Paul's Prayers and Other Sermons

‘N the former letter to the Church of Thessalonica, the Apostle had dwelt, in ever - memorable words — which sound like a prelude of the trump of God — on the coming of Christ at the end to judge the world and to gather His servants into His rest. That great thought seems to have excited some of the hotter heads in Thessalonica, and to have led to a general feverishness of unwholesome expectancy of the near approach or actual dawn of the day. This letter is intended as a supplement to the former epistle, and to damp down the fire which had been kindled. It, therefore, dwells with emphasis on the necessary preliminaries to the dawning of that day of the Loi’d, and throughout seeks to lead the excited spirits to patience and persistent work, and to calm their feverish expectations. This purpose colours the whole letter.

Another striking characteristic of it is the frequent gushes of short prayer for the Thessalonians with which the writer turns aside from the main current of his thoughts. In its brief compass there are four of these prayers, which, taken together, present many aspects of the Christian life, and hold out much for our hopes and much for our efforts. The prayer which I have read for our text this morning is the first of these. The others, the consideration of which will follow on subsequent occasions, are these: — “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work.”

And, again, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

And, finally, summing up all, “The Lord of peace Himself give you peace always, by all means.” So full, so tender, so directed to the highest blessings and to those only, are the wishes of a true Christian teacher, and of a true Christian friend, for those to whom He ministers and whom He loves. It is a poor love that cannot express itself in prayer. It is an earthly love which desires for its objects anything less than the highest of blessings.

I. — Notice, first, here, the Divine test for Christian lives: * ‘We pray for you, that God would count you worthy of your calling.”

Now, it is to be observed that this * ’ counting worthy” refers mainly to a future estimate to be made by God of the completed career and permanent character brought out of earth into another state by

Christian souls. That is obvious from the whole strain of the letter, which I have already pointed out as mainly being concerned with the future coming to judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also, I think, made probable by the fact that the same expression, “counting worthy,” occurs in an earlier verse of this chapter, where the reference is exclusively to the future judgment.

So, then, we are brought face to face with this thought of an actual, stringent judgment which God will apply in the future to the lives and characters of professing Christians. Now, that is a great deal too much forgotten in our popular Christian teaching and in our average Christian faith. It is perfectly true that he that trusts in Jesus Christ” will not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life.” But it is just as true that “judgment shall begin at the house of God,” and that “the Lord will judge His people.” And, therefore, it becomes us to lay to heart this truth, that we, just because, if we are Christians, we stand nearest to God, are surest to be searched through and through by the light that streams from Him, and to have every flaw and corrupt speck and black spot brought out into startling prominence. Let no Christian man fancy that he shall escape the righteous judgment of God. The great doctrine of forgiveness does not mean that He suffers our sin to remain upon us unjudged, ay! or unavenged. But just as, day by day there is an actual estimate in the Divine mind, according to truth, of what we really are, so, at the last, God’s servants shall be gathered before His throne.” They that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice “shall be assembled there — as the Psalm has it — “that the Lord may judge His people.”

Then, if the actual passing of a Divine judgment day by day, and a future solemn act of judgment after we have done with earth, and our characters are completed, and our careers rounded into a whole, is to be looked for by Christians, what is the standard by which their worthiness is to be judged?

“Your calling.” The “this” of my text in the Authorised Version is a supplement, and a better supplement is that of the Revised Version, * * your calling.” Now calling does not mean ’ * avocation” or “employment,” as I perhaps need scarcely explain, but the Divine fact of our having been summoned by Him to be His. Consider who calls. God Himself. Consider how He calls. By the Gospel, by Jesus Christ, or, as another apostle has it, “by His own glory and virtue” manifested in the world. That great voice which is in Jesus Christ, so tender, so searching, so heart-melting, so vibrating with the invitation of love and the yearning of a longing heart, summons or calls us. Consider, also, what this calling is to. “God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness,” or, as this letter has it, in another part, “unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” By all the subduing and animating and restraining and impelling tones in the sacrifice and life of Jesus Christ we are summoned to a life of self-crucifixion, of subjection of the flesh, of aspu’ation after God, of holy living according to the pattern that was showed us in Him. We are summoned here and now to a life of purity and righteousness and self-sacrifice. But also “He hath called us to His everlasting kingdom and glory.” That voice sounds from above now. From the Cross it said to us, “I die that ye may live “; from the Throne it says to us,” Live because I live, and come to live where I live.” The same invitation, which calls us to a life of righteousness and self-suppression and purity, also calls us, with the sweet promise that is firm as the Throne of God, to the everlasting felicities of that perfect kingdom in which, -because the obedience is entire, the glory shall be untremulous and unstained. Therefore, considering Who summons, by what He summons, and to what He calls us, do there not lie in the fact of that Divine call to which we Christians say that we have yielded, the solemnest motives, the loftiest standard, the most stringent obligations for life? What sort of a life will that be which is worthy of that voice? Is yours? Is mine? Are there not the most flagrant examples of professing Christians, whose lives are in the most outrageous discordance with the lofty obligations and mighty motives of the summons which they profess to have obeyed?” Worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called!” Have I made my own the things which I am invited to possess? Have I yielded to the obligations which are enwTapped in that invitation? Does my life correspond to the Divine purpose in calling me to be His? Can I say,” Lord, Thou art mine, and I am Thine, and here my life witnesses to it, because self is banished from it, and I am full of God, and the life which I live in the flesh I live not to myself, but to Him that died for me ’ ‘?

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