1 Thessalonians 5:24

1 Thessalonians 5:24

I. The faith of man and the faithfulness of God. The highest object of man's existence is undoubtedly to hold communion with his God. For this his nature was originally framed, and in this alone will his nature ever find contentment or repose. The remedy for his present condition must be a restoration of the communion of man with God. And this is the most general character of the Christian religion the simplest definition of its nature and object. Man is separated from God as a criminal: the communion is restored, by free pardon on God's part, of the acceptance of that pardon upon man's. And thus it is that Christianity restores the race of man, by restoring the communion with God.

II. The instance of God's inflexible fidelity, which the Apostle notes in the text, is gloriously characteristic of the spiritual system to which we belong. The kingdom of God was to Paul an inward and spiritual kingdom, even at the time that he looked forward to the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power, when He shall come to be "glorified in His saints." It was not relief from temporal ends that the Apostle promised, no security from adversity, that was to manifest the omnipotence of God exerted on behalf of His people. No: the mercy of God might send them to the stake or the lions; it was still His mercy, if it "but kept them unspotted from the world." The faithfulness of God is represented by the Apostle as extending to the whole man, to body, soul, and spirit, which are all said to be preserved blameless. The entire of our feeble humanity is sheltered under this canopy of Divine protection.

III. It is also said of this faithfulness, that it is the faithfulness of Him that calleth you. This is not the least wondrous circumstance in the unalterable faithfulness of God, that it is a fidelity to His own gracious engagement. He calls, and He is faithful to His own merciful calling; He summons the heart to Himself, and He adheres to His own voluntary summons; He, without destroying human freedom or human responsibility, of His free grace, commences, continues, and ends, the whole Christian work. Yea, so faithful is this His profound compassion, that He represents Himself as bound to the impulses of His own unconstrained mercy. There is no bond but His own love, yet that bond is stronger than iron; and He, whom the universe cannot compel, commands Himself.

W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical,1st series, p. 207.

References: 1 Thessalonians 5:24. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 346; Church of England Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 49. 1 Thessalonians 5:25. J. Aldis, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 289; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 189.