PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles to the Thessalonians
Denney, James · 87,456 words · 112 reading sections
_The Standing Orders Of The Gospel._
We see, then, that this command, unreasonable as it appears, is not impracticable. If we are truly Christians, if we have seen and received the love of God, if we see and receive it continually, it will enable us, like those who wrote the New Testament, to rejoice evermore. There are places on our coast where a spring …
691 wordsSECTION 62_The Standing Orders Of The Gospel._
It may seem strange that one difficult thing should be made easy when it is combined with another; but this is what is suggested by the second exhortation of the Apostle, "Pray without ceasing." It is not easy to rejoice alway, but our one hope of doing so is to pray constantly. How are we to understand so singular a p…
721 wordsSECTION 63_The Standing Orders Of The Gospel._
The third of the standing orders of the Church is, from one point of view, a combination of the first and second; for thanksgiving is a kind of joyful prayer. As a duty, it is recognised by every one within limits; the difficulty of it is only seen when it is claimed, as here, without limits: "In everything give thanks…
917 wordsSECTION 64_The Standing Orders Of The Gospel._
But it is only a Christian who can do it, as the last words of the Apostle intimate: "This is the will of God _in Christ Jesus_ to you-ward." These words may refer to all that has preceded: "Rejoice alway; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks"; or they may refer to the last clause only. Whichever be the case…
491 wordsSECTION 65_The Spirit._
"Quench not the Spirit: despise not prophesyings: (but) prove all things: hold fast that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."--1 THESS. v. 20-22 (R.V.). These verses are abruptly introduced, but are not unconnected with what precedes. The Apostle has spoken of order and discipline, and of the joyful and …
712 wordsSECTION 66_The Spirit._
Every one knows that a fire smokes most when it is newly kindled; but the way to get rid of the smoke is not to pour cold water on the fire, but to let it burn itself clear. If you are wise enough you may even help it to burn itself clear, by rearranging the materials, or securing a better draught; but the wisest thing…
718 wordsSECTION 67_The Spirit._
Among the gifts of the Spirit, that which the Apostle valued most highly was prophecy. We read in the Book of Acts of prophets, like Agabus, who foretold future events affecting the fortunes of the gospel, and possibly at Thessalonica the minds of those who were spiritually gifted were preoccupied with thoughts of the …
1,038 wordsSECTION 68_The Spirit._
And it is necessary that they should prove them. No man is perfect, not the most devout and enthusiastic of Christians. In his most spiritual utterances something of himself will very naturally mingle; there will be chaff among the wheat; wood, hay, and stubble in the material he brings to build up the Church, as well …
852 wordsSECTION 69_The Spirit._
In conclusion, let us recall to our minds the touchstone which the Apostle himself supplies for this spiritual assaying. "No one," he writes to the Corinthians, "can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost." In other words, whatever is spoken in the Holy Ghost, and is therefore spiritual and true, has this character…
375 wordsSECTION 70_Conclusion._
"And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it. Brethren, pray for us. Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that thi…
654 wordsSECTION 71_Conclusion._
The learned and philosophical have found in these three words a magnificent field for the display of philosophy and learning; but unhappily for plain people, it is not very easy to follow them. As the words stand before us in the text, they have a friendly Biblical look; we get a fair impression of the Apostle's intent…
725 wordsSECTION 72_Conclusion._
This inward life, in all its aspects, is to be sanctified through and through. All our powers of thought and imagination are to be consecrated; unholy thoughts are to be banished; lawless, roving imaginings, suppressed. All our inventiveness is to be used in God's service. All our affections are to be holy. Our heart's…
810 wordsSECTION 73_Conclusion._
What follows is the affectionate desultory close of the letter. Paul has prayed for the Thessalonians; he begs their prayers for himself. This request is made no less than seven times in his Epistles--including the one before us: a fact which shows how priceless to the Apostle was the intercession of others on his beha…
882 wordsSECTION 74_Conclusion._
The charge to read the letter to _all_ the brethren is one of the many indications in the New Testament that, though the gospel is a _mysterion_, as it is called in Greek, there is no mystery about it in the modern sense. It is all open and aboveboard. There is not something on the surface, which the simple are to be a…
604 wordsSECTION 75_Salutation And Thanksgiving._
"Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. "We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the …
702 wordsSECTION 76_Salutation And Thanksgiving._
What, now, was the main purpose of it? What had the Apostle in his mind when he sat down to write? To answer that, we must go back a little way. A great subject of apostolic preaching at Thessalonica had been the Second Advent. So characteristic was it of the gospel message, that Christian converts from heathenism are…
708 wordsSECTION 77_Salutation And Thanksgiving._
The greeting with which the Epistle opens is almost word for word the same as that of the First Epistle. It is a church which is addressed; and a church subsisting in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle has no other interest in the Thessalonians than as they are Christian people. Their Christian ch…
778 wordsSECTION 78_Salutation And Thanksgiving._
The salutation is followed, as usual, by a thanksgiving, which at the first glance seems endless. One long sentence runs, apparently without interruption, from the third verse to the end of the tenth. But it is plain, on a more attentive glance, that the Apostle goes off at a tangent; and that his thanksgiving is prope…
1,057 wordsSECTION 79_Salutation And Thanksgiving._
The apostolic thanksgiving is supplemented in this particular case by something, not indeed alien to it, yet on a quite different level--a glorying before men. Paul thanked God for the increase of faith and love at Thessalonica; and when he remembered that he himself had been the means of converting the Thessalonians, …
379 wordsSECTION 80_Suffering And Glory._
"A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: if so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Je…
934 wordsSECTION 81_Suffering And Glory._
But the reward is only one side of the righteous judgment foretold by the suffering of the innocent. It includes punishment as well. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you." We see here the very simplest conception of God's justice. It is a law of retribution, of vindication…
782 wordsSECTION 82_Suffering And Glory._
When Christ is thus revealed, it is in the character of a Judge: He renders vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Two classes of guilty men are quite plainly distinguished by these words; and as plainly, though the English alone would not enable us to lay st…
828 wordsSECTION 83_Suffering And Glory._
The ninth verse describes the terrible vengeance of the great day. "Such men," says the Apostle, "shall pay the penalty, everlasting destruction, away from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might." These are awful words, and it is no wonder that attempts have been made to empty them of the meaning which th…
719 wordsSECTION 84_Suffering And Glory._
But in vivid contrast with this--for the Apostle does not close with this terrible prospect--is the lot of those who have chosen the good part here. Christ is revealed taking vengeance on the wicked, as has just been described; but He comes also to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believed-…
566 wordsSECTION 85_The Man Of Sin._
"Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is _now_ present; let no man beguile you…
838 wordsSECTION 86_The Man Of Sin._
A great mystery has been made out of the paragraph which follows, but without much reason. It certainly stands alone in St. Paul's writings, an Apocalypse on a small scale, reminding us in many respects of the great Apocalypse of John, but not necessarily to be judged by it, or brought into any kind of harmony with it.…
757 wordsSECTION 87_The Man Of Sin._
When Paul wrote this Epistle, the Jews were the great enemies of the gospel; it was they who persecuted him from city to city, and roused against him everywhere the malice of the heathen; hostility to God was incarnated, if anywhere, in them. They alone, because of their spiritual privileges, were capable of the deepes…
921 wordsSECTION 88_The Man Of Sin._
One other remark is suggested by the description of the character in which sin culminates, viz., that as evil approaches its height it assumes ever more spiritual forms. There are some sins which betray man on the lower side of his nature, through the perversion of the appetites which he has in common with the brutes: …
970 wordsSECTION 89_The Man Of Sin._
It would ill become us, however, to close the study of so serious a subject with the censure of others. The mere discovery that we have here to do with a law of moral development, and with a supreme and final type of evil, should put us rather upon self-scrutiny. The character of our Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme an…
424 wordsSECTION 90_The Restraint And Its Removal._
"And now ye know that which restraineth to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only _there is_ one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of Hi…
880 wordsSECTION 91_The Restraint And Its Removal._
But, it may be asked, could Paul imagine that the Roman power, as represented by the Emperor, was likely to be removed within any measurable time? Was it not the very type and symbol of all that was stable and perpetual in man's life? In one way, it was; and as at least a temporary check on the final eruption of wicked…
1,116 wordsSECTION 92_The Restraint And Its Removal._
This is a point for consideration in our own time. There is a great deal of falsehood in circulation--partly superstitious, partly quasi-scientific--which is not judged with the decision and severity that would be becoming in wise and good men. Some of it is more or less latent, working as a mystery of iniquity; influe…
1,112 wordsSECTION 93_The Restraint And Its Removal._
The last two verses in this passage are very striking. We have seen already two agents in the destruction of men's souls. They perish by their own agency, in that they do not welcome and love the truth; and they perish by the malevolence of the devil, who avails himself of this dislike to the truth to befool them by fa…
770 wordsSECTION 94_The Theology Of Paul._
"But we are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren…
914 wordsSECTION 95_The Theology Of Paul._
(2) Further, the means of salvation for men are of God. "He chose you," says the Apostle, "in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Perhaps "means" is not the most precise word to use here; it might be better to say that sanctification wrought by the Spirit, and belief of the truth, are the state in wh…
794 wordsSECTION 96_The Theology Of Paul._
(4) Lastly, under this head, the end proposed to us in obeying the gospel call is of God. It is the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul became a Christian and an Apostle, because he saw the Lord of Glory on the way to Damascus; and his whole conception of salvation was shaped by that sight. To be save…
682 wordsSECTION 97_The Theology Of Paul._
"Traditions" is an unpopular word in one section of the Church, because it has been so vastly abused in another. But it is not an illegitimate word in any church, and there is always a place for what it means. The generations are dependent on each other; each transmits to the future the inheritance it has received from…
788 wordsSECTION 98_The Theology Of Paul._
But the eternal consolation does not exhaust God's gifts. He has also in His grace given us good hope. He has made provision, not only for the present trouble, but for the future uncertainty. All life needs an outlook; and those who have stood beside the empty grave in the garden know how wide and glorious is the outlo…
653 wordsSECTION 99_Mutual Intercession._
"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, even as also _it is_ with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men; for all have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and guard you from the evil _one_. And we have confidence in the …
700 wordsSECTION 100_Mutual Intercession._
But Paul wishes the Thessalonians to pray that the word of the Lord may be glorified, as well as have free course. The word of the Lord is a glorious thing itself. As the Apostle calls it in another place, it is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. All that makes the spiritual glory of God--His holiness, His lov…
1,035 wordsSECTION 101_Mutual Intercession._
We ought to notice the reason appended to this description of Paul's enemies: absurd and evil men, he says; for all men have not faith. Faith, of course, means the Christian faith: all men are not believers in Christ and disciples of Christ; and therefore the moral unreason and perversity of which I have spoken actuall…
1,032 wordsSECTION 102_Mutual Intercession._
Once more the Apostle bursts into prayer, as he remembers the situation of these few sheep in the wilderness: "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ." Nothing could be a better commentary than one of Paul's own affectionate Epistles on that much discussed text, "Pray without …
854 wordsSECTION 103_The Christian Worth Of Labour._
"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which they received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to imitate us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat br…
753 wordsSECTION 104_The Christian Worth Of Labour._
Besides this disorderly walk, with its moral instability, Paul heard of some who worked not at all. In other words, idleness was spreading in the church. It went to a great and shameless length. Christian men apparently thought nothing of sacrificing their independence, and eating bread for which they had not wrought. …
909 wordsSECTION 105_The Christian Worth Of Labour._
Convinced as he is that for mankind in general "no work" means "no character," Paul commands and exhorts in the Lord Jesus all such as he has been speaking of to work with quietness, and to eat their own bread. Their excitement was both unnatural and unspiritual. It was necessary for their moral health that they should…
857 wordsSECTION 106_The Christian Worth Of Labour._
Finally, in the discipline of the erring, an essential element is love. Withdraw from him, and let him feel he is alone; admonish him, and let him be convinced he is gravely wrong; but in your admonition remember that he is not an enemy, but a brother. Judgment is a function which the natural man is prone to assume, an…
627 wordsSECTION 107_Farewell._
"Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."--2 THESS. iii. 16-18 (R.V.). The first verse of this short passage i…
888 wordsSECTION 108_Farewell._
Here, properly speaking, the letter ends. The Apostle has communicated his mind to the Thessalonians as fully as their situation required; and might end, as he did in the First Epistle, with his benediction. But he remembers the unpleasant incident, mentioned in the beginning of ch. ii., of a letter purporting to be fr…
853 wordsSECTION 109_Farewell._
The very existence of such questions, however, warns us against mistaken estimates of Scripture. People sometimes say, if there be one point uncertain, our Bible is gone. Well, there _are_ points uncertain; there are points, too, in regard to which an ordinary Christian can only have a kind of second-hand assurance; an…
767 wordsSECTION 110_Farewell._
Here, then, we bring to a close our study of the two earliest Epistles of St. Paul. They have given us a picture of the primitive apostolic preaching, and of the primitive Christian Church. That preaching embodied revelations, and it was the acceptance of these revelations that created the new society. The Apostle and …
832 wordsSECTION 111Old Testament Volumes
The EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE _Edited_ by W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, D.D., LL.D. _New and Cheaper Edition. Printed from original plates_ _Complete in every detail. Uniform with this volume_ Price 50 cents per volume. (If by mail add 10 cents postage) GENESIS. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D. EXODUS. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick,…
298 wordsSECTION 112*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Epistles To The Thessalonians ***
ST. MATTHEW. By Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D. ST. MARK. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh. ST. LUKE. By Rev. Henry Burton. GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. In 2 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XI.; Vol. II., Chapters XII.-XXI. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. In 2 vols. By Rev. Prof. G. T. Stok…
382 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.