CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1 Thessalonians 3:11. Direct our way unto you.— Acts 16:6-7 should be read. Satan might hinder (1 Thessalonians 2:18); if God “makes straight” the way, progress will be easy.
1 Thessalonians 3:12. The Lord make you abound in love.—The Lord may here be the Holy Spirit, as the three persons of the Trinity will be appealed to (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:13, as in 2 Thessalonians 3:5). So the Holy Ghost is called the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17). Love is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and His office is to establish in holiness (1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:2) (Faussett).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
A Comprehensive Apostolic Prayer.
The prayers of the apostle Paul are among his sublimest utterances. The frequency with which they occur in his writings indicates the habitual devoutness of his mind. In both the epistles to the Thessalonians nearly every chapter is distinguished and sealed by a fervent outbreathing of his soul to God. In these verses he expresses, in the most comprehensive and suggestive terms, his dearest wishes for the welfare of the Church.
I. This prayer recognises the essential oneness of the Father and the Son.—
1. Christ is invoked equally with the Father. “Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 3:11). The word “Himself” stands foremost in the sentence and refers to both persons, as if the writer said, “May our God and Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself direct our way unto you.” It should be also noted that the verb “direct,” belonging to both persons, is in the singular number. This fact was urged as an important point by Athanasius in the great Arian controversy in the fourth century. As the Son partakes equally with the Father in the honour of invocation, so also in excellency of nature. Divine properties are also ascribed to the Son in overruling by His providence the affairs of men. “What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”
2. It is the privilege of the believer to realise a personal interest in the Father and in the Son.—By an act of appropriating faith we can say, God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Similiar phrases occur no less than twenty-six times in these two epistles. Blessed confidence! What a wealth of tenderness, of comfort, of satisfying assurance, and of joyous triumph is involved in the earnest, trustful cry of the soul—My God! my Saviour!
II. This is a prayer for providential guidance in securing a much desired interview.—“Direct our way unto you” (1 Thessalonians 3:11). Hitherto the way to Thessalonica had been insuperably blocked up. The brethren there were as eager to welcome Paul as he was to be present with them; but Satan had hindered by interposing many obstacles. Nevertheless, let God give the signal and all impediments from men or devils would vanish. The road would at once become straight and plain. God should be recognised in the simplest affairs of life. “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps;” and only those journeys are prosperous wherein God is pilot. There are crises in life when everything depends on being guided in the right way—e.g. in selecting a school or college, entering on the religious life, commencing business, contemplating marriage, or in change of residence. In these and all other matters acknowledge God, and He shall direct thy paths. Our prayer for guidance must ever be in submission to the divine will. The apostle’s prayer was not answered immediately; five years elapsed before he again visited Macedonia. That path is safest and best in which God’s finger points. Let His call be our loadstar; His hand the cloud, to move or pause as He directs.
III. This is a prayer for the bestowal of an increased measure of the highest Christian affection.—
1. Christian love is progressive and mutual. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). The apostle had before commended their labour of love, and Timothy had brought good tidings of their continued love. Now he prays they may increase and excel more and more. Love is the indispensable badge of the genuine Christian. He cannot have too much of it—the more the better. It grows with all other graces, and causes them to grow. There is no limit to its expansion but our finiteness. But love must be mutual in its exercise—“one toward another.” “For this is the message,” says St. John, “that ye heard from the beginning, that ye should love one another;” and, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another,” urges St. Peter, “with a pure heart fervently.”
2. Christian love is unselfish.—“And toward all men.” The old Levitical law declared, “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And the New Testament reiterates the truth, that charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned is the fulfilling of the royal law.
3. Here we have Christian love practically exemplified.—“Even as we do towards you.” Paul and his co-labourers had given unmistakable evidence of their sincere love for the Thessalonian converts in their self-denying labours, uncomplaining sufferings, and unceasing anxiety on their behalf (1 Thessalonians 2:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 3:3-5). Love is the soul of self-sacrifice, prompts to labour, braves all suffering, and persists in doing good to others, even to those who least appreciate and most violently oppose the best endeavours. Ministers should exemplify in their own lives what they prescribe to others.
IV. This is a prayer for confirmation in a state of unblamable personal purity.—
1. There is no stability in Christian graces apart from love. “To the end he may establish your hearts” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). If it were possible to possess every other grace but love, it would be like a varied summer landscape, very beautiful but transient, having in it no element of permanency. Above all other graces we are exhorted to “put on charity which is the bond of perfectness”—a girdle which adorns and binds together all the rest. Love is the fulfilling of the law, the infallible test and evidence of stability.
2. Unblamable holiness is the legitimate and necessary outcome of love.—“To the end He may stablish your hearts in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). The apostle prays for an increase of love in order to the attainment of a higher personal purity. All defects in obedience issue from a defect in love. Our love of God makes us solicitous to know and obey Him and fearful to offend Him. Our love of man makes us careful to preserve his honour, life, and possessions, and in no way to impair his happiness. The whole of the law is love. There is no duty to God or man but love inclines unto, and no sin from which it does not restrain. To be unblamable in holiness, store the soul with love. When love fails, obedience and all holy duties fail.
3. Holiness screens the soul from divine censure at the second advent of Christ.—“Unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Christ will come in glorious pomp attended by His holy ones—saints and angels. He who remains steadfast in holiness shall be held blameless then. Our outer life may be censured by men; but if God, even our Father, who stablishes our hearts in holiness, absolves and approves, it will be enough. That holiness alone is genuine which will bear the searching scrutiny of Omniscience.
Lessons.—
1. Recognise God in every event of life.
2. To attain the highest degree of personal purity pray for an increase of love.
3. Act in all things so as to secure the divine approval.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13. A Prayer for Growth in Personal Piety—
I. Acknowledges and invokes the divine source of all spiritual good.—“The Lord make you.”
II. Growth in piety is growth in Christian love.—“Increase and abound in love.”
III. Growth in piety is the establishment of the soul in unblamable holiness.—“To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness.”
IV. Growth in piety is essential to gain the approval of God at the second advent of Christ.—“Before God, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
1 Thessalonians 3:13. The Coming of Christ—
I.
Will be an imposing spectacle.
II.
Should be ardently longed for.
III.
Demands on our part diligent moral preparedness.