The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 19

liRve told the C',orinthian11 often of tlw simple faith and olicdience of the Mnccdoninm,. So the Th!'~AAloniRns became an example to the con,·crts who11a lot wns cast a111011~ 1lte 11emmal tem1 ,1 a lions imd the intellectual rcstlPssness nf I he famous Peloponncsian lnwn. 'l'he lives of gooo men are very precious; they are a living proof of tho power of God's gl'IICe; I hey arP facts which can be seen and tested; facts from which the reality of the force.s which Rre working in the unseen sphere of God's spirituRl agency can be inferred with as much certainty as the laws of nature from the facts of observR- tion and expe,iment. 2. The Word of God is living and powerful. The Thessalonian& had received it; it was in their hearts an,l on their lips. As the starry heavens with their sile11t witness declare the glory of God, so it is with the stars that are in the right hand of the Son of God (Rev. i. 20); their sound goeth forth into all the earth. That heavenly melody was issuing now from 'l'hessalonica. " It bath sounded forth," St. Paul says, like a clear, thrilling trumpet-strain. It bath sounded, and still it sounds, reaching far and wide with it& penetrating tones. The conversion of the Th~ssalonians was known not only in the neighbouring regions of Greece. The glad neWB had brought joy wherever the gospel had reached. It was not necessary for the apostle to praise tl,e faith of the Tbessalonians; men knew it, talked of it among them- aelv<'s, reported it to the great missio11ary himselt: II. TBE TESTIMONY THAT WAS BORNE TO THE FAITB OF THE TBESSALONUNB, Ci,ristians talked: l. Of the wonderful success of St. Paul's preaching. Those three weeks (he may have remaiued there somewhat longer) had been a time of marvellous fruitfulness. It was but an entrance, the time was so short; but what an entrance I-so full of power, so manifestly under the Divine guidance. The three men-Silas, of whom we know so little; 'l'imutheus, shy and timid ; Paul, of whom it was said in Corinth that his bodily pr<'scnce was weak, and his speech contemptible,-they had done wonders in Thessalonica. God was with them plainly; there could be no other explanation of such strange wiexampled energy. 2. Of the change wrought in the Tlutsaol,oniam. They turned from idol-worship. The Thessalonian Church was mainly Gentile; there were a few Jews among them, but the Jews as a body bitterly perse- cuted the infant Church. The gospel was glad tiding,; i11deed to thoughtful Gentiles. The Jews had great and precious truths, though their teachers had well-nigh hidden them under a mass of traditions and idle forms. Ilut what was there in the heathenism of the day on which a thinking man could rest his 10ul? There were temples every- where, but what man who felt the yearnings of the human soul for righteousness and God could in his heart reverence the deities who were worshipped there i' So the Thessalonian& turned from their idols: (1) To serve the living and true God. The Gentiles did not serve their gods. It could not be. They admired the temples and the statues as works of art; they regarded their religion as of some political impor- tauce, a part of statecraft. But now the converts were ready to serve God, for 'they began to know him. Their idols were dead things; the God whom Paul preached was living, loving, and powerful; they felt his power in their hearts, nay, he was the Life; all life (they k,,ew now) came from him, and was his gift. Their idols were false gods, there was no truth in them ; tl,ey were images of that which was not; for an idol, as St. Paul taught them, was" nothing in the worid." The 'l'hessalonians could see the snuwy tup of Olympus; the stories of the gods who dwelt there were but idle tales. St. Paul had taught them of the great Creator who is very God, living an<l true; nay, the one only Suurce of real life and being. He is the very God, the self- existing One, I AJI TH.AT I AIL There is no,,e other. (2) To wait for his Son from heaven. Hope is the key-note of this Epistle, as joy and faith are of the Epistles to the Philip1••a11s and the Romans. St. Paul had taught /,is convect8 not only to believe in God the ~'ather who made us, but also in God the Son who redeemed us. He taught tbem t1,e greal truths of the Resurrection and Ascension, the blessed doctrine of the atoneu,ent. Some of the 'l'hesi;alonia.ns, perbaps, had tried to grapple with the dark wyst.erit:1:1 of lile, sin and misery. St. Paul poiuted them to Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." There is wrath coming in its e.wiuloeBB; but LLere is a D,·liverer-On,· wliu is delivering us now, who is daily delivcr- i1,g WI frow the poweruf si11, a.s we oraw nearer and ne:irer to him; who will oeliver WI lrom the puui~l,11,1,1.Jt ul Bin, ii by tlie gr11,Ciot1s belp of the blessed Spirit we abide iu Liu,. AJJd tliis JJeli~erer ill Jetiuc. on. I, 1-10.) 'l'l!E FlHST JH'lti'l'LE TO THE TllE~tiALO.'llANS. lG