INTRODUCTION TO 1 THESSALONIANS 4 In this chapter the apostle proceeds to exhort in general to the performance of good works, particularly to purity of life, to brotherly love, to quietness, diligence, and industry in the several callings of life, and not to mourn in an excessive and immoderate man... [ Continue Reading ]
FURTHERMORE THEN WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN,.... Or request of you in the most kind and tender manner, from real and hearty love and affection for you, and with a view to your good, and the glory of God: AND EXHORT YOU: or beseech and entreat you. The apostle does not lay his commands upon them as he... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR YE KNOW WHAT COMMANDMENTS WE GAVE YOU,.... When among them; such as those of faith and love, the ordinances of the Gospel, baptism, and the Lord's supper, and all such as relate to the worship and service of God, to the discipline of Christ's house, to their behaviour one towards another, and th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION,.... Which is another reason to enforce the above exhortation. "Sanctification" is internal or external. Internal sanctification is the work of the Spirit of God, and is a principle of spiritual life in the soul, a divine and spiritual light in t... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT EVERYONE OF YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO POSSESS HIS VESSEL,.... By which may be meant, either a man's wife, or his body, and it is not very easy to determine which, for the Jews call both by this name. Sometimes they call p a woman גולם, which the gloss says is a "vessel" unfinished. It is reported... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT IN THE LUST OF CONCUPISCENCE,.... Or "passion of lust"; for the mere gratifying and indulging of that; for a man so to possess his vessel, is to cherish the sin of concupiscence, the first motions of sin in the heart, by which a man is drawn away, and enticed; to blow up the flame of lust, and t... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT NO MAN GO BEYOND, AND DEFRAUD HIS BROTHER IN ANY MATTER,.... Or "in this matter", as the Syriac version. This is commonly understood of transgressing the bounds of justice and equity between men and men; and of cheating and defrauding in trade and business, by increasing or lessening the value... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GOD HATH NOT CALLED US,.... The Syriac version reads "you". This is another reason to enforce the above exhortations, and to caution them against the above unclean practices, taken from the end of the effectual calling by the efficacious grace of God, which is not UNTO UNCLEANNESS of any sort,... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THEREFORE THAT DESPISETH,.... The Vulgate Latin adds, "these things"; these exhortations now delivered, the commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the will of God above declared; he that rejects these things with contempt, takes no notice of them, and acts not according to them, DESPIS... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS TOUCHING BROTHERLY LOVE,.... Another branch of sanctification; which is distinct from love to God and Christ, though it always accompanies it, and from love to all mankind; and is what is peculiar to brethren in a spiritual relation, and ought to be universal, fervent, and sincere, and as Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND INDEED YE DO IT TOWARDS ALL THE BRETHREN,.... Whether high or low, rich or poor, bond or free, greater or lesser believers, and whether related in the bonds of nature or not; they exercised this grace of love without respect of persons, to all, and not only to all the brethren in the particular... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT YE STUDY TO BE QUIET,.... To live peaceably in their own families, and to give no disturbance to other families, by talebearing, whispering, and backbiting; to behave with quietness in the neighbourhood, town, or city, they dwell in, and to seek the peace thereof; and to lead a quiet and pe... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE MAY WALK HONESTLY,.... Decently, in good credit and reputation, providing things honest in the sight of all men, for themselves and families, and honestly paying every man his own; on which account it became them to mind their own business, and work at their trades; otherwise their walk and... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU TO BE IGNORANT, BRETHREN,.... As they seem to have been, about the state of the pious dead, the rule and measure of mourning for them, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Christ, and the future happiness of the saints; wherefore the apostle jud... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED, AND ROSE AGAIN,.... As every Christian does, for both the death and resurrection of Christ are fundamental articles of faith; nothing is more certain or more comfortable, and more firmly to be believed, than that Christ died for the sins of his people, and rose aga... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS WE SAY UNTO YOU BY THE WORD OF THE LORD,.... The apostle having something new and extraordinary to deliver, concerning the coming of Christ, the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the saints, the change of the living saints, and the rapture both of the raised and living in the cloud... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN,.... Not by proxy, or by representatives; not by the ministry of angels, as on Mount Sinai; nor by the ministers of the word, as under the Gospel dispensation; nor by his spirit, and the discovery of his love and grace, in which sense he descends in a s... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WE WHICH ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN,.... 1 Thessalonians 4:15. SHALL BE CAUGHT UP; suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and with force and power; by the power of Christ, and by the ministry and means of the holy angels; and to which rapture will contribute, the agility which the bodie... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS. Or doctrines; as that the saints, when they die, do not cease to be, but are asleep, and asleep in Jesus; that their souls are with him, and their bodies sleep in his arms, and are his care; that these will be as soon with Christ, as the saints that wi... [ Continue Reading ]