p Ep. 5, 20. q......Stir up the gift of God...... 2 Ti. 1, 6. 19 very fore presence Jude 24. give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."...Faultless beQuench not the Spirit. 20 Despise not prophesyings. 21 Prove all things; of his glory with hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance" of evil. 23 And exceeding joy.... the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.s 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.' 25 Brethren, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. 3, 3. Whatsoever 27 I "charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy breth28 The ren." of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. things are of good report...... think on......Ph. 4, 8. t...Stablish you, and keep you from evil. 2 Th. Or, adjure. grace Amen. u Col. 4, 16. The Second Epistle of PAUL the Apostle to the THESSALONIANS. THIS epistle was probably written a few months after the first; and the principal reason of its being written seems to have been, to correct an erroneous impression, to which certain expressions of the apostle in the first letter had given rise the Thessalonians supposing that the apostle had written to them that the second coming of the Lord might take place in their day. The apostle assures them, that many things must take place before that event-especially a great apostacy; and exhorts them to attend to the business of life, and prays, that the Lord would direct their hearts rather into the love of God, and to a patient waiting for all events of God's providence. a 1 Th. 1, 1. 1 b1 Co.1, 3. 1 Pe. 1, 2. c Ep. 1, 15, 16. Ph. 1, 3. Col. 1, 3. 1 Th. 1, 2. PAUL and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessa-. We which lonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christa 2Grace unto Salutation, 1,2. you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. present trials Patience under crown of rejoice will meet with an everlasting 5 For what is our hope, or joy, or ing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Christ Jesus coming? For and joy. 1 Th. 2, 19, 20. reward, 3-12. are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.... 1 Th. 4, 17. "...In the latter times some shall faith....1 Ti. 4, 1. o...And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them. to make them white....Da. 11, We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience depart from the and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which at his ye also suffer. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense triye are our glory bulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his "mighty & to purge, & angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10 when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and P... False teachto be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good int a Gr., the angels pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.' Indignation k OW we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus 35. ers...who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denythe Lord bought them...2 Pe. 2, 1. 8 Or, holdeth. and wrath, tri-2 Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2that ye be not For I know this, soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by F word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at future great hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day which the unapostacy, of shall not come, except there come a falling" away first," and that believing Jews man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;? 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing goeth a k Ac. 1, 11. 1 Th. himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already rule them with work only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume God and our with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his Christ. Ti. 2, 13. coming even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all ...Giving heed In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the .... Mark them which cause divisions and of fences contrary to the doctrine learned; & avoid them. Ro. 16, 17. to seducing spi- power and signs and lying wonders, 10 and with all deceivableness of unrits...1 Ti. 4, 1. righteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 that they all might which ye have be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation a For ye rememlight of the glo- through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 whereunto he called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which would 16 Now our Lord ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and to the foreknow- hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, fort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." rious gospel of Christ.....should shine unto them. 2 Co. 4, 4. u Elect according ledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ......1 Pe. 1, 2. v...Stablish your hearts unblame before God, even our Father, at able in holiness the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...1 Th. 3, 13. e Gr., may run. Lord of the harvest) will send forth labourers into his harvest. Mat. 9, 38. 3 17 com FINALLY, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord "may have Inculcates en ber, brethren, our labour and travail...labouring night and day, because we not be chargeable unto any of you. 1 Th. 2, 9. b...... To forbear working....1 Co. 9, 6. c In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread... Ge. 3, 19. free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: 2and that we "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,* and not after the tradition which he received of us. 7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among 8neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with That (the labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you : 9 not because we have not power, but to make ourselves business, 6 an ensample unto you to follow us. 10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with ...... Withdraw quietness they work, and eat their own bread.d 13 But ye, brethren, "be not weary in well doing. 14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.9 Lord be with you all. 5 Gr., absurd. y......Which re ceive honour one of another, and seek not the ho nour that cometh from God only. Jno. 5, 44. Jno. 17, 15. 1 Co. 1, 9; and 10, 13. Or, the patience of Christ. The 17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. The second Epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Corinth. The First Epistle of PAUL the Apostle to TIMOTHY. THE voice of Christian antiquity is so entirely unanimous as to the authorship of this epistle, and any doubts as to its authenticity raised by some modern critics have been so satisfactorily removed by others, that we may with certainty regard this as a genuine production of the apostle Paul. Its occasion and object were Paul's being compelled at some time to depart from Ephesus, leaving Timothy behind in charge of the church, and to whom this letter was to be both a system of instructions for himself and a means of sustaining his authority, which was in danger of being called in question on account of his youth (ch. iv., 12). Now as we read of only one departure from Ephesus, that mentioned Acts xx., 1, it has been supposed that that is the occasion alluded to. The time that elapsed between the sending of this letter to Timothy and his rejoining Paul in Macedonia is certainly short, but then the letter remaining with the church would prove a substitute for Timothy's personal presence, and permit him to rejoin Paul. The greater number, however, of writers think that the epistle was written subsequent to the apostle's first imprisonment at Rome, and formed a portion of certain labours and an apostolic journey, of which we have no account further than can be made out from a comparison of the two epistles to Timothy and that to Titus. The chief objection to this hypothesis, framed out of and accounting for many things otherwise difficult to be explained, is, that it rests only on conjecture. It seems also irreconcilable with the alleged youth of Timothy at the time this epistle was written. The contents of the epistle agree with both opinions, for though the similarity of the topics handled in both epistles might argue for the later date, yet the allusions to the Gnostics in the first epistle are less marked than in the secondmarking thus an earlier period of the church, as these heresies, a mixture of Judaism, heathenism, and the Gospel, did not much infect the church till towards the end of the first century. The student will find a full examination of the questions arising out of these two epistles in Kitto's Cyclopædia, Birks' edition of the Horæ Paulinæ, and in the Preface to the epistles in the Pictorial Bible. b Ac. 16, 1. 1 Co. 4, 17. 1 Th. 3, 2. 1 PAUL AUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Salutation, 1,2. Jesus Christ, rather than c After the up- departed for go into Macedo nia. Ac. 20, 1. 7 our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. h... The blessed and only Poten tate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Ch. 6, 15 allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak...1 Th. 2, 4. 3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies,di. As we were which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. 5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 6 from which some "having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. 8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 11 according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed" God, which was committed to my trust. e.... He that lov-12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13 who was before a blas-...He was maniphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding d Not giving heed to Jewish fables and command ments of men, Tit. that turn from eth another hath fulfilled the law. Ro. 13, 8. at. Ch. 6, 4, 20. ... Beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it. Ga. 1, 13. fested to take away our sins, and in him is 1 Jno. no sin, 3, 5. a Or, not aiming abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful 9. The law is mandment holy holy, & the com & just & good. Ro. 7, 12. m To God only Christ for ever, gift that is in beguiled Eve n Neglect not the that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;" holding faith, and a good....The serpent thee, which was conscience; 19 which some having put away concerning faith have made given thee by shipwreck: 20 of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." prophecy...Ch. 4, 14. ....The mystery of the faith in a pure consci ence. Ch. 3, 9. p Their word will eat as doth a canker (or, gangrene), of whom is Hymeneus.... 2 Ti. 2, 17. q Ac. 19, 33. 2 Ti. 4, 14. 2 I B Regulations 7 through his subtilty...2 Co. 11, 3. ...As the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Tit. 1,7. quarrel, and of BEXHORT therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in Yauthority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ;d 6 who gave himself a ransom for all, to 5Or, modest. be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the GentilesOr, not ready to in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with "broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 10 but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For yOr,eminent place. Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. a......For the de struction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved...... Co. 5, 5. B Or, desire. b Seek the peace of the city whither I have caus ed you to be car THIS is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth fer wrong, as one in wine. k...The husband of one wife, hav ing faithful chil dren, not accused of riot, or un ruly. Tit. 1, 6. 0 Or, one newly come to the faith. 1 For...God spar ried away cap-3 a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless,' the husband of ed not the an gels that sinned m... Men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wis dom...Ac. 6, 3. Or, ministered. one wife, vigilant, sober, Sof good behaviour, given to hospi-...2 Pe. 2, 4. tality, apt to teach; 3"not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 5(for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation' of the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double8 Or, a testimony. tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 10 And let these also first be 1 Co. 1, 6. Ep. proved;" then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. 1,7. Col. 1, 14. 11 Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. 12 Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13 For they that have 'used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. 14These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15 but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:" God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto p....A falling a4 the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith," giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2speaking 2 Th. 2, 3. way....and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition...... |