V. Exhortation To Christian Living (4:1-12)
i i Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
Out of all that has happened Paul utters a prayer that we might have expected to be one of thanksgiving, but that is concerned rather with his constant hope to return to Thessalonica and with what he wants God to do in his friends there. He still looks for the greatest possible achievement in their Christian lives, and the rest of the letter may be regarded as setting forth the things for which Paul here prays.
11 It is characteristic of Paul's letters that he frequently slips into some short prayer. Thus at this point, where he is so concerned with his friends at Thessalonica and has given such evidence of his desire to be with them, he breaks out in a prayer that God will bring them together. It is typical that he should speak of God as directing him to them, and not simply of his paying a visit or the like. Paul does not forget that God rules in the affairs of this world; even his incidental expressions reveal how much the sovereignty of God means to him. He speaks of God as "our God and Father," a manner of address that brings out the characteristic Christian insight into the nature of God. The possessive "our" directs attention to the personal relationship that has been established. It is God's nature to be Father. But it is not the teaching of Scripture that he is indiscriminately a Father to all people. Rather, he makes provision for people to become sons by adoption (cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5, etc.). But both Paul and his friends had entered the heavenly family by faith. Thus he can make use of "our" when he speaks of the Father.35
It is significant for Paul's understanding of the nature of the Godhead that he joins so closely his references to the Father and to the Son. Here he links the two by making them the joint subject of a verb that is in the singular (cf. 2 Thess. 2:16-17).36 This is not a formal trinitarian definition, but it is the kind of understanding of the nature of the Godhead that led inevitably to the formulation of the dogma of the Trinity. This is all the more impressive in that it is done incidentally. Paul is not giving a theoretical discourse on the nature of deity, but engaging in prayer. Out of his understanding of God there proceeds naturally this form of expression in which the highest place is given to Jesus. In the first edition I said "Full deity is ascribed to Him," which has not unnaturally been held to mean "ascribed to him in this passage." It would give a clearer statement of my position if I were to say that what Paul says about Christ throughout his letters ascribes full deity to the Lord and that what he says here arises naturally from that basic position. These words do not prove the full deity of Christ, but they arise naturally out of this doc- trine.37 In that Paul feels no necessity to produce arguments to demonstrate this we must feel that the point was accepted just as fully by the Thessalonians as by the apostle. And in view of the early date of this writing it is important for the development of Christian doctrine. The deity of Christ was apparently accepted without question rather less than twenty years after the resurrection. It is not to be regarded as the culmination of a lengthy process of growth and reflection.
Paul prays that his God will "clear" his way to the Thessalonians.38 The verb has the idea of "making straight," perhaps even of "making level." The imagery appears to be that of preparing a road so that all unevenness is removed and travel facilitated. Paul looks to God to remove the obstacles that until this time had prevented him from paying the longed-for visit to the Thessalonians.
Paul goes on to pray that his friends will increase in love. Some exegetes make a distinction between the two verbs he uses, but they seem to be more or less synonymous. The apostle's use of both rather than one of them is a device for giving emphasis to what he is saying411 The latter verb is the more emphatic, and it is used by Paul much more frequently than the former, which in this transitive sense is found only here in the New Testament. The latter is often used of the divine grace abounding. Paul looked for Christians to abound in love just as the grace of God abounds in them.
Christians should have a special regard for one another within the family of God.41 They should also look on those outside the family as God does, with love (cf. JB, "love ... the whole human race"). Paul brings both these thoughts into his prayer, and he makes petition that they may increase in love (for the specifically Christian idea of love see the note on 1:3). It is love for people quite apart from their worthiness or otherwise, a love that proceeds in the first place from the loving heart of God. When the miracle takes place and someone passes from death to life, when someone becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, then that person comes to see people in a measure as God sees them. He comes to love them selflessly.42 Paul has already recognized that the Thessalonians exercise this quality, and his prayer at this point is that they may increase in this divine activity. Characteristically he appeals to the example he had set them (see on 1:6). Paul knew full well that no preacher can call on people to do what he himself is not prepared to do. He did not hesitate on more than one occasion to point out that he practiced what he preached. It may be that under modern conditions the preacher is not wise to direct attention to himself. But it is still as true as ever that if a preacher's message is to carry conviction it must first be found true in his own life.
13 While Paul was interested in the here and now he was not preoccupied with this present life. His prayer looks forward to the second coming of the Lord. The abounding for which he prays is in order that the Thessalonians may be unshaken even at the second coming. We have met the verb "strengthen" in verse 2 (where see note). The prayer here is that God will so supply the needed buttress that the Thessalonians will remain firm and unmoved whatever the future may hold. The heart, as in 2:4 (where see note), stands for the whole of the inner life and not simply for the seat of the emotions, as with us. It is easy enough for people to become prey to fears and alarms, to take up every new doctrine, to accept the unreasoning hope that leads inevitably to irresolution, disillusionment, and disaster. Paul longs to see his converts delivered from all such instability. He prays that they may have such a sure basis in love that they will be delivered from all this sort of thing. If God gives them this good gift he will establish their whole personality.
Yet we must not think of this as nothing more than a prayer for personal calm and confidence. There is in Paul's complex thought for them a pronounced ethical and spiritual element. This comes out in the succeeding expressions. He prays that they may be "blameless." Nothing less than the very highest standard will do for the Christian. Even before he became a Christian Paul felt that this word could be applied to his conduct (Phil. 3:6). The Christian certainly can have no lower standard. Indeed, the word has a fuller meaning here. In Philippians Paul had claimed blamelessness only as regards "a righteousness ... that comes from the law," but there is no such limitation here. Rather, the thought is of blamelessness before God. We should be in no doubt as to the high standard that is set before us.
But the thought is not exclusively ethical. The apostle goes on to bring in the notion of holiness, in which the basic idea is that of being set apart for God. Paul's word is one that signifies the state rather than the process. In the Greek Old Testament it is used only of God himself, and in the New Testament it is applied to people in only one other passage (2 Cor. 7:1). Paul leaves no doubt as to the wholeheartedness with which the Christian is given over to his Lord. The most usual designation of Christians in the New Testament is simply "the holy ones," or, as we usually translate it, "the saints," the word being from this same root. Believers do not simply live uprightly; they belong to God and thus are set apart entirely for God's service. Paul's prayer is that this may be fully realized among the Thessalonians.
The apostle takes this notion as far as it will go by bringing in the thought of the second coming (see on 2:19). He prays that right through, until this event that will usher in the end of this age, the Thessalonians will realize the glorious destiny of which he has been speaking. It is that aspect of the Parousia which means the end of this present form of existence that is in mind.
There is something of a difficulty with the final expression, rendered "with all his holy ones." As we have just seen, this is the way Christians are most commonly referred to in the New Testament, but the word can scarcely have that meaning here. These "holy ones" will be coming with Jesus, and Paul is praying that believers on earth will have their hearts established at that coming. He is distinguishing between believers on earth and the "holy ones" who will come with the Lord.
But "holy ones" is an expression that lends itself to other meanings. In particular, angels may be meant,43 or the saints who have departed this life. Good but not decisive arguments can be ranged in support of either view. Thus angels are designated "holy ones" in the Greek Old Testament, the Bible of the early church (Ps. 89:5; Dan. 4:13 [Th.]; 8:13; Zech. 14:5). Angels are also associated with the second coming in the New Testament (Matt. 13:41; 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thess. 1:7). In view of the fact that the Qumran scrolls bring us examples of Jewish literature of the immediate pre-Christian era it may not be without significance that they use the term "holy ones" of angels. Millar Burrows tells us that the Manual of Discipline mostly uses "angel" for evil spirits. For good spirits it prefers "holy ones" or "sons of heaven." Similarly, the Thanksgiving Psalms refer to "the army of the holy ones" and "the assembly of thy holy ones."44 It is clear that in the Judaism of the post-Old Testament period "holy ones" was an accepted designation of angels. Against this identification is the fact that angels never seem to be called simply "holy ones" in the New Testament. As used by the early Christians this expression seems always elsewhere to refer to people; it is the term for the "saints," those who have been made holy by the saving work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In this particular case there seems to be no reason for holding that Paul's thought is limited to one class or the other. Those who do this do not usually give attention to the facts (a) that in Scripture "holy ones" clearly sometimes means angels and sometimes means believers, and (b) that here Paul speaks of "all" God's holy ones. After all, "all" is a very inclusive term. It is clear from the New Testament that both angels and the departed saints will be associated with the Lord when he returns. There seems to be no reason at all why Paul should be intending to eliminate one of these classes at this point. It is best to understand the "holy ones" as all those beings who will make up his train, be they angels or the saints who have gone before.45