CHAPTER IV. _The apostle exhorts them to attend to the directions which he_ _had already given them, that they might know how to walk and_ _please God_, 1, 2. _Gives them exhortations concerning continence, chastity, and_ _matrimonial fidelity_, 3-8. _Speaks concerning their love to each other... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:2. _YE KNOW WHAT COMMANDMENTS WE GAVE YOU_] This refers to his instructions while he was among them; and to instructions on particular subjects, which he does not _recapitulate_, but only _hints_ at.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:3. _THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD_, EVEN _YOUR SANCTIFICATION_] God has called you to holiness; he requires that you should be holy; for without holiness none can see the Lord. This is the _general_ calling, but in it many particulars are included. Some of these he proceeds to ment... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:4. _HOW TO POSSESS HIS VESSEL_] Let every man use his _wife_ for the purpose alone for which God created her, and instituted _marriage_. The word ακευος answers to the Hebrew כלי _keli_, which, though it signifies _vessel_ in general, has several other meanings. That the rab... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:5. _NOT IN THE LUST OF CONCUPISCENCE_] Having no rational object, aim, nor end. Some say, "not like _beasts_;" but this does not apply as they who use it wish, for the males and females of the brute creation are regular and consistent in their intercourse, and scarcely ever e... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 6. _THAT NO_ MAN _GO BEYOND AND DEFRAUD HIS BROTHER_] That no man should by any means endeavour to corrupt the wife of another, or to alienate her affections or fidelity from her husband; this I believe to be the apostle's meaning, though some understand it of _covetousness, overreaching, tric... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 7. _GOD HATH NOT CALLED US UNTO UNCLEANNESS_] He is the creator of male and female, and the institutor of marriage, and he has called men and women to this state; but the _end_ of this and all the other callings of God to man is _holiness_, not _uncleanness_. And they who use the marriage stat... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 8. _HE THEREFORE THAT DESPISETH_] He who will not receive these teachings, and is led either to undervalue or despise them, despises not us but God, from whom we have received our commission, and by whose Spirit we give these directions. See Clarke's note on 1 Thessalonians 4:15. _HATH ALSO... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 9. _TOUCHING BROTHERLY LOVE_] They were remarkable for this; and though the apostle appears to have had this as a topic on which he intended to write to them, yet, from the account which he received of their prosperous state by Timothy, he finds that it is unnecessary to spend any time in incu... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 10. _YE DO IT TOWARD ALL THE BRETHREN_] Ye not only love one another at Thessalonica, but ye love all the brethren in Macedonia; ye consider them all as children of the same Father; and that all the Churches which are in Christ make one great and glorious _body_, of which he is the _head_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 11. _THAT YE STUDY TO BE QUIET_] Though in general the Church at Thessalonica was pure and exemplary, yet there seem to have been some _idle, tattling_ people among them, who disturbed the peace of others; persons who, under the pretence of religion, _gadded about from house to house_; did no... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 12. _THAT YE MAY WALK HONESTLY_] ευσχημονως. _Becomingly,_ _decently, respectably_; as is _consistent_ with the _purity, holiness,_ _gravity_, and _usefulness_ of your Christian calling. _THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT_] The unconverted _Gentiles_ and Jews. See this expression explained at large on Co... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 13. _I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU TO BE IGNORANT_] Instead of εχομεν, _have_, θελομεν, _wish_, is the reading of ADEFG, many others, besides the _Arabic, AEthiopic, Armenian_, some of the _Slavonian_, the _Vulgate_, and _Itala_, with many of the Greek _fathers_. This is undoubtedly the true reading: _... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 14. _FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN_] ει γαρ. _Seeing that we believe_; knowing that the _resurrection_ of Christ is as fully authenticated as his death. _EVEN SO THEM_] It necessarily follows that them who _sleep_-die, _in him_-in the faith of the Gospel, _will God bring wi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 15. _THIS WE SAY UNTO YOU BY THE WORD OF THE LORD_] This I have, by _express revelation_, from the Lord: what he now delivers, he gives as coming immediately from the Spirit of God. Indeed, human reason could not have found out the points which he immediately subjoins; no _conjectures_ could l... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 16. _THE LORD HIMSELF_] That is: Jesus Christ _shall_ _descend from heaven_; shall descend in like manner as he was seen by his disciples to ascend, i.e. in his human form, but now infinitely more glorious; for _thousands of thousands shall_ _minister unto him_, and _ten thousand times ten tho... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:18. _COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS._] Strange saying! comfort a man with the information that he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from these words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins ar... [ Continue Reading ]