1 Thessalonians 4:9

But as touching brotherly love ye need not thatI write unto you More exactly, you have no need that one write to you. "Have no need" recurs in ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:1; comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:8 and 1 John 2:27. There wasneed for the Apostle to write on the previous subject (1 Thessalonians 4:3). But in this grace the Thessalonian Church excelled (comp. note on ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:3, also 2 Thessalonians 1:3).

In this respect they were (literally, and in one word) God-taught an expression found only here in the N.T.; comp. "God-breathed," 2 Timothy 3:16. The separate elements of the compound appear in John 6:45, where our Lord cites the words of Isaiah 54:13, "They shall be all taught of God." The former "charge" the Thessalonians had received through men from God (1 Thessalonians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:8): the lesson of "brotherly love" they learnt so readily and with so little need of human instruction, that they were evidently taught it by God Himself. It seemed to come to them "naturally" as we say ye are of yourselves God-taught; or as we ought to say, more reverently, "by God's direct endowment.

taught of God to love one another Lit., to the end (or effect) that you love one another. This was the purport and issue, rather than the mere content of the Divine teaching: God taught them many lessons; this was the aim of all.