The first striking thing about this prayer is its emphatic recognition
of the divinity of Jesus Christ as a truth familiar to these
Thessalonian converts. Note the solemn accumulation of His august
titles, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.' Note, further, that
extraordinary association of His name with the Father's. Note, still
further, the most remarkable order in which these two names occur--Jesus
first, God second. If we were not so familiar with the words, and with
their order, which reappears in Paul's well-known and frequently-used
Benediction, we should be startled to find that Jesus Christ was put
before God in such a solemn address. The association and the order of
mention of the names are equally outrageous, profane, and inexplicable,
except upon one hypothesis, and that is that Jesus Christ is divine.
The reason for the order may be found partly in the context, which has
just been naming Christ, but still more in the fact that whilst he
writes, the Apostle is realising the mediation of Christ, and that the
order of mention is the order of our approach. The Father comes to us in
the Son; we come to the Father by the Son; and, therefore, it is no
intercepting of our reverence, nor blasphemously lifting the creature to
undue elevation, when in one act the Apostle appeals to 'our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, and God our Father.'
Note, still further, the distinct address to Christ as the Hearer of
Prayer. And, note, last of all, about this matter, the singular
grammatical irregularity in my text, which is something much more than a
mere blunder or slip of the pen. The words which follow, viz., 'comfort'
and 'stablish,' are in the singular, whilst these two mighty and august
names are their nominatives, and would therefore, by all regularity,
require a plural to follow them. That this peculiarity is no mere
accident, but intentional and deliberate, is made probable by the two
instances in our text, and is made certain, as it seems to me, by the
fact that the same anomalous and eloquent construction occurs in the
previous epistle to the same church, where we have in exact parallelism
with our text, 'God Himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,'
with the singular verb, 'direct our way unto you.' The phraseology is
the expression, in grammatical form, of the great truth, 'Whatsoever
things the Father doeth, these also doth the Son likewise.' And from it
there gleam out unmistakably the great principles of the unity of action
and the distinction of person between Father and Son, in the depths of
that infinite and mysterious Godhead.
Now all this, which seems to me to be irrefragable, is made the more
remarkable and the stronger as a witness of the truth, from the fact
that it occurs in this perfectly incidental fashion, and without a word
of explanation or apology, as taking for granted that there was a
background of teaching in the Thessalonian Church which had prepared the
way for it, and rendered it intelligible, as well as a background of
conviction which had previously accepted it.
And, remember, these two letters, thus full-toned in their declaration,
and taking for granted the previous acceptance of the great doctrine of
the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are the earliest
portions of the New Testament, and are often spoken about as being
singularly undogmatic. So they are, and therefore all the more eloquent
and all the more conclusive is such a testimony as this to the sort of
teaching which from the beginning the Apostle addressed to his converts.
Now is that your notion of Jesus Christ? Do you regard Him as the sharer
in the divine attributes and in the divine throne? It was a living
Christ that Paul was thinking about when he wrote these words, who could
hear him praying in Corinth, and could reach a helping hand down to
these poor men in Thessalonica. It was a divine Christ that Paul was
thinking about when he dared to say, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our
Father.' And I beseech you to ask yourself the question whether your
faith accepts that great teaching, and whether to you He is far more
than 'the Man Christ Jesus'; and just because He is _the_ man, is
therefore the Son of God. Brethren! either Jesus lies in an unknown
grave, ignorant of all that is going on here, and the notion that He can
help is a delusion and a dream, or else He is the ever-living because He
is the divine Christ, to whom we poor men can speak with the certainty
that He hears us, and who wields the energies of Deity, and works the
same works as the Father, for the help and blessing of the souls that
trust Him.