CHAPTER 4

(A.D. 54)

WALK GODLY

¹Furthermore then we beseech you, Brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God (pertains to the whole manner of living), so you would abound more and more (the manner of Spiritual Growth).

²For you know what Commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. (This is a Command to be Holy that can only be carried out by a constant and abiding Faith in Christ and the Cross, which gives the Holy Spirit the latitude to work.)

SANCTIFICATION

³For this is the Will of God, even your Sanctification (the work of making one Holy, which can only be done by the Holy Spirit), that you should abstain from fornication (refers to all types of immorality):

⁴That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel (the physical body, which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit [I Cor. 3:16]) in Sanctification and honour (morally clean, which can only be done by Faith exhibited constantly in the Cross of Christ);

⁵Not in the lust of concupiscence (evil passions and desires in the thought life), even as the Gentiles which know not God (speaks of the Gentile world which walked in darkness before the advent of the Gospel):

⁶That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter (refers to anything regarding fraud, however, the inference is to sexual misconduct; such must not be): because that the Lord is the avenger of all such (presents the fact that the Judgment of God upon all impurity is sure and terrible, and will ultimately come), as we also have forewarned you and testified. (This presents the possibility that sexual misconduct could have been a besetting temptation for the Thessalonians.)

⁷For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto Holiness. (God has called us from uncleanness, i.e., sexual impurity, unto Holiness.)

LOVE

⁸He therefore who despises (despises the Commands of the Lord), despises not man, but God (treating the words of men lightly is one thing; treating the Word of God lightly is something else altogether), Who has also given unto us His Holy Spirit. (The Holy Spirit is given to Believers in order that we might live a Holy Life, which is done by us evidencing a constant Faith in the Cross of Christ.)

⁹But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you (presents the Apostle with customary tactfulness beginning in a complimentary manner and then proceeding to the admonition): for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another (Believers who have the Holy Spirit, Who definitely teaches us such, and constantly).

¹⁰And indeed you do it toward all the Brethren which are in all Macedonia (for the Thessalonians, Macedonia was home; if we cannot love those at home, how can we love others far away?): but we beseech you, Brethren, that you increase more and more (presents the Apostle not admonishing them, but definitely exhorting them);

¹¹And that you study to be quiet (is the opposite of aspiring to be prominently seen and heard), and to do your own business (mind your own business, and not the business of others), and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you (work; dont steal, and dont sponge off others);

¹²That you may walk honestly toward them who are without (set an example for unbelievers), and that you may have lack of nothing. (If we truly follow the Lord, there will be no lack.)

THE RAPTURE

¹³But I would not have you to be ignorant, Brethren, concerning them which are asleep (refers to Believers who have died), that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (This concerns those who do not know the Lord who will have no part in the First Resurrection of Life and, therefore, no hope for Heaven.)

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again (the very Foundation of Christianity is the Death and Resurrection of Christ; it is the proof of life after death in a glorified state for all Saints in that life, which incidentally will never end), even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. (This refers to the Rapture of the Church, or the Resurrection of all Believers, with both phrases meaning the same thing, even as Paul describes in I Cor., Chpt. 15. At death, the soul and the spirit of the Child of God instantly go to be with Jesus [Phil. 1:23], while the physical body goes back to dust. At the Rapture, God will replace what was the physical body with a Glorified Body, united with the soul and the spirit. In fact, the soul and the spirit of each individual will accompany the Lord down close to this Earth to be united with a Glorified Body, which will then make the Believer whole.)

¹⁵For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord (presents the Doctrine of the Rapture of the Church as the Word of the Lord), that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord (all Believers who are alive at the Rapture) shall not prevent them which are asleep. (This refers to the fact that the living Saints will not precede or go before the dead Saints.)

¹⁶For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout (refers to the same Jesus which the Angels proclaimed in Acts 1:11), with the voice of the Archangel (refers to Michael, the only one referred to as such [Jude, Vs. 9]), and with the Trump of God (doesnt exactly say God will personally blow this Trumpet, but that it definitely does belong to Him, whoever does signal the blast): and the dead in Christ shall rise first (the criteria for being ready for the Rapture is to be in Christ, which means that all who are truly Born-Again will definitely go in the Rapture):

¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up (Raptured) together with them (the Resurrected dead) in the clouds (clouds of Saints, not clouds as we normally think of such), to meet the Lord in the air (the Greek word for air is aer, and refers to the lower atmosphere, or from about 6,000 feet down; so, the Lord will come at least within 6,000 feet of the Earth, perhaps even lower, with all the Saints meeting Him there; but He, at that time, will not come all the way to the Earth, that awaiting the Second Coming, which will be seven or more years later): and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (This presents the greatest meeting humanity will have ever known.)

¹⁸Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (This pertains to the future of the Child of God, which is Glorious indeed!)