1 Thessalonians 1

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Division 1. (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10.)The Word in power introducing to the true and living God, the Father, and putting under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. As this epistle is the first of those written by the apostle, at least of those in the wisdom of God come down to us, so it is in regard to doctrine the simplest. There is, in fact, little formal statement of doctrine at all. Though these underlie the whole, there is no mention of eternal life, of new birth, nor even of relationship of children to the Father. There is no difficulty in finding all this in it, but it must be by the aid of other scriptures.

1. Paul joins with himself, after his manner, those who had labored with him in the work among those he is addressing. He addresses the Thessalonians, as has been before remarked, in a different way from any other assembly. He does not speak of them as the assembly of God in Thessalonica, but as the assembly of Thessalonians, rather a company, one may say, than a body; and “in God the Father,” a company of children who have received life from Him. Thus to the Athenians the apostle had declared that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being;” and adds in quotation from one of their own poets, “For we are also His offspring.” There is certainly a great difference between what the apostle states as true of all men, and what he here clearly ascribes to a Christian assembly as such. For however Paul might make use of man’s place in creation to rebuke the folly and degradation of idolatry, he certainly would be one of the last to forget or ignore the fact that sin had come in and caused him to forfeit his natural right to claim this place so that when the Jews would have done so with the Lord, He answered, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me.” But these very words show that for the Thessalonians this original right had been recovered. Yet we must make no mistake. The original place is but the feeble image of what is now the Christian’s. The salvation of God has not simply set us back where we were before. Had it been our own work, that might indeed have been all that could be thought of; but it is the work of Christ, with all the value of His Person, His sufferings and death attaching to it. As the fruit of this, a new creation starts into being, and Christ as the last Adam has all things put into His hands, to renew after another and more glorious fashion all the promise of the first Paradise in the “paradise of God.” Thus appended to “in God the Father” we have here “in the Lord Jesus Christ;” for this is how a way into the family of God has been regained for us, -we are “alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” As we were in Adam by virtue of the life received from him, so are we in the new Adam by a life we have received; only a life so much higher, as Christ is higher than our first father, and we are born of the Spirit, so as to be partakers of the divine nature, Christ becoming the “First-born among many brethren.” This prepares the way for what the apostle goes on with satisfaction of heart to dwell upon, the result in these Thessalonians of the new life they have received. The faith and love and hope manifested in them were its evidence; for which he continually thanked God. These things were not merely a profession, but living realities. Their work was a work of faith: its motives were in the unseen, in heaven where God dwelt, not unknown, but known in Christ, all being in the light of that light. Nor was it a cold illumination: love found here its objects, and made this work an energetic “labor.” Hope yet was needed; for love itself would cease to labor, if once it were clear that there could be no result; and with the Thessalonians hope gave persistence to their labor of love. All was recognized and accepted with that Divine Father, before whom they acted (Matthew 6:1; Matthew 6:6; Matthew 6:18); and the apostle realized in it their election in the love of Him who is love.

Their life thus bore witness for them, but of a grace through which they had received life. All was of God, who of His own good pleasure had begotten them to Himself. 2. The apostle recalls to their minds bow these things had been wrought in them. It was the gospel which had been the fruitful seed of this bountiful harvest, -a seed having life in it: a gospel, or “good news,” the testimony to His love from whom it came, winning the heart that believed the message; for “we love Him who first loved us,” says the apostle (1 John 4:19). Man has turned his back on God, having lent his ear to the devil; and the voice of recall must be a gospel that shall undo the work of Satan, while at the same time it reveals man to himself, and so humbles him in repentance before God. The Cross does both things. If it was the Son of God who hung there, for what did He hang? Was there no need for it? Nay, “the Son of man must be lifted up.” This is at once the remedy provided for man, and his conviction as one needing such a remedy. And who, one might ask, can resist the tender appeal of such an argument? If the Son of God is to endure the penalty, can it be more than absolute righteousness requires? Can it be a harsh estimate on the part of Him who gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Thus expiation and reconciliation are found together in the Cross: God is not against, but for us, in an infinite love, the only measure of which is an infinite sacrifice. Shall we not henceforth listen believingly, obediently, to Him whose whole heart has been told out in a way no human heart could have conceived, and which now surpasses human power to comprehend it as it is? Yet even the gospel cannot work its way with man by all its competence to meet his spiritual need, nor by its display of divine goodness: “Our gospel,” says the apostle, “came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.” Power there is not to change men’s hearts apart from the work of the Spirit of God; but thus also is the divine work, spite of the inherent weakness of him who might be the subject of it, stable through all trial, and above all adverse influences. Father, Son, and Spirit are all, indeed, thus united to effect the salvation of the poor and sinful sons of men, though only faith may be able to realize, under the veil of the natural, the Presence of Him to whom all nature is obedient. In making known His gospel God is pleased to use, not the tongues of angels, but those of men, recipients themselves of the same grace; who can give testimony with their lives as with their lips. Upon this the apostle lays great emphasis: “even as ye know what sort of persons we were among you for your sakes.” This had had its part in making the Thessalonians what they were: “and ye became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.” Thus the work makes known the workman; while it is just as true that the more the workman is with God, the less of himself there will be in it. “Ye are our epistle,” says the apostle to the Corinthians, “forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us; written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). And this is what makes the “imitation” of such workmen to be safe and right; for there is this qualification always in it, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ;” as here -“imitators of us and of the Lord.” How good to be able to have a well-grounded confidence that these two things are one! The effect is manifest: “read and known of all men,” is said of the Corinthians; and here the report went all abroad of these who had turned to God from idols, -to serve the living and true God. But beyond this, such was the freshness among these Thessalonians that they “became patterns to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.” 3. Thus the word of the Lord is published all around; the new life emphasizes the new doctrine from which it proceeded. “Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,” they shone as “lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.” The life and the word of life give fittingly their evidence together, and not otherwise; though Christ is the “Faithful Witness” when His people fail. The Thessalonians did not fail, but spoke out in such a way that those who had labored among them had no need to say anything with regard to their work. That which they were saying was sufficiently surprising: not only that there was one living and true God, in contrast with the idol-nothings of heathenism, and true service loyally given to Him, but that also the Son of God was coming in the clouds of heaven to inflict judgment for the sins of men. For Him they waited, but not in fear, though they themselves were sinners. On the contrary, they looked for Him with joy and thankfulness, as One who had come on earth to deliver them from the wrath to come, which all must meet who have not taken refuge in Him. Redemption, salvation became in this way the key-words of a new song, which those who knew it could sing in the midst of whatever difficulties, and in the face of whatever enemies.