But we beg you, brethren, to know those who labour among you, and take the lead among you in [the] Lord, and admonish you,
Paul ends his letter to a very young church by asking them to notice certain people. They are the ones already caring for souls, and the question is how you recognise them.
The verse names three things these people do. One writer traces each word back to its root meaning:
In this verse we find three more duties of the overseer. First, he laboured. The word originally meant to grow weary. It tells of the toil that wearies a person. How well Paul understood this. Such is the toil and labour of the true overseer. "Are over you" is literally "set over". So it means to preside, or rule, or govern. But it also has the meaning, "To be a protector, or guardian, to give aid, to care for." How well that describes the work of a good shepherd. To "admonish" is to "put in mind", and so, to "exhort."
Some read the first word here as a formal act — a church election or public appointment. One writer checks the Greek word behind it and finds something warmer and simpler:
The word translated "recognise" (1 Thess. 5:12) is not recognise in the formal sense at all, but know. It means only to acknowledge by affection and respect, and in no way by a public act — "a regular vote of the church."
Paul has to ask them to know these people, and that tells you something about who they were. If they had held a formal position, he would not have needed to ask:
Doesn't the call "to know" those who labour and rule and preside suggest that this was not a class appointed to office? An office would have been obvious. Then there would be no need to urge people to recognise such labourers. The esteem and love was for their work's sake. An official place is not referred to.
The timing supports this. These believers had come to faith only recently, and another writer applies that fact to our own day:
Who were these people? I judge they were not elders, for spiritually they were only a year old. Are there none such now? I rejoice to know that there are many over me in the Lord. I rejoice to know that the Lord has given these men spiritual power, not ordination. And you know that water soon finds its level.
Being corrected is rarely pleasant, and the verse asks believers to value the very people who do it. One writer explains why this belongs in a list of things to appreciate:
Like the word of God itself, admonition must have a large place in what they say. They lead us in a path quite unlike anything the natural man craves and follows. In that path the weakness and folly that still cling to us become painfully clear. So admonition is in a special way a service of love — all the more because, when it truly is love, it must carry pain.
So what makes such a person worth knowing? Not a position, but the work itself:
It is not office which is in question here (if such existed), but the work which attracted and attached the heart. They ought to be known: spirituality acknowledged this working of God. Love, devotedness, meeting the need of souls, patience in dealing with them on God's part — all this commended itself to the believer's heart. And the heart blessed God for the care He gave to His children. God acted in the labourer and in the hearts of the faithful. Blessed be God, it is an ever-existing principle, and one that never grows weaker!
- Labour — the word means toil that wears a person out; the first mark of a leader is tiring work done for others.
- Lead — "set over" means to preside, and also to protect, guard and care, like a shepherd. They lead in the Lord, so their authority comes from Him.
- Admonish — to put someone in mind. Correction is a service of love, and the pain it costs is part of that love.
- Know — not a vote or a public ceremony, but affection and respect. If a title had made these people obvious, Paul would not have needed to ask.
- Today — the principle never grows weaker. God works in the labourer, and He works in the hearts of the faithful to recognise it.
and to regard them exceedingly in love on account of their work. Be in peace among yourselves.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, comfort the faint-hearted, sustain the weak, be patient towards all.
Paul has just spoken about those who labour among the Thessalonians. Now he gives four short commands to the whole church: three groups needing three different responses, and one attitude that covers everyone.
It would be easy to leave this work to the people who lead.
But there is no encouragement here for the unloving, careless idea that those who labour are to carry the whole burden of the saints, especially the part that calls for moral courage and patience. The command falls not on the rulers only, but on the brothers in general. Only love can work this way. Love looks at the saints as they are in God's sight. It grieves at the ruin Satan would make in that holy garden of the Lord, and it is jealous for His will and glory.
The first group is marked not by one particular sin but by a refusal to submit.
Someone may refuse to submit to rule and to the Scriptural order of the assembly. He disobeys God's Word and goes on in self-will and disorder. Such a person is unruly, and the brothers who care for souls in the assembly must warn him. His soul is in a carnal state, and he cannot see where his conduct will lead him. The assembly's watchmen do see it. They are responsible to sound the note of warning, so that he may escape the serious consequences of that course.
Scripture holds its heaviest measures back. The command here is to warn — nothing more.
Some brothers have a hard spirit and enjoy sitting on the judgment seat. They might excommunicate saints for failings that call for patience and godly care, not for excommunication. For instance, we are told to "admonish the idle" (1 Thess. 5:14), not to excommunicate them... How slow the Spirit of God is to take drastic action; He would rather have the saints act lovingly, patiently and yet faithfully with evil among them.
The middle two commands are easy to blur together. One writer keeps them apart.
"Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak" implies a difference between these two which makes good sense. There may be real weakness where there is no faint-heartedness. A person may show no tendency to give way under the pressure of circumstances or of evil. Yet there is still a weakness that calls for the ministry of sympathetic love.
Does sharing strength with the weak leave you with less? One writer answers that fear.
"The weak" need support. For this I certainly am my brother's keeper, and if God has given strength to one, that person should share it willingly with others. We may be sure that our sharing in this will not lessen our own strength, but the opposite.
The last command widens out to everyone. The word for patience here has a particular sense.
"Long-suffering means patience with people; endurance means patience with things." The word means "a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to action or passion." Scripture uses it of God in His forbearance toward those who provoke Him.
The writer quoted earlier adds why this patience is owed. We are all a trial to one another, so "patience becomes a matter of justice quite as much as of mercy."
Put the four commands together and you get a picture of what a gathering of believers is for.
Finally, the church of God is a nursery and not an inquisition. If I am a true leader I warn the unruly. I do not put them under church or family censure for being unruly. I comfort the faint-hearted and I support the weak. Otherwise I would deserve the rebuke in Ezekiel: "The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed ... and with force and harshness you have ruled them."
- All — the verse hands pastoral work to every believer, not only to those who labour and lead.
- Warn — the idle live by self-will; we warn them where it leads, rather than exclude them.
- Comfort — the faint-hearted give way under pressure; they need comfort, not a warning.
- Support — the weak need strength shared with them, and the one who shares loses nothing by it.
- Patient — long-suffering is God's own bearing with people who provoke Him. We all try each other, so patience is justice, not a favour.
See that no one render to any evil for evil, but pursue always what is good towards one another and towards all;
This letter closes with a rule for a young church facing real hostility from the people around it. The verse asks two things at once. No one is to pay back a wrong. Everyone is to chase after good — inside the church and outside it.
The first half of the verse closes a door that is always open. The command is given to the whole church, and one writer shows what refusing revenge still leaves room for:
Revenge refused. We are to see that no one pays back evil for evil. There is the ever-present danger of answering the flesh with the flesh. We may have to stay silent when someone is spiteful, and even keep away from the one who acts that way (2 Timothy 4:14-15), but in any case we are not to pay back evil for evil.
Paying a wrong back costs the person who does it. The test gets harder when the wrong comes from a fellow believer:
The Thessalonians did suffer evil from the world around, but like their Master, they were not to return it. We need this as a constant reminder, because the flesh resents unfair treatment far too quickly. But to return evil for evil only makes me the same as my persecutor and untrue to my Christian character. We may find it even more of a test if a child of God treats us badly, but of course the same applies. He must answer for his conduct, no doubt, but I must answer for mine. To have the heart set on good is the real safeguard here.
One writer sorts every possible response into three, and ranks them:
To pay back evil for evil is brutish. To pay back evil for good is devilish. To pay back good for evil is Christian.
The standard here is not what a court would award. It is what God Himself is like:
Grace is the mark of the gospel. It is the spring in God Himself, as shown in Christ, and He wants the same in His children. Not human justice, which takes the side of the just against the unjust, but unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them. So He would have us not overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good. Such is Christianity in practice, above heathenism and Judaism alike.
The verse does not stop at what to refuse. The second half gives something to chase, and to keep chasing:
Good to be pursued. While we avoid the evil, we are to "always seek to do good to one another and to everyone." The flesh loves to be busy with evil. These commands warn us not to be careless about evil, and even to deal with it when we must. Still, what we are to pursue is the good.
The good reaches everyone, not only fellow believers. One writer describes what people saved by Christ are now sent into the world to be:
People who have been led to find a Saviour in Jesus know the ransom of their souls by His blood. In Him, risen and glorified, they have received the free gifts of righteousness and eternal life. God makes them His ministers of love, of mercy, and of grace to a rebellious world... This is the highest honour put upon those who belong to Christ.
The command sits next to instructions about warning those who are out of line and helping the weak. All of it runs on one power source:
Giving up self-will, and a real sense of God at work and present with us, brings power. That power lets us warn those who are out of line, comfort the fearful, help the weak, and be patient with everyone... In no case were they to pay back evil for evil, but to follow what was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
- Pressure. The Thessalonians were suffering real evil. The command assumes provocation, not a quiet life.
- Refusal. Paying evil back makes you the same as the one who wronged you — you answer for your conduct, he answers for his.
- Grace. The standard is not fair justice. It is God's own grace — unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them.
- Pursuit. Refusing evil is only half of it. The good is something to chase, not just to admire.
- Reach. The good goes to fellow believers and to everyone else. God makes His people ministers of love and mercy to a rebellious world. The power comes from walking with Him.
rejoice always;
The letter ends with a run of short commands. The first asks for joy that never stops. Where does a believer find a supply of joy that lasts?
Joy, prayer and thanksgiving stand side by side here. One writer treats all three as ordinary Christian life, not rare heights, and then asks the reader how much of it he really knows.
In these verses we have the normal state of the Christian: perpetual joy, perpetual prayer, and perpetual thanksgiving. What do we know of perpetual joy, of a joy that never wanes? If these three things marked us more, what a different people we should be!
A command needs a source. The same writer notes the order — joy before prayer — and points to Paul in prison and to the way the Lord Himself lived.
In the order in Thessalonians, joy comes before prayer. So where does true Christian joy come from? The joy of the Lord is our strength — how do we keep it up? Paul had this joy in prison, and he told the Philippians to rejoice always. We find it only where the Lord Himself found it. He found it through obedience, and as we obey we shall prove it too… Only conscious communion with the Lord can keep a person happy. If you meditate on the Lord, even through a heavy day's work, you will find joy.
The command does not ask believers to pretend that sorrow is not real. One writer puts the deepest grief and unbroken joy side by side in the same Person.
The world is full of sorrow. In such a world the Lord was the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Yet His joy in the Father, and in the prospect before Him, was unbroken. So in the darkest hour of His rejection we read that He "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). In the same way the believer is called to "rejoice always."
(Older translations render Luke 10:21 "Jesus rejoiced in spirit.")
Why should this joy last? One writer asks what has changed since Christ went to heaven. He also warns that a gloomy believer gives a false picture of God.
Nor should the Christian give a bad impression of his God and Father, or of the portion he already has in His grace, any more than of his prospects. With what joy the disciples came back even as their Master was leaving for heaven! And the Holy Spirit came in due time to make the joy unfailing (John 4:14). What has happened since to dry up the spring? "Rejoice always."
This is not advanced ground for mature Christians only. The first readers had believed only a short time before, and they still get the whole call.
Even the Thessalonians, young believers as they were, get this call: rejoice always. And the call goes further — not only pray without ceasing, but in everything give thanks, for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them.
The three commands are not separate items on a list. One writer sees them feeding each other.
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." These three are more closely linked than our souls usually admit. Joy will always rise in proportion to prayer and thanksgiving.
There is a public side to this. Good news carried by miserable messengers argues against itself. The world watches and draws its own conclusion.
Rejoice at the news: glad tidings and sad hearts do not go well together. When we see someone heavy and sorrowful, we ask what bad news he has heard. Christian, what bad news has Christ brought from heaven with Him, that makes you walk about with folded arms and a gloomy face?… Christians, let the world see that you are no losers in your joy since you came to know the gospel. Do not let your unhappy walk make them think that becoming a Christian means saying goodbye to all joy.
- Source. We find joy only where the Lord Himself found it — in obedience and conscious communion with Him.
- Pattern. The Man of sorrows kept unbroken joy in the Father, even in the darkest hour of His rejection. The same call comes to every believer.
- Supply. The Spirit came to make the joy unfailing, and nothing since has dried up that spring.
- Company. Joy, prayer and thanksgiving belong together. Joy rises in proportion to the other two.
- Witness. Glad tidings and sad hearts do not match. A gloomy believer tells the world that faith means the end of joy.
pray unceasingly;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
in everything give thanks, for this is [the] will of God in Christ Jesus towards you;
This short command sits inside a run of three: rejoice, pray, give thanks. Together they describe how a believer is to meet whatever life brings. The last of the three comes with a reason that leaves no room for argument.
One writer takes verses 16–18 as a set. They are not heroic extras, but everyday Christian living.
In these verses we have the normal state of the Christian — perpetual joy, perpetual prayer, and perpetual thanksgiving. What do we know of perpetual joy, of a joy that never fades? If we were marked more by these three things, what a different people we should be!
William Kelly sees thanksgiving here as a counterweight to what comes naturally when life goes wrong.
A settled spirit of thanksgiving is the exact opposite of what comes naturally. By nature we complain about every kind of suffering, frustration and disappointment. So the apostle backs this call with a reason: "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Without that reason, as the church declined, people would soon have dismissed such thanksgiving as light-hearted and arrogant.
Writers stress the small preposition. Edward Dennett draws the line, then turns the duty into something warmer:
It is not, as the reader will notice, for everything, but in everything, give thanks. Almost every Christian would admit this. It is not so much a duty as a privilege: to give thanks to God in all their circumstances and trials. They may be going through deep sorrow or severe suffering. Yet if they see it in the presence of God, they will find plenty of reason for praise.
The distinction protects the verse from becoming absurd. Leslie Grant marks the one limit:
Of course we cannot give thanks for what is sinful. But whatever comes, evil or good, this thankful spirit is to be ours.
Christian living leaves many things to our own judgment. Scripture names this one outright as God's will, and Grant turns it into a test of sincerity.
This matters because it is "the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." If we are honest when we say we want the will of God, then here it is. No excuse will do for a failure to give thanks.
H. J. Vine sets this beside two other places where Scripture names God's will. Thanksgiving lands in the same class as holiness and eternal life:
Scripture says three things about God's will. First: "this is the will of God, your sanctification." Second: it is His will that we "should have eternal life," and be raised up on the last day, as we have seen. Third: "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus" for us — "give thanks in all circumstances."
The command is not obeyed by staring harder at the trouble. J. N. Darby uses Paul's thorn to show where the eye must move:
How is this to be done? Did Paul give thanks for the thorn — the very thing he thought would hinder his usefulness? Not while looking at the thing itself. It was only when his eye was fixed on the heart and the hand that had done it. There are many things we cannot give thanks for in themselves. Losing the person closest to our heart, or watching what we love be torn to pieces — we cannot thank God for the thing itself. We must see the love that has ordered it, and the hand that has appointed it; and then we can give thanks.
G. V. Wigram shows the failure from the other side, in Job's collapse when he lost everything:
He was taken up with circumstances, not with the God of circumstances. So when God touched his circumstances, he turned to cursing.
Christ Himself gave the pattern. H. A. Ironside points to the hour when He had the least natural reason to:
"At that time" — note it well. At that time, when everything was darkest and He had unspeakable anguish ahead of Him, "Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" and said, "I thank you, Father."
The opposite habit is no small thing. J. T. Mawson names what murmuring says about God:
Don't murmur, Christian, for it is a most unchristian, a most ungodly thing to do. Nothing dishonours God more, nothing does greater damage to the soul. It was the chief sin of all the sins that Israel committed in the wilderness, for it meant that they did not believe their God was fit to be trusted.
- In, not for. Give thanks in every circumstance, never for what is sinful. The setting changes; the thanksgiving does not.
- Willed, not suggested. Scripture names this as God's will, beside sanctification and eternal life. That removes every excuse.
- Look past the thing. Thanks becomes possible when the eye leaves the trouble and rests on the love that ordered it.
- Job's warning. A heart taken up with circumstances, not with the God of circumstances, breaks when they break.
- Christ's pattern. At His darkest hour He thanked the Father — the alternative, murmuring, says God is not fit to be trusted.
quench not the Spirit;
Paul closes his letter with a string of short commands. This one is about how believers treat the Spirit's work — not only in their own hearts, but in each other.
To quench something is to put out its fire. Commentators point back to Pentecost, when tongues of fire rested on the first believers.
The thought of quenching the Spirit pictures the Spirit as fire. We cannot help thinking of Pentecost, with its divided tongues of fire. That was the display in each person of the heavenly power that had come among men... Here in fact is one form of quenching the Spirit. Each one should serve another with the gift he has received (1 Peter 4:10). Instead, what the Spirit has given is ignored. The ministry that love urges is held back, and the Church suffers.
One writer draws a line between this verse and the warning in Ephesians about grieving the Spirit.
It is not at all the same as grieving the Spirit. Ephesians warns us about that. Grieving Him is a personal question. Quenching Him is just as plainly about others — mainly, I suppose, in public action, or at least in the use of their gifts. I am not to hinder another. I am not to raise difficulties about how the Holy Spirit shows Himself in any brother. It may be a great work or a very small one. That is not the question at all. The question is: is it of the Spirit? The Holy Spirit is present and at work in the Church in all sorts of ways. Respect for that would keep the greatest from quenching the Spirit in the least.
Scripture speaks of resisting, grieving, and quenching the Spirit. This verse is often preached as a warning to someone resisting conviction about sin. One writer, who had preached it that way himself, later concluded the text means something else.
Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit may be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). That makes what we do in the assembly a very solemn thing. The command "Do not quench the Spirit" is very often pressed on unbelievers. It warns them not to trifle with the convictions the Spirit works in their souls. I have preached from it many times in that sense. But however true that warning may be, it is not really the mind of God in this text... These words are not addressed to unbelievers but to the Church. They come with another command: "Do not despise prophecies." That shows the Spirit's working in ministry is what is in view.
The next verses tie the command to what happens when Christians meet.
"Do not quench the Spirit" is a command not to hinder His action through the prophets or others when the saints gather. The next verse or two shows this. The Spirit who lives in the Church claims the right to order its gatherings. Men must not interfere with His voice or quench it, whatever excuse they give. Most of Christendom ignores this command. There, people have brought in organizations and set forms of service to place everything under the control of one man or a few men.
Freedom for the Spirit does not mean accepting every claim. The same passage tells believers to weigh what they hear.
Both commands assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. Not even the least member of Christ may hinder His general movement there. Nor may anyone despise the highest form of dealing with souls — prophesying. On the other hand, no one should impose on the saints with high or exclusive claims. The truly spiritual never need such claims and would find them repulsive. The saints were to prove all things, hold fast what is good, and keep away from every form of evil.
Commentators differ on how far the command reaches. Most tie it to the gathered assembly. Others say a believer can smother the Spirit's prompting on his own.
To quench the Spirit is to refuse to follow His leading. It is also to refuse what the Spirit may give through others. Take the apostle Paul. If he had refused the Spirit's urging to preach the gospel among the Gentiles, he would have quenched the Spirit, and most of the book of Acts would never have been written. Here is another case. The Spirit of God may urge a believer to meet the material needs of a poor believer, or even of an unbeliever, and he does not do it. Then the Spirit is quenched.
- Fire. The picture is a flame put out. It recalls the tongues of fire at Pentecost. You quench the Spirit when you put out what He lights.
- Others. Grieving the Spirit is about your own walk. Quenching Him is about His work through someone else, however small the gift.
- Believers. Paul writes this to the Church, not to unbelievers. Reading it as a warning against resisting conviction misses the point.
- Freedom. Rules, fixed forms, and control by one man or a few silence the voice the Spirit claims the right to use.
- Discernment. Keeping the Spirit free is not blind trust. Prove everything, keep the good, refuse every form of evil.
do not lightly esteem prophecies;
This letter closes with quick, short commands, and this one stands right beside "Do not quench the Spirit." That placement raises three questions: what is prophecy here, why would anyone think little of it, and what does honouring it look like?
Verses 19 and 20 are not two separate topics. The second command tells you what the first one means.
The call here is not the personal one of Ephesians 4, "do not grieve the Spirit." It is "Do not quench the Spirit," followed by "Do not despise prophecies," and that pairing fixes its true meaning. Both assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. There even the least member of Christ must not hinder His general movement. And no one may despise Him in His highest way of dealing with souls, which is "prophesying."
Another writer puts the same link in a picture from the schoolroom.
"Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies" (1 Thess. 5:19-20). They are coupled together; the one who despises one loses both. If the student is too proud to learn from the assistant, he is unworthy to be taught by the master.
Prediction is not the root idea. The word means speaking on God's behalf.
So what is the nature of this "prophesying"? In the strict meaning of the word, a "prophet" was "one who spoke for another." Nations outside Israel used the name for people who spoke for a god and made his will known to men. It did not have to mean predicting the future at all. There was another word for that, and the Scriptures never use it.
Its aim is to put a person face to face with God.
The truth is that prophesying is the highest kind of communication God gives through a man. It is not a question of opening up the future, but of bringing God and the soul together. We may see an instance of it in the case of the woman of Samaria. What Christ said to her clearly brought God Himself home to her conscience. She woke up at once to the conviction that the One who spoke was a prophet.
The very thing that makes prophecy valuable is what makes it unwelcome.
Prophesying may well be the ministry people are most likely to despise, because it is not teaching that appeals to man's intellect. In the assembly or anywhere else, it speaks to the heart and conscience, for edification, exhortation, or encouragement (1 Cor. 14:3). It can search a person out. Let us never think lightly of this, for it is a continual need for the intellectual, just as for all others.
Another way people despise it is by looking at the speaker rather than the message.
Part of this responsibility, and of this looking to the Head of the Church, is not to "quench the Spirit," nor to "despise prophecies." That holds when they are the simplest, and when they come from the humblest in the Church in outward standing, if God is pleased to use them.
When a gift goes unused, the whole Church pays for it.
Here in fact is one form of quenching the Spirit. Each one should minister to another according to the gift he has received (1 Peter 4:10). Instead, people ignore what the Spirit has given and hold back the ministry that love urges. So the Church suffers. She loses so much of the blessing that might be hers, and the ability to testify to the grace she has learned.
There is a personal side too. To despise here is to think lightly of something.
"Do not despise prophecies." From the Epistle to the Corinthians we know that the one who prophesies "speaks to men to edification, encouragement, and comfort" (1 Cor. 14:3). Let us beware, then, in case we lightly esteem what God may have to say to us through His servants.
The command does not ask for blind acceptance. The next verse gives the balance.
We are not to despise prophecies. We are not to receive everything that comes to us either, even if someone claims the Spirit gave it. We are to "test everything" and "hold fast what is good" (1 Thess. 5:20-21). If Scripture proves the truth we are taught, and we hold it in faith with God, we will not waver in our convictions with every wind of doctrine. But we can also lift the teacher into a false position. Then we accept what he says because he says it, without testing it by the Word. That way we are in danger of following him into distortions of the truth.
- Coupled. Verse 20 explains verse 19. To despise prophecy is one way to quench the Spirit, and whoever despises one loses both.
- Speaking for God. A prophet is "one who spoke for another." The aim is not prediction. It is to bring God and the soul together.
- Searching. This ministry speaks to the heart and conscience, not to the intellect. That is why people brush it aside.
- Whoever the vessel. Do not discount a word because the speaker is the simplest or humblest person there. God may be pleased to use him.
- Test, don't swallow. Refusing to despise is not the same as accepting everything. Test it by Scripture and hold fast what is good.
but prove all things, hold fast the right;
This short command sits in a run of quick instructions about how believers behave when they gather. Two questions follow it. What do we test by? And who has to do the testing?
This is not a rule for private life. It follows two instructions about the Spirit's freedom when believers meet:
This is not the personal call of Ephesians 4, "do not grieve." It is "do not quench the Spirit," followed by "do not despise prophecies," and that fixes its true bearing. Both assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. There not even the least member of Christ may hinder His general movement, or despise Him in the highest form of dealing with souls, "prophesying." On the other hand, no one may impose on the saints with high or exclusive claims. The truly spiritual never need such claims and would find them repulsive. They were to test everything, to hold fast what is good, to abstain from every form of evil.
So freedom and testing belong together. Freedom to speak does not mean the hearers accept everything said:
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said" (1 Corinthians 14:29). To refuse this when the assembly gathers is to quench the Spirit… We are not supposed to swallow what we hear. We are told to judge what everyone says, and I do not expect you to accept my words lightly… We must judge what is spoken, not in a fault-finding spirit, but so as to know what is right, and not to approve what is wrong.
Testing needs a measure, and one writer puts the whole issue into a single question:
"Test everything." By what standard? My own understanding, or God's revealed word? "Hold fast what is good."
The Spirit who teaches the teacher also helps the hearer weigh what is taught:
The Holy Spirit would Himself teach by the written word those who, when taught, are to teach others. In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps the hearers to see whether what is taught agrees with the revealed and inspired word of God. "Test everything," says the apostle, "hold fast what is good." Reject, of course, whatever is not good. Even with apostolic teaching, those who heard were commended for comparing what was said with what God had already revealed and written (Acts 17:11).
The specific risk named is accepting truth because of who said it:
"Test everything." While we are not to despise ministry, we are still responsible to "test" it by the word. There is the ever-present danger of receiving truth on the authority of the teacher.
The same writer shows where that habit ends:
If we test the truth ministered by Scripture, and hold it in faith with God, we will not waver in our convictions with every wind of doctrine. As J. N. Darby remarked, "If I do not believe the Word until someone else approves it, I do not believe it at all; it is the approval I believe." The danger comes when we lift the teacher into a false position. Then we accept what he says because he says it, without testing it by the Word, and we may be led into perversions of the truth, and lose the truth we once professed to hold.
The duty is not reserved for leaders or the experienced:
We are not to accept anything that is said without testing it by the Word of God. We are to "test everything." However young in the faith, this was the personal responsibility of every believer. They were to take nothing for granted, and nothing on the word of another. Scripture was their one real authority.
Neglecting it has a cost, and the cost is shared:
How often, in a time of crisis, have leaders found some plausible excuse and persuaded whole companies of Christians to follow them in a path not according to the truth of God. But the blame lies not only with the leaders. It lies also with those who give them blind submission, and who in this way avoid their own responsibility to judge matters for themselves in the Lord's presence. The believers at Berea did judge: they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so (Acts 17:11).
Testing is only half the command. The second half names a common tendency:
"Hold fast what is good." Having tested what we hear, we are to hold fast the good. The tendency, too often, is to remember what is unprofitable, and to let go the good.
- Test — because ministry is free. It sits beside "do not quench the Spirit" and "do not despise prophecies." Free speaking and honest judging belong together.
- Test — by the written word. The measure is not your own understanding but God's revealed word. Even those who heard the apostles compared their words with what God had already written.
- Test — not the speaker, the message. The danger is receiving truth on the authority of the teacher. Accept it because he said it, and you believe the approval, not the Word.
- Test — every believer, however young. No one can hand this duty to someone else. Those who give blind submission share the blame when whole companies follow a wrong path.
- Then hold. Truth tested by Scripture and held with God keeps you steady in every wind of doctrine. The common failure is to remember the unprofitable and let the good slip away.
hold aloof from every form of wickedness.
Paul ends a rapid string of commands about life together — don't quench the Spirit, don't despise prophecy, test everything — and this verse is the last link in that chain. Older translations read "abstain from all appearance of evil," which raises the question the commentators keep returning to: is Paul warning about how things look, or about what things are?
One writer sets the verse inside its setting in the gathered church and explains the Greek term directly:
Both suppose the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly, where He must not be hindered in His general movement even by the least member of Christ, any more than despised in the highest form of dealing with souls, or "prophesying." On the other hand the saints must not be imposed on by high or exclusive claims which are never needed by, and would be repulsive to, the truly spiritual. They were to prove all things, to hold fast the good, to abstain from every form of evil. By εἶδος, translated "appearance" in the Authorised Version, is really meant kind or form.
The ESV follows that reading.
The command does not stand alone. It is the back half of a sentence whose front half tells you to test everything and keep what passes. One writer explains why the two halves need each other:
On the other hand, we are not to accept anything we are told without testing it by the Word of God. We are to "test everything." However young in the faith, this was the personal responsibility of every believer. They were to take nothing for granted, and nothing simply on someone else's word. Scripture was their one real authority. And we are to hold fast what is good, letting none of God's precious truth slip. This too was needed if they were to "abstain from every form of evil." Evil will take attractive, deceiving forms as readily as crude ones, and only the heart that holds fast what is good is protected.
The word "every" carries the weight here:
It is easy to keep away from certain forms of evil that do not appeal to us, and to be severe about sins we are not drawn to. The call is to keep away from all evil, whatever form it takes.
Testing is meant to reach a verdict, and the verdict settles the matter. There is nothing left to weigh up:
Once we recognise evil, no further enquiry is needed. There is no more asking: What should be done? That question is only fair when we face at least two choices and have to make up our mind. But once evil is recognised, only one decision fits — to abstain from it. God says, "Cease to do evil"; "Abhor what is evil"; "Abstain from every form of evil."
Commentators differ on the reach of the verse. Some read it strictly as "form" or "kind." Others hold that the older rendering carries a truth worth keeping: a believer should also stay clear of what could reasonably be misread.
We may have heard Christians say, when spoken to about something that looked crooked, "Well, my own conscience is clear on that point, and I don't care what anyone else thinks of me." But this spirit is completely against the spirit of the command before us, which means "above suspicion before all men." And it agrees with the apostle's word to the Thessalonians: "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (older translation). It is not enough to abstain from what we know is wrong. We ought to avoid everything that would give ground for just suspicion.
Three old questions turn this into a workable test before any decision:
The Christian should take care to keep his name pure as well as his conscience pure, and he does that by avoiding all appearance of evil. Bernard's three questions are worth asking ourselves before anything we take on: "Is it lawful?" May I do it and not sin? "Does it suit me as a Christian?" May I do it and not dishonour the faith I profess? "Is it helpful?" May I do it and not make a weaker believer stumble?
Such a demand would crush us on our own. One writer points to the power behind it:
Notice how the Spirit of God speaks in the letters of a power that can keep us from every fall and keep us blameless, so that even a thought of sin is never excusable. The flesh is still in us. But with the Holy Spirit acting in the new man, the flesh never has to act or shape our life. We are united to Jesus: He represents us before God, He is our righteousness. And the same One who in His perfection is our righteousness is also our life, so that the Spirit aims to show this same perfection — practical perfection — in daily life.
- Test — measure everything you hear against Scripture. No teacher's name settles a matter, and every believer, however young, carries that duty.
- Hold — a firm grip on what is good is the real defence. Evil arrives in attractive forms as often as crude ones.
- Abstain — once you recognise evil, the weighing is over. Only one response is left.
- Every — the word rules out picking and choosing: condemning the sins we never wanted, sheltering the ones we do.
- Kept — the standard is high, but the Spirit works in the believer so that the demand is never beyond reach.
Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul closes this letter with a prayer for the people he has just been instructing. Two questions follow: what does "completely" mean here, and why does Paul name spirit, soul, and body?
Paul does not pray to God under a random title. The name he chooses points back to how God made peace, and to what that peace now produces.
God is for all who have believed in Christ the God of peace. God made peace in the blood of the cross. Believers are both reconciled and sanctified through the peace that God has made for us in the work of His Son. So we stand in a blessed relationship with the God of peace and have fellowship with Him. Out of this flows a life and walk devoted to God. Believers are sanctified by all three persons of the Godhead: by God the Father, by the blood of Jesus Christ and the offering of His body, and by the Holy Spirit.
One writer notes who does this work, then traces peace as a sequence the believer moves through:
The God of peace Himself claims and sanctifies us wholly. Peace with God, then the peace of God, then the God of peace — this is the order in which the soul enters the blessing and experiences it through our Lord Jesus.
The word behind "completely" carries the sense of reaching all the way to the finish.
When it comes to practice, the apostle asks that the God of peace may sanctify believers wholly (oloteleis) — that is, entirely and right to the end.
One writer sets the standard high, and applies it to us now and not only to Paul's converts:
The apostle Paul desired, in regard to each of his converts, that the whole man might be practically set apart for God. Each of the three parts that make up a man — spirit, soul, and body — was to be affected. And so far that he kept himself separate not only from evil, but from every appearance of it. Nothing less than this should be what we pray for even now.
Paul names three parts. One writer explains the difference between the two inner ones:
It may help to add that "the soul" is the seat of personality, while "the spirit" is the expression of capacity. So the soul, with its affections, is the responsible "I". The spirit is the higher faculty that can know God — and that can also know unspeakable misery if it rejects Him.
Paul's order is not the one we normally use:
Sometimes we may forget that we have spirits. How often we say "body, soul and spirit;" the Scripture says "spirit, soul and body". We are so apt to think more of our bodies than of our spirits, but God is concerned with our spirits.
Some read this verse as a promise that God removes sin from a believer now. But Paul asks for two things here, not one:
Notice: here is entire sanctification to God, and yet we need entire preservation. Suppose spirit, soul, and body were sanctified in the sense of being made as pure as Christ is pure. Then there would be no need to be preserved blameless. Does Christ need such preserving?
The prayer makes sense because it asks for something these believers had only in part:
Here the word is used of a sanctification that comes in degrees. The Thessalonians, along with all believers, had a perfect sanctification in Christ. But in daily life they enjoyed and displayed it only in part. So the apostle prays that they may be wholly sanctified.
The prayer has a deadline in it: the day Christ returns.
There is nothing partial about God's gracious work. Its sanctifying influence reaches every part of us, and it carries on until "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." When He comes, the sanctification of the whole man will reach its completeness and perfection — but not before.
Another writer adds what waits for those found blameless:
God wants every part of the man — his mind, his affections, and his body — set apart from this world for Christ. Then, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to reign, we may be found blameless and receive a full reward.
- Peace first. God made peace in the blood of the cross. Out of that settled relationship with the God of peace flows a devoted life. The work starts with God, not with our effort.
- Wholly. "Completely" means entirely and to the end. God claims every part of us, and the separation reaches even to what only looks like evil.
- Three parts. Spirit is the capacity that can know God. Soul is the seat of personality and affections. Paul names the spirit first; we usually name the body first.
- Two requests. Paul asks two things: that God sanctify us, and that He preserve us. The second would be pointless if the first made us sinless. So this is not perfection now.
- Finished at His coming. The sanctification of the whole man is complete only when Christ returns. Those found blameless then receive a full reward.
He [is] faithful who calls you, who will also perform [it].
The prayer just before this asks the biggest thing possible — that God keep believers blameless until Christ comes. This verse does not add another request. It names the One who answers, and shows where a Christian's confidence rests.
Verse 23 asks God to make His people holy. That prayer matches what God Himself wants for them.
Verse 24 is very encouraging; it gives the answer to the prayer, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." … It is the Father's desire that all His people should be holy, as He is holy.
The key word in the verse is "faithful." Its meaning is exact, and it belongs to God Himself.
In both the Old and the New Testament, this word comes from the same root as "faith." It is being true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, and to any trust committed. It is in various connections often applied to God Himself.
The verse points to God as the One who calls. That call has a goal, and He will reach it.
The One who has called us to glory is faithful and will carry out the purpose for which He has called us.
Our own failures along the way do not change the outcome He has fixed.
Despite all the breakdowns and desertions on our side, God has called us to this blameless condition in glory. He will not fail to achieve His purpose with us. He will do it!
If a believer could finally be lost, the failure would be God's, not just the believer's.
Yet the apostle's hope is in Him whose purpose for His people cannot fail. "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." We are on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd; and if there were final failure, it would be His strength that failed. That would be as impossible for Him as success would be for us without Him.
These readers were not living in calm. The assurance came to them while enemies were trying to break them.
Satan was raising the storm of persecution against them. Troubles and afflictions kept piling on them to force them into evil, or, if possible, to destroy their faith. The apostle directs their hearts and minds to God. His words take the form of a prayer or desire for them. They show how his own heart knew this sure refuge in the storm, and the power that could keep them in perfect peace, though surrounded by enemies and by evil. So he adds, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it."
A guarantee like this could be misread as permission to drift. Commentators press the opposite: the same call that secures us also makes a claim on us now.
If He has called, will He not also perform? … But His calling to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord is as serious in its present claim on us as it is sure in His grace. We must cast no shade of unfaithfulness on either, staining His name that we bear.
The response it invites is not passivity. It is holding fast to Him.
Finally, God has called us to this life of holiness with Himself; He is faithful and He will carry it out. May He enable us to hold fast to Him, so that we may know it in practice!
- Call. The verse rests everything on the One who calls. He has called us to glory, and He will finish what He called us for.
- Character. "Faithful" means being true to your own nature, to every promise given and every trust received. The word shares a root with "faith."
- Certainty. If a believer failed in the end, the Shepherd's strength would have failed. That cannot happen. Without Him, we could never succeed.
- Comfort. The words came to people in a storm of persecution. They point to the power that keeps us in perfect peace while enemies press in.
- Claim. The call is as serious in its demand on us as it is sure in His grace. So hold fast to Him, and let His work show in practice.
Brethren, pray for us.
Paul ends the letter by turning prayer around: he asks the young church to pray for him. Why would he need the prayers of new believers? And on what ground can anyone ask this of others?
We expect prayer to flow the other way, from the mature to the weak. One writer sets this request beside the easier picture of a man of faith praying for a worldly ruler.
But there is another trait of that life to which the apostle invites the saints. "Brothers, pray for us." What grace! We can easily understand an Abraham praying for an Abimelech. We can perhaps also understand a more faulty Abraham pleading for a faulty worldly ruler who had done a wrong he did not fully know about. But how blessed that the saints have the privilege of praying for the most honoured servant of the Lord! And how blessed that he seeks and values their prayers!
Paul does not ask only for himself. He includes his fellow workers. And the man asking was no beginner in the faith.
The apostle closes this First Epistle by asking the believers to pray for him and his fellow workers. With all the deep knowledge of the truth and the great revelations from the Lord, he felt his dependence and knew the blessing that comes from the prayers of fellow saints.
The need was not a flaw in Paul. One writer says God intended this dependence, to knit Christians together in affection — and to give hidden people a real part.
We see here that the most faithful and advanced Christians feel their dependence upon God, and on all saints. In one sense, Paul's apostolic gift depended on the prayers of the saints. God intended it, so that the church would be united in its affections... The apostle was in a prominent position. Perhaps he received power through the prayers of a poor bed-ridden woman. But all hidden fruits will be seen in the last day.
Another writer shows how that works out. Even a great gift needs the prayers of others to bear fruit.
Christ has knit the members of His church together by making them dependent on one another. The greatest minister that ever lived depended on the weakest saint for power in his ministry... He had a great gift of ministry for the comfort and building up of the saints. Yet he felt his dependence on their prayers to use it profitably.
The Thessalonians had been converted only months before. One writer points out that Paul did not measure their fitness by how long they had been Christians, and draws a comparison with a church that had been going longer.
Is it not deeply precious too that the apostle requests the prayers of these newly converted saints? They needed no long experience to pray effectively. Paul did not make such a request of the Corinthians, whose history was longer. Thessalonica had a spiritual exercise that Corinth lacked.
This was not a one-off request. One writer traces it across Paul's letters and finds two exceptions, for opposite reasons.
The Apostle valued prayer highly. We will find that he asks for the prayers of every church he writes to. Prayer is also asked for in Hebrews. The exceptions are Philippi, because he did not need to ask, and Galatia, because they were not in a fit state for such service.
The words are easy to say, and they can slip into small talk. One writer asks what lies behind them in our own life.
But may we not often catch ourselves in the habit of lightly and formally asking others to pray for us? It is a very common formula among us — "Remember me in your prayers." Surely nothing can be more blessed or precious than to be carried on the hearts of God's dear people when they come to God in prayer. But do we pay enough attention to the moral basis? When we say, "Brothers, pray for us," can we add, as in the presence of the One who searches hearts, "for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly"?
- Grace. The most honoured servant of the Lord asks the newest believers to pray for him. He counts their prayers worth having.
- Design. Paul did not outgrow this dependence. God intended it, to knit the church together in its affections.
- Reach. The greatest minister depended on the weakest saint for power in his ministry. Hidden people bear fruit that will be seen at the last day.
- Readiness. Long experience is not the qualification. Paul asked Thessalonica, not Corinth, because Thessalonica had a spiritual exercise Corinth lacked.
- Basis. "Pray for us" should never become a formula — ask it as one willing to live honestly before the God who searches hearts.
Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
Paul closes his first letter with short, personal instructions: pray for us, greet each other, read this letter to everyone. The greeting he asks for was a physical act. That raises two questions. What did the kiss mean to them? And what does the word "holy" add?
The apostles did not invent the kiss. It was how family members greeted each other. Scripture takes that ordinary act and gives it a new setting.
Relatives commonly greeted one another this way. The church took the custom up and set it apart as holy. Five of the letters close by urging believers to greet one another with a holy kiss, or kiss of love. Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14. When Paul said goodbye to the elders of Ephesus, they wept bitterly, and fell on his neck and kissed him.
The custom came from everyday life. The word "holy" did not, and it changes how the greeting is given.
The apostle urges all believers to show their love to one another by greeting "with a holy kiss". Christians may use the ordinary customs of their country for showing affection, but their affection must be genuine and "holy".
The verse does not say "greet the leaders." One writer stresses how far the greeting reaches:
Then comes a warm expression of loving greeting to the brothers — to all the brothers.
The command assumes they could tell who the brothers were. Otherwise, greeting them all would mean nothing.
Scripture makes love for the brothers, as a distinct set of people, a test of Christianity — as much as practical obedience and righteousness. One letter had to "be read to all the holy brothers." They were to greet one another with a holy kiss. So "all the saints greet you." False brothers soon slipped in unnoticed, but there were true ones for them to slip in among... Anyone who reads the New Testament can see that these were a well-known, distinct group of people. They knew each other and were known as brothers. Whoever belonged to them in one place belonged to them everywhere.
Affection between believers should need no command. Paul commands it anyway. The reason lies in the world around them.
In this world of selfishness and sin, it was fitting for the apostle Paul to invite the believers in Rome, Corinth, and Thessalonica to greet one another with a holy kiss. It was just as fitting for Peter to tell the Christian Jews, scattered in lands given over to dark paganism, to greet one another with a kiss of love. The affections are apt to grow cold, as the world's spirit prevails.
Where relationships have already soured, the rule bites harder. Paul sent the same instruction to Corinth twice. One commentator notes what happens when the gesture feels hard:
Friends need no prompting to show their love openly... Now quarrelling is the ruin of love, and the apostle knew only too well that it had already spread dangerously far at Corinth... Love has its outward forms. Where love is a stranger to the heart, keeping them is hard — and that hard duty binds all who name the name of Christ. So the one who keeps the rule unwillingly can make his own dislike his teacher, and be led to think and repent.
Commentators differ over how much weight to give the outward form. One writer describes his own habit abroad and at home:
Scripture says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." If I meet a brother in Germany or France, I always kiss him. When I come back to England, things seem so cold. Yet the spirit of that instruction is clear, and I can act on it here as well as in France. The letter always kills.
Another writer reaches the same conclusion where the custom is unfamiliar:
The apostle also encourages the saints to express their affection for one another in proper ways — greeting one another with a holy kiss. In western nations, of course, this is not widely practised. Even so, let us encourage every true expression of holy affection in the Lord between the saints.
- Borrowed — the kiss was the ordinary family greeting of the day. The church took that custom and set it apart.
- Holy — that one word rules out anything false. The love shown must be real.
- All — the greeting goes to every brother. That assumes believers who know one another as a distinct company.
- Cold — the world's selfish spirit chills affection, so the command is repeated. Where there is quarrelling, finding it hard to obey should drive a person to repent.
- Spirit — commentators differ over the outward form where kissing is not the custom. All agree the intent still binds: give holy affection a real expression.
I adjure you by the Lord that the letter be read to all the [holy] brethren.
Paul is almost done writing when he stops and puts his readers under oath. The oath is not about doctrine or conduct. It is about reading this very letter aloud to every believer in Thessalonica. Why such solemn words, and what does the charge settle about who Scripture belongs to?
The word behind "I put you under oath" belongs to the language of courts and kings. It describes a person in authority binding someone else to act, under the weight of God's name.
A solemn charge by one in authority to another to speak the truth, under the obligation of an oath. Ahab put Micaiah under oath in this way (1 Kings 22:16), and so did the high priest with our Lord (Matthew 26:63). Also binding a person under a curse to do or not to do the thing commanded... Also a "solemn charge," as in 1 Thessalonians 5:27.
This was the first of Paul's letters to go out. He does not lean on his title here, yet the closing charge shows the authority he knew his words carried.
Being a letter, and the first the apostle sent out, he wants the things he writes acknowledged as the commandments of the Lord. He wants it read to all, since it concerns all in the Lord. Though he does not put forward his title of apostle, he writes in the fullest consciousness of it, and here implies its fullest authority. At the same time he would be in direct contact with the least member of Christ's body. You see it in his closing wish, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should be with them. He did not suspect the integrity of those who were over them in the Lord. He wanted to impress on all the saints the solemnity of a fresh inspired communication.
The elders were not to keep the letter and pass on a summary of it.
He is earnest that all should hear the letter he had written to them. He was sure of who in fact the Writer of it was. It was not for the leaders alone, as the keepers of truth. Its comfort and its responsibility belonged to all alike. Where inspired Scripture was in question, the mass of believers were not called to "hear the Church." The Church was called rather to hear the apostles.
These Thessalonians were new believers with very little teaching behind them. The letter still hands them its hardest parts.
They were young in the Lord. They had come to faith not long before, and had enjoyed his teaching only a very short time. Yet divine wisdom sees no ground for keeping this letter from these babes in the truth. It presents some things hard to understand with remarkable freedom. The ignorant and unstable twist those things, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Later efforts to keep the Scriptures out of ordinary hands run straight into this verse.
Some held that not everyone should read Scripture, or hear it read, even though it was addressed to the whole assembly. That notion interfered with divine authority as well as divine grace. Only a degenerate and rebellious age, drifting toward apostasy, could have conceived it.
A mother teaching her children has a real place in passing on truth. But she is not inspired, and the charge here guards something she cannot supply.
We all say that the Word of God is the authority, but we have to insist that God speaks by the Word. A mother is not inspired and no man is, but the Word of God is, and it is direct... so it is, "I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers." This is of all importance, because it is God's title to speak to souls directly.
Part of the charge was practical. A letter read aloud reaches people a written page cannot.
Such a charge probably had a special application in a day when many would be unable to read.
Behind the authority there is affection.
His heart forgot none of them... His was a heart that embraced all the revealed counsels of God on the one hand, and did not lose sight of the least of His saints on the other.
- Sworn. The closing words are an oath-bound charge. It is the same solemn form used when one in authority bound another under an oath. Here it makes sure a letter gets heard.
- Inspired. The charge shows what Paul knew he was writing. His words were commandments of the Lord, carrying full authority.
- All. The comfort and the responsibility of Scripture belong to every believer alike. The assembly hears the apostles, not the reverse.
- Unabridged. New believers got the hard parts too. To withhold Scripture from the people interferes with divine authority and divine grace.
- Direct. God keeps the right to speak straight to a soul through His Word. The heart that insisted on this lost sight of no one, not even the least saint.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you.
Paul ends a letter full of instruction, correction and the promise of the Lord's coming with one short wish: grace. Why close with a gift rather than another command, and what is this grace?
One writer reads the closing blessing as the answer to a question:
To this end what do we need but that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should be with us? The letter closes with a blessing to that effect.
This closing wish supplies the power for the walk the letter has been asking for:
The letter is no less vital for us today, and the blessing is no less precious: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." For it is this grace that gives power for a walk with Him in sanctification from this evil world, until we see Him face to face.
This grace is something the readers already know, because of the way it showed itself:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — what is it? It is something that we know. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." But how do you know it? You know it by the way it has shown itself. How has it shown itself? He who was rich for your sakes became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. What a wonderful and blessed word this closing blessing is! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is all the love of that blessed Person active towards us for our blessing, for our joy, for our enrichment.
One writer ties the closing wish to apostolic authority that reaches the smallest person in the room:
This is a letter, and the first the apostle sent out. He will have the things he writes acknowledged as the commandments of the Lord, and read to all, as concerning all in the Lord. He does not put forward his title of apostle, since he could only rejoice that asserting it was needless. Yet he writes in the fullest consciousness of it (1 Thess. 2:6), and here implies its fullest authority. With it all he would be in immediate contact with the least member of Christ's body, as he wishes at the end that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should be with them (v. 28).
There was a practical reason Paul ended every letter this way:
Early in the days of his written ministry the apostle chose a token by which his genuine writings could be known: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." It proved that what he wrote was really his, and it kept the saints from being fooled by forged letters, which someone appears to have attempted at Thessalonica. He wrote it perhaps with his own hand, as he did in his second letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 3:17). We find this greeting attached to all his letters, either in its longest form (2 Cor. 13:14) or its shortest (1 Tim. 6:21). And while he lived, no other New Testament writer used it. Only at the end of Revelation, written after Paul's martyrdom, do we find something close to it: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all."
The same writer draws a conclusion for how believers should treat each other:
This grace must form us and mark us, and it must shine through us in how we deal with one another. Oh, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! What did He say to His disciples? He said, "I am among you as the one who serves."
- Grace concludes. Paul's last word is not another duty but a gift. It is the one thing needed for everything he has asked.
- Grace supplies. This grace is the power for a walk in sanctification, away from an evil world. It carries us until we see Him face to face.
- Grace gives. We know this grace by how it showed itself. He who was rich became poor, so that we might become rich.
- Grace reaches. The letter was to be read to all in the Lord. The same wish reaches the least member of Christ's body.
- Grace signs. This greeting is attached to all Paul's letters. It was his token, so that no forged letter could fool the saints.