3. All believers in Christ shall be assured of eternal felicity with Him.—“And so shall we ever be with the Lord” (ver. 17). For ever with the Lord in familiar companionship—in rapturous communion, in impending glory, in ever-enchanting revelations. With Him, not occasionally, or for an age, or a millennium, but uninterruptedly for ever, without the possibility of separation. How great the contrast with the brightest experiences of this changeful life! There are three things which eminently distinguish the heavenly life of the soul—perfection, perpetuity, immutability.
IV. That the contemplation of the second advent of Christ is calculated to minister consolation to the sorrowing.—“Therefore comfort one another with these words” (ver. 18). A community in suffering creates a community in sympathy. “If a thorn be in the foot, the back bows, the eye is busy to pry into the hurt, the hands do their best to pluck out the cause of anguish; even so we are members one of another. To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed from his friend” (Job vi. 14). The best consolation is that which is drawn from the revelations of God’s Word. There are no comforts like Scripture comforts. The bereaved were sorrowing for their loved ones who had been smitten down by death and were full of anxiety and uncertainty about the future. Shall they meet again, or are they parted for ever? The teaching of inspiration on the second coming of Christ assures them that their departed relatives shall be rescued from the power of death, that they shall meet again, meet in glory, meet to part no more, to be for ever with each other and with the Lord.
Lessons.—1. The Church is justified in looking for the second advent of Christ. 2. The second advent of Christ will bring an everlasting recompense for the suffering and sorrow of the present life. 3. The record that reveals the second advent of Christ should be fondly prized and constantly pondered.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15–18. The Second Coming of Christ and Sorrow for the Dead.
- The final period of the world the apostles left undetermined.
- Though ignorant of the final period of the world, they were confident it should not come till the prophecies respecting the destiny of the Church were accomplished.
- The Church, being ignorant of the day in which Christ should come to judge the world, should be always ready for that event.
- Sorrow for the dead is compatible with the hope of a Christian.—1. When it proceeds from sympathy. 2. From the dictates of nature. 3. From repentance.—Saurin.
Ver. 18. The Day of comforting One Another.
I. We must observe a rule and method in this duty.
II. This method is taught not in the school of nature, but of Christ.—1. In general, we must comfort one another with the Word of God. 2. We must comfort one another with the Scripture teaching on the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead.—Farindon.