1 Thessalonians 4 - Introduction
CHAPTER 4. A CALL TO HOLINESS AND ASSURANCE REGARDING THOSE WHO HAVE DIED IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 4. A CALL TO HOLINESS AND ASSURANCE REGARDING THOSE WHO HAVE DIED IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Finally then, brothers and sisters, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk - that you abound more and more.' ‘Finally.' The word is regularly used by Paul in this sense having the idea of ‘for the remaind... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus'. This defines what they had received. Direct commandments from the Lord Jesus, as found through the authority of the teaching of Jesus passed on through the Apostles, and through Paul, and the early church, the ‘Testimony of Jesus'... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that each of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no man transgress and wrong his brother in th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Therefore he who rejects, rejects not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.' This confirms the strength behind the idea of ‘call' in 1 Thessalonians 4:7. God has not given a suggestion, He has called us out of uncleanness. Thus those who reject the necessity for purity in their sexual live... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But concerning love of brothers and sisters you have no need that one write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.' Note the strong contrast between the fornication of the previous verses based on sexual love and the true Christian love here. They are as far apart as bla... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For indeed you are doing it towards all the brothers and sisters who are in all Macedonia.' What a testimony was that. The Thessalonians were famed for their true and continuing love of their fellow believers. That is why Paul felt that he had no need to mention it to them (although he did). ‘But... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And that you are ambitious to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you. That you may walk honestly towards those who are without, and may have need of nothing.' The general impression here is of some who were going about in an excited way, creating... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But we would not have you ignorant, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are falling asleep, that you sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope.' It is clear that the Thessalonians had grasped the idea that Jesus Christ was imminently returning and were in expectation that it would be ve... [ Continue Reading ]
THE COMING OF CHRIST FOR HIS OWN (1 THESSALONIANS 4:13). Paul assures the Thessalonians that those who have died in Christ will not be disadvantaged as against those who will be alive at His coming, and describes what will happen when Christ comes for His own.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those also who are fallen asleep through Jesus will God bring with Him.' Paul's solution is simple. Jesus died and rose again. He defeated death (1 Corinthians 15:52). He has therefore the power to give life to the dead (John 5:25). Thus th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and are left to the Parousia of the Lord, will in no way precede those who are asleep.' Paul assures the Thessalonians that there is no way in which Christians living at the time of Christ's coming and divine presence will have... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we eve... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Wherefore comfort one another with these words.' The word for comfort is parakaleo, ‘comfort, strengthen, firmly assist'. The first comfort is found in that they need no longer fear at the thought of those who die in Christ missing out. They will share all the glory of His coming. The second, of c... [ Continue Reading ]