For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.
Parallel Translations
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For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.
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Ye remember brethren oure laboure and travayle. For we laboured daye and nyght because we wolde not be greveous vnto eny of you and preached vnto you the gospell of God.
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For ye remember, brethren, our labour and trauaile: for we laboured day and night, because we would not be chargeable vnto any of you, and preached vnto you the Gospel of God.
Cross-references (31)
Passages linked to 1 Thessalonians 2:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you, neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you, not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us.
- 2 Corinthians 11:9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
- Acts 18:3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
- 2 Corinthians 12:13-14 For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong. Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I seek not your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
- Nehemiah 5:15 But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and wine from them, plus forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people; but I didn’t do so, because of the fear of God.
- Nehemiah 5:18 Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine. Yet for all this, I didn’t demand the governor’s pay, because the bondage was heavy on this people.
- Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
- 1 Corinthians 9:6-7 Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?
- 1 Corinthians 9:15 But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.
- 1 Corinthians 9:18 What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:6 nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.
- 1 Timothy 4:10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
- 1 Timothy 5:5 Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
- 2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.
- Psalms 88:1 Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
- Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
- Luke 2:37 and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.
- Luke 18:7 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Acts 20:34-35 You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me. In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
- Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,
- Romans 15:16 that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
- Romans 15:19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ;
- 1 Corinthians 4:12 We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.
- 2 Corinthians 6:5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;
- Philippians 4:16 For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:2 but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:10 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
- 1 Timothy 1:11 according to the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
- Acts 20:24 But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 9 For ye remember. These things tend to confirm…
9 For ye remember. These things tend to confirm what he had stated previously — that to spare them he did not spare himself. He must assuredly have burned with a wonderful and more than human zeal, inasmuch as, along with the labor of teaching, he labors with his hand as an operative, with the view of earning a livelihood, and in this respect, also, refrained from exercising his right. For it is the law of Christ, as he also teaches elsewhere, (1 Corinthians 9:14) that every church furnish its ministers with food and other necessaries. Paul, therefore, in laying no burden upon the Thessalonians, does something more than could, from the requirements of his office, have been required from him. In addition to this, he does not merely refrain from incurring public expense, but avoids burdening any one individually. Farther, there can be no doubt, that he was influenced by some good and special consideration in thus refraining from exercising his right, for in other churches he exercised, equally with others, the liberty allowed him. He received nothing from the Corinthians, lest he should give the false apostles a handle for glorying as to this matter. In the mean time, he did not hesitate to ask from other churches, what was needed by him, for he writes that, while he bestowed labor upon the Corinthians, free of charge, he robbed the Churches that he did not serve. (2 Corinthians 11:8) Hence, although the reason is not expressed here, we may, nevertheless, conjecture that the ground on which Paul was unwilling that his necessities should be ministered to, was — lest such a thing should put any hindrance in the way of the gospel. For this, also, ought to be matter of concern to good pastors — that they may not merely run with alacrity in their ministry, but may, so far as is in their power, remove all hindrances in the way of their course.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain To depart with his own rights rather than to…
To depart with his own rights rather than to be chargeable to his sheep.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail:…
9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
Ver. 9. Our labour] Even to lassitude, yea, to solicitude.
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And travail] So, to spare them, he spared not himself.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To make good what he had asserted before about…
To make good what he had asserted before about their integrity in preaching the gospel, that it was without covetousness, and vain-glory, &c., and about their great affection to them therein, he appeals to their own memory.
Our labour and travail: labour, in what we suffered, attended with care and solicitude of mind, as the word imports; and travail, in what we did, attended with weariness, as some distinguish of the words.
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For labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you; this refers to some bodily labour they used, which I find not mentioned in the story while they were at Thessalonica, though Paul did practise it at Corinth, Act 18:3. To prevent scandal and misconstruction that may arise from receiving maintenance, and in case of the church’s poverty, the apostle would refuse it; but without respect to these he pleaded it at his due, 1Co 9:1, &c. And his refusing was no work of supererogation, as the papists plead hence; for in such cases it was a duty with respect to the honour of his ministry; so that it ought not to pass into a rule, either that ministers in no case may labour with their hands to get their bread, or that they ought so to do always, as some would conclude hence, and preach freely. However, he commends them that they forgot not the labour and travail they underwent for their sake, and that both night and day, which implies assiduity and diligence, as 1Th 3:10; Psa 1:2; Luk 2:37; and so to be taken here. Though it may signify their spending part of the night as well as the day in some bodily labour, (the same we read 2Th 3:8), yet not to be understood as if they spent the whole night and day therein; for how then could they have preached the gospel to them, as he here addeth; and they would take nothing of maintenance from any of them, or be chargeable or burdensome to them; not from the poor, to whom it might really be a burden, nor from the rich, who yet might be backward, and account it a burden.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Notwithstanding our apostle was free, wholly free, from all…
Notwithstanding our apostle was free, wholly free, from all shadow and appearance of covetousness in the whole course of his ministry, yet it may seem as if some persons (probably the false apostles) did, though with the highest injustice, charge him with it; accordingly, to clear himself from that imputation, here he tells the Thessalonians, he laboured night and day in the business of his calling; making tents to maintain himself, that so he might not be chargeable or burdensome to any of them; or any ways retard or hinder the success of the gospel amongst them; labouring night and day, that we might not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God freely.
Yet observe, this was only a case of necessity; for at other times, and in other places, we find our apostle asserting his own right, and God’s appointment, that every one that preacheth the gospel should live of the gospel. 1Co 9:14
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Next our apostle calls upon them to remember his labour and travail, that is his pains and diligence in preaching the gospel; the words signify labour unto weariness, and labour after weariness, his painfulness, both in his preaching, and in his secular calling; and from his calling upon the Thessalonians to remember this, he learns us this lesson of instruction, namely, that it is the standing duty of a people to keep in their constant remembrance the great labour and pains which the faithful ministers of Christ do take amongst them, that so they may be duly thankful, both to God and them, and put a just value upon that spiritual good, which, at any time, that have experienced and received from them; Remember, brethren, our labour and travail.
Observe again, having asserted his laboriousness in preaching to them, he next puts them in remembrance of his exemplariness in conversation amongst them, how holily, justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves amongst you; that is, performing his duty with great integrity and uprightness towards God and man, so that none justly could blame him for neglect amongst them; and for the truth of this, he appeals to God as a judge, and to themselves as witnesses; Ye are witnesses and God also.
Learn hence, that it is a great happiness, and unspeakable consolation, both to ministers and people, when the duties of religion, relating to both tables, are performed with such exactness, that they can and dare appeal to one another, as to their holy and unblameable conversation, and to God himself, as to the purity of their aim and sincerity of intention.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For ye remember brethren, our labour and travail,.... The…
For ye remember brethren, our labour and travail,.... The great pains they took, even to weariness. The Vulgate Latin version renders the last word, "weariness"; and the Arabic version, "anxiety"; and the Ethiopic version, "affliction"; it is to be understood both of corporeal and spiritual labour, working with their hands and preaching the Gospel; this could not but be remembered by them, since it was not a year ago they were with them:
for labouring night and day; at our handicraft, or "at the work of our hands", as the Syriac version renders it; which they continually attended to, even night and day, when they were not preaching the Gospel, or disputing with the Jews, or praying and conversing with those that believed, or refreshing themselves with food and rest. The apostle's business was making of tents; see Gill on Act 18:3,
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because we would not be chargeable to any of you; neither to the whole body, nor to any single person; which shows that they did not seek their own ease and worldly interest; and proves what is before asserted, that they did not use a cloak of covetousness, but chose to forego, and not insist on what they had a right to, lest the Gospel should be hindered or reproached:
we preached unto you the Gospel of God; freely and with great application and diligence; for this is the other part of their labour and travel; for the ministry of the word is a work, and a laborious one, when closely attended to; a preparation for it by prayer, reading, meditation, and much study, are wearisome and fatiguing; and to preach the word in season and out of season, with all longsuffering and doctrine, is very laborious; to which no man is sufficient of himself, and is a work which requires great faithfulness, application, and industry; and is oftentimes made the more heavy through the malice and opposition of enemies, and the weakness of friends.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Ye remember - our labour and travail]…
Verse 9. Ye remember - our labour and travail] From this it appears that St. Paul spent much more time at Thessalonica than is generally supposed; for the expressions in this verse denote a long continuance of a constantly exercised ministry, interrupted only by manual labour for their own support; labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to you. Probably Paul and his companions worked with their hands by day, and spent a considerable part of the night, or evenings, in preaching Christ to the people.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Th 2:9-12. Ye remember, brethren, our labour — In…
1Th 2:9-12. Ye remember, brethren, our labour — In the ministerial work; and travail — Μοχθον, toil, in our secular employment; for labouring night and day, &c. — It seems they often took from the rest of the night the hours which during the day they had spent in the exercise of their ministry: because we would not be chargeable — But might be able to maintain ourselves. The apostle often appealed to this proof of his disinterestedness. Indeed, in preaching the gospel, he had no view but to promote the glory of God, and the salvation of mankind. Ye are witnesses — For our conduct was well known to you; and God also — Who observes our most secret actions, desires, and designs; how holily — Toward God, and in the things respecting his worship and service; and justly — With regard to men; and unblameably — In respect of ourselves; we behaved ourselves among you that believe — Who were the constant observers of our behaviour. As ye know how — With what earnestness, and diligence, and importunity; we exhorted, comforted, and charged every one of you — As far as God gave us access to you. By exhorting, we are moved to do a thing willingly; by comforting, to do it joyfully; by charging, to do it carefully. As a father doth his children — The apostle (1Th 2:7) compared the gentleness with which he behaved toward the Thessalonian believers to the tenderness of a nursing mother toward her sucking children. Here he compares the affection and earnestness with which he recommended holiness to them, to the affection and earnestness of a pious father, who exhorts his own children. That ye would walk worthy of God — Conduct yourselves in such a manner as becomes those who know God, and profess to believe in, love, and serve him, and in a manner suitable to the relation in which it is your happiness to stand to him; who hath called you — By his gospel and his grace; unto his kingdom here, and glory hereafter.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Ye remember, brethren, our labour - Doubtless in the…
Ye remember, brethren, our labour - Doubtless in the occupation of a tent-maker; Act 20:34 note; 1Co 4:12 note.
And travail - see the notes on 2Co 11:27. The word means “wearisome labor.”
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For labouring night and day - That is, when he was not engaged in preaching the gospel. He appears to have labored through the week and to have preached on the Sabbath; or if engaged in preaching in the day time during the week, he made it up by night labor.
We preached unto you the gospel of God - That is, I supported myself when I preached among you. No one, therefore, could say that I was disposed to live in idleness; no one that I sought to make myself rich at the expense of others.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain labour and travail--The Greek for "labor" means hardship in…
labour and travail--The Greek for "labor" means hardship in bearing; that for "travail," hardship in doing; the former, toil with the utmost solicitude; the latter, the being wearied with fatigue [GROTIUS]. ZANCHIUS refers the former to spiritual (see Th1 3:5), the latter to manual labor. I would translate, "weariness (so the Greek is translated, Co2 11:27) and travail" (hard labor, toil).
for--omitted in the oldest manuscripts.
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labouring--Greek, "working," namely, at tent-making (Act 18:3).
night and day--The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset, so that "night" is put before "day" (compare Act 20:31). Their labors with their hands for a scanty livelihood had to be engaged in not only by day, but by night also, in the intervals between spiritual labors.
because we would not be chargeable--Greek, "with a view to not burdening any of you" (Co2 11:9-10).
preached unto you--Greek, "unto and among you." Though but "three Sabbaths" are mentioned, Act 17:2, these refer merely to the time of his preaching to the Jews in the synagogue. When rejected by them as a body, after having converted a few Jews, he turned to the Gentiles; of these (whom he preached to in a place distinct from the synagogue) "a great multitude believed" (Act 17:4, where the oldest manuscripts read, "of the devout [proselytes] and Greeks a great multitude"); then after he had, by labors continued among the Gentiles for some time, gathered in many converts, the Jews, provoked by his success, assaulted Jason's house, and drove him away. His receiving "once and again" supplies from Philippi, implies a longer stay at Thessalonica than three weeks (Phi 4:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Ye remember—Paul is solicitous still to ground his…
9. Ye remember—Paul is solicitous still to ground his statements in their consciousness. All this picture is daguerreotyped on the tablets of their memory, and he does but retrace it.
Labour and travail—Two Greek words similarly coupled in 2Co_11:27, (translated “weariness and painfulness,”) and 2Th_3:8; the latter word last, climactically as the stronger term. Wordsworth derives the former, in Greek, from a word signifying to hew, and the latter from two words signifying to carry the logs. If this be a true etymology the words form a proverbial phrase, hewing and lugging, borrowed from the dialect of the primitive fellers of forests. Very applicable, for Paul is here an aboriginal feller of moral forests.
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Night and day—By night, that he might preach and visit by day; but also by day, that he might make sure of his three sabbath days of synagogue service, Act_17:2. His labouring was probably at his trade of tent-making, on which see note, Act_18:3. From Php_4:15-16, it appears that Paul did have Philippian aid in his travelling expenses, and also support at Thessalonica. He was aided by the Macedonians at Corinth. Paul was a large taxer of the full formed and powerful Churches; but mainly on other objects than himself.
Night and day—It is a striking proof how deeply the Genesis history was enshrined in the Hebrew mind of all ages, that night was always imaged as predecessor of day. And this is philosophical, for darkness, as a mere absence, must exist until light, as the positive entity, comes into being. But, though philosophical, it is not the popularly natural impression; for the obvious daily thought is, that night is the closing appendix to the day, and each new morning is the fresh beginning. Hence, though the Greek cosmogony, borrowing from the primitive, held chaos and night to precede day, yet that order was lost in popular phrase, which was day and night; as is the case, in spite of biblical history, with us of modern Christian Europe and America.
Wordsworth suggestively notes the varied New Testament usage. St. Paul always puts night before day, 1Th_3:10; 1Ti_5:5; 2Ti_1:3. St. Luke, puts day first, Act_9:24; except where he gives, in Paul’s two speeches, the reverse order, Act_20:31, and (by the true reading) Act_26:7. This is a wonderful occult proof, first, that Luke was a Gentile; and, second, that his record is a true verbal report of St.
Paul’s language. Luk_2:37 is probably in a Hebrew document. In Luk_18:7, he probably gives his own order.
St. John gives, in the Apocalypse, the phrase day and night five times, Rev_4:8; Rev_7:15; Rev_12:10; Rev_14:11, (day nor night,) Rev_20:10. This has an important bearing on the question whether John means the Hebrew hours in Joh_19:14.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail]…
9. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail] In ch. 1Th_1:3 (see note) the Apostle spoke with thankfulness of his readers’ “labour of love;” this laborious spirit they had learnt from himself: comp. 2Th_3:8-9, where it appears that to some of them his example was a reproof.
“Travail” is added to “labour,” as in 2Th_3:8; 2Co_11:27 (the reference being in each case to manual labour), to indicate the difficulty, as labour the toilsomeness of the Apostle’s work.
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St Paul was a “tentmaker by trade” (Act_18:3). Jewish fathers, even if wealthy, had their sons taught some mechanical craft as a remedy against poverty or idleness; and Paul had learnt in his youth at Tarsus the business of cutting out and stitching the coarse goats’ hair cloth used in Cilicia for making tents. He found this skill hi his wandering apostleship a great resource. An irksome kind of labour, to be sure, and but ill paid. It was a pathetic sight when the Apostle held up “these hands” to the Ephesian elders, hard and blackened with their rough task (Act_20:34). But he thus earned for himself the necessaries of subsistence, and avoided burdening the infant Churches with his maintenance. In this way he was free to direct his own movements, and raised himself above mean suspicions. At the same time, he did not refuse occasional aid from a Church like the Philippian, in which he had full confidence, and whose affection would have been hurt by refusal. On this subject read 1Co_9:1-19; 2Co_11:7-12; Php_4:10-20; Act_20:33-35. Silas and Timothy, who are included in this statement, may have had other means of support. But in Act_20:34 the Apostle speaks of “these hands” as “ministering” also “to the needs of those with me.”
for labouring night and day] Omit “for,” and read this clause in apposition with the last. Ye remember … our labour ant travail: working night and day … we preached, &c. Busy in teaching and preaching during the daytime, the Apostle often pursued his tentmaking far into the night.
because we would not be chargeable unto any of you] St Paul puts it in a more delicate way than this: that we might not lay a burden on any of you. It was consideration for his Thessalonian flock, rather than regard to his personal independence, that influenced him. How different was he from the false shepherds who “eat the fat and clothe them with the wool, but feed not the flock” (Eze_34:3). Most of the Thessalonian Christians, doubtless, were poor; while at Philippi there was “Lydia, a seller of purple,” and perhaps others of considerable means, who could afford to “send once and again to” Paul’s “necessity” (Php_4:15-16). Yet Jason of Thessalonica, in whose house the apostles lodged, seems to have been a man of substance (Act_17:5-9); and there were “of the first women” of the city “not a few” amongst Paul’s adherents in this place.
Thus “making the gospel without expense,” as later at Corinth (1Co_9:18),—we preached unto you the gospel of God) “Preached” is proclaimed, heralded. St Paul refers to the circumstances of his “entrance” (1Th_2:1) and the manner in which he and his companions then bore themselves. The Herald, or Town Crier, in ancient cities was commonly a salaried official.
A third time the Apostle writes “the gospel of God” (comp. 1Th_2:2; 1Th_2:4; 1Th_2:8)—a phrase occurring only thrice in all the other Epistles. It suggests in 1Th_2:2 the greatness of the charge entrusted to Paul; here, the greatness of the boon gratuitously bestowed on the Thessalonians.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) For.—As in 1Th_2:1, the general principles of the…
(9) For.—As in 1Th_2:1, the general principles of the foregoing verses are supported by facts which the Thessalonians will remember. If the word attaches itself to any particular phrase, it is to “impart our own souls,” “we were ready to die for you; indeed, you remember how we worked ourselves almost to death.”
Labour and travail—not mere synonyms here: the first describes the kind of work; the second, the intensity of it: “our manual labour, and how hard we worked at that.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For; a proof or confirmation of this dearness of…
For; a proof or confirmation of this dearness of the Thessalonians to the apostle. Ye remember, brethren; recalling to their recollection his conduct when he was with them. Our labor and travail.
These two terms frequently occur together (2Co_11:27; 2Th_3:8) and can hardly be distinguished; "labor," or" toil," is active, denoting exertion; "travail" is passive, denoting weariness or fatigue, the effect of the exertion. For laboring; in its strict meaning chiefly used of manual labor. Paul here refers to his working for his own support as a tent-maker. Night and day. Night precedes according to the Jewish mode of reckoning. It does not denote that the apostle made up by labor at night the loss of time during the day which his higher duties, as a preacher of the gospel, occasioned; that he wrought at his trade at night, and preached during the (lay; but the phrase, "night and day," denotes incessantly, continually. Because we would not be chargeable to any of you. Not a proof of the poverty of the Church of Thessalonica; but the reason of this unselfish conduct of the apostle was that no hindrance should arise on his part to the spread of the gospel; that no imputation of selfishness or covetousness should be laid to his charge. As he had done at Thessalonica so the apostle acted in other places. Thus at the time he was writing this Epistle he was working for his support at Corinth. (1Co_4:12; 2Co_11:9) And such was also his practice at Ephesus; for in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders he could appeal to them: "Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me". (Act_20:34) We preached unto you the gospel of God. Thus freely, without charge.
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A retrospect of his disinterested and self-sacrificing labors.
He next recalls the circumstances of his ardent and laborious ministry amongst them. "For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
I THE MINISTRY OF THE APOSTLE WAS ALWAYS LABORIOUS. He could say to the Corinthians that he had approved himself as the minister of God in labors;" that "in labors he was more abundant"; (2Co_6:4, 5 11:23) exhausting his strength daily in his eager anxiety to reach the people with the gospel of God. If ever man went to the edge of his possibility, it was the Apostle Paul. The labor might be exhausting in itself, or on account of the obstacles thrown in his way, but it became the habit of his daily life.
II IT WAS DOUBLY LABORIOUS AT THESSALONICA ON ACCOUNT OF THE NECESSITY HE IMPOSED UPON HIMSELF OF WORKING FOR HIS LIVING. Occupied in preaching or teaching through the day, he devoted his nights to his craft as a tent-maker.
1. The necessity in question was not imposed by either the Mosaic or the Christian Law. He showed to the Corinthians that alike natural justice, the Mosaic ordinance, and positive law, as announced by our Lord himself,
2. required them to support the ministers of the gospel. (1Co 9) "They who preach the gospel shall also live of the gospel.
3. It was a necessity based upon a high Christian expediency. At Corinth he thought good "not to use his power in the gospel," and therefore preached the gospel there "without charge." The malignity of Jewish enemies led him to avoid even the appearance of covetousness, or of attempting to "make a gain" of the Corinthians. We do not know under what circumstances he was led to pursue a similar course at Thessalonica. It may have been from similar accusations, or from a tendency he had observed among certain saints in the city to forswear work and go about as "busybodies." But his policy was exceptional, and affords no rule in modern times unless the circumstances should again become exceptional.
1. It was a necessity cheerfully accepted for the good of the Thessalonians. He had but two means of support in the city.
(1) He was not supported by super natural means, like Elijah in the desert.
(2) He was occasionally helped by the thoughtful kindness of the Philippians. "I robbed other Churches," he tells the Corinthians, "taking wages of them to do you service." He tells the Philippians, "For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again to my necessities". (Php_4:15-17)
(3) He had to supplement these occasional-gifts by "working with his own hands." Every Jew had to learn a trade. The apostle thus dignifies common industry. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail
1Th_2:9-12
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail
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Essential elements of success in preaching: Moral consistency
As time indicated on the dial answers to the perfect mechanism of the watch, so the personal example of the preacher must answer to the words he utters.
The most accomplished elocution, the most captivating style, will be fruitless unless backed with the strength of a complete, beautiful, spiritual character. Their moral consistency seen--
I. In the unselfish principle that governed them in their work (1Th_2:2). The apostle invariably asserted the right of ministerial maintenance. In another place he affirms that, not merely naked equity and the spirit of the Mosaic law, but also a positive ordinance of Christ requires this. In this early stage of the work, the apostle waived this claim. It might be on account of the poverty of the converts, or on account of the calumnious charge of covetousness. To crush all suspicion of interested motives, these noble missionaries refused to be chargeable unto any one of them, depending for their support upon the remittances of the Philippians, and on their own labour. Thus did they evidence their supreme desire to be, not gain, but the proclamation of the gospel; an example which has its counterpart in the brave, devoted, self-denying labours of many a modern missionary.
II. In the maintenance of a blameless deportment (1Th_2:10). A Roman prince of the celebrated house of Colonna, whose virtues had sustained him alike in prosperous and adverse times, was once driven into exile, and when reduced to extremity he was asked, Where is now your fortress? He laid his hand upon his heart, and answered, Here! A conscious sense of integrity threw a strength and majesty around him in his sufferings. An inward consciousness of purity prompted these workers to appeal to those who were best acquainted with them. They behaved holily toward God, justly toward men, and unblameably in every regard. Among you that believe. Believers could best understand the secret of their whole life, its aims and motives, its tendencies and issues; and on them it would have an irresistible impression. It is often the fate of the public teacher, while blameless, to be unmercifully blamed by those who are outside the circle of his work. The world retains all its historic enmity to the truth, and is as venomous as ever in its expression.
III. In their endeavours to stimulate their converts to the highest attainments (1Th_2:11-12). Observe--
1. The lofty standard set, up. That ye would walk worthy of God. How sublime and dignified the Christian character may become--to walk worthily of God! in harmony with His nature, His law--with our profession of attachment to Him. To the production of this grand result all their efforts were bent. As a father doth his children, so they exhorted with all earnestness, comforted with all loving sympathy, and charged with all fidelity and authority. The preacher must be master of every art necessary to success.
2. The motive to reach the standard. Who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory--His own glorious kingdom. We are invited to enter this kingdom on earth, and participate in its blessings; but the full splendours of that kingdom are reserved for the heavenly world. How brief and insignificant will the sufferings and sorrows of the present appear, contrasted with the ineffable bliss of the future state! Do you want anything? eagerly asked the loved ones who surrounded the dying couch of Melancthon. Nothing but heaven, was the gentle response, and he went smiling on his way.
Lessons
1. That in order to success in preaching, moral consistency of life must accompany and sustain the faithful declaration of the truth.
2. That the greatest success is achieved when the highest experience of the Christian life is constantly enforced by both precept and example. (G. Barlow.)
An unmercenary teacher
The Evangelist told the story of a young minister in whom the true spirit of his calling was evidently present. He went from a Congregational seminary to a Missouri town. His church was the feeblest one in the place, and soon men said, No Congregational element in this town. He created one. Through many discouragements he remained at his post, never once complaining or craning his neck for a richer church, a larger field, or a more conspicuous position. At last he began to get influence, and to use it aright. He had a call to a stronger church at £1,500 salary. He quietly refused. Then a call came from a great church east of the Alleghanies, with a larger offer of salary and moving expenses. None of these things stirred him. He never even told of it in his parish. The call was repeated. He said, No, my work is here till God shuts the door. And a goodly inheritance was his.
St. Pauls labours in Thessalonica
The narrative in the Acts, if very strictly pressed, might lead us to suppose that the apostle had only spent at Thessalonica twenty-seven days at the utmost--perhaps only twenty-one or twenty-two (Act_17:1-2; Act_17:10); but it does not absolutely demand such narrow limits of time, and two circumstances seem to require its extension--the conversion of many idolaters (1Th_1:9), and Pauls own expressed statement that he remained long enough in Thessalonica to receive assistance once and again from Philippi (Php_4:16). In any case, the spectacle of such an one as Paul so working, even for something less than a month, would be a memorable one--a thing to attract attention, and to be long remembered and discussed. This would especially be the case n the Church of Thessalonica. A shopkeeping and industrial community would instinctively know whether such an exhibition was a piece of charlatanism or a reality. Even if St. Pauls stay was cut short by a riot, they might be perfectly aware whether these few weeks were a fair representation of the frame and mould of his general life. It is certainly strange to think how far the idea which we instinctively form of the great apostle, as one utterly absorbed in theological thought or seraphic devotion, when not employed in preaching or missionary work, must be modified by such a passage as this. The language here used about working night and day, would show that in Thessalonica, at least, one unbroken day in the week only could be undividedly given to directly apostolic labour. It is vain to conjecture how much time may have been at his disposal upon the other days of the week. It has been added to the list of St. Pauls difficulties that he thus worked manually at an age when the bodily frame refuses to perform a new office. This is surely not so. Men of station and education among the Jews diligently learned trades. The same obligation has been imposed by custom upon persons even of royal birth in different nations and countries. Eginhard tells us that Charlemagne had his sons taught mechanic trades, and his daughters spinning and weaving. Each member of the Prussian royal family at the present time is apprenticed, and enters into a guild of tradesmen. St. Pauls motives in continuing to work were three--
I. Independence, the being able to take what has been ingenuously called a lay position.
II. Example. (2Th_3:8-9).
III. Charity, having something to give in alms (Act_20:34). (Bp. Alexander.)
Ye are my witnesses, and God also, how nobly, and justly, and unblameably we behaved--
Apostolic behaviour and methods
The apostle had previously made an appeal to his readers, and an appeal also to God; he now blends the two into one.
I. Apostolic behavior (1Th_2:10).
1. Holily, a word which looks specially towards God. A common Biblical phrase is holy to the Lord. The Divine command is Be ye holy towards your God, and the announcement is made, The Lord will show who are His, and who is holy. The word is applied to--
(1) God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, as infinitely holy above His creatures--the Holy One, the source and end of all purity.
(2) To angels.
(3) To saints, as being sanctified, consecrated to a holy life, by the renewing of the Spirit of holiness. All believers in this sense live holily. With varying degrees of conformity to the will of God, they are all true men. Their devotion is sincere; their hearts turn towards God as the flower opens itself and turns toward the light of heaven.
2. Justly represents the side of the apostles behaviour towards men. It means righteously, and defines the believers conduct as upright in all its connections and dealings with others. He is just in Gods sight, through the imputation of Christs righteousness; and, standing in a new relation to God, he strives to live in obedience to Gods law of love. We often use the word in a narrower sense, as when we say of a man that he is just but not generous. But that is an unwarrantable limitation. According to Gods law, no man is just who is not generous, kind, forbearing, helpful. Love is a debt we owe to our neighbour, and we are not just if we neglect to pay it. Owe no man anything, but to love one another.
3. Unblameably is a negative word, but on that account all the more comprehensive. As servants of Jesus Christ, they gave no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed. In applying these three words to himself and his companions, Paul could speak not merely of a good heart and a good life, but also of a good name--better than precious ointment. He who keeps his life free from sin does good to himself; he who keeps it clear of suspicion is merciful to others. The apostle is here a pattern to pastors and people; but we must ever rise from human examples to Divine. Christ is set before us as the Holy One, the Just One; and as to blamelessness, He could say, Which of you convinceth me of sin; and the Roman governor could testify, I find no fault in Him. It is when we stedfastly and lovingly look towards Him that we come at length to be holy and without blame before Him in love. Note that this was the light that Paul and his associates appeared in the estimation of those that believed. More than this could not be said, for by Jews and Gentiles their character and conduct were furiously assailed (Act_17:1-34). Paul represents himself, therefore, as turning aside from the reproaches and enmity of the world to the judgment of his fellow believers. In their hands his reputation was safe.
II. Apostolic methods (1Th_2:11). Already he had used the figure of a nursing mother in the tenderness of her self-sacrificing devotion to her children. He now shifts the figure, and is a father. Two points are to be noticed in the latter comparison--
1. As a wise father suits his training and teaching to the case of each child, so he acted towards his converts--every one of you. It was the apostles invariable procedure to deal with individuals. He ceased not to warn every one of the Ephesian elders. To the Colossian she says, Warning every man, etc. Christianity has brought out into clearest light, and assigned the greatest prominence to, the worth of the individual soul. The rulers and teachers of heathen society thought of men as a body, and used or influenced them in the mass, but seldom thought of the individual. But the religion of Christ takes account of each. Its foundation rests on individual conviction. Individualism, not multitudinism, is the law of its growth, until it comes to leaven the whose mass of humanity.
2. As a father is intensely earnest in giving his children right guidance and instruction, so was Paul in his yearning care of his converts. As he had described his behaviour in threefold way, so he describes his ministry.
(1) Exhortation is the more general term, and describes apostolic teaching as influencing the mind and will; in other words, instruction.
(2) Comforting is friendly persuasion, touching the feelings, and so leading the heart to Christ and His truth--consoling and inspiriting those who, in the midst of tribulation, were doubting and desponding.
(3) Charging or testifying is adjuring them with all solemnity, as in the sight of God.
III. Apostolic aim (1Th_2:12). The method was necessarily diverse: some needing exhortation, others comfort, others charging; but the end was one, because they all needed to walk worthy.
1. By walking we are to understand the whole character and conduct.
(1) The figure implies energetic movement in the way of progress.
(2) It is worthy walking only when the command has been heard and obeyed. Walk before Me, and be thou perfect. As ye have received the Lord Jesus, so walk in Him.
(3) Such walking is worthy of God, being with God.
2. Calling means not merely Gods invitation, but that invitation as accepted; hence effectual calling. His Church is called out of bondage and corruption into the light and liberty of the gospel. We must, then, walk worthy of the dignity of Gods freed men. This calling is unto--
(1) His kingdom. We are, then, to walk worthy of the duties of this kingdom, to exhibit--
(a) Faithful allegiance to its King.
(b) Joyful obedience to its laws.
(c) Affectionate interest in all its subjects.
(d) Valiant fighting in its service.
(e) Cooperation in all good work.
(2) His glory--not simply to His glorious kingdom; but while God calls His people to dignities and duties, He is also calling them to future rewards. Their destiny is glory. This glory is the prize of our high calling; but even here we know something of it. It consists of--
(a) Likeness to Christ (1Jn_3:2). Our glory will be the beauty of holiness.
(b) Sharing Christs sovereignty. To him that overcometh, etc.
Believers walk worthy of this destiny when they share it as fully as may be here, and when they lovingly look forward to its perfection hereafter. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)
The faithful pastor
I. In his personal character, as an example to the flock. Consider him as behaving
1. Holily before God. He was made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Throughout life he exhibited the evidences of, and made continual advancement in, the graces of the new creation. Notice some of the characteristics of Pauls holiness, which are always in some degree in every holy character.
(1) Tenderness of conscience.
(2) Deep humility.
(3) Lively gratitude.
(4) Prayerfulness.
(5) Realization of the presence of God.
(6) Living upon the promises of God.
(7) Profitableness of conversation.
2. Justly before man--
(1) In thought.
(2) In word.
(3) In deed.
3. Unblameable in general deportment. Free from minor (so-called) imprudences; abstaining from all appearance of evil. Blamed indeed he was, as all who live holily will be, but only as concerning the law of His God like Daniel. With regard to everything that involved duty and faithfulness he was firm as an oak, but in everything relating to personal convenience and benefit yielding in any way he could for the glory of God and the good of man.
II. As the instructor and guardian of the flock.
1. He exhorted, setting forth the whole truth, not simply as a matter of theory but practically. There was no reserve in his doctrine, pandering to individual tastes or to the fashion of the day. Hence his preaching afforded tests--
(1) To the unregenerate by means of which they might discover the absence of spiritual life and be led to repentance.
(2) To the lukewarm, so that they should not be allowed to rest satisfied with mere profession.
(3) To the believer, teaching him not to rest in present attainments, but to press forward.
2. He comforted. His own heart was full of love to God and man, and rejoiced in the experience of Divine consolations, so that he was duly qualified to sympathize with others (2Co_1:3-5). Cold is the comfort which arises from the mere theoretical statement of points calculated to give comfort; but when that consolation flows from a heart that can say, I have tried it myself and know its power, then God works by means of the minister, and the heart receives comfort indeed.
3. With holy authority and deep solemnity. Paul charged the Thessalonians--
(1) With discrimination, in language that was not vague and general, but such as enabled him to apply the different parts of his message to the conscience of everyone.
(2) With tender affection as a father.
III. The object he had in view--That ye would walk, etc. The arguments by which he enforced this charge were three-fold.
1. God had called them not only generally but effectually, and as He who had called them was holy so He urged them to be holy.
2. God had given them a place in His kingdom. That kingdom was one of--
(1) Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; its members there fore must glorify the King by righteousness and true holiness, and by joy and peace through believing.
(2) Liberty: its subjects are delivered from the thraldom of sin and Satan, and must live in loyalty to the royal law of liberty.
(3) Light: its citizens must, therefore, walk as children of the light.
3. God had prepared for them a state of glory. The heirs of that glory, therefore, must live--
(1) In expectation of it.
(2) In preparation for it. (J. Hill, B. D.)
The power of a Christian life
This does not sound like Christian modesty, but Paul frequently talked like this; yet he was one of the humblest of men, less than the least of all saints. The fact is, that Paul felt it incumbent upon him to bear witness for Christ by his life as well as his lips, and there were circumstances which constrained him to vindicate the excellence of his life as well as the truth of his doctrine.
I. The power of a Christian life as it serves to vindicate and recommend a Christians doctrine.
1. Mens principles have ever been tried by their practices. If we find Mohammedans or Mormons living good lives we feel sure that there must be some truth in what they believed. In this way men judge in relation to the gospel. When the life of a believer is bad it is taken as an evidence against the truth of the gospel; when good it is taken as a proof of its truth. And no wonder; for it is easier to judge of a doctrine in a mans life than in abstract forms. And then the gospel comes not as a speculation that the intellect may be gratified, but that mans heart and life my be transformed, and professes that it can be brought to the test of experiment. It follows, then, that when the lives of Christians are bad they are the worst enemies of the gospel; when good its best friends.
2. Examples open on all bands.
(1) What an argument for the truth of Christs doctrine was Christs own life! How often has it silenced those who assailed His teaching. That perfection could hardly have come from falsehood or delusion. How often has that same life strengthened the faith of the doubting. We have been oppressed by the mysteries of His doctrine, but when we have looked at His life we have felt that He must have uttered what was true, that He can be trusted, and may be followed in spite of difficulties.
(2) The same thing appears in the examples of the early Christians. The apostles and the great master were anxious that the lives of converts should be in harmony with their belief, because the world was to believe the Christian doctrine because of what they saw of the Christian life. And that life in its purity, love, resignation, heroism struck both Jew and heathen. Nothing was harder to be answered than that, and it is that which contributed more than anything else to the triumphs of the Church.
(3) The same thing is illustrated by the power of the biographies of good men. Have we not felt in reading them that there is no religion that could have produced such characters but that of Christ, and that the religion that could produce them must be of God. Nothing better can be placed in the hands of a sceptic than the record of a Christian life which has been in accord with Christian profession.
(4) The same is illustrated by living examples. The life of many a father and mother has been a greater inspiration than all their instruction. So with friends, business acquaintances, etc.
II. The power of a Christian life as it serves to enforce a Christian speech. There are some in every Christian mans sphere to whom he ought to speak on the subject of Christian faith and practice. To do this effectually it is necessary that there should be wisdom in the choice of time, circumstances, manner, subject, etc., but more than all a life in harmony with what is spoken. The want of this is the real reason why professing Christians speak so little to others on these subjects. There are other reasons it is true--a humble estimate of self, delicacy and reserve, but the true reason is because they feel that they would be acting in a way that would bring condemnation on themselves. How can a man speak against bad tempers, if his children and servants see him indulging them? or speak about the Bible if he neglects it? Or about extravagance if he is expensive? Or about the value of the soul, if he cares little about his own? He cannot speak, because he is ashamed, and because he feels that it would be little use. But let the life speak as well as the words, and then the words will be effectual as witnessing to the sincerity and earnestness of the speaker. It is better not to talk at all about religion, if we do not live it; and if we live it religion will often speak when we are silent.
III. The power of a Christians life in blessing his death.
1. Inasmuch as because of the death, the power of the life is more forcibly brought before the mind. Often we do not know the value of our blessings until we lose them. When we do appreciate the worth of a Christian friend while living it is not as we do when he is dead. We were sufficiently alive to his imperfections, but now he is gone we think only of his excellence, and yield to the influence of that.
2. In its influence in drawing the Christians affections upward. When our friends are with us shining in their consistent life this world satisfies us more than when they are gone. Their life is a force of attraction to this earth where they are: but their death attracts us to the heaven whither they have gone. If they had not lived Christian lives we should be thinking of them as somewhere we know not where, but recalling their lives as being Christian we are compelled to look upward for them in glory.
Conclusion: Seeing that the power of a Christian life is thus great, it becomes us--
1. To inquire very earnestly whether we have experienced it and yielded to it. We have all known some true Christians, and also some false professors. In regard to the latter many like well enough to see and condemn them, but with satisfaction as furnishing an excuse for irreligion. It is poor work to use Christian inconsistency for that end. If all Christians were inconsistent there might be something in it. But there are some who do lead Christian lives, and when near them we feel their power. What use are you making of them? Are you accepting their Saviour and imitating their example? And now if they are gone are you following them to heaven? You have to answer for the gift of every Christian man made unto you and not only for sermons, etc.
2. To inquire whether we are putting forth the power of a Christian life. Are we commending Christs doctrine by our lives? When we are gone will men be remembering us to their advantage?
3. A Christian life is such a life that Christ requires and that Christ lived, and that Christ enables those who really follow Him to live. Without Him we cannot live it (Gal_2:20). (D. Thomas, B. A., of Bristol.)
Consistency at home
The son and biographer of Caesar Malan, after describing the openness and impulsiveness of his fathers nature, and the close intimacy in which he had always lived with him, remarks: I never saw anything in him which did not renew the impression that he lived as seeing Him who is invisible. Never was I witness of a gesture, never did I hear a word, with respect to which I had to feel that it would become to him the subject of serious regret.
Holy instruments
How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp! Every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are Gods sword, His instrument, I trust, a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name. In great measure, according to the purity and perfectness of the instrument will be success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. (R. McCheyne.)
The influence of a holy life
About the mere presence and person of good men there hangs a charm and a spell of good which makes them do good even when they are not consciously thinking of doing good at all. Their very presence does good as if there were an angel there, and from their mere silence there spreads an influence, a flowing in of higher motives and purer thoughts into the souls of men. It was said of the ancient Cato that when he entered, the young Roman nobles blushed for their base amusements. It is said of one of old that even as a boy all bad words were hushed at once when he joined a crowd of his companions. (F. W. Farrar.)
A holy life recognized
It was said of McCheyne, of Scotland, that people felt him when he entered a meeting or private home. Although not a stern, sanctimonious man, but a very cheerful one, yet people recognized him as a man of God who carried the atmosphere of heaven with him, and lived out the gospel of Christ. The inward spirit shone out from him, in his language, and conduct, just as a blazing lamp always reports itself.
Sixty years of pure life
Citizens, exclaimed Lamartine to a Parisian populace during the revolution of 1848, as he introduced an honest man to them--Citizens! listen! for a sixty years of pure life is about to address you. The mob stood silent. And so the unconverted world will listen to a godly life in which the Divine Spirit dwells, when such a life comes in close contact with them.
That ye would walk worthy of God--It has often been charged upon Christianity that it is a narrow and belittling system, and that there is no scope in it for the highest development, and for the finest and most commanding type of character. If this be so it can only be because there is no fit conception of God, a thing which might have been affirmed with propriety at the foot of Olympus, but which it calls for a good deal of rashness to avow at the foot of that mountain on which the preacher said, Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. And here Paul adjures men to acquit themselves in a way to reflect and magnify the excellencies of Him in whom all excellencies meet and harmonize. There are two general thoughts involved in the idea of walking worthy of God.
I. Men are to keep always in mind that they bear Gods image on their souls.
1. There are those who tell us that our creation in the Divine likeness is a myth; that mind is only a function of matter; that what we are pleased to call the soul is only the outcome of physical organs in a certain state of adjustment and action; and that we have simply struggled up through lower forms and survive because the fittest. There may be some truth in evolution. Subsequent to the great creative acts, and within the sweep of laws and orders established by God, something like the principle of evolution does come into play. But there is nothing in this to disturb our faith in a distinguishing creation of man in the image of the Maker. Gods stamp is on the human heart and brain. Man is separated in his moral nature and boundless aspirations from all other orders because he has something of God in him. In virtue of this he is an evidence of God. His soul is a mirror which reflects God. Through this likeness our relation to Him is that of a child to a Father.
2. True this image is marred, but it is still on the soul. To be a man, no matter how low down or far away, is to have some trace of ancestry in God. It is the work of Christ to restore this image and bring men back to a filial acknowledgment of the Father. In every one who has accepted Him and is sincerely trying to do His will, this image is emerging into more and more of prominence, and by and by it will be complete.
3. To walk worthy of God this dignifying fact must be kept to the forefront. Princes are taught that they are sons of kings and must, therefore, conduct themselves in royal fashion. By every man it should be kept in perpetual remembrance that he is a child of the King of kings. What an uplifting power! What a help in the struggle to do the right! What a shield against evil assaults! Is there anything which gives us a larger notion of manliness, or supplies us with higher motive forces?
II. The new relations, privileges, and outlooks into which one is introduced by faith in Christ.
1. This is the central argument here. Men are to walk worthy because of the call into Gods kingdom and glory. They have come into a new estate, and are expected not only to show gratitude for it, but to feel its inspiration and advance into a grander mood of life. It is a thing of immense import that a man should be taken out of the kingdom of sin and set down securely in the kingdom of God. Pardon is a great thing, conversion is greater, but heirship to all the wealth of the heavenly inheritance is greater still.
2. Being called by God into His own kingdom and glory means much more than a standing in the Church, and a hope of admission into heaven. It means a fellowship with God in His blessedness now and forever. At present it is incomplete, but real. We see through a glass darkly; we know only in part; but we do see and know, and these experiences are prophetic of a seeing and knowing that shall one day be perfect.
3. No man can take this in without feeling that his walk ought to be very close with God and wholly in the line of His will. We are told that we are heirs of all the ages, that poets have sung, philosophers taught, legislators ruled, and martyrs suffered, etc., and that to us has fallen the precious fruitage of all this sacrifice and toil. But they who, through faith in Christ, have a standing in the kingdom and glory of God are heirs to something more than all this. Surely the thought that he is heir to the measureless riches of Divine favour is to put heart into a man and to stir him to the utmost stretch of endeavour. Within the sweep of these general thoughts there are some specific requirements.
(1) The spirit and habit of loyalty to God. He is to be the first and final reference of all our actions. His will must be the rule and test of living. This loyalty was illustrated by Peter and John. Whether it be right in the sight of God, etc. Front to front with prison doors they would be true to Him. Daniel is another example. Fidelity might cost him his life, but he would not swerve from it. So in the case of the heroes in Heb_11:1-40. The trouble with us is that God has not this regnant place in our lives. Secular codes are permitted to regulate our actions--political, social, professional, domestic--and which are allowed to determine what is right and wrong.
(2) A very high degree of purity. The most careless reader must notice the stress laid upon this in the Bible; but we lay too little on it, and too much on sensationalism and aestheticism. Yet a higher measure of purity is one of the most pressing demands of our time. How iniquity still abounds.
(3) A walk full of love--to God and man, for love is Godlike. (F. A. Noble, D. D.)
Walking worthy of God
I. The kingdom and glory to which God has called us. He calls to possess--
1. Himself--to take Him by the spirit, the heart, and the knowledge which is love.
2. Ourselves--we are lost if we lose God.
3. Our brethren. If we possess God we must possess as our brethren all who are His children.
4. All things All are ours for we are Christs.
II. God has called us to His kingdom and glory.
1. The ground of this call--His own character.
2. The methods.
(1) The Gospel.
(2) Christ.
(3) The Sacraments.
III. Our duty with reference to this call--to walk worthy of God, by contemplating the life and following the example of the only man who walked worthy of God--Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us. (N. Macleod, D. D.)
Not to disgrace religion
It was the custom among the old Greeks that every Athenian youth, as soon as he could carry weapons, should take this oath--I will not disgrace the sacred arms entrusted to me by my country, and I will not desert the place committed to me to defend. (W. Buxton.)
A walk worthy of God
1. Letters disclose the character of the writer. No two persons write exactly alike because no two persons have precisely the same character. In many cases we should know the writer even if the handwriting were concealed. There is a difference of tone and thought which either helps to form, or corresponds with our idea of the character of the writer. Some letters soothe, others irritate; some elevate us, others draw us down.
2. Letters disclose the character of the receivers. We write differently to different persons, and in the very act of revealing our own we indicate not obscurely our conception of anothers character.
3. These remarks are appropriate to this epistle. Paul is writing to a Church about which he is particularly anxious and hopeful. He gives us a graphic picture of himself and of his mode of dealing with his congregations. It is a beautiful portrait of a Christian pastor. And how much does the letter tell us of the persons addressed. We seem to learn from the Acts that St. Paul had been but a short time at Thessalonica, and yet he is able to record a work of faith, etc., and to speak to them throughout not only as persons interested in the gospel, but exemplifying its rules of life and acquainted with its deepest doctrines. We are taught--
(1) That there is nothing to prevent any one from becoming, within a very short time, a Christian indeed. It only needs that we should receive Christs message with prayer and watchfulness and try to act upon it. Then, the fruits of the spirit will speedily show themselves. Gods work is not tied by rules of time and system.
(2) The precariousness of Christian life. The more rapidly it grows the greater are its dangers; but whether it grows quickly or slowly, we have a watchful enemy, and if he succeeds in driving us back from our life of faith and labour of love, the labour bestowed upon us will have been in vain. Let us consider this worthy walk.
I. In general. The words are like, yet in one point different from, several other expressions elsewhere. The worthy walk in Ephesians is of the calling; in Philippians, of the Gospel; in Colossians, of the Lord; here, of God.
1. This, in all ages, must be the aim of all Christian teaching. Sometimes it may be done by giving details of duty; sometimes by laying down principles; sometimes, best of all, by touching the spring of motive, and dwelling upon that love of God which alone can make us love Him. But the object is ever the same.
2. Walk is a lively figure, and suggests--
(1) That our life is a state of motion. There is no resting here.
(2) It is motion within limits. The motion of today does not carry us out of the region of yesterday, and tomorrow will find us moving up and down the same area as today. And thus, as in our point of view, life is a journey; a journey of successive stages, no one of which is taken twice over; so, in another aspect, it is rather a walk, in which we start from our own door and return to it, traverse time after time the same space, and are still the same persons in the same region and home.
(3) That region and home is not local, but personal. We may change our abode, but we carry our sameness with us wherever we go--the same habits, infirmities, affections, tastes and interests. We are the same, and so is the reality of life; its accidents vary, but the deep inner life changes not.
3. But though life be a walk rather than a journey, inasmuch as it traverses over and over the same ground, there is all the difference in the world in our mode of exercising it. We may live at random with no rule or guidance; we may live on a principle not the right one; we may live according to the direction or example of others which may lead us quite astray. Pauls is a very short rule--Walk worthy of God. My conduct, then, in the little affairs of my daily life, so insignificant as they may appear, are in some way capable of high and glorious uses; capable of bringing honour upon, or detracting from the honour of God. We may help others to forget or to remember God. If we live in one way we show that we think God of importance; if we live in another, we show that we think He may be disregarded and no harm come of it.
II. In particular. There are some ways in which we could not, if we would, walk worthily of God. We could never so live as to remind men of the creative power, eternal existence, absolute sovereignty of God: but in the following ways we may, and can, walk worthily of Him.
1. By the cultivation of reverence. No one walks worthily of God who takes His name on his lips lightly, or refers in a trifling spirit to the solemn realities of His word or judgment. These are the ways in which wicked or thoughtless persons put God out of sight amongst their companions. Let, then, those about you be aware that though you may be merry and amusing about other things, you are always grave and reverent when God is concerned, and that you are shocked at the slightest allusion to Him in any but a serious spirit.
2. The cultivation of thankfulness. The thankful spirit is that of one who gives God the glory for all he has, and looks not at what He withholds.
3. The cultivation of holiness. As He which hath called you is holy, etc. He whose conversation is impure, whose heart cherishes impure thoughts, is doing the greatest dishonour to the God of holiness. On the other hand no one witnesses for God as one who is noticed for his perfect purity of speech and conduct.
4. The cultivation of kindness. When our Lord said, Be ye perfect as your Father, etc., He said it, with regard to kindness. This is what tells while a man lives, and is remembered when he is gone. (Dean Vaughan.)
Walking worthily
Here we have the whole law of Christian conduct in a nutshell. There may be many detailed commandments, but they can all be deduced from this one. We are lifted up above the region of petty prescriptions, and breathe a bracing mountain air. Instead of regulations, very many and very dry, we have a principle which needs thought and sympathy, in order to apply, it, and is to be, carried out by the free action of our own judgments. We are told in our text to walk worthy of God. Then again, we are enjoined, in other places, to walk worthy of the Lord, who is Christ. Or again, of the Gospel of Christ. Or again, of the calling wherewith we were called. Or again, of the name of saints. And if you put all these together, you will get many sides of one thought, the rule of Christian life as gathered into a single expression--correspondence with, and conformity to, a certain standard.
I. We have this passage of my text, and the other one to which I have referred, Walking worthy of the Lord, by whom we are to understand Christ. We may put these together and say that the whole sum of Christian duty lies in conformity to the character of a Divine person with whom we have loving relations. The Old Testament says, Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. The New Testament says, Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love. So then, whatever in that Divine nature of flashing brightness and infinite profundity is far beyond our apprehension and grasp, there are in that Divine nature elements--and those the best and divinest in it--which it is perfectly within the power of every man to copy.
II. The next form of this all-embracing precept. The whole law of our Christian life may be gathered up in another correspondence, Walk worthy of the gospel (Php_1:27), in a manner conformed to that great message of Gods love to us. That covers substantially the same ground as we have already been going over, but it presents the same ideas in a different light. It presents the gospel as a rule of conduct. The Cross is your pattern, as well as the anchor of your hope and the ground of your salvation, if it is anything at all to you. And it is not the ground of your salvation and the anchor of your hope unless it is your pattern. It is the one in exactly the same degree in which it is the other. So all self-pleasing, all harsh insistence on your own claims, all neglect of suffering and sorrow and sin around you, comes under the lash of this condemnation. They are not worthy of the gospel. And all unforgivingness of spirit and of temper in individuals and in nations, in public and in private matters, that, too, is in flagrant contradiction of the principles that are taught on the Cross to which you say you look for your salvation.
III. Then again, there is another form of this same general prescription which suggests to us a kindred and yet somewhat different standard. We are also bidden to bring our lives into conformity to, and correspondence with, or, as the Bible has it, to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called (Eph_4:1). God summons or invites us, and summons us to what? The words which follow our text answer, Who hath called us unto His kingdom and glory. Men that are called to high functions prepare themselves therefor, If you knew that you were going away to Australia in six months, would you not be beginning to get your outfit ready? You Christian men profess to believe that you have been called to a condition in which you will absolutely obey Gods will, and be the loyal subjects of His kingdom, and in which you will partake of Gods glory. Well, then, obey His will here, and let some scattered sparklets of that uncreated light that is one day going to flood your soul lie upon your face today. Do not go and cut your lives into two halves, one of them all contradictory to that which you expect in the other, but bring a harmony between the present, in all its weakness and sinfulness, and that great hope and certain destiny that blazes on the horizon of your hope, as the joyful state to which you have been invited. Walk worthy of the calling to which you are called. And again, that same thought of the destiny should feed our hope, and make us live under its continual inspiration. A walk worthy of such a calling and such a Caller should know no despondency, nor any weary, heartless lingering, as with tired feet on a hard road. Brave good cheer, undimmed energy, a noble contempt of obstacles, a confidence in our final attainment of that purity and glory which is not depressed by consciousness of present failure--these are plainly the characteristics which ought to mark the advance of the men in whose ears such a summons from such lips rings as their marching orders. And a walk worthy of our calling will turn away from earthly things. If you believe that God has summoned you to His kingdom and glory, surely, surely, that should deaden in your heart the love and the care for the trifles that lie by the wayside.
IV. And the last of the phases of this prescription which I have to deal with is this. The whole Christian duty is further crystallized into the one command, to walk in a manner conformed to, and corresponding with, the character which is impressed upon us. In Rom_16:2, we read about a very small matter, that it is to be done worthily of the saints. It is only about the receiving of a good woman that was travelling from Corinth to Rome, and extending hospitality to her in such a manner as became professing Christians; but the very minuteness of the details to which the great principle is applied points a lesson. The biggest principle is not too big to be brought down to the narrowest details, and that is the beauty of principles as distinguished from regulations. Like the fabled tent in the old legend that could contract so as to have room for but one man, or extend wide enough to hold an army; so this great principle of Christian conduct can be brought down to giving Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the Church at Cenchrea, good food and a comfortable lodging, and any other little kindnesses, when she comes to Rome. And the same principle may be widened out to embrace and direct us in the largest tasks and most difficult circumstances. Worthily of saints--the name is an omen, and carries in it rules of conduct. The root ides of saint is one separated to God, and the secondary idea which flows from that is one who is pure. All Christians are saints. They are consecrated and set apart for Gods service, and in the degree in which they are conscious of and live out that consecration, they are pure. So their name, or rather the great fact which their name implies, should be ever before them, a stimulus and a law. Walk worthily of saints is another way of saying, Be true to your own best selves. Work up to the highest ideal of your character. That is far more wholesome than to be always looking at our faults and failures, which depress and tempt us to think that the actual is the measure of the possible, and the past or present of the future. There is no fear of self-conceit or of a mistaken estimate of ourselves. The more clearly we keep our best and deepest self before our consciousness, the more shall we learn a rigid judgment of the miserable contradictions to it in our daily outward life, and even in our thoughts and desires. It is a wholesome exhortation, when it follows these others of which we have been speaking (and not else), which bids Christians remember that they are saints and live up to their name. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Walk worthy of God
I. By cheerfulness. Nothing is more Christlike and winsome. Every flower, even, tries to make itself as pleasant as possible. Let us copy the flowers. Our cheerfulness honours God, and shows that He is a good Master, and make him a blessing to his neighbours. When your lose comes do not dishonour God by fretting. Do not draw your joy from the worlds broken cisterns, but from the inexhaustible fountain of happiness.
II. By not being afraid of the truth. Many would be willing to follow the truth if it were fashionable; but if we would walk worthy of God we shall follow it not only at the risk of popularity but of life. Let the example of Christ and the martyrs and reformers nerve you to uphold and proclaim the truth. Show by your life that you dare rest your life on the word of Christ. This needs a new heart and a right spirit.
III. By earnestness in all we do. Our Divine trusts will not bear trifling with, and there is but a short time in which to discharge them. How energetic all have been who have walked worthy of God--Christ, the Apostles, etc. We work hard for our worldly employers, shall we work less for our heavenly?
IV. By genuine discipleship. Our practice should, like a good sovereign, ring properly when it is sounded. God is foully dishonoured when we are inconsistent. Be Christlike--
1. In word: truthful, clean, sympathetic.
2. In deed: pure, kind, helpful. (W. Birch.)
The dignity and duty of God
s called ones:--
I. This vocation is an act of Gods grace whereby we are invited to fellowship with Christ (1Co_1:9; Luk_14:16).
1. It is therefore opposed to works (Rom_9:11; 2Ti_1:9).
2. This invitation may be regarded two ways: barely by the word, or as implying our consent. When a man is called to an office in Church or State, he is said to be called though he declines; but when election and acceptation meet together, then there is a call. This distinction is necessary in Divine things (Mat_22:14; Rom_8:30). In a strict sense men are called only when they accept Gods invitation.
3. This calling implies that men are afar off. We call men that are afar, we speak to those who are near (Act_2:14; Act_2:39).
II. The duty of those who are called is to walk worthy of God.
1. There is a fourfold worthiness.
(1) In regard of merit: so only Christ is worthy (Rev_5:9).
(2) In regard of acceptation: so the saints are worthy (Rev_3:4).
(3) In regard of proportion (2Co_4:17).
(4) In regard of meekness (Mat_3:8). This is the sense here.
2. We should walk worthy of God because--
(1) Dignity calls for duty. What higher dignity than to be called to Gods kingdom and glory?
(2) The more dismal a mans condition is the more is he obliged to walk answerably to God who hath called him out of that condition (Eph_5:14).
(3) The more comfortable and glorious the condition a man is called unto, the more he is engaged to God who has called him to that condition. What is good or desirable but we are called to it in being called to Gods kingdom and glory? Is light desirable? We are called out of darkness into His marvellous light. Holiness? (1Th_4:7). Peace? (1Co_7:5). Communion with Christ? (1Co_1:9).
III. When may we be said to be called, and how may we know it?
1. God ordinarily calls men by the preaching of the Word; but also by direct impressions made by the Holy Spirit on the heart, and by afflictions, etc.
2. A man may know that he is called when he is--
(1) constrained by the love of Christ.
(2) Begotten by the word of promise (Rom_9:7-8).
(3) Separated from the world (1Pe_2:9).
(4) Apt and willing to be ruled by the Word in all things (Act_9:6; Act_10:29).
(5) When he can say, all things work together for my good (Rom_8:28).
(6) When he celebrates Gods praises (1Pe_2:9).
IV. What shall we do to walk worthy of God?
1. Observe the excellencies of God and let them shine forth.
(1) God is a great God; do something great for Him.
(2) He is a sovereign Lord, and absolutely free; do what He commands with a free spirit.
(3) He is infinitely holy: Be ye holy (1Pe_1:15-16).
(4) He is God all sufficient (Gen_17:1-27.); trust Him fully.
(5) He is faithful (1Th_5:24; 1Co_1:9); believe all His promises.
(6) He is our chief good and last end; in all your affairs begin with Him, rest in Him, desire after Him.
2. Observe what the great design of God is, and labour all you can to advance the same.
(1) Your sanctification.
(2) The worlds salvation.
(3) The glorifying of Christ (Joh_14:13).
3. Israel sacrificed to God the gods of other nations, and herein they honoured God; and so shall we if we surrender our idols to Him.
4. Take heed of sinning in secret, and be much in private duty because God sees you. Walking in the eye of an all-seeing God is most worthy walking. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
Christian magnanimity
I. The principles of magnanimity in general as a natural quality. As there is a difference between bodies as to size, so there is a real character of greatness or meanness applicable to the mind. It belongs to magnanimity--
1. To attempt great and difficult things. Those who from love of ease neglect the improvement of their powers, or who apply them, however assiduously, to things of small consequence, are destitute of this quality, as are those also who fall below their rank in life.
2. To aspire after great and valuable possessions. A great mind has great capacities of enjoyment, and will not be satisfied with trifles.
3. To encounter danger with resolution. No weakness is more contemptible than cowardice.
4. To struggle against difficulties with steadiness and perseverance. Few things are more contrary to magnanimity than fickleness. We commonly identify weakness and changeableness.
5. To bear sufferings with fortitude and patience. This virtue has always had the greatest reputation.
II. What is necessary to give it real value as a moral virtue.
1. The object of our desires must be just as well as great. Some of the noblest powers of the human mind have been exerted in invading the rights, instead of promoting the benefit of mankind. Some of the ablest men have borne the most detestable of characters.
2. Our desires must be governed by wisdom and prudence, as well as justice. Exertion in feats, which have little value except their difficulties or rareness, is no more the operation of magnanimity than rope dancing is the work of a hero. To spend a whole life in the accumulation of a vast fortune is of small merit.
3. The principle of action must be honourable, as well as the achievement illustrious. If a man does extraordinary things merely to make his name famous, it is mean; but the sacrifice of name and riches to duty and usefulness is glorious.
4. Every attempt must be possible and rational; otherwise it is only extravagant, not great.
III. Not only is there nothing in real religion contrary to it, but there only it appears in its beauty and perfection.
1. Religion calls us to the greatest and most noble attempts.
(1) In a private view it bids us subdue every sinful passion, and to nurture every excellence.
(2) In a public view, every good man is called to live for the glory of God and the good of others. What sphere of activity wider or nobler than this?
2. The truly pious man aspires after the greatest and most valuable possessions. He despises the unsatisfying enjoyments of time, and reaches out after God and heaven.
3. True piety encounters the greatest dangers with resolution. The fear of God is the only effectual antidote to the fear of man.
4. The Christian perseveres in opposition to continued trial. This is what distinguishes Christian warfare from every other. It lasts through life.
5. He endures suffering with patience and fortitude. Witness the martyrs.
IV. Practical improvement. Learn from what has been said--
1. That whenever honour differs from conscience, it is a treacherous guide.
2. That as Christian magnanimity is more excellent than that of the world, it is also more practicable and universal. It is open to all. (J. Witherspoon, D. D.)
Eagles and flies
Says Manton on this text: Live as kings, commanding your spirits, judging your souls to be above ordinary pursuits. It is not for eagles to catch flies. As of old it was said, Cogita te Caesarem esse--Remember that thou art Caesar--so say we to each believer, Remember that thou shalt one day be a king with God in glory, and therefore walk becomingly. This is important teaching, and much needed in these days. Many who declare themselves to be eagles spend the most of their lives in hawking for flies; we even hear of professing Christians frequenting the theatre. Instead of acting like kings, many who claim to be the sons of God act as meanly as if they were scullions in the kitchen of Mammon. They do not judge themselves to be Caesars, but they demean themselves as if they were Caesars slaves, living upon his smile, and asking his leave to move. What separation from the world, what brave holiness, what self-denial, what heavenly walking with God ought to be seen in those who are chosen to be a peculiar people, the representatives of God on earth, and courtiers of the new Jerusalem above! As the world waxes worse and worse, it becomes men of God to become better and better. If sinners stoop lower, saints must rise higher, and show them that a regenerate life cannot share in the general corruption. O Lord, I know that in Christ Jesus thou hast made me a king, help me, then, to live a right royal life. Lay home to my conscience that question, What manner of persons ought we to be? and may I so answer it that I may live worthy of my high calling. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Preaching while walking
The good St. Francis of Assist once stepped down into the cloisters of his monastery, and laying his hand on the shoulder of a young monk, said, Brother, let us go down into the town and preach. So they went forth, the venerable father and the young man. And they walked along upon their way, conversing as they went. They wound their way down the principal streets, round the lowly alleys and lanes, and even to the outskirts of the town, and to the village beyond, till they found themselves back at the monastery again. Then said the young monk, Father, when shall we begin to preach? And the father looked kindly down upon his son, and said, My child, we have been preaching; we were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen, looked at; our behaviour has been remarked; and so we have delivered a morning sermon. Ah! my son, it is of no use that we walk anywhere to preach unless we preach as we walk. (Paxton Hood.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 9–12. Ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail. There…
9–12. Ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail. There was hard and exhausting labor, “night and day.” The apostle was not willing to be chargeable to them; hence, while preaching “in season, out of season,” he labored at his trade for a support. To this day the weaving of black cloths for tents is a great industry at Thessalonica.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 1Th_2:9. Labour and travail.—The same words occur together at…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th_2:9. Labour and travail.—The same words occur together at 2Co_11:27. The former is used some twenty times, the latter only three in the New Testament. One marks the fatigue of the work, “the lassitude or weariness which follows on this straining of all his powers to the utmost” (Trench). The other gives prominence to the hardship or difficulty of the task. That we might not burden any of you (see 1Th_2:6).—Any support that could have been given would have been a trifle indeed (1Co_9:11) as compared with the self-sacrifice of the apostolic toilers.
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1Th_2:10. Ye are witnesses, and God also.—A solemn reiteration (see 1Th_2:5). Holily and justly and umblameably.—“The holy man has regard to the sanctities, the righteous man to the duties of life; but duty is sacred and piety is duty. They cover the whole field of conduct regarded in turn from the religious and moral standpoint, while unblamably affixes the seal of approval both by God and man” (Findlay).
1Th_2:11. Exhorted and comforted.—As the former points to the stimulation in the apostolic addresses, so the latter to the soothing element. The noun related to the latter verb is found in Php_2:1, and is translated by R.V. “consolation.” As a father with his own children.—The maternal tenderness is united with the discipline of a true father.
1Th_2:12. Walk worthy of God.—St. Paul’s “Noblesse oblige.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Th_2:9-12
Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. IV. Moral Consistency.
The writer, in dwelling on the manner and spirit of preaching, has shown the necessity of boldness, sincerity, and gentleness as powerful instrumentalities in achieving success. In these verses he insists on the moral consistency of the individual life and conduct. As the time indicated on the dial answers to the perfect mechanism of the watch, so the personal example of the preacher must answer to the words he utters. The most accomplished elocution, the most impassioned and captivating utterance will be fruitless unless backed with the strength of a complete, well-rounded, all-beautiful spiritual character. Paul and his co-helpers could fearlessly appeal to their hearers, and in all humility to God, in attestation of the moral consistency of their private and public action.
I. Their moral consistency seen in the unselfish principle that governed them in their work.—“For ye remember, brethren, our labours and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1Th_2:9). The apostle invariably asserted the obligation of ministerial maintenance by the Church. In another place he emphatically affirms that, not merely naked equity and the spirit of the Mosaic law, but also a positive ordinance of Christ requires that just as “they which ministered about holy things lived of the things of the temple, and they which waited at the altar were partakers with the altar, even so they which preach the gospel shall live of the gospel.” In the special circumstances and early stage of the work at Thessalonica, the apostle waived this righteous claim. It might be on account of the poverty of the majority of the converts, or more probably on account of the charge of covetousness their enemies had diligently circulated. To crush all suspicion of interested motives and self-seeking, those noble missionaries refused “to be chargeable unto any one of them,” depending for their support upon the occasional remittances of the liberal Philippians, and on their own manual labour. Thus did they evidence their supreme desire to be, not mercenary gain, but the proclamation of the gospel of God—an example which has its counterpart in the brave, devoted, self-denying labours of many a modern missionary.
II. Their moral consistency seen in the maintenance of a blameless deportment.—“Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (1Th_2:10). A Roman prince of the celebrated house of Colonna, whose virtues had sustained him alike in prosperous and adverse times, was once driven into exile, and when reduced to extremity was asked, “Where is now your fortress?” He laid his hand upon his heart, and answered, “Here!” A conscious sense of integrity threw a strength and majesty around him in the midst of poverty and suffering. It was an inward consciousness of purity that prompted these Christian workers to appeal to those who were best acquainted with their walk and conversation. They behaved holily toward God, justly toward men, and unblamably in all things. “Among them that believe.” Believers could best understand the secret of their whole life, its aims and motives, its tendencies and issues, and on them it would have an irresistible impression. It is often the fate of the public teacher, while blameless, to be unmercifully blamed by those who are outside the circle of his work. The world retains all its historic enmity to the truth, and is as venomous as ever in its expression.
No might, nor greatness in mortality
Can censure ’scape: back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes.”
III. Their moral consistency seen in their persistent endeavours to stimulate their converts to the highest attainments.—
1. This is evident in the lofty standard set up. “That ye walk worthy of God” (1Th_2:12). How sublime and dignified the Christian character may become—to walk worthily of God!—in harmony with His nature, His law, with our profession of attachment to Him. To the production of this grand result all their efforts were bent. “As a father doth his children,” so they “exhorted” with all earnestness, “comforted” with all loving sympathy, and “charged” with all fidelity and authority. The preacher must be master of every art necessary to success.
2. This is evident in the sublime motive that should animate us in reaching the standard.—The divine, heavenly calling. “Who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory” (1Th_2:12)—His own glorious kingdom. We are invited to enter this kingdom on earth, and participate in its blessings; but the full splendours of that kingdom are reserved for the heavenly world. How brief and insignificant will the sufferings and sorrows of the present appear, contrasted with the ineffable bliss of the future state! “Do you want anything?” eagerly asked the loved ones who surrounded the dying couch of Melancthon. “Nothing but heaven,” was the gentle response, and he went smiling on his way.
Lessons.—
1. In order to success in preaching moral consistency of life must accompany and sustain the faithful declaration of the truth.
2. That the greatest success is achieved when the highest experience of the Christian life is constantly enforced by both precept and example.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Th_2:9-12. The High Moral Feeling that should influence the Preacher.—Illustrated by Paul’s work and conduct.
I.In preaching the gospel.
II.In labouring for his own support.
III.In his behaviour.—
1. Towards God. “Holily.”
2. Towards others. “Justly.”
3. Unblamable. Prudent and inoffensive. He could appeal to man and God.—Stewart.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working…
For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working night and day [the Hebrew order-- Gen_1:5 ], that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God . [The apostle was so intent upon blessing the Thessalonians with the gospel of God that he toiled at night to make up the time spent in teaching them by day.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:9 Paul and his associates engaged in manual labor…
2:9 Paul and his associates engaged in manual labor to support themselves while in the city (cp. Acts 18:1-4; 1 Cor 9:12-18) as an example to the Thessalonians (2 Thes 3:8-9) and to avoid becoming an economic burden to them.
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