Lessons.—1. The establishment of believers is ever a subject of anxiety to the true minister. 2. The desire to promote the highest welfare of the Church should ever be paramount.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 1. “At Athens alone” (cf. Acts xvii. 16, 17). The Solitude of a Great City—
- Affords a painful opportunity to reflect on its moral condition.—“He saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”
- Awakens profound concern in a great soul.—“His spirit was stirred in him.”
- Rouses to immediate action in promoting the welfare of the citizens.—“Therefore disputed he in the synagogue and in the market daily.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–5.
The Perils of Suffering.
A storm among the Highlands of Scotland often effects great and rapid changes. The huge mountain that slumbers harmlessly in the sunshine, with such calm and sullen majesty, is transformed by the tempest into a monster of fury. Its sides are suddenly sheeted with waterfalls, and the ferocious torrents work devastation among the glens and straths that lie in their impetuous course. The trees and shrubs that are but slightly rooted are swept away, and only the firmly grounded survive. So it is, when the storm of persecution breaks upon the Gospel and its adherents. The new converts, the roots of whose faith have not penetrated so deeply into the soil of truth, are in danger of being disturbed and carried away. Their peril is matter of anxiety to the Christian worker. Hence the apostle sends Timothy, and writes this epistle to the Thessalonians, to confirm and establish them in the faith. He shows:—
I. That suffering is the inevitable lot of God’s people.—1. That suffering is a Divine ordinance. “For ye yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto” (ver. 3). A strange way, one would think, of reconciling people to affliction, by telling them that they have nothing else to expect. It is a grand proof of the triumph of the Gospel over the rebellious human heart that it prescribes such conditions and reconciles men to the acceptance of them; and it does so both by the grace which it imparts for the present and by the glorious hope it holds out for the future. It is laid down as a law of Christian progress “that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts xiv. 22). The very purity of the Church, imperfect as it is, coming into contact with the sin and misery prevalent in the world, produces suffering. “Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John xv. 19). It is enough for us to know that our trials do not happen without the knowledge and consent and purpose and control of God, and that their extent and duration are regulated by His infinite, fatherly wisdom and love. The Divine appointment of suffering is designed for our highest discipline and culture—withdrawing our affections from the temporal and centring them on eternal realities; exposing our hypocrisies and cleansing the moral corruptions that have entered into our lives, like filth on standing waters, and strengthening us to do the right, undismayed by the bitterest afflictions. The greatest suffering often brings us into the neighbourhood of the greatest blessing. “Gold is cleaner after it has been put into the fire: be thou gold, and the fiery persecution shall not hurt thee.”
2. That suffering was the subject of frequent apostolic warning.—“For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation” (ver. 4). It is intimated here that it was not so much one single statement on some particular occasion as it was the constant and habitual tenor of the apostle’s teaching that suffering was to be expected. Paul himself was an illustrious example of heroic fortitude in suffering for Christ’s sake. “The Holy Ghost,” said he, “witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me” (Acts xx. 23). It is both wise and kind to forewarn God’s people of coming afflictions, that they be not overtaken unexpectedly and unprepared. The predictions of the apostle were verified: “Even as it came to pass, and ye know.” Their first acquaintance with the Gospel was in the midst of persecution and trial. The violent opposition continued, but the warnings and exhortations of the apostle were not in vain (2 Thess. i. 4).
3. That the suffering of God’s people is a cause of ministerial anxiety.—“For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith” (ver. 5). It has been pithily said, “Calamity is man’s true touchstone.” The strongest have then become a prey to the malice and subtlety of Satan. The faithful minister, knowing the perils of suffering and the awful consequences of apostasy, is anxiously concerned about the faith of his converts. “There are three modes of bearing the ills of life—by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual” (Colton).