1 THESSALONIANS 4 (FIRST READING)
[p. 256] 1 THESSALONIANS 4 (FIRST READING)
CAC We know that the saints will be translated as the fruit of redemption and of God’s blessed purposes of love, but there is a moral suitability for translation also, and that comes out in this epistle. It is as saints walk in holiness and love that they are suitable for translation.
Rem Looking at the chapter, the thought came before me as to Enoch. He was suitable.
CAC Yes, he walked with God, and pleased Him and was translated. There is a thought sometimes in people’s minds as if the rapture would make a very great change in the saints, but it seems to me that the character of the saints morally should be the same before the rapture as after. Saints may go on with selfishness or many things not according to holiness, but that is quite unbecoming in people who are looking to be caught up to be for ever with the Lord.
Rem According to Jude some will be saved as by fire.
CAC I thought we had to pull them out of the fire, so that they might be ready for the rapture! I think it is important that the moral side should be kept in view.
Rem In Matthew 25 “they all grew heavy and slept”.
CAC Still all that went in were suitable, not only through the work of Christ for them and the purpose of God in relation to them, but they were morally suitable, their lamps trimmed and burning — none went in with lamps untrimmed. Scripture is careful not to suggest the thought of people, if converted, being unsuitable to the Lord’s coming. Scripture always introduces the thought of suitability.
[p. 257] Ques Yet do these admonitions shew that the things are prevalent?
CAC There is a danger, of course, but these exhortations are to free us, not to leave us in the fire. If we take heed to the exhortations and to the Lord’s words, we shall be delivered from all that is unsuitable and be ready to pass into the Lord’s presence. If there is anything about me that I should like changed if the Lord came at 9 p.m. then I had better change it at once.
Rem Doubtless many would not like to be found in picture palaces.
CAC If saints are there, it is pretty near the fire, and we must pull them out. We want to deliver the saints. Paul, as it were, folds up the Thessalonians in his arms; he is jealous over them that there should be nothing unsuitable in them. We have first to take heed to ourselves and then be exercised about the saints, that there should be nothing unsuitable in them.
Ques The beginning of the chapter is self-control?
CAC It is a question of love coming into activity and leading to holiness. As we walk in love we become more sensitive to things. Nothing is so sensitive as love; it is the divine nature.
It is nice to notice that there are some words in verse 1 not found in the Authorised Version after “as ye have received... how ye ought to walk and to please God”; it should then read “even as ye also do walk”. It is not only that they ought to walk and please God, but they do. Paul does not regard them as not doing it.
It is positively God’s will that we should walk in holiness and piety; God wills it. Paul supposes the saints would find their joy in moving along the line of God’s will, and he says, This is God’s will. If we are living on the principle of pleasing God it puts everything right. We do not come up to the full measure of God’s will at once, for Paul tells them to “abound still more”. There is always room for us to expand along that line.
Ques How is sanctification or holiness spoken of in this chapter?
CAC As practical separation from all that which marked the gentile world. The gentile world was marked by everything that was contrary to God, and God has called His people into holy separation from all that, and has given them His Holy Spirit. It is emphasised here that God’s Spirit is a Holy Spirit, and if we want to walk to please God we have to remember that. If we are not on the line of holiness we are certainly out of touch with the Holy Spirit. We are called in holiness; it characterises the very call of God, and so the brethren are spoken of as holy brethren. The name saint means a holy one, and we are saints by calling; the very character of God’s people is that they are holy ones. The term saint is so familiar among us that we use it and sometimes forget what it means. It is so wonderful to speak of a people in this world as saints, holy ones; we should not let the term lose its meaning by familiarity. Many christians shrink from using it, because they have a sense that it involves a good deal; we ought not to have any less sense of that, because we see Scripture uses it and that it implies what saints are.
Ques Why is the Lord’s name brought in in verse 6: “The Lord is the avenger”?
CAC The Lord preserves what is due in connection with every moral wrong. If any wrong is committed by a saint against another the Lord takes very serious account of it. We are apt to think things will pass, but the Lord maintains what is due, and if there is any violation of moral propriety among saints, the Lord will avenge it. A man might think that if the brethren do not get to know it does not matter, but the Lord is the avenger; it is a solemn thing [p. 259] to think of. All these things need to be remembered; they are all written.
Rem There is the principle of obedience (verse 2) as well as love.
CAC There are moral obligations on one side, and the activity of love on the other. Scripture never weakens the side of moral obligation, and Scripture maintains the activity of love. We are taught to love, and if I love my brother I shall not wrong him, but Scripture does not leave it there; it insists on the moral obligation as well. We need both sides.
Ques Where does failure come in, with lack of obedience or with lack of love?
CAC It is extremely difficult to say. Departure is such a general thing, and everything seems to be affected in it. I believe only the Lord can lead us to the true root of it. No amount of self-examination can bring a man to the root of his failure; it is only the Lord who can put His finger on the spot and say, ‘That is the point of departure’. Sometimes it is quite different from what we suppose but the Lord knows exactly where we left the main line. We get a deeper insight then into what the flesh is than we ever had before, though we might have been converted for years, and have thought we had judged ourselves. The Lord touched something in Ephesus (Revelation 2) that perhaps they were never conscious of, and other people would have said, ‘What a lovely assembly at Ephesus!’ When it comes to brotherly love (verse 9) the apostle says, “Ye yourselves are taught of God”. They had really come under new covenant teaching. Paul says, “Ye do this towards all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia”, and then he tells them to “abound still more”!
Rem These young converts were in the freshness of love.
CAC If young converts started so well, what [p. 260] should old christians be like? They should be a perfect reservoir of divine affections; they should provoke one another to love. These saints had really turned to God; they had got into contact with Him. The trouble is sometimes that people do not seem to get into contact with God, and only think of some nice word a brother has given! But new covenant teaching is contrasted with that; it is the effect in the soul of being near to God. We might come to readings and lectures for a life-time and not get a scrap of new covenant teaching, but the moment we get near to God we are taught of Him; it is the effect of God’s own presence and nearness on the soul. “They shall not teach each his fellow-citizen... because all shall know me in themselves” (Hebrews 8: 11) — that is, each one has his own individual secret between himself and God that no other intermeddles with; and it is for the “little one”, so each of us can say, That takes me in. You so know God in grace, and are so near to the God you know in grace, that you have your own special secret; it is not what you are told. It is wonderful to think of the saints as a company in that blessedness.
The first thing is that we hear a report about God, that is the preaching. The preacher tells us what a wonderful God there is to turn to; he presents God in such a light that we begin to see what a lot we have missed in being at a distance, and we say, “I will rise up and go to my father”. Then you must get near to God and get His teaching. When the prodigal gets home, can you imagine what the first five minutes are like? That is divine love, when you feel His arms round you, and His kiss, and the beating of His heart — and then you are taught to love. I think we are too content with the preaching and the report. We find in John’s epistles that we have a teaching unction; the Spirit teaches us; there is an inward working, the activity of God in the soul; so we are not only kept in the right way by [p. 261] external things, but there is an inward movement in the soul — “they shall know me” — and the result is they love one another. We get life in the epistle to the Thessalonians; I do not know any Scripture that gives it to us more simply. A people walking in holiness and love are nearly out of the world and are ready for the rapture.
We love saints because we see in them what is of God. “Every one that loves him that has begotten loves also him that is begotten of him” 1 John 5: 1. It is good to look out for the family likeness in saints.
Ques Why is it brotherly love here?
CAC I suppose it is thinking of love in its practical manifestation in a company of people who are down here as brethren.