1 Thessalonians 4:8

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God Thereforeshould stand first, as in R. V.; it gathers up and re-affirms with emphasis the charge of 1 Thessalonians 4:2: Wherefore then.

For despisethread rejecteth (A. V. margin, and R. V.), as this word is rendered in Luke 10:16; in Galatians 2:21 we read it, "I do not make voidthe grace of God." It points to some authority set at nought, or engagement nullified. It was God's call which had summoned the Thessalonians to their new life; His voice, not man's, had reached them by the Gospel (see ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:12-13). It will be God'sauthority therefore, not man's, that they defy, if this charge is disregarded; comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "how you ought to please God;" and 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "This is God's will."

And the God Whom they would thus set at nought, is He who gives His Holy Spirit unto you. The Greek text of this clause is doubtful in several points. The Revisers are probably right in reading givethin place of hath also given(A. V.); and youin place of us(A. V.), this word closing the sentence with emphasis.

The preposition is strictly into you, implying beyond the mere fact of the impartation of the Holy Spirit, His entrance intothe soul. There is probably a reminiscence of Ezekiel 37:6, where the LXX represents the Lord as saying to the dry bones, "I will give(Hebrew, put) My Spirit into you, and you shall live, and shall know that I am the Lord." Similarly in Galatians 4:6, "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son intoyour hearts;" and in Ephesians 3:16, "strengthened through His Spirit (entering) intothe inward man." The gift of the Holy Spirit of God, bestowed to dwell within the soul of him who believes in Christ, is the peculiar distinction and the essential blessing of Christ's religion. "I will pray the Father," said Jesus, "and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. He abideth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:16-17; comp. Luke 11:13). The whole grace of the Gospel is summed up by St Paul in "the promise of the Spirit," received "through faith" (Galatians 3:14). Through His indwelling we know the love of God, and are conscious of being sons of God and heirs of life eternal (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:6-7; Ephesians 1:13-14).

Now the unchaste act or thought is an affront to the Holy Ghost, Who dwells as Guest in the soul and body of the Christian. This final warning seals the Apostle's charge. He appeals to the presence of the Holy Spirit, of Whose continued visitations and influence his readers were sensible. To "reject the God Who gives" this gift would be for the Thessalonians to sin against the light that was in them. We are reminded again of 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost Which is in you, Which you have from God?"

"Gentle, awful, holy Guest,

Make Thy temple in each breast,

There supreme to reign and rest,

Comforter Divine."