from the warm mineral springs in its vicinity. Its later designation was given to it by Cassander, who on seizing the vacant throne of Alexander the Great in Macedonia married his sister Thessalonica. Her name was, no doubt, a memorial of some victory gained by her father Philip of Macedon over his neighbours in Thessaly. Founding a new city upon this site in 315 B.C., the usurper called it after his highborn wife. Cassander's foundation rapidly grew into a place of commercial and political consequence. After the Roman conquest of Macedonia (168 B.C.), Thessa- lonica was made the head of one of the four districts into which the kingdom was divided, and on their subsequent reunion became the capital of the whole province. It was declared a "free city," with important rights of self-government, after the civil war which ended with the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (42 B.C.), having fortunately sided with the lo INTRODUCTION. victors. Hence the Thessalonian magistrates are correctly designated " politarchs " in Acts xvii. 6. At the same time, it was the seat of the Roman proconsular administration of Mace- donia, and an important military station. The geographer Strabo (about 24 B.C.) describes Thessa- lonica as the most populous town of Macedonia; a contem- porary author speaks of it as "the mother of all Macedonia." It is referred to in similar terms by Lucian in the second cen- tury, and by Theodoret in the fifth. At the beginning of the tenth century it is computed to have held a population of above 200,000. To-day, under the Turkish rule, Saloniki (or Salo- nica) numbers perhaps 100,000 souls, and is rapidly increasing. In size it is the third, and in importance quite the second, city of Turkey in Europe. The Jews still flourish here, even more than in the Apostle's time ; they form a third or more of the population. The remainder are chiefly Greeks, mixed with Turks and Bulgars. The city is now, as it was in the first century, the emporium of Macedonia and one of the chief ports of the ^gean. Saloniki is moreover the terminus of the great trunk line of railway recently completed, running south through the heart of the Balkan peninsula, which will give it largely the command of the trade of Central Europe with the Levant. It is destined still to play, in all probability, an im- portant part in the political and religious history of South- Eastern Europe. The city owes its importance to its geographical position. It stands in a remarkably fine and picturesque situation, on a hill sloping down to the sea, and guarded by high mountain ridges on both sides. Below the city there stretched far to the south-west the broad and well-sheltered Thennaic Gtilf (now Gulf of Saloniki), with the snowy heights of Mount Olympus, the fabled home of the Greek gods, bounding the horizon. This bay forms the north-western corner of the ^gean Sea, occupying the angle which the Greek peninsula makes with the mainland. It lies moreover near the mouth of the chief passes leading down from the Macedonian uplands, with the wide Danubian plains spread beyond them in the north. And INTRODUCTION. in Roman times the city held a special importance from its situation midway between the Adriatic and Hellespont along the Via Eg?iatia, the great military road which formed the main artery linking Rome to her eastern provinces : posita in gremio imperii nosit'i, says Cicero. See the 7nap facing the title-page. Cicero spent some months in Thessalonica during his exile from Rome in 58 B.C., and again in Pompey's winter camp, pitched here before the fatal battle of Pharsalus (48 B.C.) ; here he also halted on his way to and from Cilicia, his province in the East (51 — 50 B.C.); and from Thessalonica he wrote a number of characteristic letters, which it would be interesting to compare with those of the Apostle Paul addressed to the same place. St Paul visited Macedonia a second time, on his way from Ephesus to Greece during the third missionary journey (Acts XX. I, 2), spending doubtless considerable time at Thessalonica; and we find two Thessalonians, Arista7'chus and Secundus (Acts XX. 4), attending him on his subsequent voyage to Jerusa- lem. Aristarchus remained with the Apostle a long while, and is honourably mentioned in Col. iv. 10, as "my fellow captive," during his imprisonment at Rome. It was from Macedonia (the subscription states, conjecturally, "from Philippi") that St Paul addressed, in 58 (or 57) A.D., his second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 5, viii. i). Writing to the Philip- plans (c. 63 A.D.) from his Roman prison, the Apostle "trusts in the Lord" that he will "come" to see them "shortly" (Phil, ii. 24). And we find him some time after his release fulfilling this intention: "on my way to Macedonia" (i Tim. i. 3). The last reference found in the N. T. to Thessalonica is in 2 Tim. iv. 10, and is an unhappy one : " Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world; and is gone to Thessalonica." If Demas wished to make a fortune, Thessalonian trade would have more attraction for him than the company of a doomed and penniless prisoner in Rome. Perhaps he was a Thessalonian. Singularly enough, Thessalonica claims another Demetrius {Demas is probably short for De7net?'ius), a martyr of the Diocletian persecution (c. 303 A.D.), as her patron saint. 12 INTRODUCTION. In Church history Thessalonica bears an honourable name. It was a bulwark of the Catholic faith and of the Greek Chris- tian Empire in the early middle ages, when it bore the title of "the orthodox city^." It was also an active centre of mis- sionary evangelism amongst the Gothic, and afterwards the Slavonic invaders of the Balkan peninsula. In its energetic zeal for the cause of Christ the Church of Thessalonica nobly sustained the character given to it by St Paul in these Epistles. This city was the scene of a memorable tragedy, when in the year 390 the Emperor Theodosius, in revenge for some affront, ruthlessly massacred 15,000 of its inhabitants. For this act St Ambrose, the great Bishop of Milan, compelled the Emperor to do abject penance, refusing him communion for eight months until he submitted. Amongst the Bishops of Thessalonica, only one name is recorded of the first rank, that of Eustathius (died 1198 A.D.), who was the most learned scholar of his age and an active Church reformer. During the decay of the Byzantine empire, the city was for a time under Latin and later under Venetian rule. It underwent three memorable sieges, — having been captured by the Saracens in 904; by Tancred of Sicily, the Norman Crusader, in 1185; and finally, by the Turkish Sultan Amurath II., in 1430 a.d. Thessalonica possesses three ancient and beautiful Greek Churches turned into mosques, those of St Sophia^, St George, and St Demetrius; as well as a few very valuable and interest- ing remains of Roman antiquity. It is now the seat of an influential Greek archbishopric. ^ It should be said, however, that Tafel {De Thessalonica ejttsqtte agro, Berlin, 1839), our chief authority on the history of the city, con- jectures that this epithet was conferred on Thessalonica because of its stubborn defence of Image-tvorship against the Iconoclastic Emperors of Constantinople in the eighth and ninth centuries. 2 In the disastrous fire of September 4th, 1890, the mosque of St Sophia was destroyed — a heavy and irreparable loss. As a monument and treasury of Byzantine art, this once Christian cathedral stood second only to St Sophia of Constantinople itself. INTRODUCTION. 13 CHAPTER II. How THE Gospel came to Thessalonica. It was in the course of his second great missionary expedi- tion that the Apostle Paul planted the standard of the Cross in Europe, in the year of our Lord 53 (or 52). He had slowly tra- versed Asia Minor from the south-east to the north-west, and was detained in Galatia by sickness for a considerable time ; a circumstance which gave him the opportunity of preaching to that interesting people, amongst whom he founded at this time important Churches (Acts xvi. 6, xviii. 23; Gal. iv. 13 — 15). Twice again were his plans frustrated during this journey. His chief intention seems to have been to evangelize the Roman province of Asia (Acts xvi. 6), where he afterwards spent three fruitful years (Acts xx. 31). This region, with its capital city Ephesus, was for the Apostle's mission probably the most important district between Jerusalem and Rome. But for the present he was "prevented by the Holy Spirit." A similar mysterious intimation arrested him when afterwards he was entering the northerly province of Bithynia : "the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not" (Acts xvi. 7). So St Paul and his companions (Silas and Timothy) found themselves at the port of Troas, fronting Europe and the West, where St Luke also joined them; for just at this point (ver. 10) the narrator of the Acts passes from the third to the first person plural. It was here that the true goal of the Apostle's journey disclosed itself, and the reason of God's repeated interference with His servant's designs. " A vision by night appeared to Paul. There was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him: Come over to Macedonia, and help us ! " In Macedonia the Gospel was to find a congenial soil and a people prepared for the Lord. We need not repeat the story of the missionaries' voyage across the ^gean, their journey inland to Philippi, their success and their sufferings in that city, all so graphically related by St Luke, who writes Acts xvi. 10 — 40 as an eye-witness. One 14 INTRODUCTION. reference in these Epistles the Apostle makes to his experience at Philippi : he writes in i Ep. ii. 2, " Though we had already suffered and endured violence in Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak to you the good news of God." The pleasanter side of his connection at this time with Philippi is intimated when, addressing the Philippians many years later, he recalls how " even in Thessalonica ye sent to supply my need, both once and twice" (Phil. iv. 16). Thessalonica lies a hundred miles west of Philippi along the Via Egnatia, a distance of three days' journey. " Amphipolis and Apollonia" are mentioned in Acts xvii. i as the chief towns and halting places on the way. But these places the three evangelists " travelled through." Thessalonica was their objec- tive point. This city attracted the Apostle of the Gentiles on several accounts ; and he was resolved to occupy it for Christ. We have already, in Chap. I., described the position of Thes- salonica and its growing importance as a centre of trade and population. There was an additional circumstance which gave the missionaries a vantage-ground here. At Philippi the Jews were not numerous or wealthy enough to boast a synagogue; only they had a proseiicha^ or retired oratory " by the river- side," probably open to the air (Acts xvi. 13). In Thessalonica "there was a synagogue of the Jews" (Acts xvii. i). It was not that St Paul expected to gain many converts from the synagogue itself; but round the Jewish synagogue there was usually gathered a circle of devout and enlightened Gentiles, in various stages of proselytism, weary of heathen superstition and philosophy, and instructed more or less in the Old Testa- ment, but not prepossessed by the ingrained prejudice, the pride of religion and of race, and the scorn of a crucified Messiah which closed the ears of the Jews themselves against the truth of the Gospel. In this outlying circle of proselytes and synagogue-hearers, distinguished frequently by the presence of a number of the more refined and intelligent Greek women of the upper classes, St Paul was accustomed to find his best audiences. Here he gathered the nucleus of his Gentile Churches. At Thessalonica while "some" of the Jews "were persuaded INTRODUCTION. a " great multitude of the devout Greeks" did so, "and of the chief women {the ladies, as we should say, of the city) not a few" (Acts xvii. 4). Such people could best be reached through the synagogue, and the Apostle felt it his duty to address himself to his own countrymen in the first instance ('to the Jew first'), however often they might repel him; so "according to Paul's custom he went in unto them, and for three sabbaths discoursed with them from the Scrip- tures, expounding and explaining that the Christ was bound to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that this is the Christ, — this Jesus whom I preach to you" (Acts xvii. 3). After three weeks of this discussion the synagogue appears to have been closed against Paul and Silas. They only carried a small minority of their compatriots with them. But they must have continued for some time longer in the city, at least a month we should imagine, to have gathered and formed into a Church so large a community as the Epistles indicate, and to have carried them so far in Christian knowledge and discipline. Before long, however, the jealousy of "the unbelieving Jews" at their success found means to arrest the work of the Apostles. They roused the city mob against them. The rioters attacked the house of Jason (his name is probably equivalent to yesus), a Jew of property who had accepted the faith of Christ and invited the missionaries to lodge with him. Not finding the two leaders, they seized Jason and some other Christians and " dragged " them before the magistrates, on the remarkable charge (i) of being revolutionaries — " turning the world upside down," and (2) of rebellioji against the Roman Emperor, in " saying that there is another king, one Jesus " {vv. 5 — 7). These charges, scattered broadcast, alarmed the " politarchs " as well as the common people (ver, 8); but they could not be sustained, and the accused were dismissed, security being taken for their good behaviour (ver. 9). The accusations brought against Paul and Silas were, however, a distortion of what they had actually preached, and may help us to understand the special character and drift of the Apostolic teaching in this city. The outbreak made it evident that St Paul's unscrupulous enemies were deter- i6 INTRODUCTION. mined, at any cost, to drive him from Thessalonica. He was now, as so frequently, in deadly "peril from his own country- men " (2 Cor. xi. 26). " The brethren " insisted on his leaving them, and "sent Paul and Silas away by night immediately to Beroea" (ver. 10),— an inland Macedonian town situated forty miles or more from Thessalonica, in the direction of Achaia. CHAPTER III. The Gospel of Paul at Thessalonica. Now we may ask, What was the gospel brought to Thessa- lonica ? Can we give to ourselves any precise account of the "good news" which "Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus" an- nounced in this city, and which produced so powerful and enduring an effect? Further, was there anything special to the place and the occasion in the form which the Apostle's message assumed, and which will serve to explain the peculiar tone of Christian feeling, the style of thought and cast of doc- trine, that distinguished the faith of this great Macedonian Church in its first beginnings ? To these questions the indica- tions of the two Epistles, compared with the story of the Acts, enable us to give a tolerable answer. (i) The foundation of St Paul's teaching was laid in the proof of the Messiahship of Jesus, drawn from the prophecies of Scripture, compared with the facts of the life, death and resurrection of the Saviour. The method of this proof, briefly indicated in Acts xvii. 3, is set forth at length in the report of his discourse at the Pisidian Antioch given by St Luke in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts. (2) The purpose of Chrisfs death and its bearing oji huuiaji salvation must have been abundantly explained by the Apostles. So we infer not only from the central position of this subject in St Paul's later Epistles, and from the prominence given to it in Acts xiii. 38, 39, where the announcement oii foi'giveness of sins and justification by faith forms the climax of St Paul's INTRODUCTION. 17 whole sermon ; but the language of i Ep. v. 8 — 10 leaves us in no doubt that the same "word of the cross" was proclaimed at Thessalonica which St Paul preached everywhere. Here " salvation " comes " through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us " — a salvation from " the anger of God," a salvation in part received already, in part matter of "hope," and which belongs to those who "have put on the breastplate oi faith and love." This salvation was the great need of the Gentile world, which "knew not God," and was enslaved to idolatry and shameful lusts (i Ep. i. 9; iv. 5 ; 2 £p. i. 8). Now we can understand all this in the light of Rom. i. 16 — 25, iii. 23 — 26, V. I — II, and as touching Him "whom God set forth in His blood a propitiation through faith"; but without such knowledge the Apostle's language would have been equally unintelligible to the Thessalonians and to ourselves. Still it must be admitted, and it is remarkable, that very little is said in these two letters on the subject of the Atonement and Salva- tion by Faith. Evidently on these fundamental doctrines there was no dispute at Thessalonica. They were so fully accepted and understood in this Church, that it was unnecessary to dilate upon them ; and the Apostle has other matters just now to deal with. (3) The Church at Thessalonica being chiefly of heathen origin, St Paul and St Silas had said much to them of the falsity and wickedness of idolatry^ completing the lessons which many of their disciples had already received in the synagogue. Their faith was emphatically a '''■faith toward God— the living and true God," to Whom they had "turned from their idols" (this seems to imply that many Thessalonian Christians had been converted directly from paganism), and Whom they knew in "His Son" (i Ep. i. 9, 10). And this living and true God, the Father of the Lord Jesus, they had come to know and to approach as "our Father" (i Ep. i. 3; iii. 11, 13; 2 Ep. ii. 16), Who was to them "the God of peace" (i Ep. i. i ; v. 23; 2 Ep. i. 2), Who had " loved them and given them eternal com- fort and good hope in grace," had " chosen " them and " called them to enter His kingdom and glory," Who " would count them THESS, 2 i8 INTRODUCTION. worthy of their calling and accomplish in them all the desire of goodness and the work of faith," Who had "given them His Holy Spirit," Whose "will" was their " sanctification," Whose " word " was ever " working in " them, Who would " comfort and strengthen their hearts " in every needful way and would reward them with " rest " from their afflictions in due time, Whose care for His beloved was not limited by death, for He was pledged at Christ's coming to restore those whom death had snatched away (i Ep. i. 4; ii. 12,13; iv. 3, 7, 8, 14; v. 18; 2 Ep. i. 5, 7, 11 ; ii. 13, 16, 17). Such a God it must be their one aim to love and to please ; St Paul's one desire for them is that they may "walk worthily" of Him (i Ep. ii. 12; iv. i; 2 Ep. iii. 5). The good news the Apostle had brought he speaks of repeatedly as "the gospel of God,'''' while it is "the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Ep. i. 8), since He is its great subject and centre: comp. Rom. i. i, 3, "the gospel of God — concerning His Son." It is important to note the prominence of God in these Epistles, and the manifold ways in which the Divine character and relationship to believing men had been set forth to the Thessalonian Church. For such teaching would be necessary, and helpful in the highest degree, to men who had just emerged from heathen darkness and superstition ; and these letters afford the best example left to us of St Paul's earliest in- structions to Gentile converts. The next report we have of his preaching to the heathen comes from Athens (Acts xvii. 22 — 31), where his discourse bore principally on two subjects — ike nature of the true God, and the coming of fesiis Christ to judge the world. (4) So we come to that which was the most conspicuous and impressive topic of the Thessalonian gospel, so far as we can gather it from the echoes audible in the Epistles, viz. the coming of the Lo?-d Jesus in His heavenly kingdom. These letters compel us to remember, what we are apt to forget, that the second advent of Christ is an important part of the Christian gospel, the good tidings that God has sent to the world concerning His Son. In i Ep. i. 9, 10 the religion of Thessalonian believers is summed up in these two things : INTRODUCTION. 19 "serving a God living and true, and waiting for His Son from the heavens." It was in the light of Christ's second coming that they had learned to look for that " kingdom and glory of God " to which they were " called," and " for which " they were now "suffering" (i Ep. ii. 12; 2 Ep. i. 5, 10—12). "The coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints" was an object of intense desire and fervent anticipation to the Apostle him- self, and he had impressed the same feelings on his disciples at Thessalonica to an uncommon degree. His appeals and warnings thoughout these Epistles rest on the " hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" as their strongest support. It was, more- over, upon this subject that the misunderstandings arose which the Apostle is at so much pains to correct — the first appearing in I Ep. iv. 13, touching the share of departed Christians in the return of the Lord Jesus; and the second in 2 Ep. ii. i, 2, concerning the imminence of the event itself. What may have been the train of thought and feeling in the Apostle's mind that led him to dwell upon this theme with such especial emphasis at this particular period, we cannot tell. But there were two conditions belonging to his early ministry in Europe which naturally might suggest this line of preaching. In theyfri-/ place, the Christian doctrine of final judgement was one well calculated to rouse the Greek people from its levity and moral indifference ; and it had impressive analogies in their own primitive religion. It was for this practical purpose that St Paul advanced the doctrine at Athens : " Having over- looked the times of ignorance, God now commands men that all everywhere should repent ; because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by the Man whom He ordained" (Acts xvii. 30, 31). To the busy traders of Corinth and Thessalonica, just as amongst the philosophers and dilettanti of Athens, the Apostle made the same severe and alarming proclamation. The message of judgement was an essential part of St Paul's good tidings. " God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ" (Rom. ii. 16). But the declaration of Christ's coming in judgement involves the whole doctrine of the Second Advent. 2 — 2 INTRODUCTION. On this matter St Paul tells us he had abundantly enlarge^ in the Thessalonian Church (i Ep. v, 2; 2 Ep. ii. 6). In the secojid place it should be observed, that the Apostle, in entering Europe by the Via Egnatia, was brought more directly under the shadow of the Roman Empire than at any time before. Philippi, a Roman colony, and a memorial of the victory by which the Empire was established ; Thessalonica. a great provincial capital of European aspect and character; the splendid military road by which the missionaries travelled, and along which troops of soldiers, officers of state with theii brilliant retinues, foreign envoys and tributaries were going anc coming — all this gave a powerful impression of the "kingdon? and glory " of the great world-ruling city, to which a mind lik' St Paul's could not but be sensitive. He was himself, it must be remembered, a citizen of Rome and by no means indifferent to his rights in this capacity ; and he held a high estimate of the prerogatives and functions of the civil power (Rom. xiii. I — 7). But what he saw of the great kingdom of this world prompted in his mind larger thoughts of that mightier and Diviner kingdom, whose herald and ambassador he was. He could not fail to discern under the majestic sway of Rome signs of moral degeneracy and seeds of ruin. He remembered well that it was by the sentence of Pontius Pilate (i Tim. vi. 13) that his Master was crucified ; and in his own outrageous treatment by the Roman officials at Phihppi and the sufferings of the Christian flock at Thessalonica he may well have seen tokens of the inevitable conflict between the tyranny of secular rule and the authority of Christ. If such thoughts as these coloured the speech of Paul and Silas at Thessalonica, we can understand the charge made against them in this city : " These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, even Jesus" (Acts xvii. 7). It was in principle the charge alleged against Jesus Himself before Pilate, com- pelling the Roman governor to pronounce his fatal sentence : "If thou let this man go, thou art not Ccesar's friend : whoso- ever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Ccusar^ So the INTRODUCTION. 21 Jews "cried out" (Jo. xix. 12); and at the bottom, the accusa- tion was true; the sharp-sighted enmity of the Jews rightly dis- cerned that the rule of Jesus was fatal to Csesarism. If the Apostles preached, as they could do without any denunciation of the powers that be, a universal, righteous and equal judge- ment of mankind approaching, in which Jesus (crucified by the .Roman State) would be judge and king; if they taught that "the fashion of this world passeth away " (i Cor. vii. 31), and ithat an atheistic world-wide despotism would one day culmi- nate in a huge disaster, to be " consumed by the breath of the iLord and the brightness of His coming" (2 Ep. ii. 3 — 11), there .were grounds plausible enough for accusing them of treason- able doctrine, even though no express political offence had been committed. That such a judgement was impending was " good news " indeed ; but it was of deadly import to the im- perial tyranny of Caligulas and Neros, and to the social and political fabric of the existing pagan world of which the deified Caesars were the top-stone. In this consequence lies the most significant and distinctive, though not the most ob- vious, feature of the gospel of Thessalonica. It may be further added, that the hope of Christ's return in glory was the consolation best suited to sustain the Church, as it sustained the Apostle himself, in the great fight of affliction through which they were passing. (5) The moj'al issues of the Gospel inculcated by St Paul at Thessalonica, the new duties and affections belonging to the new life of believers in Christ, are touched upon at many different points ; but not developed with the fulness and syste- matic method of subsequent Epistles. Most prominent here are the obligation to chastity, as belonging to the sanctity of the body and the indweUing of the Holy Spirit (i Ep. iv. i — 8); and the claims oi brotherly love, with the good order, the peace, and mutual helpfulness that flow from it (r Ep. iv. 9, 10; v. 12 — 15 ; 2 Ep. iii. 14, 15). What is singular in these Epistles is the repeated and strong injunctions they contain on the sub- ject of dilige7ice in labour and attention to the ordinary duties of life (i Ep. iv. 10 — 12; 2 Ep. iii. 6 — 15), 22 INTRODUCTION. A striking moral feature of the gospel proclaimed at Thessa- lonica is manifest in the conduct of the missionaries of Christ themselves, — their incessant labour, their unbounded self-denial, the purity and devoutness of their spirit, and their fearless courage (i Ep. i. 6, 7 ; ii. i— 12 ; 2 Ep. iii. 8, 9). CHAPTER IV. The Occasion of the Two Epistles. I. St Paul had been absent no long time from Thessa- lonica — the "season of an hour" (i Ep. ii. 17). He had been at Athens in the interval (i Ep. iii. i), and is now engaged at Corinth (Acts xviii. i, 5). He had left Thessalonica very un- wiUingly (i Ep. ii. 17; Acts xvii. 10: "The disciples sent away Paul and Silas"), promising and fully expecting to come back quickly. He had set his heart on returning to his persecuted flock, and had twice attempted to do so, but insuperable and malicious hindrances came in his way (i Ep. ii. 17, 18: "Satan hindered us "). After the failure of his second attempt, when the Apostle had now arrived at Athens and his anxiety for the Thes- salonians was unendurable, he resolved to send Timothy in his place, the only companion now left to him (ch. iii. i, 2), in order to comfort and strengthen this infant Church. From Acts xvii. 14, 15 we learn that Silas and Timothy had in the first instance both stayed behind at Beroea, with instructions to follow their chief as soon as they found it possible. This direction Timothy was able speedily to obey ; and on his return St Paul despatched him forthwith from Athens to Thes- salonica (see notes on i Ep. iii. i, 2), Timothy had now once more rejoined the Apostle (Silas too, at or about the same time, and coming from the same quarter), who had meanwhile removed from Athens to Corinth. Timothy brought a report which greatly relieved and gladdened the heart of the much-tried Apostle. It was a very "gospel" to him. The Thessalonians were "standing INTRODUCTION. 23 fast in the Lord." The expectations he had formed of them were in no way disappointed. Their faith had endured without flinching the fiery test of persecution. Their love to each other and to their absent father in Christ was devoted and sincere. They were mindful of the Apostle's teaching, maintaining a consistent walk and by their faithful- ness and zeal commending the gospel with powerful effect throughout Macedonia and Achaia. "What fitting thanks," St Paul asks, " can we render to God for all the joy with which we rejoice over you before our God?^' (i Ep. iii. 6 — 10; i. 2 — 8; iv. I, 9, 10; V. 11). St Paul's Epistles contain nowhere a more earnest or unqualified commendation than that which he bestows on the fidelity of the Thessalonian Church. What the Apostle hears from his assistant increases his longing to see them again ; for this he is " praying night and day with intense desire" ( ch. iii. 10). Indeed his primary object in writing the First Epistle is to express his great desire to revisit Thessalonica (ch. ii. 17; iii. 11). Associated with this wish there are two other purposes that actuate his mind. On the one hand, he finds it necessary to explain his co7itifiited absence, and in doing so to justify himself froin aspersiotts thrown upon him by his opponents. This self-defence is the first subject on which he enters, in ch. ii. i — 12. We gather from it that there were certain enemies of the Christian cause in Thessalonica (Jewish enemies, as the denunciation of vv. 14 — 16, together with the general probabilities of the situation, strongly suggests), who had taken advantage of the absence of the missionaries to slander them^. They had insinuated doubts of their courage (ch. ii. 2), of their disinterestedness and honesty ^ It is necessaiy to observe that the opponents St Paul has in view in I Ep. ii. (see esp. vv. 15, 16) are unconverted Jews ^ altogether hostile to the gospel Paul preached. The Jews of Thessalonica drove him from this city, and following him to Bercea attacked him there; and their compatriots at Corinth imitated their example, though happily not with the same success (Acts xvii. 5, 13; xviii. 12 — 17). Of the fezvish Christians opposed to Paul and his Gentile mission, the "false brethren" who afterwards "troubled" him at Corinth and in Galatia, we find in these Epistles no trace whatever. 24 INTRODUCTION. {vv. 3, 6, 9), and of their real affection for their Thessalonian converts {vv. 7, 8, 11, 12). They had said: "These so-called 'Apostles of Christ' are self-seeking adventurers. Depend upon it, their real object is to make themselves a reputation and to fill their own purse at your expense. They have beguiled you by their flatteries and pretence of sanctity into accepting their new-fangled faith ; and then, as soon as trouble arises and their mischievous doctrines bring them into danger, they creep away like cowards, leaving you to bear the brunt of persecution. And likely enough, you will never see them again ! " Chapter ii. is a reply to innuendoes of this kind, which are such as unscrupulous Jewish antagonists would be sure to make. And considering the short time that Paul and Silas had been in this city, and the influence which the synagogue-leaders had formerly possessed over many members of their flock ; considering also the disheartening effect that continued persecution was likely to have upon a young and unseasoned Church, one cannot wonder at the danger there was lest confidence in the absent missionaries should be un- dermined by these insidious attacks. On the whole, that confidence had not been shaken. "You have good remem- brance of us at all times " (ch. iii. 6) ; so Timothy had assured St Paul. But the Apostles show themselves, in ch. ii. 1—12, most anxious to increase and strengthen this good remembrance. On the other hand, and looking onward to the future, St Paul writes in order to carry forward the instruction of his converts in Christian doctrine and life, "to perfect what is lack- ing in your faith" (ch. iii. 10). With his entrance into Europe the Apostle's mission has entered upon a new stage. He is no longer able quickly to revisit his Churches, which are now numerous and widely separated, and to exercise a direct pastoral oversight amongst them. The defect of his presence he must supply by messenger and letter. When he describes himself as "longing to see you and to complete the deficiencies of your faith," in explaining this earliest of his apostolic letters, we see how the necessity of such Epistles arose and to what con- ditions we owe their existence. INTRODUCTION. 25 The " deficiencies " which St Paul has to correct or supple- ment, are chiefly of a practical nature. They concern — (i) on the moral side, the virtue of chastity^ sadly wanting in Greek city-life, in respect of which the former notions of Gentile converts had commonly been very lax ; and brotherly love, with which, in the case of this Church, the duty of diligent labour was closely associated (ch. iv. i — 12). (2) On the doc- trittal side, a painful misunderstanding had arisen touching the relation of '"''them that sleeps' to Christ on His return, which Timothy was not able altogether to remove ; and there was in regard to this event generally a restlessness of mind and over-curiosity unfavourable to sober and steadfast Christian life (ch, iv. 13 — V. 11). (3) With this we may connect symptoms of indiscipline in one party, and of contempt for extraordi?tary spiritual ma7iifestatio7is in another, which the closing verses of the Epistle indicate (ch. v. 12 — 22). Respecting these needs of the Church, as well as concern- ing its loyalty and earnestness of faith, Timothy, doubtless, had given the Apostle a full report. II. After writing the First Epistle St Paul received further tidings from Thessalonica, which moved him to write a Second. The situation of the Church remained, for the most part, the same, but accentuated in its leading features. We gather from the opening Act of Thanksgiving (ch. i.) that the storm of persecution was still more violent and the fidelity of the Church even more conspicuous than when the Apostle wrote a few months before. "Your faith grows exceedingly, and your love multiplies. We make our boast in you amongst the Churches of God, because of your faith and endurance in persecution" (ch. i. 3, 4). The Apostle says nothing further, however, of his intention to return ; his hands were by this time tied fast at Corinth (Acts xviii. 5 — 18): he commends them to "the Lord, Who will stablish them and keep them from the Evil One" (ch. iii. 3 — 5). Nor does he enter on any further defence of his conduct toward the Thessalonians. That was now unnecessary. 26 INTRODUCTION. There are two things which he is wishful to say. First and chiefly, about the Second Advent — "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him " (ch. ii. i ). A report was circulated, claiming prophetic origin, and alleged to have St Paul's authentication, to the effect that "the day of the Lord had arrived" and He must be looked for immediately (ver. 2). This the Apostle declares to be a deception (ver. 3). And he gives reasons, partly derived from his original teaching, why so speedy a consummation was impossible. This gives occasion to his memorable prediction of the advent of "the Man of Sin " (or " Lawlessness "), whose appearance and exaltation to supreme power will be, he announces, the signal for Christ's return in glory (2/7/. 3 — 12). This prophecy is the one great difficulty which meets the student of these Epistles. It is amongst the most mysterious passages in the Bible. See the Appendix. The other object the Apostle has in writing 2 Thessalonians is to reprove the disorderly fraction of the Chicrch (ch. iii. 6 — 15). The First Epistle intimated the existence of a ten- dency to idleness and consequent insubordination (ch. iv. 11, 12; V. 12 — 14), to which he there alluded in a few words of guarded and kindly censure. His gentle reproof however failed to check the evil, which had now assumed an aggravated and persistent form and endangered the Church's peace. It was connected with the prevalent excitement on the subject of Christ's advent. This expectation furnished an excuse and incentive to the neglect of ordinary labour. The Apostle now takes the offenders severely to task, and directs their brethren to refuse support from the funds of the Church to such as persisted in idleness, and to avoid their company. That this letter is the second of the two, and not the first (as Grotius, Ewald, F. C. Baur, and some other critics have conjectured), is evident from the course of affairs and the in- ternal relationship of the Epistles, as we have just examined them. 2 Thessalonians bears on its face the character of a sequel and supplement to i Thessalonians. It deals more fully and urgently with two important points raised in the former INTRODUCTION. 27 letter, as they present themselves in their further development. The disturbing influences whose presence is only indicated in I Thessalonians, have now reached their crisis. And the Apostle's thanksgiving (ch. i. 3 — 12) implies an advance both in the severity of persecution, and in the growth and testing of Thessalonian faith ; for which faith he gives thanks in terms even stronger than before. The personal recollections and ex- planations, so interesting a feature of the other Epistle, are eminently suited to the Apostle's first communication of the kind with this beloved Church. The absence of such references in the shorter Epistle marks it as virtually an appendix to the other, following it after a brief interval. The expression of ch. ii. 2, "neither through word, nor through letter as on our authority," is most naturally explained as alluding to some misquotation or misunderstanding of the language of i Thessa- lonians on the subject in question. The two Epistles were written, as we have seen, from Corijith; not from Athens, as it is stated in the concluding note, or "subscription," attached to the Epistles in the MSS followed by the Authorised English version. They were both composed during the Apostle's residence of eighteen months in Corinth (Acts xviii. 11), extending from Autumn 53 to Spring 55 A.D. (possibly, 52 —54). They belong therefore, as nearly as we can judge, to the winter of 53 — 54 A.D., — the last year of the Emperor Claudius ; being 23 years after our Lord's Ascension, two years after the Council at Jerusalem, four years before the Epistle to the Romans, thirteen years, probably, before the death of St Paul and the outbreak of the Jewish War, and seventeen years before the Fall of Jerusalem. CHAPTER V. The Genuineness of the Two Epistles. That these two letters were written by the author whose name they bear, has never been doubted by anyone until the 28 INTRODUCTION. present century. No writings of the N. T. are more strongly and unanimously supported by the testimony of the Early Church. The German writer Christ. Schmidt first raised sus- picions against 2 Thessalonians in the year 1801, and Schrader against i Thessalonians in 1836. The objections of these scholars were further developed by Ferdinand C. Baur, the founder of what is called the Tendency School of N. T. Criticism, who gave them currency in his influential work on "Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ" (1845 • Eng. Trans., 1873). Baur supposed the Epistles to have been written by some dis- ciple of Paul, with the Apocalypse of John in his hand, who wished to excite renewed interest amongst Pauhne Christians in the Second Advent. He dates them therefore in the reign of Vespasian, subsequently to the Fall of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). I. The authenticity of the First Epistle has been amply vindicated, and is now acknowledged even by the leading sceptical critics of the school of Baur, such as Holtzmann and Pfleiderer. If any one expressed doubts on the subject, it would be sufficient to point (i) to the picture the Apostle gives of himself and his relations to this Church in chaps, i. — iii. It is an exquisite piece of self-portraiture, bearing all the marks of circumstantial truth and genuine feeling, harmonizing with what we learn of St Paul from other sources, and free from anything that could make us suspect imitation by another hand. One feels the beat and throb of Paul's heart in every line of these chapters. Ne7)io potest Paidituwi pectiis effijigere (Erasmus). (2) The same air of reality belongs to the aspect of the Thes- salonian Church, as it is delineated in these letters. It exhibits the freshness, the fervour and impulsive energy of a newborn faith, with something of the indiscipline and excitability that often attend the first steps of the Christian life, so full at once of joy and of peril. The Church of Thessalonica has a cha- racter of its own. It resembles the Philippian Church in the frankness, the courage, and the personal devotion to the Apostle, which so greatly won his love ; also in the simplicity INTRODUCTION. 29 and thoroughness of its faith, which was untroubled by the speculative questions and tendencies to intellectual error that beset the Corinthian and Asiatic Churches. These character- istics agree with what we know of the Macedonian tempera- ment. At the same time, there was at Thessalonica a tendency to morbid excitement and to an unpractical and over-heated enthusiasm, that forms a peculiar feature in the portrait the Epistles furnish of this Christian Society. (3) The attitude of St Paul toward the parousia is such as no disciple or imitator, writing in his name, could possibly have attributed to him after the Apostle's death. He is made to write as though Christ were expected to come within his own lifeti7ne: "we the living, those who survive till the coming of the Lord," 1 Ep. iv. 15, 17. These words, taken in their plain sense, leave it an open question whether the Lord Jesus would not return while the writer and his readers yet lived. That a later author, wishing to use the Apostle's autho- rity for his own purposes, should have put such words into his master's lips is inconceivable. For then St Paul had died, atid Christ had not returjted. (4) Observe, too, the manner in which the writer speaks in the same passage of "those falling asleep" (present tense : see note ad loc.\ in such a way as to show that the question concerning the fate of believers dying before the Lord's return was a 7tew one, that had arisen in the Thessalonian Church for the first time. If this be the case, the letter can only have been written within a few months of this Church's birth. For it is never long in any large community before death has made its mark. II. The suspicions cherished against the Second Epistle have been more persistent; but they are equally ill-founded. Baur rightly maintained that the two letters are from the same source, and that both must be regarded as spurious, or both authentic. The Second is closely bound to the First, alike in language and in matter; and the two chief and distinctive passages of the former (ch. ii. i — 12; iii. 6 — 15) are based on the corresponding paragraphs of the latter. If we ascribe the 30 INTRODUCTION. Second Epistle to an imitator of the Apostle, we must suppose that another writer, at least 20 years later 1, taking up i Thes- salonians and adding this sequel to it, has reproduced the Apostle's manner to perfection, and has carried his thoughts and his line of exhortation forward precisely where he left them off; and that in doing so he has escaped detection by skilfully avoiding every kind of reference to intervening events and to the circumstances of his own time. We have no reason to believe that any post-Apostolic writer had either the skill or cunning to execute such a feat. And no adequate motive for the forgery is adduced. It is alleged that the purpose of the supposed inventor was to introduce into the PauHne theology Apocalyptic ideas, similar to those found in the Revelation of St John, and to dissemi- nate them amongst Gentile Christians. There is manifestly a relation between the Johannine and the Pauline Apocalypse, but as we shall endeavour to show {Appendix on "The Man of Lawlessness"), it is St John who has derived from St Paul, not vice versa. The brief and enigmatic sketch of this Book is developed and filled out in larger proportions and with glowing dramatic colours by the Seer of Patmos. Moreover, it is im- possible to point to any time subsequent to the year 70, at which there existed an expectation of the immediate coming of Christ so intense and overpowering as is indicated in 2 Ep. ii. 2, and which needed to be quahfied and checked in the manner of this Epistle. John's Apocalypse, on the contrary, is designed to gincken a flagging faith in the parousia. Add to this, amongst the details of St Paul's Apocalyptic sketch, the expression of ver. i, "our gathering together unto Him," which accords with i Ep. iv. 13—18, and indicates a time when in the first freshness of Christian hope it was natural to think that the Lord would return to find the body of His people still living on the earth; "the temple of God," ver. 4, pointing to the Jewish Temple yet standing (see note ad loc)\ and the description of "the Adversary" as "exalting himself 1 Recent hostile critics, such as Hilgenfeld and Pfleiderer, would say, do years later, "in the closing years of Trajan"! INTRODUCTION. 31 against every one called God," — "seating himself in the temple of God, showing off himself as God," which is quite intelligible if written when the blasphemous freaks of the Emperor Caligula and his attempt to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem (40 A.D.) were still vividly remembered. At a later period these incidents were effaced by other and yet more portentous developments of "the mystery of lawlessness," such as have left their trace on the pages of the Book of Revelation, but are not indicated here. There is said to be, after all, a contradiction between I Ep. iv. 13 — V. 10 and 2 Ep. ii. i — 12, the First Epistle re- presenting the parousia as near and sudden, the second as more distant and known by p7'einonitory signs. But the latter modifies and corrects an erroneous inference drawn from the former statement. The premonitory sign of the coming of Antichrist shews that the end, though it might be near, is not i??iinediate. On the other hand, no date is given for the advent of Antichrist in 2 Ep. ii. ; and the "times and seasons" still remain uncertain, as in i Thessalonians. The same contrast is found in Christ's own predictions — e.g. between Matt. xxiv. 33 {a preparatory sign) and ver. 36 {imcertainty of date). Outside ch. ii. i — 12 there is nothing to lend a colour to the theory of a later origin for the Second Epistle. The directions given respecting the treatment of the "brother walking dis- orderly" belong to quite the incipient stage of Church govern- ment and discipline. To suppose this passage written in the second century, or even in the last quarter of the first, is to attribute to the author an extraordinary power of ignoring the conditions of his own time, and a power exercised in a quite gratuitous fashion. But these directions harmonise well enough with those addressed to the Corinthians (i Cor. v.) respecting the extreme case of disorder occurring in that Church. 32 INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER VI. The Style and Character of the Two Epistles. In Style the two Epistles are as nearly as possible identical. The characteristic features of St Paul's dialect and manner as a writer are very apparent; but they have not yet taken the bold and developed form which they present in the Epistles of the second group (Romans, Corinthians, Galatians). In wealth of language, in force of intellect and spiritual pas- sion, these letters do not reach the height of some of the later Epistles. Nor should we expect them to do so. The Apostle's style is the most natural and unstudied in the world. It is, as M. Renan says, "conversation stenographed." In Galatians and 2 Corinthians, where he is labouring under great excitement of feeling, face to face with malignant enemies and with his disaffected or wavering children, his language is full of passion and grief, vehement, broken, passing in a moment from rebuke to tenderness, from lofty indignation to an almost abject humility : now he "speaks mere flames" — but the sentence ends in pity and in tears; "yea, what earnestness, what clearing of himself, what indignation, what yearning, what jealousy, what avenging!" In Romans and Galatians, again, you watch the play of his keen and dexterous logic — large and massive generalisation, bold inference, vivid illustration, swift retort, and an eagerness that leaps to its conclusion over intervening steps of argument indicated only by a word or turn of phrase in passing. But these Epistles afford little room for such qualities of style. They are neither passionate, nor argu- mentative; but practical, consolatory, prompted by affection, by memory and hope. Hence they represent, as it has been aptly said, "St Paul's normal style," the way in which he would commonly write and talk to his friends. In their general character, in simplicity and ease of manner, in the rarity of those involved periods and abrupt transitions which distinguish the polemical Epistles, these letters resemble INTRODUCTION. 33 that to the Philippians. But it is remarkable that the Epistle to the Philippians contains twice as many hapax legomena to the chapter (i.e. words used nowhere else in the N. T.), as do our Epistles ^ For Philippians was written nearly ten years later; and it will be found that as time went on the Apostle's vocabulary constantly enlarged, and the habit of using new and singular words grew upon him. Ch. i. 2 — 5; ii. 14 — 16 in the First Epistle; ch. i. 6—10; ii. 8 — 10 in the Second, are good examples of St Paul's charac- teristic practice of extending his sentences to an indefinite length in qualifying and explanatory clauses, by the use of par- ticiples and relative pronouns and conjunctions. Later Epistles {Ephesians especially) show how this habit also gained upon the writer. In i Ep. i. 8 ; ii. 11 ; iv. 4, 14; 2 Ep. i. 9; ii. 7 ; iii. 6 we find instances of ellipsis and anacolutho7i — of those altered and broken sentences, and dropped words left to the reader's understanding, to which the student of St Paul is accustomed. 1 Ep. ii. 14, 15 (the Jeius — who killed the Lord Jesus, &c.); V. 8, 9 {salvation— iox God did not appoint us to wrath, &c.) ; 2 Ep. i. 10 (that believed — for our testimony was believed) illustrate St Paul's curious fashion of "going off upon a word," where some word suddenly suggests an idea that draws him away from the current of the sentence, which he perhaps re- sumes in an altered form. In i Ep. ii. 4, 19 — 20; iii. 6 — 7; iv. 2 and 6; v. 4 — 5; 2 Ep. ii. 9 and 11, 10 and 12 we see how expressions of the Apostle are apt to return upon and repeat themselves in a changed guise, i Ep. iii. 5 ; v. 23 ; 2 Ep. iii. 2 — 3 ; iii. 1 1 (read in the Greek) exemplify the fondness, shared by St Paul with many great writers, for paro?i07)tasia, that is for playing on the sound of the words he uses. There is 7tot a single quotation from the O. T. in these Epistles. St Paul is addressing Gentile converts, and in such a way. that Scriptural proof and illustration are not required. But there are a number of evident allusions in that direction, show- ^ By counting verses instead of chapters, we find this statement somewhat modified. Philippians contains not quite two hapax legomena in every five verses ; i and 2 Thess. exactly one in every four. For the number oikap. leg. see Grimm-Thayer's N. T. Lexicon, Appendix iv. THESS. 3 34 INTRODUCTION. ing how the writer's mind was coloured by the language of the Old Testament. Compare 1 Ep. ii. 4 with Ps. xvii. 3, &c. ; ii. 16 with Gen. xv. i6; iv. 5 with Ps. Ixxix. 6; V. 8 with Isai. lix. 17; 2 Ep. i. 8 with Isai. Ixvi. 15; i. 9, 10 with Isai. ii. 10, 11, 17, 19 — 21 ; ii. 4 with Dan. xi. 36; ii. 8 with Isai. xi. 4; ii. 13 ("beloved by the Lord") with Deut. xxxiii. 12. More remarkable, and quite unusual in St Paul, are the re- peated echoes of the words of Jesus that occur in the passages relating to the Judgement and Second Coming. Compare 1 Ep. ii. 15, 16 with Matt, xxiii. 29 — 39, Luke xi. 45—52, xiii. 33, 34; iv. 1 6, 17 with Matt. xxiv. 30, 31 ; V. I — 6 with Matt. xxiv. 36 — 44, Luke xii. 38 — 40, 46; 2 Ep. ii. 2 with Matt. xxiv. 6. In their character these oldest extant Epistles of the Apostle Paul can now be easily described. They are the letters of a missionary, written to an infant Church but very recently brought from heathen darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. They lie nearer, therefore, to the missionary preaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles, as we find it, for instance, in Acts xiv. 15 — 17 ; xvii. 22 — 31, than do any of the later Epistles. This accounts for their simplicity, for the absence in them of controversy and the elementary nature of their doctrine^ They are addressed to a Macedonian Church, and they ex- hibit in common with the Epistle to the (Macedonian) Philippians a peculiar warmth of feeling and mutual confidence between writer and readers. They are singularly affectionate letters. From 2 Cor. viii. i, 2 ; xi. 9 we gather that the generosity which endeared the Philippians to St Paul (Phil. iv. 14 — 17) distin- ^ But compare what is said of the character of the Macedonians in Chapter IV. above. INTRODUCTION. 35 guished the Macedonian Churches generally. The Apostle can scarcely find words tender enough or images sufficiently vivid to express his regard for the Thessalonians (i Ep. ii. 7, II, 17, 19, 20; iii. 9). He feels his life bound up with them (ch, iii. 8). He boasts of them everywhere (2 Ep. i. 4; 2 Cor. viii. I, 2). If he exhorts them, his warnings are mingled with commendations, lest they should think he has some fault to find (i Ep. iv. I, 9, 10; V. 11 ; 2 Ep. iii. 4). Again and again he repeats, more than in any other letters, "You yourselves know," "Remember ye not.'*" and the like, — so sure he is that they have understood and bear in mind his teaching, and are altogether one with him. In like fashion, writing to the Philip- pians (ch. i. 5), the Apostle gives thanks to God "for your fel- lowship in the gospel, from the first day until now." Further, these tv/o are especially cheering and consolatory letters. The Apostle sent Timothy to "comfort" the Thessa- lonians "concerning their faith" (i Ep. iii. 2), and in writing he pursues the same object. Persecution was the lot of this Church from the beginning (i Ep. iii. 4; Acts xvii. 5 — 9), as it continued to be long afterwards (2 Cor. viii. 2; comp. what was written to Philippi ten years later, Phil. i. 28, 29). So the Apostle bends all his efforts to encourage his distressed and suffering friends. He teaches them to glory in tribulation. He makes them smile through their tears. He reveals the "weight of glory" that their afflictions are working out for them, till in comparison they seem light indeed. He shows them — and to a generous Christian heart there is no greater satisfaction — how much their faithful endurance is furthering the cause of Christ and of truth (i Ep. i. 6 — 8; 2 Ep. i. 3, 4), and how it comforts and encourages himself and his fellow-labourers (i Ep. iii. 5 — 7). Lastly, these are eschatological Epistles : that is, in the lan- guage of theology, they set forth "the Last Things" in Christian doctrine, — the second coming of Christ, the raising of the dead and transformation of the living saints, and the Judgement of the world ; they announce the advent of Antichrist as the fore- runner and Satanic counterpart of the returning Christ (2 Ep. ii. I — 12). The latter passage is called the Pauline Apoca- 3—2 36 INTRODUCTION. lypse; since it holds in St Paul's Epistles, in regard to its teaching and import, the place of the Book of Revelation in the writings of St John. We have suggested, in Chapter III. of the Introduction, some circumstances that may have led St Paul to dwell at this time especially upon this subject. The persecutions under which the Thessalonians laboured served to incline their thoughts in the same direction, — toward the heavenly kingdom that they hoped would soon arrive to put an end to the miseries of "this present evil world." By their eschatological views and teachings these letters are linked to ch. xv. of i Corinthians, which was probably the next of St Paul's Epistles in order of time to these. Afterwards the subject of the parousia retreats into the shade in the Apostle's writings. For this two causes suggest themselves. Between the writing of i and 2 Corinthians St Paul suffered from a severe sickness (2 Cor. i. 8 — 10; iv. 7 — v. 8), which brought him to the gates of death, and profoundly affected his spiritual experience : from this time he anticipated that death would end his earthly career (Phil. i. 20, 21; Acts xx. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 6 — 8, 18). And again, the disturbing effect of the thought of the Parousia in the Thessalonian Church and the danger of a morbid pre-occupation of mind with this idea such as he had seen there, may have led him to make the subject less promi- nent in his later teaching. In St Paul's last letters, however, written at the close of life to his helpers Timothy and Titus, he reverts frequently and fondly to "that blessed hope and appear- ing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Tit. ii. 13). Long ago had he reconciled himself to the fact that he must first indeed be "absent from the body" in order to be "present with the Lord." Yet still the coming of the Lord Jesus was the goal of his labours and longings. It was in his eyes the summit of all Christian hope. And these two fervent Epistles, with their bright horizon of promise crossed by lurid thunder-clouds, breathe throughout the constant desire of the Church with which the Book of Scripture closes, — A MEN. COME, L ORD JES US I INTRODUCTION. 37 CHAPTER VII. Analysis and Digest of the Epistles. I. In the First Epistle there are two clearly marked sections. Ch. I. — III. Z.X& personal; Ch. IV. and V., moral and doctrinal. (i) The first and chief part of the letter is an outpouring of the Apostle's heart to his readers. He tells them what he thinks of them ^ how he prays for them and thanks God for what they are, for all they have attained and all they have endured as Christian believers. Then he talks about himself and his fellow-missionaries, reminding his readers of their work and life at Thessalonica, and informing them of his repeated attempts to return to them, of the circumstances under which he had sent Timothy in his place, and the inexpressible delight given to him by Timothy's good report of their state and of their love for the absent Apostles. (2) In z/. 1 of Ch. IV. the writer begins to preach, and passes from narrative and prayer to exhortation. His homily bears chiefly on Christian morals, — "how you ought to walk and to please God." In the midst of this condensed and powerful address is introduced the great passage relating to the Second Coming (Ch. IV. 13 — V. 11), explaining to the Thessalonians what they should believe on this vital matter of faith, to them so profoundly interesting. The misunder- standings and the agitation existing in this Church affected its "walk;" they were injurious to the Church's peace and disturbing to its sober- ness and joy of faith. Hence the introduction of the doctrinal question at this stage and in this form. II. The Second Epistle contains very little personal matter. After the Thanksgiving, which occupies the first chapter, St Paul proceeds at once to the questions of doctrine and discipline which called for this further deliverance from him. Ch. II. and III. of 1 Ep. therefore correspond to Ch. IV. and V. of i Ep. But the scope of St Paul's exhortations is here more limited. He deals (i) in Ch. II. 1 — 12, with the false alartn abo7it the parousia, which was just now producing a demoralising excitement ; (2) with the case of certain idlers and busy- bodies, whose obstinate indiscipline compels him to take stern measures for their correction (Ch. III. 6—14). The intervening part of the 38 INTRODUCTION. Epistle (Ch. II. 13— III. 5) is taken up with thanksgiving, prayer, and exhortation of a general character. The following is the scheme of exposition pursued in the Notes upon these two Epistles: — I Epistle. Address and Salutation. Ch. i. i. § I. The Thanksgiving and the Reasons for it. Ch. i. 2 — lO. § 2. The Apostle's Conduct at Thessalonica. Ch. ii. i — 12. § 3. (Parenthetical) Jewish Persecutors of the Church. Ch. ii. 13 — 16. § 4. St Paul's Present Relations to the Thessalonians. Ch. ii. 17— iii. 13. § 5. A Lesson in Christian Morals. Ch. iv. i — 12. % 6. The Coming of the Lord Jesus. Ch. iv. 13— v. 11. § 7. Rules for the Sanctified Life. Ch. v. 12 — 24. Conclusion. Ch. v. 25 — 28. 2 Epist. § I. Salutation and Thanksgiving. Ch. i. i — 4. § 2. The Approaching Retribution. Ch. i. 5—12. §3. The Revelation of the Lawless One. Ch. ii. i — 12. § 4. Words of Comfort and Prayer. Ch. ii. 13 — iii. 5. § 5. Discipline for the Disorderly. Ch. iii. 6 — 15. Conclusion. Ch. iii. 16 — 18. It may be convenient to give in conclusion a digest of the Epistles, in the shape of a running paraphrase : — The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. Ch. I. Paul and his colleagues wish the Thessalonian Church " Grace and Peace." {v. 2) They constantly remember them in their prayers, and thank God for the rich fruit which their faith and love and hope in Christ are bearing, {v. 4) They are sure that God in His love has chosen them for His own. {v. 5) They had proof of this in the confidence, wrought by the Holy Spirit, with which they at first addressed them and in the powerful effect which the gospel had upon them. "With joyful courage these young disciples encountered persecu- tion, following the path marked out by the Apostles and their Lord. [v. 7) They were indeed a pattern to their fellow-believers; and the INTRODUCTION. 39 story of their conversion from idolatry to the service of the true God and hope in Christ had spread even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, and bore signal witness to the truth and power of the Divine message. Ch. II. "I need scarcely remind you," he continues, "of the way in which our ministry amongst you began. You know what we suffered at Philippi, and you remember the boldness with which we proclaimed God's message to you. {v. 3) There was no delusion or trickery, no impure motive in our work. We felt that we had a solemn trust committed to us by God, and we spoke and acted accordingly, (v. 6) You know that we never flattered you; and God knows we sought no gain or glory for ourselves. We might, in our apostolic quality, have charged you with our maintenance; {v. 7) but rather we treated you like a mother nursing her children, ready to give you, with the gospel, our very lives. So much had we learnt to love you! {v. 9) We toiled night and day to save you expense, while we preached to you the gospel. To yourselves we can appeal whether our conduct towards you did not in every way commend our message. {v. 11) As our children, with fatherly counsel and encouragement we strove to make you worthy of your calling and your hopes. {v. 13) "And, thank God, our labour was not in vain. It was God^s word, not man's, you received in our message; and in you it has its due effect. You are following in the steps of the Judean Churches and sharing their persecutions. Your fellow-countrymen treat you as they were treated by their fellow-Jews — the yeios, {v. 15) murderers of the Lord Jesus as they were of the prophets ! Enemies of mankind, offensive to God, they chase us from city to city and would prevent our preaching to the Gentiles. But His wrath is upon them, and their doom is near ! {v. 17) "As for ourselves, compelled to leave you for a while (our hearts indeed still with you), we counted on coming back again to see you. We made determined efforts, more than once, to do this; but Satan stood in the way. {v. 19) For you verily will be our glory and crown at Christ's coming, as you are already ! Ch. III. And so, on our second failure, finding ourselves at Athens, we thought it best to send Timothy, just then our only companion. We were fearful lest you should have been overpowered by afifliction ; and we sent him to cheer you and sustain your faith. We had told you, as you will remember, what conflicts you might expect ; and so the event proved. 40 INTRODUCTION. (z/. 6) "But now Timothy has returned; and how shall I relate the joy his tidings give me ! how thank God sufficiently for His grace manifest in you! To hear of your steadfast faith and abounding love, of your affection for us and great desire to see us — all this is an unspeakable comfort ; it is new life to me. {v. 11) May God our Father and Christ our Lord grant me soon the delight of seeing you, and helping you onward in your faith ! May the Lord quicken yet more your love, as ours is kindled towards you ! May He give you confidence of heart, and the holiness which will fit you for His coming! Ch. IV. "Before we close this letter, we have some requests to make, which we urge upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus. In general, that you follow the rules of life we gave you. You are doing this, we know ; but there is room for progress, (v. 3) In particular, be free from all taint of unchastity. Be masters of your bodily passions. In this lies great part of your sanctification. Lust, with its dishonour, is the mark of Gentile godlessness. {v. 6) This sin brings wrong and injury on others, while it degrades the man himself. The Lord is the avenger of every offence against social purity. By such offence you set /lim at defiance, and outrage His Holy Spirit given to you. (v. 9) "As to brotherly love, God Himself is your teacher; and all your brethren in Macedonia benefit by your proficiency. Still, in this grace increase is always possible. We desire to see in you a quiet spirit, {v. 12) and that honourable labour and independence be your ambition ! {v. 13) " Death has been busy amongst you. And your sorrow is deepened by a strange fear lest your sleeping friends should have lost their part in the hope of Christ's return and their place in His heavenly kingdom. Be comforted. His resurrection from the dead is a pledge of theirs. God will restore them at His return, {v. 15) Tkey will have indeed the first and foremost share in His glorious advent. At His trumpet's call they will rise from their sleep; {v. 17) we who live on the earth will rejoin them; and together, in one body, we shall ascend to meet our returning Lord. With Him we and they shall then dwell for ever ! Cil. V. 1. "But w/ien this will be, and what train of events will precede the Advent, remains a secret. We are told that the day of the Lord comes ' as a thief in the night.' {v. 3) So it will prove for the wicked and unbelieving. Just when they are most secure — like men INTRODUCTION. 41 asleep at night or dmnken — then ruin falls upon them ! But you surely are not in the dark; {v. 5) you live in the daylight, as sober, wakeful men. And when the end comes, it will not find you unprepared. But take heed that it be so. {v. 8) Be ready, like soldiers on the watch, clad in the armour of steadfast faith and love, and a high Christian hope. Well may you hope for salvation in the dread Day, knowing that God has chosen you for this, {v. 10) and that Christ has died to the end that in life or death you may live evermore with Him. — With such thoughts comfort and edify each other. {v. 12) "But further, we must ask you to appreciate the labours of those who hold rule and office amongst you. Their work is difficult ; give them your confidence and love. Avoid all contention, {v. 14) Let each take his part in the work of brotherly admonition, of consolation, of sympathy and patient help in dealing with weak or troublesome members of the flock. Never must evil be retaliated ; do nothing but good to others for your part. {v. 16) "Let your life be filled with joy, prayer, thanksgiving: this is the Christian life; it is God's will for you. Beware of quenching the influence of the Holy Spirit by disparagement of His prophetic gifts. Put everything to proof indeed ; but hold fast what is good, while you shrink from every kind of evil. {v. 23) Above all, may God Himself, Source and Giver of peace, accomplish your full sanctification. In the integrity of a consecrated body, soul, and spirit may you be preserved and found without blame at Christ's coming. God has called you for this end; He is faithful: it shall be done! {v. 25) "Have us remembered in your prayers. ** Exchange a holy kiss of salutation as from me. " I solemnly require you to see that this letter is read to every brother in the Church. **The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 1" The Second Epistle. Ch. I. In commencing his second letter, bearing also the names of "Silas and Timothy" with his own, the Apostle repeats his salutation of "Grace and Peace." [v. 3) He feels "bound to thank God " for the signal growth of the Thessalonians' faith, and the affluence of their love; and especially for their courageous fidelity under 42 INTRODUCTION. violent and continued persecution. Over this, as he tells them, he boasts everywhere on their account, (v. 5) In their steadfastness he sees a token of the rest and heavenly glory awaiting the sufferers, and an omen of fearful import for their enemies. "You and they," he says, "are in the hands of a righteous God. And they will have to pay for all they are inflicting on you now, and for their refusal of the knowledg of God and His gospel, when Christ returns in triumph, {v. 9) Eternal destruction will be their doom, into which the terror and majesty of His presence will drive them out ; while His glory will shine forth in His saints — inj^ou who believed our testimony of Him. {v. 11) And so we pray for you, that you may prove worthy of your calling, that al*. may be fulfilled in you that goodness can desire and faith effect ; that sr- Christ may find in you His glory, you in Him ! For this is the desig of grace." > Ch. II. The Apostle has one principal and urgent purpose \i writing now. It touches "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 regard to which he desires to remove a dangerous and disturbing impres- sion existing in Thessalonica, to the effect that "the day of the Lorr was close at hand !" {v. 2) How this rumour originated, it was hard U say, — whether through supposed prophetic intimation, or the ordinary" teaching of the Church, or from some misunderstanding or abuse of the Apostle's written words. But its disastrous effect was manifest, a _ its falsity. — "I gave a token," the Apostle writes, "of that whicl must precede the final coming of Christ : there will be first the apostasy, and the revelation of the Man of Lawlessness, the great enemy of God. {v. 4) He will attempt to annihilate religion, and will,, seat himself in God's temple as the sole object of human worship. \ The spirit of atheistic lawlessness, to be incarnated in him, is alreadj actively at work — but for the present under restraint, as I pointed out to you. (z/. 6) One day, however, the restraint will be withdrawn ; and^ then the Lawless One will stand revealed ! — whom the Lord Jesus by His breath will consume, and destroy by the splendour of His coming ! — (z^. 9) Satan will instigate the great Opposer, and attest his coming by miracles, suited to deceive those whose hearts are inclined to false- hood. Their deception will be the fit punishment for their rejection of the truth of God, and their love of lies and wickedness. (z/. 13) " Far different, brethren, is it with you. God has set His love upon you and made you His own. For this end He sanctifiet. your spirit, and His truth commands your faith. And from our lips you INTRODUCTION. 43 received salvation, — for which we owe to God continual thanksgiving. {v. 15) We bid you stand fast, and hold firmly by all that we have taught you, both by word and letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself be your comforter ; may God Who loves you and has given you in His grace eternal hopes and consolations, comfort your hearts and astain you in all your service both of deed and word ! , Ch. III. "Let us add, that we in turn need your prayers. We would fain see the gospel triumph at Corinth, as it did in Thessalonica. Pray that we may be delivered from evil and unbelieving men. Surely ir faithful Lord will be your keeper, (v. 4) And we rely on your athfulness and regard for our injunctions. The Lord lead you still in . ne way of God's love and Christ's patience I (z/. 6) "There is one especial charge we have to lay upon you: 2 require, in the name and authority of Christ, that you have no lowship with insubordinate brethren, with any who act in defiance of • rule of life we prescribed. What that is you know by our example. fv. 8) Far were we from eating the iDread of idleness, from burdening hers with our maintenance and insisting on our right to live at their ost. {v. 10) And we always said, Lef the idler suffer htinger. {v. 11) Yet we hear that there are men of this kind in your Church — unruly, 'et-lecting their own business, meddling with that of others. In the -^Vnie of Christ we solemnly charge them to be quiet, and to earn an lor.est living. And none of you must be discouraged by their mis- conduct, {v. 14) If any of the offenders still refuses correction, let him be a marked man, — have no company with him. Perhaps he will then be ashamed. Still you must not regard him as an enemy, but as a a-other needing admonition. {v. 16) "Now may peace be with you, from the Lord of peace 1 •lay He be with you all ! "I add this greeting with my own hand, and sign it, Paul. Note the signature : you will in future know my letters by it. " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all ! " THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE THESSALONIANS, PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church 1 of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and To THE Thessalonians I. So the title runs in the oldest copies. St Paul's Epistles were at first gathered into a single volume by themselves, entitled "the Apostle." Within this volume the Epistles were distinguished simply by the names of those to whom they were addressed. The order of this earliest collection was the same as ap- pears in our English Bibles (except that the position of the Epistle to the Hebrews varied — now fourth, now tenth, and then last of the four- teen). The Thessalonian letters came last in the second group, which consisted of five smaller Epistles addressed to Churches — Ephesians to 1 Thessalonians. This was not the order of time (see Introd. p. 27), but of magnitude and supposed importance. The Address and Salutation. Ch. I. 1. This being the earliest of St Paul's extant letters, let us note with care the form of his address and introduction, for it is that from which he never departed. But his greetings were enlarged as time went on, and varied with every variation in the circumstances of his readers and in his relations to them. The ordinary address of an ancient letter ran thus : "X. to Y. greet- ing." The greeting was, in Latin, a wish of "Health"; in Greek, of "Joy " ; in Hebrew, " Peace to thee ! " The Apostle's salutation, adopted by the Church, combined the Hebrew and Greek (Jewish and Gentile, Eastern and Western) forms of courtesy, transforming the latter by a verbal change {chairein becoming charis) — slight indeed to the ear, but great in its significance — into the devout and Christian "Grace to you!" Oxi. grace and peace see note below. The Address is usually followed by an Act of Thanksgiving {vv. 3 ff.) 1. Fatil] Here and in 2 Ep. St Paul introduces himself without the title Apostle, or any personal designation. Similarly in his much 46 I. THESSALONIANS, I. [v. i. in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. later Epistles to the Philippians, and to his friend Philemon. For in these cases he has no need to stand on his dignity. He is "gentle among them, as a nurse with her children " (ch. ii. 6 — 8) ; and prefers, as in writing to Philemon (ver. 9), to merge the Apostle in the friend. For a further reason comp. note on Apostles^ ch. ii. 6. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus] "Silvanus and Timotheus" had been Paul's companions at Thessalonica, see Introd. chap. 11. The Apostle was accustomed to associate with himself in writing to the Churches any of his helpers present with him and known to his readers. This was courteous, and promoted mutual sympathy. Silvanus (so in 2 Ep. i. i ; 2 Cor. i. 19; i Pet. v. 12) is the Silas of Acts XV. — xviii. ; comp. Lucas (Luke) for Lticanus. The name (English, Sylvan-, comp. our surname Wood, or Woods) is Latin, like that of Paul \imi%€\.i {Paulus). Both were Roman citizens, as we learn from Actsxvi. 37. Silas was notwithstanding a Jew — a leading member of the Church at Jerusalem, and an inspired man (a "prophet": Acts xv. 22, 23). Silas shared with the Apostle Paul the honour of planting the gospel and first suffering for Christ in Europe; and his name worthily stands at the head of these earliest books of the N. T. The association of St Silas with St Paul terminated with the Second Missionary Journey of the Apostle. But he is probably the " Silvanus " of i Pet. v. 12, and !]is name is, along with that of Mark, a link between the Apostles Peter and Paul. Timotheus (on whom see further ch. iii. i, 2) is our familiar Timotliy, as the name is uniformly given in the R. V. He shares in the addresses of 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, and i and 2 Thessalonians ; and St Paul toward the close of his life wrote two inspired letters to this most constant and beloved of his companions, his "dear child Timothy." He joined the Apostle in the course of this Second Missionary Expedi- tion (Acts xvi. I — 3), and remained in his service to the end of St Paul's life. At this time Timothy must have been very young ; for he is referred to as a "young man" in i Tim. iv. 12 and 2 Tim. ii. 22, twelve years later. In the narrative of the Acts at this time he stands quite in the background; while Silas took a leading part in the common work, Timothy acted as their youthful attendant and appren- tice, just as John Mark was "minister" (or "attendant," R. V.) to Barnabas and Paul at an earlier period (Acts xiii. 5). These three names — Paul, Silas, Timothy — are typical of the mixed state of society in Apostolic times, and the varied material of which the Church was at first composed. It was built on a Jewish basis, with a Graeco-Roman superstructure. Paul and Silvanus were Jews, with Roman name and citizenship. Timotheus had a Greek name and father, with a Jewish mother (Acts xvi. i — 3). So much for the authors of the letter : the readers are designated the Church of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (R. v.). This remarkable form of address, used in both Epistles, the V. I.] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 47 Apostle does not employ again. We may expand it thus : "To the assembly of Thessalonians, gathered in the twofold Name, confessing God as Father and Jesus Christ as Lord." Observe the two parts of this description: (i) the local qualification, "church^ Thessaloniafts." Nearest to this is the phrase "churches of Galatia" (Gal. i. 2), named however from the district, not the people. In I and 2 Corinthians the address runs, " To the church of God that is in Corinth"; afterwards, "To the saints that are in Ephesus, Phi- lippi," &c. The change from "church ^' Thessalonians " to "church in Corinth" is significant; it indicates an enlargement during the four years intervening of the conception of the Church, now no longer constituted by the local assembly, but thought of as one and the same Church here or there, in Corinth, Rome, or Jerusalem. Comp. note on ch. ii. 14, "churches of God which are in Judsea." (2) The spiritual definition: " the assembly... m God the Father,'^ &c. Church is in the N. T. ecclesia (French egiise), the common Greek word for " assembly," or legal meeting of citizens, " called out " by the herald ; which in the LXX (the Greek rendering of the O. T.) is applied frequently to the solemn religious assemblies of the people of Israel. The Apostle distinguishes this "assembly of Thessalonians " from both those gatherings. The Christian ecclesia is "in God the Father," — therefore a religious assembly marked off from all that is pagan, having "one God, the Father"; also "in the Lord Jesus Christ," and thus distinguished from everything Jewish and Pagan alike, by its confession of "one Lord Jesus Christ" (i Cor. viii. 5, 6). The creed of the Thessa- lonian Church is here contained in brief. Its members had been ' ' baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son " ; and all that they believed in and lived for as a Church centred in these two names — two, yet one ("in God the Father and the Lord," not "and in the Lord"). "In God as Father,^' they knew and owned themselves His children. "In the Lord," they discerned their Saviour's Divine Sonship and glory (ver. 10) ; "in Jesus," His human birth and history (ch. ii. 15; iv. 14, &c.); and "in Christ," the living Head and Redeemer of His people. This is His full style and title, " The Lord Jesus Christ." Grace be unto you, and peace'\ In this earliest Epistle the salutation has its shortest form. The qualifying words, " from God our Father," &c. (see R. V.), are not authentic here ; they first appear in 2 Ep. The usage of St Paul's other Epistles naturally led copyists to make the addition here. But the "church " that is "in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," needs not to be told from Whom these gifts come. Grace is the sum of all blessings that God bestows through Christ. Peace is the sum of all spiritual blessing that man receives and ex- periences; it is Grace in its fruit and realisation. In the wide sense of its Hebrew original [Shalom), Peace is more than the absence of hostility and disorder ; it denotes health and harmony of nature, inward tranquillity and wellbeing. And Grace, which in the first instance is God's love and favour to the undeserving, becomes also the inward pos- session of those who receive it, manifesting itself as the spirit and habit of their lives. The supreme exhibition of God's grace is the death of 48 I. THESSALONIANS, 1. [vv. 2, 3. 2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making 3 mention of you in our prayers; remembering without Christ for sinful men, and the great instrument of peace is the sacrifice of the cross: Jesus "by God's grace tasted death for every man," "making peace through the blood of His cross" (Heb. ii. 9; Col. i. 20; Eph. ii. 14 — 18; &c.). St Paul's whole gospel is in these two words. Grace is his watch- word, as Love is that of St John. For his conversion and Apostolic call were, above everything, a revelation of Divine grace: see i Cor. XV. 9, 10, "By the grace of God I am what I am"; comp. Eph. ii. 7; iii. 2 — 8; i Tim. i. 12 — 15. See additional note on grace, 1 Ep. i. 12. Section I. The Thanksgiving and the Reasons for it. Ch. I. 2—10. In every Epistle, except Galatians, the Apostle's first words are of thanks and praise to God for the fruits of God's grace found in his readers, according to his own maxim (ch. v. x8), " In everything give thanks." And his thanksgiving is expressed here in the fullest and wannest terms. Its special grounds and reasons lie (i) in the earnest Christian life of the Thessalonians, ver. 3; which gave assurance (2) of their Divine election, ver. 4 ; already manifest (3) in the signal character of their conversion, which took place under the most trying circum- stances, vv. 5, 6; and which (4) had greatly furthered the progress of the gospel, w. 7, 8; for (5) everywhere the story was told of how the Thessalonians had forsaken idolatry in order to serve the true God, and to await from heaven the return of Jesus, vv. 9, 10. This long sentence is a good example of St Paul's manner as a writer. His thought flows on in a single rapid stream, turning now hither, now thither, but always advancing towards its goal. His sen- tences are not built up in regular and distinct periods; but grow and extend themselves like living things under our eyes, "gaining force in each successive clause by the repetition and expansion of the preceding" (Jowett). See Introd. pp. 32, 33. 2. We give thanks to God always for you all] "We," i.e. the three above named. Here, as in Phil. i. 4, he has thankfulness and joy over them "all;" no other Churches seem to have been so much to the Apostle's mind as these two. And everything dear to him or useful to others in his friends moves him to gratitude toward God on their account. This St Paul felt that he "owed to God" (2 Ep. i. 3), the Source of all goodness in men ; and it was the best and safest way of commending them. making mention of you in our prayeys] i.e. when engaged in prayer. As often as the Apostle and his companions prayed, the Thessalonian Church came to their mind; and with supplication praise on their behalf constantly mingled. For the connection of prayer and thanks- giving, see notes on ch. v. 17, 18. 3. i-evietnbering without ceasing. . .in the sight of God and our Father] Standing ever in the presence of God, the witness of all his thoughts, V. 3-] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 49 ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and pa- st Paul bears with him unceasingly the remembrance of what he had beheld in the Christian life and spirit of his Thessalonian brethren. The adjunct comes in with solemn emphasis at the end of the verse. Comp. ch. iii. 9: " What fitting thanks can we render for all the joy with which we rejoice over you before otir Godl" and the frequency with which the writer appeals to "God" as "witness" of his feelings and his behaviour (ch, ii. 4, 5, 10) ; similarly in Rom. i. 9, " God is my witness. ..how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers beseeching," &c.; and in the thanksgiving of Phil. i. 8, "God is my witness, how I long after you all ! " We are reminded of Elijah's protestation, "As the Lord liveth, before Whom I stand!" (i Kings xvii. I, &c.) He says before our God and Father (R.V.): for it is in the cha- racter oi Father that St Paul approaches God in prayer (comp. ch. iii. II ; 2 Ep. ii. 16; and the Lord's prayer'. "After this manner pray ye, Our Father"); and "in God" as "Father" (ver. i) the Thessalonians became a "church," and had received the blessings for which the Apostle now gives thanks. remembering... your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in otir Lord Jesus Christ'\ " Remembering," i.e. " how active and fruitful your faith has shown itself to be, how devoted and unwearied your love, and what fortitude your hope in the Lord Jesus has inspired." Faith, Love, and Hope are the essence of practical Christianity. Fides, ajHor, spes — stimma Christianismi (Bengel); comp. i Cor. xiii. 13. Work, Labour, Patience are their threefold expression; comp. the "works and labour and patience" of the Ephesian Church, in Rev. ii. 2, 3. There was a remarkable vigour, a moral courage and activity in the life of this Church, over which the Apostle rejoiced even more than he did in the eloquence and knowledge of the Church of Corinth ( i Cor. i. 5). Warmth of heart and practical energy were the distinguishing features of Thessalonian Christianity (see Lntroduction, chap, iv.) : ' * Whose faith and work were bells of full accord. " The work of faith includes the two expressions that follow. It em- braces the whole practical issue of a Christian life, denoting that zvhich faith effects, its outcome and result in the doings of life ; expressed from the Divine side in "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. v. 22), and "fruit of the light " (Eph. v. 9, R. V.). This expression the Apostle uses once more, in 2 Ep. i. 11. This first appearance of the word "faith" in St Paul's Epistles, conjoined with " work," shows how far he was removed from antinomianism, from approving either a merely theo- retical, or sentimental faith. In his later Epistles, especially in Gala- tians and Romans, we find "faith" contrasted with "works," — i.e. Pha- risaic " works of law," supposed to be meritorious and to earn salvation by right and as matter of debt on God's part (see Rom. iv. i — 4, ix. 32; Gal. ii. 16, iii. 10 — 14). No such notions had as yet troubled the simple-minded Thessalonians. But in the later as in the earliest THESS. 4 50 I. THESSALONIANS, I. [v. 3. tience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of Epistles faith is always with St Paul an operative principle of life, a working power. He quite agreed with St James (ch. ii. 17) that " faith, if it have not works, is dead." Hence in Gal. v. 6 he writes of "faith working through love." The Thessalonians' work of faith was manifest especially in the two forms of toil of love, and endurance of hope. Similarly in 2 Ep. i. 3, 4, faith is joinsd with love (the "charity" of i Cor. xiii.) on the one side, and with patience on the other. These are the two chief branches of Christian work — loving service to the brethren and our fellow-men (comp. ch. iv. 9, 10; v. 13); and fearless testimony for Christ before the world, with endurance of the loss and suffering this may entail {vv. 6, 7; ii. 13, 14; iii. 2 — 4) — "the good fight of faith " (i Tim. vi. 12). So we see the Christian life in its simplest elements: "a faith that had its outward effect on your lives ; a love that spent itself in the service of others; a hope that was no transient feeling, but was content to wait for the things unseen, when it should be revealed" (Jowett). We must distinguish " work" from "labour" (or toi/}. The former points to the thing- done, as matter of achievement : the latter to the pains spent in doing it, as matter of exertion. Under this latter word the Apostle refers to his .own manual labour (ch. ii. 9; 2 Ep. iii. 8), also to his labours as a minister of Christ (ch. iii. 5 ; 2 Cor. x. 15 &c. ; see besides i Cor. iii. 8, "Each shall receive his reward according to his own toil"). Work may be easy and delightful; labour is toilsome; no selfish man will endure it for another's good. Hence labour is the test of love. How will a mother toil and weary herself for her child ! So St Paul, to M'hom with his many infirmities his work must often have been a heavy task. "True love is humble, thereby it is known; Girded for service, seeking not its own." '''■Patience of hope" is not all the Apostle means. The Greek word implies active endurance — perseverantia and tolera7itia, as well as /a/i- entia or sustinentia (Vulgate); the constancy of blind Milton, that both "bears up, and steers right onward." It is not the resignation of the passive sufferer, so much as the fortitude of the stout-hearted soldier, which carries him in the hope of victory through the long day's march and conflict. In Rom. ii. 7 the first and last of these expressions meet, and this word is rendered ' '■patient continuance in good work " (see Trench's N. 71 Synonyms, on patientid). Christian hope inspired this courage : "hope is the balm and life-blood of the soul." So Jesus Him- self " for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross" (Heb. xii. 2). And the Thessalonians were "imitators of the Lord" (ver. 6), fol- lowing the patience of Christ (2 Ep. iii. 5). Being the embodiment of Hope, Patience takes its place in 2 Ep. i. 4; and elsewhere. This was the climax of Thessalonian virtue, tried from the first by fierce persecution (ver. 6 ; iii. 2 — 6). For their " endurance" the Apostle gloried in this Church, and Christ was glorified in them (2 Ep. i. 4 — 12); such conspicuous courage gave powerful testimony to the Gospel V. 4.] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 51 God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your 4 {vv. 7, 8). Observe that here Hope inspires Patience: in Rom. v. 4, " Patience worketh hope." Both are true. Their hope M'as in our Lord Jesus Christ. This adjunct might, grammatically, be applied to the three foregoing phrases — io faith, lovcy and hope alike; but less suitably, as v/e think. Faith and love are sub- sequently conceived in a wider sense : God is the Object of faith in ver. 8, and love embraces brotherly love in ch. iv. 9, v. 13, &c. ; whereas "our Lord Jesus Christ," in His final coming, is frequently, and with concentrated emphasis, represented as the Object of the Thessalonians' hope (see ver. 10; ii. 12, 19; iii. 13; iv. 14 — v. 11; 1 Ep. i. 7 — 10; ii. I — 8. The Second Advent and the Last Judgement had been leading themes of St Paul's preaching at Thessalonica, and had taken powerful hold of his hearers' minds (see Introd. pp. 18 — 21). In this expectation lay the peculiar strength, and at the same time the danger and tempta- tion of their faith, as we shall afterwards see. "If Joy is the key-note of the Epistle to the Philippians, Hope is that of the present Epistle " (Ellicott). in the sight of God, &c.] Connected most suitably with "remem- bering" (see note above) ; though the clause might grammatically be attached to the "faith, hope, and love "just preceding, and would so give a good sense. 4. knowifig, brethren beloved, your election of God'\ Better, following the A. V. margin and R. V., knowing, brethren beloved by God, your election : comp. 1 Ep. ii. 13, " brethren beloved by the Lord." The Apostle thinks of his readers as brethrett, for he has just been carrying them in his thoughts in prayer " before our God and Father.''^ The knowledge that God their Father loves them and has chosen them for His own, gives confidence to the Apostle's prayers for them and inexpressible joy to his thanksgivings. Comp. 2 Ep. ii. 13: "We are bound to give thanks always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you," &c.; and Eph. i. 3 — 5, "Blessed be God..., Who blessed us in every spiritual blessing, ...ac- cording as He chose us in Christ," &c. The participle "loved" is not however present in tense, as though the Thessalonians were simply loved now, in consequence of their newly-acquired Christian worth; it is in the Greek perfect tense, signi- fying a love existing in the past and realised in the present, the ante- cedent and foundation of their goodness. So in i John iii. i : " Behold what manner of love the Father hath givm us, that we should be called sons of God ! " The Christian excellence of the Thessalonians, therefore, moved the Apostle and his companions to thanksgiving {pv. 2,3), not simply on its own account, but because it marked them out as the objects of God's loving choice. The word election, here occurring for the first time in St Paul's Epistles, and expressing one of his most important doc- trines, needs to be carefully studied. The N. T. use of the word origi- nates in the O. T. idea of Israel as God's " peculiar possession," " the 52 I. THESSALONIANS, I. [v. 5. 5 election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in people whom He chose for His inheritance" (see Ps. xxxiii. 12, cxxxv. 4; Deut. xiv. 2; Isai. xliii. i — 7; &c.). Such "election" implies two things — (i) selection out of others, nations or men, who are not thus chosen — "the rest" (ch. iv. 13, v. 6); and (2) appropriatioji by Godiox His own love and service. Since Israel as a people now rejected Christ, St Paul was compelled to distinguish between national Israel and the true " election," the spiritual kernel of the chosen people, who were the real objects of God's favour: "the election obtained what Israel seeks after, but the rest were hardened" (Rom. xi. 7). With this true elec- tion, through Christ all believing Gentiles are identified — " wild olive shoots, grafted into the good olive-tree" (Rom. xi. 17 — 24). So the national gives place to a spiritual election — the "Israel of God" (Gal. vi. 16); and the Apostle Paul applies the term, as in this place, to Jewish and Gentile members of the Church indiscriminately. This transference is strikingly expressed in i Pet. ii. 9: "You (who believe in Christ) are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." God's election no longer marks out a nation or body of men as such, but it concerns individuals^ each believer in Christ being the personal object of this loving choice — the "election of grace " (Rom. xi. 5). The ettd for which God in His grace so chooses men, appears in 2 Ep. ii. 13, "God chose you unto salvation," i.e. final deliverance from death and all evil, to be brought about by the return of Christ from heaven (ver. 10): the same end is set forth in the words of i Ep. ii. 12 and v. 9, 10 — "God calleth you to His own kingdom and glory;" He "ap- pointed you not to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." And the ??ieans toward this end are stated in 2 Ep. ii. 13, — "in sanctification of spirit and faith in the truth" (see note ad loc.). Similarly in Eph. i. 4, " He chose us to be holy and without blemish before Him." In later Epistles (Rom. viii. 28 — 30; Eph. i. 4, 5) St Paul's teaching on this subject receives two further extensions: (i) it is to sonship toward God that Christian believers are predestined; and (2) their election is carried back to eter/iity, "before the foundation of the world." It is questionable whether "from the beginning" in 2 Ep. ii. 13 points back so far as this (see note ad loc.) The "elec- tion" of Thessalonian believers goes back at any rate as far as the Divine love of which they are the objects — " beloved by God." But the Apostle's mind is occupied with the event of the conversion of his readers, when God's love to them and choice of them were practically manifest. God's choice of men for His purposes must, of course, precede thei)' choice of Him and of His salvation ; but it in no way precludes human choice and freedom of will — nay rather anticipates and prepares for our free volition (comp. Rom. viii. 28 — 30), and invites us to be "workers together" with it for our salvation: "work out your own salvation, ...for it is God that worketh in you" (Ph. ii. 12, 13). It rests on the 'D'wmt foreknowledge of men ("whom He foreknew. He foreordained"), and seeks from their coming into life its destined objects (see Gal. i. 15, V. 5.] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 53 word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and 16). Lut " Prescience, as prescience, hath in itself no causing efficacy" (Hooker). Observe that Scripture does not speak of any choice of men to believe in Christ, but of the choice of (assumed) believers to receive sal- vation. The consistency of man's free-will with God's sovereignty forms an insoluble mystery, which does not belong to the doctrine of election alone, but runs through the whole of life and religion. The Apostle writes '^^ knowing your election," not that he is abso- lutely sure of the final salvation of every one to whom he writes — ch. iii. 5 speaks otherwise; but from what he knows and remembers of them, he is practically certain that the circle of his readers belongs to God's elect and that they will attain Christ's heavenly kingdom (see ch. ii. 12 ; V. 8 — 11, 24). The evidence of this to his mind was twofold, lying (i) in the po^ver given to himself and his companions in preaching at Thessalonica (ver. 5), and (2) in the zeal and devotion with which the Thessalonians had embraced the gospel (ver. 6). 6. For our gospel came not tinto yoJi in word only, but also in poiver^ The R. V. reads, how that our gospel, &c. ; better perhaps, in that ; the difference is slight : in any case the conversion of the Thessalonians, described in vv. 5, 6, was not that wherein their election consisted, but wlierein it was evidenced. Paul and Silas were conscious in declaring their message of a power beyond all words attending it, which made them sure at the time that it would not be in vain. It was evident to them that God "had much people in this city." Our gospel is God's good news about Jesus Christ, proclaimed by His servants. See Rom. i. i — 5. Hence it is both God's gospel (ch. ii. 2, &c.), and "our" gospel. and in the Holy Ghost'] The peculiar "power" in which St Paul and his helpers spoke at Thessalonica was not their own: their message came in the Holy Spirit, accompanied by the supernatural energy of the Spirit of God and of Christ. To this, as the N. T. teaches, the efficacy of the Gospel is always due. "He," said Jesus, "the Spirit of truth, shall testify of Me; and ye also do testify" (John xv. 26, 27). Pozver is an idea constantly as«^ociated with the Holy Spirit, according to the words of Christ in Acts i. 8, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;" so in i Cor. ii. 4, " My message was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," &c., — "that mighty Breath From heaven's eternal shores." in the Holy Spirit, and much fulness (R.V. margin), or abundant fulfilment. The preposition * ' in " is not repeated in the Greek, so tliat the third adjunct is closely identified with the second (Holy Spirit). The same Greek word is used in the phrase ^^full-assurance of the understanding" in Col. ii. 2; "of hope," "of faith" (Heb. vi. 11; x. 22). But the "fulness" of this passage is ascribed to the "gospel" as it "came to" its Thessalonian hearers. It had lis, full effect upon them. 54 I. Tx4ESSAL0NIANS, I. [v. 6. in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we 6 were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much Comp. 1 Tim. iv. 17, where the corresponding verb is used, — "that through me the message might be fulfilled " (R. W .)— fully proclaimed. This "fulfilment" has been shown in ver. 3; comp. ch. ii. 13; 2 Ep. ii. 13. The potver is in the gospel preached, the fulfilment in the hearers, and the Holy Spirit above and within them inspires both. as ye know zvhat manner of men we were among yoic for your sake'l ' The R.V., more accurately, even as ye know... we showed ourselves toward you. The Apostle appeals to iAe knowledge of his readers to confirm what he has just said respecting the powerful effect of the Gospel upon them. This result in the experience of the Thessa- lonians accorded with the spirit and behaviour of the apostles towards them. "It Avas a mutual influence: so we preached, and so ye believed," i Cor. xv. 11 (Jowett). In ch. ii. i — 12 (see the remarks •introductory to ch. ii.) the Apostle draws a vivid portrait of himself and his colleagues as they were at Thessalonica. They so lived and laboured on your account — out of love to their Thessalonian hearers (comp. ch. ii. 8), to those whom they felt sure God in Mis love had chosen for Himself (ver. 4) and was calling by their means "to His own kingdom and glory" (ch. ii. 12). Comp. 2 Tim. ii. 10, "I endure all things because of the elect." "In the background," behind "the purpose of the Apostle and his colleagues," there was "the purpose of God," Who for the Thessa- lonians' sake gave this power to His servants (Alford). 6. And ye became folloivers of lis ^ and of the Lord'\ imitators of us &c. (R.V.); comp. ch. ii. 14; 2 Ep. iii. 9, where the same correction is made. An "imitator" not only accepts the teaching of another, but copies his example. This imitation consisted (r) in the joyful endurance of suffering for the Gospel's sake, as the following words show (comp. ch. ii. 2, 14, 15, &c.); but (2) also in the vigour which marked the life of this Church, corresponding to that of the Apostle's ministry amongst them (ver. 4). See note on "work of faith " (ver. 3). Thus imitating their apostles, the Thessalonian believers were walking in the steps of the Lord, Who Himself "received" from the Father "the word in much affliction," and "with joy of the Holy Spirit:" "The words that Thou gavest Me," He said to the Father, "I have given them ; " men "persecuted Me, and they will persecute you," He promised His disciples; and He too "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" (John xvii. 8; xv. 20; Luke x. 21). Accordingly, in Col. i. 24 the Apostle writes of himself as "filling up what is left behind of the afflictions of Christ." — Observe two things here: (i) How inspiring to the Thessalonians to be told they were Avalking in the very steps "of the Lord;" this makes toil welcome, and shame glorious. (2) How bold in the Apostle, and what a good conscience he kept, that he could V. 7.] I- THESSALONIANS, I. 55 affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost : so that ye were 7 ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. identify following himself with following C/^r/j-/. Comp. i Cor. xi. i, **Be imitators of me, even as I also of Christ." Ver. 6 is parallel to ver. 5, both serving to establish ver. 4. St Paul was satisfied that God had set His love upon these Thessalonians and chosen them to salvation, in the first instance by the extraordinary power and effect upon them of his preaching, as they will remember (ver. 5); and further by their joyous endurance of persecution, proving the tlioroughness of their conversion, to which everyone is witness {vv. 6 — 10). " We give thanks to God for you... being well assured of your Divine election, in that our message to you was attended with the manifest power of the Holy Spirit, and you gladly consented to the sufferings that it brought upon you" {w. 3 — 6). having received the word] On " receive " see note to ch. ii. 13. "The word" {par excellence) stands alone for "the v.ord of the Lord" (ver. 8), or "of God" (ch. ii. 13), the same as "our gospel" (ver. 5)- . . . in mt(ch affliction] This great aflBiction (or tribulation : same Greek word, ch. iii. 4; i Ep. i. 4, 6) is described in Acts xvii. 5 — 9, and re- ferred to frequently in the Epistles: see Introd. pp. 15, 35. Persecution marked out the path in which the Thessalonians were called to follow Christ, and gave them an immediate opportunity of showing the genuineness of their faith. So with the kindred Philippian Church: " To you it was granted as a favour on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake " (Ph. i. 29). with joy of the Holy Ghost] i.e. coming of (or inspired by) tlie Holy Spirit. Joy constantly attends suffering for the truth's sake, and for the word of God. Of this St Paul was an eminent example — "sorrowing, yet alway rejoicing" [2 Cor. vi. ro, &c.) ; and Christ Himself, Who promises His disciples "My joy" amidst the sorrows of His passion (John xv. ii); the Thessalonians were "imitators." At a later time the Apostle notes in the Macedonian Churches, "in much proof of affliction, the abundance of their joy" (3 Cor. viii. 2). All such joy \sfrom the Holy Spirit, and is a sign of His indwelling, — "Whose blessed unction from above Is comfort, life, and fire of love !" The same Spirit Who enabled the apostles to preach with power in spite of all opposition, enabled the Thessalonians to believe with joy in spite of all persecution. The Apostle introduces the Holy Spirit in w. 5 and 6 as One whose presence and attributes were well known to his readers. They had been "baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit," as well as "of the Father and the Son:" see notes on ver. i, "in God the Father &c." In these first few verses the whole doctrine of the Trinity is implied. 7. so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Alacedonia and Achaia] Rather, ye became an ensample (R.V.),— or example, or pattern (as the same word — naturalized as "type" in English — is 56 L THESSALONIANS, I. [v. 8. i For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith rendered in Tit. ii. 7, Heb. viii. 5). The Apostle applies this expression to himself in 2 Ep.iii. 9; also in Ph. iii, 17; and to Timothy, in I Tim. iv. 12. "Those that believe" (that is, "in God," or "Christ") equivalent to believers — is a frequent designation of Christians with St Paul. See ch. ii. 10, 13; 2 Ep. i. 10; &c. Similarly, "they that are of faith " (Gal. iii. 7, 9), "him that is of faith in Jesus " (Rom. iii. 26); iox faith is the root and essence of all that makes a man a Christian. The example of the Thessalonians affected all believers in Macedonia and in Achaia (according to the true reading). These were distinct provinces, and the influence of Thessalonian faith had extended froin the one to the other. The Apostle was now in Corinth, the capital and centre of Achaia (a Roman province, covering nearly the area of the present Kingdom of Greece), and could judge of the effect of the conduct of the Thessalonian Church in that district. And Timothy, with Silas, had lately returned from the northern province, traversing various Macedonian towns on his way, and would be able to report of the influence of this example there (ch. iii. 6; Acts xviii. 5). On the relation of Thessalonica to Macedonia see Ititrod. pp. 9, 10, and the map. In 2 Cor. viii. i — 5 St Paul brings these two provinces into com- petition, in a sort of generous rivalry. St Paul imitated Christ, the Thessalonians him (ver. 6), and all neighbouring Christians took pattern by them. So good example spreads. 8. For from yon soicnded out the ivord of the Lord] Better, hatli sounded out, or resounded. The Greek word suggests a clear ringing note, "as of a trumpet" (Chrysostom); and the tense (perfect) implies no transient sound, but a continuing effect: see note on beloved, ver. 4. "The word of the Lord " is the standing O. T. designation for God's revealed will, — all that, as the Lord, He says to men. But "the Lord " is now Christ in His Divine authority and glory; and this title of Christ is notably frequent in our two Epistles. Only in them is this expression applied by St Paul to the Gospel (comp. ch. iv. 15; 2 Ep. iii. i). Afterwards he calls it "the word of God," or "of Christ" — " not men's word, but as it is in truth, God's word " (ch. ii. 13). The fullest declaration of the authorship and purport of this " word " is from the lips of St Peter, in Acts x. 36: "The word which God sent, — in good tidings of peace through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all." Ver. 8 gives proof of the earnestness with which the Thessalonians had embraced the Gospel, as set forth in w. 6 and 7. For they had so received it as to echo it far and wide. The violent persecution directed against them, failing to shake their faith, had served to advertise it. "Truth, like a torch, the more 'tis shaken shines." fwt only in Macedonia and Achaia] Now the two provinces are united, in contrast with the rest of the world. I I V. 9-] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 57 to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thi7ig. For they themselves shew of us what manner of 9 but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad'\ Lit., liath gone out : the Apostle keeps up the metaphor with which he began the sentence. Ps. xix. 4, quoted also in Rom. x. 18, seems to be running in his mind: "Their sound went forth into all the earth" (LXX). For the tense, see note on " hath sounded out." The conversion of the Thessalonians, taking place under such re- markable circumstances, had made a great sensation, the news spreading even beyond the limits of Greece. [For a view of the importance of Thessalonica and its commanding geographical position, see Introd. Ch. I.] Aquila had lately come to Corinth from Rome (Acts xviii. 2), and may have brought word that the news was current there. The charge of treason against Caesar recorded in Acts xvii. 6, 7, would almost certainly be reported in Rome. "In every place" is a natural hyperbole, used like our everywhere^ everybody and the French tout le moJide, of that which is widely and generally current. The Thessalonian believers in Christ were "bravely furnished all abroad to fling The winged shafts of truth." With "in every place " the sentence of ver. 8 is complete; but as the writer extends his statement, it alters its shape in his mind, and the assertion with which he set out {the word... hath sounded forth) is now repeated in another way : your faith that is unto {is directed to) God, hath gone out. This mobility is characteristic of St Paul's style (see Introd. Ch. vi.). The same thing appears in a double aspect : the fame of the gospel spread by the Thessalonians and the fame of their faith in it travelled together. " Faith toward God " is a rare and distinct expression. It indicates the new direction, or attitude of the heart and life, which the next verse vividly depicts. Comp. 2 Cor. iii. 4 and Philem. 5: "toward the Lord Jesus." so that we need not to speak any thing] Lit., have no need, — a phrase used three times in this Epistle (ch. iv. 9, v. i), and nowhere else by St Paul. Read this in close connection with the next verse. It is as much as to say, "No need for us to tell the story. We hear of it from all sides; everywhere people are talking about your conversion and your brave testimony for Christ." 9. For they themselves sheiv of us'\ Rather, report concerning us (R.V.) "They" points to "those in Macedonia and Achaia" and "in every place," — any whom the Apostle visited, or to whom he had thought of sending the news. "Instead of waiting to be told by us, we find them spreading the joyful news already!" And this self- diffusing report concerned not the Thessalonians alone, but Patd and his colleagues. It published their success at this great city, and helped their further progress: they report... what kind of an entrance we had unto you. 58 I. THESSALONIANS, I. [v. lo. entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God lo from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for The "manner" of this "entering in" is not to be found in the kind of reception given to the evangelists at Thessalonica, but in the way in which they presented themselves and entered on their ministry here: comp. ver, 5, and ch. ii. i, 2. The reports that told of the heroic faith of the Thessalonians, told also of the wonderful energy and success with which Paul and Silas had preached to them. and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God] Lit., from the idols, to be bondmen to a God living and true. This explains the "faith toward God" of ver. 8. "How" im- plies not the fact alone, but the manner of their conversion — "with what decision and gladness" i^ov. 3, 6), parallel to "what manner of entrance." The Thessalonian Christians had been mainly Gentiles and heathen; comp. ch. ii. 14, — also Acts xvii. 4, 5, from which it appears, however, that there was a sprinkling of Jews among them, and •'a great multitude" of proselytes, already more or less weaned from idolatry. The "faith toward God" defined in this verse, is the faith of the whole Bible, in which from first to last God asserts Himself as "the Living and True," against the ten thousand forms of human idolatry. The word idol (Greek eiddlon) means properly an appearance, a mere image, or pharitom. Homer, e.g., applies the term to the phantasms of distant persons by which his gods sometimes impose on men {Iliad, v. 449 ; Odyssey, IV. 796). Comp. Lord Bacon's idola tribics, spectis, fori, thcatri, in the Novum Organutti. This word is the equivalent in the Septuagint Version of Hebrew designations for heathen gods and their images of like significance — vapours, vanities, nothings. To all these the Name of the God of Israel — Who "is the true God, and the living God" (Jer. x. 10) — is the constant, tacit antithesis: "I am Jehovah" (more strictly Jahvch, or Yahzoeh, commonly "the Lord" in the English O. T.)— the HE IS (see Exod. iii. 13, 14 for its interpretation; and for its use in argument against idolatry, such passages as Isai. xlii. 8; xlv. 5, 6, 18, 21, 22J. Like the Prophets and Psalmists (e.g. in Ps. cxv. 4 — 8; Isai. xliv. 9 — 20; Jer. x. I — 10), St Paul was powerfully impressed with the illusion and unreality of heathen religions. He defines idolatry in two passages, i Cor. viii. 4 and x. 19, 20, as being half lies, half devilry; and in the horrible immorality then existing in the Gentile world he saw its natural consequence and judicial punishment (Rom. i. 18 — 25). "True" signifies truth of fact, not word: "true God" is the " very God" of the Nicene Creed, the real God', comp John xvii. 3, — "that they should know Thee, the only true God;" and i John v. 20, "This is the true God, and life eternal." The service to this "living and true God" which the Thessalonians had embraced, was that of bondmen, acknowledging themselves His property and at His absolute disposal. St Paul habitually calls himself "Christ's" (once "God's," Tit. i. i) "bondman." In Gal. iv. 8 he V. lo.] I. THESSALONIANS, I. 59 his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which deUvered us from the wrath to come. speaks of heathenism as bondage to false gods', in Rom. vi. 15 — 23 he shows that to become a Christian is to exchange the bondage of sin for bondage to righteousness and to God, bondage under grace. The full conception of the Christian relationship to God is formed by the combination of the idea oi son ship (in respect of affection and privilege) M-ith that of bond-service (in respect of duty and submission), to Him " Whose service is perfect freedom." On the relation of this passage to St Paul's general teaching see Introd. pp. 17, i8. So far, in vv. 8, 9, St Paul has related the conver- sion of the Thessalonians in the language and spirit of the O. T., and as an acceptance of Hebrew faith. In the next verse he advances to that which was distinctively Christian in their new creed : — 10. and to -ivait for his Son from heaven... ^\Q.n yesus\ Lit., from the heavens: comp. i Cor. xii. 2, "the third heaven;" and Heb. iv. 14, "Jesus,. ..Who (in ascending) hath passed through the heavens." Heaven is a plural word in Hebrew, and its conception was manifold, implying the existence of successive regions and stages, like the Courts and Chambers of the Tabernacle, leading up to the innermost, im- mediate presence-chamber of the Most High. This expectation separated the Church of Thessalonians from the Synagogue. It involved the belief in Jesus as the Christ (Acts xvii. 3); and if Christ, then Son of God znA King of His kingdom amongst men. "The kingdom and glory of God to" which " He is calling" the Thessalonians (ch. ii. 12), will be inaugurated by the return of their De- liverer from heaven ; and this they are awaiting. Jesus, God's Son, had come already, to suffer affliction and to die for men's salvation (ver. 6 ; ch. ii. 15; V. 9). He had gone to heaven, "that He might receive His kingdom and return" (Luke xix. 12; comp. Acts iii. 21), — return as Judge to reward God's faithful servants and to render to oppressors and persecutors their due (2 Ep. i. 5 — 10). Such, we gather, had been the line of Paul and Silas' teaching at Thessalonica : see Introd. Ch. ill. Hence their readers were possessed with the idea of the paronsia, or second advent of Christ. This formed a chief part of their religion. They were in truth " like men looking for their Lord, when Pie should return from the wedding" (Luke xii. 36). Comp. note on " patience of hope," ver. 3; also ch. iv. 13, 17, v. i; 2 Ep. ii. i, 2, 16. ^ From vv. 9 and 10 we may draw a definition of religion, as con- sisting of two things — sei~i'ing and waitifig, seen in its present and future, its practical and its ideal aspect; the first springing out oi faith, the second out of hope, while both gain through love their Christian character and sj irit. his Son...7vhfl!!i he raised from the dead] "The palmary argument in proof of the Divine sonship of Jesus" (Bengel) : comp. Rom. i. 4, "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead." And Christ's resurrection was equally the warrant of faith in His future kingdom and judgeship, — 6o I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. i. 2 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, "whereof God hath given assurance, in that He hath raised Him from the dead" (Acts xvii. 31). Indeed it was the seal of the whole Apostolic message (read i Cor. xv. 3, 14; i Pet. i. 3 — 5, 21; Acts ii. 32 — 36; iii. 13 — 21). Raised from the dead, Jesus was exalted as God's Son, and man's Saviour, and Lord of all things, to the highest heaven (Eph. i. 20 — 22); and in this character He will return, as He said, "with His Father's glory and with the holy angels," to "render to every man according to his deeds" (Matt. xvi. 27; Mark viii. 38). The Resur- rection was the first step in Christ's glorification, the pledge of all the rest. even yestis, which delivered tis from the wrath to come'\ delivered should be delivereth (R. V.). The Greek participle is present ("the One delivering"); and such a participle, with the definite article, approaches the force of a substantive (see note on "all that believe," ver. 7), de- noting a continued work, or perpetual office. Reference to 2 Cor. i. 10, or 2 Tim. iv. 17, 18, where the same verb is used, will show that it signifies rescue rather than redemption, indicating the greatness of the peril, and the sympathy and power of the Deliverer. This deliverance is not yet complete: see Rom. v. 9, 10, "having been justified by His blood, — reconciled to God through the death of His Son, we shall be saved from God's wrath, — saved in His life." It is a rescue " from the wrath to come " (comp. Matt. iii. 7), — more strictly, the wrath that is coming ; as in Eph. v. 6 ; Col. iii. 6. For God's anger against sin is never quiet ; it is on the wdj', like a tide that rises till it reach its full height. Comp. 2 Ep. ii. 11, 12; Rom. i. 18, 28. As against the Jewish nation, the Apostle sees that its term is now reached: "His wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (ch. ii. 16). For others its recompenses are preparing, who "in their hardness and impenitence of heart" are "laying up for themselves a store of wrath" (Rom. ii. 4 — 6), comp. 2 Ep. i. 7 — 10 and notes. I/ow Jesus "delivers us" from the w^ath impending over sinful men, St Paul does not tell us here; he had certainly taught the Thessalonians. In ch. V. 8 — 10 he opposes to God's "wrath" '^salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who died for us ; " and this shows that he had pro- claimed at Thessalonica the same doctrine of reconciliation through the Cross which he expounds in the next group of his Epistles, and which was the core of his gospel from the beginning. On this most im- portant point, see once more Introd. pp. 16, 17. SECTION II. The Apostle's Conduct at Thessalonica. Ch. II. 1—12. Analysis. The ministry of Paul and his colleagues at Thessalonica had been unmistakably genuine, ver. i. This appeared (i) by their boldness m the conflict amid which their work began, ver. 2; (2) by their sincerity and freedom frofn personal ambition, zi>, 3 — 6; (3) by their gentleness afid tender affection toward the Thessalonians, w. 7,8; (4) by their extreme and self-denying labours, ver. 9; (5) by the pniiiy of V. 2.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 6i that it was not in vain : but even after that we had suffered 2 before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Phi- their life, ver. 10; and (6) by the fidelity and high spiritual aim of their teaching, vv. 11, 12. Four words resume the whole: courage^ purity, love, fidelity. Here is a mirror for ministers of Christ, and an ideal for all His servants. The service of Christ called into exercise in Paul and his companions the highest and finest qualities of manly character. And this is still the case, especially on missionary fields of labour, where similar dangers are encountered and the same powers of leadership required. This section is of the nature of a self-defence, called forth (see Introd. pp. -23, 24) by the calumnies of St Paul's enemies at Thessalonica. But there blends with his self-defence the lofty strain of thanksgiving in which the letter commenced, and which breaks forth again distinctly in ver. 13 and is pursued to the end of ch. iii.; so that this paragraph grows naturally out of the last. The Apostle continues to identify Silas and Timothy with himself, writing in the plural, — 1. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto yoti\ entering in (R.V.), same word as in ch. i. 9; see note. And the "For" of this verse is parallel to the "for" of ch. i. 9: what '''■they themselves (other people, strangers in different places) report of us" is confirmed by what '■'you yourselves know" of the successful entrance the Gospel had won at Thessalonica. Both these fors, and all that the Apostle has written since ver. 4 of ch. i., go to sustain his assurance of God's loving "choice" of the Thessalonian behevers. We must not allow the artificial division of chapter and verse to break the thread of the writer's thoughts. The appeal made to the recollections and experience of the readers is characteristic of these letters, see w. 2, 5, 10, 11 ; ch. i. 5, (Sic; and comp. Introd. p. 35. Concerning the "entrance'' of the missionaries amongst them the Thessalonians know better than anyone else, that it hatli not been found vain (R.V.). The Greek perfect tense (see note on ch. i. 8) implies a settled result: not merely did the coming of Christ's servants produce a striking impression at the time ; their work has proved thoroughly successful. Its fruit is permanent. Vain is lit. empty, void of substance and power. So the apostles' "labour" would "turn out," if "the Tempter" should destroy the Thessalonians' faith (ch. iii. 5); so his "preaching" and his hearers' "faith" at Corinth, if Christ's resurrection were not a fact (i Cor. XV. 14). "Not empty" echoes the "power" and "much fulness" of ch. i. 5. This verse might be rendered somewhat more freely in English idiom : For you know of yourselves, brethren, that our coming^ amongst you has not proved vain. 2. but even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye knoio, at Philippi\ More exactly, having suffered before 63 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 2. lippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel and been shamefully entreated (R.V.), or though we had already suffered and were shamefully treated at Philippi. "Entreated ' is older English for treated, as in Matt. xxii. 6 and Luke xviii. 32 {spitefully entreated). Shatnefitlly treated is one word in the Greek, — outraged. It implies insult and injury combined, such as constituted a legal crime. This accords with the protest of Paul and Silas against the Philippian magistrates (Acts xvi. 37): "They have beaten us, publicly, uncondemned, being Romans!" Such indignities the Apostle felt keenly; they added a distinct element to his sufferings. As to the circumstances of the missionaries' visit to Philippi and their experience there, read carefully Acts xvi., and comp. Introd. Chap. ii. "As ye know," for the Apostle had doubtless told his Thessalonian friends of his treatment at Philippi. Moreover, this town was but three days' journey east of Thessalonica along the Via Egnatia, and news of all kinds readily passed between them {Introd. Chap. I.). Instead of being daunted by the violence they suffered, Paul and Silas at Philippi "sang praises to God at midnight, with their feet fast in the stocks." And God there signally vindicated His servants and turned their shame to honour. So we are not surprised to read of the holy confidence with which they declared their message at Thessalonica : we waxed bold (R.V.) — or, took courage in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God amid much conflict. The last words of the clause explain the first, on which the emphasis rests. The "conflict" that broke out at Philippi continued under another form at Thessalonica, and the apostles needed all their courage and faith in God to sustain them in entering on their ministry in this new city. Throughout this first European mission it required a hard struggle to win for the Gospel a footing anywhere. There was much conflict. The Greek verb {waxed-bold) implies the undaunted bearing and address of the missionaries, the outspokenness with which they faced their opposers in the delivery of God's message. This was more than natural courage : "we waxed bold i?t our God.'''' God's presence and the consciousness that His Spirit was with them (ch. i. 5, see note) made them fearless. "It is not ye that speak," said Jesus, "but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. ..Fear them not therefore" (Matt. x. 16 — 32). Besides, it was "the gospel of God'''' which they proclaimed: God had put the message into their lips. This is the secret of St Paul's heroism. The highest moral courage, such as that of President Lincoln or General Gordon in modern times, springs from faith in God. The evangelists addressed themselves to their work at Thessalonica with a high degree of confidence, and under the fullest sense of Divine direction. Contrast with this the "weakness and fear and much trembling in" which the Apostle shortly afterwards "was witli" the Corinthians (i Cor. ii. 3 — 5). St Paul's mood as a preacher was not always the same; circumstances depressed or ela'ed him. vv. 3, 4] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 63 of God with much contention. For our exhortation was 3 not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile : but as we 4 were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, 3. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of nncleafiness, nor in ipiiie'] Read error for deceit; and supply the Greek ellipsis by is not (R.V.) rather than zvas not. The Apostle is setting forth the habit and spirit of his ministry : "We behaved in this fearless way at Thessalonica, for our ministry is free from all that is false and impure." It is true men that make brave men. In ver. 5 Paul returns to his conduct at Thessalonica ; vv. 3, 4 speak of his general policy. "Exhortation" hardly conveys his full meaning,— our appeal is perhaps better; it is the practical "appeal," or "address," which "the gospel of God," as the missionaries of Christ preach it everywhere, makes to its hearers. Comp. note on "comfort," ch. iii. 2. This appeal "is not of error" {deceit, A.V., is incorrect) — not the product of illusion or deception ; for it is " the gospel of God" (ver. 2), "the word oi the truth of the gospel" (Col. i. 5). This was amongst Paul's constant and uppermost convictions. The heavenly Form that met him on the road to' Damascus, the Voice that said, " Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles," — these were no phantasy. "I know Him whom, I have believed" (2 Tim. i. 12). As the Apostle was sure of the genuineness of his message, so he ^\•as conscious of the purity of his motives: "nor in uncleanness." This epithet commonly denotes bodily defilement, and is a synonym for unchastity, as in ch. iv. 7, &c. But there is a "defilement of spirit" as well as "of flesh" (2 Cor. vii. i). Self-seeking (ver. 5) in the witness of truth makes his testimony corrupt. So truth and purity go together ; each promotes and guards the other. Comp. I Pet. i. 22, "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth." On the other hand, the Apostle speaks of the "deceit of unrighteousness" (2 Ep. ii. 10), and of "men conupt in mind and bereft of truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain" (i Tim. vi. 5). So much for his motives: of his method St Paul will only say, "nor in guile;" as he puts it more at large in 2 Cor. iv. 2, "not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the mani- festation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." The servant of truth should use only the weapons of truth. "Guile" was doubtless imputed to St Paul by his slanderers in Thessalonica, as it was subsequently at Corinth: "being crafty (as they say), I caught you with guile" (2 Cor. xii. 16). To sum up the verse : Our doctrine is true ; our motives pure; and our conduct straightforward. 4. but as zve were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak\ Again the A. V. misses the force of the Greek perfect : better, as we have been approved by God to be entrusted. "Allow" in older English bears the stronger sense of accept, approve (comp. Rom. xiv. 22), but even so falls short of the meaning of St Paul. His word is the same that is rendered in the last clause of the verse as tricth 64 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 4. even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which {^.N ., provet}i)\ it includes both proving arid approving; it is approving on trial, or testijig : comp. ch- v. 21 (same Greek verb, ^^ Prove all things); and i Cor. iii. 13, "The fire will p^-ove each man's work." The Apostle had been tested for his work, and tested by it ; God had made proof of him as a minister of Christ, and he was shown to be worthy of his trust: tried, then trusted (comp. i Tim. i. 12). "To be put in trust with the gospel" is the highest conceivable responsibility; the sense of it is enough to exclude every base motive and deceitful practice (ver. 3). On Paul's trust, read i Tim. i. 11 — 17 and Acts ix. 15, 16: *'He is a chosen vessel unto Me." so we spca/i] under the sense of this solemn trust, with the sincerity' and self-abnegation that our charge demands. 7iot as pleasing men, but God, which trieth otir hearts'] R.V., proveth' (see previous note) : more precisely, pleasing God — Him who proves our hearts. This last is an O.T. expression, a standing attribute of. God : see Ps. xvii. 3, Jer. xi. 20, &c. ; also Acts i. 24, "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all." "Unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid" (Book of Common Prayer). The "heart," in the language of the Bible, Is not the seat of the feelings alone; it is "the inner man," the real self, the centre and • meeting-point of all our thoughts, feelings, and resolves. It is there that God proves us : "The Lord looketh upon the heart." No impure motive or crafty expedient, such as might deceive men, escapes Him. The sense of this continual and omniscient scrutiny makes any kind of dishonesty impossible to the Apostle. Read i Cor. iv. i — 5 ; 2 Cor. V. 9 — 12 : " He that judgeth me is the Lord." It is God's gospel that Paul and Silas have to preach ; God had trusted them with it, and given them strength and courage to proclaim it (ver. 2); to God's approval, therefore, they must look, and to that alone. "Men," such as the magistrates of Philippi and the populace of Thessalonica, would be pleased only if the messengers of Christ were silenced. So the authorities of Jerusalem "charged Peter and John not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus;" but they answered: "If it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye" (Acts iv. 18, 19). This sense of the sovereignty of God gives religion its invincible power ; it is the con- viction that makes martyrs. It is finely expressed in the Antigone of Sophocles (11. 450—460), where the heroine replies to the tyrant Creon : "Nor could I think thine edict of such might, That one who is mortal thus should overrule The infallible, unwritten laws of heaven." St Paul tells us elsewhere, and by way of example, that he "pleased all in all things for their good, unto edification" (i Cor. x. 33; Rom. XV. 2). To please men in that which displeases God, is to injure them: "If (in such circumstances) I pleased men, I should not vv. 5, 6.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 65 trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering s words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor 6 be Christ's slave" (Gal. i. 10). That is, to be the slave of public opinion, — often an ignorant, sometimes an unprincipled master. Vv. 3 and 4 are then a general disclaimer of unworthy motives on the part of the missionaries. Their bold testimony at Thessalonica {vv. i and 2) was due to two things — their sincerity of heart, and their loyalty to God. Now we resume the account of the Apostle's relations to the rhessalonians, confirming these professions : — 5. For neither at any tifne tised we flattering words] were we found using words of flattery {R.V.: same verb as in ver. 1, '■'■found vzxci'") ; or, did we fall into the use of flattering speech. "Found" might suggest detection, which is not in the Apostle's mind. Lit., word jf flattery, referring to the tenor and general style of the apostles' speech. He adds a third time (see note on ver. i) "as ye know." St Paul, as his friends well knew, was not one to "crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning." In repudiating the cloak of covetousness he appeals to "God" as "witness" (comp. Rom. i. 9, "God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son;" also ii. 15, ix. i), — "God, Who proveth our hearts" (ver. 4). The "cloak" signifies the />ret ex t of an affected self-devotion, such as might be used to conceal the "covetousness" of a selfish heart. "God is witness," he says, "that no secret avarice was hidden behind our zeal for your salvation." The Greek word for "covetousness" denotes greed of any kind, — oftenest, but not always or necessarily, for money ; it is the spirit of self-aggrandisement, selfishness as a ruling passion. (Comp. the note on "defraud," ch. iv. 6.) Such a motive in the servant of God would constitute the "uncleanness" denied in ver. 3. This verse gives double evidence of the pure zeal for God professed in w. 3 and 4— the one outzvard and of the lips, the other imvard and known only to God in the heart. Contrast the opposite description of Ps. xii. 2: "A flattering lip, and a double heart." 6. nor of men sought we glory ^ neither of you, nor yet of others'] This clause continues ver. 5, and is so construed in the R.V. : nor (were we found) seeking glory of men, neither from you, nor from others. "O/" men" points to the general source of such "glory," indicating its character; ^^from you," &c., to the particular quarter whence, con- ceivably, it might have been sought. The motive of ambition — "that last infirmity of noble minds"— -rises above the selfishness just disclaimed ; but it is just as warmly repudiated, for it is equally inconsistent with the single-mindedness of men de- voted to the glory of God. Our Lord finds in superiority to human praise the mark of a sincere faith : "How can ye believe," He asks, "who receive honour one of another, and the glory which cometh from the only God ye seek not?" Qohn v. 44). l.xESS. 5 66 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 6. yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Chrisi'\ Lit., as apostles of Christ, without the definite article. St Paul is speaking for himself and Silas and Timothy; and the latter were not of the Apostles, but they were, in common with himself, " apostles of Christ." "Apostle" signifies by derivation emissary, or envoy, — one "sent out " by authority with some message or commission. The term was probably in current use amongst the Jews, when Jesus adopted it for His chosen Twelve. But it obtained in the early Church a wider application, concurrently with its stricter reference to the Twelve (in- cluding Paul, afterwards recognized as being of the same order, i Cor. ix. i; Gal. i. i, 17, ii. 7, &c.). Of this we have examples in Barnabas and Patd, Acts xiv. 4, 14; Andronicus and Jimias, "amongst the apostles," Rom. xvi. 7; Titus and others, "apostles of the churches," 1 Cor. viii. 23; jfudean emissaries, "false apostles," 1 Cor. xi. 13; Epaphroditus, sent from the Philippian Church to Paul in prison at Rome, Ph. ii. 25; also in Rev. ii. 2; Heb. iii. i (Christ Himself is "the Apostle," being sent forth from God), John xiii. 16. In John xvii. 18; XX. 21 we find the fundamental idea of the word and the basis of its larger application: " As Thou didst send Me forth into the world, even so I have sent forth them." In this more general use, apostle did not differ much from our word missionary. The title belonged to men who were sent out in Christ's name by particular Churches — either with a specific and limited mission, or with a general commission to preach the gospel — as well as to those directly appointed by Jesus Himself and charged with His full authority. But after N. T. times the designation came to be reserved, with slight exceptions, to the Twelve and Paul. See Bishop Lightfoot's detached note on the Naj7ie and Office of an Apostle in his Commentary on Galatians, pp. 92 ff.; and Huxtable's very valuable Dissertation in the Pulpit Commentary on Galatians, pp. xxiii. — 1. St Paul certainly possessed the lower apostle- ship (see Acts xiii. i — 3), and there was no need for him in this letter to claim the higher, nor to distinguish himself from his missionary com- panions. His friend Luke puts the Apostle, in the early stage of his ministry, on a level with Barnabas (Acts xiv. 4, 14). The time came when he was compelled to assume the highest Apostolic powers and to assert his equality with Peter and the Twelve (Gal. i. i; ii. ; i Cor. ix. I, 2, XV. 7 — II ; 2 Cor. xii. 11 — 13, xiii. 3 — 10); but it was not yet. " Burdensome " is lit. in (or in our idiom, of) weight — an ambiguous phrase, whose sense is interpreted by ver. 9 : " that we might not burden any of you." These " apostles of Christ " — according to Paul's maxim, " They which preach the gospel should live of the gospel " (i Cor. ix, 14) — might have claimed their maintenance from the Thes- salonian Church. Had they been " seeking glory of men," they would certainly have done so ; it was both the easier and the more dignified course. " Weight " suggests the secondary sense of honour, glory : R. V. margin, claimed honour (comp. 2 Cor. iv. 17, "weight of glory": weight and glory are one word in Hebrew). Not because they were apostles (as though this were a privilege peculiar to the name), but " as vv. 7, 8.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 67 apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as 7 a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately de- 8 sirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, Chrisfs apostles" — sent on His errand, preaching His word: "so hath the Lord ordained" (i Cor, ix. 14; Luke x. 7). We find that the Apostle, while in Thessalonica at this time, did receive help twice over from his Philippian friends, and gratefully remembered it (Phil. iv. 15, 16). So afterwards, at Corinth, he allowed contributions to be sent him "from Macedonia" (2 Cor. xi. 9). 7. But we were gentle among you] Lit., and more graphically, in the midst of you (R.V.); also, were found gentle — same verb as in ver. i, and ch. i. 5 {showed ourselves toward yott, R.V.). Instead oi gentle, babes is the reading of " most of the ancient autho- rities" (R.V., margin), including the Vulgate [paj'vtili): the difference in the Greek lies only in the repetition or omission of a single letter. The modern editors (with the weighty exception of Westcott and Hort : see the Note in their New Testameiit in Greek, vol. ii., p. 128), decide in favour of the received reading, — (i) because " gentle " better suits the context; and (2) because this Greek word occurs only once besides in the N.T. (i Tim. ii. 24), for copyists are prone to change an un- familiar into any familiar word resembling it that gives a tolerable sense, and "babes" is a favourite expression of St Paul. If babes be the genuine reading — and it is difficult to resist the evidence in its favour — then it must be explained as it is by Origen and Augustine, endorsed by Westcott : like a nurse atnongst her children, talking in baby language to the babes. The gentleness of these apostles of Christ stands in tacit contrast with the airs of authority and the exactions of selfish and vain-glorious men in like circumstances {vv. 5, 6). The behaviour of the "false apostles" who appeared at Corinth affords us an example of that which St Paul and his comrades avoided. See 2 Cor. xi. 20, 21, xii. 13 — 18. We note the union oi gentleness and courage (ver. 2) in the mission- aries: a mark of the true hero, like Wordsworth's ' Happy Warrior,' — "who though endued as with a sense And faculty for storm and turbulence. Is yet a soul whose master-bias leans To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes." (We were gentle in the midst of you) as though a nurse were cherishing her own children. The "nurse" is 7?iother at the same time— a mother with the babe at her breast, the perfect image of fostering love. Comp. Christ's picture in Matt, xxiii. 37. 8. so being affectionately desirous of you] R.V., even so. The rare and pecuHar Greek verb (one word) rendered "being affec- tionately desirous" implies xhQ fofidttess of a mother's love— yearning over you. With this mother-like affection, he continues, we were well pleased to impart unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own 5—2 68 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 9. not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because 9 ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our souls (R.V.). The apostles were not merely willing (A.V.) to bestow themselves on the Thessalonians, they actually did so, and with the glad consent of a mother nourishing the babe from her own life. The same verb is rendered " thought-good " in ch. iii. i ; and the corre- sponding noun is "good-pleasure" in 2 Ep. i. 11 (see note). For "souls" we might read "lives" {psyche is never the soul in general, but the individual soul, the personality) — our lives, our very selves. The Apostle sacrificed all personal aims and private interests — *' what things were gain to me" (Phil. iii. 7) — to the cause of the Gospel; his life was put in continual hazard in behalf of the Church; and for such people as the Macedonian Christians he did this ^ with cordial satisfaction. " If I am made a libation over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all" (Phil. ii. 17). Even to the thankless Corinthians he says, " I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" (2 Cor. xii. 15). This is the true way to "impart the gospel of God," to give our own heart and soul with it. For it is to impart the Gospel in the spirit in which it came from God, " Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all " (Rom. viii. 32); and in the spirit of Christ, " Who gave Himself up for us " (Gal. i. 4; ii. 20), Who "poured out His soul unto death" (Isai. liii. 12). because ye zuere dear unto US'] More adequately, ye became very dear (R.V.) ; lit., beloved, the word so often applied to Christ (in the Gospels) by the Father: "My Beloved," "My Son, the Beloved" (comp. Eph. i. 6, "accepted in the Beloved"). This Church had won upon St Paul's affections in an especial degree. They were lovable people, dear to God and to the servants of God. Comp. ch. i. 3, 4; 2 Ep. ii. 13, 16; see also Introd. pp. 34, 35, and notes on w. 19, 20. 9. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail] In ch. i. 3 (see note) the Apostle spoke with thankfulness of his readers' "labour of love;" this laborious spirit they had learnt from himself: comp. 2 Ep. iii. 8, 9, where it appears that to some of them his example was a reproof. " Travail" is added to "labour," as in 2 Ep. iii. 8; 2 Cor. xi. 27 (the reference being in each case to manual labour), to indicate the difficulty, as labour the toilsomeness of the Apostle's work. St Paul was a "tentmaker by trade" (Acts xviii. 3). Jewish fathers, even if wealthy, had their sons taught some mechanical craft as a remedy against poverty or idleness; and Paul had learnt in his youth at Tarsus the business of cutting out and stitching the coarse goats' hair cloth used in Cilicia for making tents. He found this skill in his wandering apostleship a great resource. An irksome kind of labour, to be sure, and but ill paid. It was a pathetic sight when the Apostle held up "these hands" to the Ephesian elders, hard and blackened with their rough task (Acts xx. 34). But he thus earned for himself the necessaries of subsistence, and avoided burdening the infant Churches with his maintenance. In this way he was free to direct his own move- V. lo.] I. THESSALONIANS, 11. 69 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 our- ments, and raised himself above mean suspicions. At the same time, he did not refuse occasional aid from a Church Hke the Phihppian, in which he had full confidence, and whose affection would have been hurt by refusal. On this subject read i Cor. ix. i — 19; 1 Cor. xi. 7 — \^ ; Phil. iv. 10 — 20; Acts XX. 33 — 35. Silas and Timothy, who are included in this statement, may have had other means of support. But in Acts XX. 34 the Apostle speaks of "these hands" as "ministering" also "to the needs of those with me." for labouring night and day] Omit "for," and read this clause in apposition with the last. Ye remember... our labour and travail: working night and day... we preached, &c. Busy in teaching and preaching during the daytime, the Apostle often pursued his tentmaking far into the night. because we zvotdd not be chargeable unto any 0/ you] St Paul puts it in a more delicate way than this : that we might not lay a burden on any of you. It was consideration for his Thessalonian flock, rather than regard to his personal independence, that influenced him. How different was he from the false shepherds who "eat the fat and clothe them with the wool, but feed not the flock" (Ezek. xxxiv. 3). Most of the Thessalonian Christians, doubtless, were poor; while at Philippi there was "Lydia, a seller of purple," and perhaps others of consider- able means, who could afford to "send once and again to" Paul's "necessity" (Ph. iv. 15, 16). Yet Jason of Thessalonica, in whose house the apostles lodged, seems to have been a man of substance (Acts xvii. 5 — 9); and there were "of the first women" of the city "not a few" amongst Paul's adherents in this place. Thus "making the gospel without expense," as later at Corinth (i Cor. ix. 18), — ive preached unto you the gospel of God] " Preached " is proclaimed, heralded. St Paul refers to the circumstances of his ' * entrance " ( ver. i ) and the manner in which he and his companions then bore themselves. The Herald, or Town Crier, in ancient cities was commonly a salaried official. A third time the Apostle writes "the gospel of God''' (comp. w. 2, 4, 8)— a phrase occurring only thrice in all the other Epistles. It sug- gests in ver. 2 the greatness of the charge entrusted to Paul ; here, the greatness of the boon gratuitously bestowed on the Thessalonians. 10. Ye are witnesses, and God also] In ver. 5 the witness of man and of God (to the outward and inward respectively) were distinguished; here they are combined : You are witnesses, and so is God. ho'M holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe] R.V. more correctly, toward you : also righteously instead oi justly. Concerning "you that believe," as a designation of Christians, see note to ch. i. 7. For holily we might substitute religiously. The Greek adverb does 70 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [vv. ii, 12. 11 selves among you that believe: as you know how we ex- horted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a 12 father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, not represent the ordinary N.T. word for "holy" {hagios, i.e. saint), but another adjective {hosios), which is frequent in the O.T. and in common Greek. The former denotes Holiness as a relationship to God ; the latter, as a condition or disposition of the man : they differ as consecrated {vom religions or pions. For the combination of Holiness (in this latter sense) with Righteousness, see Eph, iv. 24 ; Tit. i. 8 ; also Luke i. 75 ; in the O.T., Deut. xxxii. 4; Ps. cxlv. 17 (applied to God), &c. The terms are not mutually exclusive, but may apply to the same acts and persons. The "holy" man has regard to the sanctities, the "righteous" man to the duties of life ; but duty is sacred, and piety is duty. They cover the whole field of conduct, regarded in turn from the religious and moral standpoint, while " unblameably " affixes the seal of approval both by God and man. Unblameably reappears in the "blameless" of ch. iii. 13 and v, ■23. 11. as yon know hozv we exhorted and comforted and charged roery one of you, as a father doth his children\ The R. V. recasts the verse, restoring the order and emphasis of the Apostle's words : how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, &c. "Dealt with" is not in the Greek, but English idiom requires some such verb to sustain the participles that follow. The writer intended to complete the sentence with some governing verb, but the intervening words carried his thoughts away. See the observations on St Paul's style in the Introd. Chap. VI. The Apostle compared himself to a nurse-mother (ver. 7) in his tender, gentle affection ; now he is a father in the fidelity and manly strength of his counsels. Comp. i Cor. iv. 14 — 21, where he gives a different turn to the figure. "Exhorting" is the general tenn for animating address: comp. notes on ver. 3, and ch. iii. 2. "Encouraging" (as in ch. v. 14, John xi. 19, 31; rendered uniformly in A.V., "comforting") is the calming and consoling side of exhortation, as addressed to the afflicted or the weak. "Testifying" (same word as in Gal. v. 3; Eph. iv. 17; Acts xxvi. 22) supplies its solemn, warning element. The Thessalonian Church was both suffering and tempted, and the Apostle's ministry to them had been at once consolatory and admonitory. So are his two Epistles. every one\ Lit., each single one, as in 2 Ep. i. 3, indicates St Paul's discrimination and care for individuals. Comp. the "publicly, and from house to house " of Acts xx. 20. 12. that ye would walk ivorthy of God] Better, in order that ye should, and worthily (R.V.) "Walk" is the common Hebrew and O.T. figure for the conduct of life. It was God's message the apostles of Christ had brought to the Thes- salonians {tjv. 2, 9); " unto God, the living and true," they had "turned from their idols to serve" Him (ch. i. 9). They must, therefore, now live a life "worthy of God'' — worthy of those who have such a God and are V. 13] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 71 who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this 13 His servants and sons. Nowhere, perhaps, does St Paul lay such con- tinued emphasis on the relation of the Christian believer to God as in these Epistles: see Introd. pp. 17, 18. To " walk worthily of God" is the noblest possible ideal of life; so high that it would appear visionary and impracticable, if it were not for what follows : — (worthy of God) ivho hath called you unto his kingdom and glory^ According to the truer reading, who calleth— for it is a call that continues till its purpose is accomplished (comp. ch. iv. 8, "God who giveth His Holy Spirit," R.V.) ; and into His own kingdom, &c. Such is the confidence of "you that believe" (ver. 10); and this conviction gives the believer will and courage to aspii-e to the loftiest moral attainments: comp. ch. v. 24 (note). God's summons the Thes- salonians had heard ; His call could not be purposeless or powerless. The announcement of the Kingdom of God was a leading feature of St Paul's preaching at Thessalonica ; comp. i Ep. i. 5, and see Introd, pp. 18 — 21. It is also designated "the kingdom of the Son," Col. i. 13; "of Christ and God," Eph. v. 5; Rev. xi. 15; "of heaven," in St Matthew. This kingdom is sometimes spoken of as present, some- times as future — a variation which marks the language of Christ equally with His Apostle. The expression comes in the first place from the Jewish Rabbis, being derived from the predictions of Dan. ii. 44, 45, vii. 13, 14; Mic. iv. 7; and these predictions again had their foundation in the great prophetic declarations respecting the throne and house of David (2 Sam. vii. ; Ps. ii. and ex.). It was the popular designation for that perfect Divine rule which the Jews expected to see established on earth by the Messiah at His coming. It was called "the kingdom of heaven ",(or "the heavens"), as having its seat and origin in heaven, and in contrast with the existing " kingdoms of this world and their glory," of which the Tempter said to Jesus, in harmony with Jewish ideas, "All this hath been delivered unto me" (Luke iv. 6). But God calls men "from the dominion of Satan" (Acts xxvi. 18) into ^'- His ozvn kingdom and glory." The difference is, fundamentally, not one of place or time ; it is a moral opposition. John the Baptist, and then Christ, in similar terms announced the new kingdom to be " at hand;" in leaving the world Jesus declared that His "Father's kingdom" would be revealed on His return (Matt. xiii. 43, xxvi. 29, 64; Luke xix. 12, &c.). At the same time, He taught that the kingdom already existed in His Person and was constituted by His presence; that in its essence it was set up within His disciples, and therefore its future coming would be the manifestation and unfolding of what they already possessed in the spiritual life received from Him: see Luke xvii. 21 ; John xviii. 36, 37; Matt. V. 3, 10, xiii. 31 — 33, 38, &c. Christ's doctrine of the kingdom is virtually contained in the two petitions of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy king- dom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven so also upon earth." This implies that so far as God's will is done on earth. His kingdom is here already ; earth being ruled from heaven and by heaven's law. But the 72 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 13. cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye more it makes its power felt on earth, the more necessary does its heavenly glory become. St Paul sees the kingdom present and ruling where there is " righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit " (Rom. xiv. 17): but what is now possessed of it he regards as only the *V«r;/^j-/of our inheritance" (Rom. viii. 23; Eph. i. 14); God "is" ever "calling" His servants onward "to His o\vn kingdom and glory." The glory is God's glory — the splendour of His future revelation as He will at last, on the return of Christ, be manifested to His saints. In this glory they will share. ' * The kingdom and glory of God " are one, the latter being the full display and consummation of the former. And in the Apostle's view, "the hope of the glory of God" (Rom. v. 2) is bound up with the "hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," which the Thessalonians so earnestly cherished. Obeying the voice of God that calls them to a place in His glorious kingdom, St Paul's readers will know how to " walk worthily." This summons is the ever-renewed incitement of a holy life, and inspires us with the most exalted of those "mighty hopes which make us men." So " we were saved by hope " (Rom. viii. 24). This view of the religion of the Thessalonians agrees with what was said of them in ch. i. 9, 10. " Walking worthily of God" corresponds to "serving a living and true God ;" and the " call to His kingdom and glory" invites them to "wait for His Son from the heavens." SECTION III. Jewish Persecutors of the Church. Ch. II. 13—16. This short paragraph is of peculiar interest. The Apostle was at the time exposed in his Gentile mission to the bitterest persecution from the unbelieving Jews, as we gather from the contemporary narrative of Acts xvi. — xviii. And he employs against them in vv. 15, 16 language more severe than is found in any other of his writings. Evidently he regarded the Jews as being now, in the counsels of God, a doomed nation (ver. 16). Accordingly, we find him in Rom. ix. — xi., a few years later, arguing upon the reprobation of " Israel after the flesh " as a settled thing. We observe, too, his desire (ver. 14) to draw the Jewish and Gentile sections of the Church nearer to each other in sympathy under the stress of persecution. As to the bearing of this passage on the date of the Epistle, see Introd. p. i^, foot-note. Analysis: The Apostle (r) again thanks God for the receptiott given to the Gospel by his readers, ver. 13; (2) he sees in their ujtion with the Jiidean Churches in persecution a proof of its efficacy in them, ver. 14; and (3) this gives him occasion to denounce Jewish violence against the Gospel, whose punishment is now decreed and impending, vv. 15, 16. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing'] Revised reading: And for this cause we also, &c. The Apostle has already given thanks for the Christian worth of the Thessalonians (ch. i. 2 ff.); V. 13.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. Tz 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. his thanksgiving is renewed when he considers that this is the fruit of his 07un and his companions^ labour amongst them. Hence "we is em- phasized here (in the Greek), hut not in ch. i. 2. "For this cause" looks back over the whole of the last section, vv. I — 12. Accordingly he continues : — because, zvhenye received the word of God, which ye heard of US'] Better, (we give thanks) that (R. V.), or in that : comp, notes on ch. i. 5 and 2 Ep. i. 3. The recollections of the last paragraph prompt the writer to the thanksgiving which takes shape in the words that follow : — ¥ox ye received the word of God, &c., R.V. renders: ye received f-om US the word of the message (Greek, 7vord of hearing), even the word of God. Perhaps the A.V. is nearer to St Paul's meaning: "from us" in the original immediately follows "hearing," and appears to be de- pendent upon it. We therefore translate, somewhat freely, but after the order of the Greek : when you received the word you heard from us — God's word. " Word " is not repeated by the Apostle, nor has it the definite article; English idiom requires both. His joy is that a message heard from his lips, not his own indeed but God's word (see vv. 2,8, 9, and note on the last), had been thus received. For the connection of "hearing" and " from us" comp. 2 Tim. i. 13, ii. 2, "what thou hast heard from, me'"'', and 2 Cor. i. 19, "the Son of God proclaimed through me and Silas and Timothy." "Faith comes by hearing"; and hearing requires "a preacher" (Rom. x. 13 — 17). ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God] R.V., accepted for received: the Greek verb differs from that of the last clause, which might signify the mere outward reception of something "heard"; this term, as in ch. i. 6, denotes a willing, hearty acceptance — a welcome given to the "word." It is the expression used in Gal. iv. 14: — "as an angel of God you received me"; again in Phil. iv. 18, where Paul speaks of his 7velcoming the timely gift from Philippi ; and is the common Greek term for receiving a guest. Literally the clause reads, you accepted not men's word, but, as it is truly, God's word. ^' Alen^s word" — the mere word of " Paul and Silas and Timothy." The Thessalonians accepted God's word as God's, with reverence and faith. They recognised in what they heard from Paul and Silas a higher Voice, the message of the living and true God, calling them to life eternal. The success of religious teaching lies in its power to make God's voice audible through human speech. li the preacher cannot do this, he does nothing. And this accounts for the result, which St Paul next describes : — which effectually worketh also in you that believe] which also worketh (R.V. : read worketh with an emphasis), or is operative, effectual. The "work of faith" which the Apostle admired in the Thessa- lonian Church (ch. i. 3 : see note) is the work of God's word in them. 74 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 14. 14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus : for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of In their lives that word takes effect ; it puts forth its energy, and does its proper work. "The seed" of all such fruit "is the word of God" (Luke viii. 11). On "you that believe" see note to ch. i. 7. Here the present tense of the pai-ticiple makes its force sensible — "you that do believe;" con- tinued faith being the condition of this sustained efficacy of the word of God in the Thessalonians. Mighty as it is, that word can do nothing for us unless we believe it (comp. Matt, xiii, 58). 14. Fo7' ye, brethren^ became followers of the churches of God which in Jtidea are in Christ Jesus'l Followers should be imitators (R.V.), just as in ch. i. 6: imitators of the apostles and of their Lord, the Thessalonians were imitating the Judsean Churches, and in the same respect, viz. in the willing endurance of suffering for the word's sake. Silas, be it remembered, had been an active member of the Church at Jerusalem (Acts xv. 22, 32), and through him especially the missionary band would be in communication and sympathy at this time with their brethren in Judaea. More strictly, wliich are in Judaea in Christ Jesus (R.V.). "In Judaea" is the local, "in Christ Jesus" the spiritual habitat of these Churches. This latter phrase — an expression characteristic of St Paul and frequent in subsequent Epistles — signifies "in union and com- munion with Him, incorporated with Him who is the Head" of His Body the Church (Ellicott). It distinguishes the Christian from other Judaean communities which also claimed to be "Churches (assemblies) of God." Comp. note on "Church. ..in God the Father," &c., ch. i. i. Observe the order Christ Jesus, a combination almost confined to St Paul, and which he employs when he thinks of Him in His actual Person and official character, as the present Head and Life of His people on earth ; whereas Jesus Christ is the historical order, and points to His earthly course and exaltation to Messiahship (see Acts ii, 36). "Church of God" is an O.T. expression, found in the Greek ren- dering of Neh. xiii. i; Deut. xxiii. i — 3 (church of the Lord: congre- gation, A. v.); it denotes that the Church belojigs to God, while it suggests, according to the derivation of ek-klesia, that its members are ccUled out (of the world) by God (comp. ver. 12). In Gal. i. 22 the Apostle writes, more simply, ' ' the Churches of Judaea which are in Christ." This reference to the Home Churches creates a link between far-off Thessalonica and Judaea. The Thessalonians are not alone in their troubles; they are fighting the same battle as the mother Church and the first disciples of the Lord. Comp. Ph. i. 30, "having the same conflict which ye saw in me." Their union with Christ's persecuted flock in its native land shewed that the Gospel was working in them to purpose (ver, 13), and working everywhere in the same way. for ye also have suffered like things of your ozvn cou7itryt7icn, even V. 15.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 7S the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own 15 prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, as they have of the yews] St Paul says the same, not like things. And this "for" represents a different word from the previous "for;" it is rather in that, not accounting for the Thessalonians imitating Judean example, but explaining wherein the imitation consisted. The hostility of their fellow-townsmen formed a bitter ingredient in their afflictions (Acts xvii. 5 — 9). The Apostle tells them that it was the same with the primitive Churches in Judaea — that, indeed, the murder of the Lord Jesus and of the old prophets, and the expulsion of the apostles were due to feelings precisely similar to those aroused in their own city against themselves. This was a proof that they were in the true succession. Christ had said, "A man's foes shall be they of his own household." Such comfort has often to be given to young missionary churches. But the Apostle has now to add words of awful severity respecting those whom his readers knew to be the prime instigators of persecu- tion, both against themselves and him — the Jrdus: — 15. who both killed the Lord Jesus^ and their own prophets] Re- vised reading, simply the prophets. Christ represented His death as the culmination of the murders of the ancient prophets (Luke xi. 47 — 52; xiii. 31 — 33; xx. 9-— 16); St Stephen had said the same thing in Paul's hearing, with poignant force (Acts vii. 52). Now the Apostle takes up the accusation. More exactly, killed the Lord, (even) Jesus ; or, changing the gram- matical form but retaining the order of the Greek words. The Lord they slew, Jesus, — as well as the prophets. This sets the deed in an appalling light. To have killed the Lord — ^Vho bears a title that belongs to God, and "Him whom they were bound to serve" (Jowett); (comp. I Cor. ii. 8: They "crucified the Lord of glory"); that Lord i)eing Jesus their Saviour (comp. Acts iv. 12), and such an one as Jesus was known to be ! The double name, emphasized in each part, brings into striking relief at once the Divine authority and the human character of Christ. Comp. Acts ii. 36 ("Him did God make both Lord and Christ— this Jesus whom you cmcified!"); also the parable of Luke XX. 9 — 18, Mark xii. i — 11, "The husbandmen said, This is the heir; come, let us kill him ! " and have persecuted us] Better, and drave us out (R.V.), words which echo those of Christ in Luke xi. 49: "I will send them pro- phets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute." Already Christ, like the prophets, had been killed; and now His apostles were driven out, "fleeing from city to city" (Matt, xxiii. 34) to avoid the like fate. Read the account of Paul's departure from Jerusalem in Acts ix. 28—30; and his later experience there. Acts xxi.— xxiii.; also the narrative of James' death and Peter's escape from Herod's prison, in Acts xii. 1—9. Paul and Silas had now been hunted all the way from Philippi to Corinth by Jewish malignity, and it was only the authority and good sense of the Roman Governor, 76 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. i6. i6 and are contrary to all men : forbidding us to speak to the Gallic, that made it possible for him to remain in the latter city. Comp. 2 Cor. xi. 26 : "In perils from mine own countrymen." and they please not God] Omit t/iejy, and put a comma only before this clause, for it is immediately continuous with the last : more exactly, and axe not pleasing to God. This is an instance of what the gram- marians call meiosis or litotes, the studiously restrained and smooth expression covering intense feeling; as where the Apostle says, **I praise you not," meaning severe blame (i Cor. xi. 17, 22). Their unpleasingness to God was due not to these wicked acts alone, but to their whole conduct. Comp., in the O.T., such sayings as Isai. Ixv. 5 : "These are a smoke in My nostrils;" and Jer. xxxii. 30. By contrast, the Apostle spoke of himself as "not pleasing men, but God" (ver. 4). and are contrary to all men] At war both with God and men ! The sense of God's displeasure often shews itself in sourness and ill- temper towards one's fellows. Unbelief and cynicism go together. The rancour of the Jews against otHer nations at this time was notorious. Tacitus, the Roman historian, writing in the next generation, remarks on their '' adverstis omnes alios hostile odium''^ {Histor. v. 5). This animosity culminated in the war against Rome (a.d. 66 — 70), and brought a fearful retribution. The quarrel between Judaism and the world, alas, still continues, as the Jtidenhasse of Germany and Russia testifies. Jewish hatred has been more than repaid by Christian persecution. The antipathy is powerfully impersonated in Shakespeare's Shylock. The Jew says of his debtor, * ' I hate him, for he is a Christian." And Antonio in turn : "You may as well use question with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; You may as well do anything most hard, As seek to soften that (than which what's harder?) His Jewish heart." But we may hope that better feelings will prevail in the future on both sides. St Paul is thinking, however, not of the Jewish sentiment in general, but of the opposition of his people to the rest of the world on that one point which concerned him so deeply, viz. the salvation of men through Christ. 16. forbidding tis to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved] R.V., may be saved. As much as to say : "These Jews, if they had their way, would prevent us speaking a single word to you about the Gospel; they would willingly see all the Gentiles perish!" This stamped them as enemies of the human race. They were furious to think that unclean Gentiles claimed a share in their Messiah! Their murderous hatred against Paul was due to the fact that he preached Christ to the heathen and declared God to be the God of Jews and Gentiles equally, saving both alike through faith in Christ. So when in his defence before the Jewish multitude at the Temple he came to the words, "Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles ^^ they broke out in uncontrollable rage, "Away with such a fellow from the V. i6.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. m Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sinsalway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. earth, for it is not fit that he should live!" (Acts xxii. i\ — 23). The Jews of Thessalonica seem to have been especially mean and fanatical (Acts xvii. 5, II, 13); and the Apostle wishes his readers to see how entirely he is on their side as against his fellow-countrymen. to fill up their sins ahvay] After the death of Christ a space for repentance was allowed them, the "forty years" alluded to in Heb. iii. 9, 17. Had they accepted Christ's message of reconciliation through the apostles and become His witnesses to the Gentiles, the judgement would have been averted (Acts iii. 19). The measure allowed to the nation's sins was not yet full ; but this last refusal made their cup over- flow — slowly filling, as it had been, for many ages. *' Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers," Jesus had said to them (Matt, xxiii. 32); and this they had done, beyond all question. The phrase fill up their sins, signifying ripeness for judgement, is used in Gen. xv. 16 of the Amorites in Abraham's time — an ominous parallel. " Alway:" comp. Stephen's reproach, "As did your fathers, so do ye" (Acts vii. 51). for the wrath is come tipon them to the uttermost\ but the wrath (R.V.), not for\ as though he said, "But the end comes at last; they have always been sowing this harvest; now it has to be reaped." Whose wrath this is, goes without saying; so in Rom. v. 9 God's anger is called with impressive emphasis '''■the wrath." It is indeed "the wrath" of ch. i. 10 (see note), there regarded in its final and general manifestation to the world, here in its imminent relation to the people of Israel. There it is " coming ;" here it "is come," or has arrived. These words are prophetical; but the announcement goes beyond prediction. The Jews as a people had decisively refused the gospel of Jesus Christ, and their fate was sealed. The nation was moving swiftly and visibly down the inclined plane to ruin. And this calamity was to hQ final. "To the uttermost," says the Apostle; lit., unto an end. In former threatenings the Lord had said, "Yet will I not make a full end". (Jer. iv. 27, and often). He does make a full end this time — an end of the Old Covenant and of national Israel as the elect people ; still it is not '■^the end," as though God had no further dealings with ancient Israel : see on the contrary Rom. xi. In the year 70 of our Lord Jerusalem fell, after the most dreadful and calamitous siege known in history; and the Jewish people ever since have wandered without a home and without an altar. Tristis exittis, says Bengel : urgebat miseros ira Deiy et eh reXos {tandem, at length) urbem cum templo delevit. SECTION IV. St Paul's Present Relations to the Thessalonians. Ch. IL 17— III. 13. The Apostle had been drawn aside in the last paragraph, by a sudden and characteristic burst of feeling, from the main purpose of his letter. 78 I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 17. "7 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly To this he now returns. Ver. 17 might follow quite naturally upon ver. 12. Having recalled to his readers the circumstances of his arrival at Thessalonica and the manner of his life amongst them, he goes on to speak of the feelings and views which he now entertains in regard to them. And he continues in this vein to the end of ch. iii. He speaks ( i ) of his great desire to revisit them and the attempts he has made to do so, vv. 17 — 20; (2) he relates how he sent Timothy with messages and enquiries when he found this impossible, ch. iii. i — 5; (3) he expresses his satisfactioJi at the report Timothy has brought back to him, vv. 6 — 8; and (4) he repeats his thanksgiving and his longing to see them, with prayers both on this account and for their final acceptance in the day of Christ, w. 9 — 13. We may suppose that St Paul's enemies, while they set down the preaching of the missionaries in the first instance to base motives (see note to ver. 3), went on to insinuate that the Apostle's continued absence showed his unconcern for his persecuted followers. (Comp. Ijitrod. pp. 23, 24.) Hence the warmth and energy of his protestations. 17. But we, breth7-en, being taken from you\ bereaved of you (R.V.), or torn away from you; lit., orphaned — a word employed in Greek with some latitude — the very strongest expression the Apostle could find, occurring only here in the N.T. for a short time'\ Lit., season of an hour, — as we say, "an hour's time." St Paul expected, when he left Thessalonica, to be able to return very shortly. Meanwhile the apostles felt themselves to be parted from their friends "in presence (or person) — not in heart." The comfort of their parting was the hope of speedy reunion : "Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say Good-night, till it be morrow." We find from Acts xvii. 10 that it was "the" Thessalonian "brethren" who "sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Beroea," in order to secure their safety. Unwilling to go, the apostles were eager to return : — we...e7ideavoured the more abundantly"] exceedingly (R.V.): we were the more earnest in our endeavours (because our hearts were so truly one) to see your face, with great desire. "Face" is identical in Greek with the "presence" of the former clause: they were parted in sight, not in affection; but true affection longs for sight. This "great desire" excited and sustained the apostles' endeavours. "We longed for the sight of your dear faces, and did our utmost to get back to you:" so in ch. iii. 10, "Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your faceP Such, too, was the love of St John to his friends : ' ' But I hope speedily to see thee ; and we will talk mouth to mouth" (2 John 12; 3 John 14). "The spiritual interest of the Apostle about his converts is never for a moment separate from his tender human love for them" (Jowett). vv. i8, 19.] I. THESSALONIANS, II. 79 to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would is have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown 19 18. Wherefore we would have come unto yoti] The true reading is because — not "wherefore," due probably to a misunderstanding of the following verb, which is not removed by the rendering of the R.V., "because we would fain have come." This but repeats the "great desire " just expressed ; whereas the Greek verb implies resolution rather than inclination. The Apostle, as we understand him, is giving the explanation of his strenuous endeavours (ver. 17), lying behind them in his determined will — because we had resolved to come to you: "we had set our minds upon it." even I Paul] Better, I Paul, for my part. He speaks for hitnself : Timothy did return after a time (ch. iii. i, 2); and Silas had been left behind in Macedonia (Acts xvii. 14; xviii. 5). Paul had not come at all ; but it was not for want of will. And the Apostle had made up his mind to this more than once — both once and twice. Silas had, no doubt, shared in the wish and endeavour to return fro/)i Beroea; the second attempt, likewise frustrated, was made by the Apostle alone, fi-of?i Athens (ch. iii. i). The expres- sion recurs in Ph. iv. 16. Compare with the whole statement Rom. i. 13 : " Many times I purposed to come to you, and have been hindered hitherto." The Apostle's prophetic gift did not save him from the dis- cipline of disappointment. but Satan hindered «j] Properly, and Satan, &c.: "but" would be the regular conjunction here; there is a slight dislocation of structure in the sentence, due to excited feeling. We may paraphrase the sentence thus: We strove eagerly to find means of coming to see you ; indeed, for my part, I bad made up my mind to do it more than once; and our way was blocked, by Satan! What form the hindrance took we can only guess. Jewish malice doubtless had much to do with it. But behind this baffling and unforeseen combination of circumstances the Apostle discerned the craft of the Arch-enemy. SatanA^ i.e. "the Adversary," is the O.T. name of the Leader of evil spirits, the great enemy of God and man — called also "the Devil" (Slanderer), "the Evil One" (2 Ep. iii. 3), and "the Tempter" (ch. iii. 5). Satan is, throughout the New Testament, a real personality, and no figure of speech. See note on 2 Ep. ii. 9; and comp. Rev. xii. 9. To account for his intense longing to see the Thessalonians, St Paul describes his interest in them in the glowing terms that follow : — 19. For what is our hope, or joy, or crow?i of rejoici7tg?'\ Not re- joicing, but glorying (R.V.), or boasting. "Crown of glorying" is a Hebrew idiom (Isai. Ixii, 3; Prov. xvi. 31, &c.); it is the crown which expresses one's exultation,— not the king's "diadem" (as in Rev. xix. 12), but the wreath of the victor in the games (i Cor. ix. 24, 25). So he calls the Philippians his "joy and crown — a boast to me in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain" (Ph. ii. 16, iv. i). And here : ''\Vho will furnish our crown at Christ's coming — who, indeed, but j/(?«?" 8o I. THESSALONIANS, II. [v. 20. of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord , Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. Are not even ye'\ This clause is best read, with Westcott and Hort, as a rhetorical parenthesis — are not even ye ? — then the main question is resumed and completed: "before our Lord Jesus at His coming?" It is then that the Apostle will wear the crown which the Thessa- lonians furnish for him. His wealth is in hope. He loves them for iwhat they are, but still more for what they will be in the ' ' unveiling of |the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19), — "set faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Then \vovf proud (ya. the just sense of that word) will their Apostle be of them ! See the prayers of ch. iii. 13 and v. 23, 24; also Col. i. 28, 29, where the goal of Paul's.labours is that he "may present every man perfect in Christ." oicr Lord Jesus Chrisf] should be our Lord Jesus (R.V.). On a point like this we should always consult a critical text, such as that of the Revisers. Copyists were peculiarly liable to error in the names of Christ. Observe the return in glory, and as Judge, of the same Lord Jesus Whom the Jews wickedly killed, ver. 15: "I saw in the midst of the throne... a Lamb, as though it had been slain," Rev. v. 6. He had said to His judges: "Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven " (Matt. xxvi. 64). This title identifies the Divine Judge and Conqueror over sin and death with the historical and human Jesus (comp. John v. 27; Acts xvii. 31). The combination Lord Jesus is more frequent in these Epistles than anywhere else in the N.T., a circumstance due to their prevailing reference to the Second Coming. For further notes on the title see ch. i. 10 and 2 Ep. i. 7. his coming] Uit.^ presence — Greek, parousia — i.e. "presence" in its active sense (different from the "presence," or "face," of ver. 17 and 2 Ep. ii. 9) — His arrival. Here is the earliest example of a word, parousia^ that has passed into the language of theology, denoting the promised Advent of Christ in glory, when He will come to complete His work of redemption and to judge mankind. His own teaching on the subject is recorded in Matt, xxiv., xxv.; Mark xiii.; Luke xii. 35 — 59; xvii. 20 — 37; xix. II — 27; xxi. 5 — 36; John V. 27 — 29; xiv. i — 3; xvi. 22, &c. Seven times the Apostle uses this solemn word in these two letters — once besides, in i Cor. xv. 23. From the three writings we leani nearly all that he has to teach on this mysterious subject. The pa^-ousia is spoken of by Christ, in answer to His disciples, in Matt, xxiv.; and is referred to also in the Epistles of James, Peter, and John. 20. For ye are our glory and joy] Or : Yea, verily, you are our glory and joy (EUicott). Emphasis rests both on "ye" and "are." This delight was not matter of hope alone (ver. 19), but of present /act. See ch. i. 2 — 4, and iii. 9: "The joy wherewith we rejoice on your account before our God"; and 2 Ep. i. 4: "We glory in you in the Churches of God." Giory is praise and honour from others; joy is one's own delight. vv. I, 2. I. THESSALONIANS, III. 8i Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought 3 it good to be left at Athens alone ; and sent Timotheus, 2 CHAPTER III. The division of chapters at this point is unfortunate. The import of ver. I lies in its connection with vv. 17 — 20 of ch. ii. We have included the whole of this chapter in the same section of the Epistle with the foregoing paragraph. See note introductory to ch. ii. 17. 1. Wherefore when we could no longer forbear'] Wherefore (i.e. because of our longing to see you) no longer bearing it (the frustration of our attempts to return to Thessalonica). " Bear " is the same word as in I Cor. xiii. 7 : "Love beareth all things " — bears up under, holds out against. " This protracted separation and repeated disappointment was more than we could endure." to be left at Athens alone] left beMnd... alone (R. V.). 2. and sent Timotheus] Timothy: see note on this name, ch. i. i. The Acts of the Apostles traces St Paul's footsteps from Thessalonica to Beroea, and on from Beroea to Athens : read Acts xvii. 10 — 16 ; and consult the map in regard to the route. But its account of the move- ments of his companions appears at first sight inconsistent with what we read here. For in Acts xvii. 14 — 16 we find Silas and Timothy both left behind at Beroea, while Paul goes on to Athens, instructing them to follow and rejoin him there as soon as possible. " Paul waited for them at Athens ; " but they do not seem to have arrived. The two comrades of the Apostle are not mentioned by St Luke again until he tells us of ^h&xx return together from Alacedonia, when they find him at Corinth (Acts xviii. I — 5). St Paul interpolates between the time of his leaving the two at Beroea and of their return in company from Macedonia reported by Luke a distinct mission of Timothy by himself to Thessa- lonica. There is, after all, no conflict between the Apostle and his historian and friend. He relates an incident which St Luke in his general and cursory narrative passed over, either as unimportant for his purpose, or because he was unaware of it. Since we have good reason to believe in the accuracy of both, we must adjust their statements to each other. This may be done in two ways: it is possible that Paul on arriving at Athens and finding that he could not return to Thessalonica from that city, sent directions to Timothy to go back in his place to the Macedonian capital, instead of coming on to Athens, while Silas still remained in Macedonia; and that, after Timothy had made this visit, they both rejoined their leader at Corinth. Or it may be — and this agrees better with the words " left behind"— that Timothy did come to Athens from Bercea, and was immediately despatched again to Thes- salonica, so that the Apostle was practically alone from the time he left Beroea until Silas and Timothy rejoined him at Corinth. The "we" of w. i, 2, 6 appears to refer to the Apostle himself; comp. 2 Cor. x. and xiii. for the interchange of "I" and "we" in St Paul's manner of referring to himself. He may write we representa- tively, where others are joined with him in sympathy, though not in THESS. 6 82 I. THESSALONIANS, III. [v. 3. our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to estabHsh you, and to comfort you 3 concerning your faith : that no 7nan should be moved by act. If Silas was now with Paul at Athens, he also must shortly have returned to Macedonia (see Acts xviii. 5); but the words "left alone''^ would seem in that case to be pointless. It was a trial to St Paul at this time to be "left alone." But his anxiety about the Thessalonians compels him, notwithstanding, to send his young helper to them. our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Chrisf] This description of Timothy is given in varying forms by the ancient MSS. The Revisers prefer to read, our brother and God's minister, &c.; but they say in the margin, "Some ancient authorities x&^d fellow-worker with God.'^ Possibly this is what the Apostle wrote: ovtx brother and a fellow- worker with God. The other variations can best be explained by it ; and copyists would scarcely have substituted by this bold expression the easy phrase " minister of God," which occurs in other Epistles, had the latter been the original reading. " God's fellow- worker " expresses a thoroughly Pauline idea (see I Cor. iii. 9; 2 Cor. vi. i), and would serve to exalt Timothy in the eyes of the Church. It agrees with what the Apostle says of him in I Cor. xvi. 10 : " Timothy worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do ; let no one therefore despise him." The Received Text, as in many other instances, results from the combination of two earlier and briefer readings of the passage. Codex B, the best of the Greek MSS, i-eads simply, our brother and fellow-worker in the gospel of Christ. to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith"] Establish is stablish in ver. 13 and elsewhere ; the same word is rendered ^'■strengthen thy brethren" in Luke xxii. 32, also Rev. iii. 2; it signifies to make stable, fix firmly. For comfort exhort or encourage is a preferable rendering. St Paul employed another and quite different verb for " comfort," in express distinction from that here used, in ch. ii. 11 (see note). The Greek verb has a wide range of meaning ; but all its uses in these two Epp. may be brought, with that of the cognate noun, under the ideas of appeal (ch. ii. 3, 11, iv. i, lo, v. 11, 14; 2 Ep. iii. 12), or en- couragement (ch. iii. 2, 7; 2 Ep. ii. 16, 17). This latter was indeed an older sense oi. comfort in English (Latin confortare). The Apostle sends Timothy to do what he wished to do himself, and continues to do by this letter — what, above all, he prays God to do for them; see ver. 13, 2 Ep. ii. 16, 17: "May He encourage your hearts, and stablish you." (Comp. Introd. p. 35.) They were afflicted, and needed "encouragement;" they were new to the Christian life, and needed "establishment." Concerning is, more strictly, on behalf of (in furtherance of) your faith. In ch. i. 3 faith, love, and hope; in ver. 6 faith and love ; here faith alone stands for the whole religion of a Christian. 3. that no man should be moved by these afflictions'] Better, that no man be moved (R.V.). " Objective sentence, explaining and specifying V. 4. I- THESSALONIANS, III. 83 these afflictions : for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you 4 before that we should suffer tribulation ; even as it came to the subject-matter of the exhortation " (Ellicott). "That" means "to the effect that." With "moved" comp. the fuller expression of 2 Ep. ii. 2, "Shaken in mind or troubled"; also Col. i. 23, " moved away from the hope of the gospel." But the Greek verb here used seems to imply "moved to softness" (Jowett). Not <^j, but literally in, or amid these afllictions; for these were not so much the cause by tvhich faith was likely to be shaken, as the circum- statues amid which it was assailed and which lent force to every temp- tation. "Amid these afflictions" the reasonings of unbelief and the enticements of idolatry and sin would have redoubled force. It was Timothy's business to shew that such trials ought not to disturb, but rather to confirm their faith. for yourselves know that we are appointed thereuntd\ The R.V. gives the verb its proper emphasis : hereunto we are appointed. St Paul delicately associates himself with his persecuted friends, passing from "you" of the last sentence to "we;" comp. the transition in ch. v. 4, 5. Indeed "these afflictions" were directed in the first instance against the apostles (see ch. ii. 2, 14, 15; iii. 7, &c.), and came on the Thessalonians through association with them. Appointed is identical with '''■set for defence of the gospel" (Phil. i. 16), and '■''set upon a hill" (Matt. v. 14), indicating the situation in which one is placed. This was their appointed post and station. And they well "knew" that such was their "calling of God:" "the fiery trial" was no " strange thing" (comp. i Pet. ii. 20, 21 ; iv. 12). 4. For verily^ when we were with yotc, we told yoti before^ More precisely, used to tell you ; this was no single warning, but one re- peated and familiar. For other references to the apostles' previous in- struction, see ch. ii. 11, 12 ; iv. i, 2 ; 2 Ep. ii. 5, 15; iii. 10. that we shoicld suffer tribidatioti\ So rendered again in 2 Ep. i. 4, 6, and elsewhere in the A.V.; but the word is the same as that used in vv. 3, 7, and ch. i. 6 — aflliction (R.V.). The A.V. too often breaks the connection of the sacred writer's thought by needless variations of this sort. Should is made clearer by the Revised are to suffer : this was matter of certainty in the future, being Divinely appointed (ver. 3), — a thing one might count upon. And so the event proved : even as it came to pass, and ye know. All this is recalled to the minds of the readers and dwelt on with iteration, not to justify the Apostle's foresight — for it needed no gift of prophecy to anticipate persecution at Thessalonica — but to make them realise how well they had been prepared for what they are now experiencing, and so far to reconcile them to it; comp. John xiv. 29; I Pet. iv. 12, "Beloved, count it not strange." Dr Jowett gives an ad- mirable analysis of the causes of persecution in the Apostolic times in his 6—2 84 I. THESSALONIANS, III. v. 5. 5 pass, and ye know. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the notes upon this Chapter {The Epp. of St Paul to the Thessalonians, &c., pp. 70 — 73, 2nd edition), from which we extract the following sen- tences: — "The fanatic priest, led on by every personal and religious motive ; the man of the world, caring for none of these things, but not the less resenting the intrusion on the peace of his home ; the craftsman, fearing for his gains ; the accursed multitude, knowing not the law, but irritated at the very notion of this mysterious society of such real, though hidden strength, would all work together towards the overthrow of those who seemed to them to be turning upside down the political, religious, and social order of the world The actual persecution of the Roman government was slight, but what may be termed social persecution and the illegal violence employed towards the first disciples unceasing." 5. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to knowyotir faith'] Rather, I also, no longer enduring it, sent, &c. St Paul repeats what he said in ver. i, but in a different manner, there stating the facts themselves, here indicating his own share in the trouble of his readers: "You were in affliction, and your faith endangered; and I too felt for you an unendurable anxiety." He has just spoken of Timothy as sent to comfort them, but he was sent at the same time to comfort him (the Apostle), to relieve his distressing fears about them (see vv. 5*5 and 6). His own troubles and despondency at Corinth helped to make him apprehensive for the Thessalonian Church (see ver. 7, and comp. Acts xviii. 5, 9, 10 and i Cor. ii. 3). The Greek verb for "know" in this clause is different from that employed in the last; it means to ascertain, get to know — that I might ascertain your faith — "might learn its condition, and know whether or not you were still standing fast in the Lord." lest by some means the tempter have tempted you] " Have" is here the English subjunctive perfect, modern "should have"; but the Greek verb is indicative, and implies a positive expectation : lest by any means the tempter had tempted yoic (R.V.) — a fact of which there was little doubt ; the apprehension is revealed in the next clause (Greek sub- junctive), — and our labour should prove in vain. This was the dark thought which crossed the Apostle's mind, that he could "no longer bear." This "labour" (or "toil," same word as in ch. i. 3, see note, and ch. ii. 9) is that which St Paul described pathetically in ch. ii, i — 12, be- ginning with the "entrance" that certainly "was not vain." To think that all this labour might be lost, and a success at first so glorious end in blank failure ! — The sentence might be rendered quite as gram- matically, and more vividly, in the interrogative, expressing the ap- prehension as it actually arose in the Apostle's mind : I sent that I might kno-w about your faith : had the Tempter haply tempted you, and would our labour prove in vain ? " The Tempter " is so styled once besides, in the account of Christ's V. 6. I. THESSALONIANS, III. 85 tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.' But 6 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 ahvays, desiring greatly to see us, Temptation, Matt. iv. 3. Comp. note on Satan^ ch. ii. 18. While " hindering " Paul from coming to their help, Satan would be " tempt- ing " the Thessalonians to forsake their faith. This fear wi-ung the Apostle's heart. In passing from ver. 5 to 6 there is a striking change from painful suspense to relief and joy — 6. But now tvheii Tiniothetis came from yoii unto us\ But when Timotliy came even now unto us from you (R.V.) : this rendering puts due emphasis on the words "from you" (it was Timothy's coming with n&ws froDi Thessalonica that relieved the Apostle's mind); and it gives the proper meaning and connection to the introductory "now," which qualifies "came " and denotesy/^j-/ notv, at this juncture. Timothy's return has been anxiously awaited; and no sooner has he arrived and told his story, than Paul sits down and writes out of a full heart this affectionate and grateful letter. For Timothy brought us glad tidings of yoxir faith and love (R.V.). " Brought-glad-tidings " forms a single word in the Greek, the same that everywhere else in the N.T. signifies '■'the glad tidings" — the news of God's salvation and of the coming of His kingdom. Hence the peculiar force of the word here. This was gospel news, witnessing to the truth and enduring power of God's message ; for this reason it was glad tidings to the Apostle from the Thessalonians ("now we live^'* ver. 7) — a gospel sent to him in return for his gospel brought to them (ch. i. 5; ii. 2, &c.). of your faith ajid charity'] for these comprise the whole Christian life, and imply the "hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" added to them in ch. i. 3; comp. 2 Ep. i. 3; Eph. i. 15; Philem. 5—7; i John iii. 23: *' that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another." This is the sum of our religion. Read, faith and love (R.V.). and that ye have good remembrance oftis always'] So that the Thessa- lonians reciprocate Paul's feelings towards them; he "remembers" them "without ceasing" (ch. i. 3), they equally remember him. Good is kindly, ^veil-disposed remembrance ; their sufferings and the slanders of his enemies might have alienated their minds from the missionaries, but it was otherwise. "Remembrance" represents the same Greek noun as "mention" in ch. i. 2 ; following make it has a more active, following have a passive signification. desiring greatly] R.V., in one word, longing, — which renders fitly a delicate Greek verb, rare except in St Paul, that denotes yearning regret for an absent beloved object (comp. ch. ii. 17, ^' bereaved oi you"). He uses it in 2 Cor. v. 2 to express his desire for the new, spiritual body, *' the house from heaven." Longing to see us, even as we also to see 86 I. THESSALONIANS, III. vv. 7, 8. 7 as we also to see you : therefore, brethren, we were comforted 8 over you in all our affliction and distress, by your faith : for T you. The expression recurs in Rom. i. 1 1 and 2 Tim. i. 4. For the Apostle's "longing," see ch. ii. 17, 18. 7. therefore, brethren, we ivere comforted over yoii\ for this cauf* (R.V.), the Greek phrase being identical with that of ver. 5. while its reference there was to the peril of the tempted Thessalon. causing the Apostle intense anxiety, here it is to their loyalty and ajffc^ tion bringing him a corresponding joy. For a similar instance, comj 2 Cor. vii. 6, 7 : "He that comforteth the downcast, even God, coi forted us by the coming of Titus... and in the comfort with which h was comforted over you," &c. \ For the verb "comfort" see note on ver. 2. in all our affliction and distress^ distress and aflliction (R.V.), o necessity and affiiction. The first of these terms, as e.g. in i Cor. ix 16 ("Necessity is laid upon me"), implies outward constraint, stre' of circumstances, or sometimes of duty ; while the second (see ch. i. iii. 3, 4) commonly denotes trouble fi-otti jnen. For similar and mort extended combinations, see 2 Cor. vi. 4, xii. 10. The preposition is literally over (as in last clause), not m. It wa> not simply that Timothy's tidings brought comfort to the Apostle amidst his present trials ; but this comfort bore upon those trials. The steadfastness of the Thessalonians heartened him to meet his troubles al Corinth. This effect of Silas and Timothy's arrival "from Macedonia" is hinted in Acts xviii. 5. we were comforted .. .thiovLgh your faith (R.V.). This conveyed the needed solace to the lonely Apostle. Their "faiih" was the essential point, that about which Timothy was sent to enquire (ver. 5) ; if this remained, all would go well. So our Lord prayed for Peter, "That thy faith fail not" (Luke xxii. 32). "By faith ye stand" (2 Cor. i. 24; see next verse). 8. for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord\ ''if ye stand fast:" the pronoun bears the emphasis. St Paul felt as though his life wa^ wrapped up in this Church. A load of apprehension was lifted fron his mind, and he resumed his w^ork at Corinth with the sense of renewed health and vigour, saying to himself, "Yes, now one really lives!" For in truth *'The incessant care and labour of his mind Had wrought the mure, that should confine it in. So thin, that life looked through and would break out." His heaviest burden, weighing down body and mind alike, was "the care of the Churches" (2 Cor. xi. 28, 29). This passage, like the Epistle to the Galatians and the Second to Corinth, shews St Paul as a man of high-strung and ardent nature, sensitive in his affections to an extreme degree. His whole soul was bound up with the Churches he had founded (comp. ch. ii. 8, and note). They were his "children," his "loved and longed for," his "joy and vv. 9, lo. I. THESSALONIANS, III. 87 now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks 9 can we render to God again for you, for all the joy where- with we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day 1° praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might -xlory, and crown of boasting." He lived for nothing else. Read in Ustration of this 2 Cor. vii. 2 — 16. J. For what thanks can we render to God again for jyou] "Again" oelongs to the verb "render;" and "thanks" is strictly "thanks- giving." So we may translate, more freely : what due return of iianksgiving can we make to God ? The Apostle puts this question in proof of the strong declaration he has made in ver. 8. He says: " The lews that Timothy brings from you is new life to me, so much so that I :an find no words sufficient to express my gratitude to God for the ■abounding joy which now fills my heart in thinking of you," • The same verb, to render due rettirfi (one word in Greek), is employed 'a a very different connection in 2 Ep. i. 6. . • for all the Joy whereivith %ue joy for your sakes] More exactly, because of you, or on your account. Observe the emphasis of delight with which the Apostle dwells on "you;" he repeats the pronoun eight times in the last four verses. before our God] cortip. ver. 13, and ch. i. 3. God was the witness of this exceeding joy, which strove in vain to find expression in fit words 'of praise. The condition of alarm and depression which St Paul had previously experienced made this rebound of joy the more vivid. Only those who have suffered much know joy in its full capacity, "as dying, and behold we live! as sorrowing, but ever rejoicing" (2 Cor. vi. 9, 10). 10. night and day praying exceedingly] In this last adverb, peculiar • to St Paul, he strains language to express the ardour of his feeling: beyond measure exceedingly; it recurs in ch. v. 13 and Eph. iii. 20. Night and day puts more vividly the "without ceasing" of ch. i. 3; comp. ch. ii. 9. "Praying" is here, more strictly, begging", or beseeching, and points to the wantoi the suppliant (comp. 2 Cor. v. 20, "We begyow, on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God"); whereas the ordinary word for prayer (see e.g. ch. i. 2; 2 Ep. iii. i) indicates devotion to^vards the object of worship. Prayer goes with thanksgiving, as in ch. i. 2, 3, and constantly in St Paul; comp. ch. v. 17, 18. that we might see your face] might makes the realisation seem distant and doubtful ; read may (R.V.). See notes on ch. ii. 17. and fuight perfect that which is lacking hi your faith] Or, may make good the deficiencies of your faith ; not so much what was lacking in as lacking to their faith. Thessalonian faith was in itself steadfast and vigorous (ch. i. 3, 8 ; ii. 13; iii. 6—8; 2 Ep. i. 3, "Your faith groweth exceedingly "); but it needed the supplement of added Christian light and moral wisdom. Hence the teaching and admonition the Apostle supplies in chaps, iv., v. and in the Second Epistle (see Introd. pp. 23 — 2^). Timothy's return from Thessalonica and the news he brought, 88 I. THESSALONIANS, III. vv. ii, 12. IX perfect that which is lacking in your faith ? Now God him- self and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our 12 way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and towards all 77ien^ while removing St Paul's great anxiety, made him still more sensible of the need this young and most promising Chuixh had for the continued instruction which he alone could supply. This increased his eager- ness to revisit the Thessalonians. For a similar wish — less warmly expressed, inasmuch as it concerned strangers — see Rom, i. 9—15, XV. 11. The word rendered " perfect " means \.o fit up, furnish^ fully equip ; it is used of ^hncnding nets" (Matt. iv. 21), of "vessels fitted for de- stmction" (Rom. ix. 22), and of ^'perfecting saints for work of minis- tration" (Eph. iv. 12). 11. Now God himself and our Father\ Now may our God and Father Himself (comp. ch. i. 3), and our Lord Jesus (R.V.). For this title of Christ, see notes on ch. ii. 15 and 19. The copyists have added Christ. Literally the verse begins, But may our God, &c. There is a transition, by way of contrast, from the thought of Paul's own (human) wish and longing, that has been so fervently uttered, to the thought of God, Who alone can fulfil His servant's desire. The prayers of ch. v. 23 and 1 Ep. ii. 16 begin in the same style. direct our way tinto yoti\ Lit., make straight. This verb is rendered *'gtnde our feet into the way of peace" in Luke i. 79; 2 Ep. iii. 5 gives the only remaining example of it in the N.T. It is frequent in the Septuagint; see, e.g., Ps. xxxvii. 23, "The steps of a good man are ordered (Greek, directed) by the Lord ; and He delighteth in his way." Perhaps this verse of the Psalm was running in the Apostle's mind. It is notable that the Greek verb of the prayer is singular, though following a double subject; similarly in 2 Ep. ii. 16, 17 (comp. the Salutation, ch. i. i). For Christ is one with the Father in the prerogative of hearing and answering prayer. This belief was derived from our Lord's own teaching : see John v. 17, 19 ; x. 30, 38; xiv. 13, 14; Matt, xxviii. 18 — "I and the Father are one.. .If ye shall ask Me (R. V.) anything in My name, I will do it," &c. The prayer of ver. 11 has its goal in ver. 13. "Our Lord Jesus" is He whose "coming" Paul and his readers are looking for. And He, together with the Father, is desired to "direct" the Apostle's steps to Thessalonica, with the aim, ultimately, of furthering their preparation for His coming (comp. ch. v. 23; also i. 10). 12. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one to- wards another] In the Greek order, But you may the Lord make to increase, &c. — ' ' whatever it may please Him to appoint in respect to us and our coming " (Ellicott). Ver. 12 is linked with ir, just as ver. II with 10, by contrast. The Apostle is thinking now of what the Thessalonians were to each other and might do for each other, in dis- tinction from himself. V. 13. I. THESSALONIANS, III. 89 even as we do towards you : to the end he may stablish your 13 "The Lord" is still the "Lord Jesus" of the adjoining verses, the Pattern and Fountain of love. Comp. John xiii. 34; Eph. v, 2 ("Walk in love, as the Christ also loved you "). Christ is invoked as ihe Lordy in His Divine authority and power to grant this prayer (comp. 2 Ep. iii. 5). Increased love would be the best supplement of their "defects of faith''^ (ver. 11), and the basis of the unblameable holiness in which they are to appear at Christ's coming (ver. 13). In "brotherly love" the Thessalonians already excelled (ch. iv. 9, 10; comp. i. 3 and 2 Ep. i. 3) ; but this is a grace of which there can never be too much. Its " in- crease " lies in its own growth and enlargement; its "abundance" is the affluence with which it overflows toward others. These synonyms are delicately varied in Rom. v. 20: "where Sin increased (or mnlti- plied), Grace superabonnded.''^ But this multiplied and overflowing love is not to be confined to the brotherhood: toward one another, and, he adds, toward all. Simi- larly in ch. V. 15. For the Thessalonian Church, craelly persecuted, this wider love was peculiarly necessary, and difficult. It meant lov- ing their enemies, according to Christ's command (Matt. v. 44). The Apostle has shewn them by his example how to love each other in Christ (see ch. ii. 7 — 12, 19, 20); and remembering this he adds, even as we also toward you. Comp. the appeal of Christ in John xiii. 34 ("even as I loved you"). Paul's love too was not stationary, but living and growing. This verse has the same turn of expression as ver. 6, "even as we also (long to see) you," Faith was the object of the Apostle's prayer in ver. 10 ; Love in ver. 12; and now ver. 13 crowns both, as it seeks for the Thessalonians, in view of Christ's coming, a well-assured Hope (comp. ch. i. 3) : — 13. to the end he may stablish your hearts'] On " stablish " see note to ver. 2; and on "hearts," ch. ii. 4; comp. also 2 Ep. ii. 17. This is an O.T. phrase, found in Ps. civ. 15, "Bread that strength- eneth (Greek, stablisheth) man's heart" ; and cxii. 8, " His heart is estab- lished, he shall not be afraid." The only N.T. parallel is in Jam. v. 8, "Be patient; stablish yottr hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand." In all these places it signifies the imparting of conscious strength; and denotes here, therefore, not so much a making fir?n or steadfast in character, hwx giving a firm confidence, a steadfast and assured heart (contrast the language of 2 Ep. ii. 2). This would be the effect of the abounding love prayed for in the last verse. The Apostle's thought runs in the same groove as St John's in i Ep. iii. 18 — 21 and iv. 16, 17, "Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement.... Perfect love casteth out fear." The Church was living in the expectation of Christ's speedy return to judgement, a pro- spect before which the heart naturally quails; in order to "assure their hearts before Him," the Thessalonian believers must increase and abound in love. " Love" is the one thing that "never faileth" (i Cor. xiii. 8). Ch. iv. 13, 18, and v. 14 show that courage and joyous confi- dence in Christ were wanting in some members of this Church. 90 I. THESSALONIANS, III. v. 13. hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. The words unblameable in holiness form, then, a secondary predi- cate of the sentence : ' * to the end He may establish your hearts, making them unblameable," or "so as to be unblameable in holiness before our God," &c. The clause appears to be proleptic, or anticipa- tory (comp. I Cor. i. 8 ; Ph. iii. 21). Similarly in ch. v. 23 the keeping of "spirit, soul and body" prayed for belongs to the present, but un- blameably carries our thoughts at once to "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (see note). We take the Apostle's thought, amplified, to be this: "May the Lord make you to abound in love... so that you may have the confidence and strength of heart in which abiding you will be found blameless in holiness before God at Christ's coming." This blamelessness will be manifest at the coming of the Judge ; but it is imparted already, and belongs to those whose hearts are filled with love to their fellow-men, and so with confidence toward God (comp. again i John iv. 16, 17); in which confidence they anticipate the day when they shall be found "holy and without blemish before Him." This assurance of heart resembles St Paul's, expressed in 2 Cor. i. 12: "Our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God we have behaved ourselves in the world." Such confidence must always be guarded by strict self-scrutiny and absolute dependence upon Christ. It was encouragement, however, rather than caution that St Paul's readers just now required (see ver. 2). This verse and the last set forth Christian perfection in its twofold aspect, as constituted at once by an unbounded love to men and a blameless consecration to God. On "holiness" see notes to ch. iv. 3 and 7, also ii. 10. This "blamelessness" of the Thessalonians will be approved before our God and Father, Who listens to the Apostle's prayers and thanks- givings and witnesses his joy on their account (ver. 9, ch. i. 3), and delights to see the good pleasure of His will accomplished in His children. He, the Trier of hearts (ch. ii. 4), permits them now through Christ, and will surely permit them hereafter to stand in His presence with hearts unafraid — in the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. This is the goal of the Apostle's prayers and labours for the Church (comp. ch. ii. 19; V. 23; 2 Ep. i. 11, 12); and the aim of the hopes and strivings of the Thessalonian believers (ch. i. 3, 10; iv. 13; v. 11; 2 Ep. i. 5, &c.). He prays that they may be able with good right to look forward confidently toward that Day, trusting not to be "ashamed before Him at His coming" (r John ii. 28; iii. 3). On the title "Lord Jesus" see notes to ver. 11, and ch. ii. 15, 19; and on "coming" \{parousia), ch. ii. 19. ^ Observe that "the Lord " (Christ) is the Agent of all that is set forth in vv. 12 and 13. Christ fills His people's hearts with love and sanctifies them by His Spirit, so that at the last He may present them to the Father as His joy and crown. Then He will be "glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believed" (2 Ep. i. 10 — 12), V. I. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 91 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort 4 His saints (or holy ones) are those, "unblameable in holiness," whom Christ will acknowledge and associate with Himself at His coming. These last words have been shaping the Apostle's prayer all along. To those who possess abundantly the spirit of love (ver. 12) the hope is given of being found amongst the "holy ones," approved by God, who will attend the Lord Jesus on His glorious return to earth. Christ will not then be solitary, but will have a vast retinue of "the saints," visible in forms of splendour like His own (Ph. iii. 20, i\) and ^'"with Him in glory" (Col. iii. 4). For this association of the returning Saviour and His saints, see further ch. iv. 14, 17, and notes; v. 10; and 1 Ep. ii. I, "The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gatheri^tg together imto Him." CHAPTER IV. Section V. A Lesson in Christian Morals. Ch. IV. 1—12. We now pass from the first to the second of the two main divisions of the Epistle (see Introd. Chap. Vll.), from narrative to exhortation. Chaps, i. — iii. are complete in themselves, and the letter might fitly have terminated with the prayer just concluded (ch. iii. 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 exhorta- tion 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 parotisia, or second advent of Christ (ch. iv. 13 — V. 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 ques- tion of the Parousia was of such absorbing interest. The topics embraced in this Section are (i) and chiefly, that oi chas- tity and the sanctification of the body, w. 3 — 8 ; (2) brotherly love, w. 9, 10; (3) diligence ixi secular work, vv. 11, 12. That chaps, iv., v. form an addendum, supplementing the primary intention of the Epistle, is shown by the introductory phrase : — 1. Furthermore thejt] .R.V., finally ; as the same Greek phrase is rendered by A.V. in Phil. iii. i, iv. 8, &c. Lit., for the rest therefore, for what rejnains. we beseech you, brethren, and exhort ^ovi. by the Lord J esus'\ More ex- actly, and in the Greek order : brethren, we beseech you, and exhort in the Lord Jesus. 92 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. v. 2. 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 2 more a7id more. For ye know what commandments we The first of these verbs, "beseech" (or "ask "), frequent with St John, is only found in St Paul besides in ch. v. 12; 2 Ep. ii. i; and Phil, iv. 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. i. i; and for the title "Lord Jesus," on ch. ii. 15, 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 holi7iess 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 tis 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. ii. 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. i. 3), as well as what they should believe. In their earliest lessons the Thessalonians had received the moral along with the theo- logical elements of Christianity, — "how you ought to walk." On this last word comp, note to ch. ii. 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 diity 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. ii. 4 he spoke of himself and Silas as governed in their work by the thought of "pleasing God," while in ver. 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 (ver. 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 Re- visers, on the best authority. Comp. vv. 9, 10, "for indeed you do it;" * also ch. V. II. The Apostle would not appear to censure his readers. He is sure that they are walking in the true path, mindful of his in- structions; 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 the sentence), that ye abound more and more (R.V.). 2. For ye know what co7mnand?7ients we gave you by the Lord jfesus} Lit., charges... tlirougti the Lord Jesus; similarly in ver. 11, "as we V. 3. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 93 gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, 3 eve?i your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornica- charged you," and in -2 Ep. iii. 4, &c. The Greek word signifies an amjotincement, then a command ox advice publicly delivered. In i Tim. i. 5 and 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. 2 Ep. iii. 6, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"); while they were given *'m the Lord Jesus" (ver. i), 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. i. 5). It is on one prominent subject of those well- remembered charges that he has now to dwell : — 3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, &c.] The connection will be clearer if we render thus : For this is God's will — it is your sanctification— that you abstain from fornication, &c. It was not some counsel or wish of his own that he pressed on the Thessalonians under the authority of Christ ; it was nothing less than God's holy will: the primary' ground of this charge. At the same time it was their sanctification. God's will and their consecration to Him are the double reason for their leading a chaste life ; and these two reasons are one, the latter springing out of the former. God had chosen them to be His own (comp. ch. i. 4). And He willed that their sancti- fication should be realised and carried into effect in the important particular about to be stated. This will of God was proclaimed in His "call," by which the Thessalonians had been summoned to a pure and holy life (ch. v. 23, 24; comp. ii. 12). In all endeavours after purity it is our best support to know that God wishes and means us to be holy; that His almighty help is at the back of our weak resolves. Who both "puts into our minds good desires" and "brings the same to good effect." "Sanctification" is the act or process of making holy: then, in the second instance, it comes to denote the result of this process, the state of one who is ??iade holy, — as in Rom. vi. 22, "You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life;" similarly in Heb. xii. 14, "Follow after sanctification." It is synonymous with consecration, i.e. devotion to God, — but to God as the Holy One. Holy is the single word which by itself denotes the Divine character, as it is revealed to us in its moral transcendence, in the awfulness and glory of its absolute perfection, raised infinitely above all that is earthly and sinful (see i Sam. ii. 2, Ps. xcix., cxi. 9, Isai. Ivii. 15, &c). Now it is the character of God — " thy Maker... and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of IsraeV — that constitutes His right to the consecration of those to whom He is revealed. Our "sanctification" is the acknowledgement of God's claim upon us as the Holy One Who made us. This involves our assimilation to His nature. In Him, first the character, then the claim; 94 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. v. 4. 4 tion : that every one of you should know how to possess his in us, first the claim admitted, then the character impressed. In short, Sanctification is fulfilment of the supreme command, "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (i Pet. i. 15, i6; Lev. xi. 44; xix. 2; xx. 7). — See, further, notes on ver. 7, and ch. v. 23 ; also on ch. ii. 10, for the difference between the two Greek words for Ao/y used in this Ep. St Paul makes chastity a part of holiness. He finds a new motive and powerful safeguard for virtue in the fact of the redemption of the body. Our physical frame belongs to God; it is a sharer in Christ's resurrection, and in the new life received through Him. *• KnoAV you not," he asks, " that your bodies are limbs of Christ, — a temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have from God? Therefore glorify God in your body " (i Cor. vi, 15 — 20). This is bodily sanctification. And faith in Christ effectually subdues impure and sensual passion. The foul and heathenish vice oi fornication was so prevalent in Greek cities and so little condemned by public opinion — it was even fostered by some forms of pagan religion — that abstinence from it on the part of the Thessalonians was a sign of devotion to a Holy God. But their purity was imperilled from the condition of society around them, and in many cases from former unchaste habits. The temptations to licentious- ness assailing the first generation of Christians were fearfully strong; and all the Epistles contain urgent warnings upon this subject. Tlie sense of purity had to be re-created in men gathered out of the midst of pagan corruption. 4. that evejy one of you shonld knoiu hozv to possess his vessel] Rather, that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel (R.V.) ; or, freely rendered, how to be wise in the mastery of his hodily frame. This is the positive side of what has just been expressed negatively. The *' vessel " we take to be the body, regarded as the vehicle and in- strument of the inner self — "the vessel of himself." What the tool is to the hand, or vase to the essence it holds, that the body is to the man's self. Comp. 2 Cor. iv. 7, "this treasure in earthen vessels"; similarly in 2 Cor. v. i — 4 the body is "the earthly hoiise of our taber- nacle," the clothing •wiihowt which we should be "found naked." The victim of sensual passion ceases to be master of his own person — he is possessed; and those who formerly lived in heathen uncleanness, had now as Christians to possess themselves of their bodies, to "win" the "vessel" of their spiritual life and make it truly their own, and a fit receptacle for the redeemed and sanctified self (comp. Lukexxi. 19, "In your patience ye shall win your souls," R.V., — the same Greek verb). This they must "know how" (i.e. have skill) to do — a skill for which there was continual need. The Greek expression for Temperance — enkrateia, i.e. continence, selfcontfol — expresses a similar thought ; so the simile of i Cor. ix. 27, "I buffet my body, and make it my slave." in sanctification] For it was under this idea, and within the sphere of the new, consecrated life that such mastery of the body was to be gained (see notes on vv. 3 and 7). And in honour ; for as lust dishonours and degrades the body (Rom. i. 24, 26; 1 Cor. vi. 15), so its devotion to vv. 5, 6. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 95 vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concu- 5 piscence, 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 God in a life of purity raises it to *' honour." Self-respect and regard for the honour of one's own person, as well as reverence for God, forbid unchastity. 5. not in the hist of concupiscence] Far better, not in the passion of lust (R.V.). The sense of the last verb [to possess) is carried on, with a modified application, into this clause : not (to have it : i.e. your body) in a state of lustful passion. (For the altered meaning of the verb, comp. i Cor. iii. 2 : "I gave you milk to drink, not meat"). This condition — the state of one immersed "in" wicked desire — is the opposite of "sanctification and honour." The word "passion" signifies not so much a violent feeling, as an overpowering feeling, one to which the man so yields himself that he is borne along by evil as if he were its passive instrument; he has lost the dignity of self-rule, and is the slave of his lower appetites. Comp. Rom. vii. 5, "the passions of sins which wrought in our members;" and ver. 20, "It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." In such shameful bondage lived the Gentiles which know not God (an O. T. expression, Ps. Ixxix. 6, Isai. xlv. 4,5; recurring in 2 Ep. i. 8, see note). For impurity, often in most at)andoned and revolting forms, was a prevailing feature of Pagan life at this time. In Rom. i. 24, &c., St Paul speaks of this as a punishment of the heathen world for its wilful ignorance of God: "He gave them up unto passions of dis- honour." Man first denies his Maker; then degrades himself. The God Whom these degraded "Gentiles knew not," is the "living and true God" of ch. i. 9, to Whom Thessalonian believers had "turned from their idols." Coming to know Him by His gospel, they had devoted themselves to Him ; and so their bodies had been redeemed from vice and dishonour, and the soul had a clean house to live in, a clean vessel to use for holy service. 6. that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter] More exactly, that none overreach and take advantage of his brother in the matter. "77/^ matter" is obviously that which occupies the last two verses. Acts of impurity are social wrongs, as well as sins against the offender's person. The warning may mclude any injury done to another touching the aifections and engagements that belong to marriage, — "the matter" concerned in the present charge — which is expressly violated by "fornication." The Apostle sets the wrong in the strongest light : it is to "cheat one's brother," and that in what touches most nearly the sanctities of life. Hence the stern warning that follows : — because that the Lord is the avenger of all such] Rather, an avenger ; and concerning all these things — in everything that concerns the honour of the human person and the sacredness of wedded life, Comp. Heb. xiii. 4, "Let marriage be had in honour... Fornicators and adul- 96 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. vv. 7, 8. 7 have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called 8 us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. terers God will judge." It is written that "Vengeance belongs to God;" and in this matter He is peculiarly bound to exercise it. as we also ha^ie foreiuarned you and testified\ or, solemnly attested : the latter verb implies reference to God, as it is expressed in 2 Tim. iv. I, "before God and Christ Jesus." On this subject it appears — as to the moral consequences of faith in Christ and the social purity that belongs to the sanctified life — the apostles at Thessalonica had spoken very plainly and solemnly from the first. 7. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness"] The two prepositions alike rendered " unto " in the A.V., are quite dis- tinct in the Greek. St Paul writes, God called us not for (v^^ith a view to) uncleanness, but in sanctification ; similarly in 1 Ep. ii. 13, "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of spirit." The call of God was from the first a sanctifying call for the Thessalonians, and was attended with holy influences that forbade all uncleanness. Certainly He never intended them to live impure lives, when He "called them to His own kingdom and glory" (ch. ii. 12); the understanding on which that call was received was the opposite of this. The entire purpose and tendency of God's message to them was " in sanctification." For this last word, see notes to vv. 3 and 4. True believers in Christ are necessarily "saints;" so the Apostle commonly addresses all Christians to whom he writes (see Rom. i. 7, &c. — "called saints," i.e. "saints in virtue of your calling"); and their sainthood ex- cludes impurity and wrong-doing. Observe that God's call is the starting-point of a Christian's life. All the motives and aims by which that life is governed are virtually contained in this. "Walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called" is with St Paul an exhortation that includes all others (Eph. iv. i). So he comes to his last word on this matter : — 8. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God] There- fore should stand first, as in R.V.; it gathers up and re-affirms with emphasis the charge of vv. 1 — 7 : Wherefore then. For despiseth read rejecteth (A.V. margin, and R.V.), as this word is rendered in Luke x. 16; in Gal. ii, 21 we read it, "I do not make void the grace of God." It points to some authority set at nought, or engagement nullified. It was God's call which had summoned the Thessalonians to their new life; His voice, not man's, had reached them by the Gospel (see ch. ii. 12, 13). It will be God^s authority therefore, not man's, that they defy, if this charge is disregarded ; comp. ver. I, "how you ought to please God;" and ver. 3, "This is God's will." And the God Whom they would thus set at nought, is He who gives His Holy Spirit unto you. The Greek text of this clause is doubtful in several points. The Revisers are probably right in reading V. 9- I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 97 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that / write 9 unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one giveth in place oi hath also given (A.V.) ; and j(3« in place of us (A. V.), this word closing the sentence with empha^ii. The preposition is strictly into you, implying beyond the mere fact of the impartation of the Holy Spirit, His entrance into the soul. There is probably a reminiscence of Ezek. xxxvii. 6, where the LXX represents the Lord as saying to the dry bones, "I will give (Hebrew, put) My Spirit into you, and you shall live, and shall know that I am the Lord." Similarly in Gal. iv. 6, "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts;" and in Eph. iii. 16, "strengthened through His Spirit (entering) iyito the inward man." The gift of the Holy Spirit of God, bestowed to dwell within the soul of him who believes in Christ, is the peculiar distinction and the essential blessing of Christ's religion. "I will pray the Father," said Jesus, "and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. He abideth with you, and shall be in you" (John xiv. 16, 17 ; comp. Luke xi. 13). The whole grace of the Gospel is summed up by St Paul in "the promise of the Spirit," received "through faith" (Gal. iii. 14). Through His indwelling we know the love of God, and are conscious of being sons of God and heirs of life eternal (Rom. v. 5 ; viii. 14 — 17; Gal. iv. 6, 7; Eph. i. 13, 14). Now the unchaste act or thought is an affront to the Holy Ghost, Who dwells as Guest in the soul and body of the Christian. This final warning seals the Apostle's charge. He appeals to the presence of the Holy Spirit, of Whose continued visitations and influence his readers were sensible. To "reject the God Who gives" this gift would be for the Thessalonians to sin against the light that was in them. We are reminded again of i Cor. vi. 19, "Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost Which is in you, Which you have from God? " Gentle, awful, holy Guest, Make Thy temple in each breast, There supreme to reign and rest, . Comforter Divine." 9. But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write tinto yo7i\ More exactly, you have no need that one write to you. " Have no need " recurs in ch. v. i ; comp. ch. i. 8 and i John ii. 27. There was need for the Apostle to write on the previous subject {v7^. 3 — 8). But in this grace the Thessalonian Church excelled (comp. note on ch. i. 3, also 2 Ep. i. 3). In this respect they were (literally, and in one word) God-taught — an expression found only here in the N.T. ; comp. "God-breathed," 2 Tim. iii. 16. The separate elements of the compound appear in John vi. 45, where our Lord cites the words of Isai. liv. 13, "They shall be all taught of God." The former "charge" the Thessalonians had received through men from God {vv. 2, 8) : the lesson of "brotherly love" they learnt so readily and with so little need of human instruction, THESS. 7 98 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 10 another. And indeed ye do it towards all the brethren which are in all Macedonia : but we beseech you, brethren, 11 that ye increase more and inore ; and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your that they were evidently taught it by God Himself. It seemed to come to them "naturally" as we say — ye are of yourselves God-taught; or as we ought to say, more reverently, "by God's direct endowment." taught of God to love one another] Lit., to the end (or effect) that you love one another. This was the ptirport and issue, rather than the mere content of the Divine teaching ; God taught them many lessons ; this was the aim of all. 10. And indeed] should be For indeed. Their practice of the Divine lesson, as described in this verse, showed that they were truly "taught of God " to this effect. ye do it toivards all the brethren which are in all Macedonia] Thessalonica was a prosperous commercial city and the capital of Macedonia (see Introd. Chap. I.). It was the natural centre of the Macedonian Churches — including Philippi and Beroea, with other com- munities which had probably sprung up around these principal towns. The Thessalonian Christians were using their position and influence for the good of their brethren around them, and thus giving proof that they had learnt the great lesson of Divine grace. Silas and Timothy, recently returned from Macedonia (Acts xviii. 5 ; see ch. iii. 6), had doubtless told the Apostle how well they did their duty towards the neighbour Churches (comp. ch. i. 7, 8, and notes). but we beseech yozi, brethren] should be exhort (R.V.), as in ver. i (comp. note, also on "comfort," ch. iii. 2); same word in ver. 18, and ch. v. II, 14. that ye increase &c.] Better rendered, that you abound still more; the Apostle repeats the exact phrase employed in ver. i, which takes up the verb of ch. iii. 12 (see notes). In all Christian virtues growth is possible and desired, but "brotherly love" above others is susceptible of constant and unlimited increase. The Apostle reverts to this point once more, in ch. v. 16. Philadelphia (brother-love) in common Greek did not go beyond its literal sense. In Christian speech it was at once applied to the "brothers" of the new life in Christ, those who are united in the acknowledgement of God as their Father (ch. i. i, see note). Comp. I John iv. 21, aiid v. i, " This commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.... Whosoever loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him." The word recurs in Rom. xii. 10; Heb. xiii. i ; i Pet. i. 22; also in 2 Pet. i. 7, where in "brother-love" charity (or love) is directed to be "supphed," as its spiritual and universal principle. From the second topic of his "charge," which the Apostle is happily able to dismiss in a few words, he proceeds to the third: — 11. a7id that ye stzidy to be quiet, and to do your own bushiess] Lit., that you he ambitious to be quiet— an example of St Paul's character- V. 12. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 99 own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk 12 honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. istic irony; the contrast between ambition and quiet giving a sharper point to his exhortation, as though he said, "Make it your ambition to have no ambition!" The love of personal distinction was an active influence and potent for mischief in Greek city life ; possibly the Thessalonians were touched with it, and betrayed symptoms of the restless and emulous spirit that afterwards gave the Apostle so much trouble at Corinth. Comp. t Tim. ii. 2, where he makes it an object of prayer, "that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life." Eager and active as his own nature was, St Paul much admired this kind of life, and deemed it ordinarily the fittest for the cultivation of Christian character, and (study), he continues, to be occupied with your own aflFairs. This, too, was to be their aim and ambition, in contrast with the busybody, gad-about habits to which some of them were inclined (see 2 Ep. iii. 11, and note). Those who meddle with other people's business, commonly neglect their own; and idleness goes hand in hand with officiousness. Ac- cordingly St Paul adds, and to work with your hands. Most of the Thessalonian Christians were probably handicraftsmen of one kind or other. Even for the few who possessed larger means the Apostle may have thought manual labour a good discipline ; comp. note on ch. ii. 9, and 2 Ep. iii. 7 — 12. He perceived the danger, especially marked in this Church, arising from the unsettHng effect which great spiritual ex- citement is apt to have upon the pursuance of the ordinary duties of life. Hence this had been a subject of his warnings from the beginning — even as we charged you (comp. ver. 2). The Apostle Paul combined in his teaching a lofty spii-ituality with a quick sense for practical necessities. 12. that ye may walk honestly toward them that are withotit\ Honestly is rather honourably, honeste (Vulgate) — in decent, coviely fashion, in such manner as to "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour" (Tit. ii. 10), and to win for Christian faith respect even from those who did not embrace it. In i Tim. iii. 7 this is laid down as a condition specially important in the case of men appointed to office in the Church, that they should "have a good testimony from them that are without." Those without — "outsiders," as we say — is an established phrase, used by contrast with "those within " the fold of Christ, or the walls of the city of God; see i Cor. v. 12, 13; Col. iv. 5, " Walk in wisdom to- ward those outside;" also Mark iv. 11. In a thriving commercial town like Thessalonica, indolence or unfitness for the common work of life would bring great discredit on the new society. and that ye may have lack of w^thing] Better, need of nothing (R.V.), or of no one {no man, A.V. margin). As much as to say: "That every one, inside or outside the Church, may respect you, and you may be no man's dependents." The sense of honourable independence was strong in St Paul (see ch. ii. 6, 9, and again 2 Ep. iii. 8) : he desires to see it in all his I. THESSALONIANS, IV. »3 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- people. The Church was already in danger of having its charities abused by the indolent, so as to foster a spirit of pauperism. In Eph. iv. 28 the Apostle enlists on the side of diligent secular work the spirit of charity, in addition to that of self-respect — "that he may have to give to him that needeth;" comp. Acts xx. 34, 35, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And in i Tim. v. 8 he includes under the necessities to be met by honest labour those of the man's household, condemning the neglecter of these claims as "denying the faith" and "worse than an unbeliever." Section VI. The Coming of the Lord Jesus. Ch. IV. 13— V. 11. This solemn topic, as we have already seen (note on ch. i. 10, and Inirod.^ pp. 18 — 21), is the principal theme of the Epistles to the Thessalonians. It is not treated by way of argument or indoctrination, but as a matter already familiar to the readers; on which, however, further explanation and admonition were needful. The Apostle's teach- ing about this event had been on some points misunderstood, while new and anxious questions had arisen respecting it. Death had visited the Christian flock at Thessalonica since St Paul left them ; and this had aroused in the survivors a painful fear lest those who were thus snatched away should have lost their place and their share in the ap- proaching advent of Christ. This apprehension the Apostle proceeds to remove ; and we may entitle the remaining verses of the chapter : Concerning them that fall asleep. St Paul (i) bids his readers be assured of the safety of their departed fellow-believers, vv. 13, 14; and he makes the revelation (2) that these ■will have the first place in the assembling of the saints at Christ^ s rettirn, vv. 15 — 17. He goes on to remind them (3) of the uncertainty of the time of His coming, ch. v. i — 3; and (4) exhorts them to be always ready for the event, like soldiers on guard and fully armed, w. 4 — 9. 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant'] True reading, we would not, — consistently with the first person plural ("Paul and Silas and Timothy") in which the Epistle commenced (ch. i. i). This impressive phrase ("would not— ignorant") the Apostle employs, as in Rom. xi. 25 and elsewhere, to call attention to a new topic on which he is especially anxious to have a clear understanding with his readers. concerning them that fall asleep (R.V.), or are falling asleep : are asleep (A.V.) represents a different and faulty Greek reading. The Greek participle is present^ and denotes what is now going on. The Apostle had not been long absent from Thessalonica, and apparently this question had now arisen for the first time. There were members of the Church who were evidently dying; in some instances death had already supervened {tw. 14, 15), in others it was impending. So vivid V. 13. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. loi cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as was the expectation of the Lord's return, that this contingency had not been thought of till it arose ; and it seemed as though these dying men would miss the great hope that had been so precious to them, of seeing Christ return to reign in His glory. The "brotherly love" which St Paul has just commended in the Thessalonians, would make this apprehension intensely painful. Death is "sleep" to the Christian. Occasionally it bears this title in pagan writers, but only by way of poetical figure. Jesus Christ made it the standing name for Death in the dialect of His Church (Luke viii. 52; John xi. ir, &c.). This expression indicates the restful (and perhaps restorative) effect of death to the child of God, and at the same time its temporary nature. The use of the word by our Lord in connection with the raising of Jaiiiis' daughter and of Lazarus brings out strikingly this latter truth. So the early Christians called their place of burial (in Greek) koiuieterion (cemetery), — i.e. dormitory, sleeping- chamber. that ye sorroxo not, even as others'] More precisely, in order that : the Apostle corrects the ignorance of his readers "in order" to remove their sorrow; he would give them "words" with which they may "encourage one another" (ver. 18). Lit., as the rest: synonymous with "those without" (v^er. 12), and occui-ring in the same sense in Eph. ii. 3; the expression has a note of sadness, as of those who are left to sorrow and darkness. Even before Christ came and "brought life and immortality to light" (2 Tim. i. 10), the Church had attained hope in view of death. See the noble passage in the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom (c. 100 B.C.), ch. iii. I — 4 : " The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them Their hope is full of immortality." But of "the rest" — the unconverted Gentiles — it is sorrowfully added, which have no hope. Comp. Eph. ii. 12, "having no hope, and without God in the world." Hopelessness was a prevalent feature of the world's life at this time. The more enlightened and thoughtful a Greek or Roman citizen might be, the less belief he commonly had in any existence beyond death. See, e.g., the speeches of Cato and of Csesar given in the Catiline of Sallust. The loss of Christian faith in modern times brings back the old Pagan despair, and throws over us again "the shadow of a starless night." Amongst many sorrowful examples, the Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff, recently published, supplies one of the most touching. Dying at 24, Avith her splendid gifts wasted and hungry ambition unappeased, this Russian girl writes : "O to think that we live but once, and that life is so short! When I think of it I am like one possessed, and my brain seethes with despair!" Against this great sorrow of the world the word sleep, four times in this context applied to Christian death, is an abiding protest. The specific hope which the Thessalonian Christians had embraced and which those they had left behind in heathenism were without, was "hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," centring in the prospect of His glorious return from heaven (ch. i. 3, ro). This hope, the Apostle I02 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. v. 14. 14 others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, eve?i so them also which sleep in Jesus will show, belongs to all who are "in Him:" and the circumstance of their having fallen asleep before His coming makes no difference in this relationship. "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's" (Rom. xiv. 8; comp. ch. v. 10) : to be "the Lord's" is the essential thing. We gather that it was not their personal resurrection, but their share in the Farotisia about which the Thessalonians were anxious on behalf of their departed friends. Probably they had sent enquiries to St Paul, through Timothy, upon the subject. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died attd rose againi The faith of a Christian man in its briefest and simplest form. So in Rom. x. 9 the Apostle declares the faith that "saves" to be the belief of the heart that "God raised Jesus from the dead." This involves everything else ; it carries with it the conviction that Christ is Divine (Rom. i. 4), and that His death brings "justification of life" for men (Rom. iv. 25). Such faith St Paul assumes, for himself and his readers, as a fun- damental fact. He speaks of "Jesus," thinking of Him in His human Person and in the analogy of His experience to our own. He is "Firstborn of many brethren. Firstborn out of the dead " (Rom. viii. 29 ; Col. i. 18) ; and what we believe of Jesus, we may expect to see fulfilled in His brethren, even so them also which sleep in Jesus'] Rather, whicli fell asleep. The verb is past (historical) in tense. The Apostle is looking back with his readers to the sorrowful event of their friends' decease, that he may give them comfort ; comp. ver. 15. in Jesus is in the Greek through Jesus, — or more strictly, that fell asleep (possibly, were laid to sleep) through the Jesus just spoken of, — Him "Who died and rose again." For the force of the preposition, comp. ver. 2 and note. The departed Thessalonian Christians had "fallen asleep;" for them Death was robbed of his terrors and transformed to Sleep. "Through Jesus" this cam.e to pass — the Jesus of their faith, the dying, risen Saviour 1 Trusting in His Name, remembering and realising what it meant, they had met the last enemy, and conquering their fears they "laid them down and slept." Such is the power of this Nai7ie in the last conflict : "Jesus! my only hope Thou art. Strength of my failing flesh and heart !" (Chas. Wesley's Dying Hymn.) them that fell asleep through Jesus, God will bring with Him. God (expressed with emphasis) is the Agent in their restoration, as in ch. i. 10 in the "raising" of "His Son from the dead." He "Who raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise up us also with Jesus" (2 Cor. iv. 14; comp. Eph. i. 19, 20). But the Apostle does not say here "will raise them with Jesus," it is not the resurrection of the dead that is in question, but their relation to the Parousia, their place in Christ's approaching kingdom. Therefore he says: "God will <^;7«,^ them with V. 15. I. THESSALONIANS, IV. 103 ■ J^iffyod bring with him. For this we say unto you by the 15 w|^ of the Lord, that we which are ahve and remain unto Him," — they will not be forgotten or left behind when Jesus comes in tnuimph. : ;Thte argument of this verse is condensed and somewhat subtle. Wlien the Apostle begins, "If we believe" &c., we expect him to continue, "so we believe that those who died will, by the power of Christ's resurrection, be raised to life, and will return to share His gl(>rjj." But in the eagerness of his inference St Paul passes from the cert^ty of conviction in the first member of the sentence ("If we believe^'') to the certainty of the fact itself (" God will bring them") in the second. In the same eagerness of anticipation he blends the final with the intermediate stage of restoration, making the resurrection of Jesus the pledge not of the believer's resurrection simply (as in 1 Cor. iv. 14), but of \i\% participation in Christ's glorious advent, of which His resurrection is the prelude (comp, ch. i, 10, "to wait for His Son from the heavens, Whom He raised from the dead," and note). The union between Christ and the Christian, as St Paul conceives it, is such that in whatever Christ the Head does or experiences. He carries the members of His body with Him. The Christian dead are "the dead in Chrisf (ver. 16) ; they will therefore be in due course the risen and the glorified in Christ (2 Ep. i. 12); comp. 2 Tim. ii. ir, "If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him." The point of the Apostle's reasoning lies in the connection of the words '■''died and rose again." Jesus has made a pathway through the grave, and by this passage His faithful, fallen asleep, still one with the dying, risen Jesus, will be conducted, to appear with Him at His return. 15. For this %ve say unto you by the word of the Lord] Lit., in a word of the Lord, — in the character of a message coming from "the mouth of the Lord;" comp. i Cor. vii. 10, "I give charge, — not I, but the Lord;" and ch. ii. 13 above, "not men's word, but God's." The "word" that follows {vv. 15 — 17) can hardly be explained as a traditional saying of Christ, unrecorded in the Gospels, like Acts xx. 35 ; nor as an inference from the teaching of Jesus on the subject of His return. St Paul claims to have received this communication directly from Christ, "the Lord" of His Church, as a revelation to himself (comp. Gal. ii. 2, Eph. iii. 3 for similar instances), given to him expressly in order to allay the fears of his readers. The Lord is manifestly Christ, as it is four times in the immediate sequel. St Paul applies to Christ's word the same august phrase that in the O. T. denotes "the word of God" Himself; comp. note on ch. i. 8. that we xvhich aj'e alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord] This should be : we that are alive, that remain (or survive) unto the coming of the Lord. The second designation qualifies the first, — "those (I mean) who survive till the Lord comes." St Paul did not count on any very near approach of the second Advent : comp. 2 Ep. ii. i, 2. At the same time, his language implies the possibility of the great event taking place within his lifetime, or that of the present generation. 1 6 104 I. THESSALONIANS, IV. Hn^ the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them whicji ,are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from h^vt*n with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the This remained an open question, or rather a matter on which t|uesti»Ki- ing was forbidden (see Acts i. 7; Matt. xxiv. 36). "Concerning the times and seasons" nothing was definitely known (ch. v. i, see hote). The Apostles "knew in part" and "prophesied in part" (i Cof. xiii. 12); and until furtlier hght came, it was natural for the Church, tn-er sighing "Come Lord Jesus, come quickly!" to speak as^t Paul does here. The same "we" occurs in this connection in i Cor. xv 51, 52. I'ut from the time of the dangerous illness recorded in 1 Cor. 1. 8, 9, the prospect of death occupied the foregi'ound in the Apostle's thoughts of his own future, and he never afterwards writes "wif that remain." shall not pvevent\ "Prevent" is obsolete in this sense: comp. the Collect, ^''Prevent us in all our doings with Thy most gracious favour." Better, shall in no wise precede (or anticipate) those that fell asleep. The shadow which the event of their premature death had cast over the fate of the sleeping Thessalonian believers was wholly imaginary, and should be dismissed at once from the minds of their sorrowing friends. Instead of their having no place, they will have, as Christ now reveals to His Apostle, the foremost place in His triumphant return. Though dead, they are "dead in Christ" (ver. 16), — departed to "be with Christ" — "absent from the body" but "at home with the Lord," as St Paul subsequently teaches (2 Cor. v. 6 — 8; Phil. i. 23). So it cannot be that those who are found in the flesh when He comes again, will be beforehand with them in this reunion. "God will bring them with Him," fur they are with Him already. The Apostle proceeds to support this assurance by a description of Christ's coming, derived from the revelation, or "word of the Lord," to which he has just appealed. This was one of the most remarkable of the many "visions and revelations" which St Paul experienced (comp. 2 Cor. xii. i — 5). 16. For the Loj-d Himself] "In His personal august presence" (Ellicott). Comp. 2 Ep. ii. 16, iii. 16, for this kind of emphasis; also ch. iii. 1 1, V. 23, "God Himself: " in each case we feel the majesty with which God (or "the Lord") rises above all human doings and desires. with a shout] Strictly, word of command, or signal, — the shout with Avhich the general gives the order to his troops, or the captain to his crew. Such "command" might be given either by voice, — his own or another's ; or through a trumpet : both are added here, to complete the impressive picture, — with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. We must not look for literal exactness where things are depicted beyond the reach of sense. These three may form but one idea, that of "the voice of the .Son of God," by which the dead will be called forth (John v. 28), Christ's "command" being expressed by an "archangel's voice," and that again constituting the "trumpet of God." Christ predicted Ilis return attended by angels (Matt. xxiv. 31 ; xxv. vri7. 1. THESSALONIANS, IV. 105 trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then 17 we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together 3 1 ; comp. 2 Ep. i. 7) ; and the Divine voice of the Book of Revelation is constantly uttered by an "angel," or "mighty angel" (Rev. v. 1 ; vii. 1 ; &c.). In the same Book voice and trtunpet are identified, where St John describing the glorified Son of Man says, "I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet talking with me" (Rev. i. to, 12; iv. i). This verse, like the above passages of the Apocalypse, echoes the words of Christ in Matt. xxiv. 31 : "He shall send forth His angels with a trumpet of great voice." In i Cor. xv. 52 the whole is de- scribed in one word: "The-/r//w/^/-shall-sound, and the dead shall be raised." This is the military trumpet, like ''word of command" above, by which the Lord of Hosts musters and marshals His array. Comp. ch. V. 8, with its "breastplate" and "helmet;" see note. "As a Com- mander rouses his sleeping soldiers, so the Lord calls up His dead, and bids them shake off the fetters of the grave and rise anew to waking life" (Hofmann). St Paul does not write '■''the Archangel," as though pointing to some known Angelic Chief who is to blow this trumpet ; his words are, With an archangel's voice, indicating the majesty and power of the heavenly summons. This is the earliest example of the title archangel. In Jude 9 we read of ^'Michael the archangel" — an expression pro- bably based on Dan. xii. i, "Michael the great prince" (LXX: "the great angel;" comp. Rev. xii. 7, where "Michael and his angels" are arrayed against "the Dragon and his angels"). Of equal rank with Michael is Gabriel, the angel of comfort and good tidings in Dan. viii. 16, ix. 21, and Luke i. 19, 26. The military style of this passage suits rather the character of Michael. Amongst the seven chief angels re- cognised at this time in Jewish teaching, Raphael stood nearest to the two that appear in the New Testament (Tobit xii. 15). St Paul probably ranged the Archangels amongst the Principalities (Greek Archai) to which he refers in Rom. viii. 38 [atigels and principalities), Eph. i. 21, iii. 10, Col. i. 6, ii. 10, 15. See the Article on Angels in Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. the Lord Himself, «&c....will descend from heaven. See note on ch. i. 10. These words close the sentence, the accompaniments of the descent being first described, and then the descent itself, with solemn brevity and an effect of peculiar grandeur. and the dead in Christ'\ This gives us the key to the Apostle's meaning throughout. Being "in Christ," having died as they lived in Him, nothing can part them from Him, "neither death nor life" (Rom. viii. 38). And when He returns in bodily presence, their bodies must rise to meet Him and do Him homage. shall rise firstl Not before the other dead, as though theirs were a select and separate resurrection (comp. John v. 28, 29); the antithesis is plainly given in the next verse, — "first," i.e. before the living saints : "we shall not take precedence of them, but rather they of us." 17. then u