1 Thessalonians · Chapter 4

V. 1. More and more-It is not enough to have faith, even so as to please God, unless we abound more and more therein.

Verse 1. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort] We give you proper instructions in heavenly things, and request you to attend to our advice. The apostle used the most pressing entreaties; for he had a strong and affectionate desire that this Church should excel in all righteousness and true holiness.

Please God more and more.] God sets no bounds to the communications of his grace and Spirit to them that are faithful. And as there are no bounds to the graces, so there should be none to the exercise of those graces. No man can ever feel that he loves God too much, or that he loves man too much for God’s sake.

Verses 1, 2. Furthermore — To loipon, as for what remains to be said, in subserviency to the important end of your being presented before God in the final judgment, perfected in holiness; we beseech you, by the Lord Jesus — By his authority, in his name, and for his sake; that as ye have received of us — While we were among you; how ye ought to walk — If you desire to adorn your Christian profession; so ye would abound more and more — Striving continually to make advances in every Christian grace and virtue. Here the apostle reminds the Thessalonian believers that from his first coming among them he had exhorted them to conduct themselves in a holy manner, if they wished to please and continue in the favour of the living and true God, in whom they had believed; and that he had explained to them the nature of that holiness which is acceptable to God. And the same method of exhortation and instruction he undoubtedly followed in all other cities and countries. For you know — You cannot but remember; what commandments we gave you — Commandments very different from those enjoined by the heathen priests, as pleasing to their pretended deities.

Verse 1, 2. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us the moral maxims of life and conduct, not only in word but also in writing, how ye ought to walk, and to please God, see that ye keep them with conscientious regards; for we received those principles not only from the law and the prophets, but also from the Lord Jesus. Such a christian conduct is requisite to satisfy every man’s own mind of his regeneration; it is also required of the church, and expected of the world, otherwise you will be despised. A single stain of concupiscence after baptism, and a holy profession, cannot be wiped away.

1. Exhortation to sanctification, 1-8.

1. Furthermore—Loipon oun. Finally, then. The writer has finished the history, and proposes to conclude; but his conclusion, in the glow of thought, becomes nearly as long as his history. The then, or therefore, indicates that this second, or hortatory part, is deduced from the first part, and specially from 1 Thessalonians 3:13, the stablish… holiness. Beseech you… and exhort—Literally, we ask you, as a favour; and we exhort you as your duty. By—Rather, in. It is not adjuratory, but states the exhortation to be in Jesus. How—Literally, the how; the method and type of the new Christian holiness, unknown to the world hitherto. Abound—If we have the true type of holiness, we cannot be too holy, although we may make too high a profession; and we may change the type by giving it an overdoing spirit. The true type recognises the proper modifications.

Verse 2. Ye know what commandments we gave you] This refers to his instructions while he was among them; and to instructions on particular subjects, which he does not recapitulate, but only hints at.

Verses 1, 2. Furthermore — To loipon, as for what remains to be said, in subserviency to the important end of your being presented before God in the final judgment, perfected in holiness; we beseech you, by the Lord Jesus — By his authority, in his name, and for his sake; that as ye have received of us — While we were among you; how ye ought to walk — If you desire to adorn your Christian profession; so ye would abound more and more — Striving continually to make advances in every Christian grace and virtue. Here the apostle reminds the Thessalonian believers that from his first coming among them he had exhorted them to conduct themselves in a holy manner, if they wished to please and continue in the favour of the living and true God, in whom they had believed; and that he had explained to them the nature of that holiness which is acceptable to God. And the same method of exhortation and instruction he undoubtedly followed in all other cities and countries. For you know — You cannot but remember; what commandments we gave you — Commandments very different from those enjoined by the heathen priests, as pleasing to their pretended deities.

Verse 1, 2. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us the moral maxims of life and conduct, not only in word but also in writing, how ye ought to walk, and to please God, see that ye keep them with conscientious regards; for we received those principles not only from the law and the prophets, but also from the Lord Jesus. Such a christian conduct is requisite to satisfy every man’s own mind of his regeneration; it is also required of the church, and expected of the world, otherwise you will be despised. A single stain of concupiscence after baptism, and a holy profession, cannot be wiped away.

2. For ye know—Again appealing to their memories as to the how enjoined by the commandments which he gave in his preaching while with them. By—Rather, through Jesus; as their moral commandments were first given by him.

V. 3. Sanctification-Entire holiness of heart and life: particular branches of it are subjoined.

That ye abstain from fornication-A beautiful transition from sanctification to a single branch of the contrary; and this shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it.

Verse 3. This is the will of God, even your sanctification] God has called you to holiness; he requires that you should be holy; for without holiness none can see the Lord. This is the general calling, but in it many particulars are included. Some of these he proceeds to mention; and it is very likely that these had been points on which he gave them particular instructions while among them.

That ye should abstain from fornication] The word porneia, as we have seen in other places, includes all sorts of uncleanness; and it was probably this consideration that induced several MSS., some versions and fathers, to add here pashv, all. Directions of this kind were peculiarly necessary among the Greeks, and indeed heathens in general, who were strongly addicted to such vices.

Verses 3-6. For — As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification — That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication — And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know — Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel — His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1 Peter 3:7:) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1 Samuel 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle’s meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour — In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence — En paqei epiqumiav, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles — The heathen; who know not God — To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond — The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render uperbainein; and defraud — Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter — Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (verse 3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such — Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. — As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us — In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness — To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness — Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth — The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man — Only or chiefly; but God — Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us — Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit — To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!

Ver. 3. This is the will of God, even your sanctification. The two principal words, Agiwsunh unearthly, 2 Corinthians 7:1; and Osiothv, John 17:17, sanctify them through thy truth, are equivalent to purity, piety, religion. Both those words in the LXX are illustrative of the Hebrew, vdq kadesh and kadaish, prepared, separated, or sanctified. It is applied to persons, and vessels, sprinkled with blood, and separated from common use for the service of the sanctuary; and also to the Israelites, as a holy nation. The apostles bring forward those words to instruct the christian church in all the glory and beauty of holiness, to which they are called in Christ Jesus. Be ye holy, as he that hath called you is holy. Abstain from fornication. This is repeated from 1 Corinthians 6:18, where comments occur.

3. For this—To sum up the whole of these commandments. Will— Without the Greek article, a will. So Bengel, “Many are God’s wills or volitions. Acts 13:22.” But it is a very dangerous distinction which some theologians make, (as Barnes here,) between God’s decree or “secret will,” and his commandments or “revealed will;” as if God decreed one thing and commanded its opposite. Sanctification—Holiness; avoidance of evil and practice of good, through the blessed guidance and aid. Abstain from fornication—Which abstain is a particular branch of sanctification; the negative, of which verse 4 gives the positive.

V. 4. That every one know-For this requires knowledge, as well as chastity.

To possess his vessel-His wife.

In sanctification and honour-So as neither to dishonour God or himself, nor to obstruct, but further, holiness; remembering, marriage is not designed to inflame, but to conquer, natural desires.

Verse 4. How to possess his vessel] Let every man use his wife for the purpose alone for which God created her, and instituted marriage. The word akeuov answers to the Hebrew ylk keli, which, though it signifies vessel in general, has several other meanings. That the rabbins frequently express wife by it, Schoettgen largely proves; and to me it appears very probable that the apostle uses it in that sense here. St. Peter calls the wife the weaker VESSEL, 1 Peter 3:7. Others think that the body is meant, which is the vessel in which the soul dwells. In this sense St. Paul uses it, 2 Corinthians 4:7: We have this treasure in earthen VESSELS; and in this sense it is used by both Greek and Roman authors. There is a third sense which interpreters have put on the word, which I forbear to name. The general sense is plain; purity and continency are most obviously intended, whether the word be understood as referring to the wife or the husband, as the following verse sufficiently proves.

Verses 3-6. For — As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification — That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication — And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know — Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel — His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1 Peter 3:7:) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1 Samuel 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle’s meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour — In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence — En paqei epiqumiav, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles — The heathen; who know not God — To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond — The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render uperbainein; and defraud — Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter — Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (verse 3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such — Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. — As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us — In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness — To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness — Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth — The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man — Only or chiefly; but God — Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us — Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit — To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!

Ver. 4, 5. Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, his body, here called a vessel, in sanctification and honour: not in the lust of concupiscence. This language would seem strange now, in any pastoral letter to a christian church; but the state of morals among the gentiles that knew not God, rendered it necessary. In England we wink at certain haunts of infamy. In Paris, and in Amsterdam, they license certain dancing houses; but in opulent Corinth, a thousand women were kept adjacent to the temple of Diana. Certainly, we are yet in a better state than the heathen world. But at the same time those magistrates, like the heathen without God in the world, are not aware that indictments are already preferred against them for thousands of slow and painful murders, by suffering open prostitution to exist.

4. Vessel—Some ancient and most modern commentators (including Wesley and Clarke) understand by this word wife; our translators, the Vulgate, and many commentators, understand the body. If the meaning be wife, then Paul’s advice is, avoid fornication by getting a wife and living in chaste matrimony. The authority for this import of the term vessel is not strong. It is used in that sense by the Rabbies, but not by St. Paul or any sacred writer. Lunemann argues vigorously for that meaning here, quoting the usual Rabbinical passages. So Megilla on Esther 1:11, thus comments: “At Ahasuerus’ feast, certain impious persons said that the Medic ladies were the more beautiful; others the Persian. Said Ahasuerus to them, “My vessel, which I use, is neither Medic nor Persic, but Chaldaic.’” That Paul ever was aware of this import is not hereby proved: and certain it is he never elsewhere uses the word vessel in the sense of wife, or of exclusively the female sex. When with him vessel means person, it is either masculine or belongs to either sex. Acts 9:15, “a chosen vessel;” Romans 9:21, “vessel unto honour;” 22, “vessels of wrath;” 23, “vessels of mercy;” 2 Corinthians 4:7, “earthen vessels;” 2 Timothy 2:21, “vessel unto honour.” The words of 1 Peter 3:7, which seem to limit the term to the female sex, really do the reverse. That passage simply affirms that of the two vessels, male and female, the female is “the weaker” one. The biblical import of the word, therefore, seems to be strongly against the word wife or woman, and in favour of person or body. But the Greek of the word possess does signify acquire, get possession of, purchase, rather than simply possess. It not only suits the idea, get a wife, but is, in fact, used in Ruth 4:10 (Septuagint) to signify getting a wife by purchase. The word might, indeed, be used to signify get possession, morally, of your body, and hold it to the law of chastity; but no so striking case of this ethical sense can be quoted as the above marital one of getting a wife. So far as this word is concerned, the argument is favourable to the latter meaning. The phrase in sanctification and honour is most suitable to the mastery of the body, and the application to which that mastery is to be positively directed: just as the next phrase, next verse, describes the negative application.

V. 5. Not in passionate desire-Which had no place in man when in a state of innocence.

Who know not God-And so may naturally seek happiness in a creature. What seemingly accidental words slide in; and yet how fine, and how vastly important!

Verse 5. Not in the lust of concupiscence] Having no rational object, aim, nor end. Some say, “not like beasts;” but this does not apply as they who use it wish, for the males and females of the brute creation are regular and consistent in their intercourse, and scarcely ever exceed such bounds as reason itself would prescribe to those most capable of observing and obeying its dictates.

The Gentiles which know not God] These are the beasts; their own brutes are rational creatures when compared with them. Enough has been said on this subject on Romans 1, and 2: They who wish to see more may consult Juvenal, and particularly his 6th and 9th Satires; and indeed all the writers on Greek and Roman morals.

Verses 3-6. For — As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification — That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication — And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know — Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel — His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1 Peter 3:7:) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1 Samuel 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle’s meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour — In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence — En paqei epiqumiav, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles — The heathen; who know not God — To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond — The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render uperbainein; and defraud — Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter — Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (verse 3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such — Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. — As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us — In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness — To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness — Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth — The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man — Only or chiefly; but God — Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us — Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit — To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!

Ver. 4, 5. Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, his body, here called a vessel, in sanctification and honour: not in the lust of concupiscence. This language would seem strange now, in any pastoral letter to a christian church; but the state of morals among the gentiles that knew not God, rendered it necessary. In England we wink at certain haunts of infamy. In Paris, and in Amsterdam, they license certain dancing houses; but in opulent Corinth, a thousand women were kept adjacent to the temple of Diana. Certainly, we are yet in a better state than the heathen world. But at the same time those magistrates, like the heathen without God in the world, are not aware that indictments are already preferred against them for thousands of slow and painful murders, by suffering open prostitution to exist.

5. Master your body and use it not in the lust, or passion, of concupiscence, or sensual appetite. This seems to give the balance very decisively in the sense of body. Before vessel, however, the Greek has the word own, omitted by our translators. From this Lunemann strongly argues from the antithesis between having a wife of your own and meddling with other women. But, in spite of his logic, the answer of Olshausen is valid. Nothing material is more a man’s own than his body; and St. Paul might well emphasize the thought that every man should take care of the purity of his own. The strongest argument in favour of the meaning wife. is 1 Corinthians 7:2. Let every man have his own wife; which looks very strongly like a parallel passage, a saying the same thing in slightly different words. As the Gentiles—Who not only were licentious, and often made a boast of license, but even transformed it into a religious rite. Know not God—They know Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, the impersonation of their own ambition, war, and lust; but God, who wills your sanctification, they know not.

V. 6. In this matter-By violating his bed. The things forbidden, here are three: fornication, 1 Thessalonians 4:3; the passion of desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, 1 Thessalonians 4:5; and the breach of the marriage contract.

Verse 6. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother] That no man should by any means endeavour to corrupt the wife of another, or to alienate her affections or fidelity from her husband; this I believe to be the apostle’s meaning, though some understand it of covetousness, overreaching, tricking, cheating, and cozenage in general. The Lord is the avenger of all such] He takes up the cause of the injured husband wherever the case has not been detected by man, and all such vices he will signally punish. Every species of uncleanness was practised among the heathens, nor were they reputed as vices. Their gods, their emperors, their philosophers, and their great men in general, gave them examples of every species of impurity; and they had no system of ethics which forbade these abominations. The Christian religion not only discountenances these things, but forbids them on the most awful penalties; therefore wherever Christianity prevails, these vices, if practised at all, are obliged to seek the deepest gloom of midnight to cover them from the eyes of men. On this account they are comparatively rare, even among the mere professors of Christianity; they exist, but do not flourish.

Verses 3-6. For — As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification — That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication — And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know — Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel — His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1 Peter 3:7:) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1 Samuel 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle’s meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour — In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence — En paqei epiqumiav, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles — The heathen; who know not God — To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond — The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render uperbainein; and defraud — Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter — Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (verse 3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such — Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. — As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us — In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness — To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness — Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth — The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man — Only or chiefly; but God — Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us — Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit — To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!

Ver. 6-8. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter — for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Daniel Heinsius quotes here the case of David, and recites the parable of Nathan, a sad case of defrauding his neighbour. But the word applies as well to the concupiscence of money, to frauds in trade, and obtaining goods under false pretences. No man ought to waste his neighbour’s goods. If success be denied him in trade, he ought to stop when he can offer his creditors something decent, and not to go on robbing his relatives and friends to the last shilling, till the foulest acts of shame overtake him all at once. Then the odium falls on religion.

6. The verbs go and beyond, here, know, verse 4, and abstain, verse 3, are three co-ordinates, all unfolding the branches of sanctification of verse

3. This third branch implies purity from business frauds. Go beyond— Overrun, or overreach his brother. That is, his brother Christian: but Lunemann well remarks, that St. Paul applies the precept to the treatment of Christians, not because he would not include all other men, but the Christian circle is what he has in his present view. In any—Rather, the. Matter—The business matter at any time in hand. See Winer’s New Testament Grammar on the phrase. We prefer, with Lunemann, against Alford, to interpret this verse of business fraud, rather than overreaching, etc., in sexual matters, because the Greek words lie in the former line of thought; because it supposes a less arbitrary complication of iniquity than the other; and because, in a community so full of commercial greed as well as license as Thessalonica, we can hardly suppose that St. Paul’s reproof would be confined to the last alone. Avenger—Punisher of all such as are guilty of fornication and fraud. Forewarned—The fore, says Lunemann, means before the execution of the judgment; the past tense warned places the utterance of the warning at St. Paul’s first visit.

Verse 7. God hath not called us unto uncleanness] He is the creator of male and female, and the institutor of marriage, and he has called men and women to this state; but the end of this and all the other callings of God to man is holiness, not uncleanness. And they who use the marriage state as he directs, will find it conducive to their holiness and perfection.

Ver. 6-8. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter — for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Daniel Heinsius quotes here the case of David, and recites the parable of Nathan, a sad case of defrauding his neighbour. But the word applies as well to the concupiscence of money, to frauds in trade, and obtaining goods under false pretences. No man ought to waste his neighbour’s goods. If success be denied him in trade, he ought to stop when he can offer his creditors something decent, and not to go on robbing his relatives and friends to the last shilling, till the foulest acts of shame overtake him all at once. Then the odium falls on religion.

7. For—Ground of these warnings. Not called us—Says Erasmus, (quoted by Lunemann,) “God has not called us under the law that we should be impure, since, indeed, the very cause and condition of our calling is, that we should cease to be what we once were.” Uncleanness—Impurity; primarily applicable to sexual impurity, but capable of including any moral contamination, as here of both adultery and fraud. These were closely allied vices, and, to the chaste and unselfish mind of the apostle, both were a foul stain upon the body and soul.

V. 8. He that despiseth-The commandments we gave.

Despiseth God-Himself.

Who hath also given you his Holy Spirit-To convince you of the truth, and enable you to be holy. What naked majesty of words! How oratorical, and yet with what great simplicity!-a simplicity that does not impair, but improve, the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion.

Verse 8. He therefore that despiseth] He who will not receive these teachings, and is led either to undervalue or despise them, despises not us but God, from whom we have received our commission, and by whose Spirit we give these directions. See Clarke on “1 Thessalonians 4:15”.

Hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.] Instead of eiv hmav, unto US, eiv umav, unto YOU, is the reading of BDEFG, a great many others, the Syriac, all the Arabic, Armenian, later Syriac in the margin, some o£ the Itala, Clement, Didymus, and Ambrosiaster; this seems to be the better reading. God has taught us that we may teach you; and he has also given you his Holy Spirit that ye might understand and be enabled to practise these things. It is one thing to receive a revelation from the Spirit of God; it is another thing to receive that Spirit to enable a man to live according to that revelation. In the first sense the apostles alone received this Holy Spirit; in the latter sense all true Christians, as well as the Thessalonians, receive it. I think umav, you, is the true reading, and that it is confirmed by the following verse: For ye yourselves are TAUGHT OF GOD to love one another. Griesbach has inserted it in the margin, but has not admitted it into the text, because it has not what he deemed full support from those MSS. which are of the Alexandrian recension; but he thought its genuineness very probable.

Ver. 6-8. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter — for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Daniel Heinsius quotes here the case of David, and recites the parable of Nathan, a sad case of defrauding his neighbour. But the word applies as well to the concupiscence of money, to frauds in trade, and obtaining goods under false pretences. No man ought to waste his neighbour’s goods. If success be denied him in trade, he ought to stop when he can offer his creditors something decent, and not to go on robbing his relatives and friends to the last shilling, till the foulest acts of shame overtake him all at once. Then the odium falls on religion.

8. Despiseth—These warnings of vengeance upon all violations of the law of purity in sex and business. Not man—Though I am but a man, who declare the law. But God—Who is real author of the law. Holy Spirit— By which he both inspires this declaration and bears it home upon the conscience.

2. Exhortation to brotherly love and quietness, 9-12.

V. 9. We need not write-Largely.

For ye are taught of God-By his Spirit.

Verse 9. Touching brotherly love] They were remarkable for this; and though the apostle appears to have had this as a topic on which he intended to write to them, yet, from the account which he received of their prosperous state by Timothy, he finds that it is unnecessary to spend any time in inculcating a doctrine which they fully understood and practised. See 1 Thessalonians 3:6.

Verses 9-12. As touching brotherly love — That peculiar affection which one disciple of Christ owes to another; ye need not so much that I should write unto you; for ye yourselves — Independent of any teaching of mine; are taught of God — By his Spirit; to love one another — In an especial manner, even with pure hearts fervently, 1 Peter 1:22. And indeed ye do it — And not only with respect to the brethren in your own city, but toward all who are in Macedonia — All the believers in that province, relieving them in their necessities according to your ability. But we beseech you that ye increase more and more — In this divine and necessary endowment. And that ye study — Literally, that ye be ambitious, to be quiet — To live quietly in the practice of those peaceful and humble virtues which suit the genius of Christianity; an ambition worthy of a follower of Jesus: and to do your own business — Without meddling, uncalled, with the concerns of others; and to work with your own hands — Not a needless caution; for to attend to temporal matters is often a cross to them whose hearts have been lately filled with the love of God. That ye walk honestly — Euschmonwv, decently, as becomes Christians; toward them that are without — The enclosure of the church; that they may have no pretence to say, (but they will say it still,) “This religion makes men idle, and brings them to beggary.” And that ye may have lack of nothing — Needful for life and godliness: more than which no Christian should desire, unless that he may have wherewith to supply the wants of others.

9. But… ye need—How was there need to write so fully and severely in regard to lust and fraud as in the last paragraph, and nothing in regard to brotherly love? Not, we may reply, because here, as in the Corinthian Church, there had been any flagrant outbreak of lust or any fornicator to excommunicate. So far as public notoriety was concerned, it was in this respect a blameless Church. But, 1. The paragraph upon these two vices is preventive rather than corrective. It seeks by the most solemn warnings to forestall future vice rather than to rebuke the past. 2. The law of chastity, according to the new life, needed to be laid down with the awfulness of the penalty on transgression. Heathenism had made the crime trivial, jocular, rather smart, and even religious and right. All this must Christianity reverse, and place it among the most heinous sins, and subject it to the most fearful penalties. But as to brotherly love, the Christians were taught of God, or, in a single Greek compound, God-taught. The first inspiration of spiritual life was love to Christ and love to the image of Christ in the Christian brother. It was the God-given instinct of the Christian being, and they needed no formal law or prescribed penalty.

Verse 10. Ye do it toward all the brethren] Ye not only love one another at Thessalonica, but ye love all the brethren in Macedonia; ye consider them all as children of the same Father; and that all the Churches which are in Christ make one great and glorious body, of which he is the head.

Verses 9-12. As touching brotherly love — That peculiar affection which one disciple of Christ owes to another; ye need not so much that I should write unto you; for ye yourselves — Independent of any teaching of mine; are taught of God — By his Spirit; to love one another — In an especial manner, even with pure hearts fervently, 1 Peter 1:22. And indeed ye do it — And not only with respect to the brethren in your own city, but toward all who are in Macedonia — All the believers in that province, relieving them in their necessities according to your ability. But we beseech you that ye increase more and more — In this divine and necessary endowment. And that ye study — Literally, that ye be ambitious, to be quiet — To live quietly in the practice of those peaceful and humble virtues which suit the genius of Christianity; an ambition worthy of a follower of Jesus: and to do your own business — Without meddling, uncalled, with the concerns of others; and to work with your own hands — Not a needless caution; for to attend to temporal matters is often a cross to them whose hearts have been lately filled with the love of God. That ye walk honestly — Euschmonwv, decently, as becomes Christians; toward them that are without — The enclosure of the church; that they may have no pretence to say, (but they will say it still,) “This religion makes men idle, and brings them to beggary.” And that ye may have lack of nothing — Needful for life and godliness: more than which no Christian should desire, unless that he may have wherewith to supply the wants of others.

10. Ye do it—Timothy had seen it and reported. More and more—What you have is of the right sort; let it richly abound.

V. 11. That ye study-Literally, that ye be ambitious: an ambition worthy a Christian.

To work with your hands-Not a needless caution; for temporal concerns are often a cross to them who are newly filled with the love of God.

Verse 11. That ye study to be quiet] Though in general the Church at Thessalonica was pure and exemplary, yet there seem to have been some idle, tattling people among them, who disturbed the peace of others; persons who, under the pretence of religion, gadded about from house to house; did not work, but were burdensome to others; and were continually meddling with other people’s business, making parties, and procuring their bread by religious gossipping. To these the apostle gives those directions which the whole Church of God should enforce wherever such troublesome and dangerous people are found; viz: That they should study to be quiet, hsucazein, to hold their peace, as their religious cant will never promote true religion; that they should do their own business, and let that of others alone; and that they should work with their own hands, and not be a burden to the Church of God, or to those well meaning but weak and inconsiderate people who entertain them, being imposed on by their apparent sanctity and glozing conversation. An idle person, though able to discourse like an angel, or pray like an apostle, cannot be a Christian; all such are hypocrites and deceivers; the true members of the Church of Christ walk, work, and labour.

Verses 9-12. As touching brotherly love — That peculiar affection which one disciple of Christ owes to another; ye need not so much that I should write unto you; for ye yourselves — Independent of any teaching of mine; are taught of God — By his Spirit; to love one another — In an especial manner, even with pure hearts fervently, 1 Peter 1:22. And indeed ye do it — And not only with respect to the brethren in your own city, but toward all who are in Macedonia — All the believers in that province, relieving them in their necessities according to your ability. But we beseech you that ye increase more and more — In this divine and necessary endowment. And that ye study — Literally, that ye be ambitious, to be quiet — To live quietly in the practice of those peaceful and humble virtues which suit the genius of Christianity; an ambition worthy of a follower of Jesus: and to do your own business — Without meddling, uncalled, with the concerns of others; and to work with your own hands — Not a needless caution; for to attend to temporal matters is often a cross to them whose hearts have been lately filled with the love of God. That ye walk honestly — Euschmonwv, decently, as becomes Christians; toward them that are without — The enclosure of the church; that they may have no pretence to say, (but they will say it still,) “This religion makes men idle, and brings them to beggary.” And that ye may have lack of nothing — Needful for life and godliness: more than which no Christian should desire, unless that he may have wherewith to supply the wants of others.

11. Study to be quiet—A slight caution against what has perhaps alloyed the purity or endangered the continuance of this love. Harmonious love cannot well endure and abound unless each one keeps his place and performs well each his respective part. Love can hardly exist among a community of idlers, and pauper parasites upon others’ bounty. Do your own business—It would seem as if some of the Church imposed upon the liberality of others, neglecting industry, and looking in some degree to donations for a support. Lunemann objects that this supposes the Church divided into two classes of givers and takers. But it only implies that there were some known to Timothy who negligently depended too much on the liberality of their brethren, and so endangered the harmony and love of the Church. There is no allusion, either here or in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12, to any influence derived from the expectation of the immediate advent of Christ as producing this neglect of business. At the time of writing this first epistle, indeed, it does not appear that Paul understood that there was any commotion about the immediate Coming. Evidently Timothy had brought him no such information. On the contrary, the excitement therefrom arose after this epistle, and not from St. Paul’s previous preaching, but from causes detailed in the second chapter of the second epistle. With your own hands—As Auberlen (in Lange’s Bibel-Werk) suggests, the Thessalonians were doubtless mostly handicraftsmen. And we may add the idlers, predisposed to live upon others, were, no doubt, all hand workers. Paul, therefore, here utters no rebuke on brain workers, who are as truly workers as mechanics are. As we commanded you—And set the example. 2 Thessalonians 3:8-10.

V. 12. Decently-That they may have no pretence to say, (but they will say it still,) "This religion makes men idle, and brings them to beggary." And may want nothing-Needful for life and godliness. What Christian desires more?

Verse 12. That ye may walk honestly] euschmonwv. Becomingly, decently, respectably; as is consistent with the purity, holiness, gravity, and usefulness of your Christian calling.

Them that are without] The unconverted Gentiles and Jews. See this expression explained at large on Colossians 4:5. That ye may have lack of nothing.] That ye may be able to get your bread by honest labour, which God will ever bless; and be chargeable to no man. He that is dependent on another is necessarily in bondage; and he who is able to get his own bread by the sweat of his brow, should not be under obligation even to a king.

I do not recollect whether, in any other part of this work, I have given the following story from the Hatem Tai Nameh. Hatem Tai was an Arabian nobleman, who flourished some time before the Mahommedan era; he was reputed the most generous and liberal man in all the east. One day he slew one hundred camels, and made a feast, to which all the Arabian lords and all the peasantry in the district were invited. About the time of the feast he took a walk towards a neighbouring wood, to see if he could find any person whom he might invite to partake of the entertainment which he had then provided. Walking along the skirt of the wood, he espied an old man coming out of it, laden with a burden of faggots; he accosted him and asked if he had not heard of the entertainment made that day by Hatem Tai. The old man answered in the affirmative. He asked him why he did not attend and partake with the rest. The old man answered: “He that is able to gain his bread even by collecting faggots in the wood, should not be beholden even to Hatem Tai.” This is a noble saying, and has long been a rule of conduct to the writer of this note.

Verses 9-12. As touching brotherly love — That peculiar affection which one disciple of Christ owes to another; ye need not so much that I should write unto you; for ye yourselves — Independent of any teaching of mine; are taught of God — By his Spirit; to love one another — In an especial manner, even with pure hearts fervently, 1 Peter 1:22. And indeed ye do it — And not only with respect to the brethren in your own city, but toward all who are in Macedonia — All the believers in that province, relieving them in their necessities according to your ability. But we beseech you that ye increase more and more — In this divine and necessary endowment. And that ye study — Literally, that ye be ambitious, to be quiet — To live quietly in the practice of those peaceful and humble virtues which suit the genius of Christianity; an ambition worthy of a follower of Jesus: and to do your own business — Without meddling, uncalled, with the concerns of others; and to work with your own hands — Not a needless caution; for to attend to temporal matters is often a cross to them whose hearts have been lately filled with the love of God. That ye walk honestly — Euschmonwv, decently, as becomes Christians; toward them that are without — The enclosure of the church; that they may have no pretence to say, (but they will say it still,) “This religion makes men idle, and brings them to beggary.” And that ye may have lack of nothing — Needful for life and godliness: more than which no Christian should desire, unless that he may have wherewith to supply the wants of others.

12. Honestly—Reputably; securing the respect of heathen that are without the Church. Even in his first preaching, irrespective of any special tendencies to idleness in the Church, St. Paul had made effort to form the new Christians into models of regular, conscientious industry, in the midst of Greek idleness, in order to impress and correct the outside world. May have lack of nothing—So that there may be no Christian mendicants, and no pagans to taunt the Christians as loungers or vagrants.

3. Exhortation to composure in regard to lately deceased brethren— since they will not be overlooked at Christ’s coming, 13-18.

V. 13. Now-Herein the efficacy of Christianity greatly appears,-that it neither takes away nor embitters, but sweetly tempers, that most refined of all affections, our desire of or love to the dead.

Verse 13. I would not have you to be ignorant] Instead of ecomen, have, qelomen, wish, is the reading of ADEFG, many others, besides the Arabic, Æthiopic, Armenian, some of the Slavonian, the Vulgate, and Itala, with many of the Greek fathers. This is undoubtedly the true reading: Brethren, I would not wish you to be ignorant; or, I would not that you should be ignorant.

This was probably one of the points which were lacking in their faith, that he wished to go to Thessalonica to instruct them in.

Them which are asleep] That is, those who are dead. It is supposed that the apostle had heard that the Thessalonians continued to lament over their dead, as the heathens did in general who had no hope of the resurrection of the body; and that they had been puzzled concerning the doctrine of the resurrection. To set them right on this important subject, he delivers three important truths: 1. He asserts, as he had done before, that they who died in the Lord should have, in virtue of Christ’s resurrection, a resurrection unto eternal life and blessedness. 2. He makes a new discovery, that the last generation should not die at all, but be in a moment changed to immortals. 3. He adds another new discovery, that, though the living should not die, but be transformed, yet the dead should first be raised, and be made glorious and immortal; and so, in some measure, have the preference and advantage of such as shall then be found alive. See Dodd.

Verse 13. I would not have you ignorant, brethren — The apostle had intimated, (1 Thessalonians 3:10,) that he desired to make them another visit at Thessalonica, in order to perfect that which was lacking in their faith. Perhaps what he now proceeds to say was part of what he wanted to teach them, as not having seen it proper when he was with them to enter into such discoveries as are here made. But having been informed that they lamented over their dead with immoderate sorrow, and perhaps that they hired mourners on such occasions, and were even apt to repine at the divine providence for taking their pious friends and relatives from them, he here proceeds to give them information well calculated to support and comfort them in such circumstances. Concerning them who are asleep — Twn kekoimhmenwn, who have slept; who have departed this life. The death of the body is termed its sleep, because it suspends the exercise of all the animal functions, closes all its senses, and is a cessation of all motion and feeling in it; and because it shall be followed by a reviviscence to a more vigorous and active life than it now enjoys. That ye sorrow not — Immoderately: herein the efficacy of Christianity greatly appears, that it neither takes away nor imbitters, but sweetly tempers, that most refined of all affections, our desire of, or love to the dead. As others — Who are unacquainted with the truths of the gospel. It was the custom of the heathen, on the death of their relations, to make a show of excessive grief, by shaving their heads, and cutting their flesh, (Leviticus 19:27, 28,) and by loud howlings and lamentations. They even hired persons, who had it for a trade to make these howlings and cries. But this show of excessive grief, as well as the grief itself, being inconsistent with that knowledge of the state of the dead, and with that hope of their resurrection, which the gospel gives to mankind, the apostle forbade it, and comforted the Thessalonians by foretelling and proving Christ’s return to the earth, to raise the dead, and carry the righteous with him into heaven. Who have no hope — Many of the heathen entertained a kind of belief of a future state, but that belief being derived from nothing but an obscure tradition, the origin of which they could not trace, or from their own wishes, unsupported by any demonstrative reasoning, could scarcely be called belief or hope, and had very little influence on their conduct. See note on Ephesians 2:12. Add to this, none of them had any knowledge or expectation that the righteous, or virtuous, would be raised from the dead with glorious, immortal, incorruptible bodies, and taken to heaven; neither had they any conception of the employments and enjoyments of that immortal state. St. Paul’s discourse, therefore, concerning these grand events, must have given much consolation to the Thessalonians under the death of their relations, as it assured them that if they all died in Christ, they should all meet again, and spend an endless life in complete happiness, never more to part. In this light death is only a temporary separation of friends, which is neither to be dreaded nor regretted. Concerning our knowing one another after the resurrection, see on 1 Thessalonians 2:20.

Ver. 13. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Why does the apostle speak of the death of these saints, and of the depths of sorrow which afflicted the church under their loss? Why does he speak of the most tremendous judgments of the Lord on those who had troubled them, and of punishing them with everlasting destruction? And why was Timothy so specially sent away from his work to know their affairs, and to comfort them? Though history be silent, yet there is but one conclusion, that the jews, the fountains of persecution, as Tertullian says, had excited the magistrates, or the tumult, to put some of the church to death.

13. But—This is the earliest written part of St. Paul’s apocalypse. See notes on 1 Corinthians 15. The commentator needs search for no occult connexion between this and the previous paragraph, for St. Paul here introduces an entirely new topic. It was suggested, we suppose, by information derived from Timothy, or some other comer from Thessalonica, of the state of feeling among some mourning Christians there who feared that their lately deceased Christian friends would lose their blessed share in the glorious advent of Christ.

One is tempted to ask in surprise, Could it he that the apostle preached there more than three weeks, and gave glowing descriptions of the coming of Christ, (Acts 17:2-4, and notes,) and never described the resurrection? Were those Thessalonians really ignorant of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead? Olshausen vainly supposes that they understood the final resurrection of all mankind, but feared that none but living Christians would share the glorious first resurrection one thousand years earlier than the final. But, first, There is no mention ever made by St. Paul of two bodily resurrections, or of any intervening thousand-year period, nor any indication that he ever held any such doctrine. Second, It is difficult to conceive how they could have imagined any such first resurrection without including, what is held to be its very purpose and essence, the glory of all believers therein.

But it is not so easy to fix in the mind and memory of a series of miscellaneous audiences of pagan hearers an entire new system of Christian doctrine in a brief time. Some will hear a particular doctrine explained, others not. Some will remember; others not. So that important blanks will remain. And St. Paul preached to the living; and many would forget that the dead were concerned. And it is remarkable that some of the most vivid and extended descriptions of the last day in the New Testament omit the resurrection. Such is the case in our Lord’s great discourse in Matthew 24 and 25. Such in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. The resurrection, as Auberlen remarks, was a difficult thought for the Greek mind to take in. It is possible, also, that these doubting mourners were but a small part of the Church, and many of them even new converts from heathendom who had never heard St. Paul. We can easily conceive, therefore, that there should be those who feared that a scene like 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, might concern the living only, and not the dead. Have… ignorant—Paul’s habitual formula in negative or positive shape of starting a new topic. “I would that ye knew.” Colossians 2:1. “I would not that ye should be ignorant.” 1 Corinthians 10:1. So 1 Corinthians 11:3, and Philippians 1:12. Are asleep—More literally, “have fallen asleep,” as if alluding to the lately deceased. The idea of sleep is vividly impressed upon the imaginations of all persons who gaze upon the face and form of one lying in the stillness of death. This impression, however pertains properly only to the body, and the word in Scripture, authorizes no belief of “the sleep of the soul.” In fact, even in our natural sleep, the soul may be in one sense unsleeping. While the body is lying in perfect stillness, the mind may be roaming the world in dreams. And that striking fact has served to keep alive among barbarous tribes the belief in the separateness and immortality of spirit. Sorrow not… as—He does not forbid sorrow, but would prevent that sorrow of despair rising from no hope of immortality. No hope—In the most primitive ages the Egyptians retained, probably from original tradition, a vivid belief in a resurrection of the body. It was this belief that largely inspired the practice of embalming the body, as if thereby the resurrection would be facilitated. The mission of Moses seemed to be to draw out the doctrine of God and reconciliation with him by atonement for sin, and even the doctrine of immortality was left in the background. The earlier classic ages believed in Elysium and Tartarus. But as speculation grew powerful, tradition grew dim, and faith declined and left no hope. See notes, 1 Corinthians 15. Nothing in all poetry is more pathetic than the lines of the Greek Moschus, ending with “we shall sleep the long, limitless, unawakable slumber.” Theocritus says, “There are hopes in the living, but hopeless are the dead.” AEschylus, “Of the once dead there is no resurrection.” And the pagan epitaphs are often sentences of everlasting extinction. Says Mr. Withrow in his work on the Catacombs: “Domus aeterna, an eternal home, and Somno aeternali, in eternal sleep, are written on their tombs, frequently accompanied by an inverted torch, the emblem of despair.” So also “Infanti dulcissimo quem Dii irati aeterno somno dederunt—To a very sweet child, whom the angry gods gave to eternal sleep.” And so, with a sad gayety, “While I lived, I lived well. My play is now ended, soon yours will be. Farewell and applaud me.”— Catacombs, pp. 435, 438.

V. 14. So-As God raised him.

With him-With their living head.

Verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again] ei gar. Seeing that we believe; knowing that the resurrection of Christ is as fully authenticated as his death.

Even so them] It necessarily follows that them who sleep-die, in him-in the faith of the Gospel, will God bring with him-he will raise them up as Jesus was raised from the dead, in the same manner, i.e. by his own eternal power and energy; and he will bring them with him-with Christ, for he is the head of the Church, which is his body.

Verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again — Namely, 1st, In attestation of the truth of his doctrine, in which he taught expressly the immortality of the soul, Matthew 10:28; Luke 23:43; and the resurrection of the body, John 5:28, 29. 2d, For the expiation of sin, and the procuring of justification and peace with God for the penitent that should believe in him, however guilty they had before been, Hebrews 9:26; Romans 4:24, 25. 3d, That he might procure and receive for us the Holy Spirit, to work that repentance and faith in us, assure us of our justification and of our title to that future felicity, and to prepare us for it by inward holiness; and, 4th, That he might ascend, take possession of it in our name, receive our departing souls, and raise from the dust our fallen and corrupted bodies, and so exalt us to that immortal, glorious, and blessed state; even so them also which sleep in Jesus — Who die in the Lord, (Revelation 14:13,) in union with him, and possessed of an interest in him; will God bring with him — They will be found in the train of his magnificent retinue at his final appearance, when he comes to judge the world, and reward his faithful servants.

Ver. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Death is uniformly in the hebrew and christian scriptures regarded as a sleep; but the dead who sleep in the dust, says the prophet, shall awake. Daniel 12:1, 2. Our Saviour enjoyed a short repose after the agonies of death, and put on immortality as a garment; and if the head arose, the members shall follow. This is our hope: Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept. If the gentiles by idolatry have lost this hope, it assuredly was revealed in the patriarchal covenants. Eternal life was revealed in the law, however denied by the sadducees, and now it is a special subject of revelation to the church, by the ministry of St. Paul.

14. Jesus died—Both here and in 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul says died of Christ; but sleep of the saints. An indication that in accordance with the spirit of Christianity he sees in sleep a thought of the waking. Even with hopeful pagans this emblem was used. A Greek epitaph says, “He sleeps; say not the good can die.” Our Lord in John 11:11, and other places, naturalized this language in Christianity. The Catacombs, those cities of the dead saints of the first centuries, cut beneath the surface of the earth in the soft rock, are made morally luminous by the spirit of purity and hopefulness pervading the epitaphs. The image of hopeful sleep is predominant. “Zoticus hic ad dormiendum—Zoticus here laid to sleep; Dormitio Elpidis—The sleeping place of Elpis; Dormivit et Requiescit— He has slept and is at rest.”—Catacombs, p. 430. The true life and glory of the spirit above, as contrasted with the corpse and sepulchre, are thus indicated: “She departed, desiring to ascend to the ethereal light of heaven.” “Here sleeps in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent Severianus, whose spirit is received into the light of the Lord.” “Here rests in the sleep of peace Mala.… Received into the presence of God.”— Catacombs, pp. 427, 8. These passages record the testimony of the early Church. 1. To the essential distinction of body and soul; the duality of man’s constituted nature: 2. To the supernal existence of the soul above, while the body lies in the tomb below; a denial of the sleep of the soul: 3. To the resurrection of the same body; as the body that wakes is the same body that sleeps. Sleep in—Or rather, through Jesus. But how can the saints be said to be dead through Christ. Most commentators seem to think it to be too refined to make Paul say that their death is made to be a sleep through Jesus. They, therefore, connect through with bring, and read, God will, through Jesus, bring them with him; bring them, that is, from the grave into resurrection. But Alford argues, that inasmuch as sleep is spoken of Christian death alone, Paul truly means that so blessed a distinction is through Christ. Wordsworth plausibly renders it, “those who have been laid asleep, sommo compositos, through Jesus.” Will… bring— That is, from their graves, back to us, which are alive.

V. 15. By the word of the Lord-By a particular revelation. We who are left-This intimates the fewness of those who will be then alive, compared to the multitude of the dead. Believers of all ages and nations make up, as it were, one body; in consideration of which, the believers of that age might put themselves in the place, and speak in the person, of them who were to live till the coming of the Lord. Not that St. Paul hereby asserted (though some seem to have imagined so) that the day of the Lord was at hand.

Verse 15. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord] This I have, by express revelation, from the Lord: what he now delivers, he gives as coming immediately from the Spirit of God. Indeed, human reason could not have found out the points which he immediately subjoins; no conjectures could lead to them. Allowing even the general doctrine of the resurrection to be believed, yet what follows does not flow from the premises; they are doctrines of pure revelation, and such as never could have been found out by human ingenuity. In no place does the apostle speak more confidently and positively of his inspiration than here; and we should prepare ourselves to receive some momentous and interesting truth. We which are alive, and remain] By the pronoun we the apostle does not intend himself, and the Thessalonians to whom he was then writing; he is speaking of the genuine Christians which shall be found on earth when Christ comes to judgment. From not considering the manner in which the apostle uses this word, some have been led to suppose that he imagined that the day of judgment would take place in that generation, and while he and the then believers at Thessalonica were in life. But it is impossible that a man, under so direct an influence of the Holy Spirit, should be permitted to make such a mistake: nay, no man in the exercise of his sober reason could have formed such an opinion; there was nothing to warrant the supposition; no premises from which it could be fairly deduced; nor indeed any thing in the circumstances of the Church, nor in the constitution of the world, that could have suggested a hint of the kind. The apostle is speaking of the thing indefinitely as to the time when it shall happen, but positively as to the ORDER that shall be then observed.

Shall not prevent them which are asleep.] Those who shall be found living in that day, though they shall not pass through death, but be suddenly changed, shall not go to glory before them that are dead, for the dead in Christ shall rise first-they shall be raised, their bodies made glorious, and be caught up to meet the Lord, before the others shall be changed. And this appears to be the meaning of the apostle’s words, mh fqaswmen, which we translate shall not prevent; for, although this word prevent, from præ and venio, literally signifies to go before, yet we use it now in the sense of to hinder or obstruct. fqanein tina signifies the same, according to Hesychius, as prohkein, to go before, prolambanein, to anticipate, be before. Those who shall be found alive on that day shall not anticipate glory before the dead in Christ; for they shall rise first, and begin the enjoyment of it before the others shall be changed. This appears to be the apostle’s meaning.

Verse 15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord — By a particular revelation from him. No words, as Dr. Doddridge observes, can more plainly assert that, in what follows, the apostle declares precisely what God revealed to him, and consequently that there can be no room for any such interpretation of this passage, as supposed him to be at all mistaken in any circumstance of the account he gives. That we who are alive and remain — This manner of speaking intimates the fewness of those who will be then alive, compared with the multitude of the dead. It is well observed, says Whitby, by the Greek scholiasts, that the apostle speaks these words, not of himself, but of the Christians that should be found alive at the second coming of Christ: so Chrysostom, Theodoret, Œcumenius, and Theophylact; for he well knew that he was not to live till the resurrection: yea, he himself expected a resurrection, saying to the Corinthians, He that raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and present us with you, 2 Corinthians 4:14. He laboured that he might attain to the resurrection of the dead, Philippians 3:11. Yet some divines have inferred, from this and some other places in the epistles, that the apostles themselves thought and taught, that they might live until the second coming of Christ; and that St. Paul afterward changed his opinion on this subject, and admonished the Thessalonians of it, 2 Thessalonians 2:2-6. But this certainly is a dangerous mistake, and highly prejudicial to the authority of the apostles, and therefore to the Christian faith. Indeed, if the churches of Christ had once received this doctrine from them, and afterward had understood, even from their own confession, that it was a mistake, this would naturally have led them to conceive that the apostles might have been mistaken also in any other doctrine, and to suspect the truth of all that was contained in their epistles. This the apostle seems to insinuate, 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2. But that this apostle taught no such doctrine in either of his epistles to the Thessalonians, will be exceeding evident, 1st, From the following words in that chapter, verse 3, Let no man deceive you by any means, declaring them deceivers who either taught this doctrine, or imposed it on them as taught by the apostles; and also having said, in opposition to such an opinion, that day was not to come till there was a falling away first, adding, Remember you not that when I was yet with you I told you these things? He therefore had taught them the contrary before he had written either of these epistles, and, of consequence, cannot rationally be supposed to contradict himself. 2d, From the very words used in proof of this opinion, which are introduced with this solemn declaration, This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, &c., in which words he most plainly vouches the authority of Christ for the truth of what he says; and therefore, if he were mistaken, either our Lord himself must have erred with him, or the apostle must vouch Christ’s word, and his authority, when Christ had spoken no such word, and given him no authority to declare such doctrine in his name; both which assertions overthrow the certainty and truth of all St. Paul’s epistles. And hence it follows that the apostle could not deliver this assertion in any other of his epistles, for all the learned agree in this, that these epistles to the Thessalonians were the first epistles St. Paul wrote; whence it must follow that he could not deliver, in his following writings to that church, or any other churches, that doctrine which he had so industriously before confuted, and declared very dangerous, in his epistle to the church of Thessalonica.

The truth is, such expressions as these, we who are alive, (verse 15,) we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, &c., (1 Corinthians 15:51,) are not to be understood of the writers themselves: they are mere figures of speech used by the best authors to draw their readers’ attention, or to soften some harsh or disagreeable sentiment; without intending to represent themselves either as of the number, or of the character, of the persons with whom they class themselves. Thus Hosea says, (Hosea 12:4,) God spake with US in Bethel; and the psalmist, (Psalm 66:6,) WE rejoiced, namely, at the Red sea, when divided; and, (Psalm 81:5,) I heard a language I understood not, that is, in Egypt, though neither were in existence at the times when the facts referred to happened. This figure in the mouth of Christ’s disciples has a singular propriety, because all of them making but one collective body, of which Christ is the Head, and which is united by the mutual love of all the members, individuals may consider every thing happening to the members of this body, as happening to themselves. We shall not prevent — Or anticipate; them who are asleep — Shall not receive our glorified bodies before them.

Ver. 15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. They shall not take precedence, or have any advantages superior to what those shall enjoy who slept in the dust. This acceptation of the word “prevent” is happy, though less used now. “Prevent us, oh Lord, in all our doings.” The Lord prevented, or went before St. Paul to Rome; or if we might be allowed to say so, he got there before him, and so arranged that Paul should not be sent to the common prison. Providence likewise so ordered it, that his bonds should turn out for the furtherance of the gospel.

But did St. Paul, and the saints at Thessalonica, expect to live till Christ came on the clouds of heaven? I answer, no: the time is indefinite. It is a form of speech justified by the coming of the Lord as a thief in the night. Add to this the day of his coming to burn Jerusalem was near at hand. Paul was a prophet; he foretold the falling away in the church, and the revelation of the man of sin in the temple of God. He foretold the call and conversion of the jews, and the salvation of Israel; in a word, he foretold his own martyrdom. St. Peter, in like manner, spake of the longsuffering of God, and said, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, proofs indubitable that our christian prophets were divinely inspired. — It was wise to speak of those things as near, for we are in crowds rushing into eternity. We already hear the martial trumpet sound to awake the dead, that every one may appear in his own order, to meet the Lord in the air, and rejoice for ever in his presence.

15. Word of the Lord—Some understand the words of Christ in Matthew 24:31. Others refer the phrase to the meeting of the bridegroom by the sleeping virgins. Others, to a tradition of Christ’s declaration. Lunemann parallels it to “the word of the Lord” in 1 Kings 20:35, and interprets it, correctly, of a special revelation to St. Paul. So Galatians 1:12; 2:2; Ephesians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 12:1. We— Lunemann and Alford utter more forcible protest than argument in behalf of the supposition that this word demonstrates St. Paul’s expectation to be one of the alive at the Parousia. Note on 1 Corinthians 15:51. Shall not prevent—Shall not go before. The old English meaning of the word; which comes from pre, before, and venire, to go. One may go before another, either to stop him, or to lead him. The latter sense of the word has been lost in modern times; so that preventing grace would now mean the grace that stops a man, and not, as properly, the grace that leads him forward. St. Paul means that the living shall take no precedence of the raised dead; the latter shall have an equal entrance; in fact, their resurrection shall be first; that is, shall precede the resurrectional change of the living.

V. 16. With a shout-Properly, a proclamation made to a great multitude. Above this is, the voice of the archangel; above both, the trumpet of God; the voice of God, somewhat analogous to the sound of a trumpet.

Verse 16. The Lord himself] That is: Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven; shall descend in like manner as he was seen by his disciples to ascend, i.e. in his human form, but now infinitely more glorious; for thousands of thousands shall minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand shall stand before him; for the Son of man shall come on the throne of his glory: but who may abide the day of his coming, or stand when he appeareth?

With a shout] Or order, en keleusmati. and probably in these words. Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment; which order shall be repeated by the archangel, who shall accompany it with the sound of the trump of God, whose great and terrible blasts, like those on mount Sinai, sounding louder and louder, shall shake both the heavens and the earth!

Observe the order of this terribly glorious day: 1. Jesus, in all the dignity and splendour of his eternal majesty, shall descend from heaven to the mid region, what the apostle calls the air, somewhere within the earth’s atmosphere. 2. Then the keleusma, shout or order, shall be given for the dead to arise. 3. Next the archangel, as the herald of Christ, shall repeat the order, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment! 4. When all the dead in Christ are raised, then the trumpet shall sound, as the signal for them all to flock together to the throne of Christ. It was by the sound of the trumpet that the solemn assemblies, under the law, were convoked; and to such convocations there appears to be here an allusion. 5. When the dead in Christ are raised, their vile bodies being made like unto his glorious body, then, 6. Those who are alive shall be changed, and made immortal. 7. These shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. 8. We may suppose that the judgment will now be set, and the books opened, and the dead judged out of the things written in those books. 9. The eternal states of quick and dead being thus determined, then all who shall be found to have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, and to have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, shall be taken to his eternal glory, and be for ever with the Lord. What an inexpressibly terrific glory will then be exhibited! I forbear to call in here the descriptions which men of a poetic turn have made of this terrible scene, because I cannot trust to their correctness; and it is a subject which we should speak of and contemplate as nearly as possible in the words of Scripture.

Verses 16-18. The Lord himself — The Lord Christ, arrayed in all his own glory, and in that of his Father; shall descend from heaven — “This expression does not imply that the Lord Jesus will fix his tribunal on the earth; but that he will descend so as to fix his seat in the air, at such distance from the earth that every eye shall see him, and every ear shall hear his voice, when he passes the awful sentence by which their state shall be unchangeably fixed. This conjecture is confirmed by verse 17, where we are told that, after the judgment, the righteous shall be caught up in clouds to join the Lord in the air.” — Macknight. With a shout — Raised by millions of happy attendant spirits. The word keleusmati, so rendered, denotes the shout which the soldiers of an army used to make at their first onset to encourage one another in the attack; it is therefore used with great propriety to express the loud acclamation which the whole angelical hosts will utter to express their joy at the coming of Christ to raise the dead and judge the world. The voice of the, or rather, (as the article is wanting in the original,) an archangel — He, probably, who will preside over that innumerable company of angels who are to attend Christ when he comes to judge the world. And the trump of God — Sounding, doubtless, with more loud and terrible blasts than those uttered on mount Sinai when the law was given. Perhaps the voice of God himself is meant, or a great and terrible sound made by attendant angels, analogous to that of a trumpet. This circumstance is mentioned likewise 1 Corinthians 15:52, where see the note. And as Theodoret remarks, If the loud sound of the trumpet, when the law was given from mount Sinia, especially when it sounded long, and waxed continually louder and louder, was so dreadful to the Israelites, that they said to Moses, Let not the Lord speak to us lest we die; how terrible must the sound of this trumpet be, which calls all men to that final judgment that will determine their lot for ever! And the dead in Christ — Those that had departed this life in a state of union with, and conformity to him; who had received his Spirit in its various graces, and imitated his example; shall rise first — Shall spring forth out of their graves in forms of glory, to the infinite astonishment of the surviving world, before the rest of the dead are raised, or the living saints are changed. Then we who are alive — Those in Christ who are found living at his coming; shall be caught up — That is, after their bodies are changed and rendered glorious and immortal; together with them — Namely, with the saints now raised, while the wicked remain beneath. What is intended by the expression caught up, Dr. Scott (Christ. Life, vol. 3. pp. 1, 204) thinks shall be effected by the activity of the glorified bodies of the righteous. But this opinion does not seem consistent with the original word, arpaghsomeqa, here used, which implies the application of an external force. Doubtless they shall be caught up by a mighty and instantaneous operation of the divine power; to meet the Lord in the region of the air — Where his throne shall then be erected; and there, having been openly acknowledged and acquitted by him, they shall be assessors with him in that judgment to which wicked men and angels are there to be brought forth; and when the final sentence is passed upon them, shall accompany their re-ascending Saviour. And so shall we ever be with the Lord — Where we shall spend a blissful eternity ill the sight and participation of his glory. Wherefore — Make these grand events the subject of your frequent meditation; and when your hearts are distressed with grief for the loss of your pious friends, or on any other occasion which can arise in this mortal life; comfort one another with these words — The tenor of which is so important, and the truth contained in them so certain, as being taught by the infallible dictates of the Spirit of God, and revealed to us by him, from whose fidelity, power, and grace, we expect this complete salvation.

Ver. 16. The dead in Christ shall rise first. The apostle is not here speaking of any precedence which the saints are to have in the resurrection over the rest of the dead, but of the resurrection of the righteous dead, as opposed to living saints, who shall receive their summons to meet the Lord at his coming. The apostle assures the Thessalonians, who had some doubts on this point, that “they who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent,” or have precedence of, “them that are asleep.” On the contrary, “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them.” He is plainly speaking, not of the dead in Christ, as distinguished from those who are not in Christ; but of the dead in Christ, as distinguished from the living.

16. Lord himself—Not by messenger or representative, but his own personal self. Then shall our eyes behold Him. The Himself is emphatic with divine dignity. From heaven—From God’s right hand in the highest heavens. See note on 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. With—No commotions of nature are here described, though other passages assure us of their existence. 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:11. Only the three vocalities of the descending powers are given, the shout of the mighty host; the voice of the archangel, their leader and the Lord’s herald; and the trump of God, a strain of celestial music. These announce the Incarnate Person in the rear; to whom the whole host is as an advance procession. Shout— Generally signifies the cry of an onward movement. An archangel rather than the. To inquire which archangel, Michael or Gabriel, is useless, though popular fancy generally designates the latter. The word signifies chief-angel, and is used here to designate him as present captain of the lord’s host. Trump of God—Vocal symbol of the divine Presence and Person; as the glory is the visible symbol. Its tones are heard, but no instrument is seen. It was, probably, never heard but once by human ears, and that was at Sinai. Exodus 19:16-19. Then, as here, it was the announcing strain of the celestial hosts forming the advance procession of the approaching divine One. Then there were “thunders and lightning’s, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled… to meet with God… And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, [as if the Jehovah were slowly coming,] and waxed louder and louder, [as he drew nearer and nearer,] Moses spake, [as if He had now arrived,] and God answered him with a voice” [as being now present.] And so these present peals, sounding to human souls like the piercing and ever-increasing tones of a trumpet, are the signal of the approaching CHRIST. Rise first—This does not mean the first of two resurrections; but first and before we which are alive are changed. First and then in the next verse are correlatives.

V. 17. Together-In the same moment.

In the air-The wicked will remain beneath, while the righteous, being absolved, shall be assessors with their Lord in the judgment. With the Lord-In heaven.

Verses 16-18. The Lord himself — The Lord Christ, arrayed in all his own glory, and in that of his Father; shall descend from heaven — “This expression does not imply that the Lord Jesus will fix his tribunal on the earth; but that he will descend so as to fix his seat in the air, at such distance from the earth that every eye shall see him, and every ear shall hear his voice, when he passes the awful sentence by which their state shall be unchangeably fixed. This conjecture is confirmed by verse 17, where we are told that, after the judgment, the righteous shall be caught up in clouds to join the Lord in the air.” — Macknight. With a shout — Raised by millions of happy attendant spirits. The word keleusmati, so rendered, denotes the shout which the soldiers of an army used to make at their first onset to encourage one another in the attack; it is therefore used with great propriety to express the loud acclamation which the whole angelical hosts will utter to express their joy at the coming of Christ to raise the dead and judge the world. The voice of the, or rather, (as the article is wanting in the original,) an archangel — He, probably, who will preside over that innumerable company of angels who are to attend Christ when he comes to judge the world. And the trump of God — Sounding, doubtless, with more loud and terrible blasts than those uttered on mount Sinai when the law was given. Perhaps the voice of God himself is meant, or a great and terrible sound made by attendant angels, analogous to that of a trumpet. This circumstance is mentioned likewise 1 Corinthians 15:52, where see the note. And as Theodoret remarks, If the loud sound of the trumpet, when the law was given from mount Sinia, especially when it sounded long, and waxed continually louder and louder, was so dreadful to the Israelites, that they said to Moses, Let not the Lord speak to us lest we die; how terrible must the sound of this trumpet be, which calls all men to that final judgment that will determine their lot for ever! And the dead in Christ — Those that had departed this life in a state of union with, and conformity to him; who had received his Spirit in its various graces, and imitated his example; shall rise first — Shall spring forth out of their graves in forms of glory, to the infinite astonishment of the surviving world, before the rest of the dead are raised, or the living saints are changed. Then we who are alive — Those in Christ who are found living at his coming; shall be caught up — That is, after their bodies are changed and rendered glorious and immortal; together with them — Namely, with the saints now raised, while the wicked remain beneath. What is intended by the expression caught up, Dr. Scott (Christ. Life, vol. 3. pp. 1, 204) thinks shall be effected by the activity of the glorified bodies of the righteous. But this opinion does not seem consistent with the original word, arpaghsomeqa, here used, which implies the application of an external force. Doubtless they shall be caught up by a mighty and instantaneous operation of the divine power; to meet the Lord in the region of the air — Where his throne shall then be erected; and there, having been openly acknowledged and acquitted by him, they shall be assessors with him in that judgment to which wicked men and angels are there to be brought forth; and when the final sentence is passed upon them, shall accompany their re-ascending Saviour. And so shall we ever be with the Lord — Where we shall spend a blissful eternity ill the sight and participation of his glory. Wherefore — Make these grand events the subject of your frequent meditation; and when your hearts are distressed with grief for the loss of your pious friends, or on any other occasion which can arise in this mortal life; comfort one another with these words — The tenor of which is so important, and the truth contained in them so certain, as being taught by the infallible dictates of the Spirit of God, and revealed to us by him, from whose fidelity, power, and grace, we expect this complete salvation.

17. Then we—After the dead have first risen. Caught up—This upward movement is preceded by the change by which this mortal puts on immorality. By that change the glorified body is able to neutralize gravitation by volition. But in this case they are caught up by divine power, the phrase implying great suddenness. With them—The dead in Christ. In the clouds—The passage quoted by Alford from Theodoret, comparing this to our Lord’s ascent upon a cloud, misses the mark. The true parallels are Daniel 7:13, and Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he cometh with clouds;” an image of altitude and misty grandeur. In the air— Simply a designation of locality or region; aerial space. Ephesians 1:3, and 2:2. The grand congregation of the judgment may be in pure space; for these resurrection bodies, absolved from the power of gravitation, and of power by pure volition, can tread upon a plane of pure space as easily as Jesus trod upon the sea, or as we tread upon a pavement. Of a burning world, a resurrection and condemnation of the wicked, and a new earth, no account is here given; for, as Lunemann well notes, St. Paul does not here profess to give a full picture of the last things, but simply such a glimpse as shall meet the doubt and grief in regard to the late deceased Christians. Ever be with the Lord—Not as limited to this one mid-space region, though it and the new earth may be within their future range; but in the highest heaven, the capital of the great system centred by the throne. And now science demands, Where is the final heaven of the glorious resurrection, as distinguished from the intermediate paradise of the blessed disembodied spirit? And where is the final hell, gehenna, as distinguished from the hades or Tartarus of the intermediate state of the impenitent? See note on 2 Corinthians 12:1-4; Ephesians 1:2, and 4:8-10. Astronomers of the present day assure us that all planets are destined, in time, to narrow their orbits, lose their heat, and fall into the sun. The sun, as satellite to a greater sun, is to fall into and be swallowed by its central sun; and finally, the utmost central sun will swallow the whole system of stars and suns, from which all heat will have departed and form a final lifeless, frozen char. It may be, then, that our whole material system of worlds, as well as our earth, is under the doom of sin, sin older than the fall of Adam, and so may be destined to become the eternal abode and monument of sin and wrath. The “everlasting fire” of Matthew 25:41, was prepared for sinners older than man, namely, the devil and his angels. This may be the final Gehenna. But whither goes the energy, which scientists tell us is departing with the heat from the present entire material system, and pouring into immensity? The ingenious authors of the “Unseen Universe” suggest that it goes to crystallize into a future universe, including that Future State, that Heaven of the resurrection, to which our faith is looking. So he who is Lord of all said to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” That place may be in the present highest heavens; the circumambient zone that girds our starry universe, separating it, perhaps, from other universes, with which our history does not connect. That future state, formed of the pure forces that gave life and power to this dark system, may be the new heavens and earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” It may gradually supplant our present stellar system. The terms distinguishing the regions of the invisible world are so irregularly translated that the English reader may be aided by the following summary:—

Hades (which should never be rendered hell, but be used in English without change as the generic name of the intermediate abode) occurs in the following passages: Matthew 11:29; 16:18; Luke 12:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; 1 Corinthians 15:55; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 20:13. Paradise, (the blessed phase of hades,) Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7. A comparison of Revelation 2:7, with 22:2 suggests, that as in the eternal state beyond the judgment hades is merged in gehenna, (Revelation 20:14,) so paradise is merged in the eternal heaven. Tartarus, in verb form, (the adverse phase of hades,) 2 Peter 2:4. Gehenna, (hell,) the final opposite of heaven. Matthew 5:22, 29; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3, 6.

Verse 18. Comfort one another with these words.] Strange saying! comfort a man with the information that he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from these words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the inspiration of Gods Holy Spirit, so that he can perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his name. Reader, thou art not in a safe state unless it be thus with thee, or thou art hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If so, thou shalt be filled; for it is impossible that thou shouldst be taken away in thy sins, while mourning after the salvation of God. They that seek shall find. I THESSALONIANS

Verses 16-18. The Lord himself — The Lord Christ, arrayed in all his own glory, and in that of his Father; shall descend from heaven — “This expression does not imply that the Lord Jesus will fix his tribunal on the earth; but that he will descend so as to fix his seat in the air, at such distance from the earth that every eye shall see him, and every ear shall hear his voice, when he passes the awful sentence by which their state shall be unchangeably fixed. This conjecture is confirmed by verse 17, where we are told that, after the judgment, the righteous shall be caught up in clouds to join the Lord in the air.” — Macknight. With a shout — Raised by millions of happy attendant spirits. The word keleusmati, so rendered, denotes the shout which the soldiers of an army used to make at their first onset to encourage one another in the attack; it is therefore used with great propriety to express the loud acclamation which the whole angelical hosts will utter to express their joy at the coming of Christ to raise the dead and judge the world. The voice of the, or rather, (as the article is wanting in the original,) an archangel — He, probably, who will preside over that innumerable company of angels who are to attend Christ when he comes to judge the world. And the trump of God — Sounding, doubtless, with more loud and terrible blasts than those uttered on mount Sinai when the law was given. Perhaps the voice of God himself is meant, or a great and terrible sound made by attendant angels, analogous to that of a trumpet. This circumstance is mentioned likewise 1 Corinthians 15:52, where see the note. And as Theodoret remarks, If the loud sound of the trumpet, when the law was given from mount Sinia, especially when it sounded long, and waxed continually louder and louder, was so dreadful to the Israelites, that they said to Moses, Let not the Lord speak to us lest we die; how terrible must the sound of this trumpet be, which calls all men to that final judgment that will determine their lot for ever! And the dead in Christ — Those that had departed this life in a state of union with, and conformity to him; who had received his Spirit in its various graces, and imitated his example; shall rise first — Shall spring forth out of their graves in forms of glory, to the infinite astonishment of the surviving world, before the rest of the dead are raised, or the living saints are changed. Then we who are alive — Those in Christ who are found living at his coming; shall be caught up — That is, after their bodies are changed and rendered glorious and immortal; together with them — Namely, with the saints now raised, while the wicked remain beneath. What is intended by the expression caught up, Dr. Scott (Christ. Life, vol. 3. pp. 1, 204) thinks shall be effected by the activity of the glorified bodies of the righteous. But this opinion does not seem consistent with the original word, arpaghsomeqa, here used, which implies the application of an external force. Doubtless they shall be caught up by a mighty and instantaneous operation of the divine power; to meet the Lord in the region of the air — Where his throne shall then be erected; and there, having been openly acknowledged and acquitted by him, they shall be assessors with him in that judgment to which wicked men and angels are there to be brought forth; and when the final sentence is passed upon them, shall accompany their re-ascending Saviour. And so shall we ever be with the Lord — Where we shall spend a blissful eternity ill the sight and participation of his glory. Wherefore — Make these grand events the subject of your frequent meditation; and when your hearts are distressed with grief for the loss of your pious friends, or on any other occasion which can arise in this mortal life; comfort one another with these words — The tenor of which is so important, and the truth contained in them so certain, as being taught by the infallible dictates of the Spirit of God, and revealed to us by him, from whose fidelity, power, and grace, we expect this complete salvation.

Ver. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words, the only words which can console us under bereavements of our own flesh. Such is the wisdom of God, that death shall repair his own breaches, and restore more than he has taken away.

18. Comfort… words—After they had been read unto all, (1 Thessalonians 5:27,) record them in your memories; and be ready to remind one another of their consoling import.