1 Thessalonians 4:1 - Homilies By W.f. Adeney

This verse introduces a series of practical exhortations by an urgent entreaty to general Christian progress. The details of conduct must be considered. But the spirit and character of the whole life are of primary importance. First see to the health of the whole tree; then prune and train the several branches.

I. THE GREAT OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS .

1. It requires a full, round development of spiritual graces. It is not satisfied with a shrunken, shriveled life of the soul. The meager Christianity of those who are only concerned with the minimum requirements of religion is foreign to the very nature of a true spiritual life. This should abound; it should overflow; it should be developed in all directions. A one-sided life is maimed and marred, however advanced it may be in a particular direction. We should aim at completing the circle of graces. This is what is meant by being "perfect."

2. It proceeds by gradual growth. We are to abound "more and more." The, attainment which is respectable today will become despicable if it is not exceeded to-morrow. The growth is double—a greater achievement according to our present capacities and an enlargement of those capacities. The precious wine rises higher in the vessel; and the vessel itself expands.

II. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS .

1. It consists in conduct. We are required to grow in knowledge. But this is not the most important form of spiritual progress. It has come about, unfortunately, that the phrase "advanced Christianity" stands for a certain doctrinal movement. It should be chiefly used for moral and spiritual progress. The great advance is to be in the walk and conversation of life—the daily, normal conduct.

2. It is guided by knowledge. St. Paul exhorts his readers to abound more and more in the conduct which follows his directions, "As ye have received of us." This progress is not to be according to our own fancied ideal of perfection. It is in pursuit of clear duty, and that duty is declared in Christian teaching.

3. It is grounded on previous experience. In the Revised Version we read the addition, "even as ye do walk." Future progress depends on our present position. We must not be always laying a new foundation. The Christian life is not a series of revolutions. Because more is required of the Christian, the good already attained is not ignored.

4. It aims at pleasing God. Thus it is characterized by a regard for the will of God. It is not satisfied with reaching any human standard. It is required to be pure, true, and spiritual.

III. THE STRONG INDUCEMENTS TOWARDS CHRISTIAN PROGRESS .

1. They are urged with personal appeals. St. Paul beseeches and exhorts. He appeals to the brotherhood of Christians and its tie of mutual affection between himself and his readers.

2. They are centered in regard for Christ. "By the Lord Jesus Christ." This is a sort of adjuration. The close relation of the Christian to Christ is his grand motive for striving after true progress. The grace of Christ supplies the power; the love of Christ brings the obligation. By all that he is to us we are urged to be worthy of him in an even richer and fuller Christian life.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 4:9 - Love of the brethren.

Christianity introduced a new word into the speech of mankind— " philadelphia, " "love of the brethren." This word distinguishes a remarkable characteristic of the early Church. It describes how the first Christians regarded themselves as the members of one family. It was no visionary socialism, no communistic scheme, that led them to have all things common. They felt like the members of one household, like the nearest kindred in one home, and in the spirit of home life they shared their possessions. This was only possible so long as the family spirit pervaded the Church. Circumstances altered the habits of the Church as it grew in numbers and spread over a wider area. But all through the Epistles of St. Paul the same family affection of Christians is apparent. Love of the brethren is a leading feature of Christianity.

I. ITS SCOPE AND AREA .

1. It is specially confined to fellow-Christians. It is to be distinguished from philanthropy. We should love all men. Our neighbor, be he of the house of Israel, a Samaritan or a heathen, has claims upon us. But love of the brethren is to be distinguished from this general love of one's kind. It is the Christian's love of the Christian.

2. It is due to all Christians. It should not be given to a particular chosen circle of intimates only, nor simply to the members of one sect, nor to those only who excite our admiration. All Christians, of all ranks and orders, rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, saintly and imperfect, orthodox and heterodox, in every branch of the Catholic Church of Christ, have claims upon our love.

II. ITS ORIGIN .

1. A common fatherhood. We all have the same Father in heaven. In proportion as we realize the broad fatherhood of God shall we enter into the brotherly love of his family. He is the Father of whom "every family in earth and heaven is named."

2. A common brotherly relation to Christ. Every Christian can claim Christ as his Brother. The great elder Brother binds all the members of the family together by attracting them all to himself. We learn to love our fellow-Christian by seeing the Christ in him.

3. Common interests. We share the same blessings, enjoy the same redemption, walk in the same pilgrimage, and are traveling towards the same home.

III. ITS INFLUENCE . True love of the brethren cannot be without effect. Only the lack of it could have permitted the fearful quarrels and enmities that have divided Christendom. Regard a man as your brother, and you will be loath to hound him to death. Were this love stronger many blessings would result.

1. Mutual forbearance. We permit our brother to hold his own opinion and follow his own conscience.

2. Mutual helpfulness. Selfish Christianity is a contradiction in terms. To bear one another's burdens is just to fulfill the law of Christ.

3. Power to influence the world. Civil war in the Church means paralysis of the army that should conquer the world for Christ. When Christians again learn the almost lost art of loving one another, they will attract converts from the world outside by better means than reasoning and preaching.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 - The industrial life.

Christianity has something to say on the industrial life. It has been charged with discrediting industry. No calumny could be more false. It certainly discourages engrossing worldly cares, and bids men remember their heavenly citizenship. But it only inculcates a more faithful discharge of earthly duty by insisting on lofty views of life and the pure principles which should inspire it. Three duties in regard to the industrial life are here urged by St. Paul.

I. AN AMBITION TO BE QUIET . The word " study " means literally, "be ambitious." This is a remarkable collocation of ideas—ambition and quiet. It is as though the apostle said, "You have been ambitious to make a noise in the world; reverse your aim: be ambitious of quiet." This striking piece of advice is urged in close connection with directions regarding the industrial life. Probably the Church at Thessalonica was largely composed of working-men. There was a danger lest the new privileges of Christianity should make some of these men foolishly anxious to make themselves conspicuous.

1. We should aim at doing much good without attracting attention to ourselves. The Christian should not clamor for recognition. He should be content that his work prospers, though he remains obscure.

2. We should be too busy with work to have much time for talk. Busybodies are generally drones. How silent is the work of God in nature! Silently the forest grows. So let our work be done.

3. We should work peaceably. The noisy man is too often the quarrelsome man. In the ambition to sound a name abroad, bitter envy and jealousy are excited.

4. Ignorant people should not suppose that the privileges of Christian brotherhood qualify them to teach others. "Be not many teachers" ( James 3:1 ).

II. A DOING ONE 'S OWN BUSINESS .

1. The claims of the Church are no excuse for the neglect of a man ' s secular business. It is wrong to become so much the slave of business as to have no time or energy for mission work, Sunday school teaching, etc. But it is also most certainly wrong to fail in our duty in the secular sphere. The Christian should be the most punctual, prompt, and energetic man of business. He should serve Christ in it. If he is responsible to others, his religion should strengthen his fidelity not to give eye-service as a man-pleaser.

2. Religion does not remove a man from the station in which he is placed by Providence. It may so improve his habits of work and may bring such blessings upon him as may enable him gradually to rise in the social scale. But it may permit no such external change; it should not be expected to do so in every case. And however that may be, religion can make no sudden change in a man's circumstances. The Christian slave was in outward circumstances a slave still. The artisan remained an artisan.

3. Christianity forbids us to be envious of the more prosperous condition of other people. It is not for us to snatch at their privileges to the neglect of our own duty. Every man has his Divine vocation It is the Christian's duty to find his special vocation and to follow it, whether it lead him up the Beulah heights or down through the valley of humiliation. In the Church let each man find his own place and do his own work. There is a diversity of gifts. One has a gift of speech, another a gift of deft handiwork. Let neither be ambitious to usurp the place of the other.

4. Christians should be too busy with their own work to have time to judge their neighbors. We are workmen, not judges. To his own Master each man stands or falls.

III. AN HONEST DILIGENCE IN MANUAL LABOR . This duty is clearly brought out in the Revised Version, which omits the word "own" before "hands," so that we read the clause, "Work with your hands." Thus we have a direct recommendation of manual labor.

1. Manual labor is necessary. There is hard, rough work of this kind that must be done. It is cowardly to shirk it. Cultivated people do not object to hard work for amusement, e.g. rowing, Alpine climbing. Why should it be shunned when it is useful?

2. Manual labor is honorable. Any work done with a good purpose is honorable. The work of the carpenter is often more honorable than that of the financier. The dirtiest work is not always done by the roughest hands. The crowding of the sons of working men into the ranks of clerks is not a healthy sign if it betokens a shame of honest toil.

3. Manual labor is wholesome. The punishment of Adam is no curse. It is a blessing that man has to "eat his bread in the sweat of his face." While the early monks were busy, building, digging, weaving, monasticism presented a picture of pure Christian living. Riches brought superiority to physical industry, and corruption speedily followed. The best of Christ's apostles were working men.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 4:12 - Christians before the world.

In the previous verse St. Paul has been urging upon his readers the duty of quiet industry. He now gives two reasons for this advice—first, that they may walk honestly before the world; and secondly, that they may have need of nothing. The apostle turns to the same subject in his Second Epistle. "If any man will not work, neither let him eat," he says ( 2 Thessalonians 3:10 ). God only provides for us when we cannot provide for ourselves; or, rather, he provides for us by helping us to provide for ourselves. He feeds the ravens by giving them strong wings and claws and beaks, and by. providing them prey. But the birds must catch their quarry. We need not be anxious about the morrow if we are diligent in doing our own business. So much for the second reason for diligence. The first demands more extended inquiry, and may be taken by itself as a fertile subject for meditation. We are to be diligent in our secular business in order that we may "walk honestly towards them that are without."

I. CHRISTIANS OWE DUTIES TO THE WORLD , Christians have no right to treat "them that are without" as outlaws. If we should pray for those who despitefully use us, much more should we treat them honestly. And if we are to be kind to our enemies, certainly we are required to be just to those who are not inimical to us. The Christian must pay his debts to an infidel. The temperate man must fulfill his obligations to the drunkard. The spiritually minded man must be just to the worldly minded man. Christians should respect the rights of the heathen in foreign countries.

II. THE WORLD JUDGES CHRISTIANS ACCORDING TO THEIR DISCHARGE OF THESE DUTIES . These it can appreciate. It knows nothing of the behavior of Christians in the Church. It cares nothing for orthodox creeds or devout psalm-singing. But it can estimate the value of a thorough piece of work, and it can see the merit of a prompt payment. If we are wanting in these things, the world will only regard us as hypocrites when we make much of our religion in spiritual matters—and rightly, for if we arc not honest men we cannot be saints.

III. THE WORLD JUDGES OF CHRISTIANITY ACCORDING TO THE EXTERNAL CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS IN THIS RESPECT . Here is a graver consideration. The honor of Christ is concerned. The defaulting Christian gives a shock to Christian evidences. One glaring instance of misconduct in secular affairs does more to hinder the progress of true religion than volumes of sermons can do to advance it. Even the negligent and idle Christian brings discredit on his Master. The Christian artisan should be known from the secularist by the greater diligence and thoroughness of his work.

IV. CHRISTIANS HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT GOOD TREATMENT FROM THE WORLD UNLESS THEY BEHAVE HONESTLY TOWARDS IT . The Church at Thessalonica lived in constant danger of an assault from the hostile heathen population of the city. It was most desirable that no shadow of an excuse should be given for an attack. Idleness, noisy restlessness, interference with other people, would provoke opposition. Quiet industry was most safe. When a master found that the Christians were his best hands he would not be inclined to molest them. We shall best conciliate opponents and silence enmity and at last win respect by a quiet, unassuming, diligent discharge of our daily duty.—W.F.A.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 , 1 Thessalonians 4:14 - Sorrow for the dead transfigured by the resurrection of Christ.

In the neighborhood of Thessalonica—Salonica it is now called—there may be seen at the present day ancient tombs on which are to be read inscriptions expressing hopeless regret for the dead. The Church addressed by St. Paul was a little community which had learnt to enjoy a strange, new view of the state and prospects of the departed, planted in the midst of a great pagan populace that held the melancholy sentiments of these epitaphs. Contrasting the Christians with "the rest" of the people, the apostle reminds them that they should not give way to the despairing sorrow that was natural to men who had no hope.

I. OUTSIDE CHRISTIANITY SORROW FOR THE DEAD IS HOPELESS .

1. History and experience establish this fact. Pagan tombs everywhere express themselves with various degrees of despair, but never with cheerful hope. Nations like the Egyptians that had a firm faith in a future life can scarcely be said to have enjoyed any hopes respecting that life. A general dream of immortality pervades our race; but it is everywhere dim and cheerless. Many men at all times have broken away from it altogether, and have said with Catullus, "When once our brief day has set we must sleep one everlasting night."

2. Reasoning cannot conquer the common hopelessness of sorrow for the dead. The arguments outside Christianity may be divided into two classes:

(a) In the wisdom of God. Man's life being but imperfectly developed here, the Divine idea of humanity would be vain and futile without a larger world for realizing it.

(b) In the justice of God—the necessity of a future judgment.

(c) In the goodness of God. A father would not mock his child by creating him so that he has a great hunger for a future which is unattainable. Nevertheless even these arguments do not satisfy, for who can venture to speak with assurance of the high counsels of the Almighty? and, moreover, they presuppose a knowledge of the character of God which only Christianity clearly furnishes.

II. CHRISTIANITY DRAWS THE STING OF HOPELESSNESS FROM SORROW FOR THE DEAD .

1. It does not destroy that sorrow. To do so would be impossible. We must grieve at parting from those who are dear to us. Indeed it would be unhealthy for us entirely to conquer natural sorrow. We should have to conquer natural love first. A softening, subduing, purifying mission comes with this grief, and is one of the best means of helping us to receive Christian truth.

2. But Christianity removes the sting from this sorrow by depriving it of hopelessness. The hope which St. Paul refers to is plainly the hope of receiving back those who have been taken from us by death. They are gone, but not gone forever. Every weary year as it passes bring us nearer to the happy reunion. The words of St. Paul plainly show that he believed in the mutual recognition of friends in the future life.

III. THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST ARE THE SECRET OF THIS CHRISTIAN TRANSFIGURATION OF SORROW FOR THE DEAD .

1. The strongest argument to convince men generally of a future life is to be found in the resurrection of Christ taken in connection with his life and teaching. He spoke of judgment and of eternal life. He confirmed his words by rising from the dead. The confirmation is twofold.

2. For Christians the death and resurrection of Christ are grounds for enjoying the hope of a reunion of all the dead who die in the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:15 , 1 Thessalonians 4:16 - The order of the second advent.

The subjects here brought before us are entirely beyond the reach of speculation. We have no data whatever to go upon beyond the authoritative declarations of the Word of God. St. Paul himself was not prepared to reason about them. He could simply declare what was revealed to him. But this he did declare with marvelous, unhesitating positiveness. He prefaces his declaration by distinctly claiming the authority of inspiration for it. "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord." So remarkable a revelation as that of the following verses needed some such assurance of its origin to commend it to us. We must take it in the spirit in which it is written, or we must leave it alone. It is useless to begin rationalizing with it. It is foolish to attempt to go one step beyond what is written. A sermon on such subjects must be as purely expository of the words of Scripture as possible. We note here three events in time, and their external consequence. The order of these three events is what St. Paul is most immediately concerned with. The occasion of his writing on them appears to have been the trouble felt by his readers as to the condition of those Christians who died before the second advent of Christ which they were expecting shortly to happen. Would these departed brethren miss the joy of welcoming their glorified Savior? The order of events described by the apostle removes this difficulty.

I. THE FIRST EVENT IS THE ADVENT OF CHRIST .

1. He is to come in Person. He does not forget the world for which he died. He will return to his weary, waiting Church.

2. He is to come in glory. His first advent was humble and obscure. Few knew the Babe in the manger. Lowly and self-sacrificing was the whole life that followed. But every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The humble Jesus is to come again as the exalted Lord.

3. He is to come conspicuously. The shout, the full voice of an archangel, the blast of a trumpet—these awful sounds surely betoken no obscure mystical advent which can be questioned after it has occurred. When Christ comes a second time no one will say, "Is the Lord among us or no?" All will hear the great shout and the pealing angel-notes.

II. THE SECOND EVENT IS THE RETURN OF THE DEPARTED . Instead of missing the joy of that great advent, as their friends sadly feared, those Christians who had fallen asleep will be the first to share it. The trumpet will awake the dead before it arouses the living. There will be no advantage in being among the living at the time of the second coming of Christ. Some, even in our own day, have fondly hoped for some such privilege. But St. Paul distinctly tells us that the privilege is the other way. The departed will be the most privileged. This is fair; for if they have endured the pangs of death to reach Christ, it is right that they should see him first.

III. THE THIRD EVENT IS THE ASSOCIATION OF LIVING CHRISTIANS WITH THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST . They take the second place in honor, not having wrestled with death and conquered the dread foe, as their departed brethren have done. But they also join in the glad triumph of their Lord. Of the physical process described as being "caught up into the clouds" we know nothing, and therefore cannot tell how it will be realized till it is accomplished. The attempt to explain it has only made the subject ridiculous. But the two spiritual facts accompanying it are clear. A joyous meeting with Christ and the departed, and a change of state and sphere; the earthly life and its limitations giving place to the heavenly life and its more exalted powers.

IV. THE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCE IS THE PERMANENT DWELLING OF CHRISTIANS WITH CHRIST . The second advent here described is not a passing event which ends. It is not a mere visit of Christ. It is not like the first advent, which, after a few years, was followed by the death and, after his resurrection, the ascension of Christ. Christ will never leave his people again.

1. It secures joy. The joy of love is to be with those we love. The highest Christian happiness is to be "forever with the Lord." This is heaven.

2. It protects from trouble. God wipes away tears from all eyes. Associated with Christ for ever, his people can never weep again.

3. It guards from sin. Where the triumphant Christ always is, the defeated tempter can never come.

4. It accomplishes the reunion of friends. All being with Christ, all are also together. The home is perfected by the gathering of the blessed dead with the glorified living around the abiding Christ.—W.F.A.