And ye became followers of us and of the Lord
Followers of the Apostles and of the Lord
This is a very interesting and beautiful account of the triumph of the truth and the progress of religion in Thessalonica.
The eye rests with gladness and gratitude upon the bright spots and periods, in the history of our world, in which the religion of Jesus has subdued and overcome the vice, and infatuation, and ignorance, and stupidity of our race; and we are prepared to say devoutly--“Awake, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient time, in the generations of old! Let Thy work be repeated, and the lovely scenery be viewed again!”
I. The Thessalonians were careful to follow the example of the apostles. And the apostles took every care to demean themselves well, not only for their own credit’s sake, but for the benefit of others, by a conversation suitable to their doctrine, that they might not pull down with one hand what they built up with the other; so the Thessalonians, who observed what manner of men they were among them, how their preaching and living were all of a piece, showed a conscientious care to be followers of them; that is--to imitate their good example. And herein they became followers of the Lord also, who is the perfect example; and we should be followers of others no farther than they are followers of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Thessalonians acted thus notwithstanding the afflictions to which the apostles and themselves also were exposed. They were willing to share in the sufferings that attended the embracing and professing Christianity. Perhaps this made the Word more precious, being dearly bought; and the examples of the apostles shone very bright under these trying circumstances; so that the Thessalonians embraced the gospel cheerfully, and followed the example of the suffering apostles joyfully. Such spiritual, and solid, and lasting joy as the Holy Ghost is the Author of, when our afflictions do abound, maketh our consolation much more abound.
II. Their zeal so prevailed that they were themselves examples to all others. They were “stamps,” or instruments to make impression. They made good impressions, and their conversation had a correspondent influence upon others. There is nothing which maketh the gospel sound louder, the sound of it to be heard better, and the offer embraced more readily, than when a sincere profession is beautified, and adorned, and seconded by a sober and conscientious practice; for it was such a profession, strengthened with such a practice, in the Thessalonians, which made the gospel sound from them in Macedonia and Achaia. The word signifies to sound shrill and far, as with the noise of a trumpet, or voice of lion herald. So that the effects of the gospel in turning the Thessalonians from idols “to serve the living and true God,” was so spread abroad that the apostles themselves “need not to speak anything.” (D. Mayo.)
The power of example
“Ye became followers”--imitators, or copiers--“of us.” This is the first view Paul here takes of his Thessalonian converts.
1. They resembled himself and his fellow labourers. But how? In their faith, their hope, their love, and their good works. Let us enter into this thought. Man is an imitative creature. The first voluntary efforts that are made by children, are always endeavours to mimic something which they have seen. But as man is a depraved creature, and as he is exposed to bad examples in this world, as well as good, and more to bad examples than to good, he naturally follows the multitude to do evil; and the question with him, therefore, concerning anything, is not--Is it true? or is this reasonable? or is it righteous? but--“What will people think or say of me? Shall I not be seen?” Why, all the Lord’s people are “a peculiar people”; and it argues much more dignity of principle and purity of motive to advance alone than under the applause of thousands. This disposition was in the case of the Thessalonians sanctified, for it was turned another way; for the men they now followed were few, compared with the rest, and they had nothing of a worldly kind to recommend them. No; they were esteemed the very “filth and offscouring” of all. Yet, with Moses, these Thessalonians chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” They “esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” Yes; with David they could say--“I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, of them that keep Thy statutes.” So it always is when persons are made wise unto salvation; then they immediately see, that the righteous are more excellent than their neighbours, and that of them the world is “not worthy.” Then they pray--“Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usedst to do unto them that love Thy name.” Then they let go the sons and daughters of folly and vice, and run and take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying--“We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
2. They resembled the Lord also; to show the apostles confidence that they were themselves conformed to Him, and those that followed them thus far would be followers of Him. Therefore, says the apostle to the Corinthians--“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Did he mean to place himself upon a level, then, with Christ? By no means; but to assert that he knew he was walking the same way, that he was influenced by the same principles, that he felt the same sentiments. And we must be conscious of this too. Yes; we must remember that “if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” But it is added, to teach us that no men are to be our examples any further than they resemble Him; that we are not to give up ourselves absolutely to any leader, however distinguished by gifts or graces. We are not to pin our faith upon their sleeve, or to determine our action by their practice invariably. No; they are all fallible. The wisest of men have their follies; the best of men have their faults; the wisest and the best of men, therefore, may lead us astray. Abraham denied his wife at Gerah; Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips; Job cursed the day of his birth; Peter said with an oath, “I know not the Man.” But here we have in the Lord Jesus an infallible pattern; and therefore we may give up ourselves entirely to His direction and influence, and, as it is said, “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”
3. They who imitated others became ensamples to others:--“Ye became ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” It is very observable in nature that things in succession are alternately cause and effect, effect and cause. Thus, parents produce children, and children produce in time children; thus, those now obey, who by and by command; thus, learners now become teachers; and those who were followers become leaders themselves. This was the case here; from following the apostles and the Lord Jesus, they “became ensamples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia.” Indeed, what individual is there, who is not, more or less, an “ensample” to some? Which of you is entirely isolated? Who is not seen and heard of some? Who is not followed by some? But how honourable was it for these converts! They were “ensamples,” to whom? “To them that believe.” Oh! it is easy for you to be “ensamples” to some. It is easy, to have goodness enough to censure and condemn the grossly wicked; it is easy, to have goodness enough to be considered righteous, when compared with drunkards, and swearers, and thieves, and robbers. But these Thessalonians were ensamples to the good, to the godly, “to them that believed”; yea, and what is more, “ to all them that believed in Macedonia and Achaia”; though it is very probable that many of these had been in the Lord before them, and had believed before them. There are many cases in which “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” (W. Jay.)
The practical result of a true reception of the gospel
I. The true reception of the Gospel
1. They received the Word in sorrow--“in much affliction” (Acts 17:5-9). Principally, sorrow on account of sin--their prolonged rejection of Christ, and obstinate disobedience.
2. In joy. “With joy of the Holy Ghost.” They realized--
(1) The joy of conscious forgiveness and acceptance with God. The sinless angels, placed beyond the necessity of pardon, are incapable of realizing this joy. It belongs exclusively to the believing penitent.
(2) The joy of suffering for the truth. Cyprian, who suffered for Jesus, used to say, “It is not the pain but the cause that makes the martyr.” That cause is the cause of truth. Suffering is limited to life, but truth is eternal. To suffer for the truth is a privilege and a joy.
(3) The joy of triumph--over error, sin, Satan, persecution. This joy is the fruit of the Spirit. These twin feelings--sorrow and joy--are typical of the alternating experience of the believer throughout his earthly career.
II. The practical result.
1. They became imitators of the highest patterns of excellence--“us and the Lord.” The example of Christ is the all-perfect standard. But this does not supersede the use of inferior models. The planets have their mission, as well as the sun, and we can better bear the moderated light of their borrowed splendour. The bravery of a common soldier, as well as the capacity and heroism of the most gifted officer, may stimulate a regiment to deeds of valour. So the apostles, in their patience, zeal, and integrity, became examples, while they pointed to the great Pattern.
2. They became examples to others. “So that ye were ensamples to all that believe.”
(1) In the reality and power of their faith.
(2) In their zealous propagation of the truth. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord.”
(3) The influence of their example was extensive in its range. Macedonia and Achaia were two Roman provinces that comprised the territory known as ancient Greece. Thessalonica, the metropolis of Macedonia, was the chief station on the great Roman road--the Via Egnatia--which connected Rome with the whole region north of the AEgean sea, and was an important centre, both for commerce and the spread of intelligence. Wherever the trade of the merchant city extended, there the fame of the newly founded Church penetrated. Great was the renown of their own Alexander, the Macedonian monarch, and brilliant his victories: but the reputation of the Thessalonian Christians was of a higher order, and their achievements more enduring. Learn--
1. The gospel that brings sorrow to the heart also brings the joy.
2. A genuine reception of the truth changes the man, and creates unquenchable aspirations after the highest good.
3. A living example is more potent than the most elaborate code of precepts, however eloquently explained or cogently enforced. (G. Barlow.)
The divinity of a true man
I. He is a recipient of the Divine. The “word” here is the gospel. Their suffering in receiving it was more than counterbalanced by “the joy of the Holy Ghost.” What matters bodily affliction if you have this joy. “We glory in tribulation,” etc. A genuine Christian is a man who has received into him the Divine Word. God’s great thoughts have come into his intellect, touched his heart, and given a new moral impulse to his being. He who has not received this Divine Word intelligently and with practical effect is no Christian. The Christian is a living Bible, the “word made flesh.”
II. He is an imitator of the Divine. The apostles were Christians because they were “followers of the Lord”; and all who would be Christians must become the same.
1. Christ is the most perfect moral model. In Him we have all that commands the attention and admiration of the soul.
2. Christ is the most imitable moral model. Sublimely great as He is, no character has appeared in history so imitable as His.
(1) Because none is so powerful to awaken our admiration. What we admire most, we imitate most.
(2) Because none is so easily understood. He is perfectly transparent. One principle--love--explains all His moral features and activities.
(3) Because none but His is permanently consistent.
III. He is an example of the Divine. “So that ye were ensamples,” etc. Macedonia and Achaia stand for all Greece, so that they became ensamples to the entire Greek race. Genuine Christian not only receives and imitates, but reflects and radiates the Divine. He is the brightest and fullest revelation of God on earth; there is more of the Divine seen in the Christly soul than there is in starry heavens and blooming landscapes. “Ye are My witnesses.”
IV. He is a proclaimer of the Divine. “From you sounded out the word.” This is an image from a trumpet filling with its clear sounding echo all the surrounding places. They sounded out the gospel, not only in enthusiastic utterances but in noble and generous deeds. Thessalonica was a large maritime and commercial city; and its Christian mer chants would in all their transactions with foreign traders ring out the gospel. Conclusion: A genuine Christian, then, is a Divine man. There is in a moral as well as in a constitutional sense, a “divinity within him.” He is the recipient, imitator, example, and herald of the Divine. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Stimulating example
The leisure of Caesar was spent in reading the history of Alexander the Great. Upon one occasion his friends found him bathing the book with tears. In deep concern they asked him the reason why he wept. The reply was, “Do you think I have not sufficient cause for concern, when Alexander at my age reigned over so many conquered countries, and I have not one glorious achievement to boast?” So the lives of the apostles and early saints may well be studied by us who are Christians, that we may be fired by their exploits to do greater deeds for God; and we should mourn bitterly when we compare our small achievements with His whom we call Master and Lord, and who, before He had attained the years of middle manhood, had performed deeds at which the stoutest frames might quake and the most faithful soul might blush. Comparisons such as these would first stir our gratitude that such an example has been left us, and then fire our valour, that at the end our lives might not be mere empty names, but such as men might gaze upon with admiration, and seek to copy.
Christ the only sufficient Exemplar
It is said, that, thinking to amuse him, his wife read to Dr. Judson some newspaper notices, in which he was compared to one or other of the apostles. He was exceedingly distressed: and then added, “Nor do I want to be like them; I do not want to be like Paul, nor Apollos, nor Cephas, nor any mere man. I want to be like Christ. We have only one perfectly safe Exemplar--only One, who, tempted like as we are in every point, is still without sin. I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, place my feet in His footprints, and measure their shortcomings by these, and these only. Oh, to be more like” Christ!”
The noble army of martyrs
“Man can do without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness, wrote Carlyle, and Paul preached it with his life. But that life was only a faint echo of a greater life. “The Man of sorrows” was “God over all, blessed forever.” If a man cannot understand how “many afflictions” may be consonant with “the joy of the Holy Ghost,” he may be a Christian by courtesy, but he knows little of Christian experience. The calling of a son of God does not exempt from sorrow, but it opens beneath it a spring of joy. This was proved by Paul, and his life work was the noblest, and has left the deepest mark on the progress of the race. Where are the Caesars? Much of their work abides, but their names are little more than shades. It is the man who brings regenerating work to bear upon his age who is shrined most lovingly in the reverence of mankind. And so Paul lives because Christ lived in him. Those who followed Christ live amongst us because Christ is amongst us. Three hundred years ago Paul shook Christendom as he shook heathenism and Judaism in his day.
I. Followers of us and of the Lord.
1. There is something startling in these words. A man of like passions with ourselves dares to propose himself for imitation to those who were seeking to follow the incarnate God. And the world is never without its Christlike ones. And there is nothing more wonderful than that men and women like ourselves may be and live like the Son of God. He does not shine in unapproachable isolation. As the elder among many brethren, a bright particular star amid a cluster of constellations, He leads the human host with which He has cast His lot and mixed up His life forever.
2. Where are the points of likeness? (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 12:10). In the power of self-sacrifice. It may seem strange to this self-loving age, but it is well worth noting, that these men whose lives have been so fruitful had no thought of any interest but Christ; no self-will, but were absolutely open to the will of God. Are we then to have no will of our own? God forbid! Paul had a mighty will of his own, and expressed it in defiance of the whole secular and religious world. But it was his own and yet not his own; it was moulded and refined into harmony with a higher will; and just as the blood gets purified from its carbonic dross as the vital air breathes through it in the lungs, so the will of Paul was purged of the acrid leaven of self by prayer that God would use him, strengthen him to follow Christ, and teach him to spend himself for the service of mankind.
3. A man need not adopt the calling of an apostle to enter such a life as this. There have been soldiers, statesmen, merchants, whose deepest thought has been “I am not mine own.” Hard as it may be, it is the beginning of peace to say it and try to live it. You may have your own way, and you will weary of it as soon as you have got it; while you may give up our own way, and make it your effort to care for others, and a glow of heavenly joy will enter and abide in your spirit. Likeness to Christ lies expressly in the power of self-sacrifice, and this is to grasp the difference between blessedness and happiness which the text expounds.
II. They entered into this fellowship by receiving the Word with much affliction and joy of the Holy Ghost.
1. Confession or profession is in these days cheapwork. Then it was dear work, and at any moment might cost dear life. It is not good to be out of fellow ship with the heroisms of the past. How many a stout citizen has stained his hearthstone with his life’s blood that you may sit with your loved ones without fears around yours? An age out of fellowship with the martyrs is neither noble nor blessed, however prosperous.
2. We learn from Acts 17:1-34 and the Epistle some thing of these afflictions. Strain your imagination to realize them--
(1) Feel the cords tightening, see the glaring eye of the lion, hear the hiss of the red-hot iron or the swing of the axe; and bethink you in the last dread moment of a gentle wife, or a dear boy, etc., whom you are leaving obnoxious to the same doom. Does it seem to you that you could utter the name of Christ with your last breath with passionate devotion? Then you can understand how none but as martyrs can taste the joy of the Holy Ghost.
(2) Then there was the utter rupture of all the bonds of kindred and social relation, and the loss of means. It is evident, from the Second Epistle, that there was deep poverty in the Church. They received the Word as England did at the Reformation--as Hindoos, Chinese, and South Sea Islanders receive it today.
(3) And this is independent of the sorrow which springs out of the stern struggle against the world and flesh and devil.
3. To understand this better, notice--
(1) That the purest joys are independent of surroundings. What a man has is nothing in comparison with what he is. If two persons love each other, to be near, even in penury, is bliss; to be separate, even in wealth, is misery.
(2) So the joy of the Holy Ghost is the joy of a man who has found the true Lover and Lord of His being, whom he can obey with supreme delight. It is the joy of the lonely soul that has found its kindred, of a sick man who feels within himself that the spring of his life is healed. Men can glory in tribulations if they but bring them fully into the sphere of Christ’s fellowship and love. Suffering ceases to be pain if love consecrates it.
4. And let the careless understand that the choice in life is mainly between suffering with joy in the Holy Ghost, and suffering without it. Life is no holiday pastime for any of us; but the true agony of life must be with those who are without God and hope in the world. (Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
Followers of us and of the Lord--
Not disciples merely, but imitators
I. In meek reception (Psalms 40:6; Isaiah 50:5).
II. Cost what it might.
III. Rejoicing all the while (Psalms 22:22; Psalms 45:7). (Canon Mason.)
Christ’s example the universal rule
God never gave a man a thing to do concerning which it were irreverent to ponder how the Son of God would have done it. (G. Macdonald, LL. D.)
The possibility of following Christ
Christ’s Divinity does not destroy the reality of His manhood by overshadowing or absorbing it. Certainly the Divine attributes of Jesus are beyond our imitation. We can but adore a boundless intelligence or resistless will. But the province of the imitable in the life of Jesus is not indistinctly traced; as the Friend of publicans and sinners, as the Consoler of these who suffer, and as the Helper of those who want, Jesus Christ is at hence among us. We can copy Him, not merely in the outward activities of charity, but in its inward temper. We can copy the tenderness, the meekness, the patience, the courage, which shine forth from His perfect manhood. His human perfections constitute, indeed, a faultless ideal of beauty, which, as moral artists, we are bound to keep in view. What the true and highest model of a human life is, has been decided for us Christians by the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Others may endeavour to reopen the question; for us it is settled irrevocably. (Canon Liddon.)
The indispensableness of following Christ
Believing on Christ, learning of Christ, following Christ; this is what it is to be a Christian. You must believe on Him that you may learn of Him. You must learn of Him that you may follow Him. But believing is nothing, and learning is less than nothing, if they do not result in faithful following. (W. Gladden, D. D.)
The motive for following Christ
Francis I of France had not reached his twentieth year when he was present at the celebrated battle of Marignan, which lasted two days. He performed prodigies of valour, and fought less as a king than as a soldier. Having perceived his standard bearer surrounded by the enemy, he precipitated himself to his assistance in the midst of lances and halberts. He was presently surrounded, his horse pierced with several wounds, and his casque despoiled of its plumes. He must have been inevitably overwhelmed if a body of troops, detached from the allies, had not hastened to his succour. Francis hazarded this battle against the advice of his generals, and cut short all remonstrances by the expression, which afterwards became proverbial, “Let him that loves me, follow me!” (Percy.)
Much affliction, with Joy of the Holy Ghost--
Affliction and joy
Plato makes Socrates say to his friends, after drinking the poison, “How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought the opposite of it! For they never come to a man together; and yet he who possesses either is generally compelled to take the other! They are two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem; and I cannot help thinking that, if AEsop had noticed them, he would have made a fable about God trying to reconcile their strife, and, when He could not, fastening their heads together; and this is the reason why, when one comes, the other follows.” That is a heathen speculation on one of the great mysteries of human life. The mystery appears intensified in Christian life (2 Corinthians 6:10). Yet so far it is explained by that life’s being an imitation of Christ. The believer, like his Master, being in world of sin, is encompassed with tribulation; but, being a citizen of heaven, he is also “girded with gladness.” He hears the voice of loving authority, and he yields to it loving obedience. “If any man will come after him,” etc. He knows that the via dolorosa which he thus has to tread is a path of true joy, for he recognizes his Saviour’s steps in it. Hence he can “sing in the ways of the Lord,” for fulness of consolation will be his at last. The stream of the renewed life is of two currents. As near Geneva, at the junction of the Rhone to the Arve, the two rivers, though joined, yet appear distinct--the blue stream of the one and the white stream of the other forming one volume of water, flowing within the same banks, at least for a time, towards the sea beyond--so it is with the Christian life. Its stream has two currents--distinct, yet united--of tribulation and joy, ever wending its course, troubled and calm, to the ocean of eternity beyond. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)