1 Paul craves their prayers for himself;
3 testifies what confidence he has in them;
5 makes request to God in their behalf;
6 gives them divers precepts, especially to shun idleness, and ill company;
16 and then concludes with prayer and salutation.

pray. Mt 9:38 Lu 10:2 Ro 15:30 2Co 1:11 Eph 6:19,20 Col 4:3 1Th 5:17,25 Heb 13:18,19

the word. Ac 6:7 12:24 13:49 19:20 1Co 16:9 2Ti 2:9

have free course. Gr. run, be. Ps 138:2 Ac 13:48

even. 1Th 1:5 2:1,13

2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.

delivered. Ro 15:31 1Co 15:32 2Co 1:8-10 1Th 2:18 2Ti 4:17

unreasonable. Gr. absurd. for. De 32:20 Mt 17:17 23:23 Lu 18:8 Joh 2:23-25 Ac 13:45,50 14:2 Ac 17:5 28:24 Ro 10:16 2Co 4:3,4

3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

the Lord. See on 1Co 1:9 10:13 1Th 5:24

stablish. See on ch. 2:17

and. Ge 48:16 1Ch 4:10 Ps 19:13 121:7 Mt 6:13 Lu 11:4 Joh 17:15 2Ti 4:18 2Pe 2:9 Jude 1:24

4 And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.

we have. Ro 15:14 2Co 2:3 7:16 8:22 Ga 5:10 Php 1:6 Phm 1:21

that. 6,12 Mt 28:20 Ro 2:7 15:18 1Co 7:19 14:37 2Co 2:9 7:15 Php 2:12 1Th 4:1,2,10

5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

the Lord. 1Ki 8:58 1Ch 29:18 Ps 119:5,36 Pr 3:6 Jer 10:23 Jas 1:16-18

into. De 30:6 Jer 31:33 Ro 5:5 8:28 1Co 8:3 Ga 5:22 Jas 2:5 1Jo 4:19

and into. Ps 40:1 130:5,6 La 3:26 Lu 12:36,37 Ro 8:25 Php 3:20,21 1Th 1:3,10 2Ti 4:8 Tit 2:13 Heb 9:28 2Pe 3:12 Re 3:10,11 13:10

the patient waiting for Christ. or, the patience of Christ. Heb 12:2,3 1Pe 4:1

6 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.

in the. 1Co 5:4 2Co 2:10 Eph 4:17 Col 3:17 1Th 4:1 1Ti 5:21 6:13,14 2Ti 4:1

that ye. 14,15 Mt 18:17 Ro 16:17 1Co 5:11-13 1Ti 6:5 2Ti 3:5 Heb 12:15 Heb 12:16 3Jo 1:10,11

walketh. 7,11 1Th 4:11 5:14

after. 10,14 2:15

7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;

how. 9 1Co 4:16 11:1 Php 3:17 4:9 1Th 1:6,7 1Ti 4:12 Tit 2:7 1Pe 5:3

for. 6 1Th 2:10

8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:

eat. 12 Pr 31:27 Mt 6:11

but. Ac 18:3 20:34 1Co 4:12 2Co 11:9 1Th 4:11

night. See on 1Th 2:9

9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.

Not. Mt 10:10 1Co 9:4-14 Ga 6:6 1Th 2:6

to make. See on ver. 7 Joh 13:15 1Pe 2:21

10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

when. Lu 24:44 Joh 16:4 Ac 20:18

that. Ge 3:19 Pr 13:4 20:4 21:25 24:30-34 1Th 4:11

11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

walk. See on ver. 6

working. 1Th 4:11 1Ti 5:13 1Pe 4:15

12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

we. See on ver. 6

that with. Ge 49:14,15 Pr 17:1 Ec 4:6 Eph 4:28 1Th 4:11 1Ti 2:2

eat. See on ver. 8 Lu 11:3

13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

ye. Isa 40:30,31 Mal 1:13 Ro 2:7 1Co 15:28 Ga 6:9,10 Php 1:9 1Th 4:1 Heb 12:3

be not weary. or, faint not. De 20:8 Ps 27:13 Isa 40:29 Zep 3:16 *marg: Lu 18:1 2Co 4:1,16 Heb 12:5 Re 2:3

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.

obey. De 16:12 Pr 5:13 Zep 3:2 2Co 2:9 7:15 10:6 Php 2:12 1Th 4:8 Phm 1:21 Heb 13:17

by this epistle, note that man. or, signify that man by an epistle. ver. 6 Mt 18:17 Ro 16:17 1Co 5:9,11 Tit 3:10

that he. Nu 12:14 Ezr 9:6 Ps 83:16 Jer 3:3 6:15 31:18-20 Eze 16:61-63 Eze 36:31,32 Lu 15:18-21

15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

count. Le 19:17,18 1Co 5:5 2Co 2:6-10 10:8 13:10 Ga 6:1 1Th 5:14 Jude 1:22,23

admonish. Ps 141:5 Pr 9:9 25:12 Mt 18:15 1Co 4:14 Tit 3:10 Jas 5:19,20

16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.

the Lord of. Ps 72:3,7 Isa 9:6,7 Zec 6:13 Lu 2:14 Joh 14:27 Ro 15:33 16:20 1Co 14:33 2Co 5:19-21 13:11 Eph 2:14-17 1Th 5:23 Heb 7:2 13:20

give. Nu 6:26 Jud 6:24 *marg: Ps 29:11 85:8-10 Isa 26:12 45:7 54:10 66:12 Hag 2:9 Joh 16:33

See on Ro 1:7 Php 4:7-9

The Lord be. 18 1Sa 17:37 20:13 Ps 46:7,11 Isa 8:10 Mt 1:23 28:20 2Ti 4:22 Phm 1:25

17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.

with. 1Co 16:21 Col 4:18

the token. See on ch. 1:5 Jos 2:12 1Sa 17:18

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

See on Ro 16:20,24

CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.

The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, it is generally agreed, was the earliest written of all Paul's epistles, whence we see the reason and propriety of his anxiety that it should be read in all the Christian churches of Macedonia--'I charge you by the Lord, that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.' (ch. 5:27.) 'The existence of this clause,' observes Dr. Paley, 'is an evidence of its authenticity; because, to produce a letter, purporting to have been publicly read in the church at Thessalonica, when no such letter had been read or heard of in that church, would be to produce an imposture destructive of itself....Either the Epistle was publicly read in the church of Thessalonica, during Paul's lifetime, or it was not. If it was, no publication could be more authentic, no species of notoriety more unquestionable, no method of preserving the integrity of the copy more secure....If it was not, the clause would remain a standing condemnation of the forgery, and one would suppose, an invincible impediment to its success.' Its genuineness, however, has never been disputed; and it has been universally received in the Christian church, as the inspired production of Paul, from the earliest period to the present day. The circumstance of this injunction being given, in the first epistle which the Apostle wrote, also implies a strong and avowed claim to the character of an inspired writer; as in fact it placed his writings on the same ground with those of Moses and the ancient prophets. The second Epistle, besides those marks of genuineness and authority which it possesses in common with the others, bears the highest evidence of its divine inspiration, in the representation which it contains of the papal power, under the characters of 'the Man of sin,' and the 'Mystery of iniquity.' The true Christian worship is the worship of the one only God, through the one only Mediator, the man Christ Jesus; and from this worship the church of Rome has most notoriously departed, by substituting other mediators, invocating and adoring saints and angels, worshipping images, adoring the host, etc. It follows, therefore, that 'the Man of sin' is the Pope; not only on account of the disgraceful lives of many of them, but by means of their scandalous doctrines and principles; dispensing with the most necessary duties, selling pardons and indulgences for the most abominable crimes, and perverting the worship of God to the grossest superstition and idolatry. It was evidently the chief design of the Apostle, in writing to the Thessalonians, to confirm them in the faith, to animate them to a courageous profession of the Gospel, and to the practice of all the duties of Christianity; but to suppose, with Dr. Macknight, that he intended to prove the divine authority of Christianity by a chain of regular arguments, in which he answered the several objections which the heathen philosophers are supposed to have advanced, seems quite foreign to the nature of the epistles, and to be grounded on a mistaken notion, that the philosophers designed at so early a period to enter on a regular disputation with the Christians, when in fact they derided them as enthusiasts, and branded their doctrines as 'foolishness.' In pursuance of his grand object, 'it is remarkable,' says Dr. Doddridge, 'with how much address he improves all the influence which his zeal and fidelity in their service must naturally give him, to inculcate upon them the precepts of the gospel, and persuade them to act agreeably to their sacred character. This was the grand point he always kept in view, and to which every thing else was made subservient. Nothing appears, in any part of his writings, like a design to establish his own reputation, or to make use of his ascendancy over his Christian friends to answer any secular purposes of his own. On the contrary, in this and in his other epistles, he discovers a most generous, disinterested regard for their welfare, expressly disclaiming any authority over their consciences, and appealing to them, that he had chose to maintain himself by the labour of this own hands, rather than prove burdensome to the churches, or give the least colour of suspicion, that, under zeal for the gospel, and concern for their improvement, he was carrying on any private sinister view. The discovery of so excellent a temper must be allowed to carry with it a strong presumptive argument in favour of the doctrines he taught....And, indeed, whoever reads Paul's epistles with attention, and enters into the spirit with which they were written, will discern such intrinsic characters of their genuineness, and the divine authority of the doctrines they contain, as will, perhaps, produce in him a stronger conviction than all the external evidence with which they are attended.' These remarks are exceedingly well grounded and highly important; and to no other Epistles can they apply with greater force than the present most excellent productions of the inspired Apostle. The last two chapters of the first epistle, in particular, as Dr. A. Clarke justly observes, 'are certainly among the most important, and the most sublime in the New Testament. The general judgment, the resurrection of the body, and the states of the quick and the dead, the unrighteous and the just, are described, concisely indeed, but they are exhibited in the most striking and affecting points of view.'