13. Heel's ds, but we) Comfort after the prediction of mourn ful events. So 2 Tim. ii. 19. It may be said, What need was there of comfort at that time to the Thessalonians 1 Ans. The mystery of iniquity was even then in operation ; and instruction may be equally derived from the distant future, as from the remote past, 1 Cor. x. 1, et seqq. — ops/Xo^si/, we are bound) ch. i. 3. — VTTO Kvpiov, by the Lord) Christ. — i/Xsro — &ie apxfii) He does not say sgsXsgaro, but in this one place, and on this subject, he uses s'/Xsro. That effect was produced by the success of evangelical calling ; and yet there is added, from the begin ning, i.e. from eternity, comp. 1 John i. 1, because believers are fortified and claimed as such by the eternal decree, Eph. i. 4, in opposition to those who worship the Man of Sin, Rev. xiii. 8. Comp. Deut. vii. 7, X. 15, -r^os/Xgro Kvpiog v/j^ag xai
the Lord preferred and chose you, etc. Ibid. xxvi. 18, has avouched (s/'Xsro, has taken to Himself) thee this day to be His peculiar (mpiouffiov) people. The decree is truly from eternity, as truly as the generation of the Son of God is from eternity : yet the decree is one thing, the generation is another.1 — ev ayiaff^tt Tlvevparos, in sanctification of the Spirit) The Holy Spirit sanc tifies us, and sanctification is the test of election, 1 Pet. i. 2.
14. E/'s o, Whereunto) The phrase, to salvation, is hereby ex plained. — g/g Trepj-Troiqaiv, [to the obtaining, Engl. V.] to the deliver ance) g/g is resumed the second time : supply, namely. There is no vepiKoirifftg, or mere deliverance (preservation2), from the ship wreck of the world, but as it is conjoined with glorification, 2 Tim. ii. 10. xtpiovffiov, in Deut., cited above, is in consonance with this. — rov) [Kvpiov] construed with <irspwotri<fiv [not with do^g, as Engl. Vers.]
15. "Apa ovv, therefore then) The conclusion. — xpaTslrs, hold) adding nothing, subtracting nothing. — rag irapadoffsa;, the tradi tions) I wish that those who are most urgent on the subject of
1 Just as God's decree and His eternal adoption of believers are distinct things. — ED.
2 Beng. understands Kepiiroiww of "that which remains when all else perishes." He translates it conservations in Eph. i. 14, and distinguishes it from redemption by the blood of Christ. Here liberatio, viz. final de liverance, which is connected with glory, and which is to be the gift of our Lord Jesus. — ED.