The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 45

not fare with them in 'l'heeealonica differently from what it did in Philippi. Thrir message brought them into conflict with the powers of unbelief. It was a connict oi a formidable nature. But the fa.et that they were able to stand forth and speak the gospel of God in the face of strong opposition was evidence of the very highest val11e that their entering in to 'l'hessalonica was not vaiu. II. THEIR GENERAL HABIT AB PREAOHERB. 1. TMy were not lika the idol,ae,,.o,,. prieBtB. (l) They did not preach out ef errOT. "For our exhort~tion is not of error." There was not much of what is here called exhortation in the ministrations of the idolatrous priests. They did not lay themselves out to influence men by suasion to what was considered to be the right belief and the right life. The old translation in this place," deceit," was objectionable. Such men were not impostors to begin with. They believed in their system. It was what they had received by tradition from their fathers. Nevertheless it was a system of error, literally, "wandering." Heathenism was a wandering from God, whether objects of worship were sought in the stony world, in the silence of vegetable life, behind the hieroglyphics of the brute creation, or behind the human form. Out of such error they ministered to man. Paul and his com- panions, on the other hand, ministered out of truth. They had the true conception of God and of human life. Their exhortation had its inspiring cause in Christianity. As moved themselves by its soul-cheering truth, they sought to move others. (2) They did not preach out of unckanness. " Nor of uncleanness." This was the general cha- racter of heathen ministrations, but, as denied here, it would seem, from the context, to refer more particularly to the impure love of gain. Those who ministered in heathen temples were in the habit of receiving gifts from the worshippers. And there was the danger, and, in the absence of better influences, the likelihood of gain becoming the end, in whicb their ministrations had motive power. This was not the end in which the apostle and his companions found motive for their way of exhortation. (3) They did not resOTt to unworthy methods in preaching. "Nor in guile." Heathen priests could not but be conscious of much imposture. Conscious of no inflatus, of no extra- ordinary knowledge possessed by them, they yet professed to tell the future from the position of the stars, from the flight of birds, from the entrails of animals. They had to do with unrealities in many forms, in order to keep up their influence with the wor- shippers. The apostle and his companions, as their end was the salvation of souls, so they only sought it by the use of means which their conscience could approve. 2. They realized their responsibility. " But even as we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but God which proveth our hearts." There are two ideas in a trust. The first is acting for another. He who makes over the trust does not act himself by reason of death, or by reason of infirmity, or by reason of absence (as in the analogy that is made use of in Luke xix. 12). The trustee-he to whom the trust is made over-acts in his name and for his interest. The second idea is acting apart by one's self. The trustee may have directions to guide him, and ample resources to draw upon in the management of the trust. But other- wise he acts independently. He is left there alone with the trust; in responsibility it is his and not anothn's if it is managed well; it is his and not another's if it is mis- managed. (1) What their trust was. "So we speak." A minister must not be devoid of thoughts, and niust also be able to give clear expression to them. He has also to stand up before his fellow-men, and to speak to them face to face with a practical aim. That, with the speaking of which he is in trusted, is the gospel. "The gospel of the «Jory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust." The gospel is properly the glad tidings of salvation to all people. It begins with the messai!e of pardon to the guilty, of adoption into the family of God of the disowned and disinherited. It is, in its gladsome breadth, the promise of the communication of the Divine lifo and happi- ness to our being. It is this which the minister has to speak with a view to its accept- ance. It is not meant that he is only to speak this. For he bas the whole Bible to open up as he can. He has other important truth to present, even the terrors of the Law in its bearing on the gospel. Neither is he to confine himself in his illustrations to the Bible. For as all roads led to Rome, so all things can legitimately and usefully bt> mad11 to lead to the gospel. Only nothing is to be dilated upon or brought in which bas not the effect of making prominent the gospel proper, or the glad message from God to man. (2) Their l>eing chosen /OT the trust. "As wa Jw.ve been a.pp,w«J 42 THE FIRST EPI~TLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. (oe. n. 1-20.