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If you have ever studied 1 and 2 Thessalonians with adequate attention, you could see it is hard to separate these two books. I believe that these two books were written by Paul under the same kind of burden. In our fellowship we want to pick up three main, crucial points in these two Epistles. These two books, as well as 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians, were written very early in Paul’s ministry while the churches were still in their youth. In the beginning of the church life, there was not much degradation. Some corruption could be seen in Corinth, but still there was not much degradation yet. Because of this there was not the need of the revealing of the deeper things that are found in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews, and 1 and 2 Timothy.
We do find, however, some very crucial points in Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians concerning the Christian life. These two books are on a holy life for the church life. The saints in those days were living a church life with the expectation of the Lord’s coming back. We have to realize that all the early apostles, including Paul, thought the Lord would come back in their time. History tells us that the early believers in the first century all had this thought. As a result, they were waiting for the Lord to come. Today if we received a cable or telephone call from Taipei that a certain brother was coming, we would get ourselves ready to welcome him when he came. The thought of the Lord’s second coming was very prevailing in all the early apostles and disciples. In 1 and 2 Thessalonians we can see that the saints were eagerly waiting for the Lord’s coming back.
According to 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul received a revelation that the Savior would not come back as fast as they had expected (vv. 13-18). In 2 Thessalonians 2:2 Paul told the saints not to be alarmed that “the day of the Lord has come.” Paul told them that before the Lord’s coming, the man of lawlessness, Antichrist, must be manifested (v. 3). Unless the man of lawlessness is revealed, the saints should not believe that the Lord’s second coming is imminent. Keep in mind that the two books to the Thessalonians were written under an atmosphere in which the believers all had the thought that the Lord was coming immediately, so they were waiting for the coming One.
The first crucial point in these two Epistles is expecting the Savior’s return and living a sanctified life. This point is clear from reading the concluding verses of each of the first three chapters in 1 Thessalonians. The last verse of chapter 1, verse 10, says, “And await His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.” This verse says that the early Christians were waiting for the Lord’s coming back, for the Savior’s return. First Thessalonians 2:19 says, “What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Are not even you?” The Thessalonians were all expecting the return of the Savior, and the apostle who served them was also expecting that they could be his joy and crown at the Lord’s coming back. Then the last verse of chapter 2, verse 20, says, “You are our glory and joy.” At His coming the saints would be Paul’s glory and joy. First Thessalonians 3:13, the last verse of chapter 3, is quite crucial — “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” The ending of the first three chapters of 1 Thessalonians clearly indicates that those early believers were expecting the Savior’s coming back by living a sanctified life.
Relating to living a sanctified life, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 says, “This is the will of God, your sanctification...that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Verse 7 continues, “For God has not called us for uncleanness but in sanctification.” Finally, the entire book of 1 Thessalonians ends with a wonderful word. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this first crucial point we have to realize that the proper church life depends on a life of expecting the Savior’s return and living a sanctified life. Even though we are not the early believers, we still have to keep the principle that the church life depends on our living a sanctified life always with the expectation that our dear Lord is coming. You have to develop this crucial point according to the many footnotes in the Recovery Version and the appropriate Life-study messages, stressing what a sanctified life is.
The second crucial point in these Epistles is at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5 — a spiritual life for our full sanctification. The items listed in verses 12 through 24 of chapter 5 show the believers’ cooperation in living a spiritual, separated, sanctified life, and God’s operation in sanctifying and preserving the believers. We believers should live a spiritual life for our full sanctification. This spiritual life is mainly in verses 16 through 22. In these verses there are seven points of the spiritual life: always rejoice (v. 16), unceasingly pray (v. 17), in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (v. 18), do not quench the Spirit (v. 19), do not despise prophecies (v. 20), prove all things; hold fast to what is good (v. 21), and finally, abstain from every kind of evil (v. 22). These are the seven items that constitute a spiritual life.
As Christians, we should abstain, stay away, and even escape, not only from evil but also from the kind, the appearance, of evil. For a male to talk with a female alone in a private, dark room is not sinning, but there is a kind of evil there. To pass through a bar is not sin, but if every night you pass through the bar, that is a kind of evil. You should abstain from that, not only for others’ sake but even for your own sake.
If you walk around a deep well five inches from its opening, you may say you are just taking a walk. But you may fall into the well and be seriously hurt. If you walk this close to the well day after day, eventually you will fall into it. To have a talk by oneself with a member of the opposite sex in a private, dark room is running a risk. If you are going to abstain from evil, you first have to abstain from its kind. Suppose you are peeling off the skin of a peach. You may say, “I am not going to eat a peach.” If you keep peeling off the skin of peaches for half an hour, though, eventually one peach will get into your stomach. You should not remain there peeling the skins off of peaches if you do not want to eat one. In like manner, we should abstain from the kind of evil so that we do not fall into the evil itself.
And in 5:23 indicates the continuation of the seven items listed in verses 16 through 22, which constitute the spiritual life for you to be wholly sanctified. “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it” (vv. 23-24). The first seven items form the spiritual life, and the last item is the whole, full sanctification. This is the spiritual life for the full sanctification.
In 2 Thessalonians the most crucial verse is 2:13, which says, “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” We all need to have a deep impression concerning the expression salvation in sanctification. This is one of the strongest expressions in the entire New Testament. Martin Luther paid his full attention to justification by faith. The Southern Baptists have nearly made a slogan of the phrase saved by grace. The expressions justification by faith and saved by grace are crucial and very common among Christians, especially in the past five hundred years. But such a term salvation in sanctification probably has never been picked up by the Lord’s children. Since Paul uses this term, we need a revelation and realization of the truth embodied in it.
God chose us from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit. God chose us before the foundation of the world in eternity past. The word unto in Greek means “with a view to or in view of.” From the beginning, from eternity past, God’s selection was with a view to reach a certain goal. God’s selection has a goal, and that goal is salvation in sanctification of the Spirit. Salvation in sanctification means that if you are going to enjoy and participate in this salvation, you must be in the sanctification of the Spirit. From the day you believed, the day you received salvation, the Spirit began to work on you. Whatever work He is doing on you is to sanctify you. Your daily salvation is in two things: the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth.
In eternity God selected us with a goal to reach. That goal is His salvation, and His salvation is in two things: in the Spirit and in the belief, the faith, of the truth. God’s salvation as a whole includes salvation from eternal perdition and also a daily salvation from many things. Due to the fall, human life has become a kind of suffering. Do you believe that before the fall Adam was sweating? Actually, sweating came from the fall (Gen. 3:19). Sweating is a curse. There is some enjoyment in the human life, but in the human life the debits are bigger than the credits. If a couple does not have children, they may long to have children. Not to have any children is a curse. After they get a child, however, they begin to worry about this child. This child becomes the cause of much anxiety. Even the homes we live in become a problem to us. Many things in our home need to be maintained and repaired periodically. This is why we need salvation in our daily life. In Philippians Paul tells us that we even need salvation from murmuring and reasoning (2:14). We need a daily salvation.
God’s salvation also includes a salvation to come that will save us from the great tribulation of three and a half years. Luke 21:36 warns us to be “watchful at every time, beseeching that you would prevail to escape all these things which are about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.” This world will end in a great tribulation of three and a half years. During this time the entire universe will suffer calamity after calamity. Satan will do his best to damage mankind, and God will do His best to judge rebellious mankind. The outpouring of the seven bowls in Revelation 15 and 16 will contain God’s ultimate fury in His judgment upon the earth for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Also, during the great tribulation Antichrist and his false prophet will do much destroying and will cause the Lord’s chosen people to suffer greatly. It will be a dreadful thing to live on the earth during the great tribulation. We need a salvation from the sufferings in the great tribulation (Rev. 3:10).
In addition to salvation from eternal perdition, salvation from the many things in our daily life, and salvation from the great tribulation, we also need the salvation of our soul (1 Pet. 1:9), which will save us from being judged at the judgment seat of Christ with a dispensational punishment (2 Cor. 5:10). If we are not saved in our soul, we will suffer the Lord’s discipline in the coming age. We all need a salvation from the dispensational judgment in the kingdom age. God’s salvation as a whole delivers us from these fourfold sufferings.
We need to thank Him that we have been rescued, saved, from eternal perdition. As believers, our eternal destiny is not the lake of fire. We need to ask ourselves, however, about the salvation that we are enjoying in our daily life and about the salvation from the coming tribulation and from the discipline in the kingdom age. Will we enjoy the reward, or will we receive the discipline, the punishment, in the next age? We all need to get into the depths of this truth. This is God’s complete and full salvation, and this salvation is the goal unto which God selected us. God’s selection from eternity was with the intention that we might enjoy such a full salvation, not just the initial salvation through the redemption of Christ. Christ’s redemption saves us from eternal perdition, but after that, in the daily salvation, you need the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth.
We also need to consider what salvation in belief of the truth, or in faith of the truth, is. The word rendered “belief” in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 may also be rendered “faith.” This verse shows us that the daily salvation is a matter altogether in the Spirit and in the Word. Sanctification is in the Spirit and is also in belief of the truth, that is, in the Word. In John 17:17 the Lord Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Many Christians may know the sanctification of the Spirit, but not many know the sanctification in the Word. The holy Word is very consistent. To be sanctified in the belief, or the faith, of the truth corresponds with the Lord’s word in John 17:17. We must be balanced. Our daily salvation is not only in the Spirit but also in the Word as the truth.
If we had never discovered all these higher truths revealed in Paul’s Epistles, but we had only trusted in the so-called Spirit in a superstitious way, how much sanctification could we enjoy? We would only have sanctification as a term. In order to receive the sanctification of the Spirit we must go to the Word. From the age of the reformers to this present day, the Lord has recovered much in His Word. The more truth that has been recovered in His Word, the more that we enjoy the sanctification. The more we see the truth, that is, the more the reality is revealed in the New Testament, the more we enjoy sanctification. This is why we have to speak the Word. We must not merely speak the shallow Word but speak the deeper Word. If we would speak all the crucial points of the truth in Romans to the saints, and all the saints would learn to speak these crucial points of the truth, there would be an atmosphere in all the churches of enjoying the sanctification of the Spirit to a great extent. This is not only sanctification in the Spirit but also in the Word.
We need to consider the Lord’s word in John 17:17. He asked the Father to sanctify us in the truth and declared that the Father’s word is truth. If we do not know the Word, how could the Father sanctify us? There would be nothing with which God could sanctify us. But when we pray with the rich Word, the profound Word, the high Word, we will surely be sanctified with something solid. The more we would pray over the twenty-one crucial points of the truth in the book of Romans, the more we would enjoy the sanctification. The Spirit always goes with the Word.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 the Spirit is in pair with the truth. Salvation in sanctification is not only of the Spirit but also in belief of the truth. Just as electricity needs a wire to convey it, so the Holy Spirit needs the Word as its wire. If there is no Word, there is no divine electricity. If you have only the wire without the electricity, that is empty. If you have only the electricity with no wire, the electricity does not work. If you have only the Word in letters without the Spirit, that is empty. But if you want to have the Spirit without the Word, this cannot be done. The Spirit and the truth embodied in the Word are a pair. The very salvation that is the goal of God’s eternal selection is in two things: in sanctification of the Spirit and also in belief of the truth.
To be sanctified in the belief, in the faith, of the truth is very subjective. Faith is the reaction, the substantiation, of the unseen scenery (the truth). Now we not only have the knowledge of the truth but also the faith of the truth. We have the reaction to the truth we have come to know objectively. We must learn all the twenty-one crucial points in Romans. When we learn these truths and we hear these truths, we will have the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2, 5). The scenery (truth) and the seeing (faith) are objective to the camera (us). But when the light (the Spirit) brings the scenery to the film (our spirit) within the camera, both the seeing and the scenery become subjective to it. When the light brings the scenery to the film, there is a click within the camera. That “click” within us, which brings the scenery of the truth into our spirit, is faith. This is the faith of the truth.
Now we not only have the truth as some objective scenery, but we have the faith of the truth. In this faith of the truth we are being saved. Our daily salvation is in this faith, in this reaction, to the scenery of the truth. We all are short of the vision that comes from the faith of the truth. We need to pray for ourselves and for all the brothers. All the problems come from the shortage of a clear and adequate vision. The Bible may be in our hand, but it may also be veiled to us in the same way that it was veiled to many of the Jews when they read the Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:15). In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul says that he and his co-workers were beholding the Lord with an unveiled face. They were beholding Him as a mirror without any veils, without any covering. All the leading ones in the churches bear a great responsibility, and I do believe that all of us will be held responsible for the churches at the judgment seat. In light of the judgment seat, we need to be in fear and trembling that we would delay the saints or veil them in any way. We need to expose the truth to the saints and minister the proper truth, the proper scenery, into them. The Lord may ask us at the judgment seat, “As a leader in the church, were you taking the veils away from My people? Did you bring them to the best scenery in My divine revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible?” If the Lord would check with us in such a way, what would we say?
God’s eternal selection is toward this goal of complete salvation. This salvation is to be carried out in the sanctification of the Spirit and in the “reaction” to the truth. It is carried out in our subjective apprehension of the truth, not just our mere knowledge of the truth. We must realize, though, that we must have the knowledge first. Without the scenery to react to, what could you do? First, you must have the objective scenery. While we are studying the Word prayerfully and laboring over it, the Spirit works with the Word. As we open to the Lord, the light will come in, and there will be a reaction, a “click,” which will bring the divine scenery of the truth into our spirit. This reaction is faith. In this way we get the divine scenery, not outwardly but inwardly in our spirit, the film. On your spirit there is an impression of the divine scenery, and this divine scenery becomes yours. This is the full realization of the way to enjoy God’s full salvation.
First, we need the knowledge of the truth. We need someone to speak the truth. Romans 10:17 tells us, “Faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” We have to preach, to speak, the word. This preaching, this speaking, of the word produces the hearing, and the hearing will produce the reaction within others. This reaction is the “click” of faith impressing whatever you speak into the spirit of the ones you are speaking to. There will be a photograph impressed upon their spirit, and this will become their property, their possession, for them to enjoy. This is the proper understanding of this particular crucial point in 2 Thessalonians. We all need to be delivered from skating on the surface of the divine truth, and we need to cooperate with the Lord by laboring together with Him to dive into the depths of the truth of His marvelous New Testament economy.
