1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 - Homiletics

Holiness is the end aimed at in all the dispensations of God.

1 Thessalonians 4:9 - Brotherly love.

1. Its nature. It is a love to all believers as believers, as being the children of the same Father, the brethren of the same Savior, the members of the same family, the sharers of the same grace, and the expectants of the same glorious immortality. To all men we are related by a common humanity, but to Christians we are still more closely related by a common Christianity.

2. Its manifestations. It will show itself in acts of kindness done to believers, in preferring their company to that of worldly men, and in conversing with them on religious subjects.

3. The evidence arising from brotherly love. It is a proof that we are not of the world, that we love God and that we are Christ's friends and disciples.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 - Quietness and faithfulness in worldly duties.

1. Quietness. A true Christian is of a quiet and retiring disposition; he shrinks from worldly bustle; he is free from worldly ambition; like the lily of the valley, he loves the shade; he knows that this is not his home, and he looks for a better country, even a heavenly.

2. Faithfulness. A true Christian faithfully performs his worldly duties, because be believes them to be assigned him by the Lord; and he labors assiduously at his calling, because he recognizes it as the law of Providence that if any man do not work neither shall he cat.

1 Thessalonians 4:12 - Honesty.

1. Its nature. We must guard against commercial dishonesty; all attempts to go beyond and defraud our brother; all overestimating what we sell, and underestimating what we buy; all shrinking from the payment of debts; all mean practices to gain customers.

2. Its importance. Temptations to dishonesty in this commercial age. Dishonesty combined with religious profession gives occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. We must walk honestly toward them that are without. The independence and loftiness of character which honesty imparts.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 - The death of friends.

1. The Christian ' s sorrow for the death of friends. All sorrow not here forbidden; only commanded not to sorrow as those who have no hope. The Christian sorrow is a submissive sorrow, which discerns the hand of God; a holy sorrow, which improves the affliction; a disinterested sorrow, which, whilst it mourns over the loss, is comforted at the thoughts of the happiness of the departed; an enlightened sorrow, which looks forward to the future, and regards our separation from our departed friends as being neither final nor complete.

2. The Christian ' s improvement of the death of friends. It teaches us the vanity of the world, the power of religion, and the necessity of preparation for our own death.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 - Resurrection of believers.

The ground of their resurrection rests on their union to Christ and on his resurrection. Not only are their souls immortal, but their bodies shall be redeemed from the grave. The voice of the archangel and the trump of God will call them from their graves, and, endowed with spiritual bodies, they shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The resurrection is purely a doctrine of revelation; it formed no part of the religion of nature; the natural analogies which are adduced are defective in essential points.