The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 79

not. or t.he dead generally that the &Jl(letle word of the Lord.; or mther, by a word oj •peBkR, but of the dead in Christ, and espe- • Lord. The apostle does not refer to citt!l'I' of those membe!'B of the Thessalonian those •portions of the gospel which record Chu~ch who bad died. That ye sorrow not. ou! Lord's discourses concerning the laet Some suppose the.t sorrow for our deoeased thrnga ; nor t~ _some sayinga of Christ pre- friends is here utterly prohibited; inasmuch served by trad1t1on; but to a direct revehLlion 11,11 if we had R firm belief in their blcssed- made unto himself hy the Lord. We know nea we would rejoi<'e and not mourn. But from Scripture thnt Paul had many such the sorrow h,•re •prohibited is 11, despairing r4:velations i~parte,l to him (comp. 1 Cor. and e.11 unbelie,·ing sorrow; wee.re forbidden XI. 23; Gal. 1. 11, 12). That we whioh are to sorrow as those who have no hope, no alive and remain nnto the ooming of the helief in a blessed reeurrection. The telt.1'8 Lord. These words are the ocoasiou of an of Je,,us at the tomb of Lazarus have important discussion. It ho.a been affirmed a.utborizM end sanctified Christian sorrow. that the apostle here asserts that he himself "Paul," observes Calvin, "lifts up the expected to be alive, with the majority of minds of believe!'B to a consideration of the those to whom he was writing, at the Lord's resurrrotion, lest they should indulge exces- advent; that, according to his expectation, sive grief on occa.sion of the death of their Christ's second coming was close at hand. relatives, for it were unseemly that there "Those who a.re alive and remain" a.re dis- should be no difference between them and tinguished from "those who are asleep," unbelievers, who put no end or measure to and in the former class the apostle includes their grief, for this reason, that in death tl,ey himself and his readers. And a similar recognize nothing but destruction. Those declaration is contained in the First Epistle that abuse this testimony ~o as to establish to the Corinthie.ns : " We shall not all sleep, among Christians stoical indifference, that but we shall all be changed " (1 Cor. xv. is, an iron hardness, will find nothing of this 51). Such is the view adopted by Grotins, nature in Paul's words." Even 811 others j Olshausen, Koch, Neander, Lechler, Baur, 1i terally, GO the rest ; namely, the heathen. Winer, Renss, Lunemann, Riggenbach ; and, Which have no hope; no hope of immortality among English divines, by Alford, Jowett, h,•yond death, or nu hope of the resurrection. Stanley, and Conybeare. Some of them The heathen, with very few exceptions, had suppose that Pa.nl changed his opinion on no hope of a futnre life, and hecce they this point - that whilst in his earlier mourned over the death of their friends as Epistles he tanght the immediateness of the an irreparable loas. This disconsolate feeling advent, in his later Epistles he renounced is apparent in their writings (for eumples, this hope and looked forward to his own see Liineme.nn, Alford, and Jowett, in loco). departure. There does not seem to be any Ver. 14.-For if we believe thatleBUB died. ground for this opinion. On the contrary, it and rose again. The apostle's argument would appear from the Second Epistle to proceeds on the snpposition that Christ and the Thessalonians, written only a fow weeks believem are one body, of which Christ is after this Epistle, that Paul did not expect the Head and believers are the members; the ad vent immediately, but mentions a series and that consequently what happens to the of events which would intervene before its Head mwJt happen to the members. Our occurrence (2 Thes1. ii. 1--3). And in this knowledge and belief of a future state, a.nd Epistle he represses the ouriosity of the especially of the resurrection, is founded on Thessa.lonians about the precise lime of the tl,e resurrection of Christ (comp. I Cor. xv. advent by telling them that it was beyond 12-20). Even so them alllo which sleep in the sphere or' his teaching (oh. v. l, 2). We 1eana ; or more literally, through J esu.11. Will consider, then, that the apostle speake here God bring with him; namely, with Jesus. as a member of the Christian body, and 11888 Tl,,.se 1rords are differently construed. Some a very common form of expression-that we read them thus: "Even so them also which Chmtians which are alive and remain unto sleep will God through Jesna bring with the coming of the Lord; but not ut all in- l,im" (De Wette, Liinemann); but this tending to express his confidence that he appears to be an awkward construction; as himself and his converts would be aotu11lly we mudl then render the clause, " will God ulive at the advent. •• He spake," says St through Jesus brin~ with Jesus." It is, Chrysostom, "not of himself, but of Chris- therefore, better to refer the words, "through tians who would be alive at the day of Jesus," to the first cle.use. It is through judgment." Such is the view adopted by Jesna that believers fall asleep ; it is he Chrysostom, Calvin, Bengel, Hofmann, who changes the nature of death, for a.II his Lauge, Macknight, Ellicott, Bishop Alex- people, from being lht king of terrors into a ander, Wordsworth, and Vaughan. At the quiet and gentle sltep, from which they will 11&me time, it must be remembered tha, .. waken to eterwl life. the time of the adnnt was expre"8ly con- Ver. 15.-J'or thil we •1 'IIJlto you by the cealed (Matt. xxiv, 36; A.et. i. 7), and tha, OIL rv.1-18.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANt:!. '17