READINGS ON FIRST THESSALONIANS (1)
READINGS ON FIRST THESSALONIANS (1)
JT The first epistle to the Thessalonians is suggested because there are a great many young people among the brethren, relatively, in this country, and the epistles to the Thessalonians peculiarly apply to youth, to the young among the saints, to the young that existed in Paul’s time and, we may thank God, in our time. There is quite an increase among the young, and especially among the young men that are available for service, for preaching; so the first epistle to the Thessalonians is selected because it contains such an appeal to youth, to young assemblies too, and to the youth among them. In fact it may be said that they are Paul’s first epistles, and undoubtedly he had in mind the freshness that existed among the saints of God in his time and that they might be set on their way rightly. So we shall observe that he speaks of imitation. It says in verse 6, “and ye became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia: for the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad, so that we have no need to say anything; for they themselves relate concerning us what entering in we had to you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”. So there is great stress laid on the idea of imitation, imitation of [p. 2] others who have been long in the way and have known the truth, and ministered it, too. So the point is for the younger ones to think of what is needed and see how it is to be learned from those long in the way, from the elder brethren.
RWS So we have the opening and laying down at Thessalonica in Acts 17. Would that not bear on all who are young? We have examples in the elders, but the tendency in this country to which you alluded would be met by the opening up and laying down of the truth, would it not?
JT Quite so. The opening up is the ministry that would bring out the truth, and the laying down is the authority that accompanies it, which is always needed. Opening up is one thing and laying down is another, and that implies the authority that goes with the truth.
CHH Would the term “to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father” be a term of affection?
JT Yes, implying the security of the position. How well they would be taken care of. It does not say that in Romans, or Ephesians, but it says it here. “in God the Father”, it is a peculiar expression for an assembly.
LES Would the laying down be in accord with the Holy Scriptures? They would be the basis for all that is said.
JT Just so. The Scriptures are the only authority that we have, so that we have sure ground to stress authority. “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable”, 2 Timothy 3: 16. It is not only that it is authoritative but it is profitable, that is to say, as we look into the Scriptures we see there is nothing else to compare with them. The young people need to get that into their minds and hearts, and that they are profitable. It would keep them from reading other things that are unprofitable and [p. 3] defiling.
CM Would the fact that Paul identifies Timothy with him here in this first verse indicate something as to what you are saying as to the young coming into the truth and being usable in it?
JT He was a comparatively young man himself. He had learned the truth from his mother and grandmother, which is a good source for young people to learn from, their godly mothers and grandmothers in the houses. It is a question of household influence and authority.
AR It says in Acts 17 they “joined themselves to Paul and Silas”. Would that suggest the idea of a good lead and young people linking themselves on with the elder brethren?
JT Yes.
Ques Would you preach from the New Translation (Darby Translation) of the Scriptures, or the King James version on Lord’s day evening in preaching the gospel?
JT That is an important question. As far as I am concerned, whenever I try to minister the word, whatever it may be, I use the New Translation (Darby Translation) now, because it is accurate, and many of us are inaccurate and are apt to be misled by inaccurate statements.
Rem In Acts 8 we have a verse in the King James version which is not genuine, and some have thought that as it is there it is all right to preach from it, which I would not do.
JT I think that is worth while considering. At one time it was felt that it might appear that we had a Bible assumed to be our own, and that it took on the character of sectional feeling, whereas now the New Translation (Darby Translation) is so well known that we are perfectly safe in using it.
RWS In the preaching too?
JT I do. I would have no difficulty about it now, because it is so well known, and where the preaching goes on, as a rule the brethren are all there, a large number of them relatively anyway.
[p. 4] The question, therefore, is whether we read the Bible enough, especially sisters, whether we read the New Translation (Darby Translation) and get the accurate translation that it contains.
FJF Mr. Darby said of Mr. Raven to watch that young man for his mind is formed by Scripture.
JT Just so. I would extend that to the sisters. They should read at home and privately and incessantly themselves, not only wait for the household reading but read themselves. “From a child thou hast known the sacred letters”.
Rem You suggested the other night that we should read our chapters five times and Mr. Darby’s Synopsis once.
JT I would say that.
Rem I thought it would confirm the importance of getting things from the Scriptures.
JT Quite so.
RWS In all our meetings then, including the preaching of the word of God, we are quite right to use the New Translation (Darby Translation). Is that what I understand?
JT I think so. Why not use the best? The notes, too, in the New Translation (Darby Translation) are very copious and useful and we all should read them if we can, read the notes and commentaries on the text.
RWS Then our Bibles in the meeting rooms should be the New Translation (Darby Translation) instead of the Authorised version.
JT Well, I would say so.
AJG Should not the brethren bring their own Bibles?
JT Very good.
RWS I mean the Bibles for strangers who come into the rooms. They should be the New Translation (Darby Translation). We have a good many Authorised Translations in our [p. 5] meeting rooms.
WWM Is it not important for every brother and sister to have a New Translation (Darby Translation) and read it? It should be laid on our consciences.
JT Just so and read the notes as well as the text.
WWM It should be an exercise that those who do not own one should have one.
FJF In Oxford University they use Mr. Darby’s translation as the best French as a model to learn from. It ought to be no difficulty for us who love the truth to have it in our homes and in our meetings. No doubt the Romish authorities are aware of the ministry that is published by us.
JT I quite believe that. Someone was sitting by a priest who was reading one of our books and the brother nearby to him made an inquiry about it. He said ‘we get all the books that are published’. So it shows that if we circulate books they ought to be authoritative.
Ques Would Luke 1 help us to be attending on the word and accurately acquainted with it?
JT Quite so. Of course, we try to get accuracy in these meetings. We attempt to be accurate and if any brother gives out anything that is not quite accurate, the thing is to question him and point out what is accurate.
Ques You mean if I were to say something that is not quite accurate now, you would check me now?
JT Just so, and whatever you say elsewhere too, I question that if I hear about it. Every brother should be ready and open to be questioned, because there is so much current among the brethren in different parts of the world that it is right that everything should be accurate. What is said and done should be accurate. In some places we get special customs, whereas our customs should all be accurate and agree with [p. 6] each other.
FJF A priest spoke to me the other day in this country when I was speaking to a man in the hospital. I said, ‘Salvation is found only in Jesus’, and the priest said, ‘Yes, it is found in Jesus and His church’. The priest is right, that salvation is not only in the Lord, but in its present aspect it is in the church.
JT Just so. Mr. Raven stressed that very particularly, and God used it and has used it ever since, that salvation is not only in Christ but in the assembly. Why should it not be? If the assembly is Christ’s spouse, she should know everything as taught of Him. These special meetings now are of first rate importance. God has greatly blessed them in this country for the last fifty years. These meetings are little, relatively, but God is blessing them and the thing is that we should agree with each other. That is to say, we should be catholic; the word would mean that it is universal and we are in agreement with each other.
AJG Would you say something as to the three things mentioned in verse 5? “For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance”.
JT “Our glad tidings”, that is Paul’s. Then again we have corresponding to that, “knowing of whom thou hast learned them”, 2 Timothy 3: 14. We should know the persons who say things, that we can rely on what they are saying. So we have here, “For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance”. That is to say, the thing is manifest that it is in the power of God. It is not simply that it is accurate, it is from the Scriptures, but it is in power. Evidence should be there that it is in power.
AJG Would the power be connected with the fact of the ministers themselves being in accord with [p. 7] the glad tidings, so that the Holy Spirit could identify His power with them?
JT Quite so. “Knowing of whom thou hast learned them”. So it pleases God if He takes up any whom He would use, to see to it that they are instructed according to the Scriptures, otherwise we have local customs and local ideas. In our country people say, ‘Well, we say so and so’, but it should be accurate or it should not be said. We should have the Scriptures behind us or we should not say anything.
WJB The Spirit of truth would bear on this question of accuracy, would it?
JT Quite so, not only the letter of truth but the spirit of it. The word spirit has a peculiar meaning in that sense and it ought to be understood, the spirit of a thing, not the spirit of a person.
FKC Is that why the Lord says in John 7: 38 “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”? It was the Spirit of truth the Lord was bringing forward.
JT Quite so. “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said”. It is what the scriptures say, not only what the letter is; it is what they say. Then “out of his belly” means his inwards. It is not simply external, what is said with his mouth, but his inwards.
Rem In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul, speaking about his ministry, says, “We have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God. But if also our gospel is veiled it is veiled in those that are lost”. Would that support what you have in mind as to the importance of the truth? Is the idea of the Spirit of truth involved in [p. 8] this?
JT I would say that. The Corinthian epistle contains more questioning than any other epistle because Paul himself was questioned there. It is a humbling thing when the brother who is ministering the truth is questionable, but it is still more humbling if he is questioned unwarrantably. In Philippians Paul says that some were preaching out of contention, evidently having something against Paul. It is very humbling that there should be a tendency to question the brethren who are ministering the truth, whereas if they are ministering the truth, the truth ought to commend them.
WJB When Paul said, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment” (1 Corinthians 14: 37), did he mean that they were to discern the authoritative element in his ministry?
JT It is not only that Paul was accurate, but it is the Lord’s commandment, and that is what he was stressing. Let him recognise that the things we minister are the truth, he says, the Lord’s commandment. If the Lord has spoken, there is no more to be said, but to bow to it.
Rear. The Lord Jesus says in John 8: 40, “Now ye seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from God”. Then Paul says in Galatians 4: 16, “So I have become your enemy in speaking the truth to you?” It is a serious matter if a brother who seeks to minister the truth is set aside on account of personal feeling.
JT Quite so, I go fully with that.
RWS Is it not a favour of God that in this country, which is relatively new, you might say, the testimony has been sustained and, we might say, augmented so that there are models whom we can follow? There are persons whom we can imitate.
[p. 9] I wondered in that connection about how long the testimony has really been in this country.
JT Mr. Darby was one of the first to minister in this country. He ministered here very much and I would say he established the truth more than anyone else who ministered here.
RWS I note in his letters he was here and in Canada, but then he went back to England. I was thinking of those who came here and stayed here and had children here, and meetings were established here, whether that does not go back to probably 1880, 1890 or 1900 so that young people now have an advantage which young persons did not have forty years ago.
JT Just so.
AB In the reference to opening and laying down as in Thessalonica, you have us in mind; “in word ... in power ... in the Holy Spirit”, the word is for ourselves and the Spirit of truth has a present bearing on us.
JT Just so. Most of us have come a distance and it has cost us something; it is well that it has cost us something because what costs us something is usually more valued. We are not on a holiday when we come to these meetings. We have come to learn something.
AB What has been said in regard to reading the New Translation should help us in relation to the spirit of the truth. While there is “the scripture of truth” (Daniel 10: 21), there is the spirit of the truth which has its present bearing on us.
JT So that when brethren go back from a meeting like this, they ought to be able to carry what is said so that the truth is spread, and the truth carries its own weight.
GAT In John 8: 31, 32, discipleship is connected with knowing the [p. 10] truth.
JT Just so. Discipleship, as usually spoken of in Scripture, involves that we are learning the truth. So as we see with one man in the antediluvian world, the seventh from Adam; his name means devoted or disciplined. He carried the thing on and transferred it to others.
GAT I just had in mind how it followed on. The Lord says, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”, John 8: 32.
JT Then again, “If therefore the Son shall set you free”, (that is the Lord Jesus), “ye shall be really free” (verse 36).
FHL In verse 3 the apostle credits these young believers with three great qualifications, each qualified by a phrase. Would you say a word about that? “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope”. There is a wonderful foundation in that.
JT It is a remarkable combination of thoughts, “remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope”. That ought to speak to us. I have often thought of it in looking through these two epistles, how these words are there. You have faith and hope and love, and there is this idea of constancy, “enduring constancy of hope”. I believe perhaps the scarcest thing among the brethren is hope in the true sense. We are not hopeful and cheerful enough. We are too doleful, instead of being cheerful because of the greatness of the things we have come into; they are to come to pass immediately. The hope is immediate, we might say. For many reasons I think we are entitled to think and say that the coming of the Lord is near, and then there is another beautiful expression, the appearing; and there are those who love the appearing of the Lord. It inspires hope in our hearts. It is very near; it is imminent.
AB [p. 11] Is it confirmed at the end of verse 6, “having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit”?
JT Quite so.
AR Bearing on your remark would you explain verse 10, “await his Son from the heavens”. That is not the rapture, is it?
JT No, it is His Son from heaven. It is properly the second coming of the Lord, and these epistles are full of it. There is mention in every chapter in the first epistle of the Lord’s coming. It is not simply He is coming for us but He is coming with us, I mean to say He comes openly, so that He is to be with us and we are to be with Him. “We shall be always with the Lord”.
AJG Why does it say “await his Son” and not await the Lord, for instance? Is there any link with the second Psalm where the Son is given the inheritance, “Ask of me, and I will give thee nations for an inheritance, and for thy possession the ends of the earth”, Psalm 2: 8? It is the Son who is given all things.
JT Just so. “Await his Son” is a beautiful expression. There is something about the idea of the Son that bears on the affections of the brethren, what the Son is. There is peculiar attractiveness in it. John’s gospel is full of it. Christians are never called sons in John’s gospel but the Lord Jesus is constantly called it. He is the Son.
AR Would that bear on John 3: 35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”?
JT We have cited that. “The Son”; it is that Person, and this passage here is very like it. “await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”.
AJG [p. 12] While the day of glory is about to open up, it is really a great system of affection that will be introduced then. Is that the thought?
JT That is what I would say. What a thought comes into the heart in connection with the Son; of course power goes with it too, but it is the Son, meaning the Son of the Father. He has that place in the whole universe; He is the Son, and every being in the universe, using the word ‘universe’ to convey the idea of what is general, will recognise that the Son is the Son, and there is no one to compare with Him.
AJG “All may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father”, John 5: 23.
JT Just so. I am glad you said that.
JHE Would that connect with 1 John 3. “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”? Then it brings in the manifestation, “we shall see him as he is”.
JT Quite so. “What we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3: 2. That does not appear yet, but we apprehend the love. “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we children of God” (verse 1). It is children we are dealing with, not sons. John hardly ever uses the word sons as referring to the saints, only in one place, but the point is that now we are children of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, that will be sonship, but it does not mention that, save as saying “we shall be like him”.
JHE I thought that all our blessings are spiritual.
JT Quite so, we are the children of God now, that means that we derive from God, the idea of derivation, whereas sonship is dignity.
JHE “And every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”, 1 John 3: 3.
JT Quite so, that is the present application now, the children are to be pure.
RWS Verse 10 of our chapter says, “and to await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”. That Person is Jesus, not only “his Son from the heavens”; the personal name is designed to affect us inwardly, is it not?
JT Jesus, He is our deliverer from the coming wrath. The personal name is used, not Christ, but the personal name of the Lord.
FJF So that it is very precious for the youngest believer who knows Jesus. He is the same blessed Person.
FSC It says in chapter 5, verse 9, “God has not set us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
JT It is the whole name and title, “who has died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 10. That is a very beautiful phrase.
DP Would the setting up of an assembly in a city become a test to a servant to bring in proper food so that steady growth might be maintained? The Thessalonians were planted in very difficult soil and it would require proper ministry so that they might not come under the power of what was current around.
JT Quite so. The food indicates who they are, that they are the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the importance of refusing such food as would impoverish. There is so much read by young people that impoverishes them. We want to get proper food, and these three-day meetings afford an opportunity for [p. 14] developing a certain line of truth that may be especially used for the young people at the present time.
FKC I would like to ask whether this idea of model should be seen with us? It says, “so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia”. Paul said to Timothy, “be a model of the believers”.
JT Surely if someone wished to look at the model we should be fully fitted for it, that we may justify the idea that is to be presented in us.
JLP The saints at Thessalonica seem to have had a good foundation, among other things, in faith. Would you say if we have not a right foundation we will be weak in the testimony to others? It says that the word of the Lord sounded out from them.
JT So that it says in 2 Timothy 2, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are his; and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”.
CHH Do you think that owing to the circumstances they were passing through there was a tendency to lose the constancy of hope, because it is not mentioned in the second epistle? Their faith and love was abounding but there is nothing about hope. Do you think there is a tendency among us to lose hope?
JT I think so. One has often noted that we give way on the line of hope; we are not marked by expectancy of the coming of the Lord; we do not love His appearing. It is not simply that we speak of the Lord’s appearing, but we are to love it. He is to be seen when He appears.
GH In connection with the Lord’s coming it says, “So encourage one another with these words”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 18. Would that be to promote hope?
JT I should think so. Encouraging one another would keep us from becoming droopy, because we so easily become droopy and disconsolate. So that we [p. 15] are to be encouraged, not simply that the truth encourages, but the saints encourage each other.
WWM The apostle says in Romans 15: 13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.
JT Abound in it. Very good. These things, I believe, are intended as we are here now to help the younger brethren to see how the older brethren have got things, and they can speak of them and take them in and encourage others who are not at these meetings; take home good tidings to encourage those who could not come.
HB Would the word in Deuteronomy 6: 7 help, “thou shalt impress them on thy sons, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house”?
JT Yes. There is so apt to be very little in our conversation that is profitable; whereas what we hear is the great thing and we want to impress it on others a, we go home.
AJG Do you think the apostle was bringing in a further establishing feature in saying, “Knowing, brethren beloved by God, your election” as though he would remind the Thessalonians that the way they had received the gospel was evidence of their being elect of God? Is not that a very establishing feature in the soul?
JT Yes. There is something very peculiar in being elected of God. We have the word chosen too, have we not; it says of the Lord “with God chosen, precious”.
FJF God has greatly privileged us above all believers on the earth to have the light of the assembly, and the question is how much we appreciate it.
JT And in appreciating it, to speak of it to others as we have opportunity, and especially in the home circles, the children and mothers. Be sure to carry [p. 16] something for them to partake of that will build them up also.
LES Do you think that the difficulty with many of us is that we do not understand the bearing of our baptism? Does not baptism enter much into what we are saying?
JT Quite so.
FW James says, “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord”, James 5: 7.
JT Yes. We feel the need of it constantly, but the coming of the Lord draws nigh.