THE FIRST ELEMENTS IN CHRISTIANITY (2)
[p. 463] THE FIRST ELEMENTS IN CHRISTIANITY (2)
The apostle in these epistles to the Thessalonians does not attempt to unfold the deep things of God, or the counsels of God.
These epistles deal with believers in their first stage of christian experience. Doctrine is not unfolded but christian walk. We cannot have doctrine before walk. As soon as we have received the Spirit, walk begins. If people are not walking according to the truth of the gospel, they will not make much headway spiritually. What we want to see with the young is walk — suitable walk — a desire to walk to please God.
I refer for a moment to what we spoke of on a previous occasion, that is, the light in which Christ is looked at in the epistle. All that comes out in the epistle will more or less take its colour from the way in which Christ is presented. It speaks of Him as our Saviour, and in chapter 5 it says, “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation” 1 Thessalonians 5:9. Our Lord Jesus Christ is looked at as Saviour, in connection with His coming again; it is not His first coming that is in view here, but His second coming. In the first, He came to do the will of God and to accomplish redemption; in the second coming He comes as the Saviour. The harvest and the vintage are both spoken of when He comes again. In regard of the harvest He will come to gather in all that God has been working: “My Father worketh hitherto” John 5:17. The Lord speaks about the fields being white to harvest, John 4:35. He is the great Harvester, He will come as Saviour — His Son, God’s Son — He came as the Bridegroom the first time. But the Bridegroom was taken away; now we wait for Him as the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom [p. 464] is He who enters into alliance with every purpose and thought of God to give effect to them.
There is that here on earth which is irreconcilable. The Jew had proved himself irreconcilable and wrath has come upon him nationally to the uttermost; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. The same thing will come to pass in regard to the gentile, “otherwise thou also shalt be cut off”, Romans 11:22. When the apostasy is complete and men have given up God absolutely, then the great day of His wrath will have come, but the true character in which Christ comes again is that of Saviour. We “await his Son from the heavens, ... our deliverer from the coming wrath” 1 Thessalonians 1:10. God has been working all through the ages, and all that work of God will be gathered up by Christ; the harvest will be gathered in. “Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” Hebrews 9:28. He was manifested the first time to take away sin — He was the appointed Victim — He comes the second time apart from sin, Hebrews 9:28. The second coming is the completion of His first coming. He had to die, and He must come again to gather up the harvest.
Now these Thessalonians, as we have already seen, had been put to severe testing. Those who had been converted among the Jews were subjected to persecution from the Jews, and the mind of the gentiles is just as hostile to the gospel as that of the Jews. But the Thessalonians stood their ground, and Paul rejoiced. They had stood firm in the faith in spite of the testing. The testing had not turned them away from the truth, indeed they were confirmed in it, and that is the result which the test effected. It has been said that times of persecution only tended to establish the saints.
The elements, faith, love and hope, will never pass away; whatever we may come to know, as long as we are down here we have never done with these vital principles; we never leave them. As with a child [p. 465] learning the alphabet, so it is with the elements of christianity; we learn them in a way, but we never cease to deal with them. Faith is the light of God in the heart of man. If faith be there, it will come out in love because God is love, and love is of God. If God had not been love, you could never have got the ten commandments. The thing is morally impossible. If you have the love of God in your heart, it is bound to be operative in love. The way in which it would come out is indicated in chapter 4.
This epistle enjoins on the saints a walk. It is really the direct fulfilment of the law. The law is God’s rule for man down here on earth; the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” Romans 8:4. “Love is the fulfilling of the law”, Romans 13:10. Now that is a very important point. We cannot stop with faith. The real test of faith is that what you believe governs you. I believe a great many things in the world, but they do not govern me. I believe there is a President in the United States, but that does not affect me at all. The earth travels round the sun, but that fact does not affect me, but the fruit of real faith is that you are governed by what you believe. If I see a person not governed by what he believes, I shall begin to be sceptical of his faith. If the light of God is in the heart, it is bound to produce a result in the saints. Paul says, “I live by Christ”. That was the effect of the light in the heart of the apostle; he felt bound to give himself up to the will of God.
Now the will of God is our sanctification. It means that we are to abstain from all uncleanness; fleshly lusts invade the rights of your neighbour. If a man lusts, he invades the rights of his neighbour, if it be in money or anything else. If people succeed in this world it is to the disadvantage of someone else.
If you allow worldly lusts to work, you will be governed by them, and you will invade the rights of [p. 466] others, and you are not set here for that, but for the will of God — to walk and to please God.
We come to another point. “Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another” 1 Thessalonians 1:9 and the way we are taught is by the revelation of the love of God, and that is divine teaching. No one could be under the influence of the love of God without loving others. I am confident that if the love of God is in our hearts we shall love each other. If we do not love one another it is because we know very little about the love of God — the love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Romans 5:5. If that be known the practical working of it will be that we shall love one another.
Then there is a further practical point: “that ye study to be quiet ... and to work with your own hands” 1 Thessalonians 4:11. We want to commend the truth of God to those that are without. We are to treasure the truth in our own hearts, but it is extremely important to walk in such a way as to commend it to those who are without. Orderly walk in christians is the effect of the light of God in the heart. There was to be the absence of lust, God having called them in sanctification of the Spirit; then brotherly love is enjoined, and quietly working with their own hands.
Now we come to two other points: comfort and hope. Comfort is a very great point in regard to christians when they are no longer affected by the fear of death. I believe people are more affected by the thought of death than by anything else. See how they will try to preserve their lives and how anxious they are about their bodies. But the christian is not waiting for death. We are waiting for Christ as Saviour. The apostle says, “We shall not all sleep” 1 Corinthians 15:51. If we are looking for Christ as Saviour we are not looking for death. No christian is justified in looking for death, but for the Lord Himself: “Lord Jesus Christ our hope” 1 Timothy 1:1. These Thessalonians had become [p. 467] disquieted in regard to those who had died, so the apostle brings comfort in; there was a way through death: “them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” 1 Thessalonians 4:14. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. There is the power of His voice which will speak to those who have fallen asleep. It is wonderful to think that God will make a way through death. He made a way for the children of Israel through the Red Sea, which naturally speaking was certain death to them, but the rod of God came in and a way was made through for the people, so that instead of the Red Sea being death the Red Sea was protection to them. In a certain sense we have passed through, too; the way has been made through, and what we are waiting for is not death, but the Lord Himself from heaven. It is an immense point whether we think of ourselves or of those departed that Christ has annulled death, 2 Timothy 1:10. He went into death and a way was made through. We are “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead” Romans 7:4. Death has been dealt with, beloved friends, that is a very great point, and it only wants His voice to awaken those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words”, 1 Thessalonians 4:18. In our ordinary walk down here God would have us to be in comfort.
It is the mind of God, too, that we should be taken out of occupation with times and seasons: “But of the times and seasons brethren..”., 1 Thessalonians 5:1. In 2 Peter 1:17-21 we read there is given to christians a light shining in a dark place. This refers to the prophetic word. So we cannot speak of christians being in darkness, for for them the day is dawning, the darkness is passing, “the true light now shines”. So we are not of the night, we are of the day, beloved. We should not be children of light if the day had not dawned; the day star has arisen, too, in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19) — the coming of the Lord — the hope of salvation.
“God hath not appointed us to wrath” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). If we have [p. 468] any idea at all of that which Christ is coming to establish, we know there is salvation. God has brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light, 1 Peter 2:9. The disciples were in the light of Christ on the mount of transfiguration. Peter never forgot it, if the others did. It took place when he was a young man and he wrote about it when he was an old man. Three of the evangelists wrote about the transfiguration, although none of them saw it. The day star is a harbinger of the day. The point is, do we belong to the day? “They that are drunken are drunken in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7). Drunkenness, according to Scripture, is being under the influence of this world. Christians are not of the night, nor of darkness. Then in regard of times and seasons, we have not only the light shining in a dark place given to us, but the day star has arisen in our hearts and we are already of the day, not of the night. The divine purpose in the death of Christ is “that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). It is a great thing to be confirmed in the faith of these things, and thus be governed by them. If we are so, the effect will be that we shall walk and please God, being marked by sanctification, brotherly love and quietness, the heart comforted, having the realisation that we are the children of light and the children of the day (1 Thessalonians 5:5). The day star has arisen, too, in our hearts, and we are thus enabled to comfort ourselves together in the consciousness that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us “that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). May the expectation of Christ as Saviour be very real to each one of our hearts.