1 Thessalonians 1:6-8 And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.… I. He is a RECIPIENT of the Divine. The "word" here is the gospel. Their suffering in receiving it was more than counterbalanced by "the joy of the Holy Ghost." What matters bodily affliction if you have this joy. "We glory in tribulation," etc. A genuine Christian is a man who has received into him the Divine Word. God's great thoughts have come into his intellect, touched his heart, and given a new moral impulse to his being. He who has not received this Divine Word intelligently and with practical effect is no Christian. The Christian is a living Bible, the "word made flesh." II. He is an IMITATOR of the Divine. The apostles were Christians because they were "followers of the Lord"; and all who would be Christians must become the same. 1. Christ is the most perfect moral model. In Him we have all that commands the attention and admiration of the soul. 2. Christ is the most imitable moral model. Sublimely great as He is, no character has appeared in history so imitable as His. (1) Because none is so powerful to awaken our admiration. What we admire most, we imitate most.(2) Because none is so easily understood. He is perfectly transparent. One principle — love — explains all His moral features and activities. (3) Because none but His is permanently consistent. III. He is an EXAMPLE of the Divine. "So that ye were ensamples," etc. Macedonia and Achaia stand for all Greece, so that they became ensamples to the entire Greek race. Genuine Christian not only receives and imitates, but reflects and radiates the Divine. He is the brightest and fullest revelation of God on earth; there is more of the Divine seen in the Christly soul than there is in starry heavens and blooming landscapes. "Ye are My witnesses." IV. He is a PROCLAIMER of the Divine. "From you sounded out the word." This is an image from a trumpet filling with its clear sounding echo all the surrounding places. They sounded out the gospel, not only in enthusiastic utterances but in noble and generous deeds. Thessalonica was a large maritime and commercial city; and its Christian mer chants would in all their transactions with foreign traders ring out the gospel. Conclusion: A genuine Christian, then, is a Divine man. There is in a moral as well as in a constitutional sense, a "divinity within him." He is the recipient, imitator, example, and herald of the Divine. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: |
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