1 Thessalonians 5:1 I. The Apostle having disclosed much in the foregoing verses about the Lord's second coming, and the respective shares in its glory which are to fall to those of His people who are then asleep, and those of them who are then alive, and remain, and having shown that the one class... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:8 The Work and Armour of the Children of the Day. I. First, this central injunction, into which all the moral teaching drawn from the second coming of Christ is gathered "Let us be sober." Now, I do not suppose we are altogether to omit any reference to the literal meaning of this... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:9 God's Appointment concerning Man. I. Note, first, the persons in whose favour God's appointment is made. They are believers in Jesus. Salvation is limited to faith in Christianity; and therefore the appointment of God that is unto salvation, must be subject to the same limitati... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:9 I. This passage, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, has its interest and value as showing us that the earliest and the latest of the Pauline Epistles are all at one in regard to the central doctrines of salvation through Christ. In this passage, we have, wrapped up in few words, indeed, but n... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:16 The Duty of Gladness. I. It is of the very nature of a duty that it is in our power to perform it; and so with this one, the very fact of its being laid upon us proves that we may, if we will, obey it. And therefore this at once disposes of those who would be inclined to say th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:16 I. "Rejoice evermore." The Thessalonian converts were living in the sphere of sorrow. The Apostle exhorts them to be "girded with gladness." This rejoicing, being in the Lord, is opposed to the spurious joy which is the possession of sinners. The rejoicing before God is the dee... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:17 I. The nature of prayer. Prayer is not a rite, not a ceremony, not a cold, outward observance, but an actual intercourse between two parties one who prays and One who hears. It is a communion between man and God, as real and actual as what passes between two men, when they speak... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:19 I. The Holy Spirit is here spoken of not strictly in respect of His Person, but in respect of His energising power in and on the heart. His workings, the Apostle would say, may be so counteracted as to become ineffectual. They may be quenched as the flame that is kindled for a... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Something Worth Holding. Our religion is I. Faith as opposed to infidelity. II. Holiness as opposed to sin. By holiness I mean all possible human virtues and graces, purity of heart, truthfulness, temperance, uprightness, downrightness, love, generosity, magnanimity all thin... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:22 Evil Superficially Attractive. I. This is so important a precept (1) because men's faculties are so frail. We cannot penetrate below the surface; therefore let that which is superficial express that which is below, and be an outward sign of an inward reality. If you are seekin... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:23 St. Paul implies in the text that all three branches of our complicated nature are to undergo sanctification that this leavening process is to go through the entire mass, until the whole is leavened. As the entire man is to be sanctified, so the entire man is to be educated, to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:23 I. There is much of instruction and comfort in this Apostolic prayer. The blessing prayed for is that the Thessalonian converts may be sanctified wholly, that their spirit and soul and body may be preserved. The Apostle adopts the trichotomy which in some form or other may be sa... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:24 I. The faith of man and the faithfulness of God. The highest object of man's existence is undoubtedly to hold communion with his God. For this his nature was originally framed, and in this alone will his nature ever find contentment or repose. The remedy for his present conditi... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Thessalonians 5:27 The Witness to Christ of the Oldest Christian Writing. If the books of the New Testament were arranged according to the dates of their composition, this epistle would stand first. It was written somewhere about twenty years after the Crucifixion, and long before any of the exi... [ Continue Reading ]