1 Thess. 4, 1-7.
Further, brethren, we beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus (after you have received from us how you should walk and please God), that you may become more and more complete. For you know what commandments we have given you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that ye avoid fornication, and that every one of you know how to keep his barrel in sanctification and honor, not in lust, as the heathen do, who know nothing of God; and that no man go too far, nor presume against his brother in trade; for the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have said and testified unto you before. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification.
(1) This is an easy epistle, in which St. Paul exhorts and exhorts in general that we should increase and become more complete in the doctrine which we have received. But he beseeches and exhorts, as an evangelical preacher ought to do, to keep such doctrine as is the commandment of God; as he says, "For ye know what commandments we have given you by the Lord." For Christians are to do willingly what they do, and not to be compelled with commandments; but when they shall hear the commandments, they are to be exhorted and entreated. Those to whom the Spirit is given to do it are the righteous; but those who do not do it willingly, let them go.
2 Now this is to be noted, that he esteems great the gift which is given us, to know how we ought to walk, that we may please God. As it is also great and strange in the world; although it is offered to all the world and publicly proclaimed that such admonition is highly needed and St. Paul also offers it with care and diligence.
*) Called Reminiscere. D. Red.
For the danger is that we will become slothful and lazy, forgetful and ungrateful, which is a very dangerous thing and, unfortunately, happens all too often. For let us look behind us into what darknesses, errors and abominations we have been, not knowing how we should walk and please God. But, alas, all that is already forgotten, we have become lazy and ungrateful. That is why we are concerned about it. For this reason he says in the next Sunday's epistle, 2 Cor. 6:1, 2: "But we help you, and exhort you, that ye receive the grace of God not in vain: for he saith, I have heard thee in due time, and have helped thee in the day of thy salvation" etc. But it helps what it can.
(3) He commits two vices most of all: unchastity, so that one sins against oneself and against the fruit of faith; and deceitfulness in trade, in which one sins against one's neighbor, which is also against faith and love. And desires that they should practice and keep themselves chaste and harmless to everyone, and threatens God's wrath against such sin.
4. but it is a great praise and honor of the
We find that the Thessalonians have remained right in the doctrine and knowledge of the faith, more than the Corinthians and Galatians; but perhaps they have been infirm in these gross outward things. And although God also punishes such, if one does not want to avoid and leave them, they are nevertheless more painful than the great pieces, where one lacks in faith and doctrine, and is usually punished with temporal vengeance.
5. But he threatens with God's wrath, lest someone think that Christ's kingdom is such a kingdom, which suffers such sin well and does not punish it, and becomes rotten and lazy about it; as he himself stirs here and says: "God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification"; as if he should say: This is not the opinion that Christians should have right and power to be unchaste, and that God should grant them such and let it be done; not so, but rather he punishes it among Christians rather than among the Gentiles; as he 1 Cor. 11, 30. also teaches that many were sick and died because of unworthy eating and drinking; as also the 89th Psalm v. 33. testifies and says: "I will punish their sin with the rod."
(6) It is true that those who sin in weakness, and are known and told, soon repent, Christ's kingdom bears and suffers them well, and is called to accept and tolerate them, Rom. 15:1, Gal. 6:1, 1 Cor. 13:7. But that it should be considered a right and a custom that is pleasing to God does not apply; therefore he says, "This is the will of God, your sanctification"; item, "how you should please God. As if he were to say, "Some regard these things too lightly, throwing them to the winds, just as if there were nothing much in them, as if they did not displease God; but not so. God does indeed bear such sinners who fall, but He still wants them to recognize it and to strive to improve themselves and to become more and more complete, so that His grace does not become a cover of shame and loose people abuse the kingdom of Christ for the sake of their evil, as Paul says Gal. 5, 13: "So that you do not let freedom become a place for the flesh"; and Peter 1. Epist. 2, 16: "As the servants of God" etc.
7 This is spoken of chastity in the Hebrew way, when he says: "your sanctification", that he calls the body holy when it is chaste, and chastity is as much as holiness before God; therefore also holy in the Old Testament is as much as pure, as he also considers 1 Cor. 7, 14. holiness and purity to be one and the same: "Your children", he says, "would otherwise be unclean, but now they are pure", that is, holy.
(8) But what he means by holiness and purity he himself interprets, saying, "That ye avoid fornication, and that every man know how to keep his cask in sanctification and honor. For he does not hereby forbid marriage, but fornication and unchastity apart from marriage. For he who keeps his cask, that is, his own body, so that he remains chaste, that is, that he does not break his marriage or commit fornication outside of marriage, keeps his body holy and pure, and is also called chaste and holy. This is also proven by the following little word, where he speaks:
Not in the lust pestilence, like the pagans.
For the Gentiles, who do not know about God, give themselves over to all uncleanness, as he also told the Romans in chapter 1. V. 24, about shameful vices. Not that all the Gentiles do so, for he does not speak here of how all the Gentiles do, but that it is so among the Gentiles, and is the manner of the Gentiles, "who know not of God," to the Romans in 1 Chronicles, v. 28. V. 28. They also let it go and happen, and do not punish it, that he also for this reason to the Romans Cap. 1. accuses those alike who approve, with those who do it, because they do not defend themselves. But among the Christians, even though some have fallen and sinned in this way, one should still defend and punish, and not let it go, as among the heathen; there it is like a plague, that is, one does not defend, one leaves the lust in check, so that it does according to its nature and wickedness, just as if it were natural, although it is a plague and a defect, which one should heal and help; but there no one heals and helps, but rots and corrupts in the evil lust. So the "lust pestilence" is just as much as we say in German, evil lust.
10. the last is clear enough in itself:
"Let no one go too far," that is, let no one take what is his own and bring it to himself, or use another's goods for his own benefit, as may happen in many ways. And "vervortheilen im Handel" is that everyone seeks his own to the detriment of his neighbor. Of this much else
The booklet describes the financial situation of merchants, especially in the booklet of merchants of usury, where there is a lot of finance, and love is rarely and hardly ever kept. St. Paul is said to have looked at this.
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