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Scripture Reading: 2 Thes. 1:3-5, 10-11; 2:13-14, 16
The books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians contain a total of eight chapters. All these chapters are on the same subject: a holy life for the church life. Whenever we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, we should not be distracted by other matters. No doubt, in the eight chapters of these two books a number of other points are covered. We need to be careful in our reading not to be distracted by these points. As we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, we need to keep in mind that the central thought of these Epistles is a holy life for the church life.
This holy life for the church life is constructed of faith, love, and hope. The way to carry out such a life is to be sanctified wholly. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul 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.” If we would be sanctified wholly, we need to have our heart established blameless in holiness, and we need to preserve our vessel, our body, in sanctification and honor. Furthermore, all the parts of our being — our spirit, our soul, and our body — need to be preserved complete. This is to sanctify our entire being to have a holy life for the proper church life.
In 2 Thessalonians Paul repeats much of what he has said in 1 Thessalonians. Like a father with a loving heart toward his children, Paul is repetitious. This is characteristic of parents, especially as they grow older. Again and again, they may say the same thing to their children. Therefore, 2 Thessalonians is a repetition and a further development of 1 Thessalonians. It is a repetition with warnings and corrections. In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul warns the believers not to be misled. He also corrects them in order to bring them back to the right track. Nevertheless, the main subject — the holy life for the church life — is the same in both books. Furthermore, in both 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians we see the basic structure of the Christian life, a structure that includes faith, love, and hope.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 and 4 Paul says, “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing, so that we ourselves boast in you in the churches of God for your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions which you are bearing.” In verse 3 Paul speaks of the believers’ faith and love. He says that their faith is growing and that their love is increasing. In 1 Thessalonians 3:2 Paul says that he sent Timothy to establish and encourage the Thessalonians for the sake of their faith. From 1 Thessalonians 3:10 we learn that Paul was eager to see them again in order to perfect what was lacking in their faith. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12 Paul also urged the believers to increase in love: “And the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love to one another and to all, even as we also to you.” In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Paul goes on to tell the believers that they have been taught of God to love one another. Therefore, in 1 Thessalonians Paul was concerned that the believers’ faith would be perfected and that their love would increase and abound. Now in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul encourages the new believers at Thessalonica by saying that the apostles thank God because their faith grows exceedingly and because their love is increasing. This indicates that, as Paul repeats the matter of faith and love, he adds a word of encouragement.
But where does Paul speak of hope in 2 Thessalonians? Paul’s first reference to the believers’ hope is in 1:4, where Paul says that he boasts of their endurance and faith in all their persecutions and afflictions. Hope is implied by the word “endurance.” Their endurance issued from the hope of the Lord’s coming back and was supported by it. Such endurance of hope is always accompanied by faith. For this reason, Paul speaks of their endurance and faith. In 2:16 Paul again speaks of hope: “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope in grace.” Paul, an excellent writer, could not forget the basic structure of his Epistles to the Thessalonians with the elements of faith, love, and hope.
In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul speaks of holiness; in chapter four of sanctification; and in chapter five, of being sanctified. In 1 Thessalonians 3:13 he says, “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.” Then in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 he says, “This is the will of God, your sanctification,” and in verse 4, “That each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Then in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul 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.” This is the holiness and sanctification spoken of in 1 Thessalonians for the carrying out of a holy life for the church life with the three elements of faith, love, and hope.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul gives a further word concerning sanctification: “But we ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” God has chosen us unto salvation in sanctification, and this sanctification is of the Spirit. Paul’s word about sanctification here implies all that he has said regarding holiness and sanctification in 1 Thessalonians. This means that it implies what Paul has said about having our heart established blameless in holiness, about preserving our body in sanctification, and about being sanctified wholly by the God of peace.
In 2:13 neither sanctification nor salvation is a simple matter. When I was young, I regarded God’s salvation as something that was very simple. First I was eager to know definitely whether I had been saved. Eventually I came to know for sure that I had been saved. After that, I made salvation a major subject in my conversation with others. Whenever I met a person, I was eager to find out whether or not he was saved. Gradually I came to realize that salvation is not such a simple matter. Now if you would ask me if I have been saved, I would reply, “I have been saved, I am still being saved, and I shall be saved. Eventually, I shall be wholly, fully, and thoroughly saved.”
Another way to ask about my experience of salvation would be to say something like this: “Brother Lee, you said that you have been saved, that you are now being saved, and that you will be saved thoroughly. Please tell us how much you have been saved. Also, how much are you being saved day by day? We know that you have been a Christian for more than fifty years. Please tell us how much of you has been saved and how much still needs to be saved.” I use these questions as an illustration of the fact that salvation is not a simple matter.
If someone asks you if you have been saved and how much you have been saved, you should say, “I know that I have been saved. However, I cannot tell you how much I have been saved. But I do know that I need to be saved much more. I have participated in God’s salvation to some degree, but I need to participate in it to a far greater degree.”
In 2:13 Paul says that God chose us unto salvation. This salvation has a long span. According to what we are able to understand, this span begins with regeneration and ends with glorification. Although we were fallen, sinful, and deadened, God came to regenerate us. Through regeneration, we began to participate in God’s salvation. However, regarding this salvation we have a long way to go.
We may liken the span of God’s salvation to a long bridge. This bridge of salvation begins in time and reaches to eternity. If you were to ask me where I am today on this bridge, I would have to answer that I do not know. I know definitely that I have not crossed all the way over this bridge. I know that I am somewhere on the bridge of salvation, but only God knows exactly where this is.
Although we do not know where we are on the bridge of God’s salvation, we can know with assurance that we shall never lose our salvation or our regeneration. Once we have been regenerated, we are regenerated for eternity. Regeneration is a once-for-all matter. Regeneration can be compared to our birth as human beings. Once a person has been born as a human being, he will never cease to be a human being, a person. In the same principle, regeneration is a matter once for all, even for eternity.
The degree of our salvation depends on the extent of our sanctification. The more we are sanctified, the more we are saved. Perhaps yesterday you were further along on the bridge of salvation than you are today. The reason may be that you lost your temper with your husband or wife, and this caused you to move backwards somewhat on the bridge. You backslid and lost a little of your sanctification. Therefore, you are not as sanctified now as you were yesterday.
Suppose an old friend visits you and asks you to participate with him in a certain kind of worldly entertainment. If you accept his invitation, you will lose even more sanctification and move back farther on the bridge of salvation. However, if you refuse his invitation and instead preach the gospel to him and encourage him to become a Christian, you may recover the sanctification you have lost and even progress further on the bridge. As a result, you are more sanctified and more saved. The point here is that how much we have been saved is determined by how much we have been sanctified. We need to be impressed that God’s salvation is not simple and that it is related to sanctification.
Suppose a young brother becomes weary of attending the church meetings. Therefore, one day instead of attending the meeting, he decides to go to the beach. The next time he comes to a meeting, he may feel that he is in death. The reason is that he has lost some of his sanctification. He did not preserve his spirit, soul, and body.
Martin Luther fought a great battle for the truth of justification by faith. Because he was involved in this battle, we should not blame him for failing to see other aspects of God’s full salvation. Luther taught that justification is by faith. According to this, if we believe in the Lord, we shall be justified. However, there is a sense in which justification is also a matter of degree. On the one hand, the Bible speaks of justification before sanctification (Rom. 6:19). But on the other hand, there is a sense in which sanctification comes first and justification follows (1 Cor. 6:11). In this sense, God’s justification must go according to the standard of sanctification. If we are not sanctified, then we cannot be justified.
God’s salvation of us involves a process. It has a beginning, and it will have a consummation. Once again, we may use human life as an illustration. Life begins at birth. But after birth there is a long process of growth. I have been growing in human life for many years, and still I have not yet reached the consummation. The principle is the same with God’s salvation. However, many Christians regard salvation in too simple a way. Moreover, in systematic theology salvation may be presented as if it were simple and clear cut. But God’s salvation is not simple, and in a certain sense it is not clear cut. On the contrary, it has a beginning, a process, and a consummation. Not even our human life is simple. Why, then, should we expect God’s full salvation to be so simple?
We need to have the proper concept concerning God’s salvation. If we have the right understanding of this, we shall realize that the extent to which we are saved is determined by the degree we have been sanctified. According to Paul’s word in 2:13, salvation is in sanctification of the Spirit.
In our actual experience of God’s salvation, we move back and forth on the bridge. Perhaps you yield to a certain temptation, and move backward on the bridge of salvation. But even then the sanctifying Spirit is working in you. As a result, that step backward may cause you to move even farther ahead than you were before. For example, a brother may lose his temper with his wife and exchange words with her. No doubt, this failure causes him to move backward on the bridge of salvation. However, when he repents and returns to the Lord, he will once again move ahead, further than he was before.
In our experience none of us moves steadily ahead on the bridge of salvation. On the contrary, we all move ahead in the way of going backward and forward. Even though this may not be clearly revealed as a doctrine in the Bible, we know from our experience that this is the way we advance on the bridge of God’s salvation.
