1 Thessalonians Chapter 5.

1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 5.

5:1-11.  In view of the coming of the Lord,  imminent and unforeseen, let us watch and remain calm. 

5:1. "You have no need to have anything written to you." He has used a similar formula in 4:9.  It is then possible that in beginning a new subject, Paul answers a question raised by a letter from the Thessalonians.  Some desired to know the times or moment of the Day of the Lord.  They wished to be precise as to the moment that they may wait all their days.  The imminence of the event caused some disquietness or unrest among them.  Some may have become afraid.  They had no reason for the fear of the disaster Paul writes about in 5:4.

           

5:2.  With fidelity to the teaching of Christ himself (Mk.13:32; Acts 1:6), Paul declares that the Thessalonians  had enough knowledge, at any rate, all that was possible to know, His coming shall be sudden and totally unforeseen.  It is not possible to be precise as to the moment.

           

The Day of the Lord, or the Day of Christ (Phil.1:6,10; 2:16), was foreseen in the Old Testament.  The Day of Yahweh was announced by the prophets, the day when Yahweh shall judge His people and the nations, (Amos.5:18,20; Joel 2:1; 3:14; 4:14 (LXX).  For the apostle the Day of the Lord is before all of His Coming, of His Parousia (4:16; 3:13), of the manifestation of His glory; day of judgment, without doubt, but for believers a day of deliverance and salvation.

           

"Like a thief in the night."  The thief comes during the night when we cannot see at all, when all the world sleeps without nothing to make known his coming, and it is thus, wholly unexpected and unforeseen, that the Day of the Lord shall unexpectedly arrive.

           

5:3.  "When they say."  It is a question of the people of this world, the unbelievers, as the following indicates, "Peace and safety."  These words are the language of a false security, of which the generation of the deluge had given an example according to Jesus, (Matt.24:37).  It is when they think themselves, safe from every evil surprise, that sudden ruin comes upon them.

Destruction (olethros), occurs also in 2.Thess.1:9; 1.Cor.5:5; 1.Tim.6:9.  The term designates the disastrous effects of the coming of the Lord on those who shall not be ready and who, suddenly (subitement) find themselves judged by it.  The suddenness of the event is compared to the pangs (throes) which astonish the pregnant woman.  The imagery of birthpangs was current in the apocalyptic literature, and was applied to the tribulations that would commence the Messianic times. (Mk.13:8; Matt.24:8).  Such pangs evoke (call up, conjure) not only the suddeness of the ruin, but its inevitable character.

           

5:4.  The Day of the Lord is dreadful (terrible) among or to all for whom that it shall surprise.  But the Christians are not such.  "But you are not in darkness, brethren, for the day shall not surprise you as a thief."  The day will not find Christians unprepared, surprised, taken at a disadvantage.  It is interesting to compare the words in 1.Thess.5:3 and Luke 24:34-36.

            The darkness is a symbol of the condition or state of the people of this world who do not know God, neither His will, nor His salvation.  Paul plays on the double sense of the word `day', in saying, "for that day to surprise you like a thief."  It is a question certainly of the Day of the Lord (5:2), but, by opposition to the darkness, that day is also light, dazzling with the presence of God, unbearable to those who are in the darkness.

           

5:5.  "For you all are sons of light."  The word `all' is strongly accented by its position, aimed to reassure particularly the members of the community who feel the effects of the uneasiness at the idea of destiny or fate, which shall be theirs when the Lord shall come.  Paul may have had in mind the `fainthearted' referred to in 5:14.  All are `sons of the light', `and sons of the day'.  In its form, this expression is Semitic and ought (or would) express the greater unity of the believing community, the oneness, bond of unity, and the reality of that in which they participate, this bond and reality is the light and day.

The term `Day' joins light to oppose with it, of night and darkness, which defines the spiritual state of the men of this world.  The Christians have nothing in common with the night and darkness, they have broken with this state of ignorance of God, and the lack of conscience as to sin which was so characteristic of the unbelieving.   Christians have been taken up and raised - morally rescued - by the light and by the day which determines their behaviour.  The knowledge of the living and true God, a clear conscience of the imminence of the Day of the Lord, the object of their hope, has put them in a wholly different spiritual situation.  The apostle now invites the Thessalonians to draw the moral consequences for themselves.

           

5:6.  "So then, let us not sleep as others do."  The verb `katheudo', "to sleep" has here a metaphorical sense.  It defines the behaviour of "the others," that is, the unbelievers act in harmony with their spiritual state, of which the night is an image, "they sleep."  They are not aware of the imminence of the event that shall be their destiny.  They apply themselves to their works and their pleasure with complete unconcern and in a security quite illusory.  (Sleep is a striking image of such unconcern, careless and heedless of their peril, trusting in an illusory security).  The attitude of believers shall be quite different, they continue watchful.   They remain always fully aware, conscious of the imminence of the Coming of the Lord - in a state of alertness, living in a manner worthy of God, as His call, 2:12, - ready to receive Him who is coming.

           

"And be sober."  The verb `nepho', "be sober," like the other verbs in this passage, is used in a metaphorical sense: "remain cool, calm.  The exhortation explains itself easily.  It was not easy to live in expectation of the coming of the Lord without experiencing some fever, some exaltation, without risk of losing contact with the real, whether in words or in acts.  The exhortation of 4:11 would signify that in the bosom of the Thessalonian Church, there were some symptoms of the eschatological fever, of moral disorders that it provoked: the abandoning of work, the restlessness, the indiscreet zeal.  Perhaps "the idle," of 5:14 were representatives of this false state of spirit.  Paul seems to have regarded this exhortation, "to be sober," (vepho) as more necessary than the exhortation to "keep awake" (grerormen), because in the following verses he develops the need to be sober.

           

5:7.  Paul recalls a fact of which each shall fall into place: the night is the time of sleep (sommeil) and the time of drinking producing drunkenness, a double  image of their behaviour of those that the Day of the Lord shall consume in ruin.

           

5:8.  Quite otherwise shall be the behaviour of the believers, those who belong to the day and their character ought to be different, "they shall be sober," they shall keep cool, to be on their guard against excitement which might obscure their judgment (moral judgment), and they be swept away by unreasonable excitement.  And in spite of the imminence of the final day they can maintain (conserve) a same spirit and restful heart, because they are armed to face without fear.  They are to put on a breastplate that constitutes for them the faith and love, and they have for a helmet the hope of salvation.  Love and faith are inseparable, and together constitute a most vital piece of armour.  The apostle hitches the three terms of the Christian triad to the military image of Isaiah 59:7, but we must guard against pressing the imagery.

           

For the apostle, they are the distinctive dispositions of the Christian life that would enable them to maintain a sane calmness and serene face to the imminent coming of the Lord :  it is by faith of Jesus Christ that we have been justified and are confident that God is for us, Rom.8:31., the Christian lives a life that pleases God when he walks in love, Rom.13:8-10), and by faith he awaits the coming of the Lord and the completion of the salvation that he already knows by faith.  The Christian need not be agitated or disturbed since he knows that the Day of the Lord shall bring salvation and not ruin.

           

5:9.  It is in view of the Cross of Christ that Paul can assure that God has not destined believers to wrath that shall ruin the sinners surprised in their false security (5:3), but to acquire salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ in participating in His reign (4:17).  Christians are destined to acquire salvation.  Anterior to their faith, the love, the hope of Christians and the foundation, he has the sovereign decision of God concerning them and which has been accomplished in Jesus and His death for us.  By this redemptive death of which Paul shall explain the sense and efficacy in his later Epistles, God has accomplished His purpose in regard to believers.  The goal of this purpose is defined in terms that link up with the theme of the preceding passage - "in order that whether we awake or sleep, we might live with him (5:10).

           

The verbs `gregoreo' and `katheudo' are not used here in the literal sense of 5:7, nor in the metaphorical sense of 5:6, but in a new metaphorical sense: `gregoreo' - "to wake, to live. `Katheudo' - to be asleep, to be dead, i.e. - 4:13,  `koimaomai'.  By these two verbs, Paul designates the two conditions in which believers shall be found at the Coming of the Lord: some shall be alive and others dead.  But these two conditions or states are not of any importance, because the goal of the redemptive death of Christ is that His own, dead or living, by resurrection or by transformation, shall reach or attain together in the life with Him.

           

5:10.  `Zesomen'.  Some give this aorist subjunctive only a future sense, but others emphasize the true aorist subjunctive sense.  We have here a text of great interest, because with its reference to 4:15-17, it makes known the reason for which the delay of the parousia, if ardently awaited by the earthly church does not appear to have provoked a grave crisis in the hearts of Christians.  The moment of the parousia ceased to have decisive importance, as to the moment, where believers by the death and resurrection of Christ have the certitude, that of dead or surviving, they shall have part in the last event and shall then be always with the Lord.

           

5:11.  To draw the practical conclusion of his teaching Paul uses similar language to 4:18, "Encourage one another."  This leads one to think that in 5:1-10, he endeavours to appease an anxiety that was closely connected with that which he appeased in 4:13-18.  In the first passage it is a question of a sore anxiety experienced by the Thessalonians in regard to their deceased brothers, but in the second passage of an anxiety they experienced or that some among them experienced, for they faced the imminent coming of the Lord.  The anxiety of the two passages are not unrelated.

           

The apostle has added, "build yourselves up the one for the other."  The injunction, "build one another up," has its origin in the Old Testament concept of Israel as the house of God, and of the Christian Community as the Temple of God.  The Salvation of the individual is inseparable from that of the Community, and belongs to the total work of the Lord.  The exhortation to build one another up strongly expresses the responsibility of each believer towards his brother.  They were to build one another up in the truth expressed in 5:1-10.

           

5:12-22.  Final instructions. 

5:12.  `De' has here an adversative sense - `mais'.  This is contrary to Frame who holds `de' to be a simple particle of connecting or joining. Paul has shown that each brother should have a conscience towards his brethren, but it is also true that some in the Church are distinguished for their sense of responsibility, for love and desire to serve the Lord and show themselves more active.

           

Paul designates such in general terms `oi kipiontes en umin', "who labour among you." - Those who work in the community and for the community.  Paul characterises their activity by adding "and over you in the Lord and admonish you."  It is a question then of brothers who are soon distinguished from the others gifts, and their personal ascendency, by their devotedness, and who find themselves the head of the community, not through ambition, but in the Lord, in faith and obedience to the Lord of the Church, they serve Him on behalf of their brothers.

           

The tense of `proistamai' has been discussed.  Does it mean to exercise a concern or care, and applies to every kind of activity in favour of the community?  Frame sees it to be a question of the leaders who have a heart for the well-being of the community and charge themselves to minister its funds.  Hering does not think this view accords with the context.  It is preferable to take its sense as "to be in the headship or leadership of."  It is not to be understood of a precise function, but an activity freely assumed by someone in the Lord.  After the sudden departure of the missionaries, they have provided of their best in the progress of the community.  [A community must have a leader - even a basketball team.]

           

They have borne the anxiety for the conduct of their brethren - a care arising from love, - and warning them of the consequences of their faults, in their indicating the way to follow.  It is natural that they should meet resistance, and their warnings do not always please, and they had no official authority, so the apostle requests the Thessalonians to recognize and to consent to their activity among them, and accept their directions, counsels and admonitions.  But to obtain their recognition, the end of all opposition, the disappearance of all evil, he would their esteem may continue in the Church.

           

5:13.  Paul requests yet more, they were to have such leaders in great esteem through love on account of their work. (Not only esteem, but to love their leaders).  The apostle is fully conscious of both the necessity and value of the activity of the leaders of their community, and he wished that the Thessalonians also may be convinced of their value.  He demands then, that they have for those who are their head a greater esteem, an esteem agreeing not only with bad grace (surly, sullen), but with love.  From which it appears, that the Christian ministry under all its forms cannot exercise efficaciously except that it is accepted in good heart by all the members of the Church.  Their ministers are the object of their particular esteem on account of their work.  This work is that which has been described in verse 12, the consideration and the love of those who are their beneficiaries, and the mandate they have received, or that they would receive now from the apostle.

           

5:12-13.  Is an interesting document for the study of ministers in the Church of the apostolic age.  The case of the Church of the Thessalonians has special features, because Paul had been obliged to leave unexpectedly, without having taken any measure to assume or prepare for the future.  At the moment in which he wrote, after a long period of separation, there was not yet a regular ministry constituted.  The words, `eireneuete en eautois' -"to live in peace with one another."  The context suggests it is an exhortation to the brothers to live in peace with the leaders of the community.

           

A certain tension existed between a section of the Church, and those who had taken the leadership.  Both sides were in measure responsible for this tension.  So after having asked the brothers (12-13.a) to recognize the good work of those who had taken the lead in the assembly, and recommends that the leaders (v.15) exercise their ministry with tact; without discouragement or irritation by the resistances encountered.  It was natural that the apostle formulate this general exhortation - "live in peace with one another."

            5:14.  All were to have a pastoral care.  Not only were the brethren to have a regard for the leaders in the Christian life, but he adds, they must share in their pastoral care, or probably he is addressing the leaders especially in verse 15.  They must fulfil their task in spite of the opposition encountered.  This they can do more efficiently if the Church recognizes their mission, and if they know they fulfil the request of the apostle.  Warning the undisciplined. 

The sense of `ataktous' is controversial.  See Bauer, "that which is not in order," a disorderly, deranged, undisciplined order.  Some think Paul refers to the idle (4:1,) and which are strongly reproached (2.Thess.3:6).  According to others, it is a question of the undisciplined persons, which abandon work for a form of life restless and frivolous, that was a manifestation of pride of which they are the prey.

           

"Encourage the fainthearted," i.e. those who have little courage, whether in persecution or generally in the personal life, yet badly lacking assurance, - in spirit too quickly paralysed by fear, by scruples and doubts.

           

"Help the weak."  Support, maintain, sustain (soutenez).  It refers not to the feeble, physically or economically, but of those who are not capable of marching unaided, and always in need of help.  Left to themselves, they always fall again into sin.

            "Use patience towards all."  This exhortation is very general, because the members of the Church are not all found in the one or the other of the three categories mentioned, and yet, it is probable that the three categories of brethren might put constantly to proof :"the patience," of those who acknowledge a burden of heart.  Such may lack patience, and through inexperience act too quickly and arouse the resistance of others.

            5:15.  It is quite possible to take (with most exegetes) this verse as addressed to the entire church, responsible for the Christian behaviour of its members, but if the imperatives of verse 14 concern the leaders, it then should be the same for those of verse 15.  It is not sufficient that those holding responsibility use patience towards all.  It is necessary that they win a more great victory in response to the resistance, to the defiance, to the evil deeds proceeding from the opposition by love.  [Love overcomes evil with good.]  Paul it is true, has not said, "watch that none of you render evil for evil" - whether by discretion, or, for to maintain in the exhortation a more general term, which suits in an epistle to be read to all (v.27).  The next member of the sentence does not leave us in doubt, - "on the contrary, always pursue good to one another and to all."

           

The "good' here is visibly all that which is inspired by love, for it is love alone that demands that good be given for evil.  If the exhortation is valuable for all, the spiritual guides of the community are requested by it to always seek after these responses, the solutions, the steps, the actions inspired by love, whether in their relations among them, giving an example or in their relations with all those for whom they are responsible.

           

5:16-18.  These three verses comprise a whole or complete group, and it is an error to separate the three imperatives by the full-stops, as do Second Bible of Jerusalem, etc.  All three find their justification (gar - indeed), in the will of God in Christ Jesus (v.18.b).  This will has been revealed in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.  It is in the Redemptive Act that Paul discerned that this, God has desired and desires of believers.  Also this will is for them a demand that they ought to realise under punishment for disobedience and to miss the call of God, but it is at first a gift, a grace, because in Christ Jesus, in the wholly new condition who made them is a fact in Him. 

           

God has given to them the possibility to be always joyful, to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in every circumstances.  The believers do not find in themselves, nor in the world the motives to be always joyful, on the contrary!  But in Christ Jesus, in the act of reconciliation of which the world has been the object (2.Cor.5:19), in the grace given to them, have made for the present and for the future, they have a subject of joy continually, permanent, which nothing can put in question, (Phil.3:1; 4:4), because their prayers brings them always to Jesus Christ, since it is by Him they have access to the Father, and that they give thanks to Him.  Of themselves they are not always disposed to pray.

           

5:19-22.  Five exhortations relative to the attitude to take in regard to the manifestations of the Spirit in the life of the Church of Thessalonica .  The Corinthians Church made a great thing of the striking manifestations of the Spirit, prophecy and tongues.  The Thessalonian Church may have been tempted to smother the manifestations of the Spirit.  On the other hand (en revanche) it is possible that the manifestations were sometimes disorderly, and had been restrained by the leaders in the Church.  Those interested in such inspired persons, and have sought apostolic instruction as to whether such rigorous restrictions should be placed on the inspired in the life of the Church.  Paul does not enter into their views, and it is significant that in his answer, he speaks of the Spirit and not of inspired persons.  To restrain in one way or another, the sovereign liberty of the Spirit shall gravely impoverish (appauurir) the Church. 

           

"Do not quench the Spirit."  He uses the image which likens the Spirit to fire.

"Despise not prophecies." 

"Examine all."  The church must distinguish true prophecies from the words of men.  "To the good hold fast."  "Abstain from every form of evil."  These are the rules to follow in the examination or proving.

           

5:23.  Final prayer.

1 Thessalonians Chapter 4.

1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 4.

            With chapter 4, begins the hortatory (parenetique) part of the Epistle.  If Paul is reassured (rassure) by the new reports of Thessalonica by Timothy (3:16), he has an ardent desire of joining his brothers in the great city of Macedonia, not only for the joy of seeing them again, but also to remedy the deficiencies (lacunes) in their faith (3:10).  But he does not wait to see this, of which he was ignorant at the time, for to communicate to the orphan church, the more urgent the exhortations and instructions.  To this he devotes the second part of this letter (4:1-5:24). 

           

The developments which follow are inspired by what he knew of the moral and spiritual state of the Church at Thessalonica.  How did Paul know this?  Without a doubt, by Timothy, but also by a letter from the leading circles of the Church at Thessalonica, who truly desired from him, instructions and answers to questions which had preoccupied the agitated church.

           

4:1-2.  More progress continually. 

4:1. The construction of the Greek is complicated.  The two verbs `erotomen' and `parakaloumen' "make to depend," the proposition expressed their object and introduced by `ina'.  Paul refers to the teaching he had orally given the Thessalonians, and they had received it and had already begun to obey it.

           

Paul requests them to continue to progress in the path they had already begun to walk, and in which alone they could please God, - to walk to please Him.  Moreover, he recognizes they were already volunteers in this walk of pleasing God.

           

4:2.  Paul reminds them that he had given them certain instructions when he was in the midst of them; and that they ought to have been attentive to such in the Spirit.  But he does not exhort merely on the plane of human wisdom or human morality, but he exhorts the Thessalonians in the Lord Jesus, that is, in the faith and obedience of the Lord, whose authority they recognized and confessed.

           

The reference to Jesus perhaps very diverse, to His words, His example, to His Spirit, to His grace etc.  This means it could have been a question of the historical Jesus, rather than of Christ glorified.  This latter remark is very important.  The primitive church was ignorant of the distinction between the historical Jesus and Christ glorified: the Lord Jesus for them, was the Lord as much during his earthly career, as since His elevation to the right hand of God.  It is because they were the words of the Lord of the Church, that the words of Jesus had authority over the believers, (1.Cor.7:10).

           

4:3-8. Sanctification Excludes Impurity. 

`Gar' - "indeed," indicates that Paul makes reference to the instructions that the Thessalonians had heard from his own mouth (4:2), and that he takes back none of them.  "This is the will of God."  `Thelema' is without the article, because the instructions are not the entire will of God.

`Agiasmos' - the sanctification, the action of the sanctifier and should not be confused with `agiosune', "holiness, saintliness" (3:13). 

What is the force of the genitive `umon', "of you, yours?"  The context through its imperatives suggests a subjunctive genetive: "God wishes that you sanctify yourselves." - Frame.  But it recalls that our God has revealed this will in Jesus Christ, who is our sanctification, (1.Cor.1:30). God has sanctified us in Jesus Christ, and has made us saints, (1.Cor. 1:2), and that we can sanctify ourselves, to live as men who belong to God.  The emphasis of the New Testament is on the character more than doctrinal exactness; on Christlikeness, rather than orthodoxy.

           

The apostle vigorously reminds his Thessalonian brethren that this sanctification bears on the relation between the sexes.  They must abstain from sexual license.  `Porneia', is a term at once general and precise.  It designates all sexual relations outside of marriage.  In the eyes of Judaism and of Paul, it was one of the striking manifestations of the sin of the heathen.  Fornication holds front rank in the list of pagan vices, (Rom.13:13; 1.Cor.5:1,9; 16:9; Gal.5:19; Eph.5:3; Col.3:5).

           

The sanctification demanded of Christians who had come from paganism, meant a complete break with the manners (moeurs) of their surroundings and former life, (1.Cor.6:9; Eph.5:3).

           

4:4.  This abstaining from immorality is not a matter of policy, much less a moral or of morality.  As the apostle hates to add a positive precept to the negative one, "that each of you know to obtain his wife in sanctification and honour."  This is a notorious exegetical difficulty. 

           

`Posseder' - to own, possess, to have, to enjoy (a wife).

`Katasthai' - to acquire, obtain, get.  `Skuos' - utensil, vessel.

"To acquire for himself his own vessel."  But vessel is here used in a metaphorical sense.  What does it designate?  In antiquity as in our days, exegetes are divided on the subject.  Some thought that the vessel is the body and they can claim the support of 2.Cor.4:7.  The exhortation to know how to master the body, agrees well with how the subject is treated in 1.Cor.6:19.

           

However, there are grave objections to this interpretation.  `Katasthai' is sometimes used in the sense to possess, to have, to enjoy, (a wife).  Another objection is, why does the apostle say, "that each of you know to possess (enjoy) his own body." - as if it could be a question of someone else's body?

           

There are Rabbinic examples of the wife called a vessel.  Against the sexual license of the pagans, Paul proposed monogamous marriage.  That each have a wife who may be his own and not the wife of all, the woman of an evening or an hour.  Still, is it necessary that each take a wife?  It is necessary that a Christian must break with his old way of living, so as to contract a marriage in sanctification. This is to say without compromising his consecration to God, but on the contrary in the present (now) and in the fortifying by his marriage also.

           

The reverence of this demand, presupposes the choice of a Christian wife, or to prepare to become united in marriage.  The passage may have in view the difficulty that young Christians had in obtaining wives.  Jews and pagans were not inclined to give their daughters to Christians.  Young Christian daughters were not numerous, and would be the daughters or fiancée or slave of a Christian.  They must be engaged in rivalries and conflicts in obtaining a wife.

           

"In honour."  Not all means are good, and a Christian must have a more clear idea than the pagan of what is honourable or dishonourable.  Any who are lacking in respect for the rights of others, everything which is compatible with love - is to fail to hold honour.  Besides, Paul is definite in his thought and adds: "not in the passion of lust."  The passion born of desire, this is well known, not respecting the person and every barrier that would rise up before it, the honour is very quickly overthrown.  To know God is to know Him in His will revealed in Jesus Christ.

           

`Eviter' - avoid. 

`Leser' - to wrong. 

`Duper' - cheat. 

`Proposition' - proposition, statement. 

`Nouveau' - fresh, additional.

           

4:6.  If each Christian obtains for himself a wife in the conditions announced in verse 4, it is to avoid wronging or defrauding his brother in this affair.  The sense of this new statement is not easy to understand, and that of the different additional explanations it confronts.  It is necessary to set aside (ecarter) that which translates `en to pragmati' by, "in business."  The sense is that the Thessalonian Christians still prone to live as pagans lived, were exposed to the temptation of cheerfully overlooking the rights of their brother in seeking to take a wife. 

           

Is it necessary to think only of adultary?  The words are framed rather generally, and aim at protecting the rights of the brother generally in this matter.  Finally Paul draws their attention to the gravity of their responsibility before God, for the Lord is the Avenger of all such.  Not any disobedience to His will, any wrong (tort) to a brother shall escape in the Lord, and go unpunished.  This vengeance of sins committed can work itself out in this present existence, it shall consummate certainly in the last judgment of God.

           

4:7.  The words, "God has called us," go back to the moment where, by the Spirit, God gave faith to the believers.  Paul insists on the condition in which the call of God found the believer, or in the condition in which it places the believer. It does not say God has called us to sanctification, but He has called us to Himself in sanctification.  

`Agiasmos' refers to the act of God, of which we have been the object in Jesus Christ, and which are attained in His call, an act that we have to recognize and assume its demand.  "God has not called us on the ground or base of impurity." 

           

`Epi' with the dative has a meaning more causal than final.  It was in impurity they lived before their conversion.  That they had been called by God did not sanction their former way of living, on the contrary, it is in sanctification that He has called them, in their breaking with the world by this call, a world polluted by sin.  From them it is evident that God cannot leave unpunished among those who belong to Him the many infringements to His holy will endorsed by Paul, when he said that the Lord is the Avenger of all such.

           

4:8.  Finally, Paul draws out the consequences of his instructions that he may emphasise the need of doing the will of God.  Those despising, shall not merely despise man only, but God, see 1.Sam.8:7.  The apostle's word recalls for us words of the Lord, see Matt.10:40; Lk.10:16; 9:44; Mk.9:37; Jn.12:44. 

           

If the Thessalonians learned in the Lord Jesus the will of God in respect to them; they had proved also the sanctifying influence; this God whom they despised or rejected, is He who has given to them His Holy Spirit, and it is this same Divine influence that they themselves opposed in persisting to live in impurity, 1.Cor.6:19.  The words `to agion' is emphasized.  The Spirit given to them is Holy.  They therefore, commit a grave sin in despising or rejecting God.

           

In verses 3-8 we have an example, and not the least, of  the blanks or defects of the faith of the Thessalonians, which Paul feels is in urgent need to be remembered (3:10).  The faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was also obedience, without which it is not fully faith.  Certainly, the Thessalonians were real believers, but they still lacked the awareness of the moral demand of the faith.  A demand they may have regarded as overbearing and new. 

           

4:9-12.  For a model Christian life, they must be good examples.  The Thessalonians may have written to Paul.  But Paul approaches the subject by writing that there was no need that he should write to them.  Why does he do this?  If Paul had been appealed to that he exhorts the community in love, it was not probably by the whole community, but by a group which had some reasons to complain in this respect: the directors or leaders (5:12).  The apostle is willing to recognize that the Thessalonians are aware of the love they owed to their brothers.  They had been instructed by God Himself in Jesus Christ, and in this love no human teacher was able to instruct them.  They had given proof of their love to all the brethren of Macedonia - in a practical way.

            But Paul exhorted them to make even more progress in love.  The following verses (4:11-12) may indicate the manner in which they were to make progress in love.  There are three things mentioned.  The Thessalonians are to aspire to be:-

a.  Quiet.  Some were agitated, excited with over occupation with eschatological events. 

b.  Occupied.  Occupied with their own affairs.  Some were occupied with the affairs of others, which thereby provoked disputes and damaged fraternal love.

c.  Work.  To work with their hands.  Probably, some under the intense expectation of the coming of the Lord, abandoned work and became a charge to their brethren, and so provoked legitimate indignation.  The Church was probably composed of common people and slaves who laboriously earned their living.  The imminence of the Coming of the Lord, made some think that they had no reason to be tied down to tiresome work, which was despised by Greeks.  In the light of this, we understand better the importance of the example that Paul himself gave by working with hands (2:9).  The apostle reminds them that they were given these same instructions verbally, when they were with them.

           

4:12.  Paul wishes that the Thessalonians may by their obedience to him obtain two very important results.  Firstly, that they live in an honourable manner in the judgment of those outside, that is, to those who were unbelievers.  Does he mean that the standard these people would give should be the norm of Christian living?  Certainly not, for their must be a life in a manner worthy of God (2:12).  Paul is convinced that the Christian life has its supreme norm in the will of God, in walking in love, to satisfy moral demands that are better than the people of the world practice and accept.  It is very important that those outside may not be sent further away - put at a distance - from the Gospel and the Church by the faults and inconsistencies of the Christians.

           

By means of instructions the apostle would appeal especially that they work, so that none have need of nothing.  Not only in their personal dignity demand that they be materially independent by their work, but even more the concern that they be a charge to their brethren, for to be independent and no charge is a form of love.

           

4:13-18.  The death of believers is illuminated by hope.  4:13. "But we would not that you remain in ignorance, brothers."  These words are formulated to arouse the communication he is about to make.  It is likely that a letter from Thessalonica indicated there was trouble aroused in the church by the decease of some believers.  They ask with anxiety on the nature of the death?   Would they miss the glorious coming of the Lord?  Shall they be at a disadvantage with the living believers when He comes?  And who can be sure he shall not die before the day of the Lord?  It was urgent to dispel these painful uncertainties concerning those sleeping. 

           

I prefer the reading with the present tense.  It is not a question only of something past, but of a fact which could re-occur. 

`Koimaomai' in the passive - "to fall asleep," was already with both Jews and Greeks a current way of speaking of the dead.  It is not necessary to conclude from it the state of the dead that it designates, although it may not be probable without intention that Paul here uses this euphemism.

           

"In order that you may not be sad as the others who have no hope."  Does Paul mean to say that Christians ought not to mourn (se affliger) over the death of their brothers, and distinct (sedistinguer) from unbelievers?  Or can they regret the loss of their deceased, but not in the same manner as unbelievers who have no hope? 

           

The apostle never contests the rightfulness of sorrow  (Rom.12:15; 1.Cor.12:26).  He does not counsel us to become as hard as a rock and reject every human sentiment, but the sorrow of the Christian before death has a particular quality: it is brightened by hope and a consolation is promised to him.  It differs thus from that of others, who have no hope.  For Paul there is no hope than in Jesus Christ, so Jews (2:16) and pagans are those who have no hope.  It is of the pagans especially, that he here thinks.  His brothers at Thessalonica recently belonged to such pagans, to whom despair before death had been only real as is attested by the letters and inscriptions of the period.

           

Had Paul then left the Thessalonians without hope before death?  So that the death of some among them had likewise troubled?  Certainly not!  They had heard of the imminent coming of the Lord with which they would be linked in His glory (1:3,10,; 2:19; 3:13), but it is precisely on account of (a causede) this hope that they mourned for the death of their brothers, it seemed as if they would not be present when the Lord came.  Also the apostle endeavours (s'eforcer) to show that their hope is in our Lord Jesus Christ was as significant for the believing dead as it was for the living, and that the believing dead shall be reunited, to welcome (accuellir) the Lord in His glory and participate in His reign.

           

4:14.  Right away Paul founds his argument on the certitudes of the faith the Thessalonians like himself believed.  However, a fact worthy of remark, in this declaration which is a kind of summary, very incomplete, of the confession of faith, it is that it is a question of Jesus and not of Christ (1.Cor.15:3), or of Lord (Rom.10:9).  Without doubt, Jesus is not the object of the faith, because that is Christ, the Lord, the Son of God, but here obviously the apostle recalls to the Thessalonians that they believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, a man in whom the resurrection of the dead has commenced, and who is the pledge (1.Cor.15:20). 

           

Paul then had certainly spoken to the Thessalonians of the resurrection of the dead, from which the resurrection of Jesus is inseparable (1.Cor.15:12-16,20), but he had not previously instructed them of the privileges that the believers shall have of the resurrection before all the others (v.16; 1.Cor.15:23), then of the coming of the Lord.  The general resurrection in the end of time is then supposed here as 1.Cor.15:24.  `D'emblee' - at once, at the first onset, right away.

           

It is an unfortunate fault that Paul expresses in clear terms for us the consequence to be drawn from the faith of the resurrection of Jesus.  Normally the proposition: "if we believe that," named the conclusion of the description - "even we believe we are able to believe that."  But Paul has changed the construction and of the subject, and has said, "in like manner also God shall bring with Him those who are dead." (Translate aorist by a previous future.  It does not reduce these dead to those who are dead at the moment of Paul's writing).  His thought is carried of a bond towards   the fact which signifies, God, the Sovereign Master of history, the executor of a plan of redemption, of which the death and resurrection of Christ constitute the decisive act, God shall accomplish that He has commenced.

           

"He shall bring with Jesus; at His glorious coming, those who shall be dead."  This fact ought to dispel all the anxiety and sorrow of the Thessalonians concerning the matter of their dead: they shall not be frustrated; they shall not miss the `Day of the Lord'.  "God shall bring them with Him."  ("God shall bring to present with you." See 2.Cor.4:14).  The right relation enacted between this final act and the death and the resurrection of Jesus by `outos kai', "in the same manner also," supposes that the dead believers have been raised, but Paul has not said in his haste to proclaim the decisive fact, their participation in the Coming of the Lord and His glory.  And he has perhaps an allusion to the resurrection of believers in a complement which always embarrassed the exegetes, and that we have intentionally left aside until the present: `dia tou Iesou', "by Jesus," or rather "by this Jesus"

           

Masson prefers to attach `dia tou Iesou' with `axei', and not with `tous Koimethentos'.  See N.E.B.  Their dead shall participate in the triumphant coming of the Lord.  God shall bring with Him those who are dead.  How?  By what means?  By whom?  By this Jesus, by whom the death and resurrection, come to be repealed.  Jesus shall be the mediator of the accomplishment of the work of redemption in the end of time, as He has been the mediator in the centre of the history of salvation.  It is with this Jesus, who died and rose again, with Him God shall bring those Christians who sleep.

           

4:15.  The particle `gar' indicates that Paul is about to justify the affirmation of 4:14.b. which can appear as one of singular hardness.  

"The word of the Lord."  This word is not expressly cited, only freely used in verse 16.  From it Paul is authorised to give to the Thessalonians the assurance which he expressed in verse 15.  It is that which confers weight or importance to his teaching that follows. 

`Oti', "that," it is here declarative and introduces that which Paul can affirm in his reference to a word of the Lord. Such was the intensity of the waiting for the coming of the Lord that Paul expresses himself as if the Thessalonian brethren and himself ought to be still living and surviving when the Lord shall come.  But Paul did not in the least pretend that God could not demand each day, the sacrifice of his life (1.Cor.15:30; 2.Cor.1:8; Phil.2:17).  Moreover, in this fragment, Paul does not speak only of believers dead when he writes, but of those who shall be dead at the Parousia of the Lord. But the new affirmation which ought to put an end to the ignorance of the Thessalonians (4:13), as in 14.b. is already  found in these words, "we shall certainly not precede those who sleep."  This answers the anxious question, shall the dead Christians be deprived?  Shall surviving believers have an unfair advantage over the dead?  Should not they wait the Coming of the Lord and the Resurrection, to be reunited in their Lord, and participate in His kingdom, in which the living have been associated from the first day? 

           

Paul argues that these privileges do not belong exclusively to the living.  They shall not precede to the Coming of the Lord, when He shall come to reign on the earth.  How shall this be so?  How shall the dead believers be on an equal footing with the living when the Lord shall come?  Paul describes this in verses 16-17.

           

4:16. "For," is here causal and introduces the reason for which Paul holds that the surviving believers unto the Parousia shall not precede those who are dead.  The Lord in His own person shall descend from heaven.  As from Acts 1:9-11 Jesus raised, has been elevated in the heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God; in the day of His Parousia He shall descend from heaven to make known His reign through all  His creatures (1.Cor.15:24).  It is not easy to determine the sense of the three complements which accompany the principle verb: "He shall descend."  Are they additions of the same value? (Dibelius).  The last two are coordinated by a `kai', "and," are really an application of the first.  But what is their significance?  It can perhaps be temporal; when an order, shout, shall re-echo, when shall sound the trump of God etc.  The trump of God reminds us that God is the author of this reunion.

           

It is necessary to remark, however, that the Parousia of the Lord does not signify to Paul here, that in the dimension which the resurrection of believers is to him connected, also it is little likely that the three complements ought to determine the Parousia alone, but the Parousia ties up with the resurrection of those who are in the Lord (1.Cor.15:52).  They indicate in all likelihood the facts which shall accompany the descent of the Lord from heaven, and shall involve the resurrection of believers, whilst they shall re-echo an order, shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.   It is probably not necessary to be precise where Paul has not been precise. However, we are not to forget, in verse 14.b, he has expressly designated as the author of the reunion of believing dead and resurrection with Jesus, then of his glorious coming. 

           

It is likely then that the "order," (or "shout"), the voice of the archangel and the trump ought to call up or conjure up in a concrete manner the sovereign intervention of God. 

The `keleusma', "shout of cammand," is addressed as the sequence shows, to the dead in Christ; it is the all-powerful word which raises them.  Is the `shout' transmitted by the voice of the archangel, whilst the `trump of God', signal of the last events which accompany it?  It is possible, unless we can affirm it, and we ought to respect the deliberate discretion with which the apostle here uses some of the truths of the apocalyptic tradition to show as sensible the action of God.

           

"The dead in Christ shall rise first."  Such is the first argument Paul uses to convince the Thessalonians that they shall know that their deceased shall not be at any disadvantage in connexion with the survivors unto the Parousia.  The first event associated with the descent of the Lord from heaven, shall be the instantaneous resurrection of the believing dead (1.Cor.15:52).   The dead in Christ, those who have died in the faith in Christ, constitute a group or order (tagma), a particular group of the resurrection and only they shall be raised when the Lord comes (1.Cor.15:23; `oi tou chris tou' - those who belong to Christ).  The "trumpet" is one of the features of the description of the theophanies in the Old Testament, Psa.47:6; S.S.1:16; Zech.9:14; Ezek.18:3. (French Bible), and particularly of the great theophany of Sinai, Exod.19:16,19; 20:18.

4:17.  With some traits of extreme brevity, Paul sketches or outlines the realization of the hope mentioned already in verse 14.b, and which shall commence by the resurrection of the deceased believers (v.16.b).  Next, we the living, the survivors, together with them, we shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord, in the air.  There shall then, no longer, be any difference between the state of believers who are deceased, and that of their surviving brothers.  They shall henceforth be newly reunited and shall have the same destiny.  The words, "together with" express very strongly, that nothing shall any more separate the surviving believers at the Parousia, from their deceased brothers.  Our text more than any other Pauline text, affirms most clearly, they shall for themselves meet again always.  The New Testament does not insist upon this aspect, if popular of the Christian hope.  The catching up of believers presupposes that the survivors have been transformed, clothed with their spiritual bodies like those raised (1.Cor.15:22).  Like as Christ at His own Ascension (Acts.1:9).  They are all together carried away in the clouds, which, here as elsewhere, draws attention to and veils everything in the time of the action of God.

           

The clouds are characteristic of the descriptions of the theophanies, especially that of Sinai.(Ex.19:9,13,16, see Dan.7:13,LXX., also Matt.24:30; Mk.13:26).  The part the clouds play must not be reduced to that of a vehicle.  They are a sign of the presence and action of God.  But the aim of the catching up of believers is indicated by the complement - "to meet the Lord in the air."  The account is precise and concrete.

The word `apantesis', "to meet," is a technical term which designated a wide usage in the Hellenistic world: when a sovereign or some great person approached the city, then at his parousia in the Hellenistic sense of the term, the entire population went out to meet him and receive him and to form a triumphant escort or procession for his entry into the city.  The phrase "to meet the Lord," would awake in the spirit of his readers or Greek hearers the colourful image of official and joyful entry. 

           

Did Paul borrow this phrase from the Hellenistic world as Dibelius and others have held?  It does not appear so.  Dupont has shown, indeed,that the expression `apantesis' and `eis apantesis' occur frequently in the LXX, and in the account of the great theophany of Sinai, especially Ex.19:10-18, where figure many of the descriptive elements of our text  (voice, trumpet, cloud).  It is also said, that Moses made the people to go outside the camp to meet their God, Ex.19:17.

           

Why the display of the coming of God in the end time?  Shall it be any different from that it was when the Lord descended on Sinai, to give the Law to the people?  This had been the resonance of the term, `apantesis', in the Hellenistic environment or circles.  It is likely that Paul held to the Biblical and apocalyptic tradition.  The `apantesis' is the welcome that Christians shall give to the Lord descending from heaven, reproduces and brings back in the end of time, the welcome that the Israelites had given to God when He ascended on Sinai.  Where shall take place the meeting of the Lord and His own?  In the air, between heaven, from where shall descend the Lord (v.16), and the earth from where the believers shall have been transported in clouds.  And what direction shall the triumphant procession of the Lord and His own take?  Exegetes have given different answers to this question and many hesitate to make a decision. 

           

It is necessary to put aside the idea that the Lord and His Church shall remain for some time in the air.  According to some exegetes, the Lord will return to heaven with His glorious cortege, and there we shall forever be with the Lord.  But this interpretation does not do justice to the idea of `apantesis', to meet, to welcome.  For then, it would no longer be the believers who meet the Lord, but the Lord shall descend from heaven to meet the believers, but that does not agree with the text. The Lord shall descend from heaven to the earth (16.a), and this is to make a cortege that of believers glorified, that He shall catch them up into the air.  But the cortege once formed, shall gain the earth, over which the Lord shall reign, until he has put into submission all the hostile powers.

           

4:17.b.  Believers shall not any more be separated from the Lord, as they were while remaining in their fleshly bodies (2.Cor.5:6, "absent from the Lord.", Phil.1:24), or if they were dead (v.16.b).  To be always with the Lord, such is the goal, the end that the apostle assigns to the destiny of Christians.  The expression is one of remarkable sobriety, which concedes nothing to curiosity, and distinguishes itself advantageously from Jewish apocalyptic descriptions.  Without himself departing from this sobriety, the exegete owes the demand that Paul would say in assuring the believers, "that they shall always be with the Lord."  They shall always live in the most intimate spiritual communion with Him.  What more can the believer demand?  They shall always be in community with one another, and with the Lord. 

           

"With the Lord," is to be understood in an eschatological sense, in relation to the glorious coming of Christ, and the events which follow it, - the participation of the believer in the event, in the reign, and in the glory of Christ. The idea of the participation of the disciples in the reign of Christ is frequent in the New Testament, (Matt.13:43; 25:34; Apoc.5:10; 20:4-6; 22:5; Rom.5:17; 8:17; 1.Cor.4:8; 15:23-28; 2.Tim.2:12.  The Parousia shall inaugurate the reign of Christ on the earth - He shall reign until He has put all His enemies beneath His feet.  Believers shall participate in His victories.  To be forever with the Lord implies then, more than intimate communion with Him, it is rather to be forever a participator in His cortege.  The creation itself will be delivered - this is the dimension of Christ's redemptive work, and in the course of His reign, the believers shall always be with Him.

           

4:18.  Paul considers he has said enough to attain his goal (v.13), and invites the Thessalonians to console themselves, and to comfort one another with the words that have put an end to their ignorance (v.13), and replies their communication seeking certainty that they shall not miss out in the Coming of the Lord (v.15), and raised, participate with Him in His reign.  The verses emphasize the sovereign action of God.  He shall bring by this Jesus the dead believers.  They shall form part of His glorious cortege.  This means the dead shall be raised, and God alone is able to raise the dead (Rom.4:17; 2.Cor.1:9).  It indicates the sovereignty of God.  This liberating event in all its aspects is the work of God, but is accomplished by this Jesus, who has died and is raised, who shall descend from heaven with all the majesty of the Lord.

           

"The word of the Lord."  It is on the ground or authority of this word that the apostle can affirm that living believers shall have no advantage over the Christian dead at the Coming of Christ.  This word ought then to be found in verses 16-17.  Some exegetes understand it of a word of Jesus (Frame, Neil), but one who expect such to make mention of the Son of Man, and have parallels to the phraseology of the Synoptics.  Joachim  Jeremias took it of a spoken word of Jesus, not preserved for us in the Gospels.  But Massam finds this difficult, since it has not been preserved in the Gospels.  Massam finds the answer to the problem, in that a revelation was given to Paul, 1.Cor.15:51 concerns a similar situation - the dead Christians and surviving believers - Paul qualified his word there as a mystery.  It was then for him one of the mysteries of God, 1.Cor.4:1.  It was then the wisdom Paul reserved for Christians who were mature (1.Cor.2:6), which had its object the glory of believers (v.7) i.e. the fulfilment of their final destiny.  These mysteries were revealed by the Spirit (2:10), but there is for Paul an intimate relation between the Lord and the Spirit, (2.Cor.3:17; Rom.8:9), that is not unusual of all He calls the word of the Lord (1.Thess.4:15), and elsewhere a mystery, (1.Cor.15:52).

           

"The word of the Lord," then, likely was a revelation from the Spirit received by Paul seeking an answer to the question which had arisen very soon in the Church:  What shall happen to the dead believers at the Lord's Parousia?  And the answer given by the Spirit has been formulated by the help of traditional and apocalyptic imagery, which permits a precise revelation of the coming glory of the Lord, and the reunion of believers with Him.  It must refer to a revelation given to Paul, for in the first Epistle to Corinth (15:51), we have a similar communication as a mystery, i.e. to a revelation.  It was therefore one of the mysteries of God.