+I. Is a voluntary and constant activity.+
+II. Is based on well-understood and authoritative precepts.+
+III. Is the pathway of blessing.+
+IV. Inspires confidence in others.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.
_Divine Love and Patience._
Again, the apostle is on his knees. How beautifully the habitual
devoutness of the apostle's spirit comes out in the side-lights
thrown from passages in his writings like this verse! He lives and
breathes in the electric atmosphere of prayer. All the time he is
reasoning, expounding, warning, and persuading he is also praying.
Prayer is a powerful aid to the preacher. It keeps his soul in
sympathy with the realm of spiritual realities, gives him clearer
insight into truth, and intensifies his experience of the Divine. We
learn from this verse:--
+I. That Divine love and patience are conspicuous elements in man's
redemption.+--"The love of God and the patient waiting for
Christ"--_the patience of Christ_ (R.V.). The love of God devised and
the patience of Christ carried out the great plan of human salvation.
The Gospel is a grand revelation of the Divine love and patience in
Christ Jesus; and the history of the Gospel in its world-wide
progress is a many-sided illustration of these two conspicuous
virtues in the Divine character and operations. After the last French
war, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris was imprisoned. His cell
had a window shaped like a cross, and with a pencil he wrote upon the
arms of the cross that they denoted the height, length, breadth, and
depth of God's love. That man knew something of the love of God. The
patience of Christ in suffering for mankind was sustained and
sublimated by the love of God, and was an object-lesson to the world,
teaching, in a way that appealed to the most callous, the power and
universality of that love.
+II. That Divine love and patience are the distinguished privilege of
human experience.+--"Direct your hearts into the love of God and
patience of Christ." The love we are to enjoy is no mere human
passion, fickle and evanescent; the patience, no mere grim stoical
endurance. We are admitted into the sacred adoption of the Divine
mysteries; we share in their spiritual ecstasy and unruffled calm,
the very love and patience of God! The Divine in us becomes more
growingly evident to ourselves and to others. Love gives
staying-power to and teaches us how to suffer without murmuring, to
endure without retaliating. "Sire," said Beza in his reply to the
king of Navarre, "it belongs to God's Church rather to suffer blows
than to strike them; but let it be your pleasure to remember that the
Church is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer." With time and
patience the mulberry leaf becomes satin.
+III. That Divine love and patience are more fully enjoyed by the
soul that prays.+--"And the Lord direct your hearts." The prayerful
apostle had realised the blessedness of a personal participation in
the love and patience of God. But for the love of God he would never
have ventured upon his evangelistic mission, and but for the patience
of Christ he would not have continued in it. Now he prays that the
hearts of the Thessalonians may enjoy the same grace or be set in the
direct way of attaining it. It is of vital consequence that the
current of the heart's outgoings should be set in the right
direction. This brief petition shows what we ought to ask for
ourselves. The best way to secure a larger degree of love and
patience is to ardently pray for them.
"What grace, O Lord, and beauty shone
Around Thy steps below!
What patient love was seen in all
Thy life and death of woe!
"Oh! give us hearts to love like Thee--
Like Thee, O Lord, to grieve
Far more for others' sins, than all
The wrongs that we receive."
+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian life is a sublime participation in the
nature of God._ 2. _Love and patience reveal the God-like character._
3. _Prayer is at its best when engaged with the loftiest themes._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._