1 Thessalonians 4

Notes

Ver. 1. In order to your being established in holiness at the great coming of our Lord Jesus, with the most tender affection we entreat, and with the highest authority, in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus, we exhort and charge you, that, according to the inspired directions which ye have received from us, how to order your whole conversation in a manner acceptable to God through Christ, ye would, by his grace, more and more labour to improve and excel therein every day. 2. For ye cannot but know and remember what holy precepts we delivered to you when with you, as the rule of your behaviour in all things; and with what solemn and evangelical arguments we enforced and pressed them on your consciences, by the immediate authority of the exalted Lord and Saviour of his body the church. 3. For the ordaining, approving, and commanding will of God, and his end in bestowing his grace upon you, concur in this—that, encouraged by the promises of his word, ye should cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in his fear; and particularly that ye should carefully avoid and detest all manner of unchastity, and every appearance of temptation, or approach to it; 4. And that every one of you, Jew or Gentile, should, by the gospel, know by what obligation, in what manner, and by what motives, means, and assistances from above, he may make use of his body, which is the receptacle of his soul, with temperance, chastity, and purity, to the honour of God and its relation to Christ and his Spirit. and of the Christian profession and character: 5. Not using it in the gratification of defiling passions, appetites, and inclinations of the sensual kind, in the manner of the heathens, who, being ignorant of the true and living God, have rendered themselves infamous for the vilest abominations. 6. That so none of you may ever presume to act a dishonest or injurious part towards your neighbour, particularly in violating the fidelity and chastity of his wife; for ye know we have often solemnly warned you that the fearful justice of God shall punish such abominable transgressors: 7. For he, being infinitely holy, neither did nor could, by his gospel and grace, call us to the knowledge and fellowship of Christ, that we might indulge ourselves in uncleanness or any other sin, but that he might, by the strongest obligations and motives, engage us to chastity, holiness, and unblamableness, in our whole conversation before him. 8. Whoever therefore he be that rejects or contemns these admonitions and commands, does not despise the authority of man, but of the great God himself, by whose inspiration we deliver them, and who gives his sanctifying Spirit to all true believers, to direct and excite them to all proper obedience. 9, 10. But with respect to the great duty of loving one another as brethren in the faith, hope, holiness, and blessings of the gospel, I need not inculcate it upon you as though ye were averse to it; for, by the teaching of God's Word and Spirit, ye have been instructed in the obligations and manner of performing this duty, and are inclined and enabled to practise it, not only towards your fellow-Christians at Thessalonica, but towards all those of the churches around you; so that I need only beseech you to persevere and abound more and more in the manifestation and exercise of this brotherly love towards all the saints, your poor brethren of Judea not excepted; 11, 12. And for promoting it, let all of you study to behave in a meek and peaceable manner, never officiously meddling with other people's affairs, but attending to the duties of your respective stations and personal concerns, and industriously labouring in your several callings for the support of yourselves and families, and that ye may be enabled to give to such as are in straits—as ye know I and my fellow-ministers of Christ commanded and exemplified to you while we were with you—that so ye may live in such an upright, faithful, decent, and becoming manner towards the heathens around you as to prevent their reproaching you or your religion; and that, instead of needing the charity of others, ye may have enough of everything needful. 13. Moreover, I would not have you ignorantly indulge yourselves in excessive or superstitious sorrow for your deceased Christian relations, as if either their want of circumcision, or any other thing, could prevent their eternal felicity: 14. For if we truly believe that Jesus Christ died for our offences, and rose again for our justification, we must, upon the same ground, believe that God, through the death and resurrection of Christ, will quicken to an immortal and glorious life them that sleep in union with him, and will present them together with him in the last judgment. 15. For this we declare unto you, by the infallible inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that those members of Christ's mystical body who shall be living on the earth at his appearance to the last judgment shall not be happy, or have their bodies fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, sooner than those that shall be found in their graves: 16. For in that important day the Lord Jesus, in his human nature, shall visibly, and in great glory, descend from heaven, and in a most solemn manner, somewhat similar to the thunders at Sinai, summon the world to appear at his tribunal; and then the bodies of those who died in a state of faith and vital union with him shall be quickened to a glorious immortality, before the bodies of the wicked be raised, or the living saints gathered to his right hand. 17. But immediately after their resurrection, the members of his body, to which we all belong, who shall be then living, shall undergo a refining change, and, together with the raised saints, be carried up, by his almighty power, into the air, that we may sit down on his right hand; and being there acknowledged and acquitted, shall for ever continue, soul and body, in his immediate presence, to behold his glory. 18. Wherefore comfort yourselves and one another with respect to the death of your Christian friends, and every other trial ye undergo, with these views of your and their happiness in the last judgment and eternal state.

Ver. 6. In any matter. The great object of the passage (ver. 3-8) being to denounce lewdness and enforce chastity, it cannot be interpreted as merely forbidding and condemning fraud or oppression in common business, but must be understood as denouncing any injury to a father or husband by the seduction of a child or wife. C.

Ver. 13. Asleep is a literal and true description of the state of death. In natural sleep the body alone sleeps, the spirit is awake and active, as often appears, not merely from the existence of dreams, but from the fact that, in dreaming, men are frequently known to reason as accurately as when awake. Even so, in death, the body is really asleep till the resurrection, but the spirit of the believer is awake and with the Lord, 2 Co. 5. C.

Reflections.—Christians should every day carefully study an increase of holiness in heart and life, according to the will of God. And there is need of the utmost watchfulness and care to avoid all sensuality and impurity, as contrary to the command of God, and infinitely dangerous to our souls. Whatever contempt is aimed at Christ's faithful ministers falls chiefly on himself, and will be punished accordingly. It is delightful when church-members, as taught of God, abound in mutual love, peacefulness, and industry. But, alas! how many, by their intermeddling temper, bring trouble to themselves and reproach on their religion; while others, by their idleness, thievishly prey on their neighbours around! Very absurd is immoderate grief for Christian friends who are taken from us to be with Christ, and shall be quickly raised in glory, and set with him in the last judgment. Inexpressible is the solemnity of that day, and the comfort and honour it will bring to the saints.—Thrice blessed is that people whose God is the Lord! In death they sleep in Jesus' bosom; in the resurrection they appear with him in glory; and through eternity they shall see his face and sit with him on his throne.