2 THESSALONIANS 1
CAC Paul seems to have pleasure in linking others with himself in writing the epistles.
Rem He does it in every epistle except Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.
CAC He says “With all the brethren” in Galatians. It was a peculiar joy to the apostle not only to be a vessel of so much truth, but to know there were those who were being carried along by the Spirit in it, so that he could identify them with himself in his writings. Silvanus and Timotheus were in the truth.
It is a great thing to see that the testimony is not simply the truth, I mean the truth in an abstract way. In a sense all the truth is within the covers of the Bible, but that is not the testimony. The testimony is when the truth takes a living place in men’s souls so that they become characterised by it. Sometimes we get the truth before us in an abstract way; one might shut oneself up in one’s room and be occupied with Scripture, but we must have the saints too, for in them the truth is taking concrete shape. It was a great [p. 285] joy to the apostle to write to the Thessalonians; he does not say to the assembly of saints or believers, but to the assembly of Thessalonians; it brings before one an actual company of men and women.
Rem Paul leaves out the hope here. It is faith and love that increase.
CAC Endurance does not seem to have ceased. Paul boasts in that; they were holding on in spite of pressure.
[p. 288] Rem It was a great test to suffer such persecution and to think the day of Christ was present.
CAC It is like people saying now that we are in the great tribulation; that was said to me lately. A thought like that would tend to take the saints away from the proper ground of their confidence. They were suffering very much and the enemy would have had them to think they were suffering a visitation of wrath from God. Paul had told them that they would be delivered from the wrath to come, and that “God has not set us for wrath”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 9. It is important for us to maintain that all God’s ways at this present time are in grace.
Rem A forged epistle must have been a great test (chapter 2: 2).
CAC Yes, no doubt people said, ‘This is Paul’s letter’; we can hardly realise what it must have been. They thought the day of the Lord had come and yet they were suffering, so Paul tells them they will not have trouble when it comes, but those who are troubling them will have it. There is not a hint that anything will have to intervene before the rapture, but when Paul speaks of the day of the Lord he tells them certain things will have to take place. It still remains true that the day of the Lord will not be present until the apostasy comes and the man of sin is revealed, so we know, and all the saints have known through the ages, that the day of the Lord cannot come until then, but nothing is said to take place before the rapture. I suppose the only thing that had to take place before the rapture was the death of Peter. The Lord had told Peter “by what death he should glorify God”, but as soon as Peter died there was nothing left to be fulfilled.
The Lord says, “I... will keep thee out of the hour of trial”, not, ‘I will carry you through’. The man of sin may be on earth now, but he is not revealed yet. John in his epistle says, “There have come many antichrists”. The [p. 289] mystery of iniquity was working then and it has been working ever since.
Rem The Lord Jesus has to be revealed too.
CAC It is wonderful that the object of His coming should be to be glorified in His saints. All that the Lord is is to be gloriously displayed in them; they are taken up for that purpose, that all the Lord is might shine forth in them. It will be a time of unveiling then; God will unveil what He has been doing, the way He has been working by His Spirit. It is like the beautiful work of a sculptor that has been carried on for years, hidden from sight, and at last there comes a day of unveiling, and all that the sculptor has been doing is unveiled. So God has been working in His saints, beautifying them with salvation, and He is going to exhibit His work to the universe.
Rem We can see Christ in the saints even now.
CAC Yes, and it gives one joy. The apostle says, “Your faith increases exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all towards one another abounds”. That was Christ in the saints; the increase of faith and the abounding of love is Christ increasing in the saints by the blessed work of God. The fact of Christ coming out in the saints is what brings down persecution. The reason there is so little persecution is that there is so little of Christ in us.
God will not display anything that did not exist before He displayed it. The beautiful work of the sculptor was all there before the curtain was pulled aside; the day of revelation is like the unveiling. The work of God will all be there — faith, love, and all the blessed qualities of Christ, which are being wrought in the saints now. The world hates the saints, persecutes them, but we can admire Christ in them even now. There is a direct connection between the present and the future.
Ques The Thessalonians had never known about God,
[p. 290] being heathen. Is that the reason there is so much said about God in these epistles?
CAC God was revealed to them in grace, and they were happy in the knowledge of what they never knew before. What a change from idolatry! I was brought up in a christian home with the most favourable impressions of God, and yet what a breaking in of light there was when I first knew God, but it would have been far greater if I had been in the habit of worshipping demons behind an idol. What an immense thing then to be converted!
Ques Do we not all have idols?
CAC It was actual demons that the Thessalonians worshipped. An idol is the outward and visible sign of the presence of a demon. Scripture says so (1 Corinthians 10). It is quite true that the principle of idolatry might come in with the saints in a subtle, inward way, something in the heart that displaces God, but that is not worshipping a demon. I often have to judge myself for it, some little thing allowed in the heart and it displaces God.
Rem A covetous man is an idolater. The Lord speaks much of covetousness.
CAC It is the contrast to christianity. The christian is endowed with such wealth; he could not be richer! And then he is set down here with unbounded wealth to dispense it; he is full to overflowing and has only to dispense good. If he takes things up to himself, he gives the lie to all that God is working for.
Ques How will the Lord be admired?
CAC When the Lord comes there will be a shining forth of Christ in the saints, as in John 17:10, “I am glorified in them”.
In verse 10 we get the thought of wonder in the future. The Lord said prophetically that His saints were “men of portent”, objects of wonder (Zechariah 3: 8), and they are to be for “signs and wonders” (Isaiah 8: 18). They will be [p. 291] objects of wonder to the universe. All intelligences will have to learn wonderful things in the saints. Heavenly intelligences are learning now the all-various wisdom of God; the ways of God are being worked out in principle. Even the psalmist said, “I have been as a wonder unto many”. If we look on and see the work of God in a human soul we can only wonder; nothing is so interesting as a study. It is wonderful to us to see here a little and there a little now, but, when it is all finished, it will indeed be a work of wonder to us. There will be nothing brought out at that day that has not been wrought in us. He is working it in us today, He will bring it out tomorrow. If we want to come out well tomorrow, we must see to it today.
Rem The saints will be clothed with the Lord’s righteousness.
CAC They will be clothed with their own righteousness; it says, “for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”, Revelation 19: 8.
Ques Does it not say, “My comeliness, which I had put upon thee”, Ezekiel 16: 14, Authorised Version?
CAC Yes, Israel will be clothed with His comeliness, which He will put upon them. It is His comeliness, but He brings it out by His Spirit, and what He has wrought will be their beauty.
There is a sort of inveterate idea in the minds of believers that when we go up we shall be a different kind of people. There should not be any change morally; there will be a wonderful change corporeally and we shall not have the flesh, but morally the saints should be now what they will be then. There is not one kind of holiness down here, and another kind in heaven. The saint walking in holiness and love down here is qualified to sit down ‘in holiness bright’ with the Lord. The gospel side is important for it confers everything, but there is the moral side of j grace connected with the presence of the Spirit, and the [p. 292] divine nature in the saints. It will be an immense relief to drop the flesh! The longer we live, the worse the flesh becomes to deal with; it becomes more subtle; it puts on all sorts of disguises.
Rem The change will be in the body.
CAC Yes, we had a brother here recently who said, the Lord is changing our spirits now, and will change our bodies presently.