ro THEJI OF THE DIVINE WILL, "For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus." There is not a happy change made from" commandments" in the old translation to " charge" in the revised translation here. There is an ob3curing of the idea, which is that the Divine will has been delivered in the form of commandments. There were the ten commandments of the moral Law. These, possessed by the Israel- ites, placed them far in advance of the heathen around them. Coming out of heathen- ism, it would be a great boon to the Thessalonians to have these fixed in their memory. Presented along with Chri8tian considerations, they would become Christian com- mandments. '!'here were other Christian commandments, of which we have examples toward the close of the Epistle, which would be reiterated and reinforced until thev also were fixed in the memory. In these commandments Paul and Silas and Timothy were only the medium of delivery. Given by the authority of the Lord Jesus, thev were to be regarded as his commandments. These being now to be referred to, they a.re indirectly asked to ea.II them to mind. Ill. PURPORT OF THE DIVINE WILL. 1. Generally. "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." It was affirmed by William of Ockha.m that" if God had commanded his creatures to hate himself, the hatred of God would ever be the duty of man." It was a violent supposition to make of him, whose will is absolutely wedded to holiness, and who can only command his creatures to be holy. The will of God is here said to be our sanctification. This is a word which is very often used in a passive sense. " Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, a.nd a.re enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness." The Greek word here has, however, the active sense. The way in which we are actively to advance the work of our sanctification, is by yielding up our will to the will of God in all that he requires of us from moment to moment. By abounding more and more in the course that is pleasing to God, we shall more and more die unto sin and live unto righteousness, more and more be made according to the Divine idea, from our inmost life to its most outward manifestation. 2. Particularly (1) Fornication. "That ye abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not God." This is one of the. commandments in which the Divine will finds expression. In 1 Cor. vi.i. 2 marriage is put forward as the remedial course against fornication. The form here is, that there can be the possession of a wife in consistency with sanctification and honour. This is put in favourable contrast with another possession belonging to Gentilism, possession in the passion of lust, i.e. in which the morbid sensual desire acquires the force of a passion. The fact of fornication being so rife in the Gentilism with which they were sur- rounded, and out of which they had lately come, is the reason why the Thessalonians are specially guarded against it. What was to be accounted for in the Gentiles by their ignorance of God, was not to be excused in them. who had been blessed with the knowledge of God. (2) Adultery. "'fhat no man transgress,and wrong his brother in the matter." This sin is not named, but only that mentioned in which it differs from the preceding. Being an overreaching and wron;:ing, not a neighbour, but a Christian brother, in the matter involved, it is "doubly flagitious." IV. WARNING, "Because the Lord is an Avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified." In Ephesians the warning is, " Let no mau deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." In Colossians it is similar: "~'or which things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." Tho idea here is that the Lord is Avenger in all the things that have been referred to. "For the Father judgeth no man, but bath committed all juds!ruent unto the Son." As Judge, he is to be thought of as Righter between man and God. When men give themselves up to sensuality, .God has a controversy with them. And, by appeal from God against men, Christ comes in as Righter in the controversy, to vindicate the holy character of his Father's laws, to punish for the unholy use of his Father's gifts. From the immediate context we are also lei! to think of Christ as Righter between man and man. He is the Righter of the slave who is trampled upon without pity by his unlawful owner. He is the Righter of the man who has the purity and peace of his house invaded by the adulterer. Wh~ll with the Thessalonians, the teachers had made this their teachir.g clear. In view of 90 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [ea 1v. 1-18.
judgment. they had warned them, and solemnly testified to them, that these things would not go unpunished. V. THE HOLY OBJEOT oF THEIR CALLING. "For God called us not for uncleanness·, but in sanctification." The thought is similar to what is expressed in the third verse. There is this difference, that tbe will of God there is here connected with a historical f")int. Let them remember the great turning-point from heathenism to Christianity. Then God graciously called them in the gospel of his Son. And to what did he call them? It was not t-0 a life of uncleanness, but, in keeping with the holy life of Christ, in keeping with the holiness of God vindicated on the cross, it was to find the sphere of their calling in the pursuit of holiness. VI. THE REJECTER. "Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you." This is drawn as a conclusion from the obji:ct of their Christian calling. There is not singled out an actual rejecter among the Thessa- lonians. But, should such a rejecter arise among them, let it be known that he is not 11, rejecter of man in his interests and rights, but a rejecter of God, who has laid down laws and limits for his creatures. He is especially a rejecter of God, who gives, to those whom he bas called in Christ, his Holy Spirit. Sanctification is pre-eminently the Holy Spirit's work. And for any of them to inuulge in the sins referred to, would have this as its gravest condemuation, that it was a thwarting and grieving of the Spirit in bis holy strivings.-R. F.