IT is sad and humbling to think how quickly the first freshness of the work of God in the soul may pass away. There is no failure in God, but man is full of shortcoming, and invariably fails in maintaining the testimony that may have been committed to his keeping. This principle runs through the whole of Scripture from the garden of Eden right on to the millennium.
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians the apostle had spoken of their “work of faith,” their “labor of love,” and their “patience of hope.” In the Second, while he thanks God for their growing “faith,” and their abounding “love,” he remains silent as to their “hope” (ch. 1:3). The fact was, that the heavenly side of the hope had become dimmed, and error had been allowed to come in with reference thereto.
Ignorance of the truth is one thing, but error concerning the truth is quite another, and a far more serious matter.
The First Epistle, especially in its fourth chapter, was written to reveal an aspect of the truth of the Lord’s coming as to which till then they were in ignorance. They knew that Christ was coming, but they seem to have been more occupied with the earthly manifestation of His kingdom, than with the heavenly hope characteristic of Christianity.
But in the Second Epistle error had crept in through false teaching, and this the Spirit of God had to correct. Some, from not sufficiently weighing the Scripture, have imagined that the apostle in his Second Epistle was endeavoring to correct a wrong interpretation of the first. But this is not so. The error that had come in amongst them was the supposing that the day of the Lord had actually come, for this is how the verse really reads, “That ye be not soon shaken in mind... as that the day of the Lord is present” (ch. 2:2).
The day of the Lord, they well knew, was a day of judgment, earthly judgment. The reader can satisfy himself on this point by referring to all the passages where that day is mentioned in the Old Testament (see, e.g., Isaiah 13, Joel 2, Zech. 14., &c.). There was no ignorance on their part with reference to the character of that day (see 1 Thess. 5:1, 21But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1‑2)). They had been ignorant as to the heavenly hope of the Church until this had been made clear to them by the apostle (see 1 Thess. 4:13-1813But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18)), but as to the Day of the Lord, with all its attendant judgments and terrors, they had full knowledge.
It is of all importance that we, too, in our time should clearly apprehend the difference. That Christ will come to execute judgment every Christian believes, but that He will come to remove His own from the earth before the judgments fall, is not as clearly seen; though, thank God! the truth is now making its way amongst Christians far and near.
But errors abound to-day no less than in the early days of the Church’s history; how important, therefore, to be well grounded in the plain teaching of the Word of God. This will deliver souls from the multiplicity of false views with reference to “the blessed hope.”
Though these dear young converts were seriously troubled in mind by unprincipled men who had crept in amongst them, yet their walk was good, and for this the apostle thanks God (vs. 3). Their faith was growing, and this was not mere head knowledge, for their love was in active exercise one toward another. There is no greater lack in the present day than this “brotherly love.”
The apostle not only thanked God on their behalf, but he gloried in them amongst the assemblies of God, rejoicing in their patience and faith amidst violent persecutions.
The enemy tried to use these tribulations and persecutions to turn them aside from the truth, but before the apostle deals with the erroneous teaching, he builds them up in truth they already possessed. He cheers their drooping spirits by the thought that their very sufferings were God’s public seal that they were worthy of His coming kingdom. Who so worthy to reign with Christ when He reigns, as those who suffer for Him before He reigns? (vs. 5).
Furthermore, it will not only be a righteous thing for God to recompense His persecuted people by-and-by, He will also requite the persecutors (vs. 6).
During the absence of Christ the saints are troubled by the world. The nearer they are to Him, the closer they walk with Him; and the more faithful they are, the more will they suffer at the hands of the world. But when the Lord returns to reign in power and majesty, the troublers will themselves be troubled, and the troubled saints will share the well-earned rest of all that blessed army of prophets and apostles who had been persecuted and martyred before them.
The Lord Jesus will then be revealed from heaven with “the angels of his power,” and with “flames of fire.” How different is this from the comforting hope of the First Epistle! There He comes into the air to remove His loved ones from the earth where they had suffered; here He comes to the earth to execute judgment, and this will be His day, “the day of the Lord.” The persecutions of an ungodly world will then be impossible, and when He comes to take vengeance it will not be upon His own, but upon those who, in spite of the testimony that God had given of Himself, had persisted in their ignorance of Him.
“Them that know not God” is an expression which, in a general sense, stands for all in every age who have refused the testimony that God has given of Himself, for He has never left Himself without witness. But here, no doubt, it specially refers to the Gentiles, who will be found alive when Christ is revealed from heaven Thess. 4:5; compare also Psalms 79:66Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. (Psalm 79:6), Jeremiah 10:2525Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate. (Jeremiah 10:25)).
But God has in these last days given a special testimony in the gospel of His grace, and to this all who hear it are called to bow in the obedience of faith. Man will not, it humbles his pride, he does not like to own himself lost, he loves sin, hates God, and despises Christ. The time is coming when all this will be changed, and the opposers and rejecters of the gospel testimony, whether Jewish or professedly Christian, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.
In this passage we have to do with the judgment of the living, and not the dead. Those who have died in their unbelief and sin will be judged at the great white throne, when the reign of Christ shall end; these will be banished from His glorious presence, when with all His saints He will come to set up His kingdom.
On “that day” His despised and persecuted saints will be seen shining in His likeness and resplendent with His glory. Each one will fill his appointed place in the kingdom. Christ will come “to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”
The apostle prayed that God would still count them worthy of this calling (compare verse 5, 11), and carry on with power the work of faith in their souls, so that the name of the Lord Jesus might be glorified in them. Nevertheless “the blessed hope” had begun to wane and was in danger, through false teaching, of losing its power amongst them, and to the correction of this he now directs himself. A. H. B.