I.

_SALUTATION AND THANKSGIVING._

"Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the

Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; Grace to

you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren, even as

it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of

each one of you all toward one another aboundeth; so that we

ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and

faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye

endure."--2 THESS. i. 1-4 (R.V.).

In beginning to expound the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, it is

necessary to say a few words by way of introduction to the book as a

whole. Certain questions occur to the mind whenever such a document as

this is presented to it; and it will put us in a better position for

understanding details if we first answer these. How do we know, for

instance, that this Epistle is really the _second_ to the

Thessalonians? It has been maintained that it is the earlier of the

two. Can we justify its appearance in the place which it usually

occupies? I think we can. The tradition of the church itself counts

for something. It is quite unmistakable, in other cases in which there

are two letters addressed to the same people,--_e.g._, the

Epistles to the Corinthians and to Timothy,--that they stand in the

canon in the order of time. Presumably the same is the case here. Of

course a tradition like this is not infallible, and if it can be

proved false must be abandoned; but at the present moment, the tendency

in most minds is to under-estimate the historical value of such

traditions; and, in the instance before us, tradition is supported by

various indications in the Epistle itself. For example, in the other

letter, Paul congratulates the Thessalonians on their reception of the

gospel, and the characteristic experiences attendant upon it; here it

is the wonderful growth of their faith, and the abounding of their

love, which calls forth his thanksgiving,--surely a more advanced

stage of Christian life being in view. Again, in the other Epistle

there are slight hints of moral disorder, due to misapprehension of

the Lord's Second Coming; but in this Epistle such disorder is broadly

exposed and denounced; the Apostle has heard of unruly busybodies, who

do no work at all; he charges them in the name of the Lord Jesus to

change their conduct, and bids the brethren avoid them, that they may

be put to shame. Plainly the faults as well as the graces of the

church are seen here at a higher growth. Once more, in chap. ii. 15 of

this letter, there is reference to instruction which the Thessalonians

have already received from Paul in a letter; and though he may quite

conceivably have written them letters which no longer exist, still the

natural reference of these words is to what we call the First Epistle.

If anything else were needed to prove that the letter we are about to

study stands in its right place, it might be found in the appeal of

chap. ii. 1. "Our gathering together unto Him" is the characteristic

revelation of the other, and therefore the earlier letter.

But though this Epistle is certainly later than the other, it is not

much later. The Apostle has still the same companions--Silas and

Timothy--to join in his Christian greeting. He is still in Corinth or

its neighbourhood; for we never find these two along with him but

there. The gospel, however, has spread beyond the great city, and

taken root in other places, for he boasts of the Thessalonians and

their graces in _the churches_ of God. His work has so far

progressed as to excite opposition; he is in personal peril, and asks

the prayers of the Thessalonians, that he may be delivered from

unreasonable and evil men. If we put all these things together, and

remember the duration of Paul's stay in Corinth, we may suppose that

some months separated the second Epistle from the First.

What, now, was the main purpose of it? What had the Apostle in his

mind when he sat down to write? To answer that, we must go back a

little way.

A great subject of apostolic preaching at Thessalonica had been the

Second Advent. So characteristic was it of the gospel message, that

Christian converts from heathenism are defined as those who have

turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to

wait for His Son from heaven. This waiting, or expectation, was the

characteristically Christian attitude; the Christian's hope was

hidden in heaven, and he could not but look up and long for its

appearing. But this attitude became strained, under various

influences. The Apostle's teaching was pressed, as if he had said, not

only that the day of the Lord was coming, but that it was actually

here. Men, affecting to speak through the Spirit, patronised such

fanaticism. We see from chap. ii. 2 that pretended words of Paul were

put in circulation; and what was more deliberately wicked, a forged

epistle was produced, in which his authority was claimed for this

transformation of his doctrine. Weak-minded people were carried off

their feet, and bad-hearted people feigned an exaltation they did not

feel; and both together brought discredit on the church, and injured

their own souls, by neglecting the commonest duties. Not only decorum

and reputation were lost, but character itself was endangered. This

was the situation to which Paul addressed himself.

We do not need to be fastidious in dealing with the Apostle's teaching

on the Second Advent; our Saviour tells us that of the day and the

hour no man knows, nor angel; nay, not even the Son, but the Father

only. Certainly St. Paul did not know; and almost as certainly, in the

ardour of his hope, he anticipated the end sooner than it was actually

to arrive. He spoke of himself as one who might naturally enough

expect to see the Lord come again; and it was only as experience

brought him new light that in his later years he began to speak of a

desire to depart, and to be with Christ. Not to die, had been his

earlier hope, but to have the mortal being swallowed up of life; and

it was this earlier hope he had communicated to the Thessalonians.

They also hoped not to die; as the sky grew darker over them with

affliction and persecution, their heated imaginations saw the glory of

Christ ready to break through for their final deliverance. The present

Epistle puts this hope, if one may say so, to a certain remove. It

does not fix the date of the Advent; it does not tell us when the day

of the Lord shall come; but it tells us plainly that it is not here

yet, and that it will not be here till certain things have first

happened. What these things are is by no means obvious; but this is

not the place to discuss the question. All we have to notice is this:

that with a view to counteracting the excitement at Thessalonica,

which was producing bad consequences, St. Paul points out that the

Second Advent is the term of a moral process, and that the world must

run through a spiritual development of a particular kind before Christ

can come again. The first Advent was in the fulness of the times; so

will the second be; and though he might not be able to interpret all

the signs, or tell when the great day would dawn, he could say to the

Thessalonians, "The end is not yet."

This, I say, is the great lesson of the Epistle, the main thing which

the Apostle has to communicate to the Thessalonians. But it is

preceded by what may be called, in a loose sense, a consolatory

paragraph, and it is followed up by exhortations, the same in purport

as those of the First Epistle, but more peremptory and emphatic. The

true preparedness for the Lord's Second Coming is to be sought, he

assures them, not in this irrational exaltation, which is morally

empty and worthless, but in diligent, humble, faithful performance of

duty; in love, faith, and patience.

The greeting with which the Epistle opens is almost word for word the

same as that of the First Epistle. It is a church which is addressed;

and a church subsisting in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus

Christ. The Apostle has no other interest in the Thessalonians than as

they are Christian people. Their Christian character and their

Christian interests are the only things he cares for. One could wish

it were so among us. One could wish our relation to God and His Son

were so real and so dominant, that it gave us an unmistakable

character, in which we might naturally address each other, without any

consciousness or suspicion of unreality. With every desire to think

well of the Church, when we look to the ordinary tone of conversation

and of correspondence among Christians, we can hardly think that this

is so. There is an aversion to such directness of speech as was alone

natural to the Apostle. Even in church meetings, there is a

disposition to let the Christian character fall into the background;

it is a sensible relief to many to be able to think of those about

them as ladies and gentlemen, rather than as brothers and sisters in

Christ. Yet it is this last relation only in virtue of which we form a

church; it is the interests of this relation that our intercourse with

one another as Christians is designed to serve. We ought not to look

in the Christian assembly for what it was never meant to be,--for a

society to further the temporal interests of its members; for an

educational institution, aiming at the general enlightenment of those

who frequent its meetings; still less, as some seem to be inclined to

do, for a purveyor of innocent amusements: all these are simply beside

the mark; the Church is not called to any such functions; her whole

life is in God and Christ; and she can _say_ nothing and _do_ nothing

for any man until his life has been brought to this source and centre.

An apostolic interest in the Church is the interest of one who cares

only for the relation of the soul to Christ; and who can say no more

to those he loves best than John says to Gaius, "Beloved, I pray that

in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul

prospereth."

It is in accordance with this Spirit that the Apostle wishes the

Thessalonians not any outward advantages, but grace and peace. Grace

and peace are related as cause and effect. Grace is God's unmerited

love, His free and beautiful goodness to the sinful; and when men

receive it, it bears the fruit of peace. Peace is a far bigger word in

the Bible than in common usage; and it has its very largest sense in

these salutations, where it represents the old Hebrew greeting

_Shālōm_. Properly speaking, it means completeness, wholeness,

health--the perfect soundness of the spiritual nature. This is what

the Apostle wishes for the Thessalonians. Of course, there is a

narrower sense of peace, in which it means the quieting of the

perturbed conscience, the putting away of the alienation between the

soul and God; but that is only the initial work of grace, the first

degree of the great peace which is in view here. When grace has had

its perfect work, it results in a more profound and steadfast

peace,--a soundness of the whole nature, a restoration of the shattered

spiritual health, which is the crown of all God's blessings. There is

a vast difference in the degrees of bodily health between the man who

is chronically ailing, always anxious, nervous about himself, and

unable to trust himself if any unexpected drain is made upon his

strength, and the man who has solid, unimpaired health, whose heart is

whole within him, and who is not shaken by the thought of what may be.

It is this radical soundness which is really meant by peace; thorough

spiritual health is the best of God's blessings in the Christian life,

as thorough bodily health is the best in the natural life. Hence the

Apostle wishes it for the Thessalonians before everything else; and

wishes it, as alone it can come, in the train of grace. The free love

of God is all our hope. Grace is love imparting itself, giving itself

away, as it were, to others, for their good. Only as that love comes

to us, and is received in its fulness of blessing into our hearts, can

we attain that stable spiritual health which is the end of our

calling.

The salutation is followed, as usual, by a thanksgiving, which at the

first glance seems endless. One long sentence runs, apparently without

interruption, from the third verse to the end of the tenth. But it is

plain, on a more attentive glance, that the Apostle goes off at a

tangent; and that his thanksgiving is properly contained in the third

and fourth verses: "We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you,

brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly,

and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth; so

that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your

patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions

which ye endure." It is worthy of remark that the mere existence of

faults in a church never blinded the Apostle to its graces. There was

much in this congregation to rectify, and a good deal to censure;

there were ignorance, fanaticism, falsehood, sloth, unruliness; but

though he knew of them all, and would rebuke them all before he had

done, he begins with this grateful acknowledgment of a Divine work

among them. It is not merely that Paul was constitutionally of a

bright temperament, and looked naturally on the promising side of

things,--I hardly think he was,--but he must have felt it was

undutiful and unbecoming to say anything at all to Christian people,

who had once been pagans, without thanking God for what He had done

for them. Some of us have this lesson to learn, especially in regard

to missionary and evangelistic work and its results. We are too ready

to see everything in it except what is of God,--the mistakes made by

the worker, or the misconceptions in new disciples that the light has

not cleared up, and the faults of character that the Spirit has not

overcome; and when we fix our attention on these things, it is very

natural for us to be censorious. The natural man loves to find fault;

it gives him at the cheapest rate the comfortable feeling of

superiority. But it is a malignant eye which can see and delight in

nothing but faults; before we comment on deficiencies or mistakes

which have only become visible against the background of the new life,

let us give thanks to God that the new life, in however lowly and

imperfect a form, is there. It need not yet appear what it shall be.

But we are bound, by duty, by truth, by all that is right and seemly,

to say, Thanks be to God for what He has begun to do by His grace.

There are some people who should never see half-done work; perhaps the

same people should be forbidden to criticise missions either at home

or abroad. The grace of God is not responsible for the faults of

preachers or of converts, but it is the source of their virtues; it is

the fountain of their new life; it is the hope of their future; and

unless we welcome its workings with constant thanksgiving, we are in

no spirit in which it can work through us.

But let us see for what fruit of grace the Apostle gives thanks here.

It is because the faith of the Thessalonians grows exceedingly, and

their mutual love abounds. In a word, it is for their progress in the

Christian character. Here is a point of the first interest and

importance. It is the very nature of life to grow; when growth is

arrested, it is the beginning of decay. I would not like to fall into

the very fault I have been exposing, and speak as if there were no

progress, among Christians in general, in faith and love; but one of

the discouragements of the Christian ministry is undoubtedly the

slowness, or it may be the invisibility, not to say the absence, of

growth. At a certain stage in the physical life, we know, equilibrium

is attained: we are at the maturity of our powers; our faces change

little, our minds change little; the tones of our voices and the

character of our handwriting are pretty constant; and when we get past

that point, the progress is backward. But we can hardly say that this

is an analogy by which we may judge the spiritual life. It does not

run its full course here. It has not a birth, a maturity, and an

inevitable decay, within the limits of our natural life. There is room

for it to grow and grow unceasingly, because it is planned for

eternity, and not for time. It should be in continual progress, ever

improving, advancing from strength to strength. Day by day and year by

year Christians should become better men and better women, stronger in

faith, richer in love. The very steadiness and uniformity of our

spiritual life has its disheartening side. Surely there is room, in a

thing so great and expansive as life in Jesus Christ, for fresh

developments, for new manifestations of trust in God, for new

enterprises prompted and sustained by brotherly love. Let us ask

whether we ourselves, each in his own place, face the trials of our

life, its cares, its doubts, its terrible certainties, with a more

unwavering faith in God than we had five years ago? Have we _learned_

in that interval, or in all the years of our Christian profession, to

commit our life more unreservedly to Him, to trust Him to undertake

for us, in our sins, in our weakness, in all our necessities, temporal

and spiritual? Have we become more loving than we were? Have we

overcome any of our irrational and un-Christian dislikes? Have we made

advances, for Christ's sake and His Church's, to persons with whom we

were at variance, and sought in brotherly love to foster a warm and

loyal Christian feeling in the whole body of believers? God be

thanked, there are some who know what faith and love are better than

they once did; who have learned--and it needs learning--what it is to

confide in God, and to love others in Him; but could an Apostle thank

God that this advance was universal, and that the charity of every one

of us all was abundant to all the rest?

The apostolic thanksgiving is supplemented in this particular case by

something, not indeed alien to it, yet on a quite different level--a

glorying before men. Paul thanked God for the increase of faith and

love at Thessalonica; and when he remembered that he himself had been

the means of converting the Thessalonians, their progress made him

fond and proud; he boasted of his spiritual children in the churches of

God. "Look at the Thessalonians," he said to the Christians in the

south; "you know their persecutions, and the afflictions they endure;

yet their faith and patience triumph over all; their sufferings only

serve to bring their Christian goodness to perfection." That was a

great thing to be able to say; it would be particularly telling in

that old pagan world, which could meet suffering only with an inhuman

defiance or a resigned indifference; it is a great thing to be able to

say yet. It _is_ a witness to the truth and power of the gospel,

of which its humblest minister may feel justly proud, when the new

spirit which it breathes into men gives them the victory over sorrow

and pain. There is no persecution now to test the sincerity or the

heroism of the Church as a whole; but there are afflictions still; and

there must be few Christian ministers but thank God, and would do it

always, as is meet, that He has allowed them to see the new life

develop new energies under trial, and to see His children out of

weakness made strong by faith and hope and love in Christ Jesus. These

things are our true wealth and strength, and we are richer in them

than some of us are aware. They are the mark of the gospel upon human

nature; wherever it comes, it is to be identified by the combination

of affliction and patience, of suffering and spiritual joy. That

combination is peculiar to the kingdom of God: there is not the like

found in any other kingdom on earth. Blessed, let us say, be the God

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us such proofs of

His love and power among us; He only doeth such wondrous things; let

the earth be filled with His glory.