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1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 4
1Th_4:1-8 Paul exhorteth the Thessalonians to proceed in their
endeavours to please God by a holy and just conversation.
1Th_4:9,10 He commendeth their love to one another, entreating
them to abound in it,
1Th_4:11,12 and quietly to follow their respective callings.
1Th_4:13-18 And that they might not sorrow for the dead, as men
without hope, he briefly deseribeth the resurrection
of the just, and Christ’s second coming.
He descends to some particular duties about their walking, which he ushers in by a general exhortation in this first verse; wherein we may observe his style: he calls them brethren, and speaks to them with much condescension and earnestness, and in the name of Christ, &c. And the subject he insists on is their walking, the course of their life and conversation, which he describes by the rule of it,
as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk; he refers them to the directions he had given them about it as the rule; for he did in his ministry not only open gospel mysteries, but explain moral duties. And not only to walk in them, but to abound more and more, to press forward to a greater exactness and excellency in their Christian conversation. And he here useth motives:
1. From the Person in whose name he speaks to them, which is the Lord Jesus Christ; for he was but Christ’s minister and ambassador.
2. From the knowledge they had received of their duty, and therefore they could not plead ignorance.
3. Their walking as they had been instructed by him would please God.