Analysis Of The Chapter This chapter, properly, comprises two parts: First, various practical exhortations, 1 Thessalonians 4:1; and secondly, suggestions designed to console those who have been bereaved; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 The first part embraces the following topics: (1) An exhortation to inc... [ Continue Reading ]
FURTHERMORE THEN - Τὸ λοιπὸν To loipon. “As to what remains.” That is, all that remains is to offer these exhortations; see the 2 Corinthians 13:11 note; Galatians 6:17 note; Ephesians 6:10 note; Philippians 4:8 note. The phrase is a formula appropriate to the end of an argument or discourse. WE... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR YE KNOW WHAT COMMANDMENTS - It was but a short time since Paul was with them, and they could not but recollect the rules of living which he had laid down. BY THE LORD JESUS - By the authority of the Lord Jesus. Some of those rules, or commandments, the apostle refers to, probably, in the follow... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION - It is the will or command of God that you should be holy. This does not refer to the purpose or decree of God, and does not mean that he intended to make them holy - but it means that it was his command that they should be holy. It was also tru... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT EVERY ONE OF YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO POSSESS HIS VESSEL - The word “vessel” here (σκεῦος skeuos), probably refers to the body. When it is so used, it is either because the body is frail and feeble, like an earthen vessel, easily broken 2 Corinthians 4:7, or because it is that which contains the... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT IN THE LUST OF CONCUPISCENCE - In gross gratifications. EVEN AS THE GENTILES - This was, and is, a common vice among the pagan; see the Acts 15:20 note; Romans 1:29 note; Ephesians 4:17 notes, and the reports of missionaries everywhere. WHICH KNOW NOT GOD - See the Romans 1:21, Romans 1:28 not... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT NO MAN GO BEYOND - ὑπερβαίνειν huperbainein. This word means, “to make to go over,” as, e. g., a wall or mountain; then, to overpass, to wit, certain limits, to transgress; and then to go too far, i. e., to go beyond right - hence to cheat or defraud. It is not used elsewhere in the New Testa... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GOD HATH NOT CALLED US UNTO UNCLEANNESS - When he called us to be his followers, it was not that we should lead lives of impurity, but of holiness. We should, therefore, fulfil the purposes for which we were called into his kingdom. The word “uncleanness” (ἀκαθαρσία akatharsia), means, properl... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THEREFORE THAT DESPISETH - Margin, “rejecteth.” That is, he who disregards such commands as these which call him to a holy life, is really rejecting and disobeying God. Some might be disposed to say that these were merely the precepts of man, and that therefore it was not important whether they w... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS TOUCHING BROTHERLY LOVE - The “peculiar charity and affection which one Christian owes to another.” Doddridge; see the notes on John 13:34. YE NEED NOT THAT I WRITE UNTO YOU - That is, “as I have done on the other points.” They were so taught of God in regard to this duty, that they did not... [ Continue Reading ]
AND INDEED YE DO IT - See the notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:7. BUT WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, THAT YE INCREASE MORE AND MORE - See the notes at 1 Thessalonians 3:12. Here, as elsewhere, the apostle makes the fact that they deserved commendation for what they had done, a stimulus to arouse them to still... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT YE STUDY TO BE QUIET - Orderly, peaceful; living in the practice of the calm virtues of life. The duty to which he would exhort them was that of being subordinate to the laws; of avoiding all tumult and disorder; of calmly pursuing their regular avocations, and of keeping themselves from al... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE MAY WALK HONESTLY TOWARD THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT - Out of the church; comp notes on Colossians 4:5. The word rendered honestly, means “becomingly, decorously, in a proper manner;” Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 14:40. It does not refer here to mere honesty in the transaction of business, but to t... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU TO BE IGNORANT - I would have you fully informed on the important subject which is here referred to. It is quite probable from this, that some erroneous views prevailed among them in reference to the condition of those who were dead, which tended to prevent their enjoying th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN - That is, if we believe this, we ought also to believe that those who have died in. the faith of Jesus will be raised from the dead. The meaning is not that the fact of the resurrection depends on our believing that Jesus rose, but that the death and... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS WE SAY UNTO YOU BY THE WORD OF THE LORD - By the command or inspired teaching of the Lord. Prof. Bush (_Anastasis_, p. 265) supposes that the apostle here alludes to what the Saviour says in Matthew 24:30, “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven,” etc. It is possib... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN - notes, Acts 1:11. WITH A SHOUT - The word here used (κέλευσμα keleusma), does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It properly means a “cry’ of excitement, or of arging on; an outcry, clamor, or shout, as of sailors at the oar, Luc. Catapl. 19;... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WE WHICH ARE ALIVE - Those who shall then be alive; see 1 Thessalonians 4:15. The word here rendered “then” (ἔπειτα epeita), does not necessarily mean that this would occur immediately. It properly marks succession in time, and means “afterward, next, next in the order of events;” Luke 16:7;... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER - Margin, “exhort.” The word comfort probably best expresses the meaning. They were to bring these glorious truths and these bright prospects be fore their minds, in order to alleviate, the sorrows of bereavement. The topics of consolation are these: first, that those w... [ Continue Reading ]