1 Thessalonians 1:1 Salutation1Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus [Timothy], unto the church of the Thessalonians which Isaiah 3 in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you [Grace unto you, χάριςὑμῖν], and peace (from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ). AND 1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus [Timothy].—On Paul, see the Acts of the Apostles, and the Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans.—Silvanus. He is called in the Acts Silas; by Paul and Peter, Silvanus. A distinguished leader (ἡγούμενος; comp. Lechler at Acts 15:22) and prophet of the church of Jerusalem, he was chosen by the Apostolic Council as one of the bearers of its decrees to Antioch, where he then remained for a longer period in friendly intercourse with the Gentile Christians, exhorting them and confirming them in the faith (Acts 15:22; Acts 15:27; Acts 15:32 sq.). Even though Acts 15:34 be not genuine, yet that choice and this sojourn are sufficient to show, that Silas was one of the Jewish Christians who, like Stephen, had from the beginning a freer, open sense for Gentile Christianity and Paulinism. In recognition of this Large-heartedness Paul chose him for his attendant on his second missionary journey (Acts 15:40), during which the church at Thessalonica was founded (see Introduction), and so we find him by his side in work and suffering, before magistrates, in stripes, in prison, in prayer, in miraculous deliverance, in flight, Acts 16:19; Acts 16:25; Acts 16:29; Acts 17:4; Acts 17:10; Acts 17:14 sq.; Acts 18:5. He accordingly appears in the inscriptions of the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and 2 Corinthians 1:19. Subsequently Silvanus is simply mentioned by Peter as bearer of his First Epistle to Asia Minor, where he was already known, ever since Paul’s second missionary journey, as “a faithful brother” (1 Peter 5:12; comp. Fronmόller in loc.). Silvanus, from his original position at Jerusalem in friendly relations to Peter, and then a companion of Paul, is a man of whom it must be thought a peculiarly natural thing, that he again appears by the side of Peter, when the latter addressed himself to the at least to some extent Pauline churches of Asia Minor. He belongs to those men of second rank in the apostolic period, in whom the oneness of the Pauline spirit with that of the first Apostles, and the credibility, of late so severely assailed, of the book of Acts, are in an artless way historically represented. According to the tradition of the ancient Church, Silvanus should have been the first Bishop of Thessalonica, but Silas—whom it distinguishes from Silvanus—Bishop of Corinth (see Winer, biblisches Real-wφrterbuch, 3d ed., II. p. 459, Art. Silas). As this distinction is certainly erroneous, since Silas is merely a contraction, such as frequently occurs in proper names, for Silvanus, as Ἀντίπας for Ἀντίπατρος, in German Niklas for Nikolaus, &c, and since in the Acts we find Silas, and in Paul’s Epistles Silvanus, associated with Paul and Timothy at Thessalonica and Corinth, so the whole tradition admits of easy explanation as an arbitrary inference from the New Testament data, Silas appearing for the last time at Corinth, Acts 18:5, and Silvanus in the forefront of the Thessalonian Epistles.—On Timothy, who had in like manner attended the Apostle during the founding of the Thessalonian church, see the Introduction to 1 Tim. Everywhere Paul speaks of Timothy with paternal tenderness, and bears the highest testimony to his character. Not only does he mention him generally as a brother (2 Corinthians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:2), not only as a servant of God and his own fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ (1 Thessalonians 3:2; Romans 16:21; 1 Corinthians 16:10), a servant of Jesus Christ, like himself (Philippians 1:1), but he calls him his faithful and beloved, his genuine child in the Lord (1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:18 [γνησίῳ τέκνῳ ?]; 2 Timothy 1:2), and writes to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19 sqq.) of their knowing the proof of him, that, as a child the father, he has served with him in the gospel; indeed he says expressly (Philippians 1:20) that he has—so at least during the first Roman imprisonment, when he wrote this—no one likeminded, who will so sincerely and disinterestedly care for the church. Thus in the glorious circle of apostolic men that surrounded Paul Timothy takes the first place. “No one,” says F. Ranke, “has the Apostle embraced with more cordial and fatherly affection than Timothy—one of the loveliest and most refreshing sights of the apostolic age.”—It is undoubtedly as being the older man that Silvanus is here and 2 Corinthians 1:19 placed before Timothy, whose youth is still spoken of in the Epistles written to him at a much later date (1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:22). It is worthy of note and agrees with what has just been said, that in the narrative of travel in the Acts (Acts 16, 17) Timothy, after the mention of his being added to the company, is not again immediately named, whereas Silas is mentioned frequently along with Paul. First on occasion of the separation from Paul is Timothy afterwards named along with and after Silas (Acts 17:14 sq.; Acts 18:5).—The Apostle names, and his practice is similar in other places also (comp., besides the inscriptions of 2 Thess., 2 Cor., Phil., Col., and Philemon, in which Timothy in like manner appears, 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul and Sosthenes, and Galatians 1:1-2 Paul and all the brethren that are with me), Silvanus and Timothy as joint authors, as virtually joined with him in getting up the Epistle, though he alone is the writer, and dictates the Epistle perhaps only to one of them. As they have preached the Lord together orally (comp. 2 Corinthians 1:19), so should also the written word go forth from all the three. The three men who had become dear to the church must again appear before her mental vision united as in the beginning; she must recognize their fair, lasting concord one with another, and know that she has received the same gospel, not merely from an individual, but from the mouth of two and three witnesses (Matthew 18:16; Matthew 18:20), and is borne on more than one heart (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:2 : we give thanks). Therefore also Paul does not need to describe Silvanus and Timothy more closely; they are held still in fresh, living remembrance by the church.—For just the same reason also he does not designate himself more fully as an Apostle, &c. As already remarked by Calvin, he needs not to come before the Thessalonians with official authority, but merely to recall his person to their memory, as he lived and wrought among them in the power of the Spirit. In this brief, free self-designation Lόnemann finds with reason a mark of the earlier composition and authenticity of our Epistles. At a later period, indeed, Paul does not in the inscriptions of his Epistles call himself an Apostle in cases, where he can count on faithful, unimpaired love and recognition on the part of a church or an individual; yet even there the inscriptions are fuller, as Philippians 1:1; Philemon 1:1. But after that his apostolic authority was assailed, from the time of the Epistle to the Galatians, his general custom was to append his official to his personal name, and then frequently he makes use of that for longer or shorter additions corresponding to the actual contents of the letter, so that no inscription is in all respects the same as another. Even in Thessalonica, it is true, attempts to create distrust were not wanting; but these affected not his apostolic authority as such, but his entire person. This freedom of the Apostle in his self-designations is characteristic and instructive. As he directs his letters, not to the office-bearers, but to the church, so, unless there be a necessity for it, he does not himself come forth in his official authority. He has no stiff official style, but here too he proportions every thing to the circumstances and exigencies of the particular case. Accordingly, he here distinguishes himself by no addition from Silvanus and Timotheus, but simply takes the precedence of them, and thereby at the same time designates himself as properly the author of the Epistle. Certainly in this is shown also the humility of the Apostle, and so far the remark is not incorrect, that Paul omitted his apostolic title out of modesty, whether towards the Thessalonians (Chrysostom, &c.), or towards Silvanus and Timothy Zwingli, Pott, &c.). Only we are not to find here the proper motive of the omission (comp. Colossians 1:1). The humility is all the more genuine, that it comes out thus silently and unconstrained. 2. To the church.—Paul writes not to the presbyters, teachers, &c., but to the churches; where he names the office-bearers, it is by way of supplementary appendage (Philippians 1:1). In the most solemn manner he requires, 1 Thessalonians 5:27, that all the brethren should read the Epistle. To deny the reading of Holy Scripture to the laity, therefore, is to contravene its original destination. In his earlier Epistles (to the Thessalonians, Galatians, and Corinthians) Paul writes τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ or ταῖςἐκκλησίαις; in the later ones (Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians) τοῖςἁγίοις, &c, which indeed is added in those to the Corinthians.3. In God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.—These words are to be closely joined with τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, as if they were preceded by τῇ or τῇ οὔσῃ, as in the opening of 1 and 2 Cor., where it is said, only in reverse order: τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ τῆ οὔσῃ ἐνΚορίνθῳ (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:14). The addition attached by means of the preposition forms here, in fact (comp. Winer, p. 123), with the substantive but one main idea, and is to be connected with it merely by the voice. This happens with special frequency in the case of the Pauline formula: ἐνΧριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, to which our expression is nearly allied (comp., in particular, Philippians 1:1 : τοῖςἁγίοιςἐνΧριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τοῖςοὖσινἐνΦιλίπποις, also Colossians 1:2). Thus the want of the article intimates that it belongs to the idea of the Church, to be in God and Christ. “Est hζc nota veluti approbatio verζ et legitimζ ecclesiζ” (Calvin). In this very brevity of the expression is something great and profound. It denotes not merely fellowship with God (Bengel, Lόnemann), but a real, essential being in God and Christ (Romans 16:11; John 15:4; John 17:21 sqq.; 1 John 2:5 sq.; 1 John 5:20). “It is a high dignity, to which nothing is equal, when one is in God” (Chrysostom). Whereas Thessalonica previously lay with the whole world in the wicked one (ἐντῷ πονηρῷ masc., 1 John 5:19; comp. 1:18; ἐντῷ ἀληθινῷ opposed to 1:20)—whereas in that place there were only Jews, who had no part in Christ, and Gentiles, who had none also in God—there is at this time a church there, that is in God the Father, and in Christ Jesus. Here is a miracle of God, over which the Apostle gives Him glory and thanks; as always at the beginning of his Epistles, when he turns his eye on the churches, so also here, 1 Thessalonians 1:2. 4. Grace unto you [German: Grace be with you.—J. L.], and peace. The old epistolary style combines in the inscription what with us is distributed into the address, salutation, subscription, and direction. The Pauline benediction is χάριςκαὶ εἰρήνη; only in the Epistles to Timothy (and perhaps Titus 1:4) χάρις, ἔλεος, εἰρήνη; the first form also in 1 and 2 Peter, the latter in 2 John; Judges 2 : ἔλεοςκαὶ εἰρήνηκαὶ ἀγάπη. Χάρις reminds us of the Greek salutation χαίρειν (comp. Acts 23:26), which occurs also in the apostolic circular (Acts 15:23; James 1:1); εἰρήνη, of the Hebrew (likewise Arabic, see Winer, Realwφrterbuch: Hφflichkeit) form of salutation and benediction, ωָׁ ?μεֹ ?ν (Genesis 43:23; Judges 19:20; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Exodus 18:7; Judges 18:15 1 Samuel 10:4; 1 Samuel 25:5-6). As James in a lively manner connects, 1 Thessalonians 1:2, χαρά with the χαίρειν, so Paul has given it a turn of yet deeper Christian import in χάρις while, the εἰρήνηὑμῖν had already by the Saviour or His return from death been brought to a Christian maturity and depth (John 20:19; John 20:21; John 20:26; comp. also Luke 10:5-6), especially in connection with His farewell discourse, in which He had promised, as the fruit of His victory over the world, and so as a distinctive family legacy in opposition to the world, to bequeathe His peace to His own (John 14:27; John 16:33). By their juxtaposition both words are raised completely out of their Gentile and Jewish outward significance, as referring almost solely to the natural life and welfare, into the “fulness of the peculiar salvation and blessing of Christians.” A notable instance of the way in which the New Testament dialect was formed.—χάρις is, first of all, favor generally, kindness, especially towards inferiors, the ἀγάπη in self-manifestation (just as righteousness is holiness in self-manifestation), and in this sense it is used also of the child Jesus, Luke 2:40 : χάριςθεοῦ ἦνἐπʼ ? αὐτό. But in a more special sense χάρις denotes (opposed to ὀφείλημα, νόμος, ἔργα, Romans 4:4; Romans 6:14 sq.; Romans 11:6) the exhibition of the Divine love as free and undeserved in regard to such, as have not merely no legal claim to it, but have according to law deserved the opposite (Romans 3:23-24; Ephesians 2:3-5). This is the New Testament saving grace, which in Christ Jesus has appeared to sinners (Titus 2:11; John 1:17). It is not merely the principle of the redemption accomplished once for all, but it continues also to be the sustaining ground, the nourishing power of the new-spiritual life with its manifold gifts in Christians (comp. Acts 23:11 [no doubt a misprint for Acts 11:23]; Acts 6:8; Ephesians 4:7), and so is ever afresh inwardly sealed and communicated to them from God in Christ through the Holy Ghost (comp. Romans 5:5; John 1:16). In this sense, according to which grace is thus not simply a sentiment, but at the same time a Divine self-communication, Paul desires for his readers ever fresh grace from God and Christ. Εἰρήνη need not be taken, with De Wette, Meyer, &c., against the Greek and New Testament usage, as=salvation, but with most since Chrysostom, who on this point as a Greek has a special voice, as=peace. This is the immediate effect of grace in the heart of man, the restoration, after the distraction and discord of the life of sin, of the harmony of the inner life, with its pure enjoyment, resting on the fact that the oppression and curse of sin are removed from the conscience, and man knows that in Christ he is brought again into his true relation to God, the filial relation (Romans 5:1), and is thereby comforted and strengthened against the oppositions and vexations of the world (John 16:33). The enhancement of this peace, when it pours its quickening and elevating influence into the experience, is joy (χαρά, Romans 14:17; Philippians 4:4; John 15:11; John 16:22; John 16:24; John 17:13; 1 John 1:4; 1 Peter 1:8—a fundamental idea of the New Testament, too much neglected by us in life and doctrine). Peace being the feeling of convalescence and healthfulness of the new life, the home-feeling of the returned prodigal, it impels the man of itself to abide in the healthful life-element of home; it has a power to keep the heart and mind, the whole mechanism of the inner life, in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7), and is therefore suitable in every relation as a chief benediction for Christians. AND ETHICAL1. Of the natural world these two things are true: In God we live, move, and are [Luther’s version: sind=ἐσμέν.—J. L.], all things harmoniously existing in the Logos (Acts 17:25-28; Colossians 1:17); and: The whole world lieth in the wicked one (1 John 5:19). The original Divine powers of creation and the superadded powers of the prince of this world, life and death, intermingle therein in a mysterious manner. Through Christ this mixture is dissolved, and the separation, the great judgment of the world, is effected, whereby the Satanic element is cast out, and the world brought back again to its original ground of life (John 12:31; Colossians 1:20). It is in His own person first of all, the person of the Son of man who has entered through death into His glory, that the world’s judgment is fulfilled, that which is of the devil is rightfully abolished, and humanity introduced anew to God. Whosoever would again live wholly in God must be in Him. But this new being and life unites itself to the world first inwardly in the spirit. As therefore all creatures in respect of their natural existence, that is, so far as they live generally in the world of death and corruption, live, move, and are in God and immediately in the Logos, drawing continually from His omnipresent, all-pervading energy the breath of life, so Christians, in respect of their inner, pneumatic, incorruptible existence, are and live first of all in Jesus Christ, the glorified, who being the Lord is also the Spirit as God (2 Corinthians 3:17), and so the Head and all-pervading life-principle of the Church born of His Spirit (Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:6-7; Ephesians 1:22 sq.; Ephesians 2:21 sq.), the element in which Christians live, as the branches in the vine (John 15:4 sqq.), so that all they do is done in Christ Jesus (Colossians 3:17 and the phrase, occurring more than a hundred times with Paul, ἐνΧριστῷ or ἐνκυρίῳ). Because in Christ, they are then also, in this higher sense of the spiritual, eternal life, in God (1 Corinthians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 11:3; John 14:20). Thus in the Church is a beginning made towards the attainment of the great, Divine purpose in the world, again organically to comprehend the whole in Christ and in God (Ephesians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:28).—[Webster and Wilkinson: The full significancy of this important preposition ἐν, in its N. T. use with Θεῷ, Ἰησοῦ, Χριστῷ, Κυρίῳ, can only be understood by realizing the all-pervading doctrine of the Holy Ghost.—J. L.] 2. It is of doctrinal significance, that ἐκκλησία denotes as well the universal, as the individual or local, church. The distinction between congregation and church [Gemeinde und Kirche] does not exist in the New Testament usage. Not merely a philological exactness, but one of Luther’s genial instincts must be recognized in his having preserved this identity of expression, and everywhere in the New Testament translated ἐκκλησία by Gemeinde [congregation]. Spirit is, according to Oetinger’s word, where every part can again become a whole. The same is true also of the place of the Spirit’s manifestation, the Church. The Apostles, anxious as they were for the order of single churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), made no arrangement before their departure for securing the external unity of the Church, which till then had rested in their persons. From this fact, which has not yet been sufficiently considered, we perceive two things: 1. That the Church can be one in the Spirit, even where there is a separation of outward communions; 2. that we should make moderate account of the Church as an institution. The New Testament has no word for churchly.3. “Nothing speaks more strongly for the Divinity of Christ than the practice, which pervades the whole style of Scripture, of joining Christ with God, and ascribing to Him strictly Divine operations.” Olshausen on Romans 1:7. There is everywhere in the New Testament, even in the Synoptical Gospels, a multitude of indirect evidences for the Divinity of Christ, modes of speech which can only on this supposition be understood in their full, natural sense. Christologies which recognize in the Redeemer merely the sinless, supernaturally begotten, eternally ordained central Man (Schleiermacher, Rothe, Schenkel), have in them important elements of truth, but do not ascend to the biblical height. In the inscriptions of the Pauline Epistles Father and Son are joined together as Θεὸςπατήρ, with and without ἡμῶν, and κύριος (again with and without ἡμῶν) ἸησοῦςΧριστός. Now it might be supposed, especially on account of the ἡμῶν common to both, that πατήρ and κύριος answer to one another, the former expression derived from the family, the latter from the state and kingdom; or the former from the filial relation, the latter from that of a servant (comp. Malachi 1:6 and the frequent δοῦλοςἸησοῦ Χριστοῦ). But both the verbal arrangement and the decisive passage 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (comp. 1 Corinthians 12:5-6; Ephesians 4:5-6) show that the correspondence is rather between θεός and κύριος, πατήρ and ἸησοῦςΧριστός. And this reminds us that the LXX put κύριος for ιְ ?δεָֹ ?δ (in conformity with the oral ΰֲ ?γֹ ?πָ ?ι) and θεός for ΰֱ ?μֹ ?δִ ?ιν (comp. also John 20:28 and 2 John 1:3, where to κύριοςἸησοῦςΧριστός is still added, with a specific relation to the πατήρ, ὁ υἱὸςτοῦ πατρός). Thus the appellation κύριος also becomes a witness for Christ’s Divinity, as Nitzsch has particularly pointed out. (Cfr. his article on the essential trinity of God, Studien und Kritiken, 1841, p. 322 sqq., and System der christl. Lehre, 5th ed., p. 145, 189.) The peculiarity of the designation of Christ as κύριος is, that therein the Divine essence (κύριος= ιְ ?δεָֹ ?δ) and the historical, official position and operation (κύριοςκυριεύων, Romans 14:9, Lord and King of the kingdom of God, on which account ἡμῶν is easily subjoined) are combined in one. The latter signification evolves itself in the Gospels by various steps and deepening shades of meaning from the dialect of common life, where κύριος as applied to Jesus is scarcely any longer an ordinary word of courtesy, but, as in the sphere of revelation generally, every nomen again becomes omen, a reverential address to One whose essential superiority is recognized, as well as his possession of a miraculous power (John 4:11; John 4:15; John 4:19; Matthew 8:2; Matthew 8:6; Matthew 8:8; Matthew 8:21; Matthew 8:25; Matthew 17:4; Matthew 20:30-31; Matthew 22:43-45; Matthew 25:37; Matthew 25:44; Matthew 27:10; John 6:68; John 9:36; John 9:38; John 13:6; John 13:13 sq.; John 20:13; John 20:28; John 21:7; comp. Acts 2:36; Acts 10:36), whereas on the other hand the deeper, Jehovistic-Messianic usage of the Apostles, especially of Paul, is found employed at the very beginning, among the links of connection with the Old Testament, by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:16-17, and so accordingly Luke 1:43; Luke 1:76; comp. also Matthew 7:21-22; Acts 7:59; Acts 9:13-14). In the Book of Acts the expressions ὁ λόγοςτοῦ θεοῦ and ὁ λόγοςτοῦ κυρίου are used interchangeably (Acts 4:31; Acts 6:2; Acts 6:7; Acts 8:14; Acts 17:13, &c.; Acts 8:25; Acts 13:48 sq.; Acts 15:35 sq.; Acts 19:10; Acts 19:20). In this higher use of the word it is clearly implied, that Christ attained His central position as Lord and Head of the Church, of humanity, of the world, only by means of His Divinity. But certainly there is in it also an expression of the distinctive character of His Divinity, to wit, of subordination rightly understood—the Father being the Supreme God over all, and so also the God of Christ (Ephesians 1:17; John 20:17; Revelation 3:12), but the Son God as manifested, mediating, standing on the pinnacle of the world (Ephesians 4:5-6; 1 Corinthians 12:5-6). God, Lord, Spirit, are the trinitarian expressions of Paul; Father, Son, Spirit, those of the Evangelists, of the Lord, and of John.—That God, the Most High, is our Father, who loves us, and to whom we should draw near with filial confidence, and that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Jehovah, who as Man draws near to us as Saviour—this truth meets the readers of Paul’s Epistles at the very outset, full of grace and peace. AND Paul and his friends a model of Christian fellowship: 1. Generally of brethren with one another; 2. of teachers with one another (Paul and Silas, comp. Acts 16:17); 3. of teachers and scholars (Paul and Timothy). The brotherly fellowship of teachers laboring in a church, as a main condition of blessed working: 1. The personal fellowship of spirit; 2. the fellowship of doctrine; 3. that of prayer and intercession (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:2 and 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:11).—Christian brotherhood and Christian friend ship, their oneness and their difference, shown in the relation of Paul to his fellow-laborers and especially to Timothy.—Rieger: In the kingdom of Christ even the most highly-gifted person does not choose to be so alone, nor alone to perform everything, but gladly seizes occasion to support his own witness to the truth, and mode of acting therein, by the consent of others. In this way likewise a man can really well commend himself to the consciences of others, when they perceive in him a willingness to let others also stand beside him as his equals. Believers should regard themselves as those who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Comp. Tersteegen’s: “All-pervading Air, wherein we ever move, of all things principle and life, &c.” [Comp. Acts 17:28.—J. L.]—Roos: Civil societies have their ground in an external force and a temporary expediency; a Christian church has its everlasting ground in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is acknowledged and adored in common.—Diedrich: Nowadays in most countries one knows only of churches on a merely natural foundation.—The great joy, which the Apostle always proclaims to his readers at the beginning of his Epistles, that God is our Father and Jesus Christ our Divine Lord. The two vital points [Herzpunkte] of Christianity: 1. In the heart of God, and from Him, grace; 2. in the heart of man, and from him in the church, peace.—Thomas Aquinas: χάρις principium omnis boni, εἰρήνη finale bonorum omnium.—Phil. Matth. Hahn: We have daily need of fresh emanations of grace and peace from the highest source. 1. The emanations of God’s grace are innumerable: forgiveness of sins; the witness of the Spirit, that we are the children of God; light and life-power from the word. 2. Every new effluence of grace gives also new peace within the heart, since in full assurance of the Holy Ghost we know that we have not to fear God’s wrath on account of our former sins, and that the impending day of wrath will not consume us (see on Colossians 1:2; Ephesians 1:2). [Anselm, cited by Pelt and Afford: “Gratia et pax a Deo sit vobis, ut, qui humana gratia et sζculari pace privati estis, apud Deum gratiam et pacem habeatis.”—J. L.] Footnotes: [The English form, Timothy, occurs seven times in our Authorized Version.—J. L.] [ἐκκλησία, German: Gemeinde, congregation. But see Dr. Schaff’s note 4 on Matthew 16:18.—J. L.] [The English supplement, which is, might better have been omitted.—J. L.] [The repetition of the in is also superfluous.—J. L.] [See the Auth. Vers. at 2 Thessalonians 1:2; Romans 1:7; Philemon 1:3. Koch: “By the omission of the verb the expression gains fn strength and emphasis.”—German, after Luther: sei mit euch.—J. L.] The words ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸςἡμῶνκαὶ κυρίοὐἸησαῦ Χριστοῦ are wanting in important manuscripts [B. F. G.], versions [Vulgate, Syriac, &c.], and all the [ancient] commentaries, and are therefore bracketed by Bengel and Lachmann, and cancelled by Tischendorf,* Pott, De Wette, Lόnemann, and others [Alford, Ellicott, Amer. Bible Union], though defended by Schott, Olshausen, Koch, Reiche, and others. It is an obvious conjecture, that the words were brought here from the opening of the other Pauline Epistles, and in favor of this view is the brevity by which the inscription of this earliest of the Epistles is on the whole distinguished. In the precisely similar opening of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians the words in question are also found, and are there undoubtedly genuine. We let them stand here likewise [in brackets], in accordance with the principle which we intend to follow also in other cases, that for homiletic treatment a various reading only then comes to be of decisive importance, when the authorities are so weighty that a universal, or at least nearly universal, agreement prevails among the critics in regard to it. [In this case, moreover, the common reading is sustained by the Codex Sinaiticus,† A. D. E., and other uncials.—J. L.] [According to Luther’s more exact rendering of Php 2:22.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “as being probably the older man, and certainly the older associate of St. Paul.” Alford urges rather the personal and official eminence of Silas.—J. L.] [By no means. Paul is the Bole author, and would be understood see 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 3:5-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:17. Comp. 1 Cor., Phil., and Philem., in each of which Epistles the Apostle associates a companion with himself in the salutation, and then immediately proceeds throughout in the first person singular. Comp, also the Epistle to the Galatians, where it can scarcely be supposed that the writer meant to ascribe joint authorship to “an the brethren” of 1 Thessalonians 1:2.—J. L.] [After citing various explanations of the special mention of “the bishops and deacons” in Philippians 1:1, Eadie adds: “The opinion of Wiesinger is at least as probable, that the real reason is to be found in the circumstances of the church, and that there was a tendency to undue assumption on the part of some individuals, which needed such an effective check as was implied in the special acknowledgment of those who bore office in it.”—J. L.] [Ellicott: “The variation is slightly noticeable; it does not however seem to point to gradually altered views with regard to the attributes of the church (Jowett), but merely to the present comparative paucity of numbers (compare Chrysost.), and their aggregation in a single assembly.” And the same considerations may perhaps account for the fact that only in these two earliest Epistles does Paul address the church as composed of persons belonging to the city, and not as established in the city itself. Comp. Colossians 4:16.—J. L.] [Hodge: “Not one and the same person, but one and the same Being, in the Same sense in which our Lord says: ‘I and the Father are one.’ It is an identity of essence and of power.”—J. L.] [German: dass man von der Kirche als Institution mδssiglich halten soll. Das Neue Testament hat kein Wort fόr kirchlich. Nor has the N. T. any word for evangelical, trinitarian, &c.; The logic of this second inference, from which I beg leave to express my dissent, is quite as feeble, as its spirit would seem to be at variance with that of the N. T. throughout. It is surely of the Church as an institution that Christ speaks in Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17; and Paul, for example, in Ephesians 4:4-13; 1 Timothy 3:15; &c. Nor is there any good reason why we should shrink from acknowledging, that whatever plausibility there may be in this sort of indifferentism, which is indeed common enough, in regard to the outward constitution of the Church, is derived, not at all from the N. T., but from the historical, and, alas, still seemingly helpless, confusions of Christendom.—J. L.] [Substituted by the Jews in the reading of the Scriptures for ψְ ?δεָֹ ?δ.—J. L.] FIRST PARTPersonal And Historical1 Thessalonians 1:2 to 1 Thessalonians 3:13___________ I Paul shows the Thessalonians the genuineness of his preaching and of their faith (1 Thessalonians 1:2 to 1 Thessalonians 2:16) 1 Thessalonians 1:2-7 The Apostle thanks God for the gracious standing of the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:2), which he describes in its human manifestation (1 Thessalonians 1:3), as well as its Divine ground (1 Thessalonians 1:4). The latter is their election, to he inferred from the fact, that the Gospel was, on the one hand, preached amongst them with power (1 Thessalonians 1:5), and, on the other hand, was received by them with joy, so as to furnish an example to others (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7) 2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor [toil, κόπου] of love, and patience of hope in [of ] our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of [before, ἔμπροσθεν] God and our Father [our God and Father, τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸςἡμῶν]; 4knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God [brethren beloved of 5God, your election]; for [because, ὅτι] our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in [sin. omits this ἐν] much assurance; as [even as, καθώς] ye know what manner of men we were [proved were found] among you [for ἐνὑμῖν Bin. has simply ὑμῖν] for your sake; 6and ye became followers [imitators, μιμηταί] of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost; 7so that ye were [became, γενέσθαι] ensamples [a pattern] to all that believe [all the believers] in Macedonia and [in] Achaia. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 1:2.) We give thanks.—With such a thanks giving for the faith of his readers, or rather an assurance that he is always giving thanks on that account, Paul begins all his Epistles to churches (and also 2 Timothy and Philemon), with the exception of that to the Galatians, where he sets out with a characteristic θαυμάζω. What God has done and continues to do in sinners appears to him ever afresh great and worthy of praise, nor does he even allow himself to be disconcerted in his thanksgiving by the many faults and imperfections still adhering to the churches, while on the other hand by testifying his thankful joy in his readers, every one of whom is to understand that he himself is included therein (πάντων), he opens his way to their hearts. But pro gratulatione gratiarum actionem ponit, ut Dei beneficium esse admoneat, quicquid prζdicat esse in ipsis laude dignum (Calvin).—The plural, found here and 2 Thessalonians and Colossians, is not the literary We (Pelt, [Conybeare,] &c., contrary to 1 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, &c., but includes Silvanus and Timothy (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:18). As the three men preach and write together, so also they pray together. Excellently De Wette: “In other cases the Epistles begin with such declarations of thankfulness only by way of preamble, and so that soon a special object of the Epistle is announced; but here the thanksgiving is connected with a good deal that the Apostle feels himself impelled to write to the young church respecting its condition, and his own relation to it; and this forms a principal part of the Epistle, if not its main substance.” The Apostle gives thanks for the Christian standing of his readers, and to confirm them therein, and remove all doubt of its Divine reality, as well as of the purity of the motives with which he himself had led them into their position, is really, strictly speaking, his object in chh. 1–3. 2. Making mention of you.—That μνείανποιούμ. supplies the particular explanation, or modal definition, to εὐχαρ.: “whilst we make mention of you,” is clear; and equally so that εἰδότες, 1 Thessalonians 1:4, supplies a causal definition: Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians, because he knows their election. But it is a question, whether the intermediate participle is to be made parallel to the first or the third. The former view is adopted by most, and then at first sight a beautiful parallel results: μνημονεύοντες answers to the μνείανποιούμ., the ὑμῶν is extended in ὑμῶντοῦ ἔργου—Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, and, ἐπὶ τῶνπροσευχῶν, &c. returns in ἔμπροσθεν—πατρὸςἡμῶν. But the parallelism is only too strong, and amounts to tautology; the first clause were of no account alongside of the second. We shall, therefore, do better (with Chrysostom, Calvin, Schott, Koch), by taking μνημον. as parallel to εἰδότες, and finding in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 the first, and in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 the second, ground assigned for the thanksgiving. In favor of this, also, is the analogy of Col 1:4 and 2 Thessalonians 1:3. To thanksgiving for the Thessalonians the Apostle is impelled on the human side by his remembrance of their work of faith, &c.; on the divine side, by his reasonable conviction of their election.3. (1 Thessalonians 1:2 [3].) Without ceasing.—Ἀδιαλείπτως is by the Peschito, Vulgate, Luther, Bengel, Ewald, and many others [Benson, Burton, Bloomfield, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.—J. L.], rightly construed with what precedes; and for this the analogy of 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 1:9; comp. 2 Timothy 1:3, is decisive. The word, moreover, is used by Paul in only one other place, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, and thus always in connection with prayer. Nor does the word so arranged drag (Lόnemann); rather it is distinguished, and πάντοτε thereby receives its special illustration. The Apostle would certify the Thessalonians with peculiar emphasis that they are constantly in his devotional remembrance. On the other hand, μνημονεὐοντες does not in this way become flat (De Wette), but is just as marked and forcible as the parallel εἰδότες at the head of the clause.4. (1 Thessalonians 1:3.) For we are mindful [Remembering].—Μνημονεύειν is not merely transitive=μνείανποιεῖσθαι, to mention, bring to remembrance (De Wette, Lόnemann, &c.), but it also means, and indeed primarily, to be mindful (μνήμων), as κυριεύειν, δουλεύειν=κύριος, δοῦλοςεἶναι. Thus everywhere in Paul’s writings, and generally in the New Testament; whence arises a new proof in favor of our view of 1 Thessalonians 1:3 (though, even taken intransitively, the word might be understood of remembrance in prayer).—Paul remembers what he himself has seen at Thessalonica, and what Timothy has since reported to him (1 Thessalonians 3:6). He goes on to speak in unusually strong terms of the excellencies of the Thessalonians, as in the second chapter he has to commend his own ministry. In this there is neither flattery nor egotism; nor is it simply even a father’s joy in the young church, that puts such words in his mouth. He is rather “exhibiting evidences to the Thessalonians, that they had attained to a genuine faith, and that there is in them a true work of God” (J. Mich. Hahn). 5. Your work in [of] faith.—Ὑμῶν is to be connected with the following substantives, and that in such a way that its force extends over all the three main ideas.—It is, then, of three things that Paul is mindful, and this threefoldness he defines according to the three fundamental elements of the Christian life, which he so often extols: faith, love, hope (comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Colossians 1:4 sq.). But here these occur only in a subordinate, genitival way. And the genitives are all of the same sort: genitives of the origin (De Wette, Schott, and most); they mark the feeling that produces ἔργον, κόπος, ὑπομονή, showing itself practically therein. In German we should best employ compound substantives: Glaubenswerk, Liebesmόhe, [faith-work, love-toil], were this kind of phrase possible in the last instance. Now in this way also may be explained the only one of these expressions that is difficult, and has been very variously understood: τὸ ἔργοντῆςπίστεως, with which comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:11. Here ἔργον, as parallel to κόπος, cannot denote a single work, but is something continuous, a totality, like our day’s-work, life-work. And so ἔργον is already found also in classical Greek = business, occupation; it denotes every human activity, especially in so far as it displays a free energetic movement, or is connected with toil and effort (Passow). In the New Testament and with Paul the word stands repeatedly for a man’s whole life-work, the sum of his ἔργα, as it is sometimes said that God judges according to works, at other times according to every one’s work (comp., for instance, Romans 1 [2] 6 with 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 20:12 with Revelation 22:12). Τὸ ἔργοντῆςπίστεως is thus a course of action, with the accessory idea of vigor, strength, as proceeding from faith; the resolute, serious authentication of faith; practical earnestness in Christianity (comp. for the expression τὸ ἔργοντοῦ νόμου, Romans 2:15, in which only the genitival relation is somewhat different; whereas the material parallel cited by De Wette, and others, Galatians 5:6 : πίστιςδἰ ἀγάπηςἐνεργουμένη, is in so far less apt, as it confounds the second particular, the κόποςτῆςἀγάπης, with the first). To the later Pauline usage, formed in connection with the doctrine of justification, our expression stands as yet in no direct, conscious relation; but in reality it forms a double antithesis to the ἔργανόμου, since faith and law stand mutually opposed (Romans 4:13 sqq.; Galatians 3:23 sqq.), and so the singular τὸ ἔργον to the anarthrous plural—the undivided unity of the spiritually quickened life-work to the incoherent multiplicity of single, more or less external, works and performances. For the thought, such passages may be compared as Colossians 1:10; Ephesians 2:10, and especially Titus 3:8 (καλῶνἔργωνπροΐστασθαιοἱ πεπιστευκότεςθεῷ); Titus 2:14; Titus 2:7; Titus 1:16; 1 Timothy 2:10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 2 Timothy 3:17. As Paul has the expression τὸ ἔργοντῆςπίστεως in his two earliest Epistles, so his latest, the Pastoral Epistles, insist with peculiar earnestness on the evidencing of faith in good works. Herein moreover lie hints for the reconciliation of Paul with James. After what has been said, we can now readily estimate the divergent explanations. It is a mistake, were it only on account of the analogy with what follows, to take τῆςπίστεως, nearly in the sense of Joh 6:29, as a genitive of apposition [Hofmann, Alford]: the work, that consists in faith; whether, indeed, we understand this, with Calvin and Calov, of faith as a mighty operation of God in man, or, with Clericus and Macknight, of the reception of the Gospel as man’s work, so far as that involves, for example, the subduing of prejudices. It is also erroneous, because resting on an indistinct conception of the ἔργον and of the genitival relation, and likewise as violating the analogy with what follows, and encroaching in the third member, to lay the chief stress, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Pelt, Lόnemann (though he rightly says that ἔργου is emphatic), and others, on πίστεως: faith, something begun with energy, and in spite of all temptations steadfastly retained. Rightly Anselm: quomodo fides vestra non est otiosa, sed semper bonum opus gignit; De Wette: moral activity, proceeding from faith; and similarly Bengel, Olshausen, &c. [At 2 Thessalonians 1:11 Dr. Riggenbach would modify the above explanation of ἔργοντῆςπίστεως by limiting the expression to the inward work of faith in the soul itself, and cites Romans 4:20-21 as a better parallel than Galatians 5:6. An obvious objection to this is, that what Paul had observed of the faith of the Thessalonians, and what he now remembered of it, could only have been its outward manifestations in the life, not its internal operation in the heart. And just so in regard to their love and hope.—J. L.] 6. Toil in [of] love.—[“Such as their own Jason had shown amid persecutions, in Acts 17.” Jowett.—J. L.]—The first expression bears on the relation to God, the second on that to the Christian brethren (comp. Colossians 1:4), the third on that to the world and its persecutions. The governing substantives advance from the active to the passive: ἔργον is vigorous doing, ὑπομονή patient suffering, κόπος forms the transition: toil is a doing combined with suffering; strenuous, fatiguing, devoted labor. Patience is the last and highest; rightly to suffer is more and harder than rightly to work; even in the case of the Lord suffering was the last, decisive test, and became the means of His perfecting and glorification (comp. 1 Peter 4:14). In these three, then, are shown and verified faith, love, hope—the root, stem, and crown of the new life. Faith lays hold of the grace exhibited in the facts of redemption, and is thus the foundation of Christian life, the reimplanting of man through Christ in God. Thence arises love as the echo and answer to the Divine love in the heart of man; it is the pure opposite of selfishness that principle of sin—and so is the soul of the Christian life, and of the present Christian fellowship—the fulfilling of the law. Hope knows that the future belongs to the Lord and His Church; it is the real expectation and sure prospect, that the pneumatic life, which now already, descending from the Lord, dwells in his members, shall outwardly also penetrate and transfigure all things, and subdue its still existing antagonists, the flesh and the world, by means of new revelations of the Lord. Thus, in these three subjective factors of the new life is reflected at the same time the historical character of the objective kingdom of God.—With regard to the Thessalonians, therefore, Paul rejoices first of all in the vigor and earnestness of their life of faith, in that they have not yet become faint, and then in the fact that during this hard time, when their church is exposed to manifold vexations, they not merely in a general way hold together in mutual love, but also with laborious effort and sacrifice come to one another’s help—in beneficiis spiritualibus vel externis (Bengel). Comp. the examples, Acts 17:5; Acts 17:9; Romans 16:4; Romans 16:12; 1 John 3:16.—With this is connected finally 7. (1 Thessalonians 1:3.) Patience in [of] hope. Ὑπομονή, properly the staying under (under the cross), patient, unwearied constancy in suffering; here in persecution (see Acts 17:5 sqq.). This constancy proceeds from hope, because in view of the future glory one can the more cheerfully bear the present suffering (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17 sq.; Hebrews 11:26; Hebrews 12:2 sq.). Patience, therefore, appears as the inseparable companion of hope (Romans 8:25); likewise, in the reverse order, as producing it, for in the spiritual life there exists a reciprocal influence (Romans 5:3 sq.); or it even takes the place of hope beside faith and love (Titus 2:2; comp. 2 Timothy 3:10; 1 Timothy 6:11).—τοῦ κυρίουἡμῶνἸησοῦ Χριστοῦ refers not to all the three preceding virtues as derived from Christ (Olshausen, [Steiger, on 1 Peter 1:2, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson]), nor yet to ὑπομονή (Bengel, after 2 Thessalonians 3:5), but to ἐλπίδος as a genitive, not of apposition (Luther), but of the object. Christ is the proper object of hope (and as such is certainly Himself also called ἡ ἐλπίς, Colossians 1:27; 1 Timothy 1:1), not only because on Him all our trust (this the more common meaning of ἐλπίς) rests, but especially because it is through His return and the revelation of the Kingdom of God therewith connected, that the Christian’s hope of glory is fulfilled (Titus 2:13). Let it be observed, how by the addition of this genitive the element of hope, so important in our Epistles, already appears here in a fuller and more emphatic way than the other two.8. Before our God and Father.—Ἡμῶν belongs to both substantives. The words ἔμπροσθεν, &c., may be joined either with the verb μνημονεύοντες (De Wette, Olshausen, [Lόnemann, Alford, Ellicott], &c.), or with the three substantives, τοῦ ἔργου, &c. (Chrysostom, Theodoret, �cumenius [Bishop Hall, Jowett, Wordsworth]). Even in the first case μνημον. need not be understood of mention in prayer, but that Paul before God, that is, so often as he comes before God in prayer, remembers their work of faith, &c.; that is the ground of his thanksgiving; comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:9, a parallel passage that favors this view. But opposed to it is the verbal arrangement, since ἔμπροσθεν, &c. would in this way drag; and the other connection, which no more than ἐνθεῷ, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, requires the article to be repeated (against Lόnemann), might be preferable. By this means the entire conduct of the Thessalonians is put in relation to God (comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:13), as 1 Thessalonians 1:4 will presently describe in turn God’s bearing towards them. Chrysostom [Wordsworth]: “Since no man praised or rewarded what they did, therefore Paul adds these words, as if he would say: Be of good cheer, you suffer in the presence of God.” 9. (1 Thessalonians 1:4.) Knowing.—Εἰδότες is thus parallel with μνημονεύοντες, 1 Thessalonians 1:3; comp. the note on that word. Paul makes the two participles emphatic by placing them in the front. By the side of the remembrance of what actually lay before his eyes, he sets the knowledge, the firm assurance of something, of which one cannot be so easily certain, and in this way he intimates so much the more strongly, that on this point he is sure of his ground. To an afflicted person no higher comfort can be given, than when it is allowed to say to him: I know that thou art chosen.—With this also agrees the address: brethren beloved of God (ἠγαπημένοι, perfect participle: embraced once for all by the Divine love): they are permitted to regard themselves as objects of the Divine love, of electing love; they are to know that their Christianity is not a human dream and vapor, but the evidence that the everlasting purpose of God’s own love is directed towards them. Comp. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, where an address almost entirely similar stands also in connection with election; Colossians 3:12; Romans 11:28; Psalms 60:7 [Psalms 60:5]; Psalms 108:1 [Psalms 108:6], where the members of the chosen people are called ιְ ?γִ ?ιγֵ ?ιιְ ?δεָֹ ?δ LXX. ἀγαπητοί. Thus the members of the Old and of the New Testament Church are spoken of both as God’s Chosen and as His beloved., Ἐκλογή, selection, the election of grace, is the acting of the Divine love, whereby God has from eternity freely devised in Christ the plan of salvation, according to which all men should be called in succession to the kingdom of heaven, and has likewise received into the same these ordained persons. Ἐκλέγεσθαι answers to αָ ?ηַ ?ψ, e. g. Deuteronomy 7:6, and includes three things: ἐκ-λέγ-εσθαι: the stem marks the freeness of the Divine choice; the middle, that God has chosen men for Himself, into, the fellowship of His love, for His own; ἐκ, to select, out from the world, comp. John 15:15; John 16:19 [John 15:16; John 15:19]. In our place ἐκλογή denotes, not, as Romans 9:11, the act of choosing, but, as 2 Peter 1:10, the being chosen [Mφller]; Romans 11:1, the chosen. Paul constantly gives this title of elect to Christians, in whom through their calling and faith the purpose of redemption is realized; see 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6. 10. (1 Thessalonians 1:5.) Because.—Ὅτι not=that (Luther, Bengel, Schott, &c.), but=because, for. It serves not to analyze τὴνἐκλογήν, but to confirm εἰδότεςτὴνἐκλ. ὑμῶν. The Apostle assigns two grounds of his knowledge of the election of the Thessalonians, both lying in the nature of the case, so far as from the realization of election an inference may be drawn backward to its existence: 1. the call had come to them in power (1 Thessalonians 1:5); 2. they had received it in faith (1 Thessalonians 1:6). The first takes place on the part of God through the apostolical preaching, the second on the part of men; and therefore to τὸ εὐαγγέλιονἡμῶν (1 Thessalonians 1:5) the ὑμεῖς (1 Thessalonians 1:6) is emphatically opposed. 11. Our gospel came [German: showed itself] unto you.—Before Paul came to Macedonia and Thessalonica, as Rieger also and Olshausen remind us, he was forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in the provinces of Asia and Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7); from which he could but infer that the hour of their election had not yet struck (it came later, Acts 19:10). Instead of this, he was called by a vision to Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10), and here, and therefore also in Thessalonica, he was able to preach with more than ordinary power and assurance in the Holy Ghost. By this he perceived that God’s saving purpose was directed to the Thessalonians. Ἐγενήθηεἰς, or, which is the same in sense, πρὸςὑμᾶς, not: was with you (Luther), as if it were ε`̓νὑμῖν, but: came to you, showed itself in its direction and relation to you. By ἐγενήθη the certainty of the fact is expressed in a sonorous word, which is therefore thrice repeated in 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6, and precisely at the essential points. This we have attempted to represent in the translation by: showed itself.12. Not in word only, but, &c.—Comp. as specially parallel 1 Corinthians 4:20; only that μόνον is wanting there, because the λόγοςτῶνπεφυσιωμένων is in question, here the preaching of the Apostle Δύναμις is the objective Divine force, which shone forth from the Apostle in preaching, and wrought as a power on men’s souls, spiritualis doctrinal energia (Calvin); πληροφορία, the subjective fulness of conviction, assurance, confidence, and joyfulness, with which he was able to speak; Ewald: gushing fulness. In the middle stands the common principle of both: the Holy Ghost, who animated the Apostle, and was, indeed, the Author alike of the former fact, the real power, and of this consciousness, the fulness of confidence. By means of ἐνπνεύματιἁγίῳ, significantly placed in the centre, as it were the soul of both, δύν. and πληροφ. receive their precise specification; for with mere power and assurance can even a worldly orator speak.—Power and spirit belong together (comp. 1 Corinthians 2:4; Romans 15:19; Acts 1:8; Acts 10:38; comp. Luke 1:35), and so spirit and life (Romans 8:12 [11]; John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:10. 13. Even as ye know what, &c—With this begin the appeals, so frequent in the sequel, especially 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11), to the personal knowledge of the Thessalonians respecting the Apostle’s behavior among them. These can only be explained by the fact, that some sought to misrepresent that behavior, and bring it under suspicion. Οἷοι, how behaved, in what power and fulness of the Spirit (Olshausen); carried out in detail, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12. So little does the Apostle divide his gospel, his preaching, his office, from his person, that for proof of the former he appeals, and can appeal, to the latter. He says not: how we preached, but: how we were. The whole man preached. Such a fine advance of the thought characterizes the style of the Apostle.—By the δἰ ὑμᾶς put significantly at the close Paul hints thus early at what he afterwards also further unfolds, 1 Thessalonians 2:1 sqq., that in his ministry he had sought not his own advantage, but only the salvation of the Thessalonians. 14. (1 Thessalonians 1:6.) And ye became, &c.—After 1 Thessalonians 1:5 should be placed, not, as is commonly done, a period, but a comma, 1 Thessalonians 1:6 being still dependent on ὅτι of 1 Thessalonians 1:5, as the emphatic ὑμεῖς is no doubt opposed to τὸ εὐαγγ. ἡμῶν of that verse; see Exegetical Note 9 [10]. Thus 1 Thessalonians 1:6, with which, 1 Thessalonians 1:1 is connected, contains the second ground from which is inferred the election of the Thessalonians. namely, the reception on their part of the call. But, as Paul preached, not merely in a general way, but with power, &c., so they too received the word, not merely in a general way, but in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Through these corroborating circumstances on both sides the conclusion in regard to the election becomes the more certain. And therefore is this corroboration emphasized in 1 Thessalonians 1:6 by prefixing μιμηταὶ ἡμῶνἐγενήθητε, &c.; for the tertium comparationis lies not in δεξάμενοιτὸνλογόν, which indeed were unsuitable, in particular, to the Lord, but in this, that in great affliction, with holy joy of the Spirit, they yielded themselves to God in faith, as Paul and the Lord had done in their preaching and official procedure. On μιμηταί, comp. 1 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; Ephesians 5:1; Galatians 4:12, and the Doctrinal division. 15. Having received the word, &c.—When through the preaching of the gospel a man experiences in his heart the truth and glory of salvation, this will the more vividly mount even to joy of the Holy Ghost, the more that outward affliction, that is, hostility and persecution for the gospel’s sake, seeks to dispute with him the possession of salvation. As a counterpoise to the world’s intimidation and vexation, the Holy Ghost works this inward joy at the opening prospect of an everlasting communion with God (πνεύματοςἁγίου, genitive of the origin, like the genitives of 1 Thessalonians 1:3). And now the question is, whether the man gives the victory to this joy or to that affliction, to the new power of the Spirit or to the old power of the flesh. If he does the first, the case comes to δέχεσθαιτὸνλόγον.. The δέχεσθαι—on which comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Luke 8:13; Acts 8:14; Acts 11:1; Acts 17:11; James 1:21 (δέξασθετὸνλόγον, imperative)—expresses man’s agency in the work of salvation, as this is likewise marked by ὑμεῖς. But this agency is not an independent efficiency (Pelagianism), nor any coφperation (Synergism), but an acceptance, the affirmation of the Divine working on us and in us, a free receptivity. While a man thus gives admission to prevenient grace, asserting itself to him inwardly in the word of the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:5), and acting upon his heart, he yet recognizes the new life as entirely the work of the Holy Spirit, because he himself has not effected, but merely received it.—On the affliction of the Thessalonians, see Acts 17:5 sqq. At Thessalonica, and generally in the primitive Church period, conversion was an act of personal courage and vigorous self denial, since a man had to be prepared to surrender comfort, honor, property, and life itself. 16. (1 Thessalonians 1:7.) A pattern to all the believers answers to the μιμηταί of 1 Thessalonians 1:6 : The true followers become themselves in turn patterns for others. This circumstance, moreover, that they had become a pattern for others, might be of vise to the Thessalonians for confirmation in their faith, and for their conviction of its reality; the Apostle, therefore, still further enlarges upon it in the following section (1 Thessalonians 1:7-10), to which our verse forms the transition.—Believers) is one of the most frequent designations of Christians in the New Testament—comp. Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32—along with ἅγιοι, &c. 17. Macedonia and Achaia, whither the Apostle journeyed from Thessalonica. Achaia, originally the most northern territory of the Peloponnesus, was from the year 146 before Christ the name of the Roman province that embraced the Peloponnesus and Hellas, since by the overthrow of the Achζan League the Romans had made themselves masters of Greece. The two provinces of Macedonia and Achaia together formed the entire Greek domain, and are therefore often named together (Acts 18:12; Acts 19:21; Romans 15:26. 2 Corinthians 9:2). AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 1:2.) The exordiums of the Pauline Epistles afford us noteworthy glimpses of the devotional life of the Apostle. So faithfully and constantly did he bear churches and individuals on his heart in intercession and thanksgiving, that he is able to speak of it to his readers in terms, which to the common sense appear hyperbolical. And it is true that the apostolic is by its very nature hyperbolical, inasmuch as the Apostles transcend the ordinary measure, and excel all others not only as preachers and founders of the Church, but also as men of prayer. When the Twelve at Jerusalem gave up the external services to the deacons, they said: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). Prayer is to them the full half, and indeed the first half, of their office. And so Paul too begins his Epistles, in which he addresses the word to the churches, with a distinct reference to the fact, that he is constantly praying for them. By prayer we act upon God; by the word, on the world, on men. To every labor for the world must be added the blessing of God; the moral can prosper only on the religious ground. Hence for every man the golden, in its simplicity inconceivably wise and comprehensive, rule: Pray and labor. But for the laborer in the word, whereby the world is to be brought to God, and the Spirit of God is to enter men’s souls, the rule has a double value. And indeed from the statements of the Apostle we observe that he had regular exercises of devotion; as a result of which, his Epistles manifest a continual devotional frame.2. (1 Thessalonians 1:3.) On faith, love, hope, see Exegetical Note 5. 3. (1 Thessalonians 1:4.) Election is not to be so understood, as if God had appointed some men to salvation, to the exclusion of others. The latter are not rejected, but simply passed by for a time [?—nur zurόckgestellt]. Election has reference to an organic position in that kingdom of God, to which all men are appointed, and, in connection therewith, to a temporal entrance into the same (see Romans 9-11, and on that passage especially J. T. Beck, Versuch einer pneumatisch hermeneutischen Entwicklung des ix. Kapitels im Brief an die Rφmer, Stuttgart, 1833). “God chooses for Himself out of all, before others and for others.” (Richter, Hausbibel, on Ephesians 1:4.) Quite as little is election to be so understood, as if in the elect grace wrought irresistibly, so that they could not fail to become and remain believers. Rather, when God’s hour for a man has struck, there goes forth to him through the Gospel the call (1 Thessalonians 1:5), which he can receive or not (1 Thessalonians 1:6;—on the relation between grace and freedom, see the second Note on that verse); and, when he has received it, it is still for him a question of permanent interest, that he persevere and continue steadfast in grace (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 : εἵλατοὑμᾶςὁ θεὁςἀπʼ ? ἀρχῆς—ἐκάλεσενδιὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου—ἄραοὖνστήκετε. 2 Peter 1:10): “Scripture certainly knows only of a Divine causality in the matter of salvation; but neither does it conflict with this, that the conditions of obtaining salvation rest with man.” (Stier, on Ephesians 1:4.) By means of the first view, that the election of grace is to be understood in an organic and historical sense, the difficulty in regard to the reprobi is solved; by means of the other, that freedom, or, more precisely, man’s free receptivity is not annulled, but unbound, by grace and the election of grace, is solved the difficulty in regard to the electi. “A prζdestinatio sanctorum is spoken of, but without at the same time affirming also a reprobatio impiorum or a gratia irresistibilis.” (Olshausen, on Ephesians 1:4.) Predestination is a decrelum absolutum, and to that extent remains ever a mystery, in so far as it rests on the free good pleasure of the Divine love and wisdom, which according to their sovereign decision, yet not otherwise in the kingdom of God than in secular history, assign to one a distinguished, to another an inglorious, position; but it is no decretum horrendum, because on the ground of what God gives men move with freedom, and so the claims of conscience and reason remain secure. Nay, only thus does predestination become, what it is to Paul, the Divine world idea, the plan, formed in Christ, of creation and redemption, which lies at the basis of the entire development of the world, and comprehends the successive elevation or reintroduction of the creatures into the glory of the Creator. But for believers the knowledge of election has a double significance—a humbling one, made especially prominent in Romans 9; and one that lifts up, with which the Apostle has to do here, and at Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:28-30. The first consideration is the consciousness, fatal to all self righteousness, that our salvation rests not on any. doings or performances of ours, but is founded wholly out of and above ourselves in the free, everlasting mercy of God. The second is the lofty and joyful assurance, wherein believers find comfort, that their salvation is therefore not of yesterday, but from eternity; that it rests not on weak, human props, but in the eternal purpose of grace of the Father in the Son, into the world pervading realization of which they know themselves to be taken up. The grace of God is all embracing; but it is precisely in consequence of the universality of the gracious disposition that despisers perish. Jul. Mόller: “Love could not be in earnest with itself, did it not deny its denial.” [Matthew 10:33; Luke 12:9. To believers, on the other hand, it never occurs either to suppose that now indeed they can no longer miscarry, or even to claim superiority to other men, as if God had not loved the world. “From all weakness and temptation we may ever again revert to the eternal foundation, that in Jesus Christ God has foreordainec us, that within the eternal contemplation of His Son is included our election, which now advances in manifestation and accomplishment, till we hear the gospel and are sealed by the Spirit. Only this is implied in the election of grace, as Paul explains it, that faith has reason to consider itself chosen; of those who do riot attain to this grace he speaks not at all.” (“Minutes of the Preachers’ Conference at Stuttgart, May 12, 1852, p. 309.)—[Barnes: It is possible for a people (and for individuals) to know that they are chosen of God, and to give such evidence of it that others shall know it also.—J. L.] 4. (1 Thessalonians 1:5.) The call does not come through every sort of gospel-preaching, but through!, preaching filled with the Spirit, and an essential point in the matter is the personal endowment of the preachers. Comp. the Exegetical Notes 11 and 12. 5. (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7.) Christianity proposes to men no new problems which they must first solve by themselves, and as it were in new paths; it is also in this respect not a law, but a gospel. The primary problem is solved, the way is prepared, and in this way there are forerunners, in whose footsteps we simply tread, God, Christ, and His witnesses. God was imitated by Christ (John 5:19 sq.), Christ by Paul and the Apostles (1 Corinthians 11:1), Paul by the Thessalonians and all who so walked (Philippians 3:17), and then again these imitators themselves became a pattern for others (see Exegetical Note 15). Nor is that a spiritless imitation, but a following (Luke 9:23 sqq., Luke 9:57 sqq.) in the power of the Spirit, who begets ever new, fresh life, though in historical continuity; since He is a Spirit of remembrance (John 14:26), yea, the ever present God Himself, authenticating His earlier creations by those subsequent, so that preceding spiritual men become models and instruments of training for the later, and that word: Learn of me (Matthew 11:29), finds its fulfilment perpetually renewed. Thus the Church hangs through Christ on God, and from God there goes forth through Christ and His Apostles into the world an unbroken succession of bright forms, a cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), who are images and representatives of God in the world, and, in connection with their predecessors, leave a personal impress of the heavenly, spiritual quality, according to the circumstances and needs of each several period. As we commence the missionary work amongst a heathen people, not by translating the Bible into their language, but by sending messengers to them—(it is not without reason that πορευθέντες occurs in the missionary charge, Matthew 28:19)—so, in general, to the word of the Spirit, even the preached, audible word, must still be added the visible stamp of the Spirit in living personalities, who show by act the power and glory of the gospel, and in whom can be seen, if the expression is allowed, the holy arts of the spiritual walk—the spiritual dietetics. On this rests the high importance of good biographies, and yet more of the living observation of Christian characters. What Christian owes not his best thanks to such life impressions? For, indeed, humanity is so organized, and this is its noble distinction, that what is deepest rests ever on the relation of person to person: the relation of father and child, of master and disciples, penetrates everywhere. Oetinger: “It cannot be denied that an embodied visible gospel is necessary to the right use of the written rule, and of the hearing of preaching. The written standard must be made available through the help of the Spirit in the members.” Hence the importance of Church History in its innermost sanctuary, so far as it is a history of the invisible Church, of men of God, of true saints. That is the most living tradition, the tradition of the Spirit and of power. In this sense also an essential importance belongs to the Church as well as to Holy Scripture. She is in a certain sense a continuation of the actual revelation of God alongside of the verbal revelation, wherein, it is true, the word of God reaches, as it always does, far beyond the fact, and the latter serves only as a step and means of guidance to the former (comp. John 2:11; John 2:22; John 5:36 sqq. and John 5:39 sqq.; John 14:10-11). And thus shall it be, till what we shall be appears; then fact and word become one. AND 1 Thessalonians 1:2. Prayer, as in the apostolic Epistles, so generally, the beginning and foundation of the promulgation of the word. The preacher’s office a perseverance in prayer and in the ministry of the word; comp. Acts 6:4.—The Apostle’s daily communication with his churches by prayer.—Zwingli: True love is careful for the brethren.—A Christian preacher gives God glory and thanks for what through him has been wrought in souls; and just so the praise of other men becomes in the Christian’s mouth thanksgiving to God.—Rieger: Oh, the lightening of the official burden, when the Lord still opens our eyes, and shows us for what we have to give thank?, and for what to pray!—Theodoret: We should first give thanks for the good already bestowed upon us, and only then pray for what still is wanting. So do we find it everywhere with the Apostle.—Diedrich: Happy the man, who is able to let all his joy pour itself forth in pure thanksgiving to the Father. Otherwise there is even no joy worth anything.—Calvin: An important motive to zealous progress is the reflection, that God has granted to us noble gifts for the perfecting of the work begun; that under His guidance we have already made advances on the right road for reaching the end. For as an idle confidence in the virtues to which men foolishly lay claim puffs them up, and makes them secure and sluggish, so the recognition of God’s gifts humbles pious souls, and incites them to a solicitous zeal. 1 Thessalonians 1:3. Calvin: A brief description of true Christianity: 1. That faith be earnest and vigorous; 2. that no pains be spared, so long as there are neighbors to be assisted, but that all the pious assiduously fulfil the obligations of love; 3. they should studiously endeavor, in the hope of Christ’s manifestation, to despise all things else, and by patience overcome both the irksomeness of the long interval (to the appearing of the Lord), and all the temptations of the world.—Luther: Faith is a lively, active, practical, temperate thing, so that it cannot but do good works unremittingly. It does not even ask whether good works are to be done; but let a man rather ask whether he has done, and is ever doing, them. Without constraint, therefore, a man becomes willing and glad to do good to every one, to serve every one, to suffer in every way, from love to God and for His glory, who has shown him so great grace; so that it is impossible to separate works from faith, as impossible as for heat and light to be separated from fire.—Bengel: He, who from regard to his own profit and ease withdraws from labor, loves little.—Rieger: Love will have reality and truth, nor that in such measure only as is convenient for every man, bringing him honor and a good name, without too closely compromising his own life; but so that a man must descend withal from his own station, and the distinctions thereto belonging, and, instead of finding his pleasure in himself, place himself in the circumstances of another: that is what is meant by the labor of love. Under the patience of hope may be comprehended the entire career of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is all summed up in this, that He condescended to what was most ignominious, and maintained Himself above what was most glorious; as now in our career of faith everything depends on the hope of the kingdom breaking its way through tribulation with the patience of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:4. Election the highest comfort of the tempted.—Zwingli: Paul therewith guards his commendation, lest they arrogate to themselves what belongs to God alone.—Marks of election: 1. a powerful call; 2. a believing reception of the gospel as the word of God; comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—An anointed preacher may thus comfort tempted believers, and one Christian another: I know that thou art chosen.—Rieger: The Apostle speaks thus decidedly of their election, in consequence of the call and the evidence of their obedience to it. Nor is it even beyond our present measure to form such a judgment, in praise of the work of God in a soul, though formerly, to be sure, it may have been more perceptible. Our office otherwise loses its proper force [Seele, soul], when we never dare to discern between the righteous and the unrighteous, or to recognize as dead or alive what really is so. 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4. [Scott: Faith which worketh not obedience; professed love that declines self denying labor; and hope which is separated from patient continuance in well doing, can never prove a man’s election.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:5. The right preaching of the kingdom of God, like itself, stands not in words, but in power.—Spiritual power dwells in the preaching, when the hearers feel that the preacher himself is a man of firm conviction, who stands in the joyful assurance of that which he preaches.—Power on others and assurance (within) we cannot give to ourselves; it is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Even an Apostle cannot everywhere work with equal force. It behoves us, renouncing self, to yield ourselves to the Lord.—The preacher’s doctrine and life must form one whole.—John Mich. Hahn: A holy, Christian behavior makes impressions on elect souls. Wherever we go or sojourn, let us never forget that we too are closely watched and observed. Our aim must be to walk as elect, holy and beloved, not only before our Holy Father, but also before the dear ones whom our Lord has purchased for Himself. 1 Thessalonians 1:6. The right disposition of preachers and hearers.—Diedrich: Ye are in the heavenward march of the children of God, that is led by the God Man.—Rieger: To hear and receive God’s word has been specified by the Saviour Himself as the decisive badge of those, who are of God and of the truth; especially when one is not deterred by the outside covering of shame and affliction.—Roos: A gospel or good news should cause joy, and, if unable to cause any, it is no gospel. When amongst Jews, Heathens, or Christians, unbelief, idolatry, and all damnable ungodliness is reproved, this rebuke should be keen and of swift operation; but so likewise should joy over the simultaneously proffered grace swiftly rise, and cause the pain occasioned by the rebuke to be disregarded, when compared with the richness of the proffered grace, or with the happy condition into which a man now enters.—[Jowett: The suffering that comes from without cannot depress the spirit of a man who is faithful in a good cause. It is only when “from within are fears” that the mind is enslaved.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:7. Rieger: Who becomes a follower of the Lord, without confiding also in brave predecessors and comrades, and becoming their follower? It amounts to a great perverseness, when any would break down confidence in those who by word and work, doctrine and life, are helpers of the truth, and would pretend in this to a zeal for the Lord, supposing that they are striving merely against a ruinous dependence on men. Whoever in his following casts off humility, fails likewise to attain the grace to become a pattern.—Even believers need patterns of the genuineness and evidence of joy under affliction.—[Webster and Wilkinson: It requires higher grace, and is a more important duty, to be an example to believers than to the world, 1 Thessalonians 2:10.—J. L.] Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 1:2.—ὑμῶν after μνείαν is, indeed, wanting in A. B. [Sin.] &c., but by Tischendorf, who, with Lachmann, formerly cancelled it, it has been rightly resumed on preponderating evidence, external and internal. On account of the ὑμῶν before [μνείαν it might easily drop out of the manuscripts. 1 Thessalonians 1:3.—[For a different construction of ἀδιαλείπτως, adopted by our Authors, see the Exegetical Notes.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:3.—[Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Romans 5:2; Titus 1:2; Titus 3:7. And so here the older English versions, and very many others. See the Exegetical Notes, and the Revision.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:4.—[This construction of εἰδότες, ἀδελφοὶ ἠγαπημένοιὑπὸ θεοῦ (Sin: τοῦ θεοῦ) τὴνἐκλογὴνὑμῶν, is that of the oldest versions (Syriac and Vulgate), and may be said to be now universally adopted. King James’ Revisers erred here in quitting Tyndale and Cranmer to follow Geneva and the Bishops’ Bible. Comp. 2 Thessalonians 2:3; Romans 1:7 : Sept. Deuteronomy 33:12; Sir 45:1; Sir 46:13.—The reason for the change of the punctuation at the close of 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 will be found in the exegesis.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:5.—εἰςὑμᾶς, Griesbach, Lachmann, Lόnemann: πρὸςὑμᾶς. [Sin. inserts τοῦ θεοῦ after εὐαγγέλιον.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:5.—[ἐγενήθημεν. Comp. 2 Corinthians 7:14. Here Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva: behaved ourselves; Auberlen: urs erwiesen (and similarly in the other two instances in 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6); and many other versions to the same effect. In the New Testament the first aorist passive forms of γίνομαι (see Phrynichus, ed. Lobeck, pp. 108–9) occur 36 times, and, while in 14 instances our English version treats them as simply equivalent to a past tense of εἶναι, it is not difficult to detect a different shade of meaning in every one of them. See the Revision on this verse, Notes s. and W. In the present context Alford lays (Ellicott thinks an undue) stress on the passive forms as suggestive of Divine efficiency;* and so Wordsworth: “were made by God’s grace.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:7.—τύπον Recepta, defended by: τύπους. [The singular is edited by Knapp, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott—the last named, however, admitting that the plural form is supported by better external authority—A. C. F. G. K. L.; to which must now be added Sin.—For the translation, comp. Titus 2:7 and Hebrews 8:5.—J. L.]. 1 Thessalonians 1:7.—[πάσιντοῖςπιστεύουσιν;—“πιστ. not having here a pure participial force, … but, as often in the N. T. coalescing with the article to form a substantive.” Ellicott.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:7.—[ Most critical editions repeat the ἐν before τῇ Ἀχαΐᾳ, with nearly all the uncial manuscripts, including Sin.—Here, and in 1 Thessalonians 1:8, Μακεδονίᾳ is in Sin. Μακαιδ.—J. L.] [So commentators generally in this instance. Wordsworth’s remark, however, is worthy of note, that the we of these earliest Epistles is in those of later date exchanged for the first person singular I. Jowett also refers it exclusively to Paul.—J. L.] [Ellicott, who takes the other view of μνημονεύοντες, as being parallel to the preceding μνείανποιούμ, would distinguish the three participial clauses thus: “The first serves principally to define the manner, the second the time and circumstances, the third the reasons and motives of the action.”—J. L.] [All this fails to satisfy me that the construction of our English version should not be retained. The whole sentence is thus better balanced. Paul having assured the Thessalonians that he was always thanking God for them, it was much less important to add immediately that he made continual mention of them in his prayers, than that the continual remembrance of their Christian character and its fruits was the reason why his reference to them in his prayers always took the form of thanksgiving to God. The other texts cited cannot control a sentence of different structure. Ellicott also adheres to this arrangement as “far more natural,” and refers in its behalf to Chrysostom and the other Greek commentators.—J. L.] [This meaning, which Beza here introduced (commemorantes), and which Alford has lately adopted: making mention of (though in his New Testament for English Readers, published in the same year as the last edition of the Greek Testament—1865—he follows the Common Version, remembering), is borne by the word, out of 21 instances of its occurrence in the New Testament, only at Hebrews 11:22, and there the construction is different.—J. L.] [Ellicott is inclined to make them simply possessive genitives, and ἔργου, κόπου, ὑπομονῆς the prevailing features and characteristics of πίστεως, ἀγάπης, ἐλπίδος,, respectively. But the two ideas are in this case essentially one—at least inseparable in fact;—the former belonging to the latter at modes of self-manifestation.—J. L.] [The above definition of the hope, as having immediate reference to Christ’s second coming (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10), is given by very many of the best interpreters, from Ambrosiaster to Alford and Ellicott.—J. L.] [So the Dutch version, Conybeare, Peile, Jowett, &c. The other construction, however, is in this case grammatically allowable. Ellicott rather prefers it; see his note on Galatians 1:4.—J. L.] [Dr. Riggenbach’s Preface indicates a preference for the connection with μνημονεύοντες.—J. L.] [The German Bible, like the Hebrew, includes the titles of the Psalms among the numbered verses.—J. L.] [I do not know where Scripture teaches that this is a part of the plan of salvation, or where ἐκλογή is employed to express any such idea; nor is it easy to see how it could be, except, indeed, as the human race might be spoken of as thus distinguished from the angels that sinned—J. L.] [What persons? All men in succession? or the Church members referred to in the previous sentence? In either case reception and election represent totally different ideas.—The whole definition is lacking in accuracy and precision. Nor do these qualities by any means characterize all that is added on this topic under the Doctrinal head. This is not the place for the discussion of theological systems, But I may be allowed simply to refer to what is said on this point in my Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 55 sqq. and p. 542 sq.—J. L.] [Dr. W. Mφller. He edited the 3d edition of De Wette’s Exeg. Handbuch on the Epistles to the Galatians and Thessalonians, 1864.—J. L.] [Ellicott would allow this sense to πρὸςὑμᾶς, and refers to 1 Corinthians 16:10.—J. L.] [See Critical Note 6.—J. L.] [The Author’s German version repeats the ὅτι: and because ye became, &c. But it is better, with Ellicott, to regard the connection of 1 Thessalonians 1:6 with that particle as rather logical than structural, and so “to place neither a period (Tischendorf, Alford), nor a comma (Lachmann, Buttmann), but a colon, after 1 Thessalonians 1:5.” In the Translation, indeed, Ellicott, perhaps through oversight, retains the period.—J. L.] [The joy of the Holy Ghost is rather the accompaniment and the fruit of faith, than, as here represented, the preparation for it.—J. L.] [On δέχσθαι as compared with παραλαβεῖν, see Exegetical Notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—J. L.] [Only let it be added, that the “Divine causality” extends also to the “human conditions,” though in such a way, however to us incomprehensible, as does not at all impair, out rather strengthens, man’s free moral agency. See Acts 13:48; Acts 16:14; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:25; Luke 22:32; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24; &c—J. L.] [German: ein visibles und sichtbares Evangelium.] 1 Thessalonians 1:8-102. Other Christians also, who have heard thereof, bear witness to the blessed work of the Apostle at Thessalonica, and the thorough conversion of the Thessalonians. 8For [sin. omits γάρ] from you sounded out [hath been sounded forth, ἐξήχηται] the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every [but in every] place your faith to God ward [toward God] is spread abroad [hath gone forth, ἐξελήλυθεν], so that we need not [have no need] to speak anything. 9For they themselves shew of us [report concerning us, περὶ ἡμῶνἀπαγγέλλουσιν] what manner of entering in [entrance, εἴσοδον] we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from [the] idols, to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for His Son from heaven [the heavens], whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us [who delivered us] from the wrath to come [the coming wrath, τῆςὀργῆςτῆςἐρχομένης], AND 1. In commencing a new short section with 1 Thessalonians 1:8, we vary from the common view which takes the whole of the first chapter together. But there are evidently three different testimonies adduced by Paul in support of the two facts, which he is now engaged in proving—his own pure, powerful preaching, and the genuine faith of the Thessalonians. He first gives his own testimony, 1 Thessalonians 1:2-7, especially 1 Thessalonians 1:5 sqq.; then he brings forward that of Christians elsewhere, 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10; lastly, he appeals to the These salonians and their remembrance of his entrance among them (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2), just as on his side he bears witness to them of their believing reception of the word, of which they had, and still have, experience as the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16). 2. (1 Thessalonians 1:8.) There is a question, first of all, of the punctuation of 1 Thessalonians 1:8. Ordinarily a comma is put first after Ἀχαΐᾳ, and then there arises a double inconvenience. In the first place, the proof (γάρ) stretches unsuitably beyond the thing to be proved (1 Thessalonians 1:7): Ye are become a pattern to the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, for not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere, have you been heard of. In the second place, the clause with but is, in a manner at once unsuitable and really insignificant, provided with a new subject and verb, whilst we are expecting only: From you the word of the Lord has come forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in all places. If Paul meant to introduce a new subject and verb into the latter clause, he must have placed after οὐ μόνον the subject and verb of the former clause, together with ἀφʼ ? ὑμῶν, which answers to the ὑμῶν after πίστις. It will therefore be better, with Calvin, Lόnemann and others, to put a colon after κυρίου, so that now οὐ μόνονἐν, as well as ἀλλʼ ? ἐν, is dependent on ἡ πίστιςὑμῶνἐξελήλυθεν.. If in this way the second of the difficulties named is obviated, so not less is the first also, since now the logical relation, expressed by γἀρ, of 1 Thessalonians 1:8 to 1 Thessalonians 1:7 is formed thus: Ye are become a pattern to the believers in Macedonia and Achaia; for even in other quarters it has become known, how the word of God has wrought among you. On this new thought the Apostle now dwells, and carries it out by itself still further and beyond 1 Thessalonians 1:7. For the exemplariness of the Thessalonians is not the main thought to be established in the following verses, but forms merely the transition to the new witnesses, the citation of whom is (according to Note 1) properly his object. That the clause with οὐ μόνον appears attached to the preceding one by asyndeton need not disturb us, since, with explanatory clauses particularly, this is frequently the case, comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:9. Winer, p. 476. 3. From you hath been sounded forth.—Ἀφʼ ?ὑμῶν stands emphatically first; ἀπό in the proper local sense: out from, you. Ἐξἠχηται in the New Testament ἅπαξλεγόμενον; ἐξηχἐω commonly intransitive, but also in classic Greek transitive=to cause to sound forth; ἐξηχεῖται, it sounds forth, is heard abroad. Similarly here with the sense of the perfect: The word of God has been so powerful among you, has produced a movement so lively and loud, that the sound thereof, so to speak, [as of a trumpet; Chrysostom,] has propagated itself to a distance—that people have heard it everywhere. Bengel: claro sono diditus est. The idea of resonance (echo) does not lie in the word. Comp. the parallel έξελήλυθεν: has pressed forth, become known, (Luke 7:17). 4. The word of the Lord—your faith in God.—These two expressions of themselves describe Christianity on its two sides; the word on the Divine side, but offering itself to men; faith on the human, but turning to meet the approach of God; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:6. In the present connection, however, where the second clause merely carries out further the first, and where also, therefore, the verbs are synonymous, both points are jointly intended under both expressions: the word of God, as it was preached by the Apostle and believingly received by the Thessalonians (so also Olshausen, De Wette, Koch), and hence the emphatic position of ἀφʼ ? ὑμὦν; faith, as it was aroused in the Thessalonians by the Apostle’s preaching (Lόnemann). But still the word of the Lord stands first, precluding mere human glory—The word of the Lord (as in 2 Thessalonians 3:1), the word or the gospel of Christ (Colossians 3:16; Romans 1:9, and often), not different from the word or gospel of God (1 Corinthians 14:36; Romans 1:1, and often), just as in the Acts ὁ λόγοςτοῦ θεοῦ and ὁ λόγοςτοῦ κυρἰου are used interchangeably. It is not a genitive of the object=verbum de Deo, but, as is clear especially from 1 Thessalonians 2:13, a genitive of the subject or author=the word which Christ or God causes to be proclaimed (Lόnemann, &c.). Faith in God, because most of the Christians in Thessalonica had previously been heathens, see 1 Thessalonians 1:9; πίστιςπρός, instead of the common εἰσ, also at Philemon 1:5; comp. 2 Corinthians 3:4. 5. In every place, where, that is, there are Christian churches, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia; similarly full expressions, Romans 1:8; Colossians 1:6; Colossians 1:23. But since Paul had not in the meantime left these countries, ὡστεμή &c. must have reference to letters or visits. Ewald and others call attention to the fact that precisely in Corinth where Paul wrote our Epistle, with trade converging there from all quarters of the Roman world, was it possible for him to give such an assurance. The church need not, therefore, have already existed for a long period (against Baur), but its rapid, powerfully spreading conversion must have excited great attention. The words also indicate an intercourse of the liveliest kind among the Christians. 6. (1 Thessalonians 1:9.) They themselves.—Ad sensum, the explanation is from the previous ἐνπαντὶ τόπῳ (1 Thessalonians 1:8).—Concerning us.—Ἡμῶν refers, as the double specification (ὁποίανκαὶ πῶς) shows, to the Apostle and his helpers on the one side, and the Thessalonians on the other.7. What manner of entrance we had unto you.—εἴσοδον does not answer to the German Eingang in the sense of friendly reception, entrance into the heart (Pelt, Olshausen and many). Opposed to this is partly the word itself (see 1 Thessalonians 2:1 sq. and comp. Acts 13:24), and partly the connection, since it is in the following clause, καὶ πῶς, that mention is first made of the reception of the Apostle and his preaching. The word means a going in introduction (Chrysostom, Calvin, De Wette, &c.): “what sort of an introduction we had to you, to wit, with the preaching of the gospel; i. e. (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:5), with what power and fulness of the Holy Ghost (Calvin), with what inward confidence and contempt of outward dangers (Chrysostom, &c.), we proclaimed to you the gospel.” Mark the expressive emphasis in δποίαν; it is not merely ἥν or οἷοι (comp. οἷοι, 1 Thessalonians 1:5) or ποίαν. Πῶς likewise is not=that [Alford: how that, referring merely to the fact; and so Ellicott], but=under what difficult circumstances, and with what joy of the Spirit withal; it points back to 1 Thessalonians 1:6. just as ὁποίαν to 1 Thessalonians 1:6. At the same time we here detect the joy of the foreign brethren over the faith of the Thessalonians. 8. How ye turned to God from the idols.—is the regular New Testament word for conversion; in the Acts, where it is naturally of frequent occurrence, with the addition ἐπὶ τὸνκύριον (Acts 11:21), or εἰςφῶς (Acts 26:18), or ἐπὶ τὸνθεόν (Acts 26:18; Acts 26:20; Acts 14:16; Acts 15:9), often too with an ἀπό, whose substantive describes heathenism sometimes on the side of its demonian background, sometimes on the side of men, sometimes of the idols, viz. Acts 26:18 ἀπὸ τῆςἐξουσίαςτοῦ σατανᾶ. Acts 15:19 ἀπὸ τῶνἐθνῶν. Acts 14:15 ἀπὸ τῶνματαίωνἐπιστρέφεινἐπὶ θεὸνζῶντα. With this class is connected the expression in our verse. The latter, negative clement corresponds to repentance (Acts 26:20); the former, positive one to faith (Acts 11:21). 9. To serve the living and true God.—Δουλεύειν and ἀναμένειν are infinitives of the purpose. The primary feeling of profound awe in presence of Deity, that belongs to human nature and especially to antiquity, finds expression also in language. The Old Testament employs, over against God, the expression that denotes the relation of the most unconditional subjection, that of the slave to his master: ςָ ?αַ ?γ (Exodus 9:1; Exodus 9:13; Deuteronomy 8:19; and often); to which expression the corresponding inner sentiment is fear (ιָ ?ψֵ ?ΰ, Jonah 1:9; comp, τַּ ?ηַ ?γ, of God, Genesis 31:42; Genesis 31:53). To fear God and to serve God, these are the two most common Biblical expressions for religion. And so in our text also appears δουλεύεινθεῷ as the designation of religion or of religious practice generally; or rather, what we are accustomed to designate by these faint expressions, is in a more concrete and living way conveyed by the Apostle in that phrase, as we too have the beautiful word Gottesdienst [Divine service]. By means of the additions to τῷ θεῷ phraseology becomes a closer description of the true religion, in opposition to the false: ζῶντι, living, in opposition to the dead idol-images (see Romans 1:23); ἀληθινῷ, existing in objective truth and reality, in opposition to the merely imaginary, lying idols (see Romans 1:25). It may be thought strange that the Apostle uses, in regard to Christianity, such a general expression, that is applied also to the Old Testament religion as contrasted with heathenism, whereas he then puts what is specifically Christian, not into faith in Jesus, the Son of God and the Saviour, but into the expectation of His return from heaven. But it is just in its connection with 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that the general expression of our verse acquires also a more especially Christian sense. A man can, in truth, only then really serve God, when he has access to him through Christ, and is by His blood purified from the dead works of the old, ungodly mind (see Hebrews 9:14). And that Paul had not been silent on this point at Thessalonica, that he had proclaimed Christ as the Son of God, as the Saviour, and salvation in His death and resurrection, all that we see from 1 Thessalonians 1:10. But certainly our two verses show that his preaching at Thessalonica had turned, not so much round this central doctrine of salvation, as about the beginning and the end, the first things and the last. A parallel is furnished by the speech which the Apostle soon afterwards delivered at Athens (Acts 17:22-31). There too he first of all leads Iris hearers over from the idols to the living God, and speaks of Christ especially as the future Judge, and only incidentally, in connection with that, of His resurrection, and of faith therein; though this, it is true, significantly enough forms the conclusion.—[Webster and Wilkinson: “He puts together the first and last articles of their creed; and then supplies the two most important of the intervening articles.”—J. L.] 10. (1 Thessalonians 1:10.) And to wait for.—The Apostle defines the life-aim of the converts in two particulars, the service of God, and the waiting for the return of His Son from heaven. Though we should even say with Olshausen, that ἐπιστρέφειν includes faith, and δουλεύειν implies love, it is only the more surprising that hope is raised into such explicit and emphatic prominence. This agrees and is connected with the Whole eschatological tenor of our Epistles, as well as of the Apostle’s oral teaching at Thessalonica, and it contains a weighty warning for the Church (see Doctrinal and Ethical, no. 3). Bengel says in his New Testament on our text: To wait for the Son of God is the most appropriate mark of a true Christian. Ἀναμένειν only here in the New Testament; elsewhere we find used of the eschatological waiting προσδέχεσθαι, Luke 12:36; Titus 2:13; ἀπεκδέχεσθαι, Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 9:26 [28]; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Romans 8:19; Romans 8:23; Romans 8:25; Galatians 5:5; προσδοκᾷν, 2 Peter 3:12-14. 11. From the heavens &c. coming, belongs to ἀναμένειν. The plural οἱ οὐρανοί, which occurs so often in the New Testament, but in Luther’s version is unhappily obliterated (so even in the address of the Lord’s Prayer), is to give us an impression of the manifold, rich life of the super-terrestrial world (John 14:2). These heavens, which frequently seem to us so remote, strange, and shut, will open their doors, and from them the Son of God will come forth with the heavenly host, to the dismay of the world and the joy of His own. Comp. Acts 1:1. 12. His Son, whom He raised from the dead.—The expression, Son of God, is thus used of Christ by Paul in his very first Epistle, though as yet without further specification. But it must be considered, in the first place, that the expression is plainly chosen, for the purpose of designating Christ in his inner relation to God mentioned immediately before, and, secondly, that already in connection with it even here is the characteristic from heaven, which holds good as well of His first appearing (Galatians 4:4, ἐ ξαπέστειλεν, sent forth; Romans 8:3; 1 Corinthians 15:47): The Son of God is of heavenly, Divine origin. To the heathen at Thessalonica Paul had proclaimed not merely the true God, but also, what was still more unknown to them, that this God has a Son, who has become our Deliverer (ῥυόμενος). The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the great fact by which He is shown to be the Son of God (Romans 1:4), and by which at the same time His return is rendered possible and certain (1 Pet. [1]:3–5). Was ἐκτῶννεκρῶν to form an antithesis to ἐκτῶνοὐρανῶν Comp. Romans 10:6-7. 13. Jesus, our Deliverer.—The majestic title, Son of God, is on purpose followed simply and plainly by His human proper name, Jesus. [Webster and Wilkinson: presenting our Lord to us as He was revealed and known in the flesh.—J. L.] τὸνῥυόμενον: not ῥυσἀμ., with reference to the past deliverance by His death; nor ῥυσόμ., with reference to the future deliverance at the judgment (both, the latter as founded on the former, at Romans 5:9-10), but comprehensively ῥυόμ., our Deliverer, absolutely and evermore; the participle having thus a substantival sense (Winer, p. 316); comp. Romans 11:26, after Isaiah 59:20 βּ ?εֹ ?ΰֵ ?μ., Ῥύεσθαι (comp. Colossians 1:13; Romans 7:24; Matthew 6:13), stronger than σώζειν, expresses the deliverance as a mighty fact, a strong, powerful extrication from the judgment, which shall inevitably smite all who have no part in Jesus. Τὸνῥυόμενον has an explanatory relation to Ἰησοῦν (comp. Matthew 1:21; Acts 4:10-12), similar to that of ὅνἤγειρεν &c. to τὸνυίὸναὐτοῦ, [Bengel: Christus nos semel ἐλυτρώσατο, redemit: semper ῥύεται, eripit.—J. L.] 14. From the coming wrath.—Wrath is the holy will of God, energetically upholding, over against the sinful creature, His own inviolable order of life and government as the highest interest of the world, and for that reason surrendering for righteous punishment the party resisting it to self-chosen destruction. The word is used sometimes of the affection in God, His punitive justice (Romans 9:22; Hebrews 3:11; Hebrews 4:3; Revelation 6:16; and often in the Old Testament); sometimes of the effect in the world, thence resulting, the judicial punishment (Luke 21:23; Romans 2:5; Romans 3:5; comp. Romans 13:4; Romans 13:9 [5]; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6); sometimes in such a way that both ideas are included (John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:8; Ephesians 2:3; Revelation 14:10; Revelation 16, 19; Revelation 19:15). Here and in 1 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:9 ὀργή stands in the second signification. This is shown also by the addition ἡἐρχομένη (comp. Colossians 3:6): the approaching, infallibly imminent punishment; similarly ἡ μέλλουσαὀργή, Matthew 3:7; and then Revelation 11:18, ἦλθενἡ ὀργήσου. Salvation or the deliverance is just the being rescued from the judgment that overwhelms the world, Romans 1:16-18 and, referring back to this, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11; and this is the immediate sense of σώζειν, σωτή, σωτηρία, as here of ῥύεσθαι In 1 Thessalonians 5:9 also ὀργή and σωτηρία stand as mutual opposites. Because in Christ judgment has already passed upon the world (John 12:31), therefore whosoever believeth in Him is no longer judged (John 3:14-18; John 5:24). AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 1:8.) The man who walks uprightly before God, God accredits also before his brethren, imparting to them through all that is seen of him joy, refreshment, strength, so that they in return are able by their testimony to his conversion and spiritual walk to strengthen and encourage him, when tempted thereupon from without or within. This is the Christian import of the ideas glory, honor, praise, &c. The lofty consciousness, as it is here aroused by the Apostle, does not flatter self-love, but begets an earnest sense of obligation. To be a city on the hill, to which the eyes of all look, is no light responsibility, and brings a man under the discipline of the Spirit. The increase of idle talk is repressed by much affliction. 2. (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.) Christian truth is so rich and manysided (πολυπίκιλος, Ephesians 3:10), that it may be delivered in very various ways and from different points of view. Not only do we find in the New Testament a peculiar style of teaching in the case of every apostolic writer, but even the same Paul, it is evident, addressed the Thessalonians orally and in writing otherwise—put other truths in the foreground—than, for example, in the Epistles to the Galatians and the Romans; and yet at Thessalonica also there was laid the foundation of a steadfast Christianity, approved in trial. This consideration likewise cannot but inspire us in the Church with a large-heartedness and liberality of view in regard to the different ways of conceiving and representing the truth, provided only they stand sincerely and earnestly on the one foundation, 1 Corinthians 3:11, whether they be rather mystical or intellectual, churchly or specially biblical, practical or scientific (in the sense of Eph 1:17 sq.), clinging to antiquity or looking towards the future. Church Confessions tolerate and require by the side of them all? forms of expression. In our hymn-books too we find Paul Gerhardt, Tersteegen, Zinzendorf, Gellert [Toplady, Cowper, the Wesleys], and others, in peace together, uttering one language in various dialects. 3. (1 Thessalonians 1:10.) The earliest Epistles of Paul are distinguished by their eschatological complexion. Subsequently he went back from eschatology to the doctrine of faith and justification (Galatians and Romans), of Christ and the Church (Philippians, Ephesians and Colossians). In his development of doctrine he pursued a regressive course similar to that of Messianic prophecy before him, and of the Church after him: first, the glorious end, and after that, the way to the end. But neither Old Testament prophecy nor apostolic teaching ever on the way lost sight of the end, the glorious consummation in the kingdom of God. And even in one of his latest Epistles (Titus 2:11 sq.) Paul has a passage very kindred to ours: conversion here has its counterpart there in the (objective) appearing of Divine grace, whose aim is declared to be a godly life with denial of the heathen worldly-mindedness (=to serve the living and true God), while expecting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (=to wait for His Son from heaven). The Church, however, has, especially since the days of Constantine, too much neglected to wait for the coming of Christ; even the Reformation restored, indeed, the genuine Pauline faith, but not yet the full hope. Calvin finds it here worthy of note, that for the hope of eternal salvation Paul puts the expectation of Christ. For, he adds, without Christ we are lost and hopeless; but, where Christ comes forward, there shines life and prosperity. Very beautiful; still one perceives that he had not yet attained to the full apostolic consciousness of the importance of Christ’s coming as distinct from the blessedness after death, when, it is true, we are even already present with the Lord. If the Reformation is a working back to what was originally exhibited for the Church in Holy Scripture, we have then here one of the points in which the Reformation of the 16th century needs to be carried yet further. As we would walk in the footsteps of Prophets and Apostles, and in particular even of our Paul, we must recognize it as our task to quicken anew the element of hope in knowledge and practice. The beginnings, moreover, of such a work show themselves latterly in almost all evangelical countries. AND 1 Thessalonians 1:8. The clear pealing sound, that rings out from the living Church. J. M. Hahn: The awakening of some souls may produce much reflection far and wide.—J. G. Kolb: A good man may through his earnestness become the light and salt of a whole neighborhood. (Kurzer Lebensabriss von J. G. Kolb, nebst einer Sammlung von Betrachtungen, Stuttgart, 1859).—The report of faith a sweet-savor of Christ (comp. 2 Corinthians 2:15 sq.). Chrysostom: As a sweet-scented **ointment keeps not its fragrance shut up within itself, but sends it afar, so likewise noble men keep not their virtue shut up within themselves, but through their reputation are of service to many for their improvement. Chrysostom then further makes mention of the renown acquired by Macedonia, of which Thessalonica was a principal city, through Alexander the Great, who was not without reason beheld by the prophet [Daniel 7:6] as a winged leopard, the swiftness and force being thus described, wherewith he scoured the whole world; and so what happened in Macedonia became not less universally known than what occurred in Rome (the seat of the fourth-world empire of Daniel; see Romans 1:8).—The same: In such circumstances there frequently arises envy (there is indeed, alas, such a thing as spiritual envy; see Galatians 5:26, φθονοῦντες; Philippians 2:3-4; 1 Corinthians 12:15 sqq.); but even this also your excellence has overcome, and they themselves are heralds of your conflicts.—Zinzendorf: When Jesus glorifies His time of grace now here now there, rejoice thou in the mercy to others returning.—The testimony of others to our faith a comfort in trial.—[Benson: It was an honor to any church or city, to have the gospel go out from thence to other places.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:9. When the Lord enters the heart through the powerful preaching of the word, that is even the entrance of a king, though in humble raiment—Zwingli: Paul did not ride into Thessalonica with such pride and pomp, as Cardinals, Bishops, and Popish Legates are wont to display.—Rieger: The idols of the altar were not to be overthrown by the purer knowledge of God, which many philosophers at that time had; the word of the Cross must come, which brought the idols to an end in the heart’s affection, and forthwith also in the members; then too they fell as to the service that was paid to them a the altar.—Calvin: The end of true conversion is the living God. Many renounce superstition only to fall into what is worse; for, losing all sense of God, they plunge into a worldly minded, irrational contempt of the Holy One.—The same: We must first be converted, before we can serve God.—The same:—No one is duly converted to God, but the man who has learned to yield himself fully to Him as a servant (in servitutem).—Rieger: Conversion from idolatry to God was certainly in former times a great change; but neither is it at the present time any trifle, when on obedience to the truth the idols of wealth, pleasure, fleshly ease, honor from men, seeking to save one’s life in this world, self love, confidence in the flesh, and such like, are cast forth from the heart’s affection.—The same: The living and true God can be served only in spirit and in truth; and that requires a conscience purified in the blood of Jesus from dead works. Without fellowship with the Light, a man deals even with the living God as with a dumb idol (John 4:23-24; Hebrews 9:14; see John 1:5-10). 1 Thessalonians 1:10.—[On the first clause of this verse, see a good note by Barnes.—J. L.]—The Christian is a man who serves God and waits for Jesus.—Calvin: In the service of God, which in the corruption of our nature is a more than difficult matter, we are kept and established by the expectation of Christ; otherwise the world drags us back to itself, and we grow weary. Waiting for the Lord a main point 1. in the doctrine of Jesus and His Apostles, 2. in the life of faith of the Apostles and first Christians.—Rieger: As to what is behind, free from everything; for what is before, watchful (Mark 13:33 sqq.; Luke 21:36).—[Alford: The especial aspect of the faith of the Thessalonians was hope: hope of the return of the Son of God from heaven: a hope, indeed, common to them with all Christians in all ages, but evidently entertained by them as pointing to an event more immediate than the church has subsequently believed it to be. Certainly these words would give them an idea of the nearness of the coming of Christ: and perhaps the misunderstanding of them may have contributed to the notion which the Apostle corrects, 2 Thessalonians 2:1 sqq.—J. L]—We must be in earnest with the expectation of Christ’s coming, if we would stand in the fulness of apostolic Christianity. This carries with it, 1. a Warning, a. against every kind of worldly happiness, and service of perishable things and men, especially against the modern absorption in practical and theoretic materialism, even of a refined sort; b. against the Romanizing over valuing of what we already have even in the Church, and against striving for the Church’s outward dominion and glory; c. against false ideals of a great future of the life of nations, to be introduced by our own, be it even Christian, power and activity; and against the so frequent intermixture, concurrent therewith, of the world and the kingdom of God; 2. Comfort, a. in regard to imperfections and sins in ourselves, in the world, in the Church: it has not yet appeared, what we shall be (1 John 3:2); b. in regard to the sufferings and afflictions, which are the divinely appointed way to the future glory, 2 Corinthians 4:17 sq.; Romans 8:17.—Chrysostom: The sword in hand, the good in expectancy.—[Vaughan: A summary of the Christian life in all times; service, and expectation. The loss or disparagement of either has been in all times the cause of injury to the Church. The one, by itself, degenerates into a dry routine of duty: the other, into excitement, dreaminess, and indolent sentiment. The two together make up that life of practical piety which is the true end and chief glory of the Gospel. Titus 2:12-13.—J. L.] Jesus, the Deliverer from the future wrath: 1. The wrath cometh; the world is going on to meet the judgment: an irrefragable matter of fact. On one hand, Roos: When the unbelieving world looks out to the time after death, it sees nothing, hopes for nothing, fears nothing, except when conscience is stirred; whereas there is to be feared a fearful wrath of God, which at the appearing of Christ shall wholly burst over it, and, even before that, will make the condition of the soul separated from the body an unhappy condition. On the other hand, Rieger: The wrath of God, its revelation against all ungodliness of men, judgment on hidden sins, is already written deep in the consciences of all men. Under that wrath abide, and are even already grievously tormented by the fear of it in this world and the next, all who are not begotten again by the gospel unto hope. 2. In Christ is deliverance from the judgment. Calvin: It is an invaluable privilege that believers, as often as the judgment is spoken of, know that Christ will come for their deliverance.—The same: The wrath of God is a future thing. We are not to measure it by our present afflictions in the world, as nothing is more absurd than to snatch at the enjoyment of transitory blessings, by way of forming an estimate of the grace of God. Faith is the sight of the invisible, and so is not misled by the aspect of the present life. Whilst the ungodly revel in their security, and we languish in sorrow, let us learn to fear the vengeance of God that is hidden from the eyes of the flesh, and rest in the calm pleasures of the spiritual life! [Vaughan: The three phrases are equally scriptural, (1) Christ saved, (2) Christ saves, (3) Christ will save. Comp. (1) Romans 8:24; Ephesians 2:5; 2 Timothy 1:9. (2) 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:2. (3) Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13; Philippians 2:12; 2 Timothy 2:10; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5.—J. L.] [There is a discourse by bishop Sherlock on 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.—J. L.] Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 1:8.—[The German adopts a different arrangement of this verse. See Exeg. Note 2. For κυριου, Sin.1 has θεοῦ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:8.—[There is large authority of manuscripts (including Sin.) and versions for the repetition of ἐντῇ every before Ἀχαḯ ?ᾳ (Scholz, Schott, Lachmann). But this is supposed to be an assimilation to 1 Thessalonians 1:7. Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, &c., retain the common reading (A. B., many cursive mss., and some versions and Fathers).—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:8.—Καί after ἀλλά should be cancelled, with Lachmann, Tischendorf and others [Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott], on superior manuscript authority [including Sin.]—to the advantage of the sense. 1 Thessalonians 1:8.—[μὴ χρείανἡμᾶςἔχειν (rather: ἔχεινἡμᾶς, with A. B. C. D. Sin., &c.; Lachmann, Scholz, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott) Our English Version renders χρείανἔχειν, to have need or lack, 24 times; and in 6 of these the negative phrase is, to have no need.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:9.—Instead of the Recepta ἔχομεν, all now read ἔσχομεν, according to the best manuscripts [Sin., &c.], and the sense also favors this. 1 Thessalonians 1:9.—[τῶνεἰδώλων=ηָ ?ΰֱ ?μִ ?ιμִ ?ιν, Isaiah 2:18. Comp. 1 John 5:21.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:10.—[τῶνοὐρανῶν. Comp. Acts 2:34; &c.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:10.—[The reading, τῶννεκρῶν, which nearly all the critical editions now follow, “is supported,” says Ellicott, “by preponderating external evidence... and by the probability of a conformation to the more usual ἐγείρεινἐκνεκρῶν.” Sin has the article.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 1:10.—[Or, our Deliverer, τὸνῥυόμενονἡμᾶς. See Exeg. Note 13. Our Translators here followed the Vulgate, qui eripuit, against the older English versions.—For ἀπό, Sin. and one cursive manuscript have ἐκ.—J. L.] [Accordingly, not a few interpreters from Pagninus to Schott and Gerlach assume such a transposition.—J. L.] [Others, on the contrary, as Martin’s French version and Michaelis, introduce the colon immediately after τόπῳ, and throw all that precedes on the first verb. “The most simple explanation,” says Ellicott, “appears that of Rόckert (Loc. Paul. Expl. Jena, 1844), according to which the Apostle is led by the desire of making a forcible climax into a disregard of the preceding nominative, and in fact puts a sentence in antithesis to οὐ μόνον—Ἀχαΐᾳ instead of a simple local clause, ἐνπάντιτόπῳ or ἐνὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ (Romans 1:8), as the strict logical connection actually required.” But if we acquiesce in this view of the case as one of interrupted or mixed construction, it is not necessary, as I remarked in the Revision of the verse, Note g, with Rόckert, to lay the main stress on ἡ πίστιςὑμῶν, or, except in the particular of local extent, to find any increase of force whatever in the latter clause. On the contrary, ἀφ̓ ὑμῶνἐξήχηταιὁ λόγοςτοῦ κυρίου sounds something greater than ἡ πίστιςὑμῶνἐξελήλυθεν; and the very feeling of the writer that the former phrase implied, on the part of the Thessalonians, more of evangelical influence, if not missionary activity, than could properly be asserted of them in reference to the regions beyond their own Greek provinces, may have prompted the use, in the latter connection, of the weaker form of expression: From you hath been sounded forth the word of the Lord, and not only is that true, as I have just intimated (1 Thessalonians 1:7), in relation to Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere, throughout all the household of faith, the fact and the circumstances of your conversion are familiarly known.” Alford retains the ordinary punctuation, but regards the “new subject and predicate as merely an epexegesis of the former.”—J. L.] [This view of the synonymous equivalence of the two clauses is given by Baumgarten, and is adopted, besides those mentioned above, by Alford. But see Note† on p. 70.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “The less usual preposition πρός is here used with great propriety, as there is a tacit contrast to a previous faith, πρὸςτὰ εἵδωλα (see 1 Thessalonians 1:9), in which latter case the deeper πίστ. εἰς... would seem theologically unsuitable.”—J. L.] [So Lόnemann. But the common restriction of ἡμῶν to the preachers is greatly to be preferred; see Alford. Of the other view Ellicott remarks: “The studied prominence of περὶ ἡμῶν and the real point of the clause are thus completely overlooked: Instead of our telling about our own success, they do it for us; ἃ γὰραὐτοὺςἐχρῆνπαῤ ἡμῶνἀκούειν,ταῦτααὐτοὶ προλαβόντεςλέγουσι, Chrys.”—J. L.] [The very word applied by Rome to her worship of the saints, while she reserves λατρεύειν for God.—J, L.] [See Critical Note 9.—J. L.] [Grouius, Benson, Koppe, Pelt, and others.—J. L.] [According as the development of error, and the circumstances of particular churches, required.—J. L.] [For sufficiently obvious reasons, the general tone of the Reformation period on the subject of Christ’s second advent is not quite that of the apostolic age. Much more emphatically, however, is this true of the times that followed the Reformation. In the writings of the more eminen Reformers themselves, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin Knox, &c., not a few strong and fervid utterances are found to which the remark of our Author would not do justice. For example, immediately preceding the above quotation from Calvin we find these words: “Ergo quisquis in vitζ sanctζ cursu perseverare volet, totam mentem applicet ad spem adventus Christi”—where there is no reference whatever to death or the intermediate state. And similar testimonies could easily be multiplied (see the Homiletical Notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:10, and my Missionary Address, on The Hope of the Church, before the Synod of New York, 1865). But take only this pregnant one from Bishop Latimer’s Third Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer: “All those excellent learned men whom, without doubt, God hath sent into this world in these latter days to give the world warning—all those men do gather out of Sacred Scripture that the last day cannot be far off. And this is most certain and sure that, whensoever He cometh, He cometh not too timely; for all things which ought to come before are passed now: so that, if He come this night or to-morrow, He cometh not too early.” The modern device, of interposing between us and that blessed hope the promised times of universal blessing, had not yet been thought of.—J. L.] [Weltlichgesinnte, unvernόnftige; Calvin: profanum et brutum, profane and brutish.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:1-123. a. The Thessalonians are themselves witnesses, that the Apostle’s was no vain entrance, but one of Divine power (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2). As he exercises his ministry generally, with no impurity of purpose or method, but, as one put in trust by God, before the eyes of God (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4), so in Thessalonica also he appeared in no flattering or selfish spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6), but with the most generous love (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8) and self denying labor (1 Thessalonians 2:9). They themselves and God are his witnesses, that he had shown himself throughout unblamable towards the believers, whilst he was careful about nothing else but, as a father, to exhort every individual to a walk worthy of God (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12) 1For yourselves, brethren, know [yourselves know, brethren,] our entrance in [entrance, εἴσοδον] unto you, that it was not in vain [hath not been vain]; 2but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated [but having before suffered, and been shamefully treated], as ye know, at [in, ἐν] Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with 3[in, ἐν] much contention. For our exhortation was [is], not of deceit [delusion] 4nor [yet] of uncleanness, nor in guile; but as [according as, καθώς] we were allowed of God [have been approved by God] to be put in trust with the gospel, even so [so, οὕτω] we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth [who proveth] our hearts. 5For neither at any time used we words of flattery, as ye know; nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness; 6nor of men sought we [sought we of men] glory, neither of [from, ἀπο] you, nor yet of [nor from, οὔτεἀπό] others, when we might have been burdensome [or: have used authority], as, the apostles of Christ [Christ’s apostles, Χριστοῦ ἀπόστολοι]; 7but we were [were found] gentle among you [in the midst of you, ἐνμέσῳ ὑμῶν], even as a nurse 8cherisheth her children [as a nurse would cherish her own children]; so [,] being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted [to impart] unto you not the gospel of God only [not only the gospel of God], but also our own souls, because ye were [became] dear unto us. 9For ye remember, brethren, our labor [toil, κόπον] and travail: for laboring [working] night and day, because we would not be chargeable [that we might not be burdensome, πρὸςτὸ μὴ ἐπιβαρῆσαι] to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 10Ye are witnesses, and God also [and God], how holily and justly [righteously, δικαίως] and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe [to, or for you, 11who believed]; as [even as, καθάπερ] ye know how we exhorted, and comforted [encouraged], and charged [adjured] [you, ὑμᾶς] every one of you, as a father 12doth his children [as a father his own children], that ye would walk [should walk] worthy [in a manner worthy, ἀξίως] of God, who hath called [calleth] you unto [into, εἰς] His [His own, ἑαυτοῦ ?] kingdom and glory. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 2:1.) For yourselves know.—For the confirmation and clearer elucidation (γάρ) of the statement of the foreign brethren regarding his entrance at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:9), the Apostle now appeals at length, as he had done cursorily at 1 Thessalonians 1:5, to the recollection of the Thessalonians themselves on the subject. Hence the same expressions, εἴσοδοςπρὸςὑμᾶς We might call 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 an explanation of the ὁποίαν 1 Thessalonians 1:9, just as the πῶςἐπεστρέψατε is then carried out in 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16. The third testimony, that of the Thessalonians themselves, serves to establish the second, that of the strangers, just as the latter serves to establish the first (comp. on 1 Thessalonians 1:8, Note 1). That 1 Thessalonians 2:1 begins with the same αὐτοὶ γάρ as 1 Thessalonians 1:9 is, of course, accidental; our αὐτοί does not stand opposed to that αὐτοί as such (that, indeed, has quite another reference, to ἡμᾶς of 1 Thessalonians 2:8), but to strangers generally, as in the sequel καὶ ἡμεῖς of 1 Thessalonians 2:13 corresponds to it.—The details that follow are, in fact, intelligible only on the supposition, that the Apostle has to confute certain aspersions on his person and ministry. Merely to strengthen the Thessalonians (Calvin, Lόnemann, and most), he would not expatiate so much at large on the excellencies of his service amongst them, least of all with such solemn protestations (1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10) and such frequent appeals to the recollection of the readers (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11); but he enters on boasting for the same reason as in 2 Corinthians 10-13, because he must defend himself. Only it is not here in Thessalonica any factious doings that he has to contend with, but simply the insinuations whereby the unbelieving Thessalonians sought again to withdraw from the gospel their believing kindred and neighbors. In what these insinuations consisted we learn from the negative clauses, 1 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sq. The very fact that nearly our entire section proceeds in clauses with οὐκ and ἀλλά (1 Thessalonians 2:1-9) shows, that Paul (through Timothy) had been informed of false assertions in regard to his operations—falsehoods, to which it was necessary for him to oppose the truth. Already Rieger has remarked on 1 Thessalonians 2:3 : A denial of this kind from the Apostle indicates, that such imputations had been cast on him and his preaching. And says Roos more precisely: When the Thessalonian converts reflected on the change that had taken place with them, it might possibly occur to them that an unknown man, of the name of Paul, had come to them over the sea with certain companions, had preached of one Jesus whom he called Christ, and of whom they had previously heard nothing, and had exhorted them to believe in Him, and serve Him as their Lord. So now we are Christians, they may have thought, whereas formerly we were Gentiles or Jews. But, in making this change, have we done right? Is the name, the faith, the hope of Christians not a thing of vanity? Are we not suffering for it to no purpose? Has not Paul deceived us? Is it not some falsehood that he has talked to us? And, besides, our countrymen hold his teaching to be a fable. These thoughts are now met by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16. 2. Our entrance unto you, that it hath not been vain.—This is the first of the imputations. κενή comp. 1 Corinthians 15:14,=empty, idle, without power or substance, unreal; �cumenius: μῦθοικαὶ λῆροι; Calvin: vana ostentatio; comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, οὐκἐνλόγῳ μόνον, and the antithesis there, as here in 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Not, therefore,=in vain, fruitless (Luther, Flatt, &c.), nor yet at once powerless and fruitless (De Wette, [Jowett]), nor again=deceitful, fallax (Grotius). The γέγονεν, as distinguished from the simple ἦν or even ἐγένετο, expresses the secure consciousness of an accomplished, unassailable fact. In the original the subject of the dependent clause is by a Greek idiom attracted as object into the principal clause.3. (1 Thessalonians 2:2.) But having before suffered, &c.—The cause of an idle babbler is one for which he does not submit to suffering, and still less, when he has just with difficulty surmounted one trial, does he again joyfully appear for the same cause, especially in a new conflict. A deep earnestness in suffering, and yet, along with that, an unwearied alacrity and fidelity in his calling, showed Paul to be a man whose appearance the Thessalonians needed only to recall (καθὼςοἴδατε), in order to perceive the vanity of the suspicions alleged against him. Of what sort these were, may be inferred from Acts 17:6-7 : ringleaders, flatterers of the people, ambitious persons who sought their own advantage.—On the sufferings which the Apostle, immediately before (προπαθ.) his arrival in Thessalonica, had endured at Philippi, see Acts 16:12 sqq. Paul adds ὑβρισθέντες, insultingly treated (comp. Matthew 22:6; Luke 18:22), not so much because προπάσχειν like πάσχειν is a vox media (Lόnemann), but because with his strong sense of right he had peculiarly felt the treatment received by him at Philippi to be arbitrary and unjust; see Acts 16:37. To such slight features even extends the harmony between the Acts and our Epistles. 4. We were bold in our God &c.—παῤῥησιάζεσθαι, once again in Paul’s writings, Ephesians 6:20, and in like manner of the preaching of the gospel; frequently in the Acts, and indeed, except Acts 18:26, only of Paul from his conversion onwards, Acts 9:27-28; Acts 13:46; Acts 14:3; Acts 19:8; Acts 26:26. Freedom and boldness in testimony was therefore a prominent characteristic of this Apostle. Olshausen: παῤῥηαία is the outward expression of πληροφορία (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Moreover, παῤῥησιάζεσθαι is not here=to speak or preach freely, so that λαλῆσαι should be an explanatory infinitive resolvable by: so that (De Wette, Koch, [Ellicott: so as to speak]), or an infinitive of the purpose: in order that (Schott); but, as in Acts 3:26 [?] and Acts 26:26,=to act with freedom and alacrity, and λαλῆσαι is simply an infinitive of the object (Lόnemann), as in 1 Thessalonians 2:4 πιστευθῆναι. [And so Alford, who translates: We were confident. Ellicott, on the other hand, comparing Ephesians 6:20 and Acts 26:26, agrees with De Wette in thinking that “the idea of bold speech, even though reiterated in λαλῆσαι, can scarcely be excluded.”—J. L.] We had, says Paul, this παῤῥησία, not in ourselves, especially after such experiences, but in our God (in whom, as in our spiritual life-element, we live and labor; see 1 Thessalonians 1:1, Doctrinal and Ethical, 1). Not merely was it no idle babbler with whom the Thessalonians had to do; it was not, speaking generally, any mere man, but God; and this God Paul dares to call his God, because God visibly owned him, and the Thessalonians perceived in their conscience (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11) that in the power of God Paul spoke and acted. Therefore also he purposely adds: the gospel of God; he had not brought to them any empty talk, nor any kind of man’s word whatsoever (see 1 Thessalonians 2:13), but the glad tidings which God Himself will have proclaimed in the world. Comp. on τὸ εὐαγγέλιοντοῦ θεοῦ Exeg. Note 4 to 1 Thessalonians 1:8, ὁ λόγοςτοῦ κυρίου. Why Paul does not say: in Christ, the gospel of Christ, but in God, of God, see Doctr. and Eth., 3. 5. In much contention.—As Paul had testified of the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, that they received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so here he can testify of himself that in much contention, with joy in God, he had published the same. Ἀγών, not outward and inward contention ([Chrysostom, Bishop Hall], Olshausen, [Jowett]), but the contention of outward suffering only, Philippians 1:30 (De Wette, and most).6. (1 Thessalonians 2:3.) For our exhortation is &c.—The verb to be supplied in 1 Thessalonians 2:3 is not ἦν but, as λαλοῦμεν of 1 Thessalonians 2:4 shows, ἐστίν. Paul confirms (γάρ) the statement as to his entrance at Thessalonica by a statement de toto perpetuoque more suo (Bengel). But since this general witness to himself might again also be called in question, people at Thessalonica knowing nothing from their own observation of his ministry elsewhere, it was necessary for him to establish this point likewise by again enlarging, 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq., on the spirit and method of his labors in Thessalonica. Similarly Jesus: If ye believe not me, my witness of myself, at least believe my works that are done amongst you (John 10:38; John 14:11). 7. Our exhortation [German: Predigt,=preaching, discourse]. Very well Lόnemann: παράκλησις is a calling to, address; and, according to the different relations to which this address is applied, the word undergoes modifications of its meaning. In the case of sufferers it is consolation; directed toward a moral or intellectual need, it is exhortation and encouragement. Now, since even the first evangelical proclamation consists in exhortation and encouragement, to wit, in the summons to renounce sin and lay hold of the offered salvation (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:20), παράκλ. might also be used generally of the preaching of the gospel; whether objectively of the contents of the discourse, or subjectively of the preaching itself. So here; see 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Bengel: totum prζconium, evangelicum [passionum dulcedine tinctum, as Bengel adds.—J. L.]; Olshausen: the work generally of Christian teaching. Paul uses this expression and not εὐαγγέλιον (1 Thessalonians 1:5), λόγος, κήρυγμα (1 Corinthians 2:4), or such like terms, because here the question is about the preaching, not in so far as it is a proclamation, but as it wins and transforms the hearers.8. Not of delusion, nor yet of uncleanness, nor in guile.—ἐκ marks the source from which the preaching proceeds; ἐν, the way and manner in which it is performed. The Apostle names two sources, one on the side of knowledge and doctrine, πλάνη, and one on the side of disposition, ἀκαθαρσια. He first repels the reproach, as if the Christian faith preached by him were a superstition, a chimera, and he himself an enthusiast or a babbler, like the sorcerers or magicians (Chrysost.). Opposed to this is the fact, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, that he had been entrusted with the gospel by God. With an οὐδέ—a stronger disjunctive than οὔτε (δέ and τε), like our nor yet, stronger than nor (comp. Winer, p. 432)—Paul passes to the second point. Ἀκαθαρσία, impurity, commonly in the sense of unchastity (Romans 1:24; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Colossians 3:5), but also moral filth and uncleanness generally (Romans 6:19); here either an impure mind, foul motives in general, or perhaps it answers better to our sordid [schmutgig], specially=covetousness, selfishness (comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:7; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3). Bengel: ἀκαθ. est, ubi fructus carnis quζritur, cf. Philippians 1:16, οὐχἁγνῶς.—δόλος, craft, fraud, all kinds of dishonest tricks for cheating and ensnaring. It adds to the impure design the impure means for its accomplishment, and so lies in like manner on the practical side. Whilst, therefore, for the reading οὐδέ there may be alleged the difference of the prepositions, yet on internal grounds οὔτε is perfectly justifiable (comp. Winer, p. 436 sq. [and Critical Note 7]). In the antithesis likewise, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, ἀκαθαρσία and δόλος are taken together in the sentence with οὕως, since ἀνθρώποιςἀρέσκοντες answers to δόλος and θεῷ τῷ δοκιμάζοντιτὰςκαρδίας to ἀκαθαρσία. So in the confirmatory 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 the λόγοςκολακείς answers to δόλος the πρόφασιςπλεονεξίας and ζητοῦντεςἐξἀνθρώπωνδόξαν to ἀκαθαρσία. The proof of 1 Thessalonians 2:1, in particular, that is given in 1 Thessalonians 2:3, lies in οὐκἐκπλάνης answering to κενή of 1 Thessalonians 2:1; but the confirmatory sentence, just like 1 Thessalonians 1:8, goes beyond that which it confirms, since with οὐδέ the Apostle adds new considerations, which are then again themselves confirmed and carried further in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq. This view is supplementary to Note 6. 9. (1 Thessalonians 2:4.) According as—so.—Καθώς, conformably to the fact that; οὕτως, according to that very rule: agreeably to the grace conferred and obligation laid upon us (Lόnemann). 10. Approved.—Δοκιμάζειν means, first, to try, test, scrutinize; so at the close of our verse, and commonly in the New Testament, e.g. 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Timothy 3:10, and often; and then also of the result of the trial: to regard as tried, fit, worthy, and to choose accordingly for a position (1 Corinthians 16:3); hence in the next place generally, to value, prize. So here, and similarly Romans 1:28. Paul does not in this mean to assume any worthiness of his own, as the Greek interpreters (Chrysostom, Theophylact, �cumenius) from their dogmatic standpoint characteristically explain. Rather his aim is just this, to exalt his authority as from God (similarly 1 Timothy 1:12). He would have it understood that, so far is he from preaching human heresy, or considering himself out of his own fancy called to be a preacher (ἐκπλάνης, 1 Thessalonians 2:3), it is rather God Himself who, according to His gracious purpose (Grotius, Pelt, Lόnemann, and even Theodoret [Alford: free choice]) has vouchsafed to him the distinction of being entrusted with the glad, heavenly message to the world. So in the apodosis with οὕτως the main emphasis lies on θεῷ in opposition to ἀνθρώποις. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:2 and note 4; observe also the impressive sonorousness of the expression. The perfect δεδοκ. marks what has happened once for all, the security of it as a matter of fact. At the close of the verse Paul purposely uses the same word once again; he knows himself to be the object of a continuous Divine δοκιμάζειν. There δοκ. is, to try, to examine; yet perhaps not without an accompanying intimation of favorable judgment. In the translation we have sought to indicate this, as well as the identity of the verbs. Πιστευθῆναι, infinitive of the object, denoting that which was vouchsafed to Paul. So Romans 1:28. On Paul’s frequent construction of πιστεύεσθαι, see Winer, p. 206. That Paul, moreover, here includes Silvanus and Timothy is obvious from the plurals καρδίας and ψυχάς 1 Thessalonians 2:8, as Lόnemann properly remarks against De Wette, who appeals to 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [6], ἀπόστολοι, but see Note 16. Of course, however, Paul speaks primarily and chiefly of himself.11. (1 Thessalonians 2:4.) Not as pleasing men.—̔Ως before the participle gives it a subjective character, that of the conception and intention: We speak not with the thought of pleasing men, and so winning them with guile (ἐνδόλῳ 1 Thessalonians 2:3), but to please God who searcheth our hearts, and so knows and judges even impure designs (ἐξἀκαθαρσίας 1 Thessalonians 2:3). Comp. Galatians 1:10.—[Alford: “ἀρέσκοντες, in the strict sense of the present tense: going about to please, striving to please.”—J. L.] 12. (1 Thessalonians 2:5.) For we—On the logical relation, expressed by γάρ, of 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq. to what precedes, see Notes 6 and 8 (at the end). 13. Used we words of flattery &c.—Τίγνεσθαιἐν, of things 1 Thessalonians 1:5, here of persons (comp. 1 Timothy 4:15)=versari in re, to engage in any matter, be occupied therein. The flattering words thus answer to ἀνθρώποιςἀρέσκοντες, 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (Calvin: Whoever will please men, must basely flatter), and to δόλος 1 Thessalonians 2:3 (Chrysostom: We flattered not, as deceivers, who desire merely to draw people to themselves, and rule them). For the fact that he had not flattered them, Paul appeals to the recollection of his readers themselves: as ye know; but for what follows, that he had had no selfish aims, he can only appeal to God, who knoweth the heart: God is witness! Comp. Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8. This appeal answers to θεῷ τῷ δοκιμάζοντιτὰςκαρδίαςἡμῶν (1 Thessalonians 2:4), as the repelling of the insinuation, that his mind had been set on earthly good and human glory (1 Thessalonians 2:6), answers to θεῷ ἀρέσκειν, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, and οὐκἐξἀκαθαρσίας, 1 Thessalonians 2:3, Πλεονεξία corresponds to ἀκαθαρσία, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:6-7; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3. Πρόφασις (from προφαίνω, not πρόφημι), properly, what appears; hence the pretext, behind which one hides his real thought, an excuse; so here parallel with λόγος: My speech was neither a word of flattery, nor a fair pretext, a plausible form for covetous ends. 14. (1 Thessalonians 2:6.) Nor sought we glory.—Ζητοῦντες likewise is dependent on ἐγενήθημεν and parallel to ἐνλόγῳ κολ., ἐνπροφάσειπλεονεξίας. Such a change of structure is truly Pauline (comp. Romans 12:9 sqq.). As to the thought, there is a close connection with the latter point, as of ambition with avarice. On ἐξἀνθρώπωνδόξαν, comp. John 5:41; John 5:44. 15. Neither from you, nor from others.—In 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 there are, first, three mutually coφrdinate οὔτε, then two subordinate to the clause of the last of these three, since οὔτεἀφʼ ? ὑμῶν &c. distributes the ἐξἀνθρώπων. Ἀπό, essentially=ἐκ, brings to view the special source as distinct from the general. From others, with whom we might perhaps have sought honor for ourselves through your conversion (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Erroneously Bengel: Qui nos admirati essent, si nos superbius tractassemus.16. (1 Thessalonians 2:7 [1 Thessalonians 2:6].) When we might have used authority [or, been burdensome] as Christ’s Apostles.—The participle δυνάμενοι is subordinated to ζητοῦντες, and is resolvable by although. Ἐνβάρειεἶναι to be of weight, to appear important, dignified, to assume consequence. Against the connection, Theodoret, Ewald, and others: to be burdensome=ἐπιβαρεῖν, 1 Thessalonians 2:9. Ἀπόστολοι, so far as it refers also to Silvanus and Timothy (see Note 10, at the end), is used in the wider sense, as in Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14 of Paul and Barnabas. But perhaps the old rule holds here: A potiori fit denominatio. As Christ’s Apostles, as messengers and envoys (ambassadors) of the Anointed King of the whole world, solemnly appointed by God (Acts 17:3; Acts 17:7), they might have stepped forth with dignity. Dicit Paulus se adeo abfuisse ab inani pompa, a jactantia, a fastu, ut legitimo etiam jure suo cesserit, quod ad vindicandam autoritatem pertinet (Calvin). 17. (1 Thessalonians 2:7.) But we were found gentle in the midst of you.—Ἐγενήθημεν answers to the ἐγενήθ. of 1 Thessalonians 2:5. Ἤπιος (from ἔπω, εἶπον, whence then νήπιος, infans) properly, affable, mild, kind, loving (comp. 2 Timothy 2:24). Suavissimum vocabulum, de parentibus prζcipue et de medicis dici solitum (Bengel). [Ἐνμέσῳ ὑμῶν, in the midst of you, surrounded by you, as a teacher by his pupils, a mother by her children, a hen by her chickens (Bengel). It marks the centre of a group or society, drawing all eyes to itself (comp. Acts 1:15; Luke 2:46; Matthew 18:2): So that ye have all seen and experienced it (Koch). Riggenbach]. Even this loving demeanor of the Apostle might be interpreted as flattery (1 Thessalonians 2:5), and so Paul confutes this reproach by showing it to be a perversion of his virtue into a fault. Then by the fuller description, ὡςἄν &c. of this his tender and devoted love, he at the same time confutes the other reproach (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6) of his having been selfish or ambitious. 18. As a nurse would cherish her own children.—Before ὡς there should be a point with the force of our colon, so that ὡς answers to οὕτως of 1 Thessalonians 2:8. The sentence after ὡς is an explanation attached to what precedes by asyndeton, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:9, yet so that here also again the explanatory sentence contains at the same time an advance, an enlargement of the thought. Τροφός, nourisher, she who suckles; here not a nurse, but the mother herself, as appears from τἁ ἑαυτῆςτέκνα, in which moreover, especially with this arrangement of the words (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:8; otherwise 1 Thessalonians 2:11), there exists the climactic intimation, her own children (see Alex. Buttmann, Grammatik des neutestamenflichen Sprachgebrauchs, 1859, p. 97). With Stier, we have also expressed both in the version. The figure of the mother (comp. Galatians 4:19; Isaiah 66:13; Isaiah 49:15) is still tenderer than that of the father (1 Thessalonians 2:11), but is here chosen especially for this reason, because truly a nursing mother with her child seeks not profit or honor, but is wholly bent on bestowing (not receiving) love. Θάλπειν likewise is a tender expression; properly to warm, then, like fovere, to foster and cherish (Ephesians 5:29; comp. Deuteronomy 22:6, LXX). 19. (1 Thessalonians 2:8.) So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing.—Ὁμειρόμενοι supported here by the best manuscripts, occurs in the New Testament only here, and but seldom elsewhere, in the LXX, &c.; in meaning it is=ἱμείρεσθαι (Recepta), and, like this, probably an enlarged form of μείρεσθαι, which should perhaps be distinguished from the ordinary μείρεσθαι (see Passow), and is used by Nicander in the sense of the common ἱμείρεσθαι (comp. Winer, p. 92)=ardently to long after any one, to love tenderly.—Εὐδοκοῦμεν is the imperfect without augment, as frequently; Winer, p. 1Th 66: we were pleased, were cheerfully ready, took delight therein (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:8; Romans 15:26). In 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 one feels in word and figure the tender heartiness and sweet breath of a first, fresh love, such as becomes the firstling of the apostolical Epistles. 20. To impart unto you &c.—Μεταδοῦναι stands emphatically forward, in order to mark the love as one altogether giving, imparting. The two objects of μεταδοῦναι are joined to one another ascensively by not only—but also, so that the second is held up as the one of greater importance for the connection (τοῦτομεῖζονἐκείνου Chrysostom). Ἑαυτῶν moreover, is opposed to τοῦ θεοῦ, and the Apostle means to say: We were willing not only to fulfil our official service, entrusted to us by God, in delivering to you His gospel, but there was formed also a personal relation of the most devoted love, in consequence of which we were ready to sacrifice to you our own life. [Webster and Wilkinson: “ ‘not only that which you could share without loss to me, but that which I must lose in giving;’ or, ‘not only that which I held in trust for others, had in charge to give, but that which was most my own.’ ”—J. L.] The latter point was here the main thing, over against the imputations of covetousness and ambition. The comparison with the mother has reference to this personal love, which is therefore still made specially prominent in the additional clause with δίοτι (stronger and more distinctive than ὅτι), which assigns the motive. How far now Paul with his attendants willingly gave up his own life to the Thessalonians, he shows himself by an example in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, which is joined to what precedes, by γάρ, and is therefore illustrative of it. At the risk of health and life, he performed along with his preaching strenuous manual labor day and night, that he might be burdensome to no one, just as a mother day and night with much labor and self-sacrifice cherishes her little child. Add to this, that the Apostle—and it is of himself that he speaks at least primarily—was probably of a weak and sickly constitution (2 Corinthians 10:10; 2 Corinthians 12:5 sqq.), and we shall the better understand how much there was here of a μεταδοῦναιτὴνψυχήν. Μεταδοῦναι is indeed zeugmatic, since out of it only the simple δοῦναι must be supplied to τὰςψυχὰς (comp. Matthew 20:28); but such constructions are frequent enough (see Winer, p. 548). On ἑαυτῶν=ἡμῶναὐτῶν, see Winer, p. 136. [Bengel’s paraphrase: Anima nostra cupiebat quasi immeare in animam vestram—and similarly Chrysostom: τὰςψυχὰςεἰςὑμᾶςκενῶσαι, eff undere—though suitable to μͅεταδοῦναι, is opposed to the γἀρ of 1 Thessalonians 2:9. and perhaps also contains a thought not quite apostolic, and only in seeming accord with the figure of the mother, since not the suckling as such, but the θάλπειν is the tertium comparationis. To think of the gospel as the milk, according to 1 Peter 2:2; comp. Hebrews 5:13 (De Wette, Lόnemann, and others), is quite as little in keeping, since it is really not the Apostle’s gospel, but is expressly called the gospel of God, and since for that very reason, as has been pointed out, this consideration does not enter into the comparison with a mother. In μεταδοῦναιτὰςψυξάς the exposure of the life in danger and persecutions is commonly thought of; nor is this excluded, since 1 Thessalonians 2:9 contains merely an illustrative example, such as was required by the context, and was fitted to repel the imputation of covetousness and ambition.—Riggenbach.] 21. (1 Thessalonians 2:9.) For ye remember our toil and travail.—Μνημονεύετε, more sonorous than οἴδατε (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:11); here with an accusative; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, with a genitive.—On γάρ, see Note 20. [The reference of γάρ to ἤπιοιἐγενήθημεν, 1 Thessalonians 2:7, is too remote; that to ἀγαπητοὶ ἡμῖνἐγενήθητε (Lόnemann), unsuitable—Riggenbach.] Κόπος strengthened by the addition of μόχθος, as at 2 Thessalonians 3:8 (a verse which agrees almost verbally with ours), and 2 Corinthians 11:27. The expressions in their connection denote the most strenuous bodily labor at his handicraft as σκηνοποιός (Acts 18:3), a maker of tents out of leather or cloth for shepherds, travellers, soldiers, &c. (Winer, Realwφrterbuch II. pp. 213, 725). This κόπος and μόχθος is now explained in a sentence appended, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, by asyndeton (γάρ after νυκτός being spurious), in which the emphasis lies on what stands foremost, νυκτὸςκαὶ ἡμέραςἐργαζόμενοι, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 on τὰςἑαυτῶνψυχάς. And now, as ἐληρύξαμενεἰςὑμᾶςτὸ εὐαγγέλιοντοῦ θεοῦ plainly answers to τὸ εὐαγγέλοιντοῦ θεοῦ of 1 Thessalonians 2:8, so does νυκτὸςκαὶ ἡμέραςἐργαζόμενοι to τὰςἑαυτῶνψυχάς, so that there accrues from this a new and more precise confirmation of our view of the γάρ and of μεταδοῦναιτὰςἑαυτῶνψυχάς. 22. Working night and day.—Ἐργάζεσθαι, of manual labor, as 1 Thessalonians 4:11, and often. We [Germans] say day and night, as ἡμέραςκαὶ νυκτός, Luke 18:7; Acts 9:24, and frequently in the Apocalypse; but elsewhere, and always in Paul’s usage [both in his letters and speeches, 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Timothy 5:5; 2 Timothy 1:3; Acts 20:31; Acts 26:7.—J. L.], νυκτὸςκαὶ ημέρας or νύκτακαὶ ἡμέραν, because the Jews, as also the Athenians, begin the civil day with the evening. Here this order is emphatic, because night-work is the more unusual and irksome. We are not, therefore, to suppose that Paul preached all day, and performed manual labor in the night-time; on the contrary, the latter occupation filled up also a good part of the day, as on the other hand he preached likewise at night (Acts 20:7); but, generally, day and night is, as with us, a vivid expression for without intermission (comp. especially Revelation 20:10). 23. That we might not be burdensome to any of you, by his having to care for my support. So little did the Apostle seek any profit from the Thessalonians, that he sought not even the necessaries of life from them but earned them for himself, that his intercourse with them might on his part be altogether one of giving. In hac etiam parte jure suo obstinuit (Calvin; comp. Note 16). For the matter in question, comp. Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Corinthians 9:7 sqq.; 2 Corinthians 11:8 sqq.; Philippians 4:10 sqq., and Doctr. and Eth., 5.—On κηρύττεινεἰς, see Winer, p. 191.24. (1 Thessalonians 2:10.) Ye are witnesses and God.—The Apostle having in three sentences with οὐκ—ἀλλά (1 Thessalonians 2:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 2:9) confuted the reproaches cast upon him, and which are summed up in the fewest words in 1 Thessalonians 2:3—having shown that his doctrine is not an idle delusion, but the gospel of God, and that he himself has labored, not from selfish motives of covetousness and ambition, nor with impure methods of craft and flattery, but in the sight of God and with the most devoted love—he now at last opposes to that a brief, positive sketch of his ministry, and for this he again appeals to the Thessalonians and God as witnesses (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:5), by way of giving to his assertion so much the more of the impressive earnestness of truth. Men must witness for his manner of acting; God witnesses, in his conscience and theirs, for his inward disposition. This explanatory sentence likewise is added by asyndeton (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:9), a construction to which in the present instance the liveliness of emotion also contributes. 25. How holily, and righteously, and unblamably, &c.—Ὁσίως with perceptible, inward reverence of God; δικαίως, with due consideration of men, leaving and giving to every one his own (comp. Ephesians 4:24; Titus 2:12 [Luke 1:75; Titus 1:8]); ἀμέμπτως, unblamably, irreproachably in the whole deportment—the negative side to the two positive ones (Lόnemann), especially to δικαίως (Olshausen). This qualification Paul adds, because reproaches had been cast upon him. [Bengel and others: toward themselves, in order to get the three references to God, men, themselves as in Titus 2:12; but this is here inadmissible, since all is referred to ὐμῖντοῖςπιστεύουσι—δσίως assigning merely the religious ground of the behavior toward the believers.—Riggenbach.] It is commonly not enough considered, that we have here before us, not adjectives, but adverbs (comp. Acts 20:18., πῶςἐγενόμηνμεθʼ ? ὑμῶν); Paul is not speaking of his walk, his entire personal bearing (De Wette, Hofmann)—otherwise we must have had ὅσιοι &c. (comp. οἷοι, 1 Thessalonians 1:5)—but of the manner of his dealing with the believers (Winer, p. 413). 26. To [for] you who believed.—ὑμῖν is simply the dative of direction or reference: to you, toward you (De Wette, Koch) [not a dative of interest: for your advantage, nor yet of judgment: appeared to you (�cumenius and Theophylact, Calvin, Bengel, Lόnemann); the adverbs in that case would scarcely be admissible.—Riggenbach.]. The addition τοῖςπιστεύουσιν, at first view apparently superfluous [Jowett], must here as at 1 Thessalonians 2:13 have its own ground and. significance. The believers were told that their faith was credulity and superstition, that they had allowed themselves to be ensnared, abused, and misled by the stranger, and that this was now called faith. A similar way of talking to that nowadays, which confounds faith with opinion, notion, dim, baseless feeling. In opposition to this Paul dwells with emphasis on the word faith in its true import, and shows how he had never abused their confidence in him and his word so as to indulge himself in impurity of any kind, but rather, honoring their faith as faith in God and His word, he had in all his proceedings kept holy what was holy, and had with all earnest men exhorted them to a walk worthy of God. [Those, who explain the dative as a dative of judgment, take τοῖςπιστεύουσιν restrictively: tametsi aliis non ita videremur; Bengel. Especially contrary to 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (?).—Riggenbach.]—Ἐγενήθημεν as in 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:5. 27. (1 Thessalonians 2:11.) Whilst we, as ye know, &c. [Even as ye know how we, &c.]—Καθἀπεροἴδατε is a parenthetical clause similar to καθὼςοἴδατε of 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; it belongs to the following participial construction. This time the Apostle puts καθάπερ for καθώς, because immediately after ὡς occurs twice. The first ὡς belongs to ἑναἑκαστον, and has here a strengthening force such as it carries also elsewhere in connection with ἕκαστος (see Passow under ἕκαστος), a usage very nearly akin to the connection of ὡς with superlatives. The corroboration εἷςἕκαστος, of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, is found likewise in classic Greek (A. Buttmann, p. 105). With the double reλnforcement, ὡςεἷςἕκαστος, comp. Revelation 21:21; ἀνὰ εἷςἑκαστος; Ephesians 5:33 : ὑμεῖςοἱ καθʼ ? ἕναἕκαστος The participial clauses, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, show to what extent Paul behaved holily and righteously and unblamably toward the believers (1 Thessalonians 2:10), and we have therefore resolved the participles by in that. The main emphasis of the participial construction rests on the conclusion, εἰςτὸ περιπατεῖνἀξἰως, &c. (Lόnemann), and yet so that Paul would in connection therewith lay stress on two other considerations: 1. That he had taken pains to hold every one in particular to this worthy walk, and hence the doubly strengthened ἕκαστος; 2. That for this end he had exerted all his force of speech, and hence the combination of the three sonorous participles. The Apostle’s unblamable deportment towards the believers was shown in his exhorting every individual with the whole power of his address to nothing else but a walk worthy of God. This is simply the connection of 1 Thessalonians 2:10 with 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12. The comparison with a father has reference to all three points: a father keeps his children singly in his eye, and trains every one according to his individuality; he employs all the force of exhortation in kindness and severity; he would keep his children only to what is good, and to no evil of any kind. Here, where the question is not, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, about devoted love, but holy earnestness, Paul compares himself, not to a mother, but to a father. Paul never writes tautologically, but, even while repeating similar thoughts, advances to new and wider points of view. [Interpreters in general do not agree with me in regarding καθάπεροἴδατε as a parenthesis, but take οἴδατε as a governing verb, on which ὡς, apart from ἕναἕκαστον, is dependent. But since ὡς is followed only by participles, they are obliged to supply the verbum finitum, and then, because ὑμᾶς is afterwards added, ἠγαπήσαμεν, οὐχ [οὐκ] ἀφήκαμεν, &c., is supplied to ἕναἕκαστον (Pelt, Schott, and others), or to the entire clause ἦμεν (Beza, Grotius, Flatt), or ἐγενήθημεν, from the previous context (Bengel, Lόnemann, [Alford, Wordsworth]), or, the supplement being left indeterminate, an anacoluthon is assumed (De Wette, [Ellicott]). With these grammatical inconveniences there is then connected also an erroneous and artificial view of the logical relation of 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 to 1 Thessalonians 2:10, as that Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 2:10 of his behavior generally; in 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, for confirmation of that, of the discharge of his duty as a teacher in particular (De Wette, Koch, similarly Hofmann); or that in proof of his own virtue he adduces the fact of his having exhorted the Thessalonians to virtue, it being here taken for granted that one, who has it so much at heart that others shall be virtuous, will be so himself (Lόnemann). Independently of other objections to these views, they would require a καί after καθάπερ or after ὡς.—Riggenbach.]28. Exhorted and encouraged and adjured.—ὑμᾶς is superfluous after as ὡςἕναἕκαστονὑμῶν; similar repetitions in the classics and also in the New Testament, Colossians 2:13; Matthew 8:1; and often (Winer, p. 531). Παρακαλεῖν, to exhort generally; παραμυθεῖσθαι kindly to encourage; μαρτύρεσθαι, earnestly and solemnly to obtest, like διαμαρτύρεσθαι 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:14; 2 Timothy 4:1. Bengel: Παρακαλ. movet, ut facias aliquid (libenter); παραμυθ. ut cum gaudio; μαρτυρ, ut cum timore. The two last participles really specify the twofold style and method of the παρακαλεῖν, and may be also grammatically, subordinated to it, as, for example, δυνάμενοι of 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [1 Thessalonians 2:6] is subordinated to ζητοῦντες of 1 Thessalonians 2:6, and κωλυόντων of 1 Thessalonians 2:16 to μὴ ἀρεσκόντωνκαὶ ἐναντίων of 1 Thessalonians 2:15 (comp. 2 Timothy 1:4). In favor of this are the facts, 1. that εἰςτὸ περιπατ. cannot depend on μαρτυρ., which must have either ἵνα (1 Timothy 5:21) or the simple infinitive (2 Timothy 2:14); 2. that ὑμᾶς is unsuitable to μαρτυρ., which cannot have an accusative of the person after it, except in the here inadmissible sense of taking one to witness. Perhaps the pleonastic ὑμᾶς is put after παρακαλοῦντες for the very purpose of separating the subordinate participles from the superior one. Even as to form, παραμυθ. and μαρτυρ. belong together as of the middle voice, and are jointly distinguished from the active παρακαλοῦντες. Thus: We exhorted you with kindly encouragement as well as with earnest obtestation. Comp., moreover, on the accumulation of participles Note. 27.—The division of verses is here very unapt.29. (1 Thessalonians 2:12.) That ye should walk in a manner worthy, &c.—Εἰςτὸ περιπατ. is thus dependent on παρακαλ., and denotes the contents or object of the exhortation. [So also Lόnemann, who thinks, indeed, that εἰς may be referred to all the three participles; but in that case εἰς must rather denote the purpose, as De Wette and Koch understand it.—Riggenbach.] With ἀξίωςτοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καλοῦντος comp. Ephesians 4:1 : ἀξίωςτῆςκλήσεως, Colossians 1:10 : ἀξίωςτοῦ κυρίου. The two ideas are here combined. Καλοῦντος, present; because the kingdom and glory are still future, so that the call thereto, though it has already gone forth, yet continues till the coming of Christ, when the kingdom and the glory shall be revealed (Lόnemann). The participle is even half-substantival, like ὁ ῥυόμενος, 1 Thessalonians 1:10. 30. Into his own kingdom and glory.—Magnificum syntheton (Bengel). Not a hendiadys: kingdom of His glory, or glory of His kingdom (Koppe, Olshausen, &c.); nor yet: earthly kingdom (the Church) and heavenly glory (Baumgarten-Crusius); nor is δόξα the glory of the Messianic kingdom (De Wette), but, since ἑαυτοῦ belongs also to δόξα, the glory of God, Romans 5:2 (Lόnemann). Comp. the closing doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. Ἑαυτοῦ is emphatic by position, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [Webster and Wilkinson: “implying a participation, or the most exalted fellowship and interest in the Divine blessedness,”—J. L.]. Paul would here again, at the end of the entire section as at its beginning (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; see Notes 4 &10), give prominence to the thought, that it is God with whom believers have to do, and of whom he had been the mere but honest instrument (hence the leading position of ὁσίως in 1 Thessalonians 2:10;—Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:13). Thus: God calls you to a participation in His own kingdom, which will appear at Christ’s advent, and in His own Divine glory, into which believers then enter through the change [of the living, 1 Corinthians 15:51.—J. L.] or through the (first) resurrection. It might be asked whether βασιλεία here is not to be taken in the active sense=kingly dominion; yet this signification of βασιλείατοῦ θεοῦ does not, to my knowledge, occur in the New Testament. But certainly the participation of Christians in the βασιλεία will really be a participation in the βασιλεύειν. Their calling is indeed to be glorified (Romans 8:17), not, however, to be ruled over, but to the βασιλεύειν or συμβασιλεύειν (Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 20:4; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 22:5).—The motive to a holy walk is therefore a double one, which yet again is but one and the same: Christians are to walk worthily, that is, they should regulate all their proceedings and life-conduct in such a way as becomes 1. the holy majesty of God, with whom by their calling they have fellowship: and 2. their own destination, expressed in this calling, to a share in the full dignity, imperial and essential, of this same God. This pure light of glory excludes all impurity (comp. 1 Timothy 1:11, τὸ εὐαγγέλιοντῆςδόξης, in connection with the preceding verses, and 1 John 3:3). This section also, like the one before it, thus closes with an eschatological outlook. And, in truth, there meets us here the high practical importance of the Christian hope. As in suffering it begets patience (1 Thessalonians 1:3), so in action a holy walk. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12.) To the Thessalonians assailed on account of their faith Paul shows that there is something real about it, both in his case (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12) and in theirs (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16). As proof he here cites, not miracles, as, for example, in Galatians 3:5, but simply the demonstration of the spirit and of power—what of Divine, self-evidencing light they had perceived in him, and experienced in their own hearts and consciences. It is worthy of note that the Gentile Apostle, in the very first Epistle written by him for the Gentile world, insists on this. And such is still to-day the twofold evidence of Christianity in the midst of a world estranged from God, where so frequently all power, all culture, all historical life stands, or seems to stand, in opposition to the gospel: the children of light, in whom, as nowhere else in the world, we perceive a perfect and blessed life (Matthew 5:14-16; Philippians 2:15), and the purifying and quickening Divine influences which we experience in ourselves from the gospel (2 Corinthians 13:5). 2. Our section is rich in self-praise, which, however, develops itself rather, step by step, as self-defence. A servant of Christ owes it, not so much to himself as his Master and his cause, to clear himself of unjust imputations, whenever they threaten to hinder the progress of the gospel, and prejudice the faith and love of the brethren. How in such a case one should express and demean himself may be learned from Paul, who first of all lets it be seen that he is Divinely certain of his cause, and is conscious of having acted with self-denial in the power of God and before the eyes of God, and then also he appeals freely to human testimony. The Lord knows how, by means of the oppositions of the world or other humbling experiences, so to dispose his servants inwardly, that when circumstances are, such that the ends of the Divine kingdom require it, they can and ought to speak of themselves in a way, that to the judgment of a merely natural morality appears as self-praise. Here belongs also, for example, the fact that John distinguishes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved; here belong many expressions in the Psalms and passages of Daniel, as Daniel 1:17-20; Daniel 9:2-3; 2 Corinthians 10-13. 3. Our section is a true pastoral mirror. In the first and larger half (1 Thessalonians 2:1-9) are two principal points of view, one of which concerns the cause, the doctrine; the other the individual, in respect partly of his inner motives, partly of his manner of acting and speaking. 1. For what concerns the doctrine, we must be able to testify that it is no misleading error, no idle, impotent human invention of any sort, that we preach, but the gospel of God, the glad tidings which God Himself would have to be published to men. We speak in the consciousness, and in the power, of a Divine commission, not as those who are enthusiastic for some self-contrived, human system, and such like, nor as idle babblers believing nothing. 2. For what concerns, a. the disposition and purpose in the discharge of the office, we know that we are free from impure motives of avarice and ambition, for we prosecute our work for souls in the continual presence of Him who knows the heart, and, to please whom, we have to prosecute it earnestly, and in fervent love to those entrusted to us. That we may offer no hindrance to the gospel, we willingly forego the honor and profit that we might otherwise properly claim. We are not satisfied with the faithful fulfilment of what is officially prescribed, but voluntarily undertake additional toil and trouble of every kind. We spare not our health or our life, where the honor of our Lord and the salvation of souls are concerned. In short, instead of seeking aught for ourselves, the soul of our work is self-sacrificing love. It is more blessed to give than to receive. b. As regards the means and manner of our working, we stand in no need of any sort of cunning or spurious pastoral shrewdness to draw the people to us, and secure for ourselves their respect. We never deal in flattering words. We aim not at all at pleasing men.—In the second half (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12) Paul exhibits the holy and righteous behavior of a servant of Christ toward the believers, and shows how, 1. so far as concerns the Church, this consists in not merely proclaiming the word generally, but in also bringing it near to individual souls, so that in this way the special care of souls is added to preaching. 2. For what concerns the preacher himself, he should put forth all his strength, and in different ways, adapted to occasional circumstances, to individuals and spiritual conditions, point those committed to him to the right way. 3. With regard, finally, to the doctrine, it should aim at nothing else but to hold the hearers to what is good. But in Christianity that which is morally good has a thoroughly religious character. It is a walk worthy of God. Nor does even that exhaust the matter. It is not merely the relation of single souls, or even of the congregation, to God, that is to be held up to believers, but God has a kingdom, a corporate order of life, in which He really shares His glory with the creature. To this kingdom, already founded in Christ, but to be first manifested at His advent, we are called. Our walk should bear in itself the stamp of our so high destiny. We should act from motives drawn from the kingdom and the glory. The preaching, therefore, must teach what the kingdom is, and what the glory (comp. my Discourse: die biblische Lehre von Reiche Gottes in ihrer Bedeutung fόr die Gegenwart [The Bible Doctrine of the Kingdom of God in its importance for the present time], Basel, 1859).—Lastly, in our section there is this fact also to be particularly noticed, that the Apostle compares himself in his ministry to a father and a mother: the latter in the first half, the former in the second. The parental relation, that most original of all human relations (being preceded only by the conjugal), that image of God’s relation to men, is itself again the natural, God-given pattern for all other relations of superior and inferior, and so especially also for preachers and and pastors. A servant of Christ has in his own house a constant school for his office. What he feels and does for his own children, the same he should feel and do for his Church. Yet, not merely the earnestness of paternal love, but the tenderness and self-sacrifice likewise of the maternal, is in the Apostle. He speaks of the parental relation, not by way of making it the foundation of just claims, but with an eye to its obligations and performances. 4. (1 Thessalonians 2:2.) It is worthy of remark that in 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Paul does not say: we were bold in Christ, to speak unto you the gospel of Christ, but: in God, of God; and so throughout the entire section (see 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:12-13). To obviate the objections of the Gentiles and Jews, he purposely reverts to the ultimate ground, still common more or less to them and Christians. Against Jesus Christ, that historical Person, they might bring forward the same exceptions as against the Apostle himself; but God is His own immediate witness in the consciences of all men. And this Divine witness of conscience was, and is, on the side of the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11). To this we too, in contending with the adversaries, must always again revert. We must connect Christ with God, Christianity with religion, that is, with the religious and moral nature of man in general, the positive and historical with the ideal (comp. John 7:17). 5. (1 Thessalonians 2:5.) Twice in our short section does Paul call God to witness, 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10, as he does in like manner also elsewhere, Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:23; comp. 2 Corinthians 11:31; Romans 9:1; 1 Timothy 2:7. A servant of God may often find himself in the same position, especially when meeting assaults, and where the question is about dispositions and prayers. A parallel to this is presented by the Verily, I say unto you, which is found so frequently in the mouth of the Lord, in the Synoptists with a single, in John with a double, ἀμήν. It was necessary for Him, in opposition to the unbelief or dulness of His hearers, to corroborate the often very paradoxical truth which he had to advance. Such assertions and protestations are approaches to the oath, to which some of them come quite close, particularly 2 Corinthians 1:2-3, and therefore contributions to the Scriptural view of the doctrine of the oath, and to the correct interpretation and application of Mat 5:33-37; James 5:12. 6. (1 Thessalonians 2:9.) Paul insists strongly on the right of ministers to live of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:7 sqq.; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6), and he himself also receives support from the Philippians and other churches (2 Corinthians 11:8 sq.; Philippians 4:10 sqq.). But in Corinth (1 Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 11:7 sqq.) and Thessalonica and apparently in Ephesus also (Acts 20:33-35) he accepted nothing during his work there, but provided for his own maintenance partly by manual labor (Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34), partly through the gifts of other Churches (2 Corinthians 11:9; Philippians 4:16). He did this, that he might offer no hindrance to the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:12); at Corinth, in consideration of the false Apostles (2 Corinthians 11:12 sqq.); at Thessalonica, in consideration probably of the unbelievers, whose calumnies he forsaw, or was already even in some measure aware of. For that the Thessalonian Christians were poor, as Chrysostom and others suppose, there is nothing to indicate; indeed, according to Acts 17:4, there were at any rate not a few rich persons among them. At the same time the Apostle desired also in his own person to furnish an example of fidelity in a earthly calling, of strenuous labor, of devoted love (Acts 20:35; 2 Thessalonians 3:7 sqq.). We have now here before us one of the cases in which, as in so many outward things—for example, in regard to usages, the times and places of Divine service, &c.—it could not be but that changes, to wit, specific regulations, should gradually be forth-coming in the Church. Soon the clerical calling could no longer be united with a secular one. It had therefore to be furnished with a regular income, and this is in accordance with Paul’s doctrine. If, then, we neither can nor should directly imitate his practice herein; if indeed, speaking generally, the exemplariness of the Lord and His Apostles does not require from us a direct, outward imitation—this were really to turn the gospel again into law and letter (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7, Doctrinal and Ethical, Note 5),—it is only the more important that we enter into the meaning and spirit of the Apostle, and act on this Apostolic view of the matter. Not to the Pope alone does his worldly dominion prove to be ruin; among us also earthly good has already become the curse and snare of many clergymen. This is one of the tenderest points in the relation between the shepherd and the flock, and by it is often insensibly closed the mouth of the shepherd and the heart of the sheep. There are certain portions of income, those that partake more of the nature of perquisites, which still fall immediately under the apostolic rule, not to burden those who would thereby be burdened, and rather to undergo privations, “lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). It deserves also to be noticed that the Apostle (1 Corinthians 9:14) says, that the Lord hath ordained that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, should have wherewithal to live, and not more. With us, to be sure, and especially of late, care is commonly taken that we should not have it in our power to think of laying up treasures. The wish expressed by Schleiermacher in 1804, “that the relations of the preacher’s position should be put more and more on such a footing, that it could present no external attraction to those who did not value it for its own sake,” has already received a manifold fulfilment. Those, however, who have to struggle with want and privation, may seek and find a strong consolation in the fact, that they thus stand nearer to the apostolic model, than if they lived in abundance of everything. Comp. the flaming words of Ludwig Hofacker in his Life by A. Knapp, 1852, p. 157 sq.: “Often enough have I been offended with a certain class of ministers. To lament over their poor pay is the whole business, their main topic of conversation. Nowhere is there less of faith and contentment than among men of this sort. With them the earthly mind thoroughly predominates. In no class is there less of Divine understanding. In heaven we shall probably meet the smallest proportion of ministers; for it is well-nigh impossible that such an ease-loving, selfish minister should enter the kingdom of heaven. Is it not a real mercy that we are even kept a little short? How much money, then, must a preacher have on hand? Or how much must he have in furniture and pictures? On this absurdity I could descant for a day, and not exhaust the topic, dealing not with individual cases, but with the thing itself, nor yet out of illiberality of feeling, but from long observation. Ah, where is the imitation of Christ’s life of poverty? No doubt, there are many who suffer, but why? because they fancy that a son is not saved, unless he gets to be a gentleman at the University. The true sufferers are they who are silent and endure, looking up to God.” [M. Henry: There is no general rule to be drawn from this instance; either that ministers may at no time work with their hands for supply of their outward necessities, or that they ought always to do so.—J. L.] 7. (1 Thessalonians 2:11.) Paul emphasizes the fact that he had exhorted every single individual. Comp. Acts 20:31, and especially the thrice repeated πάνταἄνθρωπον of Colossians 1:28. Here, as in Romans 5:12; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:18 sq.; 1 Timothy 2:4 sqq., the emphasis is on ἄνθρωπος, since Paul is speaking of the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles, of the removal of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, of Jesus belonging as man to all mankind, and of every individual simply as a man having an interest in Him. This is that idea of humanity, of the infinite value of each individual human soul before God, which first came to light in the New Covenant, in Christianity, and of which the Gentile Apostle was preeminently the bearer. In ancient times, to which the Old Covenant still essentially belongs, mankind was as yet given up as fleshly to the forces of nature, and therefore also to national divisions. The opposition of ςָ ?ν and βּ ?εֹ ?ιִ ?ν, λαός and ἔθνη stood in force, as that of Greeks and Barbarians; for God in His revelation condescended to the στοιχεῖατοῦ κόσμου. Not yet was the individual of any consequence in himself as a man; he came into view merely as a member of the larger natural whole, the people. A relative advance in this respect is certainly not to be mistaken within the sphere of the old world, when, for example, we think in the Old Testament of the Psalms, in Greece of the schools of philosophy, in Rome of the domestic life of a Cato and others. But even the Psalmist, who knows that in covenant with his God he is strong and secure against all the world, is ever an Israelite; the Grecian sage is always a Hellene; and so forth. First on the cross of Christ was the flesh and the whole power of nature broken in pieces; first in Christ was the one new man created, so that now there is no longer a question of Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 3:11); there was born the idea at once of humanity and of man; universalism, and along with that the true subjectivity and individualism, for every one singly to lay hold in faith freely from within on the salvation of God, and so attain to the fulness of human dignity (as was already represented in the call of Abraham, Romans 4.; Galatians 3). Not only did Paul recognize and preach this great truth; he likewise at the same time made practical application of it, on the universal side in his Gentile mission, on the other in his special care of souls. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ 1 Thessalonians 2:13-163. b. The Apostle now on his part also reminds the Thessalonians, with thanksgiving to God, that they had received his word as the word of God, as they have since continually experienced in themselves God’s mighty working (1 Thessalonians 2:13). They could not otherwise have endured such vexations from their countrymen, as the brethren in Judea had from the Jews (1 Thessalonians 2:14), whose enmity to the truth and the Apostles, moreover, need give the less offence, that they are thereby rather only filling the measure of their sins, and ripening rapidly for judgment (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16) 13For this cause also thank we [we also give thanks to] God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us [received from us the word of preaching that is of God], ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God [ye accepted, not men’s word, but, as it is in truth, God’s word], which effectually worketh also [also work eth] in you that believe. 14For ye, brethren, became followers [imitators, μιμηταί] of the churches of God which in Judea are [which are in Judea, τῶνοὐσῶνἐντῇ Ιουδαὶα] in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered [suffered, ἐπὰθετε] like things [the same things, τὰ αὐτά] of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; 15who both killed the Lord [also killed the Lord] Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted [and persecuted, ἐκδιωξάντων] us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, 16forbidding us to speak [hindering us from speaking, κωλυόντων … λαλῆσαι] to the Gentiles, that they might [may] be saved, to fill up their sins always: for [but, δἐ ?] the wrath is come [came] upon them to the uttermost [to the end, εἰςτέλος]. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 2:13.) For this cause we also give thanks.—Διὰ τοῦτο: Because it is God who calls you to His kingdom, therefore we thank Him that ye received our word, not as man’s word, but God’s.—Καὶ ἡμεῖς stands opposed to αὐτοὶ γἁροἴδατε (1 Thessalonians 2:1) and means Paul and his attendants, who now, in further explanation of 1 Thessalonians 1:6 and πῶςἐπεστρέψατε of 1 Thessalonians 1:9 sq., remind the Thessalonians of their lively reception of the word of God, just as the Thessalonians were appealed to, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, as witnesses of the pure and powerful ministry of the Apostle among them; see on 1 Thessalonians 1:8, Exeg. Note 1. We have mutually received from one another the deepest impressions of an operation of the Divine Spirit: that is the third argument, adduced in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, whereby Paul seeks to convince the Thessalonians of the reality of their faith. So deep an impression did he retain of the faith of the Thessalonians, with which they received his word as the word of God, that he has ever since felt himself moved to unceasing thanksgiving to God. If he speaks of the matter to God, and here repeatedly emphasizes this fact (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:2), they may at once herein recognize a new indication, how little the question is about something merely human (comp. on διὰ τοῦτο). So far τῷ θεῷ answers both to the previous τος͂ θεοῦ (1 Thessalonians 2:12) and to the subsequent λόγονθεοῦ. The discourse thus turns back here, at the end of the entire section, to the beginning (1 Thessalonians 1:2. Ewald). 2. When ye received from us the word of preaching that is of God.—Παραλαβ., the objective, outward, matter-of-fact reception, in distinction from δέχεσθαι, the subjective, inward acceptance (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6.)—ἀκοή=ωְ ?ξֻ ?ςָ ?δ, Isaiah 53:1; Romans 10:14-17=pass, what one hears, a report, announcement, preaching, message. Λόγοςἀκοῆς (comp. Hebrews 4:2) is one of those genitival connections, which we in German are accustomed to express by a combination of nouns: Botschaftswort; Ewald: Predigtwort [as if we should say in English, message-word, preaching-word]. The addition of ἀκοῆς marks the audible, oral announcement, coming to men as a (new, hitherto unknown) message: comp. Romans 10:17, where ἀκοή is distinguished from ῥῆμαθεοῦ, the latter going forth from God to His messengers, the former from the messengers to the rest of men. The anarthrous λόγοςἀκοῆς should perhaps be translated a message, to indicate it as unknown, new; comp. λόγοςκυρίου of 1 Thessalonians 4:15 with ὁ λόγοςτοῦ Κ. of 1 Thessalonians 1:8, With this message Paul appeared among the Thessalonians; he knew that it was from God; they could not yet of themselves know that. This he here represents to us in a measure by the purposely anomalous arrangement, παῤ ἡμῶντοῦ Θεοῦ: they received the word of the message immediately from him, but behind him stood God as the Author and Sender of the message. Παῤ ἡμῶν naturally depends on παραλαβ., to which also the preposition expressly points back (De Wette, Koch [Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson], &c.), [not on λόγοςἀκοῆς (Beza, Pelt, Olshausen, Lόnemann, &c.), whereby the construction becomes very harsh and clumsy withal, since τοῦ θεοῦ would have to be a closer definition of the composite idea, λόγοςἀκοῆςπαῤ ἡμῶν.—Riggenbach.]; τοῦ θεοῦ, on the other hand, depends on λόγοςἀκοῆς, and is a gen. autoris, as in εὐαγγέλιοντοῦ θεοῦ of 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9, ὁ λόγοςτοῦ κυρὶου of 1 Thessalonians 1:8, (see there Note 4). It comes last with emphasis, the point in the subsequent context being that the preaching was the word, not merely of the man Paul, but of God. Thus the participial clause, παραλαβόντες—παρ’ ἡμῶντοῦ θεοῦ, takes in once more the contents of 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12; for there, from the beginning to the end (see especially 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:12), it is shown that Paul had not labored among the Thessalonians in his own name or in an egotistic manner, but, as an agent of God, had brought them His message and call. 3. Ye accepted it, not as men’s word, &c. [Ye accepted, not men’s word, &c.].—The Thessalonians, then, understood and acknowledged the real nature, the Divine character and origin, of the apostolic preaching. They perceived in the word such a supernatural, essential power, as can proceed from no mortal man, himself involved in the disorder of the world’s sin. They felt the Godhead drawing near to them in the word of life; for the Holy Spirit was thereby active in their souls. And as the inward sense and instinct of the Divine light in the consciousness opened to, and allowed itself to be intimately pervaded by, the concurrent light in the word, mightily judging and irradiating their previous darkness (2 Corinthians 4:4-6; John 3:19-21), they therefore accepted the preached word for what it is, as the word of God.—Ἐδέξασθε, comp. δεξάμενοι 1 Thessalonians 1:6—a text for general comparison. As immediate object, λόγονἀκοῆςτοῦ θεοῦ must be supplied out of the participial clause; οὐ λόγονἀνθρ &c. is a second accusative of the predicate: to accept something as—Winer, p. 203 sq.—Λόγονἀνθρ, in opposition to θεοῦ indicates the origin, and at the same time the quality, which necessarily passes over from the source to what springs therefrom (Olshausen). The plural ἀνθρώπων stands with reference to the plurality of the preachers, and also indeed generically; comp. Matthew 9:8. Winer, p. 158. Λόγονθεοῦ, the word which God Himself causes to be proclaimed by men, whom He by His Spirit equips as His instruments; comp. Romans 10:17. Rieger: An expression of God’s heart concerning us.—Καθώςἐστινἀληθῶς: a simple, forcible testimony to inspiration. 4. Who [which] also worketh in you that believe.—Ὅς can be referred either to λόγον (�cumenius, Olshausen, Lόnemann, &c. [Conybeare, Peile, Jowett, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, &c]; comp. Winer, p. 231), and in favor of this it is alleged that elsewhere the active ἐνεργεῖν is used of God, and the middle ἐνεργεῖσθαι only of things (yet comp., for example, Colossians 1:29; Ephesians 3:20); or to θεοῦ (Theodoret, Luther, Bengel, &c), and this is preferable, because the context treats, not of an energetic operation generally, but specially of a Divine operation; Bengel: Deus ostendens, verbum vere esse verbum Dei (1 Thessalonians 4:8-9; Acts 14:3). On the former view the meaning must be: which also shows itself as such, &c. [comp. Acts 20:32].—Καί adds to the acceptance of the word as God’s word on the side of the Thessalonians the effective, and that a continuous, confirmation of it on the side of God (ἐδέξασθε, aorist; ἐνερλεῖται, present). From that time onward you are in real communion with God, who shows Himself operative in you by the power of His heavenly Spirit, overruling everything human, as may be seen in the fact that even the strongest human ties cannot bind you, since you have suffered severely from your own relations and countrymen (1 Thessalonians 2:14). Τοῖςπιστεύουσιν: so far is faith from being some empty thing, that it is rather the organ for God’s operations in us (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:10 and Exeg. Note 26; for the topics, Ephesians 1:19).5. (1 Thessalonians 2:14.) For ye, brethren, became imitators, &c.—On γάρ, see Note 4. ὑμεῖς resumes the immediately preceding ἐνὑμῖν 1 Thessalonians 2:13, and stands with honorable distinction foremost. Μιμηταὶ ἐγενήθητε, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:6. There the Thessalonian believers are described as followers of the Apostle and of the Lord Himself; here, in terms of scarcely less honor and encouragement, as followers of the original Christian churches in Judea. The Apostle points out historically a fundamental law of the kingdom of God, that is now fulfilling itself in the case of the Thessalonians: The bearers of the Divine are always expelled by the natural community to which they belong (comp. Matthew 10:35-37). Thus the Thessalonian Christians by their associates of their own race, and the Jewish Christians by the Jews, who in like manner killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and now also have driven out the Apostle. So little need the Thessalonians allow themselves to be disconcerted by the injustice done them by their compatriots, that herein rather lies the evidence of the reality and power of the Divine influences present with them; for only that which is really Divine is hated by the world (comp. the forcible word of Jesus, John 7:7; John 15:18 sq.), just as the strength to endure this enmity likewise rests on God’s operation in believers. Ἐπάθετε denotes strictly nothing more than the actual experience (there has befallen you), but according to the connection it includes the inward endurance of what has happened. For in no other way can πάσχειν serve to establish the efficiency of the Divine word in them, and in no other way, especially, can the preterite ἐπάθετε, which, being parallel to the ἐδέξασθε of 1 Thessalonians 2:13, has primary reference to the time of their conversion, serve to confirm the present ἐνεργεῖται, than as implying that the Thessalonians have really encountered the enmity of their fellow-countrymen, and do not allow themselves to be thereby driven into apostasy. Taken together, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-14 thus answer pretty closely to the parallel statement in 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:13 to δεξάμενοιτὸνλόγονμετὰ χαρᾶςπνεύματοςἁγίου 1 Thessalonians 5:14 to ἐνθλίψειπολλῇ; comp. there Exeg. Note 14. 6. (1 Thessalonians 2:14.) Of the churches of God which are in Judea, &c.—Τοῦ θεοῦ answers to the threefold mention of God in 1 Thessalonians 2:13; τῶνοὐσῶν has ἐν twice connected with it: in the first instance, ἐντῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ, it denotes the external, geographical sphere; in the other, ἐνΧριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, the inner, essential life-sphere, on which see 1 Thessalonians 1:1, Exeg. Note 3, and Doct. and Eth. 1. By the latter specification the Jewish-Christian congregations are distinguished from the Jewish, which also εἶναιδοκοῦσι congregations of God (�cumenius).—Τῶνἐκκλησιῶν is also to be noted in this respect, that the Thessalonians were the first church out of Palestine that was persecuted as a church. 7. Countrymen.—Συμφυλ., those of the same tribe, exhibits the natural connection (Luther only too strongly: blood relations), and the epithet ἰδίων gives it additional force, in order the more clearly to show the gospel’s penetrating, overcoming power as supernatural, Divine. By the συμφυλέται, therefore, as the contrast τῶνἸουδαίων shows, are meant chiefly [only] Gentiles (Olshausen, De Wette, Lόnemann, Ewald, [Alford, Ellicott, &c.] &c), because the Thessalonian church was composed almost entirely of Gentile Christians (Acts 17:4). [Not Jews (Chrysostom, &c.): Calvin, Bengel, &c, think of Jews and Gentiles both.—Riggenbach.]—Αὐτοί are the members of the churches in Judea; constructio ad sensum.8. (1 Thessalonians 2:15.) Who also, &c.—Καί is not perhaps to be connected with the καί following=as well—as also, since several καί follow one another in simple series: it rather adds to what precedes something new and correspondent: The Jews have not only persecuted the Christian churches in Judea, but also killed the Lord Jesus, &c. The subsequent strong expressions respecting the Jews are at first sight somewhat strange, indeed almost displeasing, especially because one does not well see, at least not at once, how the Apostle was led to them by the context. Looked at more closely, they fall apart into two divisions, the first consisting of past participles (ἀποκτεινάντων, ἐκδιωξάντων), the second of present (ἀρεσκόντων with ἐναντίων, κωλυόντων). Both divisions end in something that has reference to the Apostle: ἡμᾶςἐκδιωξ 1 Thessalonians 2:15, κωλυόντωνἡμᾶς 1 Thessalonians 2:16. Thus, the point in question is the relation of the Jews to the Apostle, on which comp. Acts 17:5. This seems also to have been used against the Apostle by the countrymen of the Thessalonians. They might say: “How can you still believe that stranger? His own people, in fact, have driven him out, and are utterly unwilling to have him draw you over to his side;”—an objection which might have the more weight for the Thessalonian Christians, because most of them had previously been proselytes (Acts 17:4), and so accustomed to seek and find the truth among the Jews. To this Paul now answers: “Yes, they have persecuted me, but no otherwise than they did the Lord Jesus and their own prophets; nor are they willing to endure it, that I should publish salvation to you, and the Gentiles generally; but in this they are merely contrary to God and men, and fill up the measure of their sins.” Thus regarded, 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 have a meaning and significance in where they stand, and thus also is set aside the offensive harshness that seems to lie in the words; it is set aside from the same point of view, which in the earlier sections removes the offence of self-praise or of the praise of the Thessalonians. But the treatment of this matter is attached to this particular context for the reason that it falls under the same law as the suffering of the Thessalonians from those of their own race (see Exeg. Note 5): Paul had the same experience from his countrymen, as they from theirs: and as they were preceded by the Jewish Christians, so he himself by the Lord and the prophets. With such predecessors, and with this uniformity of experience, the offence must surely cease. It is moreover evident that the example in 1 Thessalonians 2:14 is there selected with an eye to the fact, that Paul means presently to speak of the Jews. And this point he has kept to the close of the entire section; for having fully reestablished his own authority with his readers, he can the more powerfully subvert their earlier authority, the Jews. [While expositors generally deal with the difficulty, some of the expedients adopted by them in accounting for 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 are very far fetched. Olshausen: “Paul foresaw that the Judaizers, standing on the same level as the Jews, would damage him in this Church also, and therefore, by way of precaution, he here expressed himself on the points in regard to which he was usually blamed.” But would any one attack the Jews beforehand, in order to resist a possible, later incursion of Judaizing Christians, to whom, besides, several things are here inapplicable, whilst their characteristic peculiarities, especially their legality, are wanting? Von Hofmann, on the contrary, supposes that some desired to persuade the Thessalonians, that the gospel was purely a Jewish affair, and that it is in opposition to this notion that Paul here speaks. But one cannot understand how this objection could arise, since the Jews were certainly the first and most vehement adversaries of the gospel in Thessalonica; and then an attack on the Jews would still have been a very indirect and extravagant way of defending himself against that objection. De Wette contents himself altogether with the remark, that the Apostle seizes the opportunity to give vent to his displeasure with the Jews. Lόnemann is correct in finding the occasion of the philippic, 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16, in the fact, that in Thessalonica the Jews were the real instigators of the persecutions of the Christians, and that in other places likewise they manifested the same obdurate spirit of contradiction; but with this generality he stops, and so fails to account for the complexion of the entire passage, as well as its particular phrases, and overlooks the reference to Paul. Calvin, who is followed by Calixtus;, comes nearest the truth: Poterat Thessalonicensibus hoc venire in mentem: si hζc vera est religio, cur eam tam infestis animis oppugnant Judζi, qui sunt sacer Dei populus? Ut hoc offendic-ulam tollat, primum admonet, hoc eos commune habere cum primis ecclesiis, quζ in Judζa erant, postea Judζos dicit obstinatos esse Dei omnis sanζ doctrinζ hostes. The only mistake here is, that Calvin, whilst he too overlooks the special reference of 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 to Paul, and understands συμφυλετ. 1 Thessalonians 2:14, principally of the Jews, brings to bear on 1 Thessalonians 2:14 the point of view, that is applicable to 1 Thessalonians 2:15 sq.—Riggenbach.] 9. The Lord Jesus and their own prophets, &c.—Τὸνκύριον stands emphatically first, and is still more marked in being separated by ἀποκτειν, from Ἰησοῦν: Yea, the Lord Himself they killed (comp. 1 Corinthians 2:8); is it to be wondered at, if they persecute the servant (comp. John 15:20)? What is expressed in the case of Ἰησοῦν by the prominent putting forward of τὸνκύριον is in the case of τοὺςπροφήτας expressed by the addition of ἰδίους: their own prophets, ὧνκαὶ τὰ τεύξηπεριφέρουσι (Chrysost.), they treated no better than they have done the Gentile Apostle. This internal evidence is favorable to the genuineness of ἰδίους; if regarded as spurious, this makes no change whatever in the thought; we lose merely that particular stroke. Τοὺςπροφήτας might grammatically be connected, as Koch would have it, with what follows; but com mentators correctly refer it to what goes before, both because in other places also mention is made of the Jewish murder of the prophets (Matthew 23:31; Matthew 23:37; Luke 11:47 sq.;Luke 13:34; Acts 7:52), and on account of ἐκδιωξάντων, of which presently.—When Paul now proceeds: καὶ ἡμᾶςἐκδιωξάντων, we are by this time so well prepared for it, that it can no longer furnish an objection to him, but rather an argument for him and against the Jews. ̔Εκδιώκειν is no doubt in the Sept. Psalms 44:17 [Psalms 44:16]; Psalms 119:157 the strengthened διώκειν (De Wette, Lόnem.); but the proper meaning of the word (see, for instance, Passow, who indeed gives no other meaning) is to pursue forth, chase out, expel, persequendo ejicere (Bengel, who adds: frequens verbum apud LXX.), and so the word stands in the only other passage where it occurs in the New Testament, Luke 11:49 (in the parallel passage, Matthew 23:34, διώξετεἀπὸ πάλεωςεἰςπόλιν)—a point of so much the more importance, as Paul probably has here in his eye that expression of Christ. In this case we are (with J. Mich. Hahn, Baur, &c.) to think simply of the expulsion of Paul and his companions from Thessalonica (see Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13), the very thing at which many believers might stumble. [Bengel, Pelt, Schott, Lόnemann, (Ellicott,) think of the persecutions of Paul and the Apostles generally; but this extension of ἡμᾶς is against the context, see 1 Thessalonians 2:16-17, as well as 1 Thessalonians 2:13; besides, the aorist participle leads us the more readily to think of a single act, since the Jewish persecutions of the Apostles in general still continued (see Acts 17:13; Acts 18:6; Acts 18:12), so that it must have been ἐκδιωκόντων as well as afterwards κωλυόντων—Riggenbach.] 10. And they please not God, &c.—The participles now pass from the aorist [Alford: definite events] into the present [Alford: habits] and, as τῶνκαὶ τὸνκύριον—ἐκδιωξάντων hangs closely together, so again does all that follows as far as σωθῶσιν. For not to please God and to be contrary to all men are correlatives, and κωλυόντων, &c. adds to it nothing new and independent, but, having no καί before it like all the previous participles, is to be subordinated to ἀρεσκ, and ἐναντίων [with Lόnem., though he makes it depend only on ἐναντίων (and so Alford.—J. L.).—Riggenbach.], comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:6 sq.; 11 sq. The subordinate clause shows to what extent the Jews displease God, and are contrary to all men; and thus at the same time these strong expressions lose much of their harshness.—Θεῷ μὴ ἀρεσκόντων: the Jews were jealous at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5), as they were elsewhere both before and afterwards (Acts 13:45; Acts 18:6-13; comp. Acts 22:21 sq.; Acts 26:19 [Acts 26:21]), because through Paul so many Gentiles were converted, and this jealousy was with them a zeal for God and His kingdom in Israel (Romans 10:2), whereby they thought to please Him (comp. John 16:2). In opposition to this Paul now says; they please not God. Thus the subjective negative μή does not imply placere non quζrentium (Bengel, &c.); but, on the contrary, it denies the ἀρέσκειν as conceived by the Jews and also by the Thessalonians (Winer, p. 428 sq.) Ubi dicit non placere Deo, hoc vult, indignos esse, quorum ratio inter Dei cultores habeatur (Calvin). The very softness of the expression has a peculiar force.—Πᾶσινἄνθρ. ἐναντίων: as contrary to God, so contrary to men; but the former passively=objects of the Divine displeasure, the latter actively=hostile to all men. πᾶσινἀνθρώποις, of course, excepting themselves, and so, as to the sense,=τοῖςἔθνεσιν ill the explanatory clause. But Paul purposely holds up to view the inhumanity of this state of mind. When heathen writers, as interpreters are here in the habit of reminding us, reproach the Jews with adversus omnes alios hostile odium (Tac. Hist. 1 Thessalonians 2:5; Juv. Sat. 14:103 sqq.; Jos. c. Revelation 2:10-14, etc.), they do not at any rate properly distinguish in this thing the Divinely sanctioned particularism of Israel, and the proud, narrow-minded exclusivism of the Jews. Paul, of course, blames only the latter, which would not acknowledge that God Himself had now abolished the former. 11. (1 Thessalonians 2:16.) Hindering us, &c.—Κωλυόντων, see Exeg. Note 10. Δαλῆσαιἴνασωθῶσιν, either: to preach to the Gentiles, in order that they may be saved, (Bengel, Olshausen, De Wette; thus taking λαλ. as a meiosis or tapeinosis for εὐαγγελίζεσθαι); or ἵνα is weakened, as in the New Testament it so often is, and marks the object (Winer, p. 299 sqq.)=λαλῆσαιπερὶ τῆςσωτηρίας, λαλῆσαιτὸ εὐαγγέλιον 1 Thessalonians 2:2 (Lόnemann, [Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson], &c.). The latter method is the more simple. 12. To fill up their sins always.—Εἰςτό, &c., belongs, not merely to κωλυόντων, but to the whole description from 1 Thessalonians 2:15. The result is here presented as an unconscious purpose, just as we say: to fill up the measure [De Wette). [εἰς then, is not=ὤστε, of the result as such (Pelt, &c.); but neither does it mark God’s purpose in the sins of the Jews (Olshausen, Lόnemann)1Th : the expression belongs not so much to the Pauline style of thought, as to ordinary speech.—Riggenbach]:—αὐτῶν stands emphatically before τὰςὰμαρτ: their sins, while they are persecuting others, God’s messengers, as sinners.—̔Αναπλμρῶσαι, comp. Matthew 23:32, καὶ ὑηε͂ιςπληρώσατετὸ μὲτροντῶνπατέρωνὑηῶν [also Genesis 15:16]. The compound ἀναπληρ. means to fill up to fill again higher, so that, as it were, the still empty space in the vessel becomes ever smaller. We thus get a simple explanation of πάντοτε (which is thought to be difficult by De Wette, and strange by Olshausen, who, with Bretschneider, would take it as=πάντως, παντελῶς). The subsequent clause likewise with its εἰςτελος, will in this connection obtain its natural interpretation. Πάντοτε means always, at every time, by the persecution of the prophets, of the Lord, of the Apostle, the sins were always again filled up, filled higher, till now the measure is full. 13. But the wrath came upon them to the end.—Δέ opposes to the sin its punishment, and to the ever fresh increase the end. Parallel to the heaping up of the sin went the heaping up of the judicial wrath of God (Romans 2:5), which now, however, is come to the end, to the uttermost, where it must discharge itself (Lόnemann). On ἡ ὀργή [Jowett: either the long-expected wrath, or the wrath consequent upon their sins.—J. L.] see 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Exeg. Note 14. Εἰςτελος is to be connected with ἔφθασε, which means simply pervenit (Vulgate, Calvin, De Wette, Lόnemann, &c.), not prζvenit (Beza, Schott, Pelt, &c.), since in the New Testament, with the exception of 1 Thessalonians 4:15, φθάςειν occurs only in the later, weakened sense of reaching to, with εἰς (Romans 9:31; Philippians 3:16), ἐπίτινα. (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20; comp. Daniel 4:25), ἄχριτινός (2 Corinthians 10:14). Here it is connected with two prepositions of the direction, one of which (εἰςτέλος) indicates the inward development to the end; the other (ἐπʼ ? αὐτούς), the outward movement. [At this many interpreters needlessly stumble, and have either taken εἰςτέλος adverbially (=finally or totally), or have thought it necessary to refer it to ἡ ὀργή: the wrath which lasts to the end of the world, or for ever (Theodoret, Theophylact, �cumenius, &c.), or till its full manifestation (Olshausen), or to the destruction of the Jews (Grotius, Pelt, Flatt, &c.). The last view is shared also by De Wette, Ewald, &c., who connect εἰςτέλος with ἔφθασε in the sense of 2 Chronicles 31:1; Daniel 9:27,=to utter ruin, to complete extinction.—Riggenbach.]—Paul knows that the Jews, having likewise rejected the Messiah and the spiritual witness of his Apostles, are now ripe for judgment, which accordingly followed soon after in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. He neither appeals to any revelation that he had received on this subject, nor does he merely draw inferences from the political situation of the Jews [Jowett: “To the Apostle, reading the future in the present, the state of Judea at any time during the last thirty years before the destruction of the city, would have been sufficient to justify the expression, ‘wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.’ ”—J. L.], but in the light of prophecy of the Old Testament and of the Lord Himself (Ewald mentions Matthew 23:37-39; Matthew 14:16 sqq.; Daniel 9:24 sqq.) he discerns with clear spiritual glance the interpretation of the signs of the time. With this earnest word on the near imminence of the Divine judgment on the principal adversaries of the gospel the section closes, and so again in a measure with an eschatological prospect (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12). While the Jews fall under wrath, Christians are saved from wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10), and called to God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12). AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 2:13.) It may seem strange that Paul should thank God for something that the Thessalonians had done (ἐδέξασθε). We are not to infer from this, that their acceptance of the word, or their faith, is thought of as an operation of God to the exclusion of man’s free receptivity. Had Paul meant to say this, he must have expressed himself otherwise, as thus: We thank God that He wrought the acceptance, or faith, in you. But the indication in ἐδέξασθε of free receptivity is the more marked, as it is only afterward that the operation of God in them is named in confirmation of the Divine character of the freely accepted word (ὃςκαὶ ἐνεργεῖταιἐνὑμῖντοῖςπιστεύουσιν). Nevertheless, Paul can and must thank God for the faith of the Thessalonians, partly because it would not have existed but for His preparative grace, and the accompanying influence of His Spirit, whereby the Thessalonians were convinced that Paul’s word was God’s word, and thus faith is no independent act of man (Olshausen), but really rests on a Divine causality; partly because for every good thing that happens to the Christian, and makes him glad—and the faith of the Thessalonians was for Paul something in the highest degree exhilarating (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20)—he gives thanks and honor to the Father of lights, under whose providential guidance and control stand even the free actions of men (Lόnemann). Comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6, and its Exegetical Note 14, and Doctrinal Principles, No. 3. 2. Paul calls his word God’s word. To what extent he knew himself to be justified in doing so has been shown already, especially in 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4 and 1 Thessalonians 1:5. God Himself, by a miraculous call and the light of revelation had entrusted him with the proclamation of His glad tidings to the world (comp. Galatians 1:11-16; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; Colossians 1:25-29; Ephesians 3:1-12), and now in Thessalonica, as in Corinth and elsewhere (1 Corinthians 2:4-5; Romans 15:18-19), he has preached the gospel in the energy of the Holy Ghost. There are thus two essential points in the case: 1. The apostolic call and illumination (inspiration), which, effected by special acts of God, concerns the whole man, and assigns to him an official mission, a fundamental position and significance in the kingdom of God (comp. Ephesians 2:20); 2. the separate acts of proclamation, performed on the ground of that general inspiration, and yet again in every particular instance, “in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance,” or “in demonstration of the spirit and in power.” Now what is true of the oral proclamation of Apostles holds good of the written. “For the relation between word and writing is ordinarily this, that the writing compresses the copiousness of the spoken word into a settled elementary form—the final expression, made clear and strong by deliberate reflection, of the inspired thought—and so in Holy Scripture we have the ripe, developed fruit of inspiration” (Martensen, Dogmatik, 2d ed., p. 455). We are therefore at liberty, and are bound, to call also the written word of Apostles (and Prophets) the word of God. And down through all centuries the Church has borne to it in the power of the Spirit the same witness, that the Thessalonians did to Paul’s oral proclamation; she has freely recognized and accepted it as God’s word. The testimonium Spiritus Sancti continually asserts itself as the subjective correlative and living evidence of inspiratio—But now, as regards the uninterrupted oral proclamation of the word of God in the preaching of the Church, on that point Paul says in the Pastoral Epistles, which may be regarded as his legacy to the Church in its gradual transition from the first age of the Apostles into the common course of history: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me,” and: “The thing that thou hast heard of me, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:2). He will thus have the Church’s doctrine and preaching expressly bound to the fundamental apostolic word, and, though here too the reference is to what is spoken and heard, yet we properly may and ought once more to think of the written word, which, indeed, is the only authentic tradition of the oral for later generations (1 John 2:7; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 1:3-4; 2 Peter 1:13-15). Essentially, therefore, the Church’s doctrine and preaching is a propagation, reproduction, an ever new appropriation of the apostolic word. But as the preaching Apostles would not have fulfilled their task by a mere dry communication of God’s revelations, but for every announcement they had to be freshly endued with the Spirit from on high, that the gospel might be brought powerfully to bear on the heart and conscience of the hearers according to their general and special needs, as, for example, on the Jews otherwise than on the Gentiles, so likewise for our preaching the objective agreement with apostolic, orthodox doctrine does not suffice, but there must always be a subjective fulness, and that in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. It is not the preaching, but the preacher, that preaches (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, and its Exegetical Note 12, and Doctrinal Principles, No. 4). This, in fact, is precisely what is proposed in the oral word, to bring near to men in a human way the objective gift of God—to convey it to them with a spiritual, personal vivacity. The preacher is not a mere messenger, who may have no interest in the intelligence he has to bring; he is a witness, guaranteeing what he says by all that he is (John 15:27; Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8; Acts 1:22; 1 John 1:2). And, accordingly, he too can and should testify to his hearers the one apostolic truth in the freedom of the spirit, ever according to their needs, in this or that form, from this side or from that. The more these two elements mutually interpenetrate, the objective agreement with the apostolic doctrine and the subjective, spiritual fulness of the individual, so much the more may even the preaching of the Church be called the word of God. At the same time we here perceive that the Divine does not in its revelation and communication exclude or suppress the human, but assimilates it, fills it with itself, and so consecrates it for its own organ. [When our Confessions teach: “Sacramenta et verbum propter ordinationem et mandatum Christi sunt efficacia, etiamsi per malos exhibeantur” (Conf. Aug. 8; comp. Hebrews 1.), this contains a truth, no doubt; and yet there is here a somewhat hasty making of a virtue out of necessity, and especially the difference between the word and sacrament, in relation to the personality of the minister, is not duly considered. Comp. 1 Corinthians 1:14-17—Riggenbach.] Thus, in the connection of our passage with earlier statements in the Epistle, and in its harmony with expressions of the Apostle elsewhere, it furnishes essential features to the doctrine of the verbum divinum, both as written and as preached. 3. (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16.) At that time there had arisen even among the heathen a searching after truth. The great world-empires had along with the populations shaken also the gods and the religions. Light and happiness were sought in schools of philosophy, in the renewal of the mysteries, from the Goλtζ, &c. There had ensued, as in our day, a dissolution of the spiritual life—a confused, conflicting throng of all possible standpoints and attempts at deliverance. The point then was, to discriminate between man’s word and God’s. For this end the conscience is of service (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11), which is given to us as a compass on the swelling sea of life. When it is aroused, a separation is made between what is Divine and what is human. At this time many, at Thessalonica also, had already attached themselves as proselytes to the Jews, because even in the preparatory revelations of God they found the best satisfaction of their needs of conscience. Such were in a peculiar degree prepared, inwardly and outwardly, to accept the Gospel as the word of God. They were so more than the Jews, because the latter generally held the law and the prophets in the way merely of outward tradition, whereas the former consented thereto with heart and life. Thus frequently upright men, belonging as to their external position to the world, are nearer to the kingdom of God than others, who have perhaps from their youth up been associated with the pious. In like manner churches, which assume to be those in which alone salvation is to be had, or which boast of their orthodoxy, are not exactly those which bring forth the most children to the Lord, because the Spirit departs in a measure proportioned to the reliance placed, as by the Jews, on institutions, the form of doctrine, &c. (Romans 2:17 sqq.) 4. (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16.) We can here almost perceive the growth in Paul of his leading view of the position of Gentile Christians in relation to Jewish Christians and Jews. The latter are the proper enemies of the gospel, not only amongst those of their own nation, but also in the Gentile world; for this reason he sees the judgment now breaking in on them. On the other hand, he recognizes in the Gentile Christians the followers of the Jewish Christians, of the true congregation of God in Israel. They belong—this thought here presents itself as a matter of course—to the genuine seed of Abraham, and take the place of the exscinded branches (Romans 4, 11). The condition for this is simply faith, on which such special stress is laid in 1 Thessalonians 2:13; through faith a man quits his natural connections, and enters the circle of the Divine operation in the world (the connection of 1 Thessalonians 2:13-14). To the Jews were entrusted the λόγιατοῦ θεοῦ (Romans 3:2); to believers from among Jews and Gentiles is not merely entrusted outwardly the λόγοςθεοῦ, but God thereby works in them with a living power (1 Thessalonians 2:13). We have thus here, in regard to the history of the kingdom of God, the genesis of Paul’s objective, fundamental view respecting the setting aside of the Jews and the participation of the Gentiles in that kingdom, just as in Acts 13:38-39 we have the genesis of his fundamental view of subjective salvation, of the doctrine of justification by faith. Then in the Epistle to the Romans both views are developed jointly. 5. But it must not be forgotten, that our text is not the last word of the Gentile Apostle respecting the Jews. It is rather in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 9-11) that he has uttered this. There, with an extreme, self-denying love, he expresses his profound, continual sorrow on account of the rejection of Israel (Romans 9:1-3; Romans 10:1-2). He places the ultimate aim of his Gentile apostleship in this, that by means of the converted Gentiles the Jews should be provoked to emulation (Romans 11:13-14). He makes it the duty of Gentile Christians not to be proud and severe in regard to the Jewish branches broken off on account of their unbelief, because otherwise the same fate awaits us (Romans 11:17-22). To his Gentile Church, accordingly, which has so often, alas, actually fallen into that spirit of arrogance toward the Jews which he repudiates, and is still for the most part ensnared therein, he has rather bequeathed it a her task, by means of her walk of faith before Israel, and her loving sorrow in their behalf, to win over the blinded people. The Church has a mission of faith and love to the Jews; she has and should have a Jewish mission. If among us evangelicals this obligation is again here and there acknowledged and discharged, yet these efforts are but feeble, slight germs and beginnings. The Jewish mission is still far too much a thing singular, peculiar; it is too little sustained by the intercessory sympathy of the believing Church. We must in this thing learn to walk more fully in the steps of our Apostle and of the Lord Himself, of whom in reference to this very people Matthew 9:36-38 stands written. The Jewish mission, moreover, is in a quite special sense the mission also of hope. For the very last word of the Gentile Apostle respecting Israel is this, that the entire people shall yet be saved, and from the receiving of them again shall a new life stream forth to the nations of the world (Romans 11:12; Romans 11:15; Romans 11:23 sqq.). This national conversion of Israel is, indeed, not a matter that we can introduce; with other developments in the kingdom of God, it is connected with the coming of Christ (Matthew 23:39; Acts 3:19-21) [Zechariah 12, 13, 14.—J. L.]. But in order to this, to say nothing of the salvation of individual souls, the Jewish mission has to perform the office of a forerunner, and prepare the way. 6. The result of the entire development of the Jewish people during more than fifteen centuries was their division into a believing minority (1 Thessalonians 2:14) and an unbelieving majority (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16), which oppressed and persecuted the former. Already, indeed, had the prophets prophesied of the remnant which alone should be converted (comp. Romans 9:27-29; Romans 11:1-10). This division [Scheidung] being completed, there came the crisis [Entscheidung], the judgment (κρίσις includes both) in the destruction of Jerusalem, from which the believers were delivered (Pella, &c.), whereas ruin befell the unbelieving people. The same result will follow the development also of the New Testament Church and of the Christian nations. On this rests the deep, biblical truth of the distinction between the visible and the invisible Church. We too stand in the time of separation, and are advancing toward the crisis. 7. (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16.) It is worthy of notice that the ideas of 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 obviously lean on a sentence of the Lord, and are evolved from it. Comp. with 1 Thessalonians 2:15, Matthew 23:34; Luke 11:49 : ἀπαστελῶ προφήταςκαὶ ἀποστόλουςκαὶ ἐξαὐτῶνἀποκτενοῦσικαὶ ἐκδιώξουσιν and, with 1 Thessalonians 2:16 Matthew 13:32 : καὶ ὑμε͂ιςπληρώσατετὸ μέτροντῶνπατέρωνὐμῶν, and 2:36: ἥξειταῦταπάνταἐπὶ τὴνγενεὰνταύτην. We thus see how, under the illumination of the Spirit, the words of the Lord and the Apostle’s own experiences originated his thoughts. At another time it was words of the Lord, which the Apostle received in immediate revelations from heaven. In his eschatological teachings which we shall have later to consider, we shall see both kinds of words coφperating, and along with them Old Testament prophecy. The sayings of Jesus were evidently not unknown to Paul. With him they frequently sound still in a freer form (preceding the written determination of them). AND 1 Thessalonians 2:13. Rieger: Where we said: I am glad, I ever think of it without joy, there the spirit, in which Scripture is written, impels us to say: We thank God, that He may ever be acknowledged as she Giver of these joyful providences, and that joy itself may be so seasoned with salt, that the flesh shall be less able to attribute aught to itself.—J. Mich. Hahn: How greatly must it rejoice a servant of the Lord, when he is permitted also to see fruits of his labor! Or are we going to find fault with this joy, even though it be a joy in the Lord? Or have we perchance any cause to blame the Apostle, when, for the strengthening of the faith of those dear to him, he exhibits to them something of the fair fruits of the Spirit? Did not Jesus Himself first tell His churches of whatever good things they had, and then of their evil, if they had any?—Rieger: Perhaps some one thinks, it was possible for the Thessalonians at once to accept as the word of God the word from the mouth of such a gifted Apostle; but who will require of us now, that we accept for God’s word everything that sounds from pulpits? That time also had its own difficulties. Paul was not regarded at Thessalonica with quite the same degree of respect that we can now feel toward him. Outwardly he was to be looked upon as a mechanic (1 Thessalonians 2:9); inwardly the opposition he had to endure gave him great trouble. The acceptance in these circumstances of his word as the word of God was promoted by means, that would still be effective in the case of our expositions at the present day—by searching the Scriptures, whether those things are so (Acts 17:11). That at least accept as God’s word, which thou canst so accept with the concurrence of thy conscience.—The apostolic word (the word of the Bible) is God’s word, and certifies itself as such by its Divine, spiritual working in us (the witness of the Holy Ghost).—Roos: You experience a Divine working within you. Before you believed, there was none of this Divine working. It exists while you believe, and ever since you believe. You feel it, and may thence infer that what you believe is the word of God.—The Same: Is it not the effect of the Divine working, that you can allow yourselves to be harassed by people of your nation, without becoming thereby disheartened or enraged? Who has at any time seen this fruit of the Spirit in an unbelieving Gentile or Jew? Thus the patience and faith of the saints (Revelation 13:10; Revelation 14:12)—these two main elements of the suffering and contending Church—are likewise the main proofs of the Divine character of her foundation, as laid in the apostolic word. In this sense the Church is the proof of the Divine character of Scripture (comp., at 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7, Doctrinal Principles, No. 5). This is, indeed, no glorious proof, such as might strike even the natural sense, the merely logical or mathematical understanding. On the contrary, it is a proof from her humiliation. But the very fact that the Church of Jesus amidst all depressing and adverse circumstances, and while having the whole world opposed to her, still endures, is a proof that supernatural, Divine powers here rule—that Jesus has given to her the glory which He received from the Father (John 17:22; 1 Peter 4:14).—The preached word as God’s word (comp. Luke 10:16): What this includes, 1. for preachers (see Doctrinal Principles, No. 2), 2. for hearers: a. the obligation not to carry themselves with indifference or even offensively toward the word, but to receive it as a real message from God attentively and willingly; b. the blessing, that from the word thus received there proceed Divine influences upon us.—Pfaff: God’s word cannot be without stir and fruit, wherever it is but allowed to rule, any more than fire and light in cold and darkness.—Zwingli: The persecutors of God’s word, in order to render it odious, put forward the name of Luther or Zwingli. The believer alone can decide whether it is God’s word or man’s; that is when God works in the hearers, and arouses and quickens within them the external, preached word, so that a new man is born. 1 Thessalonians 2:14. See on 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—Roos: Novices in Christianity are commonly spared by the Lord sharp trials; but this was not the experience of the Thessalonians, the Lord often indeed showing that He does not always act according to one rule.—Though in our Christian world relations are in part changed from what they were then, yet even now also the convert has often to suffer, and that severely, from kinsmen and other companions. But let us be thoroughly penetrated by the power of the Divine word, and we are thereby enabled to hearken unto God more than unto the dearest of men. Then too have we the best hope of drawing after us those connected with us, when they see how the truth is sacred and precious to us above all things else; this inspires them first with respect for it, and afterwards perhaps with love to it.—Bengel: The same fruits, the same afflictions, the same experiences of believers of all places and times afford an excellent criterion of evangelical truth.—Roos: A congregation or a household of believers may take comfort from the example of others, and, in particular, converts in Christianity may do so from the example of older Christians.—Zwingli: The churches in Judea believed first on the Lord Jesus, and then the Gentiles also followed them; they did not, therefore, follow the Roman church or the Pope. [Moreover, the promise given to Peter, Matthew 16:18 sq., was fulfilled in Jerusalem at Pentecost and afterwards, Acts 2 sqq., not in Rome.—Riggenbach.] [Matthew Henry: The cross is the Christian’s mark: if we are called to suffer, we are called only to be followers of the churches of God; so persecuted they the prophets that were before you, Matthew 5:12.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. On the Jews, see Doctrinal Principles, Nos. 3–6.—The sin of the Jews was peculiarly grievous, and more grievous than that of the Gentiles; for it consisted not merely in the doing of evil, but in the rejection of the help offered them against the evil, in their hostility to the messengers of salvation, in hardening themselves against the ever new and higher revelations and more urgent invitations of God (Matthew 21:33 sqq.; Matthew 22:3-7). Indeed, the real sin is unbelief (Mark 16:15 sq.; John 16:9; John 5:46 sq.). What was true, therefore, at that time of the Jews is now true of Christians; since the light shines now for us, for us is the day of salvation.—Bengel: Stubborn resistance to the word is that which most of all fills up the measure of sin. And Rieger: He who neglects his own salvation grudges to see in others greater zeal for their salvation; and so by the persecution of others is the measure of sins commonly filled up.—Diedrich: To love Christ, and that alone, is truly to love humanity; for true humanity is in Him alone, and by His word it is propagated and trained.—There is among us Christians also a Jewish illiberality, which thinks to please God by drawing the circle in some one sense very tight. This is a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2), a zeal which, as with the Jews, is ever connected somehow with self-righteousness (1 Thessalonians 2:3), and does not duly understand Christ as the end of the law (1 Thessalonians 2:4). Let us allow grace to be really grace, and we shall recognize it also in its universality, nor will we make the strait gate still straiter. We learn to unite with a strict conscience a wide heart and a free vision.—Pfaff: God seldom punishes the first sin, but He suffers iniquity to mount for a certain period and to a certain pitch. When it has reached the measure fixed by Him, He breaks in with His judgment; but this limit is not very discernible before the event. Foretokens of it, however, are not obscurely to be inferred from, for example, the long duration and heinousness of the sins, from contempt of the richly proffered means of grace, from obduracy, &c.—Burkitt: It is a singular support to suffering saints, to consider that Christ and His Apostles suffered before them, and by His sufferings has sanctified a state of affliction and persecution to them.—A spirit of persecution seems ofttimes to run in a blood, and passes from parent to child through many generations. The Jews killed Christ, stoned the prophets, and persecuted the Apostles.—Paul ranks them that are enemies to the preaching of the gospel with the obstinate shedders of Christ’s blood; they are enrolled amongst the capital enemies of mankind.—J. L.] Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—Καί read before διὰ τοῦτο [as well as after it] by Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Alford,] after A. B. [Sin.]; but the authority is insufficient (Lόnemann). 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—[καὶ ἡμεῖςεὐχαριστοῦμεν. The καί belongs, as usual, to what immediately follows it.—E. V. renders εὐχαριστέω by to give thanks in 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 23 times elsewhere out of 34.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—[The above is Ellicott’s version of παραλαβόντεςλόγονἀκοῆςπαῤ ἡμῶντοῦ θεοῦ. Auberlen; da ihr das Wort der Botschaft Gottes von uns empfinget. Alford retains the construction of the common English Version. See Exegetical Note 2.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—[ἐδέξασθεουλόγονἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ … λόγοςθεοῦ. Lόnemann: “The addition of a ὡς (οὐχὡςλόγονἀνθρ. ἀλλὰ … ὡςλόγονθεοῦ), in itself superfluous (see Kόhner II. p. 226), was so much the more inadmissible, because the Apostle wished to express, not merely what the preached word was in the view of the Thessalonians, but at the same time what it was in fact. Hence also the emphatic parenthesis, καθώςἐστινἀληθῶς.” To the same effect many others, including Alford, Wordsworth, and Ellicott.—In the Cod. Sin. ἀληθῶς, omitted a prima manu, is supplied by correction.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—[καὶ ἐνεργεῖται. The effectually of E. V., probably from Calvin’s efficaciter—Bishops’ Bible: effectuously—is scarcely warranted; though neither is our simple worketh quite satisfactory. Auberlen: sich wirksam beweist=shows itself operative; and so many others.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:14.—[So Sin. B. D. B. F. &c., and the critical editors, instead of ταὐτά (Rec., after A. &c.).—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:15.—[If the first καί of this verse is rendered both, it must belong to τὸνκύριον, as in Wiclif: which slowen bothe the lord ihesus and the profetis; and so others, including Conybeare, Ellicott, Vaughan. But see the Exegetical Notes, 8.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:15.—Ἰδίους before προφήτας is wanting in A. B. D*. E1. J. G. [Sin.] &c., and is therefore cancelled by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf [and nearly all the other recent editors], but defended by Schott, De Wette, Reiche, &c. Even if spurious, it is at any rate an intelligent gloss. [Revision: “Tertullian asserts (Adv. Marc. 1 Thessalonians 2:15.) that it was heretically introduced (adjectio hζretici). De Wette, on the other hand, thinks that it may have been dropped either in consequence of the ὁμοιοτέλευτον (τοὺνἰδι̇ους), or as offensive to the anti-gnostic spirit, and commends Schott for retaining it.”] 1 Thessalonians 2:15.—[Or, as in the English margin: chased us out, ἡμᾶςἐκδιωξάντων. Auberlen: uns vertrieben haben; Ellicott, Alford: drove us out; Am. Bible Union: drove us forth; &c.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:16.—[The MSS. D. E. F. G. have the Vulgate addition of τοῦ Θεοῦ after ἡ ὀργή.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:16.—[ἔφθασε (Lachmann: ἔφθακε after B. D.).—The historical time is determined by that of ἀναπληρῶσαι. Comp. the Greek of Mat 12:28, and see the note in Revision. Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Alford, and the Am. Bible Union: came.—J. L.] [The same explanation of διὰ τοῦτο is given by Olshausen, Lόnemann, Alford. Others prefer a reference to “the general subjects of the preceding verses,—the earnestness and zeal of the Apostle and his associates” (Ellicott; and similarly Webster and Wilkinson). Less probable is Vaughan’s reference to what follows.—J. L.] [Perhaps rather to ὑμεῖς of 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Ye are our witnesses, and now we too are yours. Or as Zanchius: Not you alone ought to give thanks for this calling, but we also. And similarly Ellicott. Either explanation is better than Lόnemann’s: We, as well as every true Christian that hears of your deportment; or Alford’s reference to those expressly mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 1:7.—J. L.] [German versions represent the two verbs by empfangen and auf-or an-nehmen. For ἐδέξασθε Calvin has am-plexi estis=ye embraced of Benson, Macknight, and other English versions.—Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson. accepted.—J. L.] [See Critical Note 4.—J. L.] [These two texts, in which the middle participle is connected, not with θεός, but with (the Divine) ἐνεργεία or δύναμις, cannot properly he regarded as exceptional.—J. L.] [It may quite as well he said, that in the context “the writer is magnifying the word, by way of justifying his continual thanksgiving to God for the Thessalonian reception of it” (Revisied)—J. L.] [Καί is no less intelligible on the other view: “As it is God’s word, so also, and in a manner that befits and proclaims its great Original, it worketh, &c. (Revision). Ellicott adds, that perhaps it suggests also “a contrast with the inoperative nature of the word, when merely heard and not believed.”—J. L.] [In the preface Dr. Riggenbach intimates his dissent from his colleague’s reference of the ὅς.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “It is not correct always to find in the μὴ (as Alford here) a reference to the feelings or views of the subject connected with the participle (compare on Galatians 4:8). It sometimes refers to the aspect in which the facts are presented by the writer, and regarded by the reader.” In this correction Alford now acquiesces.—J. L.] [Alford and Ellicott also agree in thinking this the main reference of εἰςτό, considered not grammatically, but theologically. Jowett: the object and the result blended together in one; the natural event, as the Apostle regards it, in the order of Providence.—J. L.] [Lόnemann: “even to its—the wrath’s—end, that is, the wrath of God has come upon them to its extreme limit, so that it must now discharge itself; now must judgment take the place of the previous long-suffering And patience.” To the same effect Alford and Ellicott. See the note in Revision.—J. L.] [Comp. Exegetical Note 4, with the foot-notes.—J. L.] II 1 Thessalonians 2:17 to 1 Thessalonians 3:13 What Paul did for the Thessalonians after his departure 1 Thessalonians 2:17-201. He had once and again earnestly purposed to come unto them, but was hindered 17But we, brethren, being taken [having been bereaved by separation] from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly 18[the more ab. end.] to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would have [wished to, ἠθελήσαμεν] come unto you, even I Paul, once and again [both once and again, καὶ ἄπαξκαὶ δίς]; but [and, καί] Satan hindered us. 19For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing [glorying]? Are [Or are] not even ye [ye also, καὶ ὐμεῖς], in the presence of [before, ἔμπροσθεν] our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? 20For ye are our glory and joy. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 2:17.) But we.—̔Ημε͂ις, emphatic in itself and by its position in front: As to what concerns us. Having spoken, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, of the Thessalonians (comp. the ὑμε͂ις standing foremost with like emphasis in 1 Thessalonians 2:14); Paul again reverts to himself, in order to do away with a second imputation or doubt, as if, since he has been gone from the Thessalonians, after they had been readily persuaded and won over, he had left off caring for them. Suspicionem contemtus et negligentiζ prζvenit (Calvin; similarly Pelt and others). Thus, as the first section (1 Thessalonians 1:2 to 1 Thessalonians 2:16) sketches for us a lively picture of Paul’s ministry at Thessalonica and of the founding of the church there, a like sketch is given in the second section (1 Thessalonians 2:17 to 1 Thessalonians 3:13) of the manner in which, during the interval of some six months that has since elapsed, the founder of the church has cared for it and been active in its behalf. This authentic information respecting the Apostle’s doings in the establishment and rearing of churches is of high value.—[ἡμε͂λς, resumed from 1 Thessalonians 2:13, and now contrasted—δέ—with the persecuting Jews of 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. So Lunemann, Alford, Ellicott.—J. L.] 2. Bereaved of you.—Chrysostom: Paul does not say separated, but more than that. ̔Ορφανός and ὀρφανίξω are even in the classics used, not merely of children bereaved of their parents, but also of parents bereaved of their children, and in other similar relations. The expression is one of tenderness, and belongs to the same category as the figure of the mother (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8) and of the father (1 Thessalonians 2:11) [so that Paul does not really compare himself to a child, as Chrysostom &c. improperly assume.—Riggenbach]. The Apostle would, first of all, intimate to his readers, that, so far from having forgotten them, his separation from them has been for him a painful experience. Hence also the two additions: for the space of an hour, that is, only a very short time, as we say: for a moment (elsewhere πρὸςὥρας, for a short time, Philemon 1:15; Galatians 2:5; 2 Corinthians 7:8, or προςκαιρόν, for a time at least limited, Luke 8:13; 1 Corinthians 7:6; here both are strengthened by being joined together), and: in presence only, not in heart, which ever remained with you (dative of reference, comp. 1 Corinthians 5:3; and, on the opposition between πρόσωπον and καρδία, 2 Corinthians 5:12; 1 Samuel 16:7, LXX.). Thus: We had almost no sooner been parted from you, and that only outwardly, not inwardly, than we again had a great longing to see you. [Πρὸςκαιρὸνὥρας does not state that the separation altogether lasts but a short time, as if Paul here anticipated the fulfilment of the wish expressed in 1 Thessalonians 3:10 (De Wette, Koch), or even thought of the reunion at the approaching parousia (Olshausen).—Riggenbach]. 3. Endeavoured quite earnestly [the more abundantly endeavoured].—When the idea, with which the comparison exists, is at once understood from the context, it is not uncommon for the comparative to stand alone, and it then has the force of a positive, as in Acts 17:21; especially does this happen with the comparative of adverbs, as τάχιον, μᾶλλον, περισσοτέρως. Alex. Buttmann, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachgebrauchs, 1859, p. 72 (on the form περισστέρως, ibid, p. 61). If it is desired to specify the idea round which the comparison turns, it is evidently from the connection the πρόσωπον purposely repeated in opposition to καρδία: Because the Apostle was not separated from them in heart, though in face [presence], he therefore strove the more keenly to see again their face also. Less suitable supplements are introduced by others ̓Ενπολλῇ ἐπιθομίᾳ is a reiterated confirmation of ἐσπουδάσαμεν. The one confirmation stands at the beginning, the other not less emphatically at the close, of the sentence. Here also the Apostle’s love again shows itself so fervent, and as it were that of a bridegroom, that Chrysostom, impressed thereby, remarks: ἐρώμενοςἦνμανικόςτιςκαὶ ἀκάθεκτοςκαὶ ἀκαρτέρητοςεἰςφιλίαν.—To see your face is a select phrase of love, instead of the more prosaic to come unto you of 1 Thessalonians 2:18; comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:10. 4. (1 Thessalonians 2:18.) Wherefore we wished to come unto you.—From the general disposition, 1 Thessalonians 2:17, proceeded positive resolutions, for the non-fulfilment of which Paul is not to be blamed.—̔Εγὼ μὲνΠαῦλος: μέν solitarium for the greater prominence of the subject. From this too we see, as from καρδίας 1 Thessalonians 2:4, and ψυξάς 1 Thessalonians 2:8, that in the first person plural Paul intends to include Silvanus and Timothy (Lόnemann). Had he meant himself alone by it, the addition of ἐγὼ μὲνΠαῦλος would have been unnecessary. But here especially he had to distinguish himself, because indeed Timothy had in the meanwhile come to Thessalonica. But having once singled himself out, he afterwards speaks even of himself alone in the plural; so even in our verse ἡμᾶς, and with peculiar distinctness in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2.—καὶ ἅπαξκαὶ δίς, not simply δις, nor yet ἅπαξκαὶ δίς (which is used indefinitely=more than once), but stronger than the former expression and more precise than the latter: both once and twice, not only once but twice (comp. Philippians 4:16): “testatur non subitum fuisse fervorem, qui statim refrixerit, sed hujus propositi se fuisse tenacem, quum varias occasioned captaverit’ ’ (Calvin). 5. And Satan hindered us.—Instead of δέ, Paul chooses the Hebraistic connective, which in this case is almost the more energetic.—Satan, the personal devil (comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:5), in whose existence, therefore, Paul not merely believes, but refers to his agency even such comparatively trifling and external matters, because therein there lies prepared a hindrance to the kingdom of God (comp. Ephesians 6:12; otherwise at Romans 1:13; Romans 15:22; Acts 16:6 sq.). The Apostle, then, does not everywhere, and as a matter of course, speak of Satan, but he knows how with testing insight to distinguish. There is nothing about him of mere cant. In what the restraint consisted, we know not; only it cannot have been an accumulation of business, or anything of that sort, but must have been something of evil—whether on the side of the Thessalonians or on that of Paul. In the first case we should have to think with De Wette &c. of the enemies of the gospel at Thessalonica, whose hatred had been a source of danger to the Apostle on his arrival in Thessalonica; in the other case, either, with Chrysostom and others, of trials in the churches where Paul had since been, which rendered a removal from them impossible for him, or, perhaps better, of some sickness of the Apostle, and in connection with this we might think of Satan’s messenger, 2 Corinthians 12:1—a topic, it is true, on which we know just nothing very clear and certain. (Comp. also 1 Thessalonians 3:1.) It is even very possible that both kinds of reasons concurred; that the first time, for example, and this would best agree with 1 Thessalonians 2:17, Paul desired to turn back again to Thessalonica from Ber�a, but was hindered in that by the Thessalonian Jews (Acts 17:13.—See Calvin, Bengel, and others.) 6. (1 Thessalonians 2:19.) For.—Paul gives the reason of his longing after the Thessalonians, and of his repeated purpose to come unto them. Illum desiderii ardorem inde confirmat, quia in ipsis felicitatem suam quodammodo repositam habeat; perinde enim valet hζc sententia ac si dixisset: Nisi me ipsum obliviscar, necesse est ut vos expetam (Calvin). 7. Who [What] is our hope, &c.—Ἤ οὐχὶ καὶ ὑμε͂ις belongs to τίς, and it is, of course, merely incidental that ἤ is coincident with the ἤ before χαρά and στέφανος; ἔμπροσθεντοῦ κυρίου &c. belongs to ἐλπὶςἤ χαρά &c. But ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ὑμε͂ις is purposely put between, so that ἔμπροσθεν &c. attaches itself immediately to these words, because the Apostle would have it observed that, so far from his relation to them being a transient one, it is rather to reach on to the coming of Christ, and verify itself before the eyes of the Lord.—Hope and joy, here, of course, objective=the subject of hope and joy. This the Thessalonians are not, in so far as Paul hopes in regard to them that they shall be found blameless (Lόnemann), but in so far as they are the fruits of his ministry, after which the Lord at His return will inquire (see Luke 19:15). To this also there is special reference in στέφανοςκαυχήσεως, an expression derived from the garland that crowns the competitor at the goal in the successfully contested race (1 Corinthians 9:23; 2 Timothy 2:5; 2 Timothy 4:8). Καύχμσις, moreover, is not glory in the objective sense, but glorying; not gloria, but gloriatio; and so a crown for glorying=in which I may glory (comp. Ezekiel 16:12; Ezekiel 23:42; Proverbs 16:31; LXX.). Roos: We hope on your account to have some great experience at the coming of Christ; we shall then be able to rejoice over you; we shall be able to parade with you, as one parades with a crown won in a contest of the games.—Ye also, as well as other churches; those, for example, in Philippi or Corinth (see Philippians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 1:14—parallelisms also for the expression). 8. (1 Thessalonians 2:20.) Ye are verily [For ye are], &c.—Τάρ confirms and strengthens the readily understood affirmation in the oratorical question of 1 Thessalonians 2:19 (comp. Winer, p. 396). Our glory and joy. The expression glory [Herrlichkeit] is properly retained in translation here also by Ewald and J. Mich. Hahn, and is by the latter emphasized in a theosophic way. Δόξα is weakened, when rendered merely by renown or honor [Lόnemann: Ruhm; Luther, De Wette: Ehre.—J. L.] (Comp. 1 Corinthians 11:7, where the woman is called the δόξα of the man, the man the εἰκὼνκαὶ δόξα of God; and 2 Corinthians 8:23, where approved brethren are distinguished by the title, δόξαΧριστοῦ.) As δόξα in God Himself is His life-impression, life-form (see at 1 Thessalonians 2:12 Doctrinal Principles, No. 8), so with such genitives it denotes the representation of the life, resting on the communication of life,—the copy, standing in essential connection with the original, belonging to it, and forming as it were one whole with it, so that the latter is surrounded by it with a halo, as the sun by its beams, as the head by the crown (δόξα parallel with στἐφανοςκανχήσεως). Thus it is with the man and the woman taken from him; with Christ and believers; with Paul and the spiritual children begotten by him.—That such objective, actual glory then becomes in the subjective experience a matter of joy, lies in the nature of the case. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 2:18.) Satan appears in Scripture in a threefold activity; as tempter and seducer, as accuser, as destroyer. In the first relation he is the first and perpetual author of sin amongst men (ὀ πειράζων, 1 Thessalonians 3:5; Matthew 4:3; ὁ λανῶν, Matthew 12:9). As accuser (κατήγωρ, Revelation 12:10), he seeks, when the sin is accomplished, to make the most of it with lying exaggeration before the Divine Judge (Zechariah 3:1), and also to exhibit it in the worst possible colors before our inner judge, the conscience, in order to bind the sinner inwardly, rendering him fainthearted and paralyzing his resistance to sin. Here belong the two most common names of the devil, the Hebrew δַ ?ωָּׂ ?θָ ?ο, properly adversary, especially in court (comp. μְ ?ωִׂ ?θְ ?πεֹ, Zechariah 3:1, and ἀντίδικος, 1 Peter 5:8), and the Greek διάβολος, informer, slanderer, defamer, properly one who strikes through with words. As destroyer (comp. Ἀπολλύων, Revelation 9:11) Satan works, in so far as he, as prince of the fallen world, sets in motion all the powers of physical and moral evil against salvation, the kingdom of God, and in behalf of mischief, which in the last instance is ἀπώλεια, eternal damnation. It is thus that lie appears in our text. In the two first relations he is a liar; in the last, and—in so far as that lies as the ultimate aim at the bottom also of the earlier—in all three, a murderer (John 8:44). In the case of Judas he succeeded first in his trade as a seducer, then in that of an accuser; hence the end of the former in despair and suicide, whereby he fell a prey to the destroyer. 2. (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20.) Paul’s hope is to be adorned with the fruits of his ministry before the Lord at His coming. Holy Scripture everywhere lays stress on this point, that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor (1 Corinthians 3:8). The fundamental relation of every man to God in respect of faith or unbelief decides the question of his happiness or misery (Ephesians 2:8; Mark 16:16; John 3:18; John 3:36; John 5:24). But within these two great classes there is still possible an extraordinary diversity in the life-acting of faith or unbelief—in practical honesty and dishonesty. Through faith we are become children of God; but now we must yield ourselves to be also trained as such, and renewed ever more and more into the image of the Father and of our First-born Brother (χάριςπαιδεύουσα, Titus 2:11-12; comp. Hebrews 12:7-10; Colossians 3:10; Romans 12:2; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18), that we remain not weak, new-born children, but grow to the ripe age of a perfect man (Hebrews 5:13-14; comp. Ephesians 4:13-14). We are rooted in the right ground and soil, and bear within us the full germ of life; but for that very reason it concerns us now to grow and bring forth fruit (Colossians 2:7; Colossians 1:10-11; Matthew 13:23; Mark 4:26-28; John 15:2; Philippians 1:9-11). The whole walk of a man contributes to the formation of his disposition and character; all the issues of the life exert a formative reacting influence on our inner man—impress and stamp themselves also in ourselves (character from χαράσσω). In the Divine judgment, therefore, justification and condemnation are made to depend even on our words (Matthew 12:36-37); but especially is our fate determined according to our works, or (in the singular) our work, life-work, so far as therein is exhibited the total result of the religious and moral life, rearing itself on the foundation of faith or unbelief (Romans 2:6; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 2:23; Revelation 20:12 sq.; Revelation 22:12; Matthew 16:27; John 5:29). As a man walks, so he becomes; and as he becomes, so is he also in death; his works do follow him (Revelation 14:13), and agreeably thereto his destiny in that other world spontaneously shapes itself; on which account there will be among the blessed and among the lost very different degrees of glory or of torment (comp., for example, Luke 19:17-19; Luke 12:47 sq.; Matthew 11:22-24; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. Of course, this is not the place to go into more precise definitions respecting heaven, hades, hell, the first and second resurrections, &c.). By this view justice is done also to the scriptural idea of reward, without our falling into the Catholic idea of merit. And in this way, especially, sanctification, a spiritual walk, inward growth, and the outward activity of the life, here acquire an importance which in the original Protestantism was not duly recognized and acknowledged—a defect, that has been in many ways prejudicial, and here and there is so still, to our evangelical doctrine and practice. It is true, our Confessions teach emphatically, that faith by an inward necessity brings forth good works; and yet the main point of view, from which they had to handle this doctrine over against Catholicism, was the negative one: that righteousness and salvation depend neither for their attainment nor their preservation on good works. For this reason, and the kindred one, that for the doctrine of faith and justification that of regeneration was neglected, it was impossible for the idea of sanctification, and what is connected therewith also in eschatology, to reach fully its positive, scriptural development and significance. Meanwhile, there is by no means any want of good suggestions, particularly in Melancthon’s excellent discussion de dilectione et impletione legis in the Apology for the Augsburg Confession. 3. (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20.) Whatever work we perform in an earthly calling, even in art and science as such, belongs to the domain of the perishable—of means, not of everlasting ends. Only what of good or evil is wrought in the souls of men is of eternal import. And the highest service is to help a soul to the life in God. On this rests the singular dignity, and also the responsibility, of the ministerial office. In an altogether peculiar sense, this is work for the day of Jesus Christ, whether we are now good shepherds or hirelings. 4. Paul hopes on the day of the Lord to be surrounded by those converted through him, as by a glory. This δόξα, this crown of glorying, is the true halo, when, coming into the presence of the heavenly Judge, one is able to say: Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me. At His coming the Lord will present to Himself His entire Church glorious, without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27; 2 Corinthians 11:2). But the Church is an organism, not merely in the sense that the body as a whole depends on the head, but also in that it is composed of various members, the weaker depending on the stronger. Thus do spiritual children hang on their spiritual fathers, and are as it were embraced in them, and ruled by them. In this sense Paul hopes to be surrounded by his Gentile churches; in this sense is the promise made to the Twelve of ruling the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:29-30). This agrees with the fundamental view which Scripture, in this case also the true interpreter of experience, takes of humanity. It regards it, not as an atomic mass of individuals, but as an organism, depending for its natural life on Adam, for its spiritual life on Christ; and that in such a manner, that from these two genealogical heads the membership branches off to every single individual. Hence the importance of progenitors and their primitive doings in the sphere itself of nature and of race (Adam, Shem, Ham, Japheth, Abraham, David, &c.; Adam’s fall, Ham’s misdeed, Abraham’s faith, the gracious treatment of David’s descendants for David’s sake, &c.), just as prominent prophetic and apostolic persons are centres of light and union in the spiritual sphere. The case is similar with the Lord of the world’s history. AND 1 Thessalonians 2:17. The Apostle’s loving union with his churches even when absent from them. J. Mich. Hahn: In the Apostle, who certainly loves all the children of God, and even all the Lord’s dearly redeemed, with a priestly, cordial love, there is yet a predilection for his spiritual children (1 Corinthians 4:15; Galatians 4:19). The reason of that is the closer affinity of spiritual kindred. If it is so in the earthly nature, and cannot be said to be improper, who then shall blame it in the spiritual? Whoever blames it, would mend an arrangement of the Creator, who is also our Redeemer.—Rieger: As matters now stand with us, we are unable to estimate what a benefit it was to come together in person, and strengthen one another concerning the common faith.—Diedrich: Christians may well even long to see one another, whilst they are in the flesh; worldlings are soon fain to get out of one another’s way.—[The same principles of the new creature, that led the primitive Christians to delight in personal intercourse with one another (comp. Acts 4:23; Acts 20:38; Romans 1:11; Romans 15:24; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Timothy 1:4; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:14), were still more powerfully operative in their relations to their Lord (comp. John 14:3; John 14:19; Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 John 3:2; &c.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:18. Calvin: It is certain, that whatever opposes the work of the Lord proceeds from Satan. Would that it were a firmly settled conviction in all pious souls, that Satan is continually making every effort to retard or hinder the edification of the Church! We should certainly be more intent on resisting him; we should have more at heart the preservation of sound doctrine, of which Satan takes such eager pains to rob us.—A part of that Bound doctrine is the doctrine of Satan himself.—[Bishop Wilson: Non-residence. N. B. It is the work of Satan, and his desire, to keep a pastor from his flock.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. It is important that a man should not merely be assured of his gracious standing and salvation, which, indeed, is the first thing and most important, but should also be zealous to bear fruit for the day of the Lord, and to be able hereafter to say to the Loud: Lord, my pound hath gained ten pounds (Luke 19:16). He can also set his aim too low, and cover with false humility his own drowsiness and sloth.—A great and main point for the preacher, that he appear not empty before the Lord in His day.—Calvin: At the last day Christ’s servants will obtain glory and triumph according as they have spread abroad His kingdom. Therefore should they even now rejoice and glory in nothing save the blessed result of their labor, in seeing the glory of Christ advanced through their service. In this way also they will attain to a true love for the Church.—Theodoret: Paul has compared himself to a mother (1 Thessalonians 2:1), and mothers are wont to call their young children their hope, joy, &c.—Chrysostom: Who would not exult in such a numerous and well-bred troop of children?—To whose lot fall these joys of spiritual paternity? Do we even know any thing of them?—The Apostle’s joys and cares of spiritual fatherhood are a pattern for us also in regard to our children after the flesh, how we should be faithful in our families, and should carefully engage that not one of the members be lost.—To keep the coming of the Lord at all times before our eyes, that is to be likeminded with the Apostles.—Rieger: In the gospel the Lord’s coming shines in upon us so near, that it affords us already at every step much light for our feet.—[ Matthew Henry: The Apostle here puts the Thessalonians in mind, that though he could not come to them as yet, and though he should never be able to come to them, yet our Lord Jesus Christ will come; nothing shall hinder that.—Benson (Macknight, Barnes, &c.): Paul expected to know his own converts again in the great day; and particularly to rejoice in them. We may, therefore, hope to know our friends in the future state.—J. L.] Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 2:17.—[ἀπορφανισθέντεςἀφ̓ ὑμῶν. German: verwaiset von euch; Vaughan: “literally, orphaned from you.” The double ἀπό emphasizes the fact of separation; ὀρφανισθ., the feeling of bereavement and desolation that ensued.—Peile, Ellicott, Vaughan and others: torn from you; Peile adding, and bereaved. Jowett: bereaved in being taken from you; Robinson: “bereaved and separated.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:17.—[The Greek order, “throwing the emphasis more distinctly on the more abundantly” (Ellicott).—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:18.—Instead of διό Lachmann, Lόnemann [Tischendorf in the first and latest editions, Alford, Ellicott] and others, read, after Sin. A. B. D.1 F. G. and some other manuscripts, διότι, whereas Tischendorf (ed. 2), De Wette, Reiche and others, retain διό of the received text. At any rate διότι must be=on which account, therefore, and so equivalent to διό, as Lόnemann also supposes; but elsewhere διότι is with Paul=because; comp. in our Epistle 1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:6. 1 Thessalonians 2:19.—[καυχήσεως. See the English margin, and 2 Corinthians 7:4; comp. also Romans 15:17, and the several instances (6 out of 12) in which the noun is in our version rendered boasting.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:19.—[The ἤ before οὐχὶ καί is wanting in Sin.1, but was added by correction; and the same thing is true of ἡ before χαρά in 1 Thessalonians 2:20—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 2:19.—[Ellicott: “The addition χριστοῦ (Rec. with F. G. L.; many Vv.) is rightly rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and most modern editors,” and our German text. It is wanting in Sin.—J. L.] [Περισσοτέρως occurs eight times in Paul’s other Epistles (besides Hebrews 2:1; Hebrews 13:19), and in some of those in stances does it stand for the positive.—J. L.] [So De Wette, Koch, Ellicott, and others. The objection to this is, not merely that, had the separation been in heart, there would have been no desire whatever to see them again [Lunemann), but that οὐ καρδίᾳ is simply an incidental, parenthetical correction of the main thought, ἀπορφανισθέντεςἀφ̓ ὑμῶν. I prefer Calvin’s explanation: The writer’s love, instead of being lessened by absence, was rather the more inflamed thereby (and so Aretius, Gill, Winer, Wordsworth, Vaughan, and others).—J. L.] [See Notes in my Revision of this verse.—J. L.] [So Luther, and other German versions.—J. L.] [This is frequently indicated by a comma after καυχήτεως, and another after ὑμε͂ις.—J. L.] [Ihr seid ja—making the γάρ intensive, as is done also by Luther, Scholefield, Ellicott, and many others. But the rendering of our common version is quite as good;—the 20th verse now justifying, as if “after reconsideration” (Webster and Wilkinson), the confident tone of the previous question by the triumphant assertion of what is there only strongly implied. The reader will notice likewise the emphatic ἐστε.—J. L.] [In this suggestion Theodoret, as usual, follows Chrysostom. Wordsworth: “ ‘These are my jewels,’ as the Roman mother, Cornelia, said of her offspring. Comp. Proverbs 17:6, στέφανοςγερόντων, τέκνατέκνων, καύχημαδὲτέκνωνπατέρεςαὐτῶν.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:1-52. Being unable to come himself, Paul sent Timothy 1Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear [endure, στέγοντες], we thought it good [thought good, εὐδοκήσαμεν; sin., as B.: ηὐδοκήσαμεν] to be left at [left behind 2in, καταλειφθῆςαιἐν] Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-labourer [our brother and fellow-labourer with God] in 3the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you [exhort] concerning [in behalf of] your faith, that no man [no one, μηδένα] should be moved by [in, ἐν] these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto 4[unto this we are appointed, εἰςτοῦτοκείμεθα]. For verily [For even, καὶ γάρ] when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation [are to be afflicted, μέλλομενθλίβεσθαι]; even as [as also, καθὼςκαί] it came to pass, and ye know. 5For this cause, when I [I also, κἀγώ] could no longer forbear [endure, στέγων], I sent to know your faith, lest by some means [lest haply, μήπως] the tempter have [had] tempted you, and our labour [toil, κόπος] be [should prove, γένηται] in vain. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 3:1.) Wherefore (because ye are thus our joy, 1 Thessalonians 2:20; my crown of glory, which I hope to bring before the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 2:19), when we, &c.; more exactly: as those who could not longer endure it. Στέγω, in old Greek, to cover, then (of a vessel), to contain, and then (Philo and Paul), to endure; so 1 Corinthians 9:12; 1 Corinthians 13:7. This suits our place; but not, to conceal. No longer endure, namely, to be separated from you, and hindered from coming to you (1 Thessalonians 2:18). There is tenderness in the fact, that his anxiety is scarcely hinted at, is at most intimated in the expression στέγοντες, and is not more distinctly announced till 1 Thessalonians 3:5. 2. We thought good, were pleased (1 Thessalonians 2:8; the imperfect, continuously); here the aorist (on one occasion); Calvin: promtam animi inclinationem designat. The plural, according to the restriction already introduced by the explanation in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, of Paul alone; for 1 Thessalonians 3:1 sqq. is closely connected with what precedes; equivalent, therefore, to the singular in 1 Thessalonians 3:5. Otherwise Grotius, Bengel, Roos, Hofmann, who, because the singular first comes at 1 Thessalonians 3:5, think that the plural here does not denote Paul alone (and so Roos and Hofmann at 1 Thessalonians 3:6 also). But all three (1 Thessalonians 1:1) cannot be meant; Timothy, being sent forth, is not one of those left alone. We should thus have to understand by the plural two out of the three; but that is more arbitrary than to explain it (after 1 Thessalonians 2:18) of Paul alone, [as is done by Schott, De Wette, Lόnemann, Alford.—J. L.] Generally, indeed, it is he who decides. With this too Acts 18:5 is at least more readily reconciled. 3. (1 Thessalonians 3:2.) In Athens, &c., and sent, &c.; therefore from Athens. According to Acts 17:15 Paul sends a message from Athens to Ber�a, that Silas and Timothy should come to him with all speed; according to Acts 18:5 they both came to him at Corinth from Macedonia. With this agrees 1 Thessalonians 3:6 : Timothy comes from Thessalonica (Macedonia) to Paul, with whom Silvanus also is present during the writing of the letter. The narrative in the Acts has in the interval a gap, that can only be filled up conjecturally. Either (1 a.) both had come to Athens, and from that place had again been sent to the north, Timothy to Thessalonica, Silas perhaps to Philippi (also in Macedonia). (If ἐπέμψαμεν included also Silvanus, this would be a necessary supposition.) Or (1 b.) only Timothy had come to Athens, and been sent to Thessalonica, Silas being still detained in Ber�a (likewise in Macedonia). Or lastly (2) both did not come to Paul, so long as he lingered in Athens, but the latter (moved, it may be, by accounts of persecutions in Thessalonica) sent after the first order (for them to come) a second in like manner from Athens to Ber�a; that Timothy, instead of coming to him directly, should rather go in his stead to Thessalonica, and only after that follow in his route (so Hug; Wieseler, Chronol. des apostolischen Zeitalters, 249). He would thus have countermanded Timothy’s expected arrival in Athens. This would accord well with ἐπέμψ. (without ἐκεῖθεν); less naturally with καταλειφθ., which, strictly taken, signifies not merely left alone, but left behind alone. Difficulty there is none, only a gap, which cannot be filled up incontestably in only one way. 4. Our brother, &c.—The Cod. B. gives, our brother and fellow-laborer; A. and Sin., our brother and God’s servant; others, and God’s servant and fellow-laborer; the Recepta (not altogether after late authorities only), our brother and God’s servant and our fellow-laborer, where the arrangement is wanting in solidity; we should have to justify it perhaps thus: as God’s servant he is our fellow-laborer. But the reading which first lies at the basis of all the variations is that followed above (D. Ambrosiaster); διάκονοςθεοῦ is common, sometimes in a comprehensive (2 Corinthians 6:4), sometimes in a narrower sense (Acts 6; 1 Timothy 3:8). My fellow-laborer, says Paul, Romans 16:21; God’s fellow-laborers, 1 Corinthians 3:9. In the glad tidings of Christ; in the act, that is, of preaching the same.—It can scarcely be said that Paul gives Timothy these several titles of honor involuntarily, and on account merely of the latter being his faithful helper (Lόnemann); he probably means also to show the Thessalonians what a helper he has deprived himself of for their sake (Chrysostom); quo melius ostenderet quam bene illis consultum voluerit (Calvin); and at the same time to certify his own perfect agreement with Timothy, and confirm whatever he has done (Von Gerlach). Somewhat too refined perhaps is Hofmann’s conjecture, that they were not, because Paul had not come himself, to think too highly of the coming of Timothy, and that he desires to guard aginst this. 5. To establish you (in the persecutions; that Timothy was to do) and to exhort, literally, to call to, which is to be understood, according to the context, either of exhortation or of comfort (Acts 15:32; 2 Thessalonians 2:17). But Paul expresses no distrust of their standing as believers. That the oldest authorities omit ὑμᾶς after παρακ. makes no difference in the sense; nor yet that they read ὑπέρ instead of περί. For the former likewise means on account of, in consideration of, as in Romans 15:9; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; at least, it is not necessary, with Lόnemann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott], to press the signification in favor of, for the benefit of (in order to support your faith). 6. (1 Thessalonians 3:3.) That no one should be moved, &c.—Σαίνω (from σέω, σείω), in the New Testament only here, means to move to and fro; of dogs, to wag the tail; hence to flatter, deceive through flattery (so in many places in Wetstein). Thus Bengel that no one be deceived (by enemies, relations, his own heart); similarly Rόckert: blanditiis corrump [a sense suggested also by Wordsworth, after Theophylact; likewise Jowett: “not simply moved, but rather moved to softness.”—J. L.] On the other hand, the Greek interpreters (familiar with the language), and so the moderns generally, including Lόnemann, understand by it, to be moved, shaken, like σαλευθῆναι of 2 Thessalonians 2:2. Hofmann disputes this explanation, reduces even Lόnemann’s examples from the classics to the sense of deluding, and understands thus: in (in the midst of, not by means of) the persecutions seeming well-wishers might delude you with suggestions.—Τῷ could not mean because that (as in 2 Corinthians 2:12 [13]), but must be equivalent to εἰςτό, for the end that, like the Hebrew μְ. But this were without example, and, besides, the accusative τό is attested by almost all the uncials. The latter Lόnemann [Alford] understands as in apposition to εἰςτὸ στηρ. &c.: that is to say that; which is as much as to say that;—not good. Others [Schott, Koch]: in reference to, as in Philippians 4:10 (where, however, another view is possible); best (Ewald, Hofmann [Winer, De Wette, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson]): it marks the purport of the charge, of the παρακαλέσαι; comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:6. 7. In these afflictions; which after Paul’s departure befell the Thessalonians as well as him (1 Thessalonians 2:14). From 1 Thessalonians 3:4 it is inferred that they immediately subsided. That they might return any day, and did actually break forth again, is shown by 2 Thessalonians 1:4. Chrysostom and others err in supposing that he speaks of his own afflictions, by which the Thessalonians were rendered anxious, as soldiers are by the wounding of the general. 8. For yourselves know, without any repeated admonition of ours; know then also, that I am right in requiring, μηδένασαίνεσθαι.—That unto this we (Christians generally) are appointed; κείμεθα like τιθέμεθα (Luke 2:34; Philippians 1:16). Improperly Koch: are prostrate (in misfortune and suffering); Philippians 1 might perhaps be so understood, but not Luke 2. Rather: by God ordained, thereunto appointed; εἰςτοῦτο, to afflictions, as the way into the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:21-22; Matthew 10:34 sqq.; John 15:18 sqq.; John 16:2; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12). 9. (1 Thessalonians 3:4.) Καὶ γάρ, for even, for indeed.—You should therefore know it, from our telling you before.—That we are to be afflicted, μέλλομενθλίβ. (again, Christians generally), that there awaits us; not simply equivalent to the future, but: according to God’s purpose; because darkness is opposed to light, the flesh strives against the spirit. Notwithstanding such undisguised forewarning, the gospel wins believers. An example of how far the Apostle’s word was from flattering speech (1 Thessalonians 2:5).—As also it came to pass (with you, as with us), and ye know; not: that it must come to pass, that were tautological with 1 Thessalonians 3:3; but: that according to our forewarning it has come to pass. By this remembrance there accrued from an outward event an inward experience. As the subject of κείμεθα (1 Thessalonians 3:3) and μέλλομεν (1 Thessalonians 3:4), therefore, we understand Christians generally. Hofmann, on the contrary: the same as in the case of ἦμεν and προελέγομεν, and so only the Apostles. No doubt, in the clause, “when we were with you,” the we can only mean the Apostles. But in the case of κείμεθα there is nothing before to suggest this limitation; and opposed to it is the fact, that thereby the most natural connection with what precedes is disturbed. To comfort the Thessalonians in their afflictions, he reminds them of the rule that affects all Christians. But, if we understood him to say “that we Apostles are appointed thereunto,” it is only in an ingenious, roundabout way that we could get at the point of the confirmation and exhortation: Admit no such insinuation, as that we misled you into misery, while we secured ourselves. 10. (1 Thessalonians 3:5.) For this cause (on account of these afflictions; unnaturally Hofmann: because we εἰςτοῦτοκείμεθα), when I also, &c. Olshausen interpolates: as you in your care for me;—Lόnemann: as the others, Timothy and the Christians in Athens; but there is nothing said of their having no longer endured;—Hofmann even: as we two, Silvanus and I, sent Timothy, so now also I alone (the singular) sent some one unnamed! On the other hand, De Wette would refer the καί in κἀγώ to the whole sentence; without proof. Just as here after διὰ τοῦτο, so it stands at Ephesians 1:15; comp. Colossians 1:9 [both texts cited by De Wette.—J. L.]. And, just as there, it opposes to what was said of the Thessalonians (ye have had experience of suffering) what he too now had done.—Sent, &c. is a resumption of 1 Thessalonians 3:2. He says nothing any more about whom he sent; he merely adds, for what purpose. Nor is it any longer here, as at 1 Thessalonians 3:2, what Timothy was to do, but what he thereby sought for himself. At no time mere tautological repetition. For Pelt and Olshausen erroneously refer γνῶναι to Timothy, though indeed not named, as the subject; it belongs rather to the subject of the principal verb (Lόnemann). 11. Your faith, whether [lest], &c.—Everything concentrates in this, whether they stand in the faith. Without our supplying φοβούμενος, μήπως expresses solicitude, and first indeed, with the indicative preterite, in reference to what was past: whether perhaps it has already occurred; there exists oppression from without; now he is anxious to know, whether haply this had wrought inwardly so as to become a temptation for the Thessalonians, that is, to the disturbance of faith;—then, moreover, with the subjunctive, in reference to what was impending, which in this case might possibly occur; for, even though the πειρασμός should have already occurred, this would still be by no means decided; the temptation might, indeed, still be resisted, and the entire frustration of the work still be warded off. Similarly Galatians 2:2; comp. Winer, 6 ed., 56, 2.† The tempter is Satan (1 Thessalonians 2:18); the substantival participle marks his settled characteristic (Matthew 4:3); that is what he is always after. That the subject and the predicate are from the same stem gives emphasis to the expression. For εἰςκενόν, to come to nothing, to be frustrated, comp. Galatians 2:2; Philippians 2:16; Hebr. μְ ?ΰַ ?λְ ?ζָ ?α ,μַ ?ωָּׁ ?ιְ ?ΰ ,μָ ?ψִ ?ιχ, Isaiah 65:23; Jeremiah 6:29; Micah 1:14.—Our toil; you surely do not mean to make me so poor? he thus speaks to their heart. It would be to their own hurt, if they fell away. But he in his love for them would reckon it a sensible loss for himself (Rieger). Now at last and in such an affectionate manner, after he has already strengthened them, does he mention the danger by name. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 3:1.) It was a sacrifice, to remain in so difficult a position without the outward and inward support of faithful helpers; rather to dispense with something himself, than allow the Thessalonians to want for anything. Love gives others the precedence (comp. Philippians 2:19 sqq.). Calvin: Desiderii illius sui fidem facit, se majorem illorum quam sui rationem habuisse ostendit. It is at the same time an instance of that so frequent change in his plans, which was misinterpreted to his disadvantage at Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:17). What was said of another servant of God is to its full extent true of him: “The singleness of his eye kept him steadfast to his purpose under all the varied and trying circumstances of his life. He changed his plans according as he observed a change in the intimations of Providence, but his purpose remained fundamentally the same—the furtherance of the gospel by all means.” Berlenburger Bibel: A servant of the Church must accommodate himself to the circumstances of the Church, and yet in such a manner that, while doing one thing, he do not neglect another. 2. (1 Thessalonians 3:2.) The mission to Thessalonica was no small task for the youthful Timothy (1 Corinthians 16:10-11; according to 1 Timothy 4:12 he needed encouragement in the presence of older men). In the Acts the presence of Timothy at the founding of the church there is not once mentioned; plainly because he was less conspicuous, and for the same reason the persecution did not affect him. Paul, however, would not have entrusted a stranger to the church with such an important commission. The Apostle understood the wisdom of selecting a gentle manager, who yet was no skulk, but in a spirit of self-sacrifice sought, as few others, the things that were Christ’s (Philippians 2:20-22). The difference of gifts is of service for different tasks. It is not every one that can root out stumps and stones, nor is this always in order. There is a time also for easy going—careful watering, and ministers with gifts adapted to that work. Even in war different enterprises are promoted by different sorts of weapons. 3. (1 Thessalonians 3:2.) Timothy, the brother. Care is to be taken that the name of brother do not become trite, nor yet be so claimed for a particular circle, as if it belonged to that especially, and to every member of it officially and as a matter of course. Rather it is due to all living Christians, to whom Christ addresses it (Matthew 12:49-50). Only on this basis is official brotherhood a truth. Elsewhere Paul calls Timothy his beloved, faithful, genuine child (1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Timothy 1:2 [and 18]). The child, dependent on his father, grows up to be an independent brother. In the spiritual life it is possible for the degrees of kindred to become variable without damage, since through hallowed, tender love they coexist, yet without confusion. Even the common human relations show images of this. A son when grown up may find his friend in his father. 4. That we are called God’s fellow-laborers, is for us a high dignity. God will not drive everything through alone (Rieger), but will act also by means of our agency, weak as it may be, yet strengthened and continually sustained by Him alone. For He it is, indeed, that worketh in us to will and to do, and then gives the increase (Philippians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 3:10); nevertheless he requires of us faithfulness (1 Corinthians 4:2)—that we lay hold of what He proffers. 5. (1 Thessalonians 3:3.) Confirmation and exhortation are needed even by believers, to arm them against threatening and temptation. A comfortable support is communion in prayer. Calvin: The communion of saints includes this, that the faith of one member should be a comfort to others. But to fasten on to men as men would be unsound and unprofitable, unless we allowed ourselves to be aroused to the recollection of what lies in our own consciousness of faith (ye yourselves know)—unless, animated by the example, we made use for ourselves of the open way of access to the Lord. 6. Chrysostom: Who has ears to hear, let him hear: The Christian is appointed to suffer affliction. It is, therefore, just when we are appointed to a time of refreshing, that a strange thing happens to us (1 Peter 4:12). According to the world’s sentiment (and that of our natural sense), it is to our discredit when things go troublesome and hard with us; we almost suspect that everything is wrong with us. According to the word of God, that is rather a badge of Christians, a badge of honor; hac lege sumus Christians, Calvin. The Lord, indeed, must even again show Himself as the Breaker (2 Corinthians 6:8-10; Romans 8:37). Besides, affliction that befalls us as Christians on account of our faith is still something different from such natural trouble or temptation of one’s own flesh, as all men must meet with. But Christians, after all, are really nothing but men on whom the Divine training takes effect; and all suffering sent by God, not merely persecution proper, can and should be turned into a cross, and as a cross be taken up and borne—as a crossing of our self-will. To be sure, our scriptural knowledge, and, on the other hand, our lively recognition of facts and ready acceptance of whatever is plainly laid on us, very often do not keep pace with each other. Hatred for Christ’s name’s sake is not to be provoked by us (Philippians 4:5); provided only we do not escape the trouble by reason of our excessive worldliness, our compliances, denials, and quenching of the pursuit of holiness. But the question always concerns only what God lays upon us, not a studied self-torture. When external persecutions fail, there may come upon us inward assaults from flesh and blood, refined and enhanced by the spirits that rule in the air—daily piercings of a needle, more irksome than the blows of a club. 7. (1 Thessalonians 3:4.) The forewarning obviates much vexation (John 13:19; John 14:29; John 16:1). Hardship, instead of frightening, is then an actual confirmation of the prediction; hostility itself must redound to the glory of the Lord. Chrysostom compares to the physician, who foresees the course of the disease, and thereby quiets his patient. God, however, beholds beforehand not merely what will happen, as if it happened without Him, but what, even of that which is wicked and hurtful, He will work as Judge, according to the relation between the seed and the harvest (Galatians 6:7-8); and so the Divinely opened vision discerns this working of God even in the wickedness of men. 8. What must the gospel be as a divine power, that, with prospects so little flattering to the flesh, it yet wins believers! It is true that to a certain degree even an equivocal cause may gain by persecution. To make martyrs of men is to call forth and strengthen the spirit of contradiction. That is a noble impulse (of an independent character) caricatured (resistance to essential truth). But only in the element of truth is there a steadfast and lasting perseverance. Berlenburger Bibel: But is it wise management, to talk of the cross to young Christians? True wisdom conducts into a school, where we learn to be blessed. The lost blessedness is to be regained in no other way than the strait and narrow one. Tribulation, however, is laid on us, not as a legal burden, but as an evangelical condition. And this very distress must serve to purify us. 9. (1 Thessalonians 3:5.) Affliction from without becomes temptation within, insinuates itself as a trial of faith, urges to the experiment, whether we might not have less of the cross. The same word πειρασμός Luther translates sometimes by Versuchung [temptation], sometimes by Anfechtung [trial]. This corresponds to the two sides of the idea. The design of Satan, who against his will must serve the purpose of God, is the wicked one of overthrowing by temptation; thus it is said: God tempts no man; and even Satan finds scope for his temptations only in man’s own lust (James 1:13 sqq.); and yet we are not to think it strange, we should rather count it joy, when we fall into divers temptations [Luther: Anfechtungen] (1 Peter 4:12; James 1:2 sqq.), as Abraham was tempted (Genesis 22), or Israel (Gen. 15:25; Genesis 16:4). This is temptation with the Divine purpose of trial and proof, and to this end, therefore, should the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” be directed; not: Avert from us all trial, but: Restrain it within such bounds, and give to it such an issue (1 Corinthians 10:13), that it become not to us an overpowering temptation. Thus Satan himself must serve the Lord in the salvation of men. From this wonderful complication of motives, Divine, devilish, human, is explained, even alongside of the word: “We are appointed to the suffering of affliction;” that other word again: “I endured it no longer.” This is neither impatience nor a faint-hearted anxiety, but the faithfulness of love in doing its own part and neglecting nothing. He has no thought of setting aside or deprecating all Divine πειρασμός; but he would assist those under trial, so that no Satanic πειρασμός should overpower, alarm, or deceive them; for both fierce foes and seeming well wishers (Matthew 16:23) can work to his mind. Paul is withal a wise instructor even in this, that he just as tenderly avoids agitating them beforehand with images of terror, as he again openly announces the danger. AND 1 Thessalonians 3:1. What diligence in watering is shown by Paul! In the case of young plants this is especially necessary. But the tender and encouraging treatment has no other aim, than to lead them on to a Christian self-dependence. Thus Paul not merely passed through among them as a proclaimer of the word, but he was their father, and continued to be their pastor.—A true Apostle is intimately knit to the souls of his children, and can never forsake them. Such a spirit of love and truth forms the true apostolic succession. 1 Thessalonians 3:2. Starke: He incites others to do what he cannot (Ephesians 6:22).—The same: A few faithful laborers can accomplish more than many unfaithful ones (1 Corinthians 15:10).—Towards laborers worthy of the name, therefore, must the prayer of Mat 9:38 be directed, and also the attention of church-rulers. It is well for an assistant, whom an approved principal can commend, as Paul did Timothy.—Starke: No man can be a true servant of God and helper in the gospel, unless he be a child of God, and on this account also a brother in Christ. [1 Thessalonians 3:1-2. Matthew Henry: Those ministers do not duly value the establishment and welfare of their people, who cannot deny themselves in many things for that end.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:3. Heubner: The Christian’s honorable calling; Christianity’s first welcome; The position of a Christian, a position, under the cross.—Stδhelin: The best ground of comfort, to save us from fainting in tribulation, is to consider well and firmly believe, that God in His goodness and wisdom has appointed to every one what in his station, and according to the measure of the powers granted to him, he is to suffer. Comfort and tribulation are by turns our heavenly companions; God be praised for both!—Heubner: We must have a hard heart toward the temptations of sin, but a soft one toward the sufferings of our brethren.—Rieger: It is better to be appointed to suffering in time than to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9); to you it is given to suffer—as great a gift as: to you it is given to believe (Philippians 1:29).—Diedrich: We must have tribulation, for we contend with the whole world, and a mighty prince.—[ Burkitt: Seeing then that afflictions are appointed to us, and we appointed to them; seeing there is a decree of God concerning them, a decree as to the matter of them, as to the manner of them, as to the measure of them, as to the time of them, when they shall commence, how far they shall advance, how long they shall continue, seeing everything in affliction is under an appointment, how meek and humble, how patient and submissive, ought the Christian’s spirit to be under them, and with what steadiness of expectation may and ought he to look up to heaven for a sanctified use and improvement of them!—J. L.] Starke: The word of the Apostle is confirmed by all the history of the Church. Here open enemies, there false brethren. But contending Christians have the surest hope of victory over their enemies, because they contend under One as their Leader, who has overcome the world and the prince of the world.—The same: Before a man rightly understands the mystery of the cross, he is offended thereby, and supposes that, if a person acts properly, outward things must also at the same time go well with him; and therefore beginners in the Christian profession should be guarded betimes by good instruction against this offence.—To others applies the word of Chrysostom: Of you also it holds true, that ye have not yet resisted sin unto blood; and well is it, if only that is true, and not rather this: Ye have not yet even despised riches, &c. So much has Christ suffered for us enemies; and we for Him? nothing for Him, but only from Him innumerable benefits. 1 Thessalonians 3:4. To find one’s bearings by the word of prophecy—this was a great consolation for the Lord Jesus in His career of suffering (Luke 18:31; John 17:12; Matthew 26:54); to say nothing, then, of ourselves. For us, when in tribulation, it is indispensable that we know, that so it must be—it was told us before. 1 Thessalonians 3:5. Heubner: The Apostles, like Jesus, did not deceive by empty promises.—Partnership helps to carry the burden. Am I to be my brother’s keeper? Not in the sense of a faint-hearted carefulness, as if we could guard him, as if he were not in a far better Hand; but, just because we believe this, ought we to be intent in faithful love, as God’s fellow-laborers, not to neglect our ministry; to look diligently after our brethren, not to pore in curious speculation; to encourage them by examples and intercession; to hold forth to them the prophetic word; to arouse the remembrance of their own experience of the truth of God; to point them to the gospel of Christ, who, stronger than the strong one [Luke 11:21 sq.], knows well how to keep faith firm.—Heubner: These were church-visitations, where the inquiry was as to the state of the heart.—Even the loving consideration, that, to please their spiritual fathers, they should contend stoutly, may be made available for the strengthening of zeal; there is a sense of honor in the spiritual family. [Observe the apostolic style of address to individuals and churches, as liable to fall away from their Christian standing and profession.—Faith, the Christian’s defence against Satan’s devices; comp. Ephesians 6:16; 1 John 5:4.—Burkitt: Though the labor of faithful ministers shall not be in vain with respect to themselves—their reward is with the Lord (the careful nurse shall be paid, though the child dies at the breast)—yet with respect to their people they may be in vain, yea worse, for a testimony against them; Mark 6:11.—Matthew Henry: Faithful ministers are much concerned about the success of their labors.—J. L.] Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 3:2.—Among the many variations is that one which first lies at the basis of the different readings, and presents a suitable advance: τὸνἀδελφὸνἡμῶνκαὶ συνεργὸντοῦ θεοῦ (1 Corinthians 3:9). [This reading is followed by Griesbach and nearly all the later editors, as well as by our text. Cod. Sin. thus: τὸνἀδ. ἡμῶνκαὶ διάκονονθεοῦ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:2.—[παρακαλέσαι, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:12; &c.; here closely connected with its object in 1 Thessalonians 3:3.—The Second ὑμᾶς is rejected by Schott, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth (after Sin A. B. D.1 F. G &c.), and by our text.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:2.—[eures Glaubens halber. This represents the reading, adopted by Griesbach and later editors generally, of ὑπέρ (Sin. A. B. D. &c.), instead of περί.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:3.—The Recepta τῷ is supported only by minuscules; the best manuscripts [including Sin.] give τό (see Winer; 6th edit. § 44, 5. 3). [So Lόnemann; but better, with Alford and Ellicott after Theodoret and Calvin: Because of our affection, and unavailing desire to see you.—J. L.] [As better representing the subjective μηκέτι with the participle.—J. L.] [This is not expressed by our Common Version, which Ellicott follows, though his paraphrase also is: “no longer able to control my longing, &c.”—J. L.] [Rather, a conclusion, determination of the judgment and will, as Alford, Ellicott, &c.—J. L.] [So Macknight, Paley (see his Horζ Paulinζ. 1 Thessalonians 9, No. 4, with Jowett’s unsatisfactory criticism), Ellicott and others. Comp. Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Epistles of St. Paul, London ed., vol. I. p. 409, and the Note at the end of 1Th 11—J. L.] [Alford: “A delicate hint that Timotheus also was anxious respecting them; or it may have the same reference as καὶ ἡμε͂ις, 1 Thessalonians 2:13—viz. to the other Christians who had heard of their tribulation.”—Revision: “I no more than my companions.”—Webster and Wilkinson: “I in my sympathy with you.”—J. L.] [Better at least than Ellicott: “As they had felt for the Apostle (more fully so in 1 Thessalonians 3:6), so he &c.”—J. L.] [Riggenbach translates μήπως, ob nicht; and in this he follows very many of the best interpreters, whose names are given in my Revision of the verse, Note 3. But, as is there remarked, “I do not find that either the simple μή, which occurs so often, or μήπως, which occurs other 11 times (and, excepting Acts 27:29, always in Paul’s Epistles), is ever thus used”—that is, as an indirect interrogative—“in the New Testament.”—J. L.] [Durchbrecher—Luther’s word at Micah 2:13.—J. L.] [τόἐπιεικὲςὑμῶν, your “forbearance.”—J. L.] [A similar variation marks the Common English rendering of πειρασμός and its cognate verb. Generally, indeed, our Translators use the word temptation, but sometimes with the other shade of meaning predominant.—J. L.] [This reference is scarcely to the point, since Paul there compares what Divine grace enabled him to do with what was done by the other Apostles.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:6-133. Timothy having brought good tidings, Paul is full of joy and thankfulness to God, to whom he at the same time says without ceasing, that he may be enabled to come unto them, and supply the deficiencies of their faith. 6But now, when Timotheus came [But Timothy having just now come, ἄρτιδέἐλθόντοςΤιμοθέου] from you unto us [to us from, you, πρὸςἡμᾶςἀφʼ ? ὑμῶν], and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity [love, ἀγάπην], and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly [longing] to see us, as 7[even as] we also to see you; therefore, brethren, we were comforted [for this cause we were comforted, brethren,] over you in all our affliction and distress 8[distress and affliction] by your faith: for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. 9For what thanks can we render to God again [render to God, τῷ θεῷ ἀνταποδοῦναι] for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; 10night and day praying exceedingly [very exceedingly] that we might see [that we may see, εἰςτὸ ἰδεῖν] your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith [and make up the deficiencies of your faith]. 11Now God Himself and our Father [But may He Himself, our God and Father] and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you: 12and the Lord make you [but you, may the Lord make] to increase and abound in love one toward another [toward one another, εἰςἀλλήλους], and toward all men [all], even as we [we also, καὶ ἡμεῖς] do toward you; 13to the end He may stablish [establish] your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father [our God and Father], at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints [holy ones]. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 3:6) But, Timothy having just now, &c.—Casual, resumed afterwards in διὰ τοῦτο.—Ἄρτι, just, at present (Matthew 9:18; 1 Corinthians 16:7), is best referred, with Grotius, Bengel, Pelt, Ewald, Hofmann, [Alford, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Ellicott in the Commentary; his Translation follows the Common Version.—J. L.] to the participle; the Epistle was written immediately after Timothy’s return, and hence the fresh joy and gushing love. De Wette and Lόnemann [Jowett] would connect ἄρτι with (the somewhat remote) παρεκλήθημεν, 1 Thessalonians 5:7, thus making the main thought to consist in the prominence given to the consolation in opposition to the sending of Timothy. But we should then be compelled unnecessarily to find an anacoluthon in διὰ τοῦτο. To us, that is, Paul; possibly even, Paul and Silas, if the latter had already arrived before Timothy. 2. And brought us good tidings, &c.—εὐαγγ., Hebr. αִּ ?ωֵּׂ ?ψ (1 Samuel 31:9, Septuagint); here in its original signification, as at Luke 1:19 of the birth of the Baptist; elsewhere, throughout the New Testament, of the good tidings κατʼ ? ἐξοχήν, the tidings of redemption. The birth of John, moreover, is a part of these tidings of salvation. And here too there is something peculiarly earnest, an expression of his great joy, in the fact that Paul uses this word. It is to him a sort of gospel, a fruit of the gospel in the specific sense, the announcement of a Divine work, when he hears a good account of their faith (the root, without which love were merely a work of nature), and of their love (the fruit, the evidence of the living existence of faith; comprehensive love, as 1 Corinthians 13; comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:3). Chrysostom: So great a good does he consider their confirmation to be. And thus he, the bringer of glad tidings, himself receives the glad tidings of the Divine work, the fruit of his gospel. 3. And that ye have (retain) a good (a truly loving, thankful, prayerful) remembrance of us; that they had thus not even been misled in regard to their teachers (Hofmann). Not: ye make honorable mention of us (Grotius; that were frigid, and would require ποιεῖσθε, Lόnemann). This personal interest is connected with the main topic. If they continue in faith and love, the natural result of that is attachment to the Apostle. The πάντοτε, always, and so immovably, we most naturally refer to the preceding ἔχετεμνείαν (not, as Hofmann, to what follows); the further explanation, as to how the remembrance shows itself, is given by ἐπιποθοῦντες: in that ye earnestly long, or, if the word is equivalent to the simple verb (Koch, 252, after Fritzsche): for this ye long, to see us. Bengel: A sign of their good conscience. 4. (1 Thessalonians 3:7.) For this cause—embracing the contents of the participial construction in 1 Thessalonians 3:6; as the Greeks sometimes elsewhere use οὕτως for resumption; we were comforted over you, on your account, not superfluous even with διὰ τοῦτο; the persons are named in whom he finds comfort; then special mention is made of that quality of theirs, that is comforting to him: by your faith (the medium of the comfort); it was their faith about which he had been anxious. Between the two is a second ἐπί, denoting the situation in which he found himself: in (2 Corinthians 7:4) all, our whole; the distress, taken together as a totality; not: every, which would have required πάσῃ without the article. Ἀνάγκη denotes the distress from without, the evil condition; θλῖψις, its inward operation, affliction, anguish. It would be improper to ascribe to the former any special reference to pecuniary need. Altogether to be rejected is the idea of anxiety about the Thessalonians; for this would now certainly have been removed; whereas the ἐπί shows that he intends a distress that still continues, but in which he was comforted by the faith of the Thessalonians (Lόnemann). 5. (1 Thessalonians 3:8.) For now we live, &c.; comp. Psalms 22:27 [26. Webster and Wilkinson refer to Genesis 44:30; 1 Samuel 18:1; Galatians 4:19]. He thus explains his having been comforted. Life in the full sense, opposed to distress and anguish, which is a death, a dying daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). Calvin: Here we see, how Paul almost forgot himself for the sake of the Thessalonians. Romans 7:9, where he speaks of a death by sin, goes yet deeper. Seldom does Paul use ζῆν of the mere bodily life. If ye (emphatic) stand fast, remain steadfast; στήκειν, a later verbal form, derived from ἕστηκα, frequently employed by Paul: Romans 14:4; Philippians 4:1; in the Lord, as your life-element, most intimately united to Him, rooted and sheltered in Him. He again employs ἐάν for the future as wanting confirmation; not, however, as doubting them, but merely as a stimulus: It depends on you, to help in preparing for me death or life. Calvin: Hζc gratulatio vim exhortationis habet. He thereby precludes all rising of vanity in himself and the Thessalonians; but especially by means of the thanksgiving that follows.—Hofmann, it is true, finds it impossible that the Apostle should make his present life depend on a condition, the occurrence of which only the future could show. He would therefore refer the words διὰ τῆςὑμῶνπίστεως to what follows, so that we should have to assume an inversion at ὅτι;—unnecessary, for even in the strongly emphatic νῦν there lies a sufficient expression of the present condition for present life: “now (just because ye believe);” and if the words, in Hofmann’s construction of them, support the addition, as to the sense, of: and shall continue to live, if ye continue to believe, then so they do also in the ordinary construction. On the whole, Hofmann’s division of the clauses in 1 Thessalonians 3:7-10 is extremely artificial and cumbersome. 6. (1 Thessalonians 3:9.) For what thanks, &c.—Thereby Paul confirms the weighty ζῶμεν [Alford: “accounts for, and specifies the action of, the ζωή just mentioned.”—J. L.]: What greater blessing could we have, for which to give thanks? The ἀνταποδοῦναι (ωִׁ ?μַּ ?ν, Joel 4 [3, in the English arrangement.—J. L.] 4, Septuagint) marks the thanksgiving as a return, requited for what was received; in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 it is used of primitive retribution. In the sphere of free, spiritual love it is thanksgiving, Psalms 116:12. For the third time, and this time most emphatically, he expresses his thanks (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:13); this time also for the ascertained stability of the Thessalonians.—Περί, on your account; ἐπί, on occasion of all the joy (the article marks the joy as a whole), wherewith we joy. [Webster and Wilkinson: he has two subjects of thankfulness, their fidelity, and his own satisfaction therein.—J. L.]; ἧ by attraction for ἥν, since the accusative should have stood (Matthew 2:10; Winer, § 32. 2). The dative, indeed, occurs also without attraction, John 3:29; comp. Luke 22:15; Winer, § 54. 3. But in these places the dative of a substantive cognate to the verb goes to strengthen the verbal idea, like the Hebrew infinitive absolute. We might, therefore, rather compare such texts as Acts 2:30; Acts 16:28, where the dative is to be understood instrumentally.—Δἰ ὑμᾶς belongs to χαίρομεν, not to what follows, which is already sufficiently defined; likewise ἔμπροσθεν &c. (before our God, who is ours and we His) still belongs to what precedes; for, referred to what follows, it would make the sentence drag, whereas, connected with χαίρομεν, it is by no means superfluous (Ewald, Hofmann); rather is the import already given quite correctly by Calvin: vere et absque simulatione ulla; Lόnemann: with a pure joy, therefore, to which nothing earthly adheres (Alford: one which will bear, and does bear, the searching eye of God, and is His joy (John 15:11).—J. L.] 7. (1 Thessalonians 3:10.) Night and day, &c.—Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:9; as according to that place his manual labor, so according to the present his fervent supplications also (2 Timothy 1:3) are prolonged into the night; very exceedingly, above measure exceedingly; a lively Pauline climax (1 Thessalonians 5:13 (var.); Ephesians 3:20 (var.); comp. Mark 6:51).—According to Lόnemann [Alford: praying as we do, Ellicott, &c.] the participle δεόμενοι should depend on δυνάμεθα, 1 Thessalonians 5:9. Not only, however, does that lie too far off, but, as regards the sense also, it is little suitable, since that δυνάμ, has an interrogative force, and presupposes the answer: We cannot indeed say what thanks would suffice. Luther and Von Gerlach take 1 Thessalonians 5:10 as the answer to 1Th 1 Thessalonians 5:9 : What thanks? in that we pray; the thanks, that is, that we pray;—a fair sense, but too artificial. We do better, therefore, to take δεόμ. as in apposition to χαίρομεν (De Wette): wherewith we joy, while we (at the same time) unceasingly pray. 8. That we may see, &c.—The object of the prayer is expressed in the form of a purpose: We pray, in order to see; as 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:2.—Your face, as 1 Thessalonians 2:17. Not merely, however, to luxuriate in sensibilities, but with the holy aim of redressing, supplying, completing; καταρτίζειν, from ἄρτιος, integer, to mend, restore what has been damaged; the nets, Matthew 4:21; spiritually, 1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 6:1; but also to complete what has not been damaged; the creation, Hebrews 10:5; Hebrews 11:3. Nor in this case is it meant to convey a reproach of degeneracy; synonymous with προσαναπληροῦν, 2 Corinthians 9:12.—Τὰ ὑστερήματα, the deficiencies, that wherein one is behindhand; of poverty in external things, 2 Corinthians 9:12; what is still outstanding of sufferings, Colossians 1:24. We may distinguish, but not separate, deficiencies in the insight of faith from deficiencies in the power of faith in the life. They need instruction, exhortation, intercession. The ἐάν of 1 Thessalonians 3:8 had already reminded them that no one, so long as he lives in the flesh, must imagine that he stands and cannot fall; 1 Thessalonians 4 shows, that Paul exhorts the Thessalonians in matters of practice, as well as instructs them in those of theory (Lόnemann, against Olshausen). 9. (1 Thessalonians 3:11.) But may He Himself, &c.—Lόnemann: But may God Himself, our Father—refers ἡμῶν without reason to πατήρ only [and so Alford, Ellicott, &c.]. We understand (against De Wette) that there is here a contrast with the Apostle, who prays that God Himself would do His work, and that in a twofold respect: 1. when he directs, smooths, expressly guides, our way to you (Luke 1:79, the feet; 2 Thessalonians 3:5, hearts; comp. Romans 1:10 [Sept. Psalms 5:8]), only so do we escape from empty places of our own, which Satan thwarts (1 Thessalonians 2:18); 2. but you (1 Thessalonians 3:12), whether we come or not (Bengel), the Lord alone can duly confirm; we are, indeed, merely instruments for the καπαρτίσαι, which proceeds from God. 10. Our God and Father arid our Lord Jesus Christ: God gives only through Jesus; Christ also is invoked with the Father, comp. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 1:2; the verb in the singular shows, that the two are yet not two, but one Divine essence.11. (1 Thessalonians 3:12.) But you, may the Lord make, &c.—Πλεονάσαι and περισσεύσαι, as previously κατευθύναι, are three singulars of the optative aorist active, not infinitives (that would require the accent περισσεῦσαι, and could only be understood as an arbitrary ellipsis); πλεονάζειν occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only as an intransitive, here transitive (like the hiphil), and so in the Septuagint (of things, not persons), Numbers 26:54; Psalms 71:21; περισσεύειν, generally intransitive, but also transitive: of things, 2 Corinthians 9:8; and the passive (Matthew 13:12) implies a transitive active. So then: May He make you perfect (not: through increase of numbers, but, as no doubt connected with that,) in love (dative, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:17), and richly to abound; toward one another, therefore in brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 4:9), and toward all (who are not yet brethren); not merely: toward all other Christians, so that the first member should mean only; toward you Thessalonians one with another; still less is the second member merely epexegetical: and that indeed all (Thessalonians). A groundless narrowing of the comprehensive sense.—Even as we also do toward you. Since the word is ἡμεῖς, not ἡμᾶς, we cannot supply an optative, but only περισσεύομεν (intransitive) τῇ ἀγάπῃ. (Grotius: ἐσμέν.) We are in fact your model, as was said already, 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; and that (Hofmann) in love even to those who are not yet brethren; otherwise, indeed, we should not have come to you. Had we not loved you, before you were Christians, you would never have become such. 12. (1 Thessalonians 3:13.) To the end He, &c.—The final aim and effect of being perfected in love is the establishment of the heart; to become unblamable is the result of the στηρίζειν; on the day, not to the day, because the end is regarded as attained; breviloquence, for εἰςτὸ εἶναιἀμέμπτους, 1 Corinthians 1:8, and often. Winer, § 66. 3. The negative (ἀμ.) stands in the positive: in holiness (belongs to ἀμέμπτους). That should be the issue with the Thessalonians, as with the Apostle (1 Thessalonians 2:10). Holiness, the result of sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3), comprehends the whole life in and from the Spirit. The unblamableness in holiness has place before God’s scrutinizing glance at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Μετά &c. leans closely on παρουσίᾳ; it does not belong to the more remote ἀμέμπτους. Therefore: when He comes (πάρεστι) with all His holy ones; His, Acts 9:13, that is, Christ’s (not, as Lόnemann would have it, contrary to the arrangement of the words, God’s). In that lies the stimulus: see to it, that ye come along with them.—But who are the ἅγιοι? The angels, His angels, are Christ’s attendants at the judgment (Matthew 25:31; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 16:27; 2 Thessalonians 1:7); they are called in the Old Testament χְ ?γωִׁ ?ιν, Septuagint simply ἅγιοι, Psalms 89:6 [ Psalms 89:5] (?); Daniel 4:10 [Daniel 4:13]; Daniel 8:13; at Zechariah 14:5 it might be doubted whether angels only are meant. In the New Testament, on the contrary, ἅγιοι without any addition never elsewhere denotes the angels, always Christians, Colossians 3:12, and how often! At Colossians 1:26 one might possibly (comp. Ephesians 3:10) think of holy men and angels together. But do holy men come with the Lord? Rather, to Him, to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), says Pelt. In the meanwhile, however, they are with Him immediately after death (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8), and He will bring them with Himself (1 Thessalonians 4:14); rising before the living [before the rapture of the living.—J. L.], they may be described as coming with Him [caught up to meet the Lord in the air, they then do come with Him.—J. L.]; and with this must be compared 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Thus, in favor of the reference to the angels (De Wette, Lόnemann, and others) is what is said of them elsewhere, and the Old Testament phraseology; against it is that of the New Testament (on which account Von Gerlach, Hofmann and others, understand by the word the sleeping believers). We should then perhaps have to suppose, that the style of Daniel prevails in our Epistle, as likewise in 2 Thessalonians 2—Bengel and Starke [Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.] understand by ἁγίων angels and glorified men together, and in favor of this very view reference might be made to Daniel, where besides angels men also, members of the people of God, who take the kingdom, are called χַ ?γִּ ?ιωִׁ ?ιο (Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22). Moreover, Hebrews 12:22-23 puts the angels in company with the Church of the perfected first-born, who indeed have become ἰσάγγελο, (Luke 20:36). The Lord is Head of the Church, as of principalities and powers (Eph., Col.).—Ἀμήν, which is added by A. D.1 E. Sin. It. Vulg., suits the devotional strain, but for that very reason may have been of liturgical origin, or added by the copyist. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 3:6.) Faithfulness to the gospel is naturally connected with thankful love to those who publish it. Roos: It is well, when after some time matters stand thus between teachers and their former hearers, whose spiritual fathers they are. Backsliders cannot think kindly of their former spiritual fathers, and have no longing desire to see them again, since shame and fear, or even a malignant bitterness, do preclude this.—The Apostle is far from fostering a false dependence, that leans on men rather than on the Lord Himself (1 Corinthians 1:13 sqq.; 1 Thessalonians 3:4 sqq.). When a separation is necessary to a proper independence, the Lord brings it about for the upright in due time. [Burkitt: Christian love doth earnestly long to evidence itself in Christian fellowship, and passionately desire the communion of saints, for the mutual comfort and spiritual advantage of each other.—J. L.] 2. (1 Thessalonians 3:7.) A man of faith, like Paul, needs comfort, and says so without disguise (Romans 1:10); he takes no such high stand, as if he had no need of it. We scarcely form to ourselves an adequate idea of the agony of his soul for all his churches, and easily mistake in thinking generally of highly endowed and advanced Christians, forgetting that in the conflict they are most exposed and harassed. 3. In 1 Thessalonians 3:7 Paul speaks only of the faith of the Thessalonians, the root; whereas at 1 Thessalonians 5:12, the root being firm, his desire is turned simply to their increase in love, that expression of faith in the life, whose growth then again reacts to the strengthening of faith. Happy he, to whom the faith of others is a comfort, that enables him to disregard, yea, to vanquish, his own troubles. Only then, indeed, is there life (1 Thessalonians 3:8) full, blessed, worthy of the name, when such love finds its occasions of thankfulness. 4. (1 Thessalonians 3:10.) What we could not allow grammatically, that the prayer is the answer to the question, What thanks can we render? is yet perfectly true in reality. Prayer is the chief part of thanksgiving (Heidelberg Catechism, Qu. 116), according to the riches, that is, of God’s goodness, which we honor by receiving out of its fulness grace for grace. Supplication is thus thanksgiving, and leads to thankfulness for what has been already received, as on the other hand thanksgiving is supplication for the continuance of the blessing, and impels to further and unceasing supplication. 5. Paul has to touch on the deficiencies of the Thessalonians; and how affectionately does he do so; with as much fatherly frankness as tenderness, and in a manner remote from all pedantry; not until he has testified his greatest joy. And they certainly agree with him—are in this also sensible of his pure love—say not: Have we any deficiencies?—Stδhelin: A true faith is still always defective. Frequently there is wanting a really convincing knowledge, whence doubts afterwards arise; frequently an assurance of the truth and sincerity of faith, and this arouses a struggle of self-denial; frequently growth in the same, when for many reasons a man is compelled for a long time to exercise himself in expedients alone; frequently the strength to do all things duly in faith. Through the word and prayer these deficiencies are supplied.—Berlenburger Bibel: Faith is a thing that can (and should) grow. We are not to stand still and become careless, as if we thought: Now the Church is planted. For the Church has enemies, and those planted are still novices. 6. (1 Thessalonians 3:11.) That, even when the matter on hand concerns the promotion of outward arrangements, as of a missionary journey, Jesus also is invoked, though not so prominently, almost exclusively, as the Saviour is among the Moravians,—this shows how the Apostles understand Matthew 23 :[18]: all power in heaven and in earth. Not merely, therefore, in the heart, by means of the truth; that were to be a Prophet without being King. But this can be nothing else but the return of the glory, which He had before the world was (John 17:5). The Socinian theory, favored also by later writers, of the glorification, deification, of a man, who was not God from the beginning, is irreconcilable therewith. Gess: If for God to become man is something miraculous, for a man to become God is something monstrous. To make a creature Mediator between God and the creatures is to change the Mediator into a partition wall. If New Testament believers are not to be put in a lower position than those of the Old Testament, who depended on Jehovah Himself, then must Jesus not be a mere man. 7. The Apostle’s desire and prayer was first granted years after (Acts 20). How much higher, then, truly are God’s thoughts than even an Apostle’s thoughts, and His ways higher than an Apostle’s ways! His object, the confirmation of the Thessalonians, was attained through other means, especially even by means of his letters. 8. (1 Thessalonians 3:12.) Brotherly love and universal love are concentric circles—the centre, Christ. The narrower circle is not an occasion of bigoted exclusiveness, but a focus of, refreshment for the wider one (2 Peter 1:7). All, indeed, are called to be brethren. Between such as are so already, and such as have yet to become so, there exists before God an essential difference; before the eyes of men the transition is often imperceptible; no guild; no see here, see there. Where God really fills the heart, there also does love. But God only can give proficiency in this fulfilling of the law, as well as a beginning in it. He requires from us what exceeds our powers, that we may learn to obtain from Him by prayer the power to perform it (Calvin). To become perfect in love imparts to the heart a steadfastness in willing nothing that is contrary to the will of God, Romans 13:8; Romans 13:10 (Hofmann). AND 1 Thessalonians 3:6. Chrysostom: Who is like Paul, who regards the salvation of his neighbors as his own, feeling toward all as the body toward its members?—Rieger: What love to the sheep, that good news of them could so vivify him!—Diedrich: So does the shepherd’s love identify him with the flock. This is the difference between the shepherd and the hireling.—Jacob revives on hearing that Joseph is alive; still more blessed is his joy, who has a faculty for hearing good in the highest sense of another (3 John 1:4; Luke 15:7). Chrysostom: Hear, how scholars are admired, who have a good remembrance of their teachers; how they are esteemed happy!—Rieger: The Apostle regards the remembrance of him and the longing after him as in themselves good impulses, and as a proof of the value which they put on the gospel, and so likewise on strenuous laborers therein. 1 Thessalonians 3:7-8. Heubner: The steadfastness of others strengthens ourselves.—In God’s gift and work we find life. Without that, it deserves not the name.—Seneca: Etiam in longissima vita minimum est, quod vivitur.—[The spiritual welfare of the Church, and the strength and joy of her ministers, alike depend on the Church’s faith.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:9. We cannot sufficiently give thanks! It were often more true to say: We do not sufficiently give thanks, even as we might. God’s kindnesses, however, are in any case greater than that we should be able to repay them.—[Matthew Henry: When We are most cheerful, we should be most thankful. What we rejoice in, we should give thanks for.—Adam Clarke: How near his heart did the success of his ministry lie!—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:10. The calm collecting of holy thoughts in the night season—intercessory prayer in times of sleeplessness—is a good imitation of the Apostle. Heubner: The more prosperous the beginning, with so much the greater zeal prosecute the work.—Along with joy over a good condition, two things are always needed to save us from falling into conceit, ostentation, presumption, self-sufficiency, and vain glorying in men: that the honor be given to God, and that we do not lose the recollection of actual deficiencies.—Calvin: Even those, who are far ahead of others, are still far from having reached the goal.—No standing still; faith would be, not merely once established, but ever newly cherished and promoted.—[Matthew Henry: When we are most thankful, we should also give ourselves to prayer; and those we give thanks for, yet have need to be prayed for.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:11. The Apostle’s fervent spirit overflows in prayer, not merely in his chamber, but in the Epistle itself. Heubner: All our steps and ways are in God’s hand; to everything He must give His consent (Genesis 24:40; Jeremiah 10:23; James 4:13-15).—[To commit our way unto the Lord, the grand secret of a safe, contented, happy, and truly prosperous life.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:12.—Heubner: Love should not be scanty, poor, but rich, exuberant.—Chrysostom: Love after God’s kind embraces all. If thou lovest this man, and that man not at all, this is nothing but a friendship after a human sort.—[Matthew Henry: We are beholden to God not only for the stock put into our hands at first, but for the improvement of it also.—The more we are beloved, the more loving we should be.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:13. Roos: Establishment of the heart comes through growth in holiness, and this consists especially in love.—Chrysostom: By it the heart becomes unblamable, from which otherwise proceed evil thoughts, that cannot be there without outward act. There is no sin that is not consumed by the power of love, as by fire.—Love, feeding on the hope of heaven (Colossians 1:4-5), can only confirm, not prejudice, the salvation of souls.—[Benson: Before God—it is a small matter to be accounted holy among men.—J. L.] Footnotes: [Sin., as B., has ὐμῶν before πίστιν as well as after ἀγάπην.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:6.—[ἐπιποθοῦντες. Comp. Romans 1:11; 2 Corinthians 9:14; Philippians 1:8; Philippians 2:26; and the Exegetical Notes, 3.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:6.—[καθάπερ, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:11. The English Version retains the emphasis, as above, at 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Romans 4:6; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 3:18.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:7.—[διὰ τοῦτο—as in 1 Thessalonians 3:5—παρεκλήθημεν, ἀδελφοί. Here, as in the preceding verse, and so often elsewhere, the Greek order is quite needlessly changed by our Translators.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:7.—Ἀνάγκῃ καὶ θλίψει is given by the oldest authorities [including Sin.], instead of the inverse order. [And so many of the modern editors, including Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth (though he lays stress on the fact that Tertullian, in quoting this Epistle, has Christi here, as well as Christo at 1 Thessalonians 2:19), Ellicott.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:8.—On the reading στήκετε after ἐάν, comp. Winer, ed. 6, p. 264. The Sinaiticus, however, reads στήκητε [a prima manu; for there is a correction of it into στήκετε, with A. F. G. &c.—In 1 Thessalonians 3:9, for θεῷ, Sin.1 reads κυρίῳ with D.1 F. G., and, for θεοῦ, it has κυρίου.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:10.—[ὐπερεκπερισσοῦ ?=more than superabundantly; Webster and Wilkinson: with more than excess. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:13; Ephesians 3:20.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:10.—[καίκαταρτίσαιτὰ ὑστερήματατῆςπίστεωςὑμῶν. See Exegetical Notes, 8.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—[Αὐτὸςδὲ ὁ θεὸςκαὶ πατὴρἡμῶν. For the double reference of ἡμῶν, see p. 49, Note †; and, for the various constructions of αὐτός, see my Revision of this verse, Note a. The above translation corresponds to that of our author: Er selbst aber, unser Gott und Vater. Strictly speaking, however, I prefer to regard αὐτός as merely emphasizing ὁ θεὸ;—Ιησοῦς(χριστός), and to make these latter words themselves the immediate compound subject of the verbs.—J. L]. 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—[Χριστός is wanting in the oldest authorities including Sin. It is bracketed by Schott and Riggenbach, and cancelled by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:12.—[ὐμᾶςδὲ ὁ κύριος. Revision: “Such is our prayer for ourselves; but you, whether we come or not (Bengel sive nos veniemus, sive minus) &c.”—J. L.] Only a few scattered authorities here omit κύριος, or add ̓Ιησοῦς, or change it into θεός. 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—[As in 1 Thessalonians 3:11.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—Here Χριστοῦ is wanting in still more authorities [including Sin., and is rejected by Riggenbach, as well as by Schott, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott.—J. L.]; at the end of the verse some (few; also the Sinaiticus [a prima manu.—J. L.]) have ἀμήν. 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—[ἀγίων. See the Exegetical Notes, 12.—J. L.] [ And so likewise Alford and Ellicott make the ἐπί directive, not intensive.—J. L.] [ἐφ̓ ὑμῖν—the basis of the παράκλησις. Schott, Ellicott.—J. L.] [German: bei. Ellicott describes this ἐπί as having what he calls a semilocal force, and as carrying the idea of “ethical contact.” Webster and Wilkinson: “with all. The ideas of succession and coexistence are involved in ἐπί thus used, principally the latter: comfort came after sorrow, but while the sorrow was still felt—came as a remedy or alleviation. Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:4, and the exactly parallel circumstances and expressions in 2 Corinthians 7:4-7.”—J. L.] [An altogether untenable distinction. De Wette refers both words to the Apostle’s inward anxieties; Lόnemann (followed by Alford and Ellicott), to his outward troubles.—J. L.] [A suggestion of Macknight, and allowed by Schott.—J. L.] [Alford: νῦν—“implying the fulfilment of the condition (ἐάν) which follows;”—Ellicott: “logical and argumentative, approaching in meaning to in hoc rerum statu, rebus sic se habentibus”—J. L.] [δέ—not simply μεταβατικόν (Ellicott: Now), but with its proper adversative force: But—in spite of all Satan’s hindrances, and notwithstanding the failure hithertc of our own repeated attempts and ceaseless longings.—J. L.] [Athanasius, Orat. contra Arianos III. 11.: τὴνἑνότητατοῦ πατρὸςκαὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐφύλαξεν.—J. L.] [German: er mache euch vollkommen;—a needless departure from the strict meaning of πλεονάσαι, and one no4 justified by the parenthesis.—J. L.] [But not without the blood of sacrifice, and priestly intercession, and both as types of Him who was to come.—J. L.] SECOND AND Ch. 4, 5___________ I Warning against Fornication and Covetousness 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.1Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you [Finally then, brethren, we beseech you, and exhort] by [in,ἐν] the Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received of [according as ye received from] us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [even as also ye do walk,] so ye would abound more and more [ye would abound yet more]. 2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification [God’s will, your sanct., θέληματοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸςὑμῶν]; that ye should abstain 4[ye abstain] from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel [every one of you know how to possess himself of his own 5. in sanctification and honor, 5not in the lust of concupiscence [in passion of lust,ἐνπάθειἐπιθυμίας], even as the [also the, καίτά Gentiles which [who] know not 6God; that no man [one] go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter [in the matter his brother, ἐντῷ πράγματιτὸνἀδελφὸναὑτοῦ ?]: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such [an avenger for all these things, ἔκδικος … περὶ πάντωντούτων], as [even as, καθώς] we also have forewarned [also told you before] and testified [fully testified]. 7For God hath not called [did not call, οὐ … ἐκάλεσρν] us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness [for uncleanness, but in 8sanctification]. He therefore [Wherefore then he] that despiseth, despiseth [rejecteth, rejecteth] not man, but God, who hath also given [also gave] unto us His Holy Spirit [His Holy Spirit unto you]. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2.) Finally—Λοιπόν (for which the evidence here preponderates, comp. 2 Corinthians 13:10), not materially different from τὸ λοιπόν, 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Philippians 4:8 is used either with a temporal meaning: henceforth, now (Matthew 26:45), or in the sense of moreover; but not, as Chrysostom explains it: evermore. In the second signification it introduces the close of the discourse; Grotius: locutio properantis ad finem. That is the case even here; from what is personal Paul turns to the closing exhortation, which indeed is prolonged. He advances from wishing to exhorting (Roos). That they may become unblamable (1 Thessalonians 3:13; with which the οὖν forms an immediate connection), he beseeches and exhorts in those particulars, in which there is yet room for improvement in the deficiencies of their faith; thus letting the καταρτίσαι begin meanwhile by letter, first in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 in reference to their walk, then in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 sqq. in reference to their knowledge. In the classics ἐρωτᾶν means only to ask a question, but in the Septuagint it already stands for ωָׁ ?ΰַ ?μ (Psalms 122:6), and in the New Testament it often means to beseech (2 Thessalonians 2:1).—And exhort, by virtue of apostolic authority; but the evangelical exhortation is a friendly entreaty, which respects freedom. The entreaty and the exhortation are exercised in the Lord Jesus; the fellowship of His life is the element (2 Corinthians 2:17); the Apostle acts as Christ’s organ: he reckons not himself sufficiently worthy even to beseech or exhort. The object of the exhortation is marked substantively by τό (Luke 22:23-24; Romans 8:26; Winer, § 18. 3). The aim of the walk is to please God (as the Apostle pleases Him, 1 Thessalonians 2:4). [Webster and Wilkinson: “Θεῷ without art., such a being as God is.”—J. L.]—Even as also ye do (actually) walk, recognizes what they already are; and this is implied also in the μᾶλλον: yet more (than you now do) should you become rich and abound (here intransitive) therein. But not: You are to do more than is commanded.—For, confirms the exhortation by an appeal to their own knowledge of what commandments (1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:18; the verb at 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and 2 Thessalonians 3:4) they had received (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:1; Galatians 4:13).—By the Lord Jesus, is not quite equivalent to ἐν of 1 Thessalonians 4:1; we might have expected him to say: Jesus gave them by us; but he says on the contrary: We gave them by Him the Mediator of all truth and all authority; not δι’ ἐμαυτοῦ did I command; comp. Romans 15:30. Synonymous with ἐνὀνόματι, 2 Thessalonians 3:6; διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος, 1 Corinthians 1:10. 2. (1 Thessalonians 4:3.) For this is God’s will, &c. (1 Thessalonians 5:18); [Webster and Wilkinson: “The art. with Θεοῦ draws attention to the circumstance that God had just been spoken of as one to whose will it should be our main object to conform, ‘our God,’ the God we serve.”—J. L.] ;with this begins the special detail of the παραγγελίαι. The subject is τοῦτο; the predicate θέλημα (according to the best authorities, without the article). What follows does not embrace the entire will of God on all its sides; multζ sunt voluntates, Acts 13:22; Bengel.—In apposition to τοῦτο, and substantially the subject of the statement, is ὁ ἁγιασμός, which differs from ἁγιωσύνη, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, in that the latter denotes the religious and moral character, but ἁγιασμός the religious and moral process, the work of sanctification. Not materially different is Hofmann’s view, according to which ὁ ἁγ were merely appositional (to θέλημα?), and the proper definition of the τοῦτο would be first given by the following infinitives. In our Epistle Paul has as yet no occasion, as in Romans 3-6, to develop, in polemic opposition to Jewish legality, justification as the basis of sanctification; nor is that the case in the Corinthian Epistles; Paul has no set form; but the soul of his thought and action is this: “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Olshausen, like some of the older interpreters, would understand ἁγ. as opposed to the immediately following πορνεία, in the special sense of chastity. But that is ἁγνεία. Not even in Romans 6:19; 1 Timothy 2:15, is the narrower sense found. And ἀκαθαρσία likewise, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, is more comprehensive, including also covetousness, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:5. Though γάρ of 1 Thessalonians 4:7 shows indeed that 1 Thessalonians 4:6 must come under the contrast between uncleanness and sanctification, yet it does not at all follow from that, that the idea of the former is here limited to unchastity (see on 1 Thessalonians 4:6). Rather, abstinence from fornication is merely one (chief) instance of the sanctification which he recommends. 3. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.) That ye abstain, &c.—The (accusative with) infinitive is epexegetical or appositional to ἁγιασμός. On the subduing of fornication, comp. 1 Corinthians 6, 7. Chrysostom: When he says, “from all fornication,” he leaves it to those who know, to think of the various kinds of lewdness. With the negative Paul couples the positive in the form of a coφrdinate accusative with infinitive: that every one of you know, εἰδέναι as scire, understand how to, be able to—(we only properly know, what we can also do)—acquire, get, not possess, which must have been expressed by the perfect κεκτῆσθαι; no other tense means to possess, not even Sir 6:1; Sir 51:20. By σκεῦος, however, vessel, utensil, tool, λְּ ?μִ ?ι, some (Tertullian, Chrysostom [and the other more eminent Greek commentators, Theodoret, Theophylact, �cumenius.—J. L.], Calvin, Grotius [Bishops Hall and Wilson, Hammond, Whitby, &c.—J. L.], Bengel, Olshausen, Pelt [Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson] understand the body; others (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Zwingli, Wetstein, Schott, De Wette, Lόnemann, Ewald, Hofmann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott]), the wife. The former say that Scripture in still other places speaks of the body in this sense—does not treat it contemptuously as the prison of the soul—recognizes indeed the trouble that it makes for us as the seat, not the origin, of sin—but requires that it stand in the Lord’s service as a sanctified organ of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:13); comp. 2 Corinthians 4:1 (where, it is true, the epithet ὀστράκινα is not to be overlooked); the Rabbins, moreover, use λּ ?εֹ ?ρ of the body; Philo says repeatedly: τὸ τῆςψυχῆςἀγγεῖοντὸ σῶμα; Barnabas, 7. 1Th 11: σκεῦοςτοῦ πνεύματος; but also, 1 Thessalonians 21, simply: τὸ καλὸνσκεῦος. In our text ἑαυτοῦ might, if necessary, take the place of πνεύματος. But how does κτᾶσθαι, to get, to obtain, suit with this? For to possess is not the meaning of the word, but acquirere—an argument already employed by Wetstein. Accordingly κτᾶσθαι would have to signify to get the mastery over; Chrysostom: Only through sanctification do we gain the body for a σκεῦος; sin, on the contrary, gains it, when we are impure. As this is of itself somewhat artificial, so it is entirely at variance (De Wette, Lόnemann [Koch, Alford, Ellicott]) with the fact, that to κτᾶσθαι really belongs also the negative definition (1 Thessalonians 4:5),μὴ ἐνπάθειἐπιθυμίας (the genitive as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3; passion peculiar to lust, concupiscence; ἐπιθ. is the natural element of sin (Romans 7:7), which swells to passion; comp. πάθηἀτιμίας, Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26). So then: You are to acquire the σκεῦος in sanctification, not in passionate lust; this does not suit the assumed meaning of σκεῦος; for, in truth, it is only by sanctification that the mastery over the body is gained; by lust comes the opposite, the loss of the mastery. Gain the mastery over the body, not in passion, were to give an absurd turn to the prohibition.We are thus driven to the other explanation, for which, it is true, Scripture furnishes as little as for the first any perfectly exact parallel. For passages where man is described generally as a figure of clay (Isaiah 45:9, and often), or expressions as σκεύηἐλέους Romans 9:23, and such like, are too dissimilar. The one that comes nearest seems to be 1 Peter 3:7; but even there the wife is described as the weaker vessel, to wit of the Divine grace, merely in the relation of contrast, over against the stronger vessel, but not as the vessel or instrument of the man. Among the Rabbins, however, the latter idea is found (with the blunt explanation: cui immittitur semen): vas meum quo ego utor, Megill. Esth. I. 11; and, besides, κτᾶσθαι is used of taking a wife (Rth 4:10, Septuagint; Sir. 36:29 [Sir 36:24]). It is objected, 1. that this would be to speak too meanly of the wife, as of a dependent instrument of the man, contrary to the reciprocity of 1 Corinthians 7:4; 1 Corinthians 2. that the opposition to πορν. would be taken somewhat too narrowly, especially if we understand the matter thus: You are to contract marriage in sanctification, not in lust; in this way the exhortation would be, not for such as still remain single, or for widowers, and for others, even only in regard to the formation of the marriage tie; 3. (a point made by Olshausen, and also by Calvin before him), that the exhortation would thus not at all apply to the woman. It may be replied (with De Wette and Lόnemann), 1. that the wife is not in every respect viewed as the instrument of the man, but only in the special relation suggested by the opposition to πορν. Keep yourselves from vaga libido; procure rather every one his own instrument, to wit, for the instinct in question, not as one in πορν. procures a σκεύος, not his own, in passionate lust. Here, as in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul speaks plainly and undisguisedly, but yet briefly and decently. 2. This exhortation is generally applicable; that is to say, those who do not possess the gift of continence (1 Corinthians 7:2; 1 Corinthians 7:9) are, for the sake of avoiding πορν, to take to themselves every one his own regular wife (if they are still single or widowers), and not use a σκεύος that is not their own; but neither are they to marry in a merely fleshly way, and just so they are not to lead their married life in that spirit. It concerns both the formation of the marriage relation and the subsequent life therein, when it is said: Obtain your σκεύος (at first and ever afterwards) in sanctification and honor. 3. This exhortation Paul directs with perfect propriety to the men as the specially active parties, who readily allow themselves greater liberty in this thing. The inference as regards Christian women was self-evident. Lόnemann thinks that in sanctification and honor is merely an explanation of what is implied in the expression, his own vessel. But the sense is richer, if we thus distinguish: 1. Let every one acquire his own vessel, and that, indeed, 2. in the proper way, as it should be acquired (and then also kept accordingly). It is not enough that one have a wife; it is likewise important, in what way he has got and now holds her. “For a man may be drunk even on his own wines.” The proper mode of the κτᾶσθαι is therefore described: in sanctification inwardly, before God, so that there is an imitation of the love of Christ (Ephesians 5) and a mutual furtherance in the service of God and in the rule of the spirit; whence follows in the relation between man and man: and in honor (Colossians 2:23; 1 Peter 3:1); in maintaining one’s own honor, and in the respect or manifestation of honor that is shown to the wife; as opposed to the ἀτιμία of him who sinks himself below the beasts, desecrating and degrading the σκεύος by a sinful abuse through παθ. ἐπιθ. in fornication, or even in carnal excesses within the limits of marriage. Even as also the Gentiles; καί in comparisons, 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Romans 4:6; ἔθνη, as frequently for ἐθνικοί. 4. (1 Thessalonians 4:6). That no one go beyond, &c., is added by asyndeton, with this variation, that now τό stands with the infinitive. Τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν; cannot depend on εἰδέναι if on account of the article it could not be parallel to ἀπέχεσθαι and εἰδέναι, then neither is it parallel to κτᾶσθαι, which without the article depends on εἰδέναι. Bengel sees in the asyndeton a proof that Paul is proceeding with the same topic, the τό bringing confirmation and climax to what was last said. It is, on the whole, supposed by many (Chrysostom: the subversion of marriage is worse than the robbery of treasures, Jerome, Erasmus [Bishop Wilson], Wetstein, Olshausen, Pelt, Von Gerlach [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott, Vaughan, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, and most others]), that πλεονεκτεῖν (to overreach, injure) stands here, not in its ordinary meaning, but figuratively of violated marriage, as Proverbs 6:29-32 compares the thief and the adulterer (that, however, is not to describe the adulterer figuratively as a thief); comp. 2 Samuel 12 (but that is an express parable), and the tenth commandment (of the Reformed division), which embraces both kinds of sins. Paul (they think), having said before that fornication is contrary to sanctification, and therefore to God, now goes on to say that it wounds also brotherly love—is, so to speak, a greedy grasping at conjugal property, an injury to the rights of a brother. The specification, ἐντῷ πράγματι, would then be used euphemistically: “in the matter” (that mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 7:11). On any other view, it is thought, there would be a quite abrupt introduction by asyndeton of a new subject, whereas even the γάρ of 1 Thessalonians 4:7 shows that 1 Thessalonians 4:6 speaks of the uncleanness of lewdness. Against the last remark, see Exeg. Note 2 (on 1 Thessalonians 4:3); ἀκαθαρσία is all impurity of the natural man, the dominion of the flesh over against the spirit; covetousness also belongs to it. On the other hand, there is no example (for a parable like that of Nathan is not one) of the asserted figurative use of πλεονεκτεῖν; and even the asyndeton does not prove what these interpreters wish. Indeed, closely viewed, something even false would be the result of this. That is to say, were τὸ μή &c. of 1 Thessalonians 4:6 merely appositional to 1 Thessalonians 4:4-5—if nothing but a new side of πορνεία were to come out of it—then the adulterous πλεονεξία must be a characteristic of all πορνεία; a man, in other words, must thereby invade the rights of his brethren; which yet is not the case, for there is many an instance of πορν. which violates no brother’s right of possession; that is the case only in a single definite relation, and must consequently have been mentioned as something new, not simply as an apposition to what precedes. Even Lόnemann is here too punctilious, when on account of the τό he would take μὴ ὑπερβ. as coφrdinate, not with ἀπέχ, and εἰδέναι, but with ὁ ἁγιασμός: The will of God Isaiah 1. your sanctification, abstinence from fornication, and so forth; and 2. the μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν. But in this way there results the awkwardness of understanding ἁγιασμός of 1 Thessalonians 4:3 in the narrower sense of chastity, whereas in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 it is understood by Lόnemann himself (who takes 1 Thessalonians 4:6 as an exhortation against covetousness) in the wider sense. We cannot be driven to this by that article. Even if we had to acknowledge in this a slight ruggedness of style, we should yet say with Hofmann, that the very article shows that something new, and of a different nature, now comes in. The difficulty disappears, as soon as (in reading) we punctuate somewhat more strongly after ἁγιασμὸςὑμῶν, and again after μὴ εἰδότατὸνθεόν. Thus (with Origen, Calvin, Zwingli, Grotius, De Wette, Lόnemann, Ewald, Hofmann, and others) we recognize in 1 Thessalonians 4:6 a new exhortation to a second evidence of sanctification (along with chastity as the first) in honesty of dealing, instead of a reckless and covetous overreaching. Many take ὑπερβαίνειν absolutely, without an object, modum excedere; Luther: to grasp too far; II. 9. 501; Plato, Rep. 366. A. But since the one τὸ μή takes the two verbs close together, we shall do better by referring also, with Hofmann, the addition ὲντῷ πρ. and the object to both verbs; and then ὑπερβ, to go beyond, is the same thing as to take no notice of, recklessly to disregard; in what? even in πλεονεξία, the desire to have more. The verb is transitive also in 2 Corinthians 12:17-18; τῷ enclitic, for τινι, as Grotius explains it, is not according to New Testament use—not even in 1 Corinthians 15:8; ἐντῷ πρ. means: in the business (Romans 16:2), or even lawsuit (1 Corinthians 6:1), on hand at any particular time.His brother—is this to be understood of brother in the widest sense, as equivalent to πλησίον? That, however, is contrary to the usage. Even ΰָ ?η denotes a member of the people of God. But should the limitation, as in Deuteronomy 23:19 sq., indicate a difference in the treatment of brethren and of strangers? By no means; it does not consist with the context, that those who are not brethren should be otherwise treated (comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:12); Paul, looking simply at the intercourse of Christians with one another, requires that the same should be fraternal, and he uses the name of brother as an argument against unbrotherly overreaching; ζtiologia fugiendζ transgressionis, Bengel; just as in 1 Corinthians 6, where in like manner the transition from fornication (1 Thessalonians 5) to covetousness is by asyndeton, hurried and abrupt. In other places also Paul puts close together these two capital vices, Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5. Confirmation of the warning: Because that (Romans 1:19; Romans 1:21) the Lord (Bengel: Christus judex) is an avenger (vindex, Romans 13:4) for all these things; the most diverse sins (suits better, if the previous discourse was at least of two kinds of sin, and not merely of two forms of the same sin); comp. 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19 sqq.Even as we also told you before, not merely before this Epistle; that idea lies simply in the aorist (when we were with yon, even then our oral teaching was to no other effect); but the προ (comp, προλέγω with προεῖπον, Galatians 5:21) contains a reference to the coming of Christ to judgment: “before it happens;” and (by way of corroboration) fully testified (1 Thessalonians 2:12 [11]). Calvin: tanta enim est hominum tarditas, ut nisi acriter perculsi nullo divini judicii sensu tangantur. 5. (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8.) For God did not call, &c.—What prompted the exhortation, a return to the fundamental idea of 1 Thessalonians 4:3. The change from ἐπί to ἐν is not without design. The former might possibly mark the condition: on the ground of. But to specify a ground, even in a negative way, does not accord with the free grace of the call. But, since the purpose of an action is the motive of it, ἐπί may also express for the purpose of, hac lege ut essemus, Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 2:10; Winer, § 48, C. [Webster and Wilkinson: “on the understanding of.”—J. L,]). Ἐν, on the contrary, is internal; it may be understood by breviloquence (in order to be in) as equivalent to εἰς (Winer, § 50, 5; 1 Corinthians 7:15 with Colossians 3:15); but also of the essential nature of the καλεῖν (Bengel, Hofmann): in the offer and operation of sanctification the καλεῖν existed; that was the element in which the καλεῖν moved. The Apostle does not think so specially as we do of sanctification as a gradual subdual of the flesh, but it is for him separation from the world for God, the being made partakers of His Spirit; ἐν as Galatians 1:6; Ephesians 6:4. Wherefore then he that despiseth [rejecteth];—ἀθετεῖν, to invalidate, treat as null; more rarely with a personal object: to reject (Luke 10:16); in the Septuagint frequently for αָּ ?βַ ?γ. Isaiah 21:2; Isaiah 24:16. To the participle some supply ἐμέ, others τοῦτο, τἡνἐνἁγιασμῷ κλῆσιν, τὰςπαραγγελίας (1 Thessalonians 4:2), not incorrectly as regards the sense, but grammatically it is better to take it (with De Wette, Lόnemann, Hofmann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott]) as without an object, substantively: the despiser [rejecter]. In what follows we must not take οὐκ for οὐ μόνον, which weakens the force of the statement, but thus: The man, through whom the commands were conveyed to him, does not even come into view by the side of the despising of God, from whom they spring. In the case of ἄνθρωπον, to think with �cumenius, Pelt, of the overreached brother, 1 Thessalonians 4:6, or even with Hofmann of the misused woman, and the brother injured through covetousness, is still more out of the way.In the addition: who (also, together with the calling) giveth (continuously), or gave (once) His Holy Spirit unto you, lies the climax of the exhortation. With the reading, unto us, one might think of the Apostles, who speak from the Spirit (1 Corinthians 7:40), whose word therefore is not to be despised, or again (since this apologetic assurance is here uncalled for) of Christians generally. The better attested ὑμᾶς, however, is for the readers: He giveth (or gave) into you [in euch hinein, for εἰςὑμᾶς] His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who incites to sanctification, to dwell in you; and thus (De Wette, Olshausen), along with the commandment, the gift also of discernment, illumination through the prophets among you (1 Thessalonians 5:20), and the spirit of discernment in yourselves (1 Thessalonians 5:21), so that ye are able to judge whether I speak from myself—so that ye are θεοδίδακτοι (1 Thessalonians 4:9); and thus to you, moreover, sanctification is made a possible thing, for surely ye have not in vain received His Holy Spirit (Ewald); ye are, therefore, also the more inexcusable, if ye despise His commandments, grieve the Holy Spirit, and resist His discipline (Ephesians 4:30; Lόnemann, Hofmann). AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 4:1.) There is danger in knowing the way, and not going forward (James 1:22). Standing still tends to backsliding. The point is, to walk continually, step by step, even to the mark. Chrysostom: The earth returns more than is given to it.—But this as fruit, from the living force of the seed; no opera supererogationis. The true περισσεύειν is not any acting over and above the commandments (1 Thessalonians 4:2), but a more and more willing fulfilment of the commandments. Zwingli: No one can here be perfect, and he that standeth, let him take heed lest he fall. Daily we fall and sin; let us also daily arise.—That requires an ever fresh exhortation and admonition in the midst of the frivolity of an age, which heedlessly despises the judgment of God.—Rieger: When one has once received from another something pertaining to instruction in the matter of salvation, this forms a tie between hearts, such that one may hope to effect a still further advance. A word received with love into the heart communicates to us also an impulse to become ever more perfect. [Matthew Henry: The Apostle taught them how to walk, not how to talk.—Adam Clarke: God sets no bounds to the communications of His grace and Spirit to them that are faithful. And as there are no bounds to the graces, so there should be none to the exercise of those graces.—J. L.] 2. (1 Thessalonians 4:2). Bengel remarks, that in the Epistles to the only recently founded church at Thessalonica the Apostle speaks frequently of his commands; but seldom in Epistles to churches of longer standing. Evangelical freedom is no antinomianism. The ordinances of God require the obedience of faith. Absolute autonomy and creaturehood are mutually irreconcilable. The way to true Christian freedom lies through the obedience of faith. 3. (1 Thessalonians 4:3.) Sanctification is separation from the things of the world, purification from the pollution of the flesh, the surrender of ourselves to the service of God, to the dominion of the spirit over the flesh, for a pure offering to God who is holy, that is, who abides like Himself, asserting Himself in His spirituality, and therefore with an absolute superiority, not only to everything impure, but to all that is created. Leviticus 19:2, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.—Rieger: Under the impulse of His Spirit it pervades the whole man, so that all his powers and members are occupied in the service of righteousness. To this points even the emotion of shame, wherein is proclaimed a consciousness of the fall, and a longing after original innocence.—The same; We must not regard sanctification as such a lofty virtue, that only a very few are required to strive after it (comp. Hebrews 12:14). 4. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6.) We need not be surprised at this warning against gross sins. The gospel does not out off magically at one blow all danger of seduction. Gross sins on one side, great workings of the Spirit on the other—such is the mighty contrast in the primitive churches. Nowadays everything is brought much nearer to a level. Besides, the lust of the flesh and the thirst for gain are the capital vices, not merely of heathenism, but to this very day especially of so many a rich commercial town. 5. (3–5.) Sensuality is a peculiarly powerful lust of the natural man, and strives against sanctification. Heathen laxity accounts it a matter of indifference, unless some right of wedlock is infringed; nay, by a reciprocal influence of error and lusts (Ephesians 4:22), and in consequence of a wicked ignorance of the holy God, heathenism, while deifying the natural instinct, sanctions even a “holy” debauchery, and that even to the most unnatural abominations (comp. my Discourse on the calling of the prophet Hosea, Basel). Even the nobler heathens, e. g. Plato in the Symposium, sometimes commend in the wise man as a sublime continence that without which a Christian were no Christian, while they speak of shameful things without any holy abhorrence. How feeble is their protest even against pederasty! And, sure enough, what a state of things was that of the Roman world at that time! A quite different spirit of earnest opposition was shown already even by the law of the Old Covenant (Leviticus 18:30; Deuteronomy 22:21; Deuteronomy 23:17); and the gospel thoroughly enforces the demand for resistance even to the secrecy of the thoughts (Matthew 5:28). On one occasion the Apostle appeals to the Christian sense of honor: Ye will not, surely, take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot (1 Corinthians 6:15)? and then again as here: Ye will not be willing, I hope, to live as do the heathen? Such admonitions are still needed by us. For the prevailing tendency is to think far too lightly of the fleshly lusts, which yet war against the soul.—Rieger: When a stale Christianity is ever anew reviving all heathenish vanities in operas, plays, novels, shameful pictures and images, it falls again likewise, along with heathenish unbelief, into heathenish fornication.—To subdue it is not an affair of a single resolution, but of continuous practice.—Chrysostom: of an earnest discipline—grounded in a knowledge of one’s own bodily and mental disposition, and showing itself by caution in intercourse, avoidance of all temptations, of all impurity in look, gesture, touch, of all seductive reading, whereby the evil treasure of the heart is enlarged, by laying hold of the Divine help, turning to account past experiences, perseverance in prayer, serious contemplation of the shortness of life and the preciousness of the faculties vouchsafed, by exerting the same with faithful diligence, and, above all, by overcoming in the blood of Jesus (Revelation 12:11). A principal means, and one of Divine appointment, is the holy and honorable use of marriage; “incontinentiζ medicina et continentia ipsa,” C. Hel 4:29. But it must not be contracted in a way of carnal frivolity, nor carried on in a spirit of carnal license. Paul speaks of these things without any absurd prudery or spurious spirituality; what belongs to nature he mentions without disguise, does not dispute what is due to a natural necessity, but insists on discipline and a hallowed method in the satisfaction of this instinct. We ought to be thankful for this sober teaching, equally remote as it is from a false burdening of the conscience through monkish perverseness (comp. 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, in opposition to a merely nominal marriage), and from a privileged explanation of immoderate fleshly lust. Nor are we at liberty to decline even the humiliation implied in the assignment of motive, 1 Corinthians 7:2. Zwingli: Paul does not altogether forbid the affection—quis enim sine affectu cohabitat uxori suζ?—but whatever in that regard is immoderate and disorderly.—What is essential in holy wedlock is the helping of one another to grow in the rule of the spirit (Rieger: sanctification with reference to God and His service); this Divine aim in connection with what is humanly noble, to be mindful of one’s own honor, and not less of the honor and dignity of the woman in a due regard to her personality. This requires a constant modesty; for the Divinely ordained instinct (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:24) is no longer since the fall to be regarded as uninjured (Genesis 3:7). Whoever abandons himself without reserve to lust, in his case it degenerates for his punishment into a ruling passion, of which he becomes the slave. 6. (1 Thessalonians 4:5.) That the Gentiles know not God (Galatians 4:8; Ephesians 2:12; Ephesians 4:17 sqq.); this statement seems to be contradicted, not merely by so many beautiful expressions of the heathen respecting Divine things, but by the Apostle’s own words, when he pronounces them inexcusable, Romans 1:19 sqq., for the very reason that they know God by His creation. But the principle of reconciliation is found in the last mentioned passage itself. When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and thus their thoughts became vain and their foolish heart was darkened. They held down the truth in unrighteousness. They consequently do not know God as the God before whom we stand, the Holy One with eyes of flame, who is Spirit and not flesh; whom we know only in proportion to our sanctification; for it is only when we are willing to strive after that which is the will of God, that we receive also the witness of the Spirit, and attain to the full knowledge of Him as the Searcher of our life. Even of men, whom we know merely by sight or from hearsay, not from personal intercourse, we do not say that we know them. In this full, living sense, therefore, the heathen know not God (τὸνθεόν, the one, true God). This is a guilty ignorance, of which the general and the individual guilt are in an inverse proportion. But even the better views—how fragmentary are they, and how little do they amount to an undoubting, salutary, popularly pervasive knowledge! 7. (1 Thessalonians 4:6.) Paul frequently brings together the two capital vices, lust and covetousness; comp. also Hebrews 13:4-5. Between these two diverging sins, there is affinity and contrast. Both are characterized by unfaithfulness, unbelief, as if God did not see or avenge—as if He were not a Spirit, nor holy. The man who is unfaithful to God in regard to his body, that nearest of possessions, is easily so likewise in reference to property of every kind, and vice versa. Or perhaps sin develops itself in a one-sided way. Libertines may be loyal and generous in money matters; honest people are frequently covetous, niggardly, bent on their own advantage. Indeed, covetousness is the vice of upright people, and is often joined to a pharisaic religionism; it is also much more rarely confessed than other sins. Binet gives us the statement of a Catholic confessor, that in twenty years innumerable sins had been confessed to him, but not in a single instance covetousness. Then perhaps, in circumstances of special temptation, the mischief breaks out also in the other direction. Not being thoroughly faithful, they have no power of resistance. 8. (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8.) The Divine call, and, along with that, the communication of the Holy Spirit, enhance responsibility (Luke 12:48). And indeed the final measure of all sin is not the injury done to our neighbors, but the contempt put upon God (Exodus 16:7; 1 Samuel 8:7). People are fain to put forward as an excuse their dislike to men.—Zwingli: The parson I will not listen to, the false teacher, the heretic;—such is the talk of those who do not dare openly to reject God.—To what extent may the cause of the teacher be identified with that of God? A wicked, hierarchical abuse is certainly possible, and occurs when the privilege of the teacher’s position is throughout, and without question, asserted as infallible; contrary to Matthew 16:17; Matthew 16:23; Galatians 2:11 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 10:15; 2 Corinthians 1:24. Nevertheless, Luke 10:16 remains in force, in so far as the servants of Christ take upon themselves, above all things, the obligation implied in this promise. And all penitential confession is complete only in the direct personal reference to God (B. li. 6 [4]); when the sinner begins clearly to perceive, that God’s commandments are no human fancies. The more light a man has received, so much the more heinous is his transgression. To grieve the Holy Spirit, with an ever-increasing constancy to do Him despite, may grow into the sin that is never forgiven. Comp. on this point my Discourse in the apologetische Beitrδge von Gess und Riggenbach, Basel, 1863. For this reason the exhortation, which began with beseeching in Christ, becomes at the close a menace pointing to the vengeance of the Judge. The gospel knows nothing of the idea, that the fear of God’s judgment is an inadmissible motive. Its preaching is throughout two-edged. AND 1 Thessalonians 4:1. To beseech, where one might command, a model for Christ’s ministers (2 Corinthians 5:20).—Heubner: The exhortation proceeds, 1. on the command of Christ, not of men (nor yet arbitrarily); 2. by His love to us; 3. by our love to Him; 4. by His future appearing—Burlenburger Bibel: God beseeches and exhorts, though according to His right and His power he might well threaten and command. Therein appears his kindness and love toward man [Titus 3:4], With so much the greater force should this gracious style of injunction shame and subdue the otherwise hard natural heart.—[See Bishop Beveridge’s Brief Notes on this verse.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Stδhelin: First holy, then peaceable; this will of God thou wilt not be able to annul.—Heubner: All commandments have one object, sanctification. The special Christian motives to sanctification: 1. It is an obligation of gratitude; 2. it is the sign of the reconciliation received [Romans 5:11]; 3. Christ is made unto us sanctification [1 Corinthians 1:30]; 4. we owe it to the world; without it, we do the world an injury, and dishonor Christ.—The same: The call of Christianity, a call to sanctification.—Burlenburger Bibel: To this point is the sum and substance of all Holy Writ directed, that the people of God should also live godly. It is not possible that an unholy person should come into fellowship with God, the Holy One.—[ For this is the will of God, your sanctification;—the text of Massillon’s third Sermon pour une profession religieuse.—J. L.] Heubner: Christ the Guardian of our chastity.—Chrysostom: Men are led to fornication by luxury, wealth, levity, idleness, leisure. These occasions must be cut off. In particular, he gives an impressive warning against adultery, as the consequence of the early practice of fornication. “Bear with me, if I seem to speak what is impure, as if I had laid aside shame and blushing; for it is with reluctance that I submit to this, but for their sakes, who are not ashamed of the deeds, am I compelled to utter the words. You are ashamed to hear of it? It is, however, the deeds that you are ashamed of, not of the words.” He speaks of these things, he says, as a surgeon probes a festering wound. “It is not youth that is responsible for them, otherwise all young men must be licentious; but we fling ourselves into the funeral pile.”—Burlenburger Bibel: A man may restrain himself from all outward eruptions of evil lust, and yet be inwardly full of the stench of the filthiest thoughts and desires. 1 Thessalonians 4:2. Who is allowed to say that he knows God? The man who loves Him, keeps His commandments, stands in sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6. The similarity and difference of the two capital vices mentioned by the Apostle.—Covetousness itself is an uncleanness. [1 Thessalonians 4:7. Leighton: It is sacrilege for you to dispose of yourselves after the impure manner of the world, and to apply yourselves to any profane use, whom God hath consecrated to Himself—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:6-8. Dread of the Judge and Avenger is not set aside even by the gospel, 1. Servile fear, indeed (Romans 8:15), hath torment and is not in love (1 John 4:18); but every one who does not fear is not therefore a child of God; better than careless or insolent frivolity, the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom 2. Nay, within the sphere of grace, it is needful to use it with fear and trembling, that it be not turned into lasciviousness (2 Corinthians 5:11;Philippians 2:12 [Judges 4]). 3. But the fear of God, the only Judge, is identical with trust in Him, the only Saviour and Protector (Matthew 10:28-31).—[Leighton: Men are ready to find out poor shifts to deceive themselves, when they have some way deceived their brother, and to stop the mouth of their own conscience with some quibble and some slight excuse, and force themselves at length to believe they have done no wrong. Therefore the Apostle, to fright them out of their shifts, sets before them an exacter Judge, who cannot be deceived nor mocked, who shall one day unveil the conscience, and blow away these vain self-excuses as smoke; and that just Lord will punish all injustice.—J. L.]—Berlenburger Bibel: The despising [rejecting] occurs also through a hypocritical faith, when the way of sanctification is refused as savoring of legalism. The flesh makes ever-fresh trials, whether it may be able to regain its old ascendency. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. Stockmeyer (in a series of manuscript Sermons, of which he has most kindly allowed us the use): Exhortation to sanctification: 1. Why is it still a necessity for a church even of true Christians? Their standing is already in sanctification, but they need to become ever more perfect: a. they are still far from having attained to the measure of Christ’s example; it behooves them to strive against the temptation to a self-satisfied stationariness; b. the tendencies to sin are powerful; earlier habits of sin still retain an influence; whereas no department of life is to remain unsanctified, and no toleration is to be given to stubbornness, indolence, excuses, or palliations; otherwise sanctification gradually expires, 2. What are the particular points made prominent by the Apostle according to the special need of his readers? the two capital sins of the heathen world, fleshly lust and greed of gain. a. To offer wanton apologies for the former is to sink back into heathenism, which knows nothing of God. b. The second is a reckless encroaching on one’s neighbor. Against this Paul warns, at the same time that he fully recognizes brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10); for a man may contribute to charitable objects, and yet all the while seek advantages in trade, that are an overreaching of his neighbors. But he who on these points is free from reproach, let him try himself whether there are not others, in which his sanctification is still defective. 3. What is the serious admonition with which the Apostle confirms and strengthens his word of exhortation? The pro-claimer of evangelical grace speaks of punishment from an avenging God. On all ungodliness of men rests God’s wrath; he, therefore, who scorns the way prepared by God’s grace for escaping that wrath, forsakes the way of grace, and must be overtaken by the wrath; yea, he is worthy of a far sorer condemnation than heathens and Jews, just because to him the Spirit was given. Yes, help to achieve the victory is proffered to him in the strength of the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 is the Epistle for the Sunday Reminiscere. Footnotes: So at least in the text of the American reprint. But, as the Commentary gives the first aorist,—αμεν, this is perhaps one of the too numerous errors in these otherwise comely editions of Ellicott.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:1.—[Τὸ λοιπὸν (comp. E. 1 Thessalonians 4 :2 Thessalonians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Ephesians 6:10; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:8, and see Exegetical Notes, 1. In this case nearly all the uncial manuscripts, including Sin., and modern editors omit the τό, as at 2 Corinthians 13:11) οῦ ?̓ν, ἀδελφοὶ, ἐρωτῶμενὑμᾶςκαὶ παρακαλοῦμεν.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:1.—B. D.1 and others give ἵνακαθώς, and resume at the end of the verse: ἵναπερισσ. [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott].—Sin. A. and others omit the first ἵνα. 1 Thessalonians 4:1.—[καθὼςπαρελάβετε (when we were with you) παρά.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:1.—Καθὼςκαὶ περιπατεῖτε is given by a large number of the oldest authorities [Sin. A. B. D. E. F. G., Vulgate, &c.; and so Wells, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, Am. Bible Union.—J. L.]; it was probably omitted as cumbrous. 1 Thessalonians 4:1.—[περισσεύητεμᾶλλον. German: noch mehr; Wakefield, Conybeare at 1 Thessalonians 4:10, Ellicott: still more; Sharpe, Alford: yet more.—In 1 Thessalonians 4:2, for ἐδώκαμεν, Sin. reads δεδώκ., with one or two cursives.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:4.—[ἐιδέναιἕκαστονὑμῶντὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦοςκτᾶσθαι. See the Exegetical Notes, 3.—Sin.1 repeats ἐν before τιμῇ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:6.—[καὶ προείπαμεν—again referring to the time of his personal ministry at Thessalonica.—The form of the second aorist, προειπομεν is given by Griesbach, Scholz, Ellicott* (?).—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:6.—[διεμαρτυράμεθα. The διά is recognized as intensive by many of the commentaries and versions. Beza asseveranter; Benson, Ellicott: solemnly; Macknight, Peile: fully; Alford: constantly; &c.—The ὁ before κύριος in this verse is wanting in Sin.1 A. B. D.,1 and is cancelled by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:7.—[ἐπὶ ἀκαθαρσία, ἀλλ’ ἐνἀγιασμῷ. See the Exegetical Notes, 5.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:8.—[So Macknight and Ellicott render τοιγαροῦνὁ. Comp. the E. V. at Hebrews 12:1—the only other instance of τοιγαροῦν.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:8.—[In both cases ἀθετέω; for which Erasmus and other Latin versions here change the spernit of the Vulgate into rejicit or repudiat, as many German versions (though not Riggenbach’s) do Luther’s verachtet into verwirft. The E. V. marginal rejecteth is preferred by several English translators, including Alford, in the Commentary, Ellicott, and the Am. Bible Union.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:8.—The authorities are divided between δόντα [the lect. rec., retained by nearly all the editors, after A. K. L. and διδόιτα [Lachmann, after Sin.1 B. D. E. F. G.], both with or [Lachmann] without καὶ. 1 Thessalonians 4:8.—[τὸ πνεῦμααὐτοῦ τὸ ἅγιονεἰςὐμᾶς.] The preponderance of authority is for ὑμᾶς [Sin. B. D. E. F. G. &c. the Syriac and other versions] instead of ἡμᾶς [A., Vulgate, &c.—Almost all the critical editions have ὑμᾶς.—J. L.]. [Vaughan: “Literally, As a remaining thing: marking an approach towards the conclusion of the Epistle, hut not necessarily a very near approach.”—Webster and “Wilkinson: τὸ λοιπὸνοῦ ?̓ν “Now then, what else I have to say is”; λοιπόν, “Let me say further.”—J. L.] [περισσεύητε—contrasted with the transitive περισσεύσαι of 1 Thessalonians 3:12.—J. L.] [Ellicott would explain the absence of the article simply by reference to the substantive verb preceding.—J. L.] [Ellicott [after Alford] says, “to the preceding θέληματοῦ θεοῦ.” But his previous remark, that one reason why τοῦτο, the subject, is placed somewhat emphatically forward is, that it may “direct the reader’s attention to the noun in apposition that follows,” naturally suggests the other and, I think, better view.—J. L.] [German: erwerben, for κτάσθαι. Jowett and Ellicott: get himself. In the Revision I suggested: possess himself of—a phrase which Vaughan has adopted. Wordsworth: “acquire and hold;” Webster and Wilkinson: secure the possession of.—J. L.] [I should say, a majority of all the commentators.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “and apparently the majority of recent expositors.” Most of the older commentators go the other way.—J. L.] [I must still question whether the above argument, however plausible, is quite as demonstrative, as has been supposed. As I remarked in the Revision: “If the writer really meant to say: ‘Instead of serving divers lusts and pleasures (Titus 3:3, δουλεύοντεςἐπιθυμίαιςκτλ.), and thus making the body your tyrant (Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2:19) and your God (Philippians 3:19), let every one of you seek to get possession and control of it, in a holy and honorable use, not in a vile abuse,’ it does not appear that such a construction would he in any respect more harsh and difficult than what is often met with; e. g. Romans 3:8; 1 John 3:12.” Comp. 1 Corinthians 9:27. Jowett: “The words ἐνπάθειἐπιθυμίας, though forming an antithesis to ἐνἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ, need not necessarily, when applied to the heathen, carry us back to κτᾶσθαιτὸ σκεῦος. In 1 Thessalonians 4:5 these latter words are lost sight of, and some general idea gathered from them, such as ‘living’ ἐνπάθειἐπιθυμίας.”—J. L.] [Luther’s Catechism retains the Roman Catholic arrangement of the decalogue, which divides the tenth commandment into two to make up for the omission of the second.—J. L.] [Per contra, Ellicott: “The clause is not merely parallel to the anarthrous εἰδέναι, but reverts to the preceding ἀγιασμός” (Ellicott on this point agreeing with Lόnemann), “of which it presents a specific exemplification more immediately suggested by the second part of 1 Thessalonians 4:4. First, πορνεία is prohibited; then a holy use of its natural remedy affirmatively inculcated; and lastly, the heinous sin of μοιχεὶα, especially as regarded in its social aspects, formally denounced. So rightly Chrys. (ἐνταῦθαπερὶ μοιχεὶαςφησίνἀνωτέρωδὲ καὶ περὶ πορνεὶαςπάσης), and after him Theod., Theophyl., �cum., and the majority of modern commentators. To regard the verse with Calv., Grot., and recently De Wette, Lόnem., Koch, as referring to the fraud and covetousness in the affairs of life, is (a) to infringe on the plain meaning of τῷ πράγματι; (β) to obscure the reference to the key-word of the paragraph, ἀκαθαρσία, 1 Thessalonians 4:7; (γ) to mar the contextual symmetry of the verses; and, lastly, to introduce an exegesis so frigid and unnatural, as to make us wonder that such good names should be associated with an interpretation so seemingly improbable.” So Alford and Jowett. Comp. Notes z and b in the Revision of this verse.—J. L.] [Our Translators, following the Bishops’ Bible, seem to have taken τούτων as masculine, for the transgressors (Wells, Barnes, Sharpe, Conybeare), or for the injured parties. But all the other older English versions have the word things, and nearly all commentators agree in making the pronoun neuter.—Our author’s remark on πάνταταῦτα—made frequently by those who take his view of to τὸ μὴ ὑπερβ. κ.τ.λ.—is of no weight. Why may not the reference be to the various forms of fleshly uncleanness?—J. L.] [See Critical Note 11.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “a man, any man, with a latent reference to the Apostle.”—J. L.] [The author brackets the καὶ also in the translation. See Critical Note 12.—J. L.] [German: niederhalten, for κατεχόντων.—J. L.] II Incitement to growth in brotherly love, and, that lore be not prejudiced, to quiet and sober industry 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12. 9But as touching [But concerning, περὶ δέ] brotherly love ye need not that I write [have no need that one write] unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another: 10and indeed ye [for ye also, καὶ γάρ] do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia [that are in the whole of M.]: but we beseech [exhort] you, brethren, that ye increase more and more [to abound yet more], 11and that ye [and to] study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as [according as, καθώς] we commanded you; 12that ye may walk honestly [becomingly] toward them that are without [those without, τοὺςἔξω], and that ye may [and may] have lack [need] of nothing. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10.) But concerning brotherly love, &c.—The exhortation here turns to a new side of sanctification. Brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 3:12) is love to our fellow-Christians, who have the same Father (1 John 5:1), and is the centre of love to all men (2 Peter 1:7), the Christian loving generally his neighbors on account of the hope, to which he knows and believes them to be called (Colossians 1:4-29). The proof of love which Paul praises in the Thessalonians (ποιεῖτε, 1 Thessalonians 4:10), is perhaps chiefly, yet not exclusively, the rendering of actual help to those in distress.—The reading ἔχετε with γράφειν Lόnemann declares to be meaningless. But the two variations, ἔχομεν or γράφεσθαι might still suggest as the more difficult the reading rejected by Lόnemann. As the subject of γράφειν we must supply ἡμᾶς, or assume that it is used impersonally: that one write unto you (of the writing to you ye have no need). Regularly it would be in the passive, as at 1 Thessalonians 5:1 (Hebrews 5:12, τοῦ διδάσκεινυμᾶςτινά̔ ?, is, of course, somewhat different). On the use of the infinitive active, where the passive might have been expected, comp. Winer, § 44. 8, Note 1. Lόnemann, indeed, would allow of the application of this rule only where the infinitive is used simply as a substantive, not where it governs a case.—Olshausen (with the reading ἔχομεν) finds the antithesis: When God teaches you, I may be silent. But ἔχετε likewise gives an antithesis: Ye need not that one write unto you; for ye yourselves are, &c. Taught of God, θεοδίδακτο not respecting God, but according to the analogy of such compounds, by God (comp. John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:34; Psalms 16:1); not merely, that is, historically, out of God’s word in the Old Testament, or from Jesus’ commandment of love (John 13), or through the prophets amongst you (1 Thessalonians 5:20), but inwardly through the Holy Ghost (1 Thessalonians 4:8).—Εἰςτό, as 1 Thessalonians 3:10 and several times already, marks the end and aim of the teaching.—For ye also do it (the ἀγαπᾶν), and thus show by deeds that ye are taught of God. Toward [all] the brethren that are in the whole of Macedonia, not merely in Thessalonica; which implies a lively intercourse with the Christians in Philippi, Ber�a, and perhaps at small scattered stations, offshoots from the central churches. Of this zeal of love he must have been informed by Timothy. The interval since their conversion was long enough for the purpose (against Baur).—But why was it necessary to write to such persons against fornication, and especially against πλεονεξία, according to our view? Was not this excluded beforehand by brotherly love? Well, the very purpose of his warning is, that temptation should not overthrow them. He certainly makes no such reproach as: “There are amongst you many πόρνοι;” nor yet: “many πλεονέκται; “merely this: “You might be threatened with it; temptation is strong; “and even with a good disposition a man, whose integrity is not perfect, may deceive himself in regard to prevailing sins. It is with individuals that the evil begins (a little leaven, &c, 1 Corinthians 5:6); and there are particular sinful tendencies, the criminality of which is less recognized (again: a little leaven). There are, in fact, inward contradictions, imperfect conditions; and so even a tendency to uncleanness, to greediness, where there is yet, on the other hand, a zealous love. Now, the Apostle would strengthen them, while he writes encouragingly: You know truly what brotherly love requires, and act accordingly; only it is still important, that ye become ever more perfect; then too will you be ever less in danger from πλεονεξία. Thus in “Ye have no need that one write unto you” we have no mere figure of speech (transitio; [Chrysostom, Theophylact, Pelt, Lόnemann, Ellicott]), no delicate turn of mere urbanitas [Schott], but what was intended as a serious acknowledgment of the actual existence amongst them in power of brotherly love. The figure of speech is real; it appeals to what is already true of them, and then says: Go on, improve (so De Wette). To abound yet more, was the general exhortation of 1 Thessalonians 4:1; it recurs in 1 Thessalonians 4:10 in this particular relation;—in brotherly love, not in a mere outward spending for cases of necessity. (Unnatural is Ewald’s reference of περισσεύειν to what follows: Yet far more and emulously to be quiet). 2. (1 Thessalonians 4:11.) And to place your honor there in [And to study].—We are not to supply from what precedes, in brotherly love. Opposed to this is the fact, 1. that φιλοτιμεῖσθαι commonly governs an infinitive, and most naturally, therefore, in the present instance, the immediately following ἡσυχάζειν &c.; for, 2. unless the latter be allowed to depend on φιλοτ., it would stand (awkwardly) attached by asyndeton. The word φιλοτ. has two meanings: to be ambitious, fond of honor; with the infinitive: to place one’s honor in a thing, to emulate, zealously strive (2 Corinthians 5:9; Romans 15:20). Here, in what? in something that the world does not highly value. Bengel notices the “Oxymoron: φιλοτιμία politica erubescit ἡσυχάζειν].” It is, therefore, instead of shining and seeking a false renown, to seek honor rather in being quiet; tranquil, calm in God (in contrast with a wordy volubility, Rieger); concerned about the training of the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4); comp. ἡσυχία, 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12; 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 2:11-12; where the opposite is περιεργάζεσθαι, πολυπραγμοσύνη], a loud, ostentatious officiousness—the driving disposition, which with its zeal about incidental matters affects a deceptive substitute for Philippians 2:12. This ἡσυχ, branches out in the sequel on two sides: a. τὰ ἴδιαπράσσειν, and b. ἐργάζεσθαιταῖςχερσίν which is not the same thing. The former—.in the classics, τὰ ἑαυτοῦ or ἑαυτῶνπράσσειν (see Wetstein)—is to attend to one’s own affairs, and so to serve God with fidelity in the calling which every individual has received for himself, instead of that bustling, obtrusive meddling with other men’s matters (1 Peter 4:15), in which spiritual conceit finds occupation. This, consequently, belongs to the spirit of the calling, according to its individual characteristics; and the manifestation of this proper feeling is to work with one’s own hands. The work does not jar with the quietness, but is promotive of it. It is only by a multiplicity of aims that the quietness is disturbed. With the hands, as Paul did (1 Thessalonians 2:9; Acts 20:34).—According as we commanded you. This exhortation, therefore, belonged also to the commandments which he had given from the first (1 Thessalonians 4:2); comp. 2 Thessalonians 3:10. From the beginning he clearly foresaw the possibility of an unwholesome deterioration; nor did this require longer time for its development (against Baur). Most of the Thessalonians, it is probable, were literally handicraftsmen, and hence the expression, from which then follows an application of the principle to every calling. But even spiritual employments were connected with manual labor (Paul). And in Psalms 90:17 the expression, the work of our hands, goes beyond mere handicraft. 3. (1 Thessalonians 4:12.) That ye, &c.—This statement of the purpose is by Ewald made dependent on παρηγγείλαμεν, and so on the parenthetical clause; better by Lόnemann, Hofmann and others, on the verb of the principal clause, παρακαλοῦμεν—φιλοτιμ &c.; it not merely was, but it still is, the object of his exhortation. This object likewise again divides itself into propriety, seemliness of deportment (1 Corinthians 14:40; 1 Corinthians 7:35), and a generous independence; such will be the result of a quiet performance of one’s own business, and of diligence in labor. The first thought was of God; then come the brethren; and finally those without also are not forgotten. This was the title given by the Jews to the Gentiles by the gospel, to those who are outside of the true Church, whether Jews or Gentiles (1 Corinthians 5:12). Toward them also Christendom has an obligation of Love, the Missionary office (comp. Colossians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 10:32).—And may have need of nothing [or, of no one]. As people who earn their own bread. Μηδενός is by Calvin (nulla re), Bengel, Lόnemann [Jowett, Alford, &c.], taken as neuter: want for nothing [Revelation 3:17]; Lόnem.: “To stand in need of no man is for man an impossibility.” But the limitation of the idea is obvious from the context [so Ellicott]. If Lόnemann did not twist the idea into that of indigence, he would have to object to his own explanation, that it is not less impossible for a man to stand in need of nothing. Of course, it cannot absolutely be proved neither, that the word must be taken as masculine. The strongest argument is its proximity to τοὑςἔξω. To have need of no one—of those without? but to them they could least apply;—of the Christians? for this there is least in the context. We do best to take it (with Schott, De Wette, Hofmann) quite generally and without more precise definition: Through honest labor and quiet trust in God you will be free from the necessity of having recourse to men. Where an exigency arose invincible even by the most faithful diligence, there was then scope for the exercise of brotherly love. 4. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12.) But a question still remains as to the connection of the two halves of this section, and particularly of 1 Thessalonians 4:10-11. In the close connection of the two infinitives περισσ. and φιλοτ. by means of καί many, since Chrysostom, Theodoret, &c, have recognized the indication of an inward union; Chrysostom: It is the part of love, not to receive, but to give. Others otherwise. Many, as De Wette: I exhort you to grow ever in brotherly love, still to increase in your readiness to benefit your brethren, and also in your care not to endanger love through indolence, whereby you would become a burden to one another (1 Thessalonians 5:14), and would at last incur the blame of rendering it impossible, that all should any longer love the brethren aright. This would be said especially to the poor: Beware of Abusing this doctrine. Ye too may practise brotherly love, if ye walk orderly; ye too would fall into πλεονεκτεῖν through indolence, particularly that of a seemingly spiritual sort. But Lόnemann protests with reason against the division of the church into two classes. Even φιλοτιμ &c. is said to all, and the working with their own hands comes in only secondarily, being preceded by that about being quiet and doing their own business, which concerns all. Lόnemann, however, appears to be mistaken in regarding φιλοτιμ. as something new hastily fastened on, and having no reference to what goes before. The connection of the two infinitives by καί binds them together as one exhortation: Still to grow in love, and also in your zeal for being quiet, every one working out his own salvation, and faithfully performing also his external labor—every one emulously inciting his neighbor, and allowing himself to be incited, to fidelity; this too belongs to love (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, the new exhortation likewise is added with a view to saving brotherly love from being damaged; and even outwardly among the worldly-minded the opposite course of conduct would create offence, and so in that quarter also would violate the obligation of love (Hofmann compares Ephesians 4:28). The excitement, against which Paul has to warn the Thessalonians, is not at all of a political (Zwingli), but religious nature. They were adrift in a new world of ideas, and in more than one instance perhaps had thus been deprived of bread. Neander and most assume an eschatological complexion, as if they were absorbed in the kingdom of heaven. De Wette, on the contrary, would confine himself to pious excitement generally, because Paul makes no mention of the eschatological ground, but rather speaks quite freely (1 Thessalonians 5:1 sqq.) of the last things, and indeed in such a way precisely, as might easily through misapprehension occasion an increase of the agitation; which he would hardly have done, had the agitation already been of that character. He therefore confines himself to the supposition of an idle officiousness, proselytism, concern for the salvation of other people’s souls, &c. [Wordsworth also speaks of the spirit of περιεργία, and πολυπραγμοσύνη and ἀλλοτριοεπισκοπία as “characteristic of the Greek population long before the gospel appeared. Comp. Acts 17:21; 1 Timothy 5:13; 1 Peter 4:15; and the commentators on Juvenal, 3:61–70.”—J. L.] Still Lόnemann is right in holding fast to the idea, that the expectation of the last things, whereby earthly interests were reduced in importance in their eyes, had formed the centre of their excitement. To this, he thinks, we are led by the context, the transition to the eschatological question, 1 Thessalonians 4:13 sqq., being well accounted for by the association of ideas, and the writer then resuming, 1 Thessalonians 5:12 sqq., his practical exhortations (somewhat differently Hofmann, see on 1 Thessalonians 5:13). We only add, that even the section 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 1 Thessalonians 5:11 results in practical exhortations, against despondency, and to a sober vigilance. In giving heed to the νήφωμεν of 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:8, they would not be cut off from watchfulness and waiting for the Lord, but only from an unsound πολυπραγμοσύνη. The Apostle’s words, therefore, contain really nothing, whereby a spurious excitement, even if it were of an eschatological nature, could be increased. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 4:9.) Christian beneficence was a new virtue, altogether unknown to the heathen. “See, how they love one another!” was the saying amongst those, who still looked on from without (comp. John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 1:22; 3 John 1:5-6). But the outward manifestation must not be separated from its inner root, brotherly love. Almsgiving from sympathy with external suffering, doing good generally on principles of humanity, philanthropy, faith in mankind, these things are not to be despised, but must be distinguished from Christian brotherly love. In many philanthropic enterprises there has been exhibited a remarkable persistency that may well put Christians to shame; but frequently also motives of selfishness, calculation, ambition have betrayed a temper at variance with the Christian spirit. The Christian, understanding by his own case the ruin of man, knows that the deep est root of an enduring love, the true strength of an unwearying patience, the assurance of the highest aim over and above the mere outward relief, consists only in his loving his neighbors as sons of the same Father through the One Son of the Father. Wherever this life from God really exists in force, there is found the capacity of a vigorous, unobstructed love. And this is no spirit of particularism—as little so, or even less so than the Old Testament separateness of the people of God. Human perversity, it is possible, may turn it into a matter of narrow sectarian partisanship, and thereby vitiate love itself. The truth is that love to those, who are already brethren in fact, is the hearth at which the flame is fed, that we may further love those also who are still to become so. This brotherhood, however, does not stand in a formula, but in the life from God, of which the first token is a sense for what is holy. 2. To be taught of God is the great end to which all are called. God, who is love, teaches to love; “doctrinζ divinζ vis confluit in amorem” Bengel. With regard to the means: God’s word of the Old and New Testaments, expounded by its living preachers, is not to be refused; but it does not elucidate what is most vital, the immediate relation between God and man, between Spirit and spirit. In the consummation no one will teach his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Him, and that from their own experience of the forgiveness of sins (Jeremiah 31:34). This does not exclude, as the way to this highest end, mutual assistance, the edification of one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), the service, especially, of gifted members (1 Corinthians 12:8; 1 Corinthians 12:28); and this is the ordinary way, for the Divine illumination is not one independent of means, or magical, but an introduction to the historical salvation. But even now, in this preparatory stage, with the full use of means through instruction and education, a point is reached, where human help must cease, and those alone are made manifest as true disciples (μαθηταί), on whom the light of the Spirit moving in the word arises inwardly—for whom the lessons received from the word are inwardly interpreted, made illuminating, written on their hearts. Only an evil, hierarchical turn of mind regards with distrust this growth of an independent Christianity; to a godly-minded instructor it is the greatest joy, when he detects it in those under his care (comp. John 4:42). It is the Spirit bearing them witness that they have received a life from God, and shedding into their heart the love of God (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:15-16; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 5:6). It is a teaching, which is at the same time an influence, such as the law cannot exert. And, moreover, with the testimony that this is a Divine, holy, blessed, eternal life, there is joined an assurance that we have received this life from this source, and from none other. The witness of the Holy Ghost certifies to us that we are the children of God, and certifies us at the same time, that no otherwise do we become, or have we become so, than through being begotten of the incorruptible seed of the Divine word (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23). In the last passage likewise there is connected with this an exhortation to brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 4:9); comp. 1 John 5:1. 3. (1 Thessalonians 4:10-11.) We perceive the Apostle’s deep insight in this, that, after the warning against covetousness, he now also directs his warning to the opposite side, that they who are careless and indifferent in things of earth may not fancy that they are in no danger. Above all, a still inexperienced spiritual character may easily degenerate into a certain vain perverseness. What is true in the matter of mutual exhortation is recognized by Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:11); but it is something different, when a man pragmatically sets up for a guardian of souls, without warrant takes the brethren under his charge, gratuitously troubles himself about others—as if there were no longer need for us to work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling. A singular instance of this perversity is given by the Apostle, 1 Timothy 6:2. There is already a taint of unsoundness, when one connects the Christian character so closely with the outward appearance, that he values, for example, a simple, faithful nursery-maid less highly than he does a deaconess. It is not Christianity that is to be blamed for this, but the heart of man in its abuse of Christianity. True fidelity, again, in the care of other souls can proceed only from the man who looks well to his own. 4. With this fidelity in working out our own salvation the Apostle joins in particular, the faithful industry of humble labor in our earthly calling. He tolerates no neglect of the ordinary duty of labor under a spiritual pretext. A certain officiousness, which under pious pretences abandons itself to sloth, allowing itself to be supported by others, and giving most reasonable offence to worldly-minded persons, shows itself especially in great cities (Von Gerlach). (In the country people know one another more intimately.) Our passage is very important as pointing out the true position of the Christian in regard to the tasks of this earthly life. By example and exhortation Paul cheeks all shame of a false spirituality, all arrogant and sluggish pretension, as if Christians were too good to labor in the sweat of their face. He teaches, us to recognize the worth of industry. True, the Christian should have his treasure and heart in heaven (Matthew 6:19 sqq.); should not be bent on becoming rich (1 Timothy 6:9; comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 sqq.); should have as though he had not (1 Corinthians 7:29 sqq.); and yet he is not to suppose that he must flee out of the world (John 17:15); in the world to be kept from the evil, that is his aim; to seek, not worldly gain, but yet an economical independence; no religiose vivere in the hermit’s sense (Theophylact: Is fasting, or sleeping on the ground, to work with the hands?); no morality without the religious foundation; but at the same time no religiousness without moral authentication. Such is the apostolical order. The moderns, perhaps, were not the first to set this light on the candlestick, but our Reformers restored it to its place (bona opera juxta vocationem). Faithful industry is a test of humility and sincerity, a means of discipline and self-control. The sons of Indian princes must on their conversion stand this test. The objection, that Christianity disqualifies for a life on earth, affects not Christianity itself, but merely its unwholesome corruptions. History shows what a blessed influence the Christian spirit has exerted in all the departments of human activity. This is shown in the largest sphere, and not less in the smallest and most inconspicuous. Indeed it is precisely in this devoted fidelity that a main proof must be given of a sincere Christian feeling. 5. The Apostle is possessed by an earnestly expectant hope in the coming of the Lord, and, even when his business is to calm the emotions, he can not do it by saying to them like the wicked servant (Matthew 24:48): My Lord delayeth His coming. But what is great and admirable is the discretion with which, with all his liveliness of aspiration, he yet avoids all revolutionizing of this αἰών, and notwithstanding that he hopes for the Lord’s coming as nigh at hand, nay, on account of this hope, he only the more insists on daily fidelity in earthly things (1 Corinthians 7:20 sqq.). “O world, thou art for us too small!” This he understands throughout not in any monkish, but in a sound and sober sense. Sobriety consists in never neglecting our daily duty—in being at all times faithful in ordinary, every-day, petty and extraneous concerns, not indeed because the material of our labor, but because the exercise of fidelity on that material is of importance for eternity. Two men working together in one field, two women at one mill—such is the order until the coming of the Lord. The difference, according to which they are taken or rejected, is in their inward spirit at their work. 6. (1 Thessalonians 4:12.) With worldly-minded persons the predominant consideration has respect to their equals. Christians inquire first, as to God, then as to the judgment of their brethren who have some understanding of Divine things, and lastly as to what others say;—lastly; and therefore they are not entirely indifferent to that. This were contrary to humility and wisdom, which are willing to be told a truth even by the malevolent; and it were also a violation of the missionary obligation, and consequently of love. Roos: Give no occasion to those without to say, that faith in Christ makes idlers and beggars. Indeed, Chrysostom already mentions, that the heathen called healthy beggars Χριστεμπόρους. But not begging merely, a lazy enthusiasm also could not but discredit the gospel. This it was important to avoid. That the Church should be respected, that even her enemies should not be able to upbraid her with anything, and that no other reproach than that of Christ should rest on her (1 Peter 2:9; 1 Peter 2:12), is an advantage towards which every one must be careful to contribute his share, and a condition of a blessed outward efficiency. The gospel does not destroy, but sanctifies, the delicate sense of honor and self-reliance—fostering the independence of a character which has its foundation in God. This is something quite different from a haughty severity, and is quite compatible with the simple acceptance of that which God, in a time of Divine visitation, presents also by the hand of brotherly love. AND 1 Thessalonians 4:9. Heubner: Brotherly love was to be the most familiar thing for every Christian.—Theophylact: What is extremely important needs not to be taught; it is obvious to all.—Berlenburger Bibel: For what reason may the admonition about brotherly love follow that respecting continence? That we may understand it of no other than a pure love.—Heubner: The Christian is a genuine divine, taught by the Spirit, not formed merely by others’ teaching.—The same: He who does not practise what he knows, has learned nothing yet from God.—(Berlenburger Bibel: He knows it merely after the law and the letter, but not after the Spirit.)—The same: Not until God takes us into His school do we learn anything aright.—His teaching is at the same time a conferring of strength, pleasure, impulse. 1 Thessalonians 4:10. Wisdom unites encouragement with in citement.—Theophylact: Halt not behind expectation under the idea that you are already perfect.—Diedrich: True love never satisfies itself, and would willingly be urged to ever higher performances.—Starke: Thinkest thou that thou art already rich enough in love? Thou errest greatly, and art still weak in thy knowledge.—The debt of love is never fully paid off (Romans 13:8). The further one gets, the greater becomes his task.—Berlenburger Bibel: They who dwell together are neighbors to one another. But true Christians do not confine their love so narrowly, but spread it abroad to all. God is essentially boundless Love; the love of believers is boundless through grace. 1 Thessalonians 4:11. Von Gerlach: The Christian should live more inwardly than outwardly. The inner quietness will then show itself also in a quiet, industrious life, in which each man cares first for himself and those belonging to him, before he will help others.—This is not selfishness, but fidelity in one’s calling.—Starke: The spiritual or inner Sabbath of souls.—The obligation to work exists also for the rich; for women.—Rieger: A man’s mere intentions about some matter give him more trouble than the business itself. The one ensnaring thought of a determination to become rich is more fatal to quietness, than hands full of necessary work.—The same: Occupation and work are not hostile to quietness, but promotive of it,—[Barrow has two Sermons on this verse.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. True honor, not in the first instance from men, but from God, and so at last from men also; λְּ ?αεֹ ?γ, is an essential, weighty glory; δόξα, amongst men merely an empty show.—Rieger: Oh what a great thing it would be, if we could only restore to men the true conception of honor, and divert them from much false seeking for honor in what is sheer vanity; so that one should seek his honor in quietness, in the education of the inner man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4). Carefulness to please God supplies a stronger motive to an honorable walk, than ever comes from inculcating ever so largely the desire of honor. 1 Thessalonians 4:12. The value of independence, not merely from a human, but from a Divine point of view. Abraham, Genesis 14:22 sqq.—Berlenburger Bibel: Whoever desires much from the world must be its slave; which is not becoming in the royal priesthood. Heubner: Two reasons for industry: 1. The honor of Christianity before the world demands it; 2. A noble independence of human bondage exists not without it.—1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 is the Epistle for the Sunday called Reminiscere [2d Sunday in Lent]. Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 4:9.—[οὐ χρείανἕχετεγράφειν. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:1; and 1 Thessalonians 1:8, Critical Note 4.—J. L.] A. D.3 E. K. L. Sin.1, and many read ἔχετε; D.1 F. G. Sin.2 [Vulgate, Chrysostom, Lachmann, &c.], ἔχομεν, which is easier; B., εἴχομεν; 4 minuscules, with ἔχετε, have γράφεσθαι, comp, 1 Thessalonians 5:1. See the Exegesis. 1 Thessalonians 4:10.—[τοὺςἐνὅλῃ τῇ Μακ.] It is of no importance to the sense, whether we read or omit τούς after ἀδελφούς. Sin.1 is quite alone in reading ἀδ. ὑμῶνἑν. 1 Thessalonians 4:10.—[παρακαλοῦμεν. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:2, Critical Note 2.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:10.—[περισσεύεινμᾶλλον. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:1, Critical Note 5.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:11.—ιδίαις is wanting in B. D.1 F. G. [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott. The last—probably through inadvertence—retains it in the Translation.—J. L.], but is found in A. D.3 K. L. Sin.1 [Knapp, Hahn, Riggenbach, bracket it.—J. L] 1 Thessalonians 4:12.—[εὐσχημόνως Revision: “The use of honest as =honorable, comely (see E. V, Romans 12:17 : 2 Corinthians 13:7; Philippians 4:8; &c.) is now obsolete.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:12.—[Revision: “The word χρεία occurs 49 times in the N. T., and is nowhere else lack in E. V., which here follows the Bishops’ Bible.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:12.—[Or, as in the English margin, of no man;—which Riggenbach, and very many others, including Ellicott (in the Commentary, not the Translation) prefer. See the Exegesis.—J. L.] [A very questionable reference. The love there spoken of is love to the saints; and, besides, the διά of 1 Thessalonians 4:5 is best connected, not with τήνἀγάπην of 1 Thessalonians 4:4, but with ὐχαριστοῦμεν of 1 Thessalonians 4:3.—J. L.] [Besides that the τινά there is often read τινά, and construed with τὰ στοιχεῖα.—J. L.] [Lόnemann and Ellicott lay “the principal emphasis on the fact of their being already taught”—θεοδίδακδοι;—Alford, on αὐτοὶ ὑμεῖς.—J. L.] [φιλοτιμεῖσθαι—found also in Romans 15:20 and 2 Corinthians 5:9. Ellicott: “In all, perhaps, some idea of τιμή may be recognized, but in 2 Cor. l. c. and in the present passage that meaning recedes into the background.” In most versions and commentaries, however, it is retained, as by our German: die Ehre darein zu setzen; and Wordsworth: “The love of glory, the moving passion of the Greeks.…The Apostle turns the eager stream of their vainglorious activity, loving ever to be seen, and exulting in the foam and spray of its own restlessness, into a quiet lake of religious life, clear and deep, reflecting in its peaceful mirror the calmness of heaven.” And he quotes Isaiah 30:7.—J. L.] [Of course, this must not be strained so far as to contradict 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Ephesians 4:11-16; &c.—J. L.] III 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Instruction and Exhortation in regard to the Coming of the Lord 1 Thessalonians 4:13-181. They who have fallen asleep will rise again, and so at the Lord’s Advent will suffer no loss 13But I would [we would] not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [those who are falling asleep], that ye sorrows not, even as others [the rest also] which [who] have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [arose], even so them also which sleep in Jesus [so also those who fell asleep through Jesus] will God bring with Him. 15For this we say unto you by [in, ἐν] the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain [who are living, who are being left over] unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep [shall in no wise precede those who fell 16asleep]. For [Because, ὅτι] the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God [with voice of arch., and with trumpet of G.], and the dead in Christ shall rise [arise] first; 17then we which are alive and remain [who are living, who are being left over] shall be caught up together with them [shall together with them be caught away]. in the clouds [in clouds], to meet the Lord in the air [into the air]; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 4:13.) But we would not have you to be ignorant, &c.—This or some kindred phrase is frequently used by Paul, when he would introduce coma new and important instruction (1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1); Colossians 2:1; Philippians 1:12); occasionally also in communicating something personal, in which he feels a special interest (Romans 1:13). Here in particular he now begins to supply their deficiencies (1 Thessalonians 3:10) in respect of knowledge; in a very kindly spirit, in a way not of rebuke but of encouragement, there being no occasion for him to censure any deliberate perverseness. With a lively transition (as in 1 Corinthians 5, 12 and frequently) he leads in medias res. The Thessalonians perhaps had asked a question, or Timothy may have given information respecting their uneasiness about some of their number who had died. Whether these were many or few, or even none at all, so that they were, troubled merely by the imminent peril of death, they had no clearness of view as to their fate. On the connection with what goes before, see on 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 the Exegetical Note 4. Formerly Hofmann likewise so understood the matter; now (since what follows is not instruction generally respecting Christ’s return, but merely a consolatory addition with regard to those asleep) he rather assumes as the connecting thought their brotherly love in its anxiety about the departed. That ye sorrow not, he says; not: that ye be not excited. Ch. 5, however, adds still another admonition to sobriety. In questions of this sort no decision of exclusive validity can be hit upon.—Those who have fallen asleep (perfect), or those who are falling asleep (present; who are continually going to sleep;—as afterwards: the living, who are being left over, continually); so he calls the dead, by a gentle euphemism, 1 Corinthians 11:30 (present); 1 Corinthians 15:20 (perfect). Comp. Soph. El. 509; then the Septuagint Isaiah 43:17 for ωָׁ ?λַ ?α; Job 3:13, for ιָ ?ωֵׁ ?ο; Daniel 12:2, Septuagint καθεύδειν. But it is more than merely an expression to veil a terrible reality, nor does it denote merely the refreshment of rest, deliverance from earthly trouble; on the contrary, it is the promise of an awaking, now especially that there is an Awakener (John 11:11). We are not to think of a sleep of the soul, an entire unconsciousness. The figure is taken from the body, a dead man resembling one asleep. Zwingli, Calvin and others oppose with reason the Psychopannychians, whose dogma expressly contradicts other passages—the parable, Luke 16:19 sqq.; the promise, Luke 23:43 (To-day!); the apostolic statements, 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Revelation 14:13 (Blessed from henceforth—with the Lord). Even here the circumstance that Paul opposes to their sorrowfulness the resurrection, and only with this connects the being with Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:17), by no means implies that those asleep in Christ are not yet blessed, or are not with Christ, as Philippians 1 expressly teaches. He looks beyond the intermediate state, because he would offer the entire fulness of consolation, and that with reference to the anxieties of the Thessalonians, of which Note 4 will speak. 2. That ye sorrow not, even as the rest (of men, those not Christians) also (in comparisons, see 1 Thessalonians 4:5) &c., λυποῦνται; who have no hope. Here he speaks not exclusively of the heathen, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:5 who know not God. In Ephesians 2:12, indeed, it is specially the heathen whom he describes as strangers to Israel’s promises, having no hope (in the widest sense, with reference to all Messianic promises), and without God in the world. Israel, on the contrary, had promises and therefore also hopes, and if the Sadducees rejected these, there is yet in that place no thought of them. There is indeed, however, still a difference between having the promises and the actual living holding fast of the hope, and it is not merely among the heathen that the latter is wanting. Even supposing that he has them especially in his eye, it is yet not without reason that the expression is kept general. But the Apostle does not require that Christians shall not sorrow at all (Lόnemann: because the phrase is not, μἠ τοσοῦτονὡς, but simply: their sorrow should not be of the same sort as, etc. (καθώς, as in Ephesians 4:17. Hofmann [Wordsworth, after Augustine; and so most.—J. L.]). 3. (1 Thessalonians 4:14.) For if we believe, &c.—He thus gives the reason why they should not sorrow in a heathenish way; εἰ is not used in the sense of siquidem, but the hypothetical turn just so much the more challenges their assent: if, as we at least have no difficulty in believing (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:13); if we not merely hold it to be true, but build thereon with confidence (the meaning of πιστεύειν), making it the foundation of our life;—from this he then draws the conclusion, from which we in our ready despondency hang back.—That Jesus (he uses the human name) died (here not, fell asleep, but without any disguise he speaks of death). And did not every one believe that? Certainly we are not to assume here (with some Greek interpreters) a caution against a Docetic denial of the bodily death. Christ’s death and resurrection are really to him the two inseparable pillars of the faith: He died (for us, 1 Thessalonians 5:10), and what more? did he remain in death? no! died and arose; as the Firstfruit (1 Corinthians 15:20), He brought to light a victorious life. But he arose out of death, was not glorified without passing through death; not even Christ.—So also those who, &c. Οὕτως is not simply a sign of the apodosis (Olshausen), any more than it is so at 1 Thessalonians 4:17, but: so, as the Crucified arose (Revelation 11:5); or: so, as the consequence of that (Romans 5:12); still better: so, as made like Him in death and resurrection;—God will bring them with Jesus; it is not said: He will awake them. The turn which the apodosis takes is concise and forcible, the clause, if we believe, being followed, not by another of the subjective kind: so we believe also, but objectively, by a matter of fact: so God will do thus and thus. If this faith of ours is the truth, if on this truth of God we firmly rely, then it follows, &c. Otherwise Koch and Hofmann; if we believe expresses, they think, a condition: then, in that case, so will God—that is, bring with Jesus those who in this faith have fallen asleep. But this is a harsher incongruity than what Hofmann censures in the other explanation; it must then have been said: So will He, when we fall asleep, awaken us.—It is still disputed, to what διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ belongs. Almost all the moderns (De Wette, Lόnemann, Hofmann, and others) refer it to ἄξει, as being unsuited to κοιμηθέντας, which would require ἐντῷ Ἰησοῦ, as at 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ἐνΧριστῷ, and so 1 Corinthians 15:18; and because to say that ἐν stands for διά [διά for ἐν. So Jowett still.; also Webster and Wilkinson.—J. L.], and both for αְּ, is obsolete. But ἄξει has already its more precise specification in σὺναὐτῷ, and with κοιμηθέντας it is desirable to find their Christian character, not merely indicated by the context, but expressly declared (opposed to the view of Koch and Hofmann). The meaning, moreover, may well be this: those who fell asleep through Jesus, whose falling asleep is through the mediation of Jesus [Webster and Wilkinson: τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ?—the article referring emphatically to Jesus as presented in the first member, Jesus who died and rose again.—J. L.]; so Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, Hilgenfeld, and others. He will bring them with Him (Jesus)—this many take as pregnant for (awaken and) bring. (Through Jesus as Mediator God effects the work of quickening, John 5, 6) But it is still simpler, if we understand οὕτως as above explained: so He will bring them, when conformed to Jesus in death and resurrection, along with Him (as the Shepherd, whither He goes)”; Luther: thither, where Jesus abides; Roos: to glory, to rest, to the goal of their hope; Starke; with Him, when He shall come to judgment; Hofmann: when He brings Jesus into the world again (Hebrews 1:6), He will bring them, cause them to come, along with Jesus, will let them share in His heavenly manifestation. How he comes at this ἄγειν, is shown 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. 4. (1 Thessalonians 4:15.) For (to explain) this we say unto you, etc.—He thus illustrates what was said in 1 Thessalonians 4:14, first negatively (1 Thessalonians 4:15), then positively (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). This (what follows) we say unto you in a word of the Lord; ἐν, as in 1 Corinthians 2:7, marks the medium in which the discourse moves; not in my words do I speak; my statement confines itself within the sphere of a word of the Lord; comp. for the matter 1 Corinthians 7:10; 1 Corinthians 7:12; 1 Corinthians 7:25, and for the expression 1 Kings 20:35, αִּ ?γְ ?αַ ?ψιְ ?δεָֹ ?δ, 70. Pelt supposes him to refer to Matthew 24:31; to which Ewald adds Luke 14:14; Hofmann, Matthew 16:27 sq.; Zwingli and others, Matthew 25:1 sqq., John 5:28 sq. Theophylact and Calvin think of a word orally utered by Christ, and so probably a λόγοςἄγραφος, like Acts 20:35. But such a one is in that place introduced differently; and not one of the texts cited makes the special disclosure that here follows, respecting the relation between the dead and those still living. It is therefore more correct to think (with Chrysostom and other Greeks, Bengel, Olshausen, De Wette, Lόnemann) of a revelation from the exalted Lord, an ἀποκάλυψιςτοῦ μυστηρίου (Chrysostom, it is true, adduces not only 2 Corinthians 13:3 on one side, but also Acts 20:35 on the other). At 1 Corinthians 15:51 also Paul says something similar on a similar occasion; comp. Galatians 1:12; Romans 11:25.—That we who are living (here: in the earthly body), according to the more precise explanation: who remain over (are left over by God) unto the coming (return) of the Lord (that is: who live to see that coming), shall in no wise precede those who fell asleep: οὐ μή in the New Testament indifferently with the aorist subjunctive or the future indicative; Winer, § 56, 3. This coming (1 Corinthians 15:23) is coincident with Matthew 24:31; Revelation 19:11 sqq.; Revelation 20:5 (not Revelation 20:11 sqq.). Here we learn to understand the trouble of the Thessalonians. They sorrowed on the supposition that whoever does not live to see the Advent suffers loss (in the Fourth [in the English Apocrypha, the Second] Book of Esdras, Ezra 6:13, we meet with such ideas; see Wieseler, Chronol. des apost. Zeitalters, p. 250). But how did they conceive of this loss? Evidently Lόnemann goes too far, when from the words: Ye are not to sorrow as they who have no hope, he (as Calvin and others before him) draws the inference that they believed in no life at all after death, and supposed that the dying were absolutely excluded from the kingdom. That does not lie in the comparison, any more than 1 Thessalonians 4:5 : “Indulge not in lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God” charges them with not knowing God; rather, Because ye know Him, be not like those who know Him not.” And so here: “Sorrow not as those who have no hope; ye do have a hope.” He then reasons, as in 1 Corinthians 15, from the connection between Christ and believers, the Head and His members, as an indissoluble unity: “The Head cannot forsake His members.” He does not in this imply the existence of any deniers of the resurrection, as at Corinth; what we allow is simply that they suffered from dimness of apprehension. To the Greeks generally the resurrection was a difficult topic (Acts 17). The Thessalonians, indeed, expected with firm faith the coming of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 1:10; and in 1 Thessalonians 4 also it is presupposed). But the significance and operation of that event they did not duly perceive. They seem with Grecian fancy to have taken up the idea of the outward splendor of the appearance, without considering with sufficient earnestness that the Crucified One, who arose from the dead, will come again; the Conqueror of sin and death. Paul therefore reminds them of this fundamental truth, and thence infers that we shall not precede those fallen asleep, shall not be admitted to the Lord earlier than they. It is only by ingenuity that Lόnemann can here hold fast to his idea: Paul, he thinks, is engaged with the figure of a race, where those who are outstripped, and have to lay behind in mid course, do not reach the goal at all. But Paul does not intimate that he has here any thought of this figure; and besides, such a preoccupying of salvation, as would deprive others of it, is not within the compass of truth. This were a one-sided pressing of the figure of a race, that would turn it into an untruth. Rather, in saying: We shall not anticipate the dead, he lets us see that the Thessalonians cherished such an idea; but that this leaves open all the while an undefined prospect at least for the later comers. But what prospect? On this point their view is not clear to us, perhaps was not so even to themselves. Olshausen, De Wette, Hofmann and others suppose that they had no doubt about the resurrection at the final consummation, only they did not distinguish between the first and the second resurrections; that, in fact, they knew nothing of the first resurrection (of the just), of the hailing of the returning Lord by His risen ones, and of their fellowship with Him during the glorious period preceding the general judgment; that their idea was, that in the kingdom just at hand the dead would have no part; that, however, they really believed in the remote, final resurrection after the kingdom of glory, but found in that no living consolation. Still it is by no means clear how they should have mastered and believed in such a precise arrangement of all the stages of the last things (Advent, Kingdom of glory, Last Resurrection) with only the single exception of the First Resurrection at the Advent; nor yet how the Last Resurrection should have been of so little consequence in their estimation. Are we, then, to be driven back on Lόnemann? Not that either; but we suppose that Paul had powerfully preached in Thessalonica the coming of Christ to set up His kingdom, but had not had time to enter into all questions of detail. Now the Thessalonians, with a lively impression of this message, had yet a rather dim, worldly understanding of it, from their conceiving of every miraculous occurrence as rather simply an exhibition of power, and not duly considering that the path lies through death to resurrection, through decease to the new life. To be gathered unto the Lord (as even in Matthew 24:31 the resurrection is not expressly named)—for them this desire absorbed everything. Whoever lives not to see that, he suffers loss—such was their thought. They did not, like the Corinthians, deny the resurrection of the dead, for the Apostle certainly does not reprove them as he does those; and quite as little perhaps can it be asserted so positively as Olshausen assumes, that they believed only in the last resurrection; but whether there was anything, and what, still to be expected for the dead, this was to them an obscure matter; their whole hope and aspiration was bent or the one point, to remain exempt from death;—the thing that Paul likewise desired (2 Corinthians 5:4), but not so partially. This anxiety was such as could be felt only in the first period of instruction still imperfectly apprehended. (See the Introduction, p. 12. On we who are living, see Exeg. Note 7.) 5. (1 Thessalonians 4:16.) For He Himself, the Lord [Because the Lord Himself], &c. For, not that (Koch); he shows how there is no such thing as φθάνειν. De Wette and Hofmann would here, as at 1 Thessalonians 3:11, understand merely: He, the Lord; but here, as there, the Apostle makes an emphatic antithesis both of subjects and predicates; not: “We shall first come to Him,” but: “He Himself will descend,” otherwise no one at all would come to Him. Ἐν signifies in, with, attended by, as 1 Corinthians 4:21; Romans 15:29. Κέλευσμα (another form, κέλευμα) Luther translates Feldgeschrei [war-cry], and understands by it the joyful exclamation of the angelic host, “the Van and guards; “English Bible: with a shout; but more correctly the Vulgate: in jussu; for the word signifies a shout of command, proceeding from the leading huntsman, or from the pilot of a ship, requiring the rowers to keep time, or from a charioteer, or a general; Proverbs 30:27, Sept.; also Thucydides ii. 1Th 92: ἀπὸ ἑνὸςκελεύσματοςἐμβοήσαντες, where κελ. does not denote the battle-cry of the combatants, but the meaning is that at a word of command they shouted. Christ is, therefore, described as a victorious Captain, whose order summons to battle, for the destruction of His enemies and the extermination of the antichristian power (2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 19:11 sqq.). To this is added: with the voice of an archangel, summoning the other angels, the great hosts of heavenly spirits, who sympathize in man’s salvation, cooperating at the giving of the law (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19) and afterwards at the judgment (Matthew 13:41; Matthew 24:31; Matthew 25:31); which last event brings a consummation also for themselves (Ephesians 1:10). In canonical Scripture the archangel Michael appears again only at Judges 9; Gabriel is not so called, nor the seven angels before God (Revelation 8:2=Tob 12:15). Yet to the name archangel, prince of angels, corresponds the designation ωָׂ ?ψִ ?ιν, ἄρχοντες Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:20; and already Joshua 5:14, ωָׂ ?ψΞφְ ?αָ ?ΰΞιְ ?ηεָֹ ?δ, Sept. ἀρχιστράτηγοςδυνάμεωςκυρίου. By the archangel Ambrosiaster [Jeremy Taylor] and Olshausen would understand Christ, the Lord of angels; others still more unsuitably, the Holy Spirit; but he must be an angel, the highest amongst the angels, answering to the high priest as compared with the priests. Lastly, with a trumpet of God (the last, 1 Corinthians 15:52); this is not merely a nota superlativi, the very great, though it is indeed the Divine, and not a human, majesty that is antithetically described; but, besides that, we are to understand it thus: which is used by God’s command, in God’s service, which belongs to Him; De Wette compares κιθάραςτοῦ θεοῦ, Revelation 15:2. What should it be? How will it sound? is not to be searched out. The future reality is depicted in images of present reality. It will be heard, as the sign will be seen, Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:30. As to its import, it is the conclusive echo of Sinai, the highest form of all the signals, whereby the people are called together before the Lord, that by which the enemy’s stronghold, mightier than Jericho, falls (Numbers 10; Isaiah 27:13; Zechariah 9:14; Revelation 4:8. Seven trumpets). This is not a mere notion of Jewish Rabbis, but the prophetic word receives apostolic sanction. Lόnemann and Hofmann would understand the archangel’s voice and the trumpet as in apposition to κέλευσυα, but without reason. [Witsius, after Grotius, identifies the archangel’s voice with the trumpet as blown by him.—J. L.] We have rather to recognize three particulars, following each other in rapid succession: the Commander’s call of the King Himself; the voice of the archangel summoning the other angels; the trumpet, which awakes the dead, and collects the believers. [Dr. John Dick: “Three sounds are distinctly mentioned, but I do not pretend to know what they are.”—J. L.] The descent from heaven presupposes the ascension thither (Acts 1:11). And the dead in Christ shall arise first; ἐνΧριστῷ, though without the article, belongs to οἱ νεκροί (Winer;, §20, 2). He speaks here only of the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14), τῶντοῦ Χριστοῦ at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:23), who have died in the Lord (Revelation 14:13), qui in Christi corpore continentur (Calvin); not of all without distinction arising in Christ. The correction in Codd. F. G., οἱ νεκροὶ is not at all necessary. The same Codd. together with D.1 road (instead of πρῶτον) πρῶτοι; Itala and Vulgate, primi, which is altogether unsuitable, for the contrast here is not (as Theophylact and others suppose) between such as rise first and others who do not rise till afterwards; but between what will take place first (the resurrection of those who fell asleep in faith), and what next (ἔπειτα) occurs in the case of the living. 6. (1 Thessalonians 4:17.) Then we &c. shall together with them be snatched away, caught away; hastily, swiftly, irresistibly, by the overpowering might of God; this lies in the expression (also 2 Corinthians 12:2, though in a different application); in (on) clouds, as one received the Lord (Acts 1); not into the clouds (εἰς), but in the clouds (inwrapped), or on them (throned, as on chariots of God; Chrysostom); comp. Matthew 24:30; Matthew 26:64; Revelation 11:12; Revelation 14:14; unto meeting of the Lord, μִ ?χְ ?ψַ ?ΰϊ; instead of ἀπάντ. τοῦ κυρίου others (weaker authorities) give ὑπάντ. τῷ Χριστῷ. Both words, ἀπάντησις or ὑπάντησις, govern the genitive (Matthew 25:1) or (like the verb) the dative (Acts 28:15). Chrysostom and other Greeks: “to meet Christ, as persons of distinction meet a king to salute him, while others must wait for him, as criminals for the judge.” For the matter, 2 Thessalonians 2:1 is to be compared. It is a description, so to speak, of the Church’s Ascension, in which the Head brings His members to Himself. Possibly the clouds here, as in Acts 1, indicate a veiling of the transaction. But at any rate this rapture necessarily presupposes the previous sudden change (1 Corinthians 15:52; 2 Corinthians 5:2 sqq.), which is here only not expressly mentioned, but without which a soaring away into the air were not conceivable. Only by means of the glorified corporeity (Philippians 3:21) can such an event take place. Luther (appealing to Hebrews 9:27) insists that all men must once die, that is, leave this life and enter another. For those left over, therefore [die “Ueberlinge,” as if we should say, the overlings.—J. L.], the change would be their death. These shall not sleep, but in a twinkling will die and live again.—And, so (as those who have been caught away into the air, the risen and changed ones, or, still better: as those who have thus met Him) shall we ever be with the Lord; Hofmann: continually, not meeting with Him merely in transient or occasionally repeated salutation; σύν expresses the intimate union, μετά simply outward companionship. This is the main point of comfort which he had in view: to be with the Lord, inseparably united to Him. Thus we reach the ἄγεινσὺναὐτͅῷ (1 Thessalonians 4:14), the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9). But it is not in the air that this being over with Christ takes place (as Pelt, Usteri, Weitzel think, with a quite mistaken appeal to Ephesians 2:2 : the air as the region of spirits, but of evil spirits!). Only the meeting takes place in the air, not the abiding. Already Augustine (De Civ. Dei, xx. 20, 2) saw the truth: Venienti ibitur obviam, non manenti. The Lord is come from heaven, but not quite to the earth, so that a rapture into the air leads to His presence. He comes to fetch them (John 14:2-3) into the heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18), which is so called, not merely because it is of a heavenly quality, and even the earth receives a heavenly glory, but because at the coming it really transports the glorified into heaven; they shall be with Him, as Bengel says, non modo in aλre, sed in cζlo unde venit. Others think of a coming with Him to the earth to judgment. Hilgenfeld thinks that the meeting is followed by the coming with Him to the glorified earth. But that may even be reserved for a later date. In fact, the description is not one that exhausts all particulars; it is carried only so far as is necessary to make it clear, that the dead shall be in no way inferior to those who survive. (See the Doctrinal and Ethical Notes, 5.) 7. (1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.) We who are living, who are being left over.—Here Paul evidently reckons himself among those of whom he considers it possible, and a thing to be desired and hoped for, that they may live to witness the Advent; just so 1 Corinthians 15:51 sqq. (according to the correct reading of the text. rec., and also of the Cod. Vat.). The strange evasions, by means of which the Fathers and others sought to make out, that Paul nevertheless is not speaking of himself, are justly set aside by Lόnemann. (To this class belongs the explanation of �cumenius, that the dead are the bodies, the living are the souls; &c.) Nor ought it to be imput to him, that he uses ἡμεῖς merely in the way of communicatio (Theophylact: representing in his own person all who shall then be living), though knowing that he will not be present; of this knowledge we see nothing, rather a hope inconsistent with it. But it were just as inconsiderate to say bluntly, that the Apostle’s expectation has been plainly convicted by the event as erroneous; as if thus the whole eschatological prediction collapsed. In that case, indeed, Paul would be a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20 sqq.), and his appeal to the Lord’s word an untruth. This word of the Lord, as even Lόnemann allows, told him only generally in what relation the dead would stand to those surviving, not who belongs to each of the two classes; it was, therefore, not: “Thou, Paul, shalt be of the number;” otherwise he could not again have spoken doubtfully on the point at Philippians 1:21 sqq.; 1 Thessalonians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 5:9, and in still a different tone at 2 Timothy 4:6. Altogether, just as here, in speaking of those who live to the Advent, he says ἡμεῖς by communicatio in the sense of hope (Grotius: putavit fieri posse), he elsewhere says as freely by communicatio on the opposite side: “God will raise us up,” 1 Corinthians 6:14 (this alongside of 1 Corinthians 15:51); 2 Corinthians 4:14; comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:10; Acts 20:29. He expressly reminds us at 1 Thessalonians 5:1 sqq., that we know not the times and the seasons, and were not to know them; as the Lord declares even of Himself in his condition of self-denial (Mark 13:32), and as He represents to his Apostles (Acts 1:7). Had he meant to set it down as certain: I shall not die, that would really have been at least a knowledge of the χρόνοι; and not less so, had he asserted: I shall die before that, it will not happen in my time. Moreover, if ἡμεῖς expressed the definite expectation: I shall yet be there, it must equally follow that to all his readers of that age included with himself in ἡμεῖς he makes the promise, that they shall live till the Advent; which were indeed utterly absurd. Rather, he opposes the two classes to each other; here those asleep, and on the other side the living, those remaining over; he himself, of course, is among the living; but both classes are in a state of constant flux. What did not come to pass in the case of Paul and his cotemporaries, then holds good for those who follow after, and shall actually live till the Advent. Certainly the Apostles do all of them ex press often enough the expectation of the Coming as near; e.g., 1 Peter 4:1; 1 John 2:18; James 5:8; and Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:29 sqq.; Romans 13:11-12; Philippians 4:5; this, however, not as a dogma whereby the ignorance of the χρόνοι would be removed, but merely as a living hope and longing expectation. See Hφlemann, Die Stellung St. Pauli zu der Frage um die Zeit der Wiederkunft Christi, Leipzig, 1858; and the Doctrinal and Ethical Notes, 6. 8. (1 Thessalonians 4:18.) Wherefore comfort one another with these words; ὥστε with a following imperative also at Philippians 4:1; and so διό, 1 Thessalonians 5:11. The comfort should check the sorrowing (1 Thessalonians 4:13); with these words, which rest on the word of the Lord, not rationibus, argumentis, but simply the words of the evangelical message. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 4:13.) It is not sorrow altogether for the dying that Paul forbids; he rather takes it for granted that they will have to sorrow; only let it not be as the sorrow of the hopeless. Nowhere does Scripture overstrain unnaturally its demand, as if death should cause no pang. It merely rebukes despondency, as if God were not God, and home were not home. But strength of faith is not a thing to be commanded, nor can its triumph be enforced. Christ Himself shed tears, and Paul knew what it is to sorrow even for the dying (Philippians 2:27). On the whole (Starke): The believers of the Old Testament and of the New wept and sorrowed, but within such limits as the law already prescribed (Leviticus 19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1), and the light of faith illustrates. The Apostle requires no Stoic insensibility, no icy hardness. Calvin: “aliud est frζnare dolorem nostrum, ut subjiciatur Deo, aliud abjecto humano sensu instar lapidum obdurescere.” And for this reason hope is an important element of the Christian life; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; Romans 5:2-5; Romans 8:24 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 13. 2. The rest, who have no hope, are in the widest sense all who stand not in Christ, the only Source and Guarantee of true life. In the Old Testament is the sound of many lamentations over the life in the shadowy realm, as being no life, but as gloomy as in the Homeric songs (Isaiah 38:18 sq.; Psalms 6:6 [Psalms 6:5]; Psalms 88:11-13 [Psalms 88:10-12]; Psalms 115:17; Job 10:21 [and Job 10:22]; &c.); not because the right conception is still wanting, but because the actual curse of death is not yet broken. The gleams of prophetic hope (Psalms 16:9 sqq.; Psalms 49:16 [Psalms 49:15]; Proverbs 14:32; Proverbs 15:24; Proverbs 23:14; Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14; Daniel 12:2) are first realized through Christ. But it is especially the heathen, of whom the Apostle’s judgment holds good. It might, indeed, be a question here, as at 1 Thessalonians 4:5, whether he does not assert too much. For do we not find among all nations some hope of immortality? and among the philosophers, as Socrates, Plato, &c, elevated thoughts on that topic, and arguments in its favor? True; but, measured by the full resurrection-life, what a state of death is that which the heathen call the other life! And how isolated is the more cheerful hope, how slender its thread, how feeble its knowledge, for the very reason that it is founded, not on the actings of God, but on disputable, more or less problematical arguments, accessible only to the refined thinker. How weak are the Consolationes of a Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch! nothing but probabilities. Even now observation shows how those who do not rely on the written word, and, inquiring merely about the immortality of the soul, would thus simply recognize a permanent separation of soul and body (though this would be a permanent reign of death),—how these persons with all their arguments never get the better of their doubts; nay, how more and more the most decided amongst them no longer have or allow any hope. It were easy to bring together a number of disconsolate sayings from the classics; for example, Ζschylus, Eumen. 638 (648): ἅπαξθανόντοςοὔτιςἔστ’ ἀνάστασις. Theocritus, Idyll. 4, 1Th 42: ἐλπίδεςἐνζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοιδὲ θανόντες. Catullus, 5, 1 Thessalonians 4 : Soles occidere et redire possunt: Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux, Nox est perpetua una dormienda. Starke: In Plutarch’s time people mocked at the ἐλπιστικούς. It was an affected witticism of the dying Vespasian: vζ, puto deus fio. And this is as it should be; it is proper that we should not get to be certain of our personality, until we are sure of our God and Saviour. On this true basis, however, Scripture regards as normal the undivided life, when the spirit and the body are together; being equally remote from materialism, which seeks in matter for the root and strength of all spiritual life, and from idealism, which sees the most perfect spirituality in being released from the body. The glorified body as the perfect organ of the ruling spirit—this is the reλstablishment and consummation of the condition originally designed by God (Philippians 3:21). Luther: We shall again receive enriched and improved that which we lost in Adam; for we should have had it in Paradise (Works, ed. Walch, xii. 2628). 3. Death a sleep; Starke: (1) Because in both the body rests, the soul remains alive; (2) because from both the body also awakes; (3) because both are a desirable release from trouble and toil; (4) because after both we again joyously salute and wish one another good morning.—Still the likeness exists only for faith, not for sight. According to what is visible, the word of triumph: “O death, where is thy sting?” sounds frequently like a scoff. Diedrich: The death of those dear to us still confronts us often as a frightful mystery.—Not only does the Old Testament call him the king of terrors [Job 18:14], his name in the New Testament also is still the last enemy. A natural horror in the presence of death is expressed by the Apostle himself in 2 Corinthians 5, and is seen in Gethsemane. Corruption wears a different aspect from sleep. So much the greater must the Awakener appear to us. 4. (1 Thessalonians 4:15.) Paul appeals to a word of the Lord, like the old prophets (1 Samuel 3:21; Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 1:2); not as one who steals and deceitfully gives out the Lord’s word (Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 23:30); not as one who has merely adopted rabbinical opinions. (Whence, indeed, have the Rabbins the substance of their doctrine?) Nor does he speak in heaped-up images of a transcendental vision (when he really had such a one, with what modest reserve does he speak of it! 2 Corinthians 12); but his words have a clear and sober import. From the most intimate converse with the Lord he gives forth his explanations respecting the course of the kingdom of God, the crises of Divine providence, and its final issues: Ephesians 3:3; Ephesians 3:5 sqq.; Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:51 sqq.; and here. It is a weighty problem, and, God be praised! it is also a privilege vouchsafed in ever larger measure to our times, to bring one’s self into living communion with the prophetic word. Our very reverence for it should, indeed, restrain us from precipitate conclusions. 5. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.) Our passage furnishes no complete doctrine of the last things. In Scripture generally there remains over for curiosity a multitude of unanswered questions; and even the legitimate desire of knowledge must acquiesce. Whatever is necessary to salvation, and serves to further the process of sanctification, is nowhere wanting. In this spirit should the doctrine of the Christian hope be dealt with (Luthardt, die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, Leipzig, 1861). Our passage says nothing beforehand of the condition that immediately follows death; nothing beyond calling it a sleep. A preliminary judgment, an introductory stage of blessedness, is indicated by the passages cited in Exeg. Note 1. A being with Christ is there promised to such as die in Christ; yet must it be inferior in fulness and power to the life of the resurrection (comp. Revelation 6:9-11), without our being able to define precisely the difference. Paul takes the less notice here of this topic, from his having to correct the anxiety of the Thessalonians in regard to the disadvantage which the dead might be under at the Advent. What is of use to this end he holds up to their view. Nor does he in our passage go further. But it easily admits of being combined with other passages into a general representation. Now what Paul says of the Coming was understood by the Reformers altogether of His Coming at the Last Judgment; as by Calvin, in express opposition to the Chiliasts, though under the supposition, to be sure, that they teach the wild doctrine of a resurrection for only a thousand years. But even in the Apocalypse there is no mention of any such thing. If we take into view the passage in the Revelation 20:1-6, the question is, whether and in what way it may be reconciled with the doctrine of the Apostle Paul. An obvious expedient apparently is to identify the Advent here, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, and 1 Corinthians 15:23, with the return at the setting up of the (millennial) kingdom, and in like manner the first resurrection of the Apocalypse with the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14) or the gathering together of the elect (Matthew 24:31), but positively to distinguish this from the final judgment on the whole world (Matthew 25:31; Revelation 20:11 sqq.); this last judgment, including the general resurrection, would then be comprehended in the end of which Paul, after making mention of the resurrection τῶντοῦ Χριστοῦ, says: εἶτατὸ τέλος (1 Corinthians 15:24). More closely examined, however, the passages do not quite so readily admit of mutual adjustment. In the first place, at the text last mentioned no one without the Apocalypse would think, that this εἶτα embraces a thousand years. And for this reason, accordingly, the Reformers, disregarding the Apocalypse, conceived of the raising of the dead as occurring at one and the same time, and supposed that such passages as John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; 2 Corinthians 5:10 speak of a simultaneous resurrection of the just and the unjust, and that Matthew 24 likewise refers to no other coming of Christ than Matthew 25. In like manner, and this is the second point, Matthew 25 shows us the saved alongside of the lost, and says nothing of a first resurrection which had already, a thousand years before, brought the elect to glory. In our passage, indeed, and just so in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is entirely silent about those who are lost Calvin: The object here is, not to alarm the ungodly, but to heal the immoderate grief of the pious. The resurrection to judgment, therefore, might be thought of as contemporaneous with that of the pious, or on the other hand as following at a later date. Only it is to be noticed that 1 Corinthians 15 represents the raising of those who belong to Christ as something done once for all; then follows the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, after He has abolished all hostile rule. This does not sound as if still another host of those belonging to Christ would not share in the salvation till a later and final judgment, as must yet be the case, if Matthew 25 speaks of this final judgment. On the whole, as it is important to fulfil the condition on which alone we can be sure of salvation, so it is difficult, if not impossible, to set up unexceptionable tests, according to which some are made partakers of the first resurrection, others only of the second, who are nevertheless saved. After all, the relation might rather be this, that the Pauline statements, as well as the passages which speak briefly of the last day, the last hour (John 6:39-40; 1 John 2:18; comp. 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12), comprehend the coming of the Lord in one view, which the Apocalypse then distributes into various stages. But as the day of the Lord divides itself in the later revelation into a series of steps, so also the resurrection of those belonging to Christ, since the first resurrection by no means merely passes by the raising of the lost to judgment, but shows likewise a later resurrection to life as still possible. To the end belongs the glorification also of the terrestrial world (Romans 8; Revelation 21:22); and after that the saved have reigned together with Christ in the kingdom (2 Timothy 2:12), and have co-operated with Him in the judgment (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). That is to say, from their heavenly thrones (Revelation 20:4) the kingdom will pass into its stage of highest fulfilment, when God shall be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). In many places, however, these stages are viewed together indiscriminately. Such a comprehension of details, which are only kept apart by later prediction, meets us also elsewhere in all prophecy. 6. The last remark affords us light also in regard to the hope of the nearness of the Advent (see Exeg. Note 7). From the patriarchs down through the entire line of the prophets every one contemplates the future salvation as one whole, with all its details, without any one being able to say: There is here a want of perspective, an optical illusion. Rather, the living fulness of the future is conjoined with the varying standpoint of the present in one bud. The certainty, that the Lord is coming with His salvation, is so stirring, bright, overpowering, that the man who is full of it says: Quickly! The Assyrian period is Isaiah’s horizon, into which he sees Immanuel enter, bringing salvation (Isaiah 7; Isaiah 29:17). And again there was a delay of four hundred years, before the promise in Malachi (1 Thessalonians 3) began to be fulfilled. Prophecy is not the knowledge of the history of the future, but a contemplation of the essential steps of development. Instructive is such a passage as Ezekiel 12:22 sqq.; especially even because it is there shown to us, how long-suffering delayed the judgment, and how contempt of the long-suffering accelerates it. Thus there came to pass finally what for so long a time the prophets had promised and threatened, and the scoffers had scoffed at; it came, according to human reckoning, later than had been supposed, yet not too late for any one, rather too soon for many. And as the New Testament time came, so will come the final term promised by Christ and the Apostles. Yea, they declared with truth that it had already arrived. With Christ began the world’s last hour, and there comes none later, to establish another and higher relation between God and humanity. If the period of waiting for the revelation of the Lord has reached much further than the Apostles supposed, and even than the words of Christ gave them reason to expect (Matthew 10:23; Matthew 16:28; Matthew 24:29), it is to be considered, first, that in this very way scope was afforded for the development of the series of stages in His coming; and, secondly, that it behoves us to recognize long-suffering in the fact that, after the first step of the judgment (on Jerusalem), the second was deferred (2 Peter 3:8-9; 2 Peter 3:15). But, while acknowledging His sparing long-suffering, we acknowledge also that His government is so arranged as to admit of modification according to the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of men; that we are wrong, therefore, in taking, much more than we are aware of necessitarian views of prophecy. So much the more short sighted were it to say, that a disappointment respecting the date is proof that such last things are not to be expected at all. A denial of the world’s end would require us also to assert that humanity has never had a beginning; and this would imply that the life of humanity has no aim, and that the establishment of a perfect, holy reign of God is not to be looked for. But he alone is a Christian, who directs his life toward this mark. Of the time and the hour he knows nothing. “The Lord delayeth His coming!”—that he leaves the wicked servant to say; that the Bridegroom may tarry, he is well aware. There are also things that must still precede; not the conversion of the nations, but the preaching of the gospel among all nations (Matthew 24:14); along with this, the universal security of those who believe in no Advent, and by means of their unbelief are witnesses for the truth (1 Thessalonians 5:3; Matthew 24:37 sqq.; Luke 18:8); the apostasy of Christendom from the faith (2 Thessalonians 2). All these signs are perceptibly growing. The life of humanity, including the individual life, goes forward on the brink of eternity and to eternity. It is readily conceivable that the experience of a longer duration of the world, according to man’s measurement, has modified in some degree our views of the last things, and turned the eye chiefly toward the death of individuals. But only too frequently does this way of thinking assume such a form, that the longing for the coming of the Lord and the glory of His holy kingdom, as well as sympathy in the fortunes of the Church at large, is too much impaired. At times, on the other hand, and amongst the pious, when the life of faith rules in due force, we again meet likewise with the apostolic hope and aspiration in living freshness. That watching and hoping are so unfamiliar to us, is a defect. The more we become heavenly in our character and thoughts, the more also does the stream of human history appear to us as a hasting towards the coming of the Lord. 7. (1 Thessalonians 4:17.) The being caught away to meet the Lord is in the Irvingite interpretation erroneously explained in a manner that seems to bear the dignity of an inviolable dogma. Comp. the work, which otherwise contains many good practical exhortations, by E. L. Geering, Mahnung und Trost der Schrift in Betreff der Wiederkunft Christi, Basel, 1859. It is there taught (p. 55) that, previous to the coming tribulation, the company of disciples, who are witnessing for Jesus and waiting for Him, is brought into a condition of safety. Indeed, the saints will with Him judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2); their deliverance, therefore, through being taken away, precedes the Lord’s return; and on p. 60 mention is made of servants of Christ who are not, it is true, recklessly profane nor yet hypocrites, but still are not looking out for the coming of the Lord, nor striving towards it, and, as their punishment for this, have no part in the rapture of the faithful servants, but must undergo the rule of Antichrist’s reign. They have forfeited their title to be kept from the hour of temptation, of the great tribulation, which comes on all (Revelation 3:10). They might have been preserved and taken away from it.—This whole interpretation has at least no sort of foundation in our text. The German word entrόcken (to snatch from) might give the impression that it refers to the taking away from a threatening danger. But Paul speaks of a swift-coming to meet the Lord, without regard to the question whether this is before or after the endurance of tribulation. To the view of Christendom in general he holds up, as prior to the coming of the Lord, the coming of the apostasy, and the tyranny of the Man of Sin (2 Thessalonians 2). The keeping which the disciples need is not necessarily a being kept from the experience of this persecution, as if to be kept in the midst of it, to be kept while in the world from the evil—the thing which the Lord seeks in prayer for His disciples (John 17:15)—were a penal condition. There are various ways in which the keeping may rather take place: 1. by a previous death (Isaiah 57:1-2; Revelation 14:13); 2. by endurance of martyrdom without renouncing the faith (Matthew 10:28 sqq.; Matthew 10 :2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13:15; Revelation 20:4); perhaps also, 3. by remaining hidden, in the case especially of the humble class, like the seven thousand in the time of Elias (Romans 11:4). There may be a participation in the judgment by those caught away to the Lord (as assessores judicii, Bengel), without the interpretation which we oppose. Altogether it is possible to love the coming of the Lord Jesus, without adopting the peculiar Irvingite exegesis. To represent the two things as inseparable, and to determine accordingly the reward of being caught away or the penalty of being left—this Isaiah , 1. in itself a wrong, as in every case where a human dogma is set up, and salvation connected with the acceptance of it; 2. it misleads to a groundless confidence, and is a sort of illusory promise, that is not free from an effeminate fear of suffering. Comp. Luthardt, l. c. p. 37 sqq. AND 1 Thessalonians 4:13. It is a heathenish ignorance of which a Christian must be ashamed, when he knows nothing of hope for the dead.—He who does not believe is ignorant; faith is not opposed to knowledge.—Zwingli: When we fear death, it is a sure sign that we have no love to God.—In so far as there is still selfishness in our love, and for that reason discomposure at the death of our friends, to the same extent are we not yet duly taught of God. Death a sleep, but only through Christ; and only for faith, which knows the Awakener.—Roos: Death has an entrance, and also an outlet. We must and we desire to go the way that Christ went. Scripture does not forbid us to mourn, but only to mourn as those without hope.—Rieger: By the examples of others, that nearly concern us, the thoughts of our hearts are revealed to us—our own dying agony.—Luther: Holy Scripture not merely indulges, but commends and praises those who are sorrowful, and lament for the dead (Abraham, Joseph, the people at the death of Aaron and Moses). The Apostle simply distinguishes between the mourning of the heathen and that of Christians.—The same: It is an artificial virtue and fictitious fortitude of heathens and schismatics, when they pretend that we must entirely extract what is creaturely in us, and hold no terms with nature. Such a hard heart has never truly loved, and would fain dissemble before people. He is a Christian, who, while experiencing sorrow, yet so restrains himself therein that the spirit rules over the flesh.—We are allowed to weep for death. It is one thing, when Christ, who wept Himself, dries our tears, and another thing, when men would forbid them to flow. But we have no occasion to weep for the lot of those who have fallen asleep in the Lord. Whoever laments without measure or restraint, acts as a heathen acts.—Bengel: The effect of the Christian faith is neither to abolish nor yet to aggravate grief for the dead, but gently to moderate it.—Diedrich: We need not be in a state of fearful uncertainty about any Christian, whether living or dead.—Heubner: Christianity teaches men to rise superior to natural sorrow, yea, to rejoice therein.—The ancient Christians called the day of the believer’s death his birthday. [Ignorance of the truth and purposes of God, so far as these have been revealed, injurious to our spiritual comfort and edification. “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren”—a common scriptural formula.—Doddridge: Let us charge it upon our hearts, that we do honor to our holy profession in every circumstance, and particularly in our sorrows as well as our joys.—M. Henry: All grief for the death of friends is far from being unlawful; we may weep at least for ourselves, if we do not weep for them; weep for our own loss, though that may be their gain. Yet we must not be immoderate or excessive in our sorrows.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:14. Luther: Our death Paul calls not a death, but a sleep; Christ’s death he calls a real death, which has swallowed up all other deaths. [So Burkitt: Jesus died, the saints sleep. ... I do not find that Christ’s death is called a sleep; no, His death was death indeed, death with a curse in it.—J. L.]—Luther: If Christ is risen, that must surely not be in vain and without fruit.—[The text of Archbishop Tillotson’s Sermon on “The certainty and the blessedness of the resurrection of true Christians.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14. Rieger: The two main sources of all comfort, and of all resignation in dying, lie in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Revelation 1:18) Whatever is trying and severe in death comes either from attachment to the visible from which we are separated, or from the uncertainty in which we stand in regard to the invisible. The former trouble is relieved by the death of Jesus, the second by his life.—Stδhelin: If thou thyself wouldest not, or if thy friends are not to sorrow, see that thou fall asleep through the Lord Jesus.—Hast thou hope? 1. On what is it founded? on the belief that Jesus died and rose again; 2. To what does it impel thee? to a life in Christ, that we through Christ may fall asleep; 3. Of what does it assure thee? that God will bring us with Jesus.—[Bishop Wilson has a Funeral Sermon on these verses.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:15. Luther: God has spoken the word, not Paul out of his own head.—It is with the Apostle a great certainty: The Lord speaks through me. It is a folly that we find it so much harder to trust to the word of the Lord with our whole heart than to that of men, who are yet but dust, and liars to boot. As disciples of these men of God, we should endeavor, in what we say of Divine things, to say it as the word of God in the assurance of faith (2 Corinthians 4:13).—Luther: The voice or word of all teachers, who preach the gospel pure and simple, is not their word or voice, but God’s (Luke 10:16).—Starke: Man’s words have little power, but God’s word penetrates the heart, is strong to comfort, and endures in sorrow and death (Romans 15:4). The experience, that the coming of the Lord has been delayed longer than the Apostles hoped and desired, is indeed a severe discipline for us while waiting. It is nevertheless a weakness, when watching and longing are relaxed, and drowsiness seizes even the wise virgins.—Rieger: In the unbelieving world the feeling of security is diffused from one generation to another, and comes to its height amongst the last scoffers; and so, on the other hand, in the communion of saints readiness for the coming of Jesus spreads from one generation to another.—Berlenburger Bibel: The word is prophetic, and goes through all times.—Vietor (zwei Osterpredigten, Bremen, 1859, p. 24): In the world there is derision and laughter, when a man would say, that he knows not whether the Lord will not come during his lifetime. The world can conceive of nothing wilder or crazier. Passing on in unbelief, the world says: “The Lord comes not at all.” Passing on with a show of faith and a half-faith, the world says: “My Lord comes not yet for a long time.” Oh, see to it, that thy heart consent not to either speech. 1 Thessalonians 4:16. The Lord comes to take us to Himself; only thus can we come to Him.—Luther: What the trumpet is, I know not; we would not gloss Paul’s words, but let them stand just as they are. In another place: These are merely verba allegorica. He would fain represent the matter, as one must represent it to children and simple people.[J. Lillie: No phantom, nor providential sub stitute, nor even the vicarious Spirit; but the Lord Himself—the personal Lord—this same Jesus.—Vaughan: Not a mere amelioration, gradual or sudden, of the condition of the Church or the world; not a mere displacement of evil and triumph of good; not a mere crisis of human affairs issuing in times of universal blessing and happiness: it shall be a personal coming. Matthew 24:30; Acts 1:11.—J. L.] They who are asleep in the Lord are still, even as dead persons, always in Christ (Luke 20:38).—Starke: Whoever is found to the last in the holy life of Jesus, falls asleep through Jesus.—Comp. Psalms 116:15, and Luther’s comment, Werke, ed. Walch, xii. 2652 sqq. 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Starke: If we would one day be caught up to Christ, we must even now follow His gracious guidance, and lift up our heart to Him. If we would be, with body and soul, ever with the Lord, we must with our spirit be with Him even now (Colossians 3:1-2).—The same: All believers shall one day be near and with Christ, because, 1. such is His promise to them (John 14:3); 2. He has asked this for Himself from the Father (John 17:24; Isaiah 53:10-12); 3. He, the Head, and they, His members, are inseparable (Ephesians 1:22-23; Romans 8:38-39).—Rieger: To be forever with the Lord is a brief but comprehensive description of eternal life. When kept as seed-corn in the heart, not stowed away as knowledge in the head; when fruitful in love to Jesus and in patience under suffering, not directed to glorying over others, these truths will evidence their consolatory power, and may also be suitably applied in mutual exhortation. Oh, the preciousness of communion with Jesus, and of that boast of faith: Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s! [M. Henry: It will be some part of their felicity, that all the saints shall meet together, and remain together forever: but the principal happiness of heaven is this, to he with the Lord, to see Him, live with Him, and enjoy Him forever.—Dr. Donne has a sermon on this verse.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 4:18.—Zwingli: This is a quite different consolation from: Provide for so many soul-masses; Call in so many priests.—But (Berlenburger Bibel): It is also a false consolation to suppose it to be a settled matter, that every one through death enters heaven.—It is not death that saves us, but Christ through death, and at last from death. They who have died through Him unto sin, and have spiritually risen with Him, may be sure that they shall also live with Him in the body. So likewise the talk about meeting again, when we do not rely on Christ, and are not united in Christ with them that are His, is a very weak and delusive consolation. We should indeed maintain a union in heart with our dead, but in Christ the Lord; as those introduced into connection with the unimpaired Bible order of salvation and the kingdom, in which hope rests on a living faith in Christ, and holds out to every individual member the prospect of the higher stage of blessedness only in union with the entire body.—Comfort one another with these words; with that, which will cause the kindreds of the earth to wail.—Heubner: The gospel is the true book of consolation. Entering this sanctuary, we enter a quite different world. We learn that our own personal concerns are far from equalling in interest the holy concerns of the kingdom of God. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ 1 Thessalonians 5:1-112. But when He will come, we know not; let your walk, therefore, be at all times watchful and sober. 1But of [concerning, περί] the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write [it be written]unto you: 2for yourselves know perfectly that 3the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when [When] they shall say [are saying] : Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon4 them, as [even as, ὥσπερ] travail upon a woman [her that is, τῇ ?] with child, and they shall not [in no wise] escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that [the, ἡ ?] day should overtake you as a thief. [For] 5ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day [all ye are sons of light, and sons of day]: we are not of the night [of night, νυκτός], nor of darkness. 6Therefore [So then] let us not sleep, as do others [as do also the rest]; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night [by night, νυκτός]; and they that be [are] drunken are drunken in the night [by night, νυκτός], 8But let us, who are of the day [being of day], be sober, putting on [having put on] the breastplate of faith and love, and, for an helmet, the hope 9of salvation. For [Because, ὅτι] God hath not appointed [did not appoint, οὐκἔθετο] us to wrath, but to obtain [to the obtaining of, εἰςπεριποίησιν] salvation by 10[through, διά] our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep [are watching or sleeping], we should live together with Him. 11Wherefore comfort yourselves together [comfort one another, παρακαλεῖτεἀλλήλους], and edify one another [one the other, εἷςτὸνἕνα], even as also ye do. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2.) But concerning the times and the seasons, &c.—Here Paul treats of the Advent from the other side, and exhorts us to be at all times composed and ready for the day of the Lord—equally remote from anxious calculation or impatient expectancy: Now He comes! and from the drowsy security which says: Not for a long time yet! How much of erroneous opinion, if any, existed in Thessalonica (but see 1 Thessalonians 5:2); whether they had caused a question to be put to him, and so forth—on these points we know nothing very precisely. The Second Epistle gives evidence of greater excitement in the church, not as if the First Epistle were responsible for that, but at most the misunderstanding of it, and, in particular, the want of attention to our present section. As here, the two expressions χρόνοι and καιροί stand together at Acts 1:7, and there too the Lord says: οὐχὑμῶνἐστὶνγνῶναι. In like manner Acts 3:19; Acts 3:21 puts the καιροίἀναψύξεως by the side of the χρόνοιἀποκαταστάσεως, &c. (Whereas Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 connect ἡμέρα and ὥρα). According to the old lexicographers and general usage (see Wetstein), the difference is that χρόνοι denotes duration, spaces of time, periods; καιροί, points of time, crises, the times appropriate to a decision, the epochs of a catastrophe. The plural is especially worthy of notice, as pointing to the possibility of a repeated alternation of periods of development and crises of decision, and so to a possibly longer duration. On this subject ye have no need that it be written unto you (see on 1 Thessalonians 4:9); at 1 Thessalonians 4:13 the Apostle found it necessary to remedy an ἀγνοεῖν; here is a recurrence merely of the need of confirmation, as at 1 Thessalonians 4:9. They have no need, not because there is no instruction to be given, not because they are already watchful (Bengel), but because, of what was sufficient for them to know, they themselves had already an exact, positive certainty; to wit, not of the when, that being altogether uncertain, but of something quite different, namely, the quality of the Coming, the suddenness of its arrival—the οὕτως, instead of the πότε. The ἀκριβῶς would lead us rather to expect a fixing of the time; there is something surprising in this turn: ye know precisely—that the time cannot be known! Indeed, that lies in the nature of the case; the day is to be a surprise to the whole world. There is no determination of the time—only of the signs of the time. This is implied in the distinction: as a thief in the night; at a time, therefore, when the secure are asleep, resting without care. If, instead of wishing to calculate dates, regard is had (and inquiry directed, 1 Peter 1:11) to the consideration of the signs (Matthew 16:3), this is not forbidden, but required, by the uncertainty of the crisis. The day of the Lord is a synonym of the Advent, 1 Thessalonians 4:15; but the former expression makes more prominent the idea of the judgment-day, and stands opposed to the time preceding, as of prevailing night. Then too it may be of longer duration than a day of earth, so that one can perceive that the Advent brings the dawn of that day. Already the prophets speak of the day of Jehovah, in which He manifests Himself in His Divine glory; Joe 1:15; Joe 2:11; Joe 3:19 [of the Hebrew arrangement; in the English Bible, 14]; Isaiah 2:12; Zephaniah 1:15 (Vulg.: Dies irζ, dies illa); Ezekiel 13:5; Mal. 3:2, 19, 23 [English Bible: Malachi 4:1; Malachi 4:5]. The reference is, indeed, partly to particular, preliminary judgments; but more and more to the conclusive final judgment. In the New Testament Christ is the Lord, who will appear in the day of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 1:8, and often. This day comes—oxymoron: as a thief in the night; so it is said of the day in 2 Peter 3:10; of the Lord Himself, Matthew 24:43 and the parallel passages; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:15; ὡςκλέπτης is quite strongly resumed by οὕτως: in such a manner it comes; Hofmann: such is the manner of its coming (not, as Bengel would have it: so as the following verse declares). It comes; the suddenness is not implied in the, present (Bengel); that might mean: surely and in the near future; it is better taken as a doctrinal present: such is the manner of it, without regard to the time, as 1 Corinthians 15:35. [Alford: “It is its attribute, to come.” Ellicott: “Its fixed nature and prophetic certainty.”—J. L.] The figure of the thief seems to be an ignoble one; but the Lord is not so nice. The comparison is striking, and describes the coming not merely as something sudden and unexpected, but also as unwelcome, terrifying for the worldly-minded, plundering them of that to which their heart clings, stripping them of their possessions (Hofmann). In the ancient Church there was connected with this comparison the notion, that the Advent would take place in the night, and still more precisely on Easter-night, like the Passover in Egypt; hence the Vigils (Lactantius and Jerome, in Lόnemann). It deserves to be noted, how closely the Apostle in his preaching at Thessalonica must have conformed to the eschatological discourses of Christ in Matthew 24 and the parallel passages; though there is no evidence for Ewald’s opinion, that Paul had given the church a written document. 2. (1 Thessalonians 5:3.) When they are saying: Peace and safety, amp;c.—“Ὅτανγάρ would explain the κλέπτης; ὅτανδέ would be a transition from κλέπτης to the description of a false peace: But this will happen precisely then. It is best to regard the description as going forward by asyndeton, and as in its very form representing the swiftness of the occurrence. When they are saying—these for whom it comes as a thief, the ungodly-minded, the people who have no everlasting hope (1 Thessalonians 4); Christians are people of no such drowsy slumberings (1 Thessalonians 5:4). The human heart longs for peace; but, where it is unreconciled to God, there it lulls itself in treacher ous hopes and semblances of peace, Jeremiah 6:14; Ezekiel 13:10. Peace, and a safety without danger, scil. ἐστίν. In the passages just cited from the prophets εָ ?αֶ ?θַ ?η is not added, but in the Sept. Deuteronomy 12:10, and frequently, this word is well translated by ἀσφάλεια. At that very time they are on the point of destruction, which comes on them as a sudden thing (comp. Luke 21:34); as travail (ὠδίν for ὠδίς, Winer, § 9. 2. note 1); οὐ μή, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:15. Very suitable is the comparison to a woman with child, and in the prophets it recurs repeatedly, Isaiah 13:8; Isaiah 21:3; Isaiah 26:4; Jeremiah 6:24, and often. The point of comparison is the sudden, inevitable occurrence of the rending pain, the mortal anguish; also perhaps (Calvin, Rieger): that they bear within themselves the cause of their sorrow; but not (as De Wette would have it) the imminence of the Advent, on the ground that a pregnant woman knows, not indeed the day and hour, but yet the nearness of the period. That is not what Paul would here emphasize, but, on the contrary, worldly men are to be represented as taken altogether at unawares; they might know that it is unavoidable, a little sooner or later; but they do not even think of the matter, it falls on them suddenly; moreover, the signs of warning are for them as if they were not, till of a sudden it becomes manifest that they were pregnant with their own ruin. (The view of the Greek interpreters also does not differ from this.) The figure is applied in another direction, when used to depict the pangs of the new birth with their favorable issue, John 16:21; Luke 17:33.3. (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5.) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, &c.—Ye, in opposition to those who are saying Peace; brethren, blessed society! ἐστέ with οὐκ, not μή, is necessarily indicative. He does not enjoin, but asserts. It is a comforting encouragement: Ye are in such a position, and that by a Divine right, that ye do not have to fear the day as a thief; ye are not in darkness, held fast, abiding. De Wette and others correctly: It is wrong to understand by darkness merely a want of intellectual insight, or simply moral corruption in practice ; both sides cohere throughout in the case of light and darkness. Ye are not therein, ἵνα—this is not equivalent to ὥστε [Jowett, Webster and Wilkinson], not even in Galatians 5:17; though in the Greek of the New Testament the idea of finality appears to be somewhat weakened (Winer, § 53. 6), it is yet everywhere present in some degree. Here it does not, as Lόnemann supposes, indicate the purpose of the Divine punishment, but, as Hofmann expresses it, that the being in darkness would be required in order to such a surprise;—De Wette: in order to have you overtaken;—it would be the unintentional purpose of being in darkness; comp. εἰςτό, 1 Thessalonians 2:16. Therefore, even if the day does come suddenly, still it brings to you no terror or loss (there is somewhat of greater emphasis in ὑμᾶς, over against the secure ones of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, when, as in a series of uncials, it appears prefixed; yet the Vatican and Sinai manuscripts are for the common position after ἡμέρα). Only on such as are in darkness does the day come as a thief; it is no longer said: the day of the Lord; nor yet: as a thief in the night; because now the day (the day of the Lord, it is true) is put simply as the time of light breaking in on the darkness (Hofmann). The various reading ὡςκλέπταΣ (not confirmed by the Sinait.) goes farther. Grotius, Lachmann, De Wette, Ewald, favor it as the more difficult reading, the sense being (De Wette), that the time of light, triumphant truth and righteousness, overtakes thieves, who ply their trade in the night; Ewald: On you the day need not come, as on those who creep in the dark, as if ye yourselves were night-loving thieves, robbing God of His gifts and His glory. The variation, however, is too generally neglected by the other manuscripts, versions, and Fathers, and the change of the thought, likewise, is too abrupt, it being only at 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:8 that we find the transition from the narrower to the wider conception of ἡμέρα. The reading is, therefore, properly rejected also by Lόnemann and Hofmann.—for (nearly all the uncials give γάρ), confirmatory of the previous negative by the opposite positive declaration: all ye are sons of light. He thus expresses his cheering confidence to a church converted with such wonderful quickness: Ye are so indeed on the assumed premises; saints, entered into a condition of salvation; though still deficient, and therefore not without need of fresh incitement (1 Thessalonians 5:6 sqq.). Sons, απι, is a Hebraism, signifying not merely the fact of belonging to, but descent, a specific nature: who from light have their life, Luke 16:8; John 12:36 (comp. Matthew 8:12, sons of the kingdom, there indeed degenerate). Light is spoken of in another application in the parables of the virgins, and of the servants with their lamps (Matthew 25; Luke 12:35).—And sons of day; a strengthening synonym, connected with φῶς also at John 11:9-10; over against night and darkness (chiasmus). It is not generally asked how these synonyms differ. It will be correct to say that day is the time of prevailing light, night the hour of darkness; thus light and darkness denote the nature of the disposition, day and night the corresponding outward circumstances, the ruling power, and so either the kingdom of light (of spiritual discipline) or the dominion of darkness (of ungodliness). Accordingly, where the inner man is in the light, there also is a wakefulness suitable to the dominion of light in bright day; but where in darkness, there he seeks also the night, a dark environment. Here we have the transition from the day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:2) to day in general. Moreover, the day of the Lord is essentially light, before which no darkness endures (Lόnemann); it puts an end, at last, to the darkness. The continuous state of day (χρόνος) is by the day of the Lord (as καιρός) brought to its crowning consummation. Only the man, who is a son of day generally, can expect with comfort also the day of the Lord, which is helpful to that, in which consists the nature of the sons of day, in obtaining the victory.—We are not of night, &c.; we Christians generally; the Apostle includes himself with them (ἐστέ, C.1 F. G., is a conformation [to the ἐστέ of the first clause]); the genitive now expresses, according to the Greek idiom, belonging to night (the ruling darkness) or to darkness (in our inner nature); comp. Winer, § 30. 5; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Hebrews 10:39. 4. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8.) So then let us not sleep, &c.—On his good confidence: God has wrought His work in you, he now rests the powerful exhortation: Let us also, then, not sleep (Ewald: fall asleep). There is cordiality, and encouragement for the readers, in his including himself with them in this. Of the sleep of sin he speaks also in Ephesians 5:14; thereby denoting the sluggish, dull, confused nature, unsusceptible of what is Divine, indifferent to salvation; as it is found in the rest (1 Thessalonians 4:13), those not Christians, the children of darkness.—But let us watch; γρηγορεῖν, a later word, formed from ἐγρήγορα, as (στήκειν from ἕστηκα. What is meant is clearness of spirit, the freshness of the sharpened sense, vigilant waiting for the Lord, circumspection over against the enemy.—And he sober, is frequently joined with watchfulness, 1 Peter 5:8, and often. As intoxication in the literal sense disposes to sleep, so is it here understood in a comprehensive signification. The innate weakness and sluggishness of the flesh of itself inclines to drowsiness (Matthew 26:41); therefore should we avoid what would involve us in the guilt of self-stupefaction, and of thus aggravating this tendency. Already Chrysostom remarks on the other side: Sobriety is the augmentation of watchfulness.—For—extends over 1 Thessalonians 5:7-8, and confirms the summons of 1 Thessalonians 5:6 : truly it becomes us not, to do as the children of night. In the night they sleep and are drunken; the latter referring to the custom of nocturnal symposia. It is too far-fetched, when Koch and Hofmann would from the first understand the night only figuratively: With those who sleep, and get drunk, it is night; no; when it is night, they do so; Bengel: a die abhorrent. But, of course, what is said in the first instance literally is meant as a simile: Where night surrounds them, there they haunt, and indulge their dull, sluggish tendency; nay more, they make the case still worse, by practices which subject them more and more to the power of darkness.—But let us, as belonging to the day, where light rules, walking in day toward the great day, be sober; here on the tide of the positive exhortation, this only is repeated, which it is incumbent on us to do, lest we deprive ourselves of watchfulness.—Having put on; they who watch are also clothed; they who are called to the conflict are equipped with armor. The inward, courageous preparation is the main thing; but that impels to the use of the right means. As those who have put on, &c., we should shun intoxication, which disables the combatant. The Christian, called to the fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), must be ready for assaults, and watch as a soldier at his post. To put on the new man (Ephesians 4:24)—the vesture which comes from above, and, remaining not on the outside, swallows up the old nature (1 Corinthians 15:54)—is the same thing as to put on Christ (Romans 13:14). That is his adornment, the covering of his nakedness, the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 61:10). But, with reference to the conflict, it is his armor (Isaiah 59:17; Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 10:4; and especially, for details, Ephesians 6:13 sqq.). In the last passage mention is made of the breastplate of righteousness, and, along with that, of the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. In our passage the figure has a somewhat different turn, such figures being developed freely and variously, while the fundamental thought is the same. Here the breastplate is called the breastplate of faith (on which, indeed, rests our righteousness) and love; the genitives are genitives of apposition: consisting in. And, for a helmet (this strictly in apposition), the hope of deliverance, salvation; genitive of the object, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3; Romans 5:2. Salvation is to be taken comprehensively, a complete redemption from sin and death. The equipment is here carried out only on the defensive side. Sobriety is of no avail, unless we are armed with faith, love, hope. Sobriety keeps us circumspect—shows us what we have to do; but it is only with faith, &c., that we can accomplish it. 5. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10.) Because God did not appoint us to wrath.—He confirms the ἐλπίδασωτηρίας: we have such a hope; that was the highest point of what was said before. Let us be stoutly prepared, for indeed God wills our salvation. This being God’s will, we may have hope. It is certainly, therefore, a confirmation of 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (against Hofmann, who translates ὅτι by that, and finds in it the substance of the hope, as in Romans 8:21; but there ἐλπίς has not its substance, as here (σωτηρίας), already defined). God did not appoint us, the Hebrew ωׂ ?εּ ?νμְ (Judges 1:28, Sept.), ordained, appointed to (John 15:16; 1 Timothy 1:12; 1 Peter 2:8). (Hofmann: brought into being, in order to perish—an unimportant distinction.)—To wrath, that is, to the endurance of it (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:6). God wills not our destruction, but our salvation. In His entire purpose there is nothing to harm us, and so neither will there be at the appearing of His day.—But to the obtaining of salvation; περιποιεῖν, to make to remain over; in the middle: to save for one’s self (1 Timothy 3:13); hence the substantive: gain, acquisition (2 Thessalonians 2:14; Hebrews 10:39). In a peculiar sense, 1 Peter 2:9 : people of the Divine possession [comp. Ephesians 1:14], Here too Theophylact would understand it thus: that He should keep us as a possession for Himself. But this does not suit the addition of σωηρίας.—Through Jesus Christ, might be connected with ἔθετο, but more obviously with περιποίησινσωτηρίας; Luther: to possess [besitzen] salvation through Jesus Christ. Hence no anxiety in the expectation of the last things.—Who died for us; that is the foundation of our περιποί. σωτ. as in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 of our hope; He died for us, for our benefit (ὑπέρ), or on our account (περί). Neither one nor the other is precisely equivalent to ἀντί, in our stead. But there may be cases where the ὑπέρ cannot otherwise be accomplished than by a doing ἀντί, e. g. Philemon 1:13; and it is really ἀντί that stands in the discourse, Matthew 20:28 (comp. 1 Timothy 2:6). As the object of Christ’s dying, the final aim of the redemptive work, Paul names a powerful consolation in death (thus closing the discussion begun at 1 Thessalonians 4:13).—That, whether we are watching or sleeping, we should live together with Him. That ἵνα, though after a preterite, governs the subjunctive, is explained by Winer, § 41. b. 1. This reacts on εἴτε—εἴτε, so that here also, as with ἐάντε—ἐάντε (Romans 14:8), the subjunctive is used (see Winer, p. 263). It is impossible that the watching and sleeping can here be taken in the previous ethical sense, for in the case of sleeping the ἵςαζήσωμεν would be forfeited. To understand it literally [Whitby, and others] would yield a poor result: whether at the Advent we are watching in the day-time or lying asleep in the night. It must therefore be equivalent to the ζῶντεςπεριλείπεσθαι and κοιμᾶσθαι, 1 Thessalonians 4; in meaning, the same as Romans 14:8; γρηγορεῖν is in this sense without authority; for καθεύδειν, comp. Matthew 9:24; Daniel 12:2, Sept. De Wette finds in this change of senses a violation of the rule of perspicuity. But what the Apostle means has always been evident. Von Gerlach, in deed, remarks, not without reason, that the sleep of death, under which we still suffer, is itself a part of the curse of the sleep of sin. But provided only that we do not καθεύδομεν in the sense of 1 Thessalonians 5:6, let us securely καθεύδειν=κοιμᾶσθαι (1 Thessalonians 4:13). There is in this a certain joyous, triumphant pleasantry: Whether at that time we have our eyes still open, or must previously close them, we are (as the result of Christ’s death) to live together with Him. By ἅμα Bengel would understand: Simul, ut fit adventus; but the necessary supplement would be, not: together, when He comes, but: together, when He lives, and that does not suit. Others (Lόnemann) take ἅμα by itself,=ιַ ?ηַ ?γ, all together, one with another (Romans 3:12); and separate from it σὺναὐτῷ; but Hofmann is right in connecting ἅμασὺναὐτῷ, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; together with Him, united with Him. It may still be asked, whether the statement means: We are now already living in fellowship with Him, and they likewise who are asleep are joined to Him; or: In that day, when His life shall appear, we shall appear as living with Him, whether His coming finds us watching in life, or sleeping in death. But the latter view, it is obvious, brings the thought to a more completely satisfactory termination. Again, as compared with ἐσόμεθα (1 Thessalonians 4:17), the expression ζήσωμεν shows a fine, truly Pauline, advance: To be with Him will be the true life out of death. 6. (1 Thessalonians 5:11.) Wherefore encourage [comfort] one another; as in 1 Thessalonians 4:18; only here, it would seem, the moral incitement to watchfulness is more prominent. Lόnemann finds the idea of consolation, after 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, preponderant here also. In the Greek there is no such sundering of the two ideas.—And (as the consequence of the παρακαλεῖν) edify one the other, promote one another’s establishment on the foundation laid. Grotius: Monete verbis, ζdificate exemplo; but Judges 20 comprehends instruction and example. One another; he does not in the first instance urge official obligation, as if everything was to be turned over on that; rather, that follows first at 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Εἷςτὸνἕνα, along with ἀλλὴλους, is good Greek. To read εἰςτὸνἕνα is unnecessary, and indeed improper (see, against it, Lόnemann).—Even as also ye do, comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:10. Noble young church, where such things can be said! Calvin: With this addition he avoids the appearance of reproving them for negligence; and yet he has exhorted them, because human nature at all times needs the spur. Go on so! A pithy energy, a morning freshness, a joyous hopefulness, are observable throughout the entire section. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.) In exact accordance with Christ’s teaching, the Apostle declines all close definition or calculation of the times, and points instead to the signs, which the disciples of Christ are required to consider. For those secure in their ungodliness there are no signs; on them the thief comes suddenly, the pangs seize them all at once. But they themselves are for a sign to believers who watch and observe. It is the triumph of the cause of God, that even the despisers must render it the service of their testimony. Stupidity in Divine things, security and self-confidence, increase more and more; as it was, says Christ, in the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26 sqq.). They ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage; thus Jesus does not once upbraid them with the scandalous crimes which they committed, but with that very thing in their way of life which was commendable, but which becomes hideous, when nothing higher can be told of an age; when its whole life is a worldly life, in which God is no longer taken into the account. A great increase of outward power and culture, reliance on science, industry, the conquest of the external world, lead to an arrogance that no longer admits its dependence on God. Les questions de disette ne sont que des questions de transport, they sometimes say. And because the threatened judgment so long delays, people regard it as a fable; mundum statuent ζternum (Bengel). But this is just a fulfilment of the prophecy, which gives previous indication of this very disposition.—Vietor: We will therefore carefully avoid saying: The Lord will come within such and such a time; He will come during our life on earth. But we will just as carefully avoid saying: He will not come during our life on earth.—How great is the injury done to the Christian hope by the first of these errors, in consequence of the rebuffs to which it is inevitably exposed, was made plain to many in the year 1836. It is, moreover, quite conceivable, that the course of historical revelation has somewhat changed the form of faith’s expectation, and accustomed many to think more of the day of the individual’s death than of the day of general judgment. The former, as well as the latter, comes on unavoidable, indeed, but unannounced. In this there is certainly a narrowing of the horizon, when regard to the universal consummation is too much lost. It were improper at each text to distinguish: Here the destruction of Jerusalem is meant; here the day of the individual’s death; &c. The prophetic view rather comprehends all judgment under the figure of one day, and yet itself shows us that the fulfilment is distributed over a series of acts. Thus at one time (Romans 2:16), the prospect of the day of judgment is (without discrimination) held out also to the heathen, who yet, according to the complete scheme in the Apocalypse, do not appear before the judgment-seat till the last resurrection; at another time, on the contrary (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54), the ἐσχάτηἡμέρα (without the distinction of a first resurrection) is described as the day of resurrection for believers also. We say therefore, that with the Advent the last day appears; but how long and how far it shall reach, on that point there is nothing prejudged; and instead of unprofitable, if not pernicious, calculations, it is the observation of the signs that is helpful in the practical life. 2. (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5.) The Scriptural ideas of light and darkness are quite different from those of the world. According to the latter, the thoughts become clear through enlightenment of the understanding, the life serene through art and culture; and very many revile the witnesses of the gospel dullards who binder the light, and the faith as a dark view of life. Now a truly evangelical sense will not shut itself in against any kind of knowledge. But (Heubner). The illumination, of which unbelief makes its boast, is darkness. The light of knowledge in Divine things is inseparably connected in reciprocal influence with the earnestness of sanctification; just as, vice versa, the corruption of the will and the blinding of the perception act reciprocally on each other.—Rieger: To be in darkness is to stick fast in ignorance, security, earthly-mindedness, indifference to the Lord Jesus, enmity against the light, repugnance to having one’s hidden things come to the light, and in this condition to be willing to remain (John 3:19 sqq.). But God is light, and begets us by the word of truth to be children of light, exciting in the hidden man a delight in the truth, which allows the evil there to be reproved by the light, and that which is wrought in God to be made manifest, thus withdrawing itself from the evil, and establishing itself on the good; and in this way is acquired a pure heart, and a single eye, to which the light is pleasant as its element, and so to a believer as a child of light, even the day, which makes all clear, becomes supportable and desirable (1 John 1:5; James 1:17; John 1:4; John 8:12; Romans 13:11 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; in the Old Testament, Isaiah 9:1 sqq.; Isaiah 60:1 sqq.).—For Christians the day has already dawned inwardly, though it does not yet prevail without. As children of light, they are now already doing that which shall be their everlasting employment, in the day which will make all things manifest. But there is implied an earnest work of renewing, if a man is to rejoice, and not be alarmed, at such a manifestation (Matthew 10:26).—It is also too little thought of, how great is the dignity of our calling, that is expressed in the fact, that the highest splendor of earthly glory, even of that of the earthly intelligence, is described as dark night, when contrasted with the brightness that shall be revealed in us; ov’ θ silenzio e tenebre la gloria che paasς (Manzoni). 3. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8.) The exhortation: Ye are so and so by a Divine right, and know that ye are so; let us, then, also act accordingly! is peculiarly powerful. Just so Romans 6:11-12; Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:5. First: Reckon yourselves to be what the operation of God has made of you; the righteousness of faith, which He imputes to you, do ye also impute to yourselves; then: Walk also accordingly. By this resting on the work of God’s grace the Sisyphus-toil of self-righteousness is abolished, and man is cheered, while at the same time his zeal also is stimulated. Here the exhortation is directed towards watchfulness and sobriety. From the tendency of the new nature, which has come into being through the Divine operation, proceeds watchfulness; and the task proposed is, that we cherish it by vigilance over ourselves, and so strive after a symmetrical and stable character. Intoxication, on the other hand, is an aggravation of the bias of the old nature, for which we ourselves are responsible. It arises from giving one’s self up to worldly glory, to the honors and possessions, the enjoyments and cares, the doctrines and tendencies of those who ask not after God. In 1 Corinthians 15:34 the denial of the resurrection is described as a debauch. It is a judgment, when God pours out to a people the cup of trembling. We should seek for holy, Divine reality, not ideal mist and foam of words. Whoever gives himself up to sleep and stupefaction, seeks for the night; that is, he screens and hides himself in the ruling power of the ungodly nature, attaching himself to companions of his own dark character. Where circumstances are suitable, and it is the hour of darkness, he gives his disposition the reins. An apostolic description of sobriety, on the other hand, we read in 1 Corinthians 7:29 sqq. 4. (1 Thessalonians 5:8.) Under the figure of armor, we have here a recommendation of faith, love, and hope, these three, as in 1 Corinthians 13; faith and love, as having a peculiar intimacy of mutual connection, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:6. Theophylact refers the love to Christ and our fellow-men; Theodoret only to our neighbors, and in such a relation this might be more in accordance with Paul’s usage (Galatians 5:6; Galatians 5:14; over against 1 John 4:10; 1 John 4:19 sqq.). Faith lays hold of the forgiveness of sins, and the strength of Him who is stronger than the world (1 John 4:4); love overcomes the evil with good (Romans 12:21), and precludes the rise of selfishness, bitterness, wrath, and hatred. The one cannot be without the other. Genuine faith is not a harsh dogmatism; it dwells only in a heart touched by the love of God, so that of necessity love grows out of it. A faith that does not justify itself in the way of love is not the genuine; it is a reliance on notions, instead of a personal trust in the God of grace; and through the inflation of knowledge it lays itself open to the enemy. A love, moreover, that loves not the life that is born of God (1 John 5:1-2), but spares the ungodly nature, is not genuine love. Only where faith and love are really and intimately one, is the Christian heart (the centre of all inward and outward life) secured within the shelter of this breastplate against all condemnation, against all thrusts of the accuser, against all devilish assaults. And that the blows shall not reach the head, that the Christian is able without fainting to carry it aloft in suffering and affliction, that he should have the power, in steadfast endurance and with clear thought, of looking the enemy boldly in the eye—this comes to pass only when he is helmeted with the hope of an eternal consummation of salvation and deliverance. Deliverance from perdition—such is the Christian’s salvation. Without the hope of it, faith and love also would be maimed. For a God that gave man no eternal hope were at the same time a God, that did not make Him the object of His eternal love, and would be no such God as man could personally trust in. 5. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11.) Here again the work of God and man’s doing are intimately conjoined, the former with the latter (see Note 3). By God’s appointment Christ died for us, that we might live with Him. Through Jesus Christ we may and ought to make salvation our own. He has accomplished it, and on this foundation alone can there be any mention of our obtaining it. We do not, however, realize its benefits as a matter of course, ex opere operato Jesu Christi, but only when we allow what he has done for us to work in us. To this end is mutual exhortation directed. 6. (1 Thessalonians 5:11.) The Scriptural idea of edification is something different from the sickly, effeminate excitement of the feelings, that is spoken of here and there as edifying. The thing to be done is to build the temple of God, to establish it on the right foundation, to fashion and fit stone upon stone (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 8:10; Ephesians 2:20 sqq.; 1 Peter 2:4 sqq.; Judges 20). Comp. Zahn, Etwas όber den biblischen Begriff der Erbauung, Bremen, 1864. The question concerns the dwelling of God in humanity, and the mutual adjustment, therefore, of living stones for a habitation of the Spirit. This is, on the one side, a work of God, which becomes ever more inward; on the other side, it is man’s labor, with an ever-growing fulness of earnestness, and with spiritual means throughout; both directed to the end that it may some day be said: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men! (Revelation 21:3). By word and by walk should we further one another herein. But it is certain that many an occasion, when without being obtrusive we might exhort, comfort, edify our neighbors, is lost by us through shyness and sluggishness, for want of faith and love. AND 1 Thessalonians 5:1. Zwingli: The Lord hides from us His day, that we may continually watch, and never relax through ease and the immoderate desire of pleasure; Calvin: that we may stand ever on the watch; [Burkitt: upon our watch every hour.... No hour when we can promise ourselves that He will not come.—J. L.]—Roos: Men frequently indulge a prying spirit in regard to truth submitted to them, and would know more than is needful for them.—Heubner: An unreasonable curiosity about that, which God has concealed, always betrays a heart not yet occupied with the man’s concern.—Von Gerlach: Nowhere do the Apostles declare that the time is long.—Diedrich: There is here no use in fancies of all sorts, but much harm is easily done. 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Te know perfectly, What? That the time cannot be known.—Quesnel: All knowledge respecting the day of judgment consists in believing, that we cannot know it. With this we must learn to be satisfied; it is really sufficient.—Stockmeyer: That the Lord cometh, let us hold all the more firmly in those very times, when there is the least appearance of such a thing ever happening.—To the careless it might be agreeable to know the hour when the thief comes, that they might sleep quietly till then, and have themselves wakened at the time. For such as love the Lord there is no need of knowing it; for He comes, indeed, unawares to them also, but not as a thief, but as a Friend and Saviour.—[If the approach of this day of the Lord is fitly compared to that of a thief in the night, stealing upon us we know not when, “at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning” (Mark 13:35), this seems to preclude the idea of a thousand years of millennial glory before its arrival.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Calvin: We regard as fabulous what does not at once meet our eyes.—Their thought is: It will not fare so ill with me; I shall be sure to look out for myself; am sharp enough.—Heubner: The treacherous peace of the unbeliever is founded on an absolute denial of the Divine judgment, or on the hope of its great remoteness. In this peace is involved the shocking consideration, that God is looked upon as an Enemy to be dreaded, with whom one is never happy but when let alone by Him.—Chrysostom: Seest thou how the devil has succeeded in making us our own enemies?—Livingstone found negro tribes who cried: Give us sleep! when they meant peace; and the explanation of it is their dread of nocturnal assaults. But the Christian’s peace must be a wakeful one.—Berlenburger Bibel: There is no surer snare of Satan, than when he is able to suggest mere thoughts of security. Of these is also that: God will not take matters so strictly; He is truly merciful.—Roos: The world would not be helped at all by an exact definition of the seasons and times; it would not believe them, and would sleep on in its darkness.—Stδhelin: if, then, thou dost feel no disquiet, and dost perceive no danger, thy misery is so much the greater.—Disquiet the way to true quiet. [Barnes: One of the most remarkable facts about the history of man is, that he takes no warning from his Maker.—J. L.] Starke: Here in the world the ungodly escape many a deserved punishment, since God looks on, and they who should have punished the wrong often fail to do so; but in that great judgment-day there will be no longer any forbearance.—Heubner: Here man has still the power of withdrawing himself from God, to wit, from God calling, warning, arousing; but whoever thus withdraws himself from Him, will fall into His hands as a Judge and an Avenger.—To flee from God, or to flee to Christ; such is the distinction between a wicked, worldly fear and the salutary fear of God.—Already the precursory judgments are frequently characterized by a sudden precipitation; so the flood, Sodom, Belshazzar.—Rieger: How much better and more advisable is it, to yield one’s self to the salutary pangs of travail, in which a man is born again to a living hope! [A spirit of indifference to this subject of the Lord’s coming, no proof of piety or Christian wisdom. The topic was full of interest for the children of God in the apostolic age; and the grounds of that interest cannot have been impaired by the lapse of eighteen centuries.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:4. It is a strong consolation, when one can truly be reminded of the standing of a believer, wherein by the grace of God he is set.—Calvin: Nulla densior caligo quam Dei ignorantia.—Stockmeyer: The Lord’s return breaks in on the horror of the darkness of sin, whether of a more refined or grosser form, like the clear, all-revealing day, when everything appears in the true light just as it is.—Christians, who can claim the Saviour as their own, are able to say: For us, He may come when He will; we are looking for Him all the time.—It is indeed a great thing to be in such a state of readiness, as is independent of all knowledge about the time and the hour. 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6. Stockmeyer: Happy the church, to which it can be said: Ye are all of you children of light and children of day! Am I so likewise? How do we come to be so? no otherwise than by a judgment, when we allow ourselves to be judged by the light of God.—Zwingli: We are ashamed to act badly before men, and are not ashamed to sin before God. Such is our wickedness and folly. Where faith exists in force, we shall be more ashamed before the all-seeing God, who is the Eternal light, than if a man saw us.—He who seeks the darkness involuntarily betrays his inward feeling, that he is not yet hidden (Psalms 139:11-12).—A special characteristic of the darkness is, that sins are no longer called by their own names.—Berlenburger Bibel: Wickedness must no longer be called wicked, but merely an infirmity.—Starke: The man who has not Christ, the Sun of righteousness, walketh in darkness.—But whoever inwardly walks in the light, for him the coming of the Lord serves to perfect his blessed condition with regard also to what is outward.—Stockmeyer: Blessed thought, that the perfect day is coining, when all darkness disappears, and we shall be altogether light.—[W. Jay: Three distinctions may be here made. Heathens are the children of night.… The Jews were all children of the dawn.… Christians are the children of the day.—Leighton: Base night-ways, such as cannot endure the light, do not become you.… O that comeliness which the saints should study, that decorum which they should keep in all their ways, εὐσχημόνως, one action like another, and all like Christ, living in the light... in the company of angels, of God, and Jesus Christ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:6. [Watchfulness and sobriety; frequently thus joined together, and commonly also introduced in immediate reference to the coming of the Lord; comp. Matthew 24:42 sqq.; Luke 21:34-36; Romans 13:11-13; Philippians 4:5; Titus 2:11-13; 1 Peter 1:13.—Christian sobriety, not torpor or inactivity.—See John Howe’s sermon on this verse.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:7. Eph. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 : Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.—Luke 21:34; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:10; Romans 13:13 : Drunkenness too belongs there; not merely the figurative, but also the literal.—Zwingli: Wine in excess stirs up many a commotion and passion in the body; it is oil in the fire. Similar to it is the deliberate fostering of the passions generally.—Heubner: Drowsiness is contagious.—It drags down like a leaden weight; so likewise in what is spiritual. Criminal outbreaks are not the worst; insensibility for the things of God, forgetfulness of God, proud self-sufficiency are more wicked. 1 Thessalonians 5:8. Roos: Art thou watching? Art thou sober? Is it day or night with thee? What is most required is, that we regard ourselves and all outward things with a spiritual eye, and avoid filling and loading body and soul with eating and drinking, impotent science, proud conceits, cares, &c. The Christian’s position that of a soldier.—Rieger: With a warrior much depends on the inward courage and the confident self-possession; but, besides that, much also on the equipment assumed, and the use made of it.—Calvin: Against our powerful foe weapons are needed.—The same: Semivictus est qui timide ac dubitanter pugnat.—Chrysostom: Not even for one brief moment are we permitted to sleep; for at that very moment the enemy might come.—Stockmeyer: We are not at liberty to take our ease, to unclasp the breastplate, and lay aside the helmet; otherwise the enemy spies out the unguarded moment,—Zwingli: Munimentum pectoris adeoque vitζ fides est.—Roos: Art thou clothed with the armor of faith, if a trial or a doubt will disconcert thee? and with the armor of love, if an offence will exasperate thee? Art thou impatient, when thou findest not thy satisfaction in the world? or hast thou put on the helmet of the hope of salvation? [Faith and love:—An unloving faith, or a love that springs not from faith, no protection.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:9. Roos: God has not made us Christians, servants of His, partners of His kingdom, that we should still after all experience His wrath.—Stock-meyer: The day of the Lord is one of two things, a day of wrath or a day of salvation. [Burkitt: It is the greatest piece of folly imaginable, from the appointment of the end to infer the refusal or neglect of the means.—W. Jay: He has not appointed us to wrath. He might have done it. We deserved it, &c. But to obtain salvation. Four things with regard to this appointment: the earliness of it—the freeness of it—its efficiency—its appropriation.—J.L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:10. Chrysostom: The mention of Christ’s death shows us whence come our weapons, faith, love, hope.—[W. Jay: How well does the Apostle call the Redeemer “our life”! Three modes of expression: we are said to live by Him—to Him—with Him.—The same: Proof of Christ’s omnipresence and divinity;—the happiness of Christians.… Voltaire more than once says, in his letters to Madame du Deffand, “I hate life, and yet I am afraid to die.” A Christian fears neither of these. He is willing to abide; and he is ready to go. Life is his. Death is his. Whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Heubner: It is a rare thing to hear aught about people reminding one another of the last day. The warning voices are regarded as importunate disturbers and enthusiasts.—Theophylact: Dost thou object: “I am no teacher”? Teachers alone are not sufficient for the admonition of all.—Stδhelin: Blessed therefore are the congregations, which in Christian order devoutly observe this rule. Blessed also the teacher, who is able on this point to commend his hearers.—That contempt for the teacher’s office is not the right thing is shown presently, 1 Thessalonians 5:12. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11. [The source, the method, and the nature of the gospel salvation.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. This section is one of the pericopes for the so rarely occurring 27th Sunday after Trinity.—Heubner: Christian deportment in view of the last day: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, its nature; 1 Thessalonians 5:7-8, grounds of obligation; 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11, blessed results.—Kolb: Most men are pleased with themselves. He whose eyes are opened knows that by reason of the fall we are by nature children of darkness, and only through regeneration are to become children of the light. Our high destination is, to go forth from the darkness, and press forward into light. God already looks on that as in existence, which is only in process of growth. Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 5:1.—[ὑμῖνγράφεσθαι. Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson: ye have no need to be written unto. Vaughan better: that anything be written to you. The impersonal form of the Greek is preserved by most of the Latin, and by several German, versions. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Critical Note 1.—Sin.1 Thessalonians 1 : τοῦ γράφεσθαιὑμῖν; but a correction omits τοῦ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:2.—[Sin. and] most of the old authorities omit [and so Lachmann, Tischendof, Wordsworth, Ellicott. Alford brackets] the article ἡ, without change of the sense; comp. Winer, § 19, 1, 2; Philippians 1:6; Philippians 1:10; Philippians 2:16. (Hofmann correctly against Lόnemann.) 1 Thessalonians 5:3.—The ὅτανγάρ of the Recepta has in its favor only a few of the older authorities; B. D. E. Sin.2 give ὅτανδέ but the preference is due to ὅταν, A. F. G., Vv., also Sin.1, as the simplest reading, which afterwards received various glosses, [ὅταν is the reading of Griesbach and the critical editors generally, except that Lachmann adds δέ in brackets.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:3.—[λέγωσιν. Comp. E. V., Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5-6; Matthew 6:16; Matthew 10:19; Matthew 10:23; &c.—ἐφίσταται; Sin.: ἐπίσταται.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:3.—[οὐ μὴ. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Critical Note 8.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:4.—Lachmann has only A. B. and the Coptic for his reading, κλέπτας, which gives no good sense, and has a too one-sided (Alex.) support. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.—[Sin. and] almost all the uncials [and critical editors] give γάρ. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.—[πάντεςγὰρὑμεῖςυἱοὶ φωτόςἐστεκαὶ υἱοὶ ἡμέπας. The ὑηεῖς is emphatic. For sons, see E. V., 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and generally.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:6.—[ἄραοὖν. Revision: “Paul’s favorite, though unclassical, ἄραοὖν—(no one else uses it; and he, I think, 12 times)—serves for the vivid introduction of an immediate (ἄρα. See Hartung, p. 422, &c., and Passow, s. v.) inference (oὖν) from what he has been saying; very much as our Why then! is sometimes employed.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:6.—καὶ [cancelled by Lachmann, and bracketed by Riggenbach] is wanting in A. B. Sin.1; most of the authorities have it. [Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Critical Note 4. 1 Thessalonians 5:8.—[ἡμέραςὄντες. Revision: “Ὄντες, without the article, is not used to specify a class; it rather assumes, as the ground of the exhortation, what had just been asserted, 1 Thessalonians 5:5.”—The same: “Throughout this context the distinction is maintained between ἡμέρα, day, that element of light, and of free, joyous activity, to which Christians now belong, and ἡ ἡμέρα, [ἡ ?] ἡμέραΚυρίου, the perfect day, the day of the Lord, for which they are still waiting.”—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:8.—[ἐνδυσάμενοι;—Christian sobriety being the result of this gracious endowment. Vaughan: “A single act, never to be undone.”—The words καὶ ἀγάπης are wanting in Sin.1, but supplied by correction.—In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, for ἀλλὰ εἰς, the latest editors generally give ἀλλ’ εἰς, with Sin. B. D.3 E. &c.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:10.—Instead of ὑπέρ (for, in Javor of) B. and Sin. give περί (on account of, with reference to). [Sin.1 Thessalonians 2 : ὑπέρ.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:10.—[εἴτεγρηλορῶμεν, εἴτεκαθεύδωμεν—at the Lord’s coming. The former verb occurs 23 times in the New Testament, and, excepting in this instance, the idea of watchfulness, vigilance, is always expressed in our English version. Here, where the word is used of the believers who shall be living when the Lord returns, it is assumed that they will also be watching for that event.—J. L.] [The order of the Greek being=The day of the Lord as a thief in the night so cometh.—J. L.] [Ellicott: “Εἰρήνη betokens an inward repose and security; ἀσφάλεια, a sureness and safety that is not interfered with or compromised by outward obstacles.”—J. L.] [Luke’s word, indeed, is ζωογονήσει; but in neither of the above texts is there, I conceive, any reference, strictly speaking, to the new birth, but rather to the experience of the regenerate—to the blessed result of Christian sorrow and self-sacrifice.—J. L.] [Alford: “The purpose in the Divine arrangement: for with God all results are purposed.” Ellicott: “The purpose contemplated by God in His merciful dispensation implied in οὐκἐστεἐνσκότει.... It may be doubted, however, whether we have not here some trace of a secondary force of ἵνα (see on Ephesians 1:17), the eventual conclusion being in some degree mixed up with and observing the idea of finality; comp. notes on Galatians 5:17.”—J. L.] [ὑμᾶςἡ ἡμέρα. So A. D. E. F. G. Vulg., &c. Lachmann, Ellicott.—J. L.] [So Jowett, Alford, Ellicott, with others named in Revision; which see.—J. L.] (German: sprechet einander zu; whereas at 1 Thessalonians 4:18 the phrase is, trφstel einander. See Revision.—J. L.] [Revision: “No edition has εἰςτὸνἔνα, the construction adopted by Faber (ad unum usque, to a man), Whitby (into one body), Rόckert (who understands by τὸνἔνα, Christ).”—J. L.] [Greek: ἐκνήψατε—“Awake” as from a fit of drunkenness.—J. L.] [Taumelbecher—Luther’s word at Zechariah 12:2.—J. L.] [The word which our English Version here renders emboldened is οἰκοδομηθήσεται.—J. L.] IV Closing Exhortations: to honor the presidents, to live in peace, to keep themselves free from all bitterness against persecutors, to unite vivacity with sobriety of spirit; ending with the prayer, that God may keep them. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-2412 And [Now, or: But] we beseech yon, brethren, to know them which labor [those who toil, τοὺςκοπιῶντας] among you, and are over [preside over] you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13and to esteem them very highly [very exceedingly] 14in love for their work’s sake. And be [Be] at peace among yourselves. Now [or: But] we exhort you, brethren, warn [admonish] them that are unruly [the disorderly], comfort [encourage] the feeble-minded [faint-hearted], support the weak, be patient [be long-suffering] toward all men [all]. 15See that none render evil for evil unto any man [any one, τινί]; but ever follow [always pursue, πάντοτε … διώκετε] that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all 16men [both toward one another, and toward all] Rejoice evermore [always, 17, 18πάντοτε]. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this Isaiah 19[is] the will of God [God’s will] in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench 20, 21not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove [But prove] all things; hold fast that which is good. 22Abstain from all appearance [every form] of evil. 23And the very God of peace [But may the God of peace Himself] sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto [and entire may your spirit and soul and body be kept 24without blame at] the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you; who also will do it. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13.) Now [or, But. See Critical Note 1.—J. L.] we beseech you, &c.—The closing section contains exhortations, which are improperly described [De Wette, Lόnemann] as miscellaneous. It is no fortuitous selection, but we recognize an order and purpose. It is natural that in the Apostle’s closing exhortations there should always be much that is generally available; but in every case the selection proves to be singularly appropriate to the particular exigency, short and striking, every sentence weighty (comp. Romans 12 and other places). In our passage Paul passes (δέ, see Lόnemann) from what all ought to do (1 Thessalonians 5:11) to that which peculiarly concerns the presidents, on whom especially devolves the office of exhortation and edification; Chrysostom: that they might not suppose, that he would raise all to the dignity of teachers; Hofmann: but in your activity forget not what you owe to the office; ἐρωτῶμεν, as 1 Thessalonians 4:1; he begs, where the question is about the presidents, whereas he exhorts, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, when urging upon them their own active duties; he has nothing of the hierarchical temper. Perhaps their neglect of the presidents was connected with the excitement of enthusiasm (1 Thessalonians 4:11); he was not willing to have this spread; sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:6 sqq.) was to be shown in this direction also. The presidents are not designated by their official titles (πρεσβύτεροι or ἐπίσκοποι), but by a brief indication of their functions; who labor, take pains; κοπιᾷν denotes severe labor, whereby one is wearied; for that very reason they deserve recognition. Here it is not added as in 1 Timothy 5:17, in word and doctrine; and without this addition the expression has a wider reach, embracing the performance of all service. Ἐνὑμῖν can mean on you (Hofmann, Winer, § 48. a. 3) or among you, in your circle; not, in your hearts (Pelt), for that is not man’s business. The κοπιᾷν is defined by what follows; for προΐστασθαι and νουθετεῖν cannot refer to other persons, officers, classes, since participle is joined to participle by a simple καί; under the one article are included statements respecting the same persons; they who labor and preside and admonish are one and the same; the same work is conceived of on different sides: in regard to the exertion of the individuals themselves it is a κοπιᾷν; in its relation to the church, a προΐστασθαι; in application to the erring, a νουθετεῖν. They preside over you in the Lord, since they themselves live in Him; therefore also their work is in Him, in His strength, and a presiding, guiding, overseeing in His behalf; they are no civil magistracy. [Webster and Wilkinson: “ἐν K., added as the highest sanction, and at the same time limitation of their authority.”—J. L.] Unsuitable and not correspondent to the word is the explanation of Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others: who intercede for you with God in prayer; that were rather ἐντυγχάνεινὑπέρτινος. Finally, νουθετεῖν is properly to correct one’s ideas, and so to admonish, remind, warn; to this submit yourselves. Nor is that even in later times the business of another office (against Olshausen), but merely a special side of the presidency: the exercise of discipline for the prevention of errors. [Webster and Wilkinson: “By the use of participles instead of nouns of office, ministers as exercising rather than as having certain functions, are represented as the objects of regard.”—J. L.] These men—such is his request—ye ought εἰδέναι, pregnant: respicere, to recognize and acknowledge them as being what they are; like ἐπιγινώσκειν, 1 Corinthians 16:18, and Proverbs 27:23, Septuagint for ιָ ?γַ ?ς indeed, ιָ ?γַ ?ς is translated also by εἰδέναι, when the meaning is to interest one’s self in a matter (Genesis 39:6);—no doubt, a different ease from one in which there is a personal object. But it is unquestionably harsher, when Ewald, declining the pregnant signification of εἰδ., supposes that what is to be known about them is first resumed in ἡγεῖσθαι &c. Hofmann understands it thus: You should know how it is with them, what you have in them; Stockmeyer: what position they hold. But Pelt alone introduces the idea of showing gratitude to them by a stipend.—And to esteem them very exceedingly, &c.; still dependent on ἐρωτῶμεν. According to the two interpretations that are here possible, ἡγεῖσθαι, &c. is somewhat harsh and without any quite analogous example; either (Theodoret, Grotius [and many others]): to esteem them exceeding highly, and that (modal definition of this esteem) in love, therefore not in fear, or such like sentiments; but elsewhere ἡγεῖσθαι (with an accusative) means to take one to be something, not, by itself, to esteem highly; this would require the addition of περὶ πολλοῦ, π. πλείστου, and for that ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ can hardly answer. Besides, it is then quite too tautological with εἰδέναι. Rather, therefore, with Chrysostom: ἡγεῖσθαιαὐτοὺςἐνἀγάπῃ τῇ ὑμῶνὀφείλεινεἰναι, ἡγ. αὐτ. ἀξίουςτοῦ ἀγαπᾶσθαι (Theophylact: thou lovest him who secures for thee an entrance into the kingdom of heaven), or Pelt: in carissimorum eos loco habete; and just so Lόnemann, Hofmann: hold them in love, like ἔχειντινὰ ἐνὀργῇ (Thucyd. ii. 18). Thus, along with respect (1 Thessalonians 5:12) he recommends (1 Thessalonians 5:13) the highest love, although, nay, rather because, they admonish you.—For their work’s sake; the indolent, therefore, have no claim, but they who faithfully perform the serious work for souls. [Ellicott: “on account both of the importance of the work (Hebrews 13:17), and the earnest and laborious manner in which it was performed; comp. Philippians 1:22; Philippians 2:30.”—J. L.]—Be at peace among yourselves, ἐνἑαυτοῖς equivalent to ἐνἀλλήλοις, John 7:35; for the matter, Mark 9:50 is to be compared. The variation ἐναὐτοῖς (which arose probably from the brevity of the sentence, that seemed unable to stand independently) is followed by Chrysostom, Theodoret (contradict not what they say), Theophylact, Luther (be at peace with them), Zwingli, Calvin and others. Zwingli: Be well content with them; but he proposes also the explanation: In them (through them) ye have peace. But the connection leads us to expect an imperative; had the word been meant to be indicative, it would have been said: ἐναὐτοῖςγᾶρεἰρ. But the reference to the teachers is not good; 1. ἐν would not suit well; μετά (as in Romans 12:18) would in that case be the right word; 2. an exhortation to peace with the presidents would almost necessarily imply a previous quarrel with them, which is at least improbable; 3. lastly, towards presidents the question would not be merely to keep the peace, but to be obedient to them in the Lord. Better, therefore, according to the reading, ἐνἑαυτοῖς; among yourselves. This exhortation is connected indirectly (De Wette) with the preceding. Peace in the church (like brotherly love, 1 Thessalonians 4:9 sqq.) was most threatened, when any showed themselves meddlesome, neglected ἡσυχάζειν, πράσσειντὰ ἴδια, &c, and for that reason did not, it is probable, sufficiently esteem the presidents. On the other hand, deference to the presidents and compliance with their exhortations promoted the peace of all. Since the foes of peace are within in every heart, such an exhortation was salutary, even though there were no serious disagreements on foot. Undoubtedly that by which peace was most threatened was the ἀτακτεῖν, to which he forthwith proceeds. 2. (1 Thessalonians 5:14.) Now [or, But—see Critical Note 5,—J. L.] we exhort you, &c.—Esteem for their presidents and peace among themselves should and will lead to proficiency in their tasks: 1. in reference to the faults which still cleave to the brethren (1 Thessalonians 5:14); 2. in relation to their enemies (1 Thessalonians 5:15); in both relations he directs them, 3. to the right disposition toward God (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), and therefore also toward the gifts of His Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19 sqq.).—At 1 Thessalonians 5:14, as at 1 Thessalonians 5:11, he exhorts all the brethren; for it is a mistake to regard the exhortation, with Chrysostom, Theophylact [Conybeare], and others, as addressed to the presidents. Truly spiritually minded Christians will, indeed, yield themselves to the guidance of the presidents (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13), but will themselves also (1 Thessalonians 5:14) assist them in the same spirit The Apostle is far from entertaining extravagant ideas of office. He immediately reverts to what all have to do; the difference from 1 Thessalonians 5:11 consists in this, that Paul now treats particularly of the manner of dealing with the erring, or the in some way weaker members.—Admonish the disorderly; not altogether, in general, those who live in the violation of the commandments of God (Chrysostom: all sinners are ἄτακτοι; Theophylact: he who in any way infringes order, the drunken, the slanderers, the covetous), but here probably in the narrower sense that appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12; also 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:11, ἀτάκτωςπεριπατεῖν, 1 Thessalonians 5:7, ἀτακτεῖν; ἄτακτος (Livy), is the soldier who keeps not his rank and file; then, by transference, whoever forsakes his τάξις, place, rank, station; whoever quits the straight track, driving round irregularly and aimlessly. There were such in this flourishing church.—Encourage (1 Thessalonians 2:11) the faint hearted; ὀλιγοψ., Septuagint for various Hebrew words, Isaiah 54:6; Isaiah 57:15; μικροψυχεῖν also occurs. We think first (so already Theodoret) of those who grieved for the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:13 sqq.); Hofmann will not allow this, because theirs was a case, not of faint-heartedness, but of error; still the error resulted in faint-heartedness, and they therefore needed to be cheered with comforting truth (1 Thessalonians 4:18). No doubt, however, there might be yet other desponding persons, to whom, when under persecution, Christianity seemed too grievous a thing (as in like manner Theodoret; Theophylact: who could not endure trial); or tempted persons, whose thought was: For me there can be no forgiveness.—Support the weak;ἀντέχεσθαι, to hold fast to something, adhζrere; Titus 1:9, to cleave to the word; Matthew 6:24, to one’s master; and so here: to the weak, as a precious treasure; but also in Proverbs 4:6 Septuagint for ωξψ: Wisdom will keep thee, will adhere to thee as a protector. Hofmann: Take pains with them, instead of despising them; a contrast like that in Matthew 6 The temptation would be to become weary of the feeble, as people that are continually making new trouble for us, without ever reaching a definite result. But this would be a dangerous self-pleasing (Romans 15:1 sqq.). The word ἀσθενεῖς might mean the sick (1 Corinthians 11:30), but also those without spiritual strength, the weak in faith and conscience, who do not get forward (1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 9:22; Romans 14:1); and to this we are led here by the context; the disorderly and the faint-hearted are single instances, but to be weak shows itself in still another form. It is very conceivable that in so young a church there were yet people who, like young children, easily stumbled, and in whom the old things continued still to work. They might become weakest, when they thought themselves strong (1 Corinthians 8, 10). The opposite quality is denoted by ἀνδρίζεσθε, κραταιοῦσθε (1 Corinthians 16:13), or again by the ὑγιαίνειν of the Pastoral Epistles.—The most general precept comes last: Be long-suffering toward all; as love acts (1 Corinthians 13:4; comp. δֶ ?ΰֶ ?ψִ ?ικְ ΰַ ?τּ ?εֹ, Proverbs 19:11; Sept.). Patience allows time for the growth of the godly man. A necessary exhortation for such as are yet young Christians, who are apt to be young also in their zeal. Toward all—Theodoret, Olshausen, Lόnemann [Alford, Ellicott] would understand this, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:15, of all men; Hofmann [Jowett] would take the clause in immediate connection with 1 Thessalonians 5:15. But ὁρᾶτε, &c. indicates a new start, whereby he passes to the true Christian treatment of all men; whereas in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 it is still the behavior of Christians to one another that is spoken of; and so Theophylact even refers the expression (only somewhat too strictly) to the three classes before mentioned. Therefore: Be long-suffering toward all, the disorderly, the faint-hearted, the weak, and whoever else in the church requires your patience (De Wette). Who does not? [Webster and Wilkinson: certain classes required particular treatment, all required patience.—J. L.] 3. (1 Thessalonians 5:15.) See, be careful, be on your guard (Matthew 8:4); βλέπετε also occurs in this sense; see to it, heedfully, for it is not an easy matter (Calvin); that none render evil for evil unto any one (1 Peter 3:9; Romans 12:17; Matthew 5). Not merely, therefore, that ye do not violate μακροθυμία, in an excessive, spiritual zeal, but also that no one, as quite commonly happens, give way to the revengeful disposition of the old man; toward any brother or non-Christian, possibly a persecutor. Chrysostom, Theophylact: If we are not to return evil, then so much the less should we begin by giving evil for good.—Alas, that there is ever fresh need of such exhortations! But Paul does not say: μήτιςὑμῶν, and from this De Wette infers that it is taken for granted, that a spirit of revenge is so unworthy of true Christians, that to them it is merely said: Guard against its breaking out elsewhere even in others. This Lόnemann rejects, 1. because Paul could not have supposed, that with those who had been heathens vindictiveness was something so entirely laid aside, since it was rather a new, specifically Christian commandment, to avoid it; 2. because, therefore, all needed for themselves the exhortation to vigilance and self-conquest, whereas 3. it is but seldom that one is able to restrain others. Nevertheless it may still be asked: Why does Paul not employ the second person plural? De Wette is somewhat too one-sided; μήτις admits of both applications, to every one for himself, and to the warning of others; Hofmann compares Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 12:15; and even among Christians no one is perfectly secure against fits of revengefulness. Accordingly: Let every one look to both himself and others; the discreet is to restrain the passionate. Most judiciously Bengel: He who is incensed by wrongs is prejudiced; therefore should others see to it, and seek to moderate him.—But always pursue that which is good—not merely what is salutary, useful (Olshausen), what is good for one (Hofmann), alienis commodis (Grotius), nor yet beneficence (Pelt), but what is right before God (the opposite: κακόν), morally good (Romans 12:9; Romans 12:21). Of course, this is also beneficial to one’s neighbor the special application of what is morally good to our neighbor consisting in those offices of love, which are to be rendered to him (Starke). The good is just everything that furthers the triumph of truth and love. Aim at doing this even to him who injures you. Paul does not always move in such generalities and abstractions (to do good for the sake of good, and such like); but to rich, concrete, particular exhortations he subjoins these comprehensive and simplest fundamental principles (comp. 2 Corinthians 13:7, and often). To attain to this (amidst manifestations of enmity) requires a διώκειν. We must pursue that which is good, it does not naturally be long to us; the evil, on the contrary, comes of itself (comp. 1 Corinthians 14:1, follow after charity; Hebrews 12:14, peace and holiness).—Toward one another, that means the brotherly love of Christians (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10); and toward all, even non-Christians (1 Thessalonians 4:12); here the opposition is expressed. What is good; that is still more than what is becoming (1 Thessalonians 4:12). 4. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.) Rejoice always [2 Corinthians 6:10; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4.—J. L.].—Whether you attain the end with your neighbor or not, do you pursue after it, so much as lieth in you (Romans 12:18), and, for your own part, rejoice evermore; Theodoret: even in poverty, sickness, contumely, torture, prison; as those for whom all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). Here he speaks of the right disposition, no longer toward men, but before God. All that goes before is to be attained only when this peace rules within. Should there be a failure of joy because of the difficulty of overcoming evil with good, then raise yourselves above all that depresses you by prayer.—Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 1:9). Already Chrysostom and Theophylact recognize the connection: τὴνὁδὸνἔδειξε. Without ceasing; this does not mean, with a continual, indolent folding of the hands; as Paul prayed night and day (1 Thessalonians 3:10), so likewise he labored night and day (1 Thessalonians 2:9); and yet he had also intervals of sleep! The next thing is therefore obvious: Never omit the practice of prayer; be as regularly diligent therein as in labor. This then infers a constant spirit of prayer, breathing through the whole life. But in order to the stirring up (2 Timothy 1:6) of this, and so to the quickening of joy, he exhorts further: in everything give thanks; Bengel: even in what seems adverse. Give thanks for the great grace already received (comp. Colossians 4:2; Philippians 4:6). In the last place we find in like manner ἐνπαντί. This is not the same thing as πάντοτε (which stands with it at 2 Corinthians 9:8), for καιρῷ should not have been wanting; but it means, in every point, every matter or situation, equivalent to κατὰ πάντα, περὶ παντός, ὑπὲρπάντων (Ephesians 5:20).—For this Isaiah 46 God’s will, &c. (1 Thessalonians 4:3); not the will, since that of course includes more than this one point. The subject is τοῦτο, this, the giving thanks in everything; Grotius [Schott]: prayer and thanksgiving; but in that case we should have to go still a step further, and, with Von Gerlach [Corn. A. Lapide, Jowett, Alford, Mφller] bring in also the rejoicing; not quite everything from 1 Thessalonians 5:14, for that is not so homogeneous that it could well be embraced in τοῦτο as one topic. In consideration also of the fact that ἑνπαντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε is added by asyndeton, it may well seem more advisable to refer the τοῦτο, with Bengel, only to the giving of thanks, which indeed is the means of quickening prayer and joy. Hofmann: The interruption of the exhortations takes place, where one of them is specially confirmed. On the predicate Bengel remarks: Voluntas semper bona, semper spectans salutem vestram in Christo. But not as Calvin gives the turn: Of such a nature is God’s gracious will in Christ, that we have therein abundant cause for thanksgiving; but: God’s will is this, that we give thanks, and this will of God is established in Christ, mediated through Him; Christ strengthens us to give thanks, because in Him all things are ours (1 Corinthians 3:21 sqq.), all things work together for good (Romans 8:28), all. things help forward the subdual of the flesh and the relief of the spirit. Finally εἰςὑμᾶς, toward you, in reference to you. 5. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.) Quench not the Spirit.—From prayer and thanksgiving he passes to the source from which they flow; a right frame of heart toward God should show itself in the right use of His choicest gifts; in a proper bearing toward the manifestations of the Spirit in the life of the Church;—a supplement to 1 Thessalonians 5:14, where the defects of the church and their proper treatment had been touched upon. The Spirit is He who is received from God (1 Thessalonians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 2; Galatians 3), and who, working in original fulness and freshness, distributes manifold-gifts (1 Corinthians 12); the connection with 1 Thessalonians 5:20 points in this direction. Calvin: Spiritus genus, prophetia species. Quench—literally, extinguish—Him not; the sacred fire; comp. Romans 12:11, τῷ πνεύματιζέοντες, and 2 Timothy 1:6, ἀναζωπυρεῖν; Theophylact: In the night of this life God gave us the Spirit for a light. But Wetstein shows by many examples that σβέννυμι is used also of the stilling of a wind. The fire is nourished by prayer, thanksgiving, exercise; is quenched by neglect or suppression., by want of wood or by pouring on water; Von Gerlach: by contempt, suspicion, a fleshly mind, contradiction or inattention; Calvin: by unthankfulness. But a still more precise question is this: Does it mean: Stifle not the Spirit in yourselves by impurity of doctrine and life? or suppress not the Spirit’s utterances, when they meet you in the church? The connection with 1 Thessalonians 5:20 leads to the second explanation; it being always understood, that to decline the Spirit’s influences in our own hearts renders us also averse to what we meet with in others of His extraordinary movements. This disaffection might work not only against prophesying, 1 Thessalonians 5:20, but generally against the most various manifestations of the Spirit. But when De Wette conjectures that there were, in particular, timid, pusillanimous presidents, who, because they saw with regret the spiritual excitement, restrained those inspired from coming forward, there is no satisfactory evidence of this. The exhortation is quite general in its tone (1 Thessalonians 5:27 will bring us to a similar question). Altogether unsuitable is Olshausen’s inference from our passage, that Paul can therefore have had no misgiving about the Thessalonians being in danger of becoming a prey to enthusiasm, according to the subsequent indications of the Second Epistle. No; Paul knew how matters stood; he admonished the disorderly; he exhorted to careful examination; but surely he could not write: Quench the Spirit! On the contrary, Hofmann will not allow, that there existed in Thessalonica a partial disinclination to spiritual utterances; Paul, he thinks, would merely regulate their bias towards what was extraordinary, the main emphasis being on the after-clause, prove all things. This may be too exclusive on the other side. How easily, in presence of enthusiasm and even false prophesying, might a distrust of everything out of the common course take possession of other minds! Paul corrects both the one tendency and the other. So already Theodoret: Some wished, on account of the false prophets, to stop also the true.—One particular instance of spiritual manifestations is mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:20 : Despise not prophesyings (where they occur). The word stands without the article, in the plural, denoting the Individual cases. Prophesying does not respect the future merely (though this also is not excluded, Acts 21:10 sqq.), but is an utterance of Divine mysteries; mysteriorum retectio et prζsentium et futurorum, Pelt; a speaking to the church under a special influence of the Spirit, but with clear conscious ness, and thus distinguished from the speaking with tongues; on the other side, it is not one and the same thing with teaching, the reflective development of thought; but a speaking from Divine inspiration, affecting hearts with a thrilling power, strengthening them with the fulness of consolation, unfolding the mysteries of judgment and of grace in the administration of the kingdom and in the sway of individual hearts. At all times one prophet has connected with the word of another; still mere exposition is not prophesying; to the latter belongs somewhat of originality; but this shows itself as well in the elucidation of the past (prophetic history), as in the spiritual flashes that disclose what is coming (comp. 1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 14, especially 1 Thessalonians 5:24-25; Ephesians 4:11; Romans 12:6; Acts 11:27; Acts 13:1; Acts 15:32; Acts 19:6). This gift despise not, old Greek ἐξουδενεῖν; όω likewise occurs (Mark 9:12, various reading); the Swiss vernόte answers exactly in etymology and import. Other gifts might be more brilliant, although this also, 1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Corinthians 14:39, is especially commended. The disaffection probably proceeded rather in undue resistance from the intellect and love of order; not, as in Corinth, from an overvaluing of the γλῶσσαι. Not to despise, however, does not mean to receive without judgment and blindly. Hence: Prove all things. The variations, πάντα, πάνταδὲ, δοκιμάζοντες, instead of ζετε, and lastly καὶ τὸ καλόν, seem to lead back to the asyndeton, πάνταδοκιμάζετε, as the simplest reading. But should the preponderance of authorities be deemed decisive in favor of the addition of δέ, the sentence would stand in opposition to what goes before, and the two following sentences would be arranged by the trial enjoined into 1. Hold fast that which is good, and 2. Abstain from the evil. Prove, the command is to all Christians, not to a privileged class. The object of the trial is to be all things; primarily, according to the context, what the prophets say. The word has come to be a peculiarly trite commonplace, in which the second half of the verse is frequently forgotten: Hold fast that which is good, fair, noble; what furthers you in the Divine life—what amongst the πάντα (primarily in the prophesyings) you find excellent—that hold fast, in opposition to the ἐξουθενωῖν. A point of peculiar importance, however, is, not merely what, according to the Apostle, is to be proved, but especially how. The object is everything that claims to be spiritual, as in 1 Corinthians 14:29 also it is precisely to what the prophets say that the direction applies: διακρινέτωσαν. There is, therefore, no fanatical demand for a blind submission, not even to the apostolic word (1 Corinthians 7; 1 Corinthians 10:15). Of so much the greater consequence is it to be certain that we really possess the true Divine criterion. What that is, Paul does not say; but plainly it is none other than what they bad received from him and through the Spirit had made their own, the apostolic word of truth, originating with the Spirit, and sealed by the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:4-5); answering to the anointing of 1 John 2:27. The trial of the spirits is a special charism (1 Corinthians 12:10; comp. Hebrews 5:14). See more under the Doctrinal and Ethical head, No. 4.—To πάνταδοκιμάζετε Cyril of Alexandria prefixes the words, γίνεσθεφρόνιμοιτραπεζῖται (money-changers, argentarii, nummularii). In the other Fathers this sentence is, γ. δόκιμοιτραπ. and from this arises a telling contrast: Be proved yourselves, that you may be able to prove (comp. Hδnsel, in the Stud., a. Krit, 1836, I.). This expression is ascribed generally to Holy Writ by Clement of Alexandria and the Constit. Apost.; to Jesus in particular, by Jerome, Epiphanius; to the Apostles, by Dionysius of Alexandria; to Paul (in connection with 1 Thessalonians 5), by Origen, Basil, and especially by Cyril. Does it come from some apocryphal book? rather, it is a ῥῆμαἄγραφον. Such is Hδnsel’s view, who thinks that it may at any rate have been in the Apostle’s mind, and that δοκιμάζετε is to be explained by the technical language of exchangers, as also εἶδος in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 : Abstain from every sort of bad money. But unless money-changers and coins had been expressly spoken of, it could occur to no one to think of that; especially not, that εἶδος without νομίσματος, and that too in the second member, instead of the first, could signify a kind of money. We therefore hold to the more general signification.—But what is the meaning of 1 Thessalonians 5:22; The Vulgate: ab omni specie mala, is still itself ambiguous. Luther: Avoid every evil appearance; so also Calvin, Grotius [Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson]; the English Version, from all appearance of evil; the Dutch, van allen schijn des kuaads; Martin and Ostervald, de toute apparence de mal. This were an altogether beautiful sense: What is finally to be regarded is the εὐσχημόνωςπεριπατεῖν (comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:12); it is perhaps impossible for the Christian always to avoid every evil appearance, but to the best of his ability he is to do so. Lόnemann objects that this would imply on the other side: Hold fast merely the appearance of what is good; but that does not follow, inasmuch as the opposition might include the climax: Even from that which should have only an appearance of evil we are willingly to abstain, in order to give no offence. Rieger: That we may not forfeit the confidence of others; but first we are to accept what is proved to be good. Still this interpretation must be rejected, as violating the expression; that is to say, εἶδος means form, aspect, then kind, species, (Jeremiah 15:3, Sept.), as a subdivision of the genus; but not appearance. Then, to avoid an evil appearance would not suit the matter here spoken of, namely the trial of prophesyings. It would be an independent sentence, introducing something altogether new, whereas evidently πονηρός stands opposed to καλός, and ἀπέχεσθε to κατέχετε, as the two sides, the negative and the positive, of δοκιμάζειν. For Lόnemann’s idea is plainly too refined, that, because we have not simply ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ 1 Thessalonians 5:22 cannot form the antithesis to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, but must contain a more general thought. Why should not Paul be able slightly to modify and intensify the expression? We shall see with what good reason. Hilgenfeld is unwilling to understand εἶδος in the sense of kind; that would be too flat; it should rather signify spectacle, figure, and be referred to the shameful and seductive exhibitions of heathenism. Already in like manner Roos thinks that what is meant is an image that seizes the mind, fantasticalness. But in this way also the connection would be given up, and the idea limited to some single matter, of which one does not of one’s own accord readily think; whereas the context lends to the seemingly general idea a more specific import. Still it may be asked whether πονηροῦ, because without the article, belongs as an adjective to εἴδους (Bengel, Schott, Pelt), or as a substantive depending on εἴδους. The former construction would be advisable only in case the expression already implied, of what things the εἶδος, is intended, and those things such as that their good εἶδη are distinguishable from the bad. It is better, therefore, to take it, with De Wette, Lόnemann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott] and others, as a substantive (comp. Hebrews 5:14, πρὸςδιάκρισινκαλοῦ τεκαὶ κακοῦ, also without article; comp. Joseph. Ant. x. 3. 1, πᾶνεἶδοςπονηρίας; Hofmann refers also to Plato, Rep. p. 357 c., ὁρᾷςτεεἶδοςἀγαθοῦ [to which may be added Chrysost. Hom. viii. on this Epistle, οὐδένἐστινεἶδοςκακίαςὅπερἀτόλμητον—J. L.]. So the antithesis is: Hold fast that which is good (the good is one); from every kind of evil abstain (the evil has various εἴδη, and hence the climax); even from the seemingly spiritual kind of evil; Theodoret: as well in doctrine as in conduct. Even that which comes forward as prophesying, or generally as a spiritual gift, is to be proved; even that kind of evil, which asserts itself under sacred pretexts, you are to avoid. There is evil of a human, natural, fleshly sort, but also of a demoniacal (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:14). 6. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.) But may the God of peace Himself, &c.—A contrast both as to the subject and the predicate, as 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; not you alone have to do this, nor could you so accomplish it, but God must effect it; and that not merely here a κατέχειν, and there an ἀπέχεσθαι—not isolated acts merely—but the main comprehensive work of life, your sanctification and preservation to the end. He is called the God of peace, its Lord, Author, Source, Romans 15:33; Romans 16:20; similar combinations in Romans 15:5; Romans 15:13. Everything advanced in 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 is here taken together, and brought into view as all aiming at true peace. And truly the work of God, whereby he guides us to peace, is our sanctification, and, through that, our preservation to the Advent. Our sanctification is, indeed, His will (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:7); our entire surrender to His will and service;—a thing which He alone can achieve, to wit, by His Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:8). Already has it begun; in their principles Christians are ἅγιοι; but it is only by slow degrees that perfect sanctification pervades all their powers. And this consummation marks the advance in our passage as compared with 1 Thessalonians 3:13. In what follows Bengel distinguishes between universi (all without exception) et singuli (every one entirely); but that does not lie particularly in the first clause. Ὁλοτελεῖς, in the New Testament ἅπαξλεγ. means either: you as complete, entire, so that no sort of evil is in you; Luther: through and through; or (Pelt and others): May He sanctify you to be a perfect people—accusative of operation; with this verb without example. This word, no less than ὁλόκληρον, may suggest the faultlessness of sacrifice. The latter is equivalent to integer; at James 1:4 it stands with τέλειος; in the Septuagint for ϊָּ ?ξִ ?ιν, ωָׁ ?μֵ ?ν; and unhurt, in all parts uninjured, may your spirit, &c. be kept, &c. De Wette, Olshausen, and Lόnemann would understand it quantitatively, to distinguish it from ἀμέμπτως: every part by itself entirely, all spotless. But ὁλόκλ. denotes the quality, the full healthy life, comp. ὁλοκλμρία in the healing of the lame man (Acts 3:16), and is yet sufficiently distinct from ἀμέμπτως, 1. as a positive expression opposed to the negative; 2. as marking the nature of the subject itself, over against what expresses the verdict of the Judge; and lastly, 3. since ὁλοκλhρία is a predicate, whereas the adverb ἀμέμπτως is to be understood as qualifying the verb. On the latter point most interpreters do not clearly express themselves, or they take the adverb as if it were an adjective, comparing perhaps 1 Thessalonians 2:10, ἀμέμπτωςἐγεήθημεν, and the breviloquence 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (where, however, we find ἀμέμπτους), as if it were τηρηθείηεἰςτὸ ἀμέμπτωςγενηθῆναιἐν—. But that is too artificial. Lόnemann understands the adverb as more closely defining ὁλόκληροντηρηθεῖη; but to be perfect without blame would be a pleonastic description, since perfection with blame is something inconceivable. There remains, therefore, only (as recommended also by the order of the words) the reference of the adverb to the verb alone. The τηρηθῆναι, it is true, is the act of God, and so far the adverbial qualification seems to be unsuitable; but since the being kept implies nevertheless a reciprocity between God and man, the prayer is in order: May your spirit, &c. be kept in such away as can incur no blame at the Coming. Ὁλόκληρον, standing foremost, belongs as to sense to all the three members; the construction being, therefore, zeugmatic. The phrase, spirit, soul, body, is not a mere rhetorical amplification [De Wette], nor yet of itself a proof of a trichotomy of human nature (Olsh.), borrowed by Paul from Philo (or Plato). The phraseology of Scripture is as exact as it is popular; but it does not favor such a division. Even the texts, Hebrews 4:12; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:44-46, show indeed incontrovertibly, that Scripture distinguishes between the spirit and the soul, but not necessarily as between constituent parts, substances, but as between two relations, sides, functions of the same essence, according to its upward or downward direction. For πνεῦμα, ψεּ ?ηַ, is the spiritual nature of man as directed upward, and as capable of living intercourse with God. The power of thought, νοῦς, is not the same thing as πνεῦμα (comp. Romans 7, 8); for the νοῦς can be entangled and enchained in the flesh (Colossians 2:18); the πνεῦμα is the essence quickened, emancipated, become dominant through regeneration by the Spirit of God, and that, by means of which man is lord of nature and of the flesh. Of this there is mention here: May your spirit, in which God’s spirit dwells and rules (Romans 7:16; 1 Corinthians 2:11 with 1 Thessalonians 5:12), be kept safe. It cannot be the Holy Spirit Himself, for He can suffer no hurt, and so needs not to be kept; to beware of grieving Him (Ephesians 4) is something different. But man’s spirit is threatened with defilement (2 Corinthians 7:1), whereby the divinely renewed life might again become retrograde, so that at last the ψυχικός should (as it were) no longer have any spirit (Judges 19).—On the contrary, ψυχή, πֶ ?τֶ ?ωׁ, is the spiritual nature as the quickening power of the body, as in animals; hence excitable through the senses, with faculties of perception and feeling. Σῶμα, finally, is the wisely arranged instrument of the soul, and destined, therefore, likewise for the service of the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13 sqq.); whereas σάρξ, which denotes first the bodily material, is further used to designate the whole man, as he with all his powers is enthralled by the sin-tainted corporeality; comp. αָּ ?ωָׂ ?ψ already in Genesis 6:3.—The Apostle, then, expresses the wish that not merely the spirit may be kept (with reference to what had just preceded) from falling back out of the life of regeneration, but that the soul also in its strivings may be held still under the discipline of the spirit, and thus the body, freed more and more from the dominion of its lusts, become an obedient instrument in the service of sanctification. In this way covetousness, with its violations of brotherly love, will be overcome; believers become one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32); and fornication will ever more completely lose its power of allurement. This will be a sanctifying of the personality in all its powers and functions.—[For additional remarks on the scriptural usage in regard to πνεῦμα and ψυχή, see the Doctrinal and Ethical Note 5.—Dr. Hodge (on 1 Corinthians 15:43-44) denies, like our Author (and comp. Ebrard on Hebrews 4:12), a triplicity of substance in the constitution of man. “The Bible,” he says, “recognizes in man only two subjects or distinct separable substances, the soul and body. And this has ever been a fundamental principle of Christian anthropology.” In like manner Webster, and Wilkinson (Wordsworth) find here “a tripartite division rather of man’s faculties than of his nature.” On the other hand, Dr. Candlish (Life in a Risen Saviour, p. 171) remarks on our text: “There, according to a view of man’s organization, or the constitution of his nature, these commonly received, spirit, soul, body, are specified as its constituent parts or elements. The spirit, or that higher principle of intelligence and thought peculiar to man alone in this world, to which we now usually restrict the name of mind or soul; the soul, or that lower principle of animal life,—with its instincts selfish and social, its power of voluntary motion, its strange incipient dawn of reasoning,—which, common alike to man and beast, is so great a mystery in both; and the body, made to be the material organ and instrument of either principle, the higher or the lower; these three in one, this trinity, is our present humanity.”—Alford: “to τὸ πνεῦμα is the spirit, the highest and distinctive part of man, the immortal and responsible soul, in our common parlance: ἡ ψυχή is the lower or animal soul, containing the passions and desires (αἰτίακινήσεωςζωικῆςζώων, Plato, Deff. p. 411), which we have in common with the brutes, but which in us is ennobled and drawn up by the πνεῦμα. That St. Paul had these distinctions in mind, is plain (against Jowett) from such places as 1 Corinthians 2:14. The spirit, that part whereby we are receptive of the Holy Spirit of God, is, in the unspiritual man, crushed down and subordinated to the animal soul (ψυχή): he therefore is called ψυχικός, πνεῦμαοὐκἔχων, Judges 19.”—To which may be added part of Ellicott’s note in loc.: “Distinct enunciation of three component parts of the nature of man: the πςεῦμα, the higher of the two immaterial parts, being the ‘vis superior, agens, imperans in homine’ (Olsh.); the ψυχή, ‘vis inferior quζ agitur, movetur’ (ib,), the sphere of the will and the affections, and the true centre of the personality.” I should say that, on Ellicott’s own theory, this distinction belongs rather to the πνεῦμα.—J. L.… ‘It may be remarked that we frequently find instances of an apparent dichotomy, ‘body and soul’ (Matthew 6:25; Matthew 10:28, al.) or ‘body and spirit’ (1 Corinthians 5:3; 1 Corinthians 7:34, al.), but such passages will only be found accommodations to the popular division into a material and immaterial part; the ψυχή, in the former of the exceptional cases, including also the πνεῦμα, just as in the latter case the πνεῦμα also comprehends the ψυχή. ... To assert that enumerations like the present are rhetorical (De W.), or worse, that the Apostle probably attached ‘no distinct thought to each of these words’ (Jowett), is plainly to set aside all sound rules of scriptural exegesis. Again, to admit the distinctions, but to refer them to Platonism (Lόnem.), is equally unsatisfactory, and equally calculated to throw doubt on the truth of the teaching. If St. Paul’s words do here imply the trichotomy above described …, then such a trichotomy is infallibly real and true. And if Plato or Philo have maintained (as appears demonstrable) substantially the same views, then God has permitted a heathen and a Jewish philosopher to advance conjectural opinions which have been since confirmed by the independent teaching of an inspired Apostle.”—J. L.] Faithful is he who calleth you; not disappointing confidence, worthy of credit; Theodoret: ἀληθής. The participle is in the present: He does so continually (1 Thessalonians 2:12; Galatians 5:8); or as a substantive: Such is His nature (Galatians 1:17 [Galatians 1:12]); He ever lets operate the drawing of His Spirit.—Who also will do it, the sanctifying and keeping, positively; through grace is not irresistible, yet so that there is no failure on His part. The little word also gives prominence to the idea, that the keeping will answer to the calling of the faithful God, as carrying it out even to the end. He perfects His entire work (Ps. 22:32 [Psalms 22:31]; Psalms 37:5). The Epistle began with thanksgiving to God and His ἐκλογή; it closes with praise of His faithfulness to the end. AND ETHICAL1. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13.) In all churches, however young, πρεσβύτεροι were soon appointed (Acts 15:23), without whom a church could not exist as such. God is a God of order (1 Corinthians 14:33); and, without regulated guidance, the πράσσειντὰ ἴδια must have been neglected, and the περιεργάζεσθαι must have prevailed (1 Thessalonians 4:11). In the earliest Epistles, however, the presidents have certainly as yet very little prominence; the προϊστάμενος (Romans 12:8) and the κυβερνήσεις (1 Corinthians 7:28) occupying a modest position behind other gifts and functions. Government, command, is not in the Church of Christ the first thing. In this place teaching is not yet attached to superintendency, but stands beside it as a special free gift. Nor even for the exercise of discipline (for example, 1 Corinthians 5) is the office at all described as exclusively authorized, and so responsible; and quite as little is obedience to the bishops commended, as in the Ignatian Epistles, as a panacea; rather the Apostle foresees the possibility of corruptions even among the elders (Acts 20:20). But a due esteem for faithful and laborious presidents is for the welfare of the church. The simple way in which our Epistle speaks of these relations, marks it as one of the earliest. But if at a later date we meet with fuller instructions (Ephesians 4:11, and especially in the Pastoral Epistles), still nowhere are the presidents clothed in the post-apostolic fashion with a character of absolute authority, as if they had an exclusive dignity different from the general priesthood of Christians (1 Peter 2:9). Their rule is rather conceived of always as standing in necessary connection with the Holy Spirit ruling in the whole Church (comp. 1 Peter 5:3); the spiritually minded members of the church must exercise the ministry of office, that it may really appear to be spiritual work, and not merely an acting of hierarchical supremacy, or even of a paid office. Nor does even the abuse of the περιεργάζεσθαι drive the Apostle to a narrow and anxious one-sidedness in putting life into official chains—a proceeding, indeed, to which Moses himself was averse.—As regards the designation of office-bearers, the opinion that has most widely prevailed is, that in the earliest period πρεσβύτερος (elder) and ἐπίσκοπος (overseer) are synonymous; and this is, in fact, favored by such texts as Acts 20:11; Acts 20:28; Titus 1:5; Titus 1:1, Yet the view of Gundert (in Rudelbach and Guericke’s Zeitschrift, 1854, p. 56, sqq.) is worthy of examination, that in the earliest period πρεσβύτρος was the general title of honor for all church functionaries, who fell apart into 1. ἐπίσκοποι and 2. διάκονοι, the two divisions that meet us Philippians 1:1 and in the Pastoral Epistles; James 5:14 speaks of those who waited on the sick, and calls them πρεσβύτεροι; on the other hand, Acts 20 and Titus 1 speak only of the higher class of presbyters, the bishops; whereas 1 Timothy 5:17 distinguishes amongst the elders those who labor in the word and doctrine from others who do not, and yet 1 Thessalonians 3:2 requires from every ἐπίσκοπος that he be apt to teach. Those κοπιῶντες, therefore, amongst the elders would probably be bishops. If one desired to maintain, even in the passage of the 5th chapter, the identity of bishops and elders generally, he would have to find in κοπιῶντες the description of those who take pains therein; but in that, case would the others who proved deficient be nevertheless worthy of double honor? With the teaching bishop, and under his direction, there might be developed the richest abundance of spiritual gifts, which were not confined to office (1 Corinthians 14:26-32). The mode of election, finally, is not yet constitutionally regulated. Roos: There was at that time no disputing about the right of patronage.—If the Apostle requires that a bishop must have a good report even of them which are without (1 Timothy 3:7), so much the less, certainly, would presidents have been forced on a church, in whom it had no confidence. The Apostles could allow the churches large scope, for they could trust them, that they yielded themselves to the guidance of Christ’s Spirit. But where this prerequisite should not exist, to think of helping the Church by committing to the congregations comprehensive rights of government—this were a proceeding for which there could, at least, be no appeal to the Apostles. It is certain that the Apostles would have laid hands on no one of whom they had known: He stands not in our doctrine, which we have received from the Lord (comp. Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 5:22). 2. (1 Thessalonians 5:13-15.) Respect for the presidents is connected with the peace of the church; and, on the other hand, peace relieves for them the burden of office. Peaceableness, however, must not be a corrupt allowance of all disorder. A true keeping of the peace does not exclude, but includes, discipline. It is a morbid symptom of our time, that it can so little endure discipline. It is true that to administer it in a proper way is a delicate matter, requiring both inwardly and outwardly much wisdom, love, patience, and self-denial. But it is none the less a false lenity and a criminal selfishness, listlessly to allow others, who are intrusted to us, to go to ruin. If a man is willing, not merely to deliver lordly admonitions to others, but to begin with the beam in his own eye, and also not to sin against his brother by neglecting to admonish him (Leviticus 19:17; Ezekiel 3:17 sqq.), but to warn him at whatever risk of suffering for it, he can in this way maintain peace even amidst the assaults of enemies. 3. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.) The gospel produces no joyless sullenness, but true joy for all people (Luke 2:10), in hope (Romans 12:12), in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17), in the Lord (Philippians 4:1 [4]). When vexed with temptations, we cannot, indeed, feel it as joy, but we should so account it (James 1:2). Whatever occasion of sadness is contained in affliction (1 Thessalonians 1-3), it nevertheless promotes our salvation; and the man who not merely seeks, but has the Lord, in him is the fulness of joy (John 15:11; John 16:24; John 17:13). Prayer is the means to this end. Prom fear of mechanism in prayer, some would regard merely its free spirit. But the likely result of that is a yielding to hindrances. We are not so free from corruption, that we should be able to leave the matter to our inclination. Practice, when attended to not as a legal penalty, but in hearty fidelity, awakens the right disposition; only in this way can one καιρός assist another, so that the intervening χρόνος shall be filled with the spirit of prayer, and prayer become the keynote of the soul. Pelag.: Si jugiter non potes lingua, tamen corde. Who acts thus? who not? why not? Comp. Luke 18:1; Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18. If, for the quickening of devotion, the Apostle counsels us to give thanks, it is but the other side of the same truth, when the counsel of an experienced Christian was: Still repent! for that only is true thanksgiving, which confesses: Of Thy favor I am not worthy; and that only true repentance, which utters itself in thanksgiving, that God is nevertheless our God. 4. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.) It is a real trial of the spirit, the way in which a man treats the manifestations of spiritual gifts, and also their excesses. How easily do we fall either into a temper of undue excitement, whereby the limits of propriety and discretion are broken through, or, in opposition to this, into an uneasy or haughty, cold distrust of everything unusual! In movements of the stronger sort there is, indeed, an element of discomfort, disturbance, offence; they contain a presumption of abandoning the common track, and the danger is imminent, that with confused or even impure minds every path of order may be despised, and that what began in the Spirit may find its sad end in the flesh. By word and example the Apostle shows us, that we are neither blindly to assent to everything, nor suspiciously to reject everything. Quench not the Spirit. What is really spirit, should develop itself in a free and living way. The only thing required is, that it stand the proof that it is really spirit from the Spirit of God. In that case, though it may be strange and troublesome to the world, a spiritual man confesses it. It is owing to the narrowness of our hearts, that we are so annoyed by whatever is not according to our way. On the other hand, there, may be a large-heartedness that neglects to try whether something is of Divine quality, and that perhaps just while a false appeal is made to the apostolic word: Prove all things. On this point Rieger has already remarked, that that has come to be a huntsman’s halloo, as if in every heap of rubbish we must look for pearls. When, for example, one asks us to inquire whether there is not more truth in the Chinese religion than in the Christian, that has nothing at all to do with the word of the Apostle. According to this, as according to that of John (1 John 4:1), the question is, to try the spirits, whether they are of God. But there are, spirits which are not so; false prophets (2 Thessalonians 2); deceivers or deceived; nay, with an honest intention erroneous human inferences may be drawn from what the Spirit saith (comp. Acts 21:4; Acts 21:11-14). There is really nowhere a formula, in which a man can comfortably rest. The matter must therefore be tried; but how? The great thing is to try by the right test, and not mere cavils and idle talk. Even in the things of this world it is folly to, criticise aught without knowledge; much more, then, in Divine things. There we must be sure that we actually have the Divine rule. Even entrance into the faith does not take place blindly and without proof (John 7:17); the knowledge, that the gospel is what our deepest necessity requires, admits of systematic development as a branch of apologetic science. But here Paul speaks of a trial, where a standing within the evangelical faith is already presupposed, and the question now is, whether this or that novelty is in accordance therewith. On what assurance of the truth the Apostle himself proceeds is shown by Galatians 1:8. A trial, therefore, in the Apostle’s sense proceeds on the certainty of the fundamental apostolic truth. Even De Wette does not claim, that the rationalistic first principle, as to natural reason being the judge of Divine revelation, is to be derived from our passage. For, 1. he says that the object of the trial is not revelation itself, but its reproduction, application, appropriation, by those Christianly inspired; and, 2. that the rule is not to be the rationalistic reason (that unknown x), but the Christian πνεῦμα; a legitimate trial requiring faith as a prerequisite. But then De Wette himself again in some measure introduces rationalism, when he says, 1. that in Scripture we have simply the apostolic reproduction of the original revelation (as if the latter were not thus reduced to an x!), and, 2. that man carries in himself the germ of the πνεῦμα, the reason, which, indeed, is first unbound and unfolded through Christ; Christians, consequently, would have to test by means of the Christian consciousness awakened in them, with the Christianly enlightened reason. But Christian consciousness is too weak an expression for the πνεῦμα according to the sense of Scripture. For this supposes, not merely illumination, but regeneration, and so a real, practical process of sanctification in submission to the word. At all events, we attain to the πνεῦμα in quite another way than that of criticism. Whoever has received it, bears in himself the witness that the Spirit is truth, and that this spiritual life is attained in no other way than from this source. Comp. Gess, Das Zeugniss des Heil. Geites in the Apologetische Beitrδge of Gess and Riggenbach, Basel, 1863. Hence follows the right treatment of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit in different directions. The prophetic element, awakenings amongst the people, and such like, should not, alongside of the regular ministry, be despised, or suppressed, but tested, and held to a steady sobriety. And so, on the other hand, with regard to the gift of γνῶσις, a profounder scientific research and knowledge, against which there easily arises in excited circles a spirit of contempt and distrust. The gospel, however, is no dead letter, but itself invites to ever-new labor of thought. Nor is the right of examination limited to teachers, or even to a council of bishops. According to 1 Corinthians 12:10 the διάκρισιςπνευμάτων is a peculiar charism, a kind of receptive prophesying, incapable, therefore, of producing, but of inestimable value as a sound counterpoise to possible irregularities; a mark of the ὁλοκληρία of an apostolic church. This gift must show itself by its connection with the truth of God; only one in whom God’s word is a living, sanctifying power gives evidence of the ability to test; and it is then a spiritual labor of no slight character, nor to be reached through external regulation. To train the laity to a Christian self-dependence is the aim of a truly evangelical ministry. Where that gift is present, there is possible a wise, confident treatment of intellectual and spiritual movements; people then stop saying to one another what the Wόrtemberg superintendent Weber heard from the peasant Michael Hahn: “How comes it that our parsons are always preaching that men ought to be converted, and, when one is converted, they cannot bear it?” to which, after being silent for some time, he replied, “God knows he is right!” None the less mindful, however, are we still of the truth, that it is not everything claiming to be Divine that is so; as the lady Von Krόdener confessed on her deathbed: “Often have I taken for the voice of God what was nothing but the fruit of my fancy and my pride.” Yet she was able to add: “What good I have done will remain; what evil I have done, God’s mercy will blot out.” 5. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.) Peace is here properly to be taken in its fulness of meaning, Hebr. ωָׁ ?μεֹ ?ν, life unimpaired (comp. ὁλόκληρος, ωָׁ ?μֵ ?ν), the full feeling of life in the strength of the atonement. With this agrees also the opposite, confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). This peace alone makes joy possible even in suffering, and thanksgiving even in distress and affliction. But God alone brings us to the enjoyment of a true peace, not only with one another (1 Thessalonians 5:13), but first in and with Himself. This comes to pass through an all-pervading sanctification. Spirit and soul—the two designations may be used indifferently, when the question is not about diversity of functions, but solely about the one and the same substance; thus ψυχή stands with σῶμα, Matthew 10:28; and again πνεῦμα with σῶμα, 1 Corinthians 7:34 (whereas here the point is, not simply the preservation of life, but sanctification and the service of God); πνεῦμα with σάρξ (1 Peter 3:18-19; 2 Corinthians 7:1) denotes the two ruling principles. But where the exact testing and sifting of the motives of action are spoken of, whether they proceed from above or from beneath, there it is said that the word of God, as a two-edged sword, pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). And so here the discourse regards the sanctifying and keeping of all man’s functions. For the spirit cannot truly serve God, if soul and body continue in their natural state of estrangement from the life that is of God, but they too must (slowly, gradually, with conflict and trial, with daily mortifying of the σάρξ, and yet with carefulness for the σῶμα) be drawn into the sanctifying process, and that must be inwrought into them. Otherwise our reason apologizes for sin; it savoreth not the things that be of God, but those that be of men; the conscience is lulled to sleep; the emotions and feelings of the soul sway up and down; the body is allowed to go unchecked in its wants and impulses. The whole must be changed. Very well Von Gerlach: The spirit of man is sanctified and kept, when God’s Spirit dwells in it and rules it; the soul is sanctified, when the Divinely sanctified spirit controls it, when all its feelings, all its longings and strivings, however necessary to the maintenance in man of his proper life, and to the exertion thereby of an influence also on the world around, are yet perfectly subordinated to God and the spirit. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ V Conclusion of the Epistle with Salutation and Benediction 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28.25, 26, 27Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge [adjure] you by the Lord, that this [the, τήν] epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. AND 1. (1 Thessalonians 5:25.) Brethren, pray for us (καὶ περί, B. D.1, is unsuitable [Lachmann inserts the καί in brackets.—J. L.]). The closing words are concise and hearty. First, he solicits intercession in behalf of his apostolic calling; this he frequently does, laying stress upon it, and humbly suing for it (2 Thessalonians 3:1; Romans 15:30; Colossians 4:3; Ephesians 6:18-19; Philemon 1:22). Bengel notes that in the Epistle to the Galatians and in the First to the Corinthians he does not do so, because he was there compelled to admonish his readers with fatherly severity.2. (1 Thessalonians 5:26.) Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss; φίλημα, a love-token (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12); φίλημαἀγάπης (1 Peter 5:14); in the Latin Fathers, and first Tertullian, osculum pacis [signaculum pacis.—J. L.], also simply pax. The kiss, a general mark of salutation, especially in the East, was here to be hallowed as an expression of brotherly love, and of the common joy in the Lord. It had its place especially after prayer, and before taking the Holy Supper, &c. According to Tertullian it was omitted on Good Friday (on account of the kiss of Judas). Later ecclesiastical rules (with a view particularly to cutting off every pretext for heathen calumnies) insisted that only men should kiss men, and women women. The custom remained till the middle ages, and it still prevails in the East at Easter (comp. Augusti, Handbuch der chr. Archδol., II. p., 718 sqq.). Because in the other Pauline passages it is said: ἀσπάσασθεἀλλήλονς, but here: τοὺςἀδελφοὺςπάντας, De Wette and Lόnemann infer that the Epistle, received and read in public by the presidents, requires them, first of all, to salute and kiss all the brethren in the Apostle’s name. Ewald even asserts that 1 Thessalonians 5:25-27, beginning so abruptly, were plainly added by Paul in his own hand for the authentication of the letter, according to 2 Thessalonians 3:17 (in pursuance of the untenable hypothesis, that our First Epistle was rather the Second); and that these words, accordingly, were intended first for the presidents; Timothy having probably informed him that our Second Epistle (which was rather the First) had not been duly read in public before the assembled church. But even the appeal to 3 John 1:9 has no power to lift all this out of the category of utterly groundless hypotheses. In opposition to it Hofmann properly reminds us, that the invitation in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is addressed to all the Thessalonians, and therefore also the next 1 Thessalonians 5:26; hence: Deliver my salutation (in connection with the holy kiss) to all the brethren—this the Thessalonians did collectively, when on hearing these words they kissed one another. 3. (1 Thessalonians 5:27.) I adjure you, &c.; δρκίζω or ἐνορκίζω has also a different construction from Footnotes: 1 Thessalonians 5:27.—A. B. D.1 E. ἐνορκίζω, [found nowhere else]; Sin. and most others, ὁρκίζω which is, indeed, more common in the New Testament [Mark 5:7; Acts 19:13;—the only other instances], and therefore, perhaps, in the present instance merely a correction. [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott edit ένορκ.—Nearly all versions and commentaries give the full force of the Greek verb, as E. V. does in the other instances, and here in the margin.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:27.—ἁγίοις is wanting in B. D. E. F. G. and in Sin. primβ manu; but is found in A. K. L., Sin. secundβ manu, and in most of the versions. De Wette is probably right in holding, that it was omitted as being unusual and apparently superfluous, rather than it was added; it is found also at Hebrews 3:1. [It is omitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford. Riggenbach brackets it in his version.—J. L.] 1 Thessalonians 5:28.—ἀμήν at the close is wanting in B. D.1 F. G.; most of the authorities have it, and so Sin. [The critical editors generally omit it; Riggenbach brackets.—J. L.] [Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:11; Philippians 1:19; Hebrews 13:18.—J. L.] [Bengel also remarks that this request is wanting likewise in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, either because Paul addressed them as his sons, or because he could already count on having their intercession.—J. L.]