1 Thessalonians 2:2 - Homilies By W.f. Adeney

I. THERE ARE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE DECLARATION OF THE GOSPEL AN ACT OF BOLDNESS . St. Paul had been " shamefully entreated" at Philippi. Danger threatened also at Thessalonica. But the apostle was nothing daunted, not even holding his life dear in the prosecution of his great mission. Similar dangers beset the missionary now, and no one has a right to undertake mission work who is not prepared to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Moral courage is not less requisite in outwardly peaceful circumstances. The discouragement of indifference, the chilling influence of ridicule, and even the hindrance of direct opposition, will meet us if we are faithful to our duty of declaring the gospel where it is most needed.

II. IT IS THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO ARE ENTRUSTED WITH THE GOSPEL NOT TO SHRINK FROM DECLARING IT IN SPITE OF ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES . It is a trust, and the trust must be discharged even if the steward die at his post. The world needs the gospel most when it is most opposed to it. For the sake of the very men who mock or resist us we must faithfully discharge our message. Others also need it who must not be kept out of their lawful privileges by our weak fears. Moreover, the glory of God must be sought above all considerations of personal safety. How strangely that passion of devotion to Christ which inspired the apostles to preach him at the peril of their lives contrasts with the selfish, comfort-loving habits of many who have undertaken to discharge the duties of the same stewardship in our own day!

III. A BOLD , DECIDED DECLARATION OF THE GOSPEL IS ALWAYS NECESSARY . Christianity is no religion for cowards. It is a gross error to suppose that it unmans its followers. The greatest heroes of the first century were the Christians. A manly courage is much needed in the present day. The gospel should always be declared clearly, positively, and confidently by those who have a sure faith in it themselves. It is a great mistake to think that a timid, apologetic tone will be more conciliatory. We have no need to be thus timidly apologetic for the gospel, if it is true; but if it is not true, we have no right to defend it at all. In either case a weak, half-hearted advocacy is culpable. Enmity is best overcome and ridicule shamed by courage. It is most foolish for the Christian advocate to be afraid of boldly stating his beliefs before his skeptical opponent. Let us, however, distinguish true boldness from heedless provocativeness on the one hand, and from mere insolence on the other. Christians are to be wise as serpents, to be courteous, and as far as in them lies to live peaceably with all men.

IV. THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN BOLDNESS IS IN GOD . This boldness is a very different thing from mere brute daring. It is spiritual, sober, thoughtful. It has to lace spiritual as well as carnal foes. It comes, like other Christian graces, as an inspiration from the Spirit of God. They who are most deeply in communion with God when by themselves will be most thoroughly brave when in the world. Thus Joshua was made courageous by his vision of the "captain of the host of the Lord" ( Joshua 5:14 ).—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 . Entrusted with the gospel.

I. THE GOSPEL IS A TRUST .

1. The gospel is of great value . If property is put in trust it is presumably valuable. We carefully guard what we prize highly. God's message of reconciliation is a charter of liberty, a covenant of grace, a promissory note of future blessings.

2. The gospel needs to be guarded and administered . It is in danger of being lost, forgotten, perverted, and corrupted. Trustees are required in order to preserve it in its integrity and to give it forth to those who need it.

3. The gospel is entrusted to men . There are those who are put in trust with the gospel. Men are to trust God; God also trusts men. He confides in the honor and devotion of his people. As the steward is entrusted with his master's estate, the servant of God receives a trust of the rich treasures of the gospel. The treasure is committed to earthen vessels. Thus does God honor his children and use them for his good purposes.

II. THE TRUSTEES OF THE GOSPEL ARE CHOSEN AND APPROVED OF GOD . God called the prophets, and Christ called the apostles. Every true Christian minister is called of God. The Church is God's chosen company of trustees of the gospel. Christian nations are providentially appointed for its custodianship. Certain qualifications are required in the trustees, in order that they may be approved of God.

1. They must hold the truth themselves . "Not of error" ( 1 Thessalonians 2:3 ). The first requisites are an understanding of and a belief in the gospel.

2. They must live in accordance with the truth . "Nor of uncleanness." The trustee of the holy gospel must be a regenerate man. Otherwise his conduct will damage the gospel which he holds.

3. They must be honest in the discharge of the trust . "Nor in guile." No self-seeking, double-dealing, or men-pleasing can be permitted in the trustees of the gospel. They must be sincerely devoted to the truth that is entrusted to them.

III. THE TRUSTEESHIP OF THE GOSPEL IMPOSES IMPORTANT DUTIES .

1. The gospel must be preserved in its integrity . The trustees are not permitted to tamper with the trust. We have no right to add to or to detract from the gospel as it is given to us in the New Testament. It is a matter of honor that one who holds office in a Christian Church should net avail himself of the advantages of his position to advance private views which in any way militate against what is contained in the gospel charter on which the Church is founded. The New Testament is a trust-deed, and its provisions must be studiously observed, or the trusteeship implied by any active work in the Church must be resigned. Any other course is dishonest.

2. The trust of the gospel must be discharged for the benefit of those for whom it is designed . The trustees must study the interests of the beneficiaries. Trustees of the gospel are teachers of the gospel. This truth of God is not to be wrapped up in a napkin, but made use of for the good of mankind. The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God that ultimately the Gentiles might receive those oracles from their hands. The Church is entrusted with the gospel that she may convey it to the world. The trust of the gospel carries with it the obligation of undertaking missionary enterprises.

3. The trust of the gospel must be discharged to the approval of God . It is his trust. He will call the stewards to account. Their aim, therefore, must be, not to please men, but "God which proveth our hearts."—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 , 1 Thessalonians 2:8 - The use of affectionateness in commending the gospel.

It is very interesting to observe what a wealth of affection St. Paul poured out upon the Churches which came under his care. He was not satisfied with declaring the facts of the gospel and demonstrating the truth of them to the conviction of his hearers. He was very different from a cold philosopher who simply aims at establishing a certain thesis. Deep feeling entered into his work. A touching gentleness and affectionateness may be felt as the pervading tone of his treatment of his converts. He does not behave as a master who is ambitious to lord it over the heritage of Christ. He is like a nurse with her children. The example of the great apostle is worthy of the study of all Christian teachers.

I. THE GOSPEL IS BEST COMMENDED BY AFFECTIONATENESS IN THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER . The gospel bases its first claims on its own truth and reasonableness, and it is necessary that men should be convinced on these points if due respect for the rights of the human intellect is to be observed. Nevertheless the most persuasive power is not to be found in hard reason; nor does it reside in the splendors of eloquence. It is much more effective when it comes from simple, natural affectionate-ness. Men are more vulnerable in the heart than in the head. The Christian teacher must attack both strongholds; he will be foolish indeed if he neglect the more accessible one. It is often seen in experience that affectionateness conquers where convincing logic falls dead, and where glowing rhetoric only dazzles the hearers.

1. The influence of the preacher depends chiefly on his affectionateness . His relations with his hearers are personal. He is more than the herald. He is the shepherd of the flock, the father or brother of the family, the nurse of the babes in Christ. Thus ties of love between pastor and people not only make the association in Church life happy; they also afford the greatest aids to the work of the ministry.

2. The truth of the gospel is best revealed through affectionateness . The gospel is no dreamy dogma, no hard law, no pompous manifesto. It is a message from a father to his children, and a story of love in death. The Bible is a most human book, homely, brotherly, pathetic in its affectionate character. But this character of the Bible and of the gospel is marred and almost lost to view when harsh language and cold feelings accompany the preaching of it. The gospel of love should be offered in a kindred spirit of love.

II. A RIGHT FEELING OF THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL WILL LEAD TO AFFECTIONATENESS IN THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER . It is most important that the desired affectionateness should be genuine. The pretence of it is mere hypocrisy. Affectionate language which does not spring from a heart of love is a mockery. It is better to have an honest hardness than this assumed unctuousness. It is important, also, that the affectionateness should be healthy and manly, and should not degenerate into effeminate sentimentality. The gospel itself should inspire the right affectionateness.

1. The spirit of the gospel being love, if we truly receive the gospel it will inspire love . The greatest change which it produces in men is to cast out selfishness, and to give a heart of love to God and man.

2. We best show our love to Christ by loving our brethren . We love Christ in them. He who loves Christ warmly will have the spirit which St. Paul manifested to the Churches under his care.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:12 - Worthy of God.

I. TO BE WORTHY OF GOD IS THE HIGHEST AIM OF SPIRITUAL ASPIRATION . It is so high an aim that it seems to be hopelessly out of our reach. Are we not in everything unworthy of God? Our sinfulness is direct ill-desert, our unbelief, weakness, and imperfection dishonoring to Divine grace, our very virtues and good deeds of no absolute worth, because at best we are unprofitable servants, who have but done that which it was our duty to do. Nevertheless:

1. We should aim at the highest attainment, though as yet we may be far from reaching it.

2. We may become increasingly less unworthy of God.

3. We may truly honor God by our character and deeds.

4. We may hope at last to be worthy of God in the sense that we shall be fit to dwell with him; no disgrace to his Name when we bear it, and able to take our position as members of his family.

II. TO BE WORTHY OF GOD IS TO BE LIVING IN A RIGHT COURSE OF DAILY LIFE . This is expressed by the word "walk."

1. It must be a continuous course . To have passing phases of very pure spiritual thought is not to be so worthy of God as to walk continuously in obedience to his will though on a much lower plain.

2. It is to be striven after in daily life . We do not want angels' wings wherewith to soar into unearthly altitudes. We can walk on the lowly earth and yet be worthy of God. The worthiness depends on the spirit of our conduct, not on the sphere in which we live. With coarse surroundings, in toilsome drudgery, by humble tasks, the soul can so live as to be worthy of God.

III. IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL CHRISTIANS TO BE WORTHY OF GOD . The requirement does not belong to a counsel of perfection which a few rare souls may adopt at their will. It is laid upon all Christians as a duty. The special ground of the obligation is in what God has done for his people. He has called them "into his own kingdom and glory."

1. Gratitude requires us to walk worthy of God. His gifts and his promises reveal love and sacrifice on his part which naturally call for love and devotion on ours.

2. The future destiny of Christians also demands this conduct. The heir should behave as befits his future position. "Prince Hal" was an unworthy prince in his youth, especially because he disgraced himself in view of an exalted future. Christians are heirs of God's kingdom. Therefore they should walk worthily of him who has called them into it.

IV. IT IS THE OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN PREACHING TO LEAD MEN TO BE THUS WORTHY OF GOD . If the aim of the spiritual life must be high, so also must be that of its guide and teacher. The preacher's work is not done when a soul is first turned from the slavery of sin to the service of Christ. Then follows all the education and training of the new life up to the perfect worthiness. Hence the need of affectionate influence and all graces of persuasion.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 - The Word of God.

I. ST . PAUL CLAIMED TO BE A TEACHER OF THE WORD OF GOD .

1. He did not admit that his teachings were merely human speculations on religious subjects . His position was entirely different from that of the most gifted philosopher, more exalted since he stood forth as the apostle of superhuman truth, and also more humble since he subordinated his own private ideas to the message of which he was but the bearer.

2. St . Paul did not profess to be simply a witness of the facts of the gospel . That was the position of the first Christian teachers. St. Peter and his companions of the day of Pentecost presented themselves as witnesses of the great transactions of the life of Christ, and chiefly of his resurrection. They narrated what they had seen and heard ( Acts 2:32 ; 1 John 1:1 ). St. Paul had not been a companion of our Lord. But he had something higher than the knowledge of experience and observation. He did not learn his gospel of men; it was revealed to him in the solitudes of Arabia.

3. St . Paul claimed to be inspired with a Divine revelation . It was not his thought, nor even his testimony of Divine facts, but the Word of God that he proclaimed. It is plain that the apostle used his own language, and spoke in a characteristic and individual style. He also reasoned with his own intellect; for inspiration does not simply breathe through a man as through a mechanical instrument. But his language and thought and whole being were illumined and elevated by the Spirit of God, so that he saw the truth of God and was able to speak the Word of God.

II. THE THESSALONIANS ACCEPTED ST . PAUL 'S MESSAGE AS THE WORD OF GOD .

1. They admitted the fact . They did so, no doubt, first because the power and personal influence of the apostle impressed them; then because they were convinced by his arguments; then because they must have felt the inherent beauty and greatness of what he taught; and lastly because they saw the good effects of his gospel. By these four gradations we are led on to a more and more consistent belief in the Divine authority of the gospel; viz. by authority, by argument, by the excellency of the gospel itself, and by its fruits.

2. The Thessalonians received the message as befitted its Divine origin .

III. ST . PAUL 'S TEACHING PROVED ITSELF TO BE THE WORD OF GOD BY ITS EFFECTS . It was found to be working in the Church at Thessalonica. The Word of God is powerful ( Hebrews 4:12 ). Christ's words were spirit and life ( John 6:63 ). This Divine Word is no barren revelation of far-off celestial curiosities. It is a message concerning human and earthly as well as heavenly affairs. Like the first creative word, when God spake and it was done, the message of the new creation is a word that effects. God's words are deeds. But that they may be deeds in us it is necessary for us to receive them in faith. And in proportion to our faith will the energy of God's Word work in us.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:16 - Fullness of sins.

"To fill up their sins always." This is a terrible and mysterious expression. Some light may be gained by considering it in relation to the history of the Jews, as it is of these people that it is here written. They had accumulated sin upon sin in slaying Christ and the prophets, in expelling the apostles from their communion, and finally in hindering the Gentiles from receiving that gospel which they had rejected for themselves. But there was to come an end to this tale of wickedness. The time was drawing near when the Jews would no longer have power to hurt the cause of Christianity, and when swift punishment for their accumulated iniquities would descend in the destruction of their city and nation. They were hastening to fill up the sins, which must issue in this fearful doom.

I. THE GREATEST SIN IS THAT OF SINNING WITHOUT RESTRAINT . It is a mistake to speak of every sin as of infinite guilt, or of all sins as equally guilty. Such an assertion is not only false, it tends either to despair or to reckless excess in sinning. However far one has gone in sin, it is better to stop than to go on to greater enormities. To be adding sin to sin, and to be sinning "always," are signs of reckless, abandoned depravity.

II. THERE IS A FULLNESS OF SINS WHICH BRINGS ITS OWN PENALTY . When sin reaches this point the penalty can no longer be stayed. The cup once full flows over in wrath and ruin. It is as though forbearance and guilt were in the scales. When guilt is full the balance dips. There is an end to all possible long-suffering. The more men go on in excesses of sin, the faster do they approach the inevitable day of reckoning. The sooner the sin is filled up to the measure which passes endurance, the sooner must the stroke of doom fall.

III. FULLNESS OF SINS MUST LEAD TO FULLNESS OF PUNISHMENT . They who fill up their sins always will have the wrath "come upon them to the uttermost." The worst debtor must be made to pay the last farthing. The swifter the rush downhill, the greater the crash at the bottom. The more tares that are sown in spring, the more bundles to burn in harvest. He who fills the present life with sins will have the next life filled with wrath.

IV. THERE SEEMS TO BE A LIMIT TO SINS . There is a fullness of sins. There is no fullness of virtues; these can be developed indefinitely. The good man is growing up to a perfection. The bad man is being corrupted, not to a perfection, but to a fullness. Evil has limits; goodness has none. Satan is let loose for a time. God restrains the wrath of the wicked. Sin, through rebellion against God, cannot break away from all Divine control. Sins are limited by several means:

1. Capacity . We have a limited power of sinning.

2. Time . God sometimes cuts the sinner off in the midst of his days, and brings the guilty nation to destruction.

3. Providential control . The fullness of sins is not the amount which God predestines to be committed, for God is not the author of sin, nor does he will or permit it. This fullness is the measure beyond which God stays the evil from proceeding. When the tide of iniquity, driven onwards by rebellious powers, reaches this fullness, God says, "Here shall thy proud waves be stayed," and the storm beats itself out in impotent fury.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 2:18 - Hindered by Satan.

St. Paul tells his friends at Thessalonica that he was anxious to revisit them, and that he made the attempt to do so more than once, but that he was hindered by Satan. The direct impediment may have been the opposition of his enemies ( Acts 17:13 , Acts 17:14 ); or it may have been bodily sickness—"a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan." Whatever this immediate and visible hindrance was, the point of interest to us is that St. Paul attributed it to Satan. Let us consider the hindrance thrown in the way of good work by Satan.

I. SATAN HINDERS THE WORK OF THE GOSPEL .

1. The hindrance is to be seen in all times . Doors are shut; enemies are raised up; misunderstandings throw mission work into confusion.

2. The source of the hindrance may be discovered by its character . "By their fruits they shall know them." The excuse may be the preservation of order, the restraint of excesses, or conservative respect for old ways. That the real source of opposition is Satanic may be known when

3. This hindrance converts mission work into a warfare . The Church becomes an army. The forces of light and darkness are drawn up in battle array. New territory cannot simply be claimed by planting the standard of the cross upon it. It must be fought for and won in conquest.

II. SATAN 'S HINDRANCE IS INDEPENDENT OF THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LABORERS . Of course, if these men receive Satan into their hearts, so much the more effectually will their mission be frustrated. They become traitors who destroy their own cause by opening the gates of the citadel to the foe. Sin indulged by the servant of Christ is treason. This is a certain and fearful hindrance to success. But the Christian laborer may be faithful and may stilt be hindered by Satan. In the old tradition Satan dared to oppose the archangel Michael Shall we be surprised that he opposes a man? Satan resisted and tempted Christ. He hindered St. Paul. Therefore do not let us think that all difficulties will vanish if only we are true and faithful. Satan may hinder us, though we are innocent, through the wickedness of other men.

III. SATAN 'S HINDRANCE IS OVERRULED BY GOD 'S PROVIDENCE . Here St. Paul writes of Satan hindering him. In the Acts St. Luke tells us how, when the apostle and his friends " assayed to go into Bithynia... the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not" ( Acts 16:7 ). Is it not possible that sometimes the two influences may have concurred in effecting the same results though originating in the very opposite sources and prompted by contradictory motives? Thus the messenger of Satan that was sent to buffet St. Paul was the means of applying a wholesome discipline and of saving him from undue self-exaltation. Thus, too, though Satan troubled Job, with the object of showing him to be a hypocrite; the great trial proved to be for the glory of God as well as for the honor of his servant. Satan tempted Christ, and so made him the better High Priest for us. Satan compassed the death of Christ, and thereby led to the redemption of the world. Satan's hindrance to our work may be overruled for its more full accomplishment in the end, just as the east winds of early spring help to secure a good fruit harvest by checking the too-early development of bud and blossom. Moreover, all this hindrance is but temporary. Satan's reign is for a season only. And when the hindrance is removed the final result will not have suffered for the delay. Perhaps it will even come the quicker for the temporary hindrance, as, when once it bursts its bounds, the stream rushes out with the more vehemence for having been dammed up. Let us not be impatient. Remember that God has all eternity to work with.—W.F.A.