The Divine Lamp

1 Thess 4:1-12 is the first section to the third and final part of the letter.  Like the previous two parts it has a concentric, parallel structure:

A1) Exhortations concerning right and holy conduct (4:1-12)
B) The resurrection of the faithful and Christ’s second coming (4:13-5:11)
A2) Exhortations concerning right order in the community (5:12-28)

Read 1 Thess 4:1-12

1 Thess 4:1-2  We beseech and exhort you in the Lord.  Here Paul appeals to his authority as an ambassador of Christ (see 2 Cor 5:18-20).  The emphasis and urgency of the exhortation should be seen against the backdrop of the Lord’s second coming.

vs 1 cont.  (we exhort you) that, as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you are so doing, you abound in doing so more and more   “Walk” is a common metaphor for one’s moral life (see my notes on Psalm 1).  The life of the man of God is conceived of as a religious pilgrimage towards final union with Him.  The Thessalonians have already begun that journey and are here encouraged to keep at it with even greater commitment.  That journey began when the missionaries came to their city preaching the word, which they “received in great affliction, with the joy which comes from the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:6).  The word received used here and in 2:13 is paralambano, which is related to the word pradosis, tradition.  Tradition is the handing on or receiving of a teaching delivered either orally, in writing, or by example, and Jesus is at their source, for he Handed on (paradidonai) and revealed what he had received from the Father (see Matt 11:25-27).  The words in verse 2 for you know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus is likewise a reminder of the teaching they have received from the missionaries through Jesus..    But it was not merely through the preaching that they received from the missionaries how they ought to walk; they also received it by the example set by the missionaries (note the reference to imitation in 1:6, and see 1 Thess 2:1-12).  The word abound calls to mind what Paul said in 3:12.

1 Thess 4:3  For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you refrain from fornication The salvific will of God demands a response under grace on our part.  We must embrace holiness.  Fornication includes all forms of illicit sexual activity, but what St Paul has explicitly in mind in verses 4-8 is not entirely clear from the Greek text, as an examination of various translations 1 Thess 4:4-8 shows (see the NAB and the RSV texts, along with the footnote to the text in the NAB).

1 Thess 4:4-7  Peter Ellis, in his book SEVEN PAULINE LETTERS comments on the RSV translation:  “In the Greek, the import of these words is much less clear.  The RSV translates it as here but gives another translation-”How to control his own body”-in a footnote; and the NAB gives a third possible translation: “each of you guarding his member in sanctity.”  The different translations flow from the ambiguity of the Greek, which uses the word “vessel,” a word that could mean “wife” as above, or “body” as in the RSV footnote, or “member” (a euphemism for sexual parts) as in the NAB.  The NAB translation “member” would imply personal unchastity.  The RSV translation “wife” would imply adultery.  No certain solution is possible, but the context, especially in verse 6, would seem to favor the translation “wife,” and the nature of the immorality as adultery.  Underlying such immorality, one may suspect a devil-may-care attitude toward sex in view of the fact that the end of the world was considered near.”  The attitude may seem strange to us, but it is an idea exhibited often down through the centuries (i.e., some Gnostics and the Cathari).

1 Thess 4:8 Therefore he that rejects this rejects not man, but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.  Paul’s teaching on this matter is not his own and cannot be rejected without rejecting God and the Holy Spirit (and, obviously, Christ) see 1 Thess 1:5; 2:13.

1 Thess 4:9  But concerning love of the brothers you have no need that one write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another  This recalls 1 Thess 3:12.  Paul probably has in mind here the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:34.  The Gospel of God delivered by the missionaries remains at work among them (1 Thess 2:13) and manifests itself in love.

1 Thess 4:10 for indeed you do it towards all the brothers that are in all Macedonia.  But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more.  In 1 Thess 1:7 Paul had noted that the Thessalonians had become a model for believers throughout Macedonia, here we see that it manifested itself in love.  Once again Paul uses the words exhort and abound  as he had in 4:1 (and see 3:12).  The necessity for sanctification and love in virtue of the Lord’s second coming cannot be over emphasized.   The Lord’s return and its implications will be the subject of the second section of part 3 (see 1 Thess 4:13-5:11 and note especially the moral imperatives of 5:5-8, along with the focus on faith, hope, and love).

1 Thess 4:11-12  And that you aspire to be quiet, and tend to you own business, and to labor with your own hands as we instructed you.  That you may walk (i.e., act) in a becoming way towards outsiders, being dependent on no one.  The appeal to previous instruction is essentially an appeal to the traditions they had already received concerning the subjects of this verse.  In their behavior they are to avoid instigating troubles among themselves and outsiders.    Many scholars believe that what Paul  has in mind here  is the fact that some of the Thessalonians had given up working in order to  better prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.   By doing this they were becoming a burden on others.  By not working to earn their daily bread they were becoming dependent upon the charity of their fellow Christians and friends and relatives who were not members of the Church.  They were also becoming busy bodies.  Paul will have to deal with these issues again in 2 Thess 3:6-16.  In 1 Thess 2:9 Paul explicitly mentions how the missionaries had labored among them so as not to be a burden.  This example was not doubt intended as part of the instructions they had received.