For the rest, then, brethren, we beg you and exhort you in [the] Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more.
Paul turns here to the ordinary conduct of daily life. What he asks is striking: they are already walking the way he taught them, and that is why he presses them to go further.
The apostle does not treat teaching as one thing and behaviour as another. What the Thessalonians "received" from him was not a body of ideas but a way of living, and one commentator insists the two can never be separated.
It is a huge thing. These people were once only men on earth. Sin had cut them off from God, and in spirit from each other. They came together only for aims of human will or human glory. Now they are His children, and with one purpose of heart they walk so as to please God. Yet that is what Christianity looks like in practice, and it is worthless if it is not practical… No error dishonours God or damages people more than splitting theory from practice. Scripture holds the two together for good… Truth is not given only to inform us, but to sanctify us. What we received from the men God gave to teach it is "how we ought to walk and please God."
Knowing the pattern and living it are still two different things.
It is one thing however to know and quite another to do, and we are set here to please God in all our activities and ways.
Paul begs and urges instead of commanding. He does it "in the Lord Jesus." One writer points out how that name softens the tone.
No amount of love can make up for a disobedient walk. Love and obedience go together… Notice again in these verses the name "The Lord Jesus." It is a tender appeal, not a harsh order — though these really are "commandments" that faith could never ignore.
The appeal is gentle, but it still carries the Lord's own charge — and it guards against a real danger.
This practical walk matters, and the reminder that it is a direct charge from the Lord Jesus drives that home. So we must take care. We may enjoy the privileges grace has given us and still grow slack in the practice that should mark people so blessed.
"As you received from us" points back to more than sermons. Paul had lived among them, and his own conduct gave force to what he now asks.
He had already shown them how they were to walk and to please God. In this way he had himself walked among them (1 Thess. 2:10). He urged them to live as he lived, and his own walk gave those words weight. In the same way, he longed for their love to grow, matching the affection he had for them. It is this which gives authority to the exhortation, and to all the words of a servant of the Lord.
The goal Paul names is not reputation or results but God's pleasure — a question a believer can carry into every ordinary day.
The motive is to please God. Day by day the believer should keep asking himself, "Do I please God?"
This path is not a strange demand; it is the one Christ Himself walked, and He has not left us alone on it.
Are not His will and His honour bound up in a walk that pleases God? On earth He could say, "I always do the things that are pleasing to him." Now in heaven He is taken up with those who follow the same path here below. We may fail; but is that our aim? He does not fail to help us by His word, as He would also by His grace if we looked to Him and leaned on Him.
Paul commends them — they are already walking this way — and then asks for more. One writer draws a large conclusion from that word "abound."
It also shows that there is no limit to how far the believer can go here. Many speak of perfection or holiness as something we can reach in this world. But one look at what the apostle teaches about "abounding" shows that these ideas find no support in the word of God… Paul had taught these believers how to walk and please God, and, going by the added words "just as you are doing," they were walking so as to please God. Even so, they were not to be satisfied. They were to "abound" more and more.
- Received — Paul gave them a way of living, not a theory. Truth is meant to sanctify, and splitting doctrine from practice damages both God's honour and people.
- Requested — Paul begs and urges "in the Lord Jesus." The appeal is tender, yet it carries real authority. It warns us not to enjoy our privileges and grow slack in practice.
- Reinforced — his call carries the weight of his own life among them. A servant's words gain authority from his walk.
- Refocused — the daily question is, "Do I please God?" Christ Himself walked that path, and He still helps us on it by His word and grace.
- Rising — praise is not a stopping point. There is no limit here, so a walk that already pleases God must abound more and more.
For ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Paul opens this part of his letter by pointing back to instructions the Thessalonians already had. The question the verse raises is simple: whose voice is it when an apostle gives directions, and how much authority does it carry?
Nothing here is new. Paul points back to what he taught them, and to the life they watched him live.
The Apostle opens this part of his letter with a reminder. These believers had learned from him — by his instructions and by his manner of life (1 Thess. 2:10-11) — how they ought to walk to please God. Now he begs them that, as time passes, their walk should please God more and more. The reminder presses its importance on us: this walk is a direct charge from the Lord Jesus. We rejoice in the privileges grace has given us. But we must beware of growing slack in the practice that should mark people so blessed.
The phrase "through the Lord Jesus" lifts these directions above advice.
This was no new concern of the apostle. They knew what charges he gave them through the Lord Jesus. Is not His will, His honour, concerned in a walk that pleases God? On earth He could say, "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." In heaven He is now occupied with those who follow the same path here below. We may fail; but is that our aim? He does not fail to help us by His word. Do we hear His voice?
The title Paul uses matters too.
Notice again in these verses the name "The Lord Jesus." It is a tender appeal, not a harsh demand. Yet these are indeed "commandments" that faith could never ignore.
Many readers hear "commandment" and think of the law of Moses. The New Testament uses the word differently.
Some Christians are apt to think a commandment must be legal. It is well to free them from that mistake. No one speaks more of commandments than our Lord, and He does so in the Gospel of John. John repeats the same word often in his own letters, where the law is left behind and never even mentioned. There the Son of God shines as nowhere else. Yet He loved to speak of commandments — both for Himself and for us — on principles quite different from the law.
If these are commands, does a believer's acceptance with God depend on keeping them?
Many New Testament scriptures state the commandments of our Lord plainly, and the writings of the Apostle John do so above all. They are not given so that by keeping them we may set up a standing for ourselves in righteousness before God. We have that righteous standing as the result of the work of Christ for us. The commands reach us to give clear direction about His will. The way we obey them — or disobey — does not decide our spiritual standing before God. It does decide the state of our spiritual health and power.
Paul wrote to one church. But the claim he made there covers everything the apostles wrote.
Notice once more that the precepts of the letters were always part of Scripture. They speak straight to the heart and conscience of their readers. They were precepts, yet they were not legal. Otherwise the great apostle who taught us deliverance from the law made a terrible mistake... He still claimed the most absolute obedience to what he wrote, and that obedience is no less due from us than from them. It is not enough to have it before us in a loose way. We are to learn from it, and to listen as to the voice of the Lord Himself: "If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord" (1 Cor. 14:37).
- Known already — Paul points to what they heard from him and saw in him. Obedience starts with memory, not new information.
- Given through Christ — the charge comes through the Lord Jesus, so how His people walk touches His will and His honour.
- Commanded, not legal — "commandment" is Christ's own word, used on principles quite different from the law.
- Health, not standing — the work of Christ settles our standing. Obedience settles our spiritual health and power.
- Still His voice — the apostles' instruction is Scripture. Hear it as the voice of the Lord Himself.