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Deep teaching on the books that bring us the coming of the Lord.
Introduction- The coming of the Lord characterizes both these Epistles, which are the capital seat of that great truth. Of early date in the writings of the apostle, they bespeak simplicity, freshness and vigor in the saints addressed. They warmly, overflowingly, answer to their hearts in kindred tones, but so as to lead on and deepen them. Hence the informal manner, not didactic but practically interweaving that blessed hope with every topic, with every duty, with all sources or motives of joy and sorrow so as to imbue the inner man and outer ways of all the saints day by day.
Those of Thessalonica, it appears from Acts 17:6, 7, had from the first received strong impressions of the kingdom. But they needed instruction on that large and fruitful theme, which, like every other revealed truth, affords ample room not only for unintelligent mistake but also for baneful error. Both in time wrought among these saints; and as the first epistle supplied that which sprang from mere ignorance, the latter corrected what was unequivocally false and mischievous. In the two epistles the presence or coming of the Lord is carefully distinguished from the day of the Lord, their true characters set out distinctly, and their due relation to one another explained. The need for this is as urgent now as then; for though the error was then both recent and active, it is shown to be grounded in a certain preparedness of the heart for it, inasmuch as to this day there is the same propensity to stray similarly, and the same difficulty in appropriating the revelation of God. The commentators ancient and modern are dull in seizing the different sides of the truth as the Spirit has given them; and though it is only in our own day that the chief mistranslation (2 Thess. 2:2) has been set right, on all sides the truth which should have been cleared by the correction seems as little understood as ever. The course of things in Christendom, as in the old world before it assumed that new shape, indisposes the minds of those bound up with its interests to receive what is here taught. The coming of the Lord as a living and constant hope detaches the heart from everything as an object on earth: for He is coming, we know not how soon, but we do know, to receive us to Himself on high. As is the Heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly, and as this is the character in which Christ and the Christian stand correlatively, the hope exactly corresponds. It is independent of earthly events and is not a question of times or seasons. At a moment purposely unrevealed, that those who are His own might be truly and intelligently and always looking for Him, He will come for them that they may be with Him in His Father's house.
The day of the Lord, on the other hand, connects itself with earthly associations of a solemn kind, of which prophecy in the Old and the New Testaments alike speak; and this also has its Baited place in these epistles. It is indeed eminently adapted, as it is meant, to deal with the conscience; for that day will deal with the pride of man and the power of the world, with earthly religion and with lawlessness in every form. Further, it is a test in one sense for the affections, whether we do really love His appearing who will put down evil and establish all in order according to God.
Table of Contents
1. 1 Thessalonians 1, On
2. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, On
3. 1 Thessalonians 2:13-20, On
4. 1 Thessalonians 3, On
5. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, On
6. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, On
7. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, On
8. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, On
9. 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, On
10. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8, On
11. 2 Thessalonians 1:9-12, On
12. 2 Thessalonians 2:1, On
13. 2 Thessalonians 2:2, On
14. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, On
15. 2 Thessalonians 2:4, On
16. 2 Thessalonians 2:5-7, On
17. 2 Thessalonians 2:8, On
18. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, On
19. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, On
20. 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17, On
21. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, On
22. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-9, On
23. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-15, On
24. 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18, On