1 Thessalonians 5
DOYLYVer. 1.—of the times and the seasons.] The time of the duration of the world, and the particular season at which Christ will come to judgment. Dr. Macknight.
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4.—that day should overtake you as a thief.] As coming upon you unexpected, or when you are unprepared for it. Dr. Whitby. The Apostle means, that although the coming of Christ will be unexpected to the righteous as well as to the wicked, because unforeseen by both, yet it will not overwhelm the righteous with terror, nor bring destruction on them as it will on the wicked. Dr. Macknight.
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- Ye are all the children of light, &c.] Your profession engages you to such practices, wherein if you live constant, none of these evils can befall you. Dr. Hammond.
—we are not of the night, &c.] These are characters of the heathens, importing that they were living in ignorance of spiritual things. Dr. Macknight.
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- For they that sleep &c.] As if he had said, As night is the season wherein drunkards usually exercise their deboucheries, and sleep and inactivity possess us all; so a loose and unthoughtful life is the best that can be expected in a state of ignorance, blindness, and prejudice; but in a better and more enlightened condition, we are under an obligation of observing better and wiser courses. Pyle. Drunkenness in the day time was reckoned highly indecent and scandalous even by the heathens themselves. Burkitt, Dr. Macknight.
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8.—the breastplate—an helmet.] See the notes on Eph. vi. 14, 17. These were the two principal parts of the ancient armour, as guarding the head and heart,
the two chief fountains of life and sensation. Burkitt, Dr. Whitby.
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- For God hath not appointed us to wrath.] Namely, us believers, as He hath unbelievers. Dr. Wells. The design of God in sending His Son was not to condemn, but to save the world: they therefore, who are “appointed to wrath,” are such only who wilfully and obstinately refuse to believe and obey the Gospel. Dr. Macknight.
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10.—whether we wake or sleep.] That is, whether we be alive or dead at Christ’s coming. Dr. Wells. To “wake” in this place signifies, to ‘be alive,’ as opposed to the sleep of our bodies in death. Compare chap. iv. 15; Rom. xiv. 8, 9. Parkhurst.
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12.—to know them which labour among you, &c.] That you take special notice of, and give due regard to, those your spiritual overseers, who labour amongst you in word and doctrine, and have the charge of your souls committed unto them by the Lord, and do admonish you. Bp. Hall. See the notes on Heb. xiii. 17.
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14.—warn them that are unruly.] Disorderly, irregular, violating the order prescribed by God. Compare 2 Thess. iii. 6, &c. Parkhurst, Schleusner. The original is a military term, and signifies those who break their ranks, or desert their post, so that they cannot perform their duty as soldiers, especially in battle. It is fitly used to devote those, who neglect the proper duty of their office or station. Dr. Macknight.
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- Rejoice evermore.] Rejoice in the Lord always; and let none of the outward crosses of this life rob you of your joy in the Holy Ghost. Bp. Hall. See the note on Phil. iv. 4.
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- Pray without ceasing.] Pray upon all occasions, and at all inept opportunities; and be evermore lifting up your hearts in heavenly ejaculations to God. Bp. Hall.
We are here commanded to “pray without ceasing:” but if any one should adhere to the precept so strictly,
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- In every thing give thanks.] Wheresoever our gratitude for God’s infinite wisdom, power, goodness, and mercy, is sincere and true, it always manifests itself in our words and actions. In our words, by praising and magnifying those Divine perfections, which we acknowledge in all God’s dispensations towards us: and in our actions, for we must do it, ’not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to His service, and walking in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.’ This is giving thanks for every thing indeed, when we serve and glorify God in every thing we do; for this is an open and actual acknowledgment that we have nothing but what we receive from His goodness and mercy, by employing everything we have to His honour and glory. By this means, as every thing that God doth will afford matter of praise and thankfulness to us, so every thing that we do will be an expression of it to Him: and so we shall fully and effectually perform the great and heavenly duty here enjoined by the Apostle, saying, “In every thing give thanks.” Bp. Beveridge.
— for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.] It is “God’s will,” and therefore it is our duty: it is “God’s will in Christ Jesus concerning us,” and therefore it must needs be our interest too. Bp. Beveridge.
The three general rules, here given for all Christians to observe, are necessarily connected together. As we are to “rejoice in the Lord alway,” so in order thereto we must “pray” unto Him “without ceasing,” that being the means whereby to keep our minds always fixed upon Him, and so in a right frame and disposition to rejoice always in Him: but for that purpose, as we pray unto Him for what we want, we must likewise give Him thanks for what we have: and therefore he adds, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” All these
duties have one and the same object, though not expressed, yet supposed as certainly known to all Christians, even the most High God. It is in Him we must “rejoice evermore.” It is to Him we must “pray without ceasing.” It is to Him we must “give thanks for every thing.” Bp. Beveridge.
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- Quench not the Spirit.] By resisting His ordinary motions of grace, or by slighting and abusing His extraordinary gifts. Dr. Wells: Do not cool and discourage, and, as much as in you heth, quench and put out the good graces of God’s Spirit, either in yourselves or in others; but cherish and foster them. Bp. Hall.
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- Despise not prophesying.] Despise not the preaching of the Gospel, upon any pretence soever, whether of the meanness of gifts, or of prejudice against the teachers; but reverence and honour it. Bp. Hall.
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- Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.] By the extensive word “all,” the Apostle in this place evidently means no more, than “all things” which may be right or wrong in point of conscience. And by “proving” them he means, not that we should try them both by experience, which would be an absurd and pernicious direction; but that we should examine them by our faculty of judgment, which is a wise and useful exhortation. Accordingly Christianity recommends itself to us at first sight, by this peculiar presumption of its being the true religion, that it makes application to men as reasonable creatures, and claims our assent on account of the proofs which it offers. By these alone it prevailed originally: on these it still relies; and requires faith for the principle of our obedience, only because it produces evidence for the ground of our faith. Such an institution surely is entitled to receive the fair treatment which it gives, when it asks of mankind no more than this; that they should first consider well the several obligations they are under; then adhere to whatever they find to be enjoined them; and lastly, avoid whatever they conceive to be forbidden. Abp. Sicker.
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- — your whole spirit and soul and body] All your inward faculties of understanding, will, affections, and all outward members of your bodies. Bp. Hall.
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- — who also will do it.] That is, who, inasmuch as He is faithful, will not be wanting in what is requisite on His part. The promise of God always supposes, as indeed it exacts of us, the exercise of our endeavours. Dr. Whitby, Burkitt.
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- I charge you by the Lord] In the margin, “I adjure you by the Lord.” It has been sometimes supposed, that oaths are forbidden by the Christian religion. But besides other reasons to the contrary, it may be here observed, that one of the most eminent of our Saviour’s disciples, St. Paul, hath in several of his Epistles made use of one form or another of swearing, on occasions, which he saw were proper: “God is my witness,” Rom. i. 9; “I call God for a record upon my soul,” 2 Cor. i. 23; “The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I be not,” Gal. i. 20; and which is yet more, he
The conclusion of the epistle. Anno DOMINI 54.