The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 14

received convcrl,ing grace, under the inA11ence of which they turned to the Lord from their dead and ficLitious deities. (I) Idolatry is apost.1sy from Goil. These Tbessa• lonians" had changed the glory of the iucorruptible Goel for the likeness of an image of corrupLi ble man, ~n_d of birds, ~n~ four-footed beasts, a~d creepin? things" (Rom. i. 23). They had been" Jomed to their 1dol8" for ages (Hos. 1v. 17). 'l hey had been hitherto walking just like other Gentiles, in all moral blindness and carnality of heart (Eph. iv. 17, 18). (2) Their conversion was a repudiation of idolatry. It was not mere prosely- tism. It was the bursting asunder of ties which had an immense social as well as religious weight in pagan life. (3) ·1t was a thorough consecration to the service of the living and true God. As their God was true God and living God, havin~ life in himself and a true ~nd faithful relation to bis worshippers, they could l!:ive him the living service of faith, obedience, and dependence. 2. Another effect of the apostles' preaching was their expectation of our Lord's coming. The Joctrine of the advent occupies the foreground in the thoughts of the Thessalonians, as in the two Epistles addressed to them. As faith underlies the service of the trne Gud, so hope underlies the expectation of the Lord's coming. "And to wait for bis Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come." .1) This implies the belief that Jesus is in heaven, to reign, to plead, to prepare a place for :is. (2) It implies the belief that he will return from heaven. The Thessalonians may have believed that he would return in that age, but all Christians live in the "blessed hope" of his second coming. (3) This waiting attitude implied the :ecognition of ii certain connection between Christ's resurrection and our deliverance from the wrath to come. They were not waiting for a dead man lying in a Jewish grave, but for One raised from the dead, and living in the power of an endless life. His resurrection implied the completion of his atoning work, as the work of atonement supplies the ground for our continuous deliverance from the wrath that is coming. There is a wrath coming upon disobedient sinners, but there is a way of deliverance provided In the Word if Jesus Christ ratified by his resurrection from the dead.-T. C. Ver. 1.-The address. L THE WBITEB. 1. He uses no title. He does not style himself apostle. He asserted his apostolic authority when it was necessary to do so; for the sake of others, as in his Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians. Now it was not necessary; the Macedonian Churches regarded him with affection and reverence. He simply gives his name, his new name-Paul. He had laid aside his old name with all its associations. It recalled the memory of the famous king, Saul the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. It recalled to the apostle the memories of his own old uncon- verted life, his self-satisfied Pharisaism, his prrsecution of the Church, especially that one saddest day of his life, when he consented to the death of the first martyr of the Lord, the holy Stephen. He had laid aside bis old name, and with it his old modes of thought, his old life. Paul was, we may say, his Christian name; we do not read of it before the beginning of his first missionary journey; it was consecrated now by con- stant, untiring, self-sacrificing labour. It was known wherever Christ was preached as the name of the great missionary, the apostle of the Gentiles, the first of the noble band of Christian missionaries, who had left his home and all that once he loved to devote himself, heart and soul, to the mission work with all its hardships, all its dangers, Many holy men have trodden in his steps; but it was Paul who first set the high example, who kindled the sacred enthusiasm which has led so many saints in every age to fulfil the Lord's command, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Paul is a Latin name; it means "little." St. Augustine in one place suggests that St. Paul may have chosen it to mark himself as " the least of the apostles." There are other possible reasons for the change, and it may be thought that St. Paul would have shrunk from what might seem almost like a pare.de of humility. But at least we may find e. lesson hN'e. God exalteth the humble. Paul is e. famous name. Others have borne it-some distinguished Rome.us; but it was reserved for the apostle to make the name honoured and beloved throughout the civilized world. The Paulus who conquered Macellonia for ~ome is far less f~mous now tb~n th~ Paul who w~n the Macedonian Churches for Christ. 2. He associates others with himsilf. Paul II the spiritu11l father of the Thessalonian C~~istians; he is the writer of the ~pistl~, n~t Silva.nWI or Timotheue (see 2 Thess. m. 17). But they he.,! laboured with him l.ll  10 THE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [oa. l, 1-10.