1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God… I. THE PERSONS — "One another." 1. One man is the image of another, because the image of God is upon all. One man interprets another. We are as glasses, and one sees in another what he is and what he himself may also be. He may see himself in another's fear, grief, complaints. In another's sickness, he may see the disease which may sieze on himself; in another's poverty, his own riches with wings; in another's death, his own mortality. They are also a silent but powerful appeals to his compassion to do as he would be done by in like ease. 2. "One another" takes in the whole world. One is diverse from another, yet we can hardly distinguish them, they are so like. (1) From the same rock are hewn out the feeble and the strong. Of the same extraction are the poor and rich. He that made the idiot made the scribe. Who then shall separate? (2) Besides this, the God of nature has also imprinted our natural inclination which carries us to love and comfort one another. One man is as another, by himself weak and indigent, needing the help and supply of others (1 Corinthians 12:4, 5), and so provided. One man excels in wisdom, another in wealth, another in strength, that they may serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13). 3. A nearer relation binds men together — their relation in Christ. In Him they are called to the same faith, filled with the same grace, ransomed with the same price, and shall be crowned with the same glory. And being one in these, they must join hand in hand to uphold one another, and so advance one another to the common glory (Matthew 22:38, 89; 1 Corinthians 12:12). As each man, so each Christian is as a glass to another. I see my sorrow in my brother's eyes; I cast a beam of comfort upon him, and he reflects a blessing upon me. And in our daily prayer," Our Father" takes in "one another," even the whole Church. II. THE ACT. 1. Comfort is of large signification. It may be to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Speak and do something that may heal a wounded heart, and rouse a drooping spirit. 2. To comfort is a work of charity which is inward and outward. What a poor thing is a thought or word without a hand; and what an uncharitable thing is comfort without compassion. Then I truly comfort my brother when my actions correspond with my heart. And if they be true they will never be severed; for if the bowels yearn, the hand will stretch itself forth. 3. We must look to the motive. Our comfort may proceed from a hollow heart; then it is Pharisaical; it may be ministered through a trumpet, and then it is lost in the noise; it may be the product of fear. All these are false principles, and charity issues through them as water through mud — defiled. Christ is our motive and pattern (Mark 9:41). 4. Let us be ambitious to comfort, for we have great occasions. Every day presents some object. Here is an empty mouth; why do we not fill it? Here is a naked body; why do we not part with our superfluities to cover it? Here God speaks, man speaks, misery speaks; and are our hearts so hard that they will not open, and so open mouth and hands (Philippians 2:5). III. THE MANNER OR METHODS — "with these words." 1. In every action we must have a right method. He that begins amiss is yet to begin, as the further he goes the further he is from the end. As James speaks of prayer (James 4:3), so we seek comfort and find not because we seek amiss. Our fancy is our physician. We ask ourselves counsel, and are fools that give it; we ask of others and they are miserable comforters. In poverty we seek for wealth; and that makes us poorer than we were. Wealth is no cure for poverty, nor enlargement for restraint, nor honour for discontent. Thus it is also in spiritual evils. When conscience holds up the whip we fly from it; when it is angry we flatter it. We are as willing to forget sin as to commit it. We comfort ourselves by ourselves and by others, by our own weakness and others' weakness, and by sin itself. But the antidote is poison, or, at best, a broken cistern. 2. The apostle's method is — (1) In general, the Word of God. For the Scripture is a common shop of comfort, where you may buy it without money and without price. The comforts of Scripture are — (a) Abiding (1 Peter 1:23) — its hope (1 Peter 1:3); its joy (John 16:22); its peace (Psalm 72:7); so all its comforts (2 Corinthians 1:20). All else is perishing. (b) Universal. Nothing, no one is hid from the light of them. But we must be careful how we apply them and prepare ourselves to receive them. God's mercy is over all His works, but it will not cover the impenitent. Nevertheless, the covetous comforts himself by the ant in Proverbs (Proverbs 6:6); the ambitious by that good ointment in Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 7:1); the contentious man by the quarrel of Paul and Barnabas; the lethargic in God's forbearance; and thus turn wholesome medicine into poison by misapplication. (2) In particular, the doctrine of the resurrection and the coming of Christ. These are the sum of all comforts, the destruction of all ills. (A. Farindon, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: |
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