1 Thessalonians 2:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Thessalonians 2:13

Comments

Now we come to verse 13 – the fruit, and this is the heart of the miracle. Here are the steps – hard work, holy living, an almost parental care of the people, the aim that the people would be blessed long term in their spiritual experience, and then the fruit. It is not exactly cause and effect – it is God who works all the way through – but there is a miracle, a great change in their understanding. Their eyes were opened, and they grasped that the word that the evangelists preached was the Word of God. This is a tremendous thing. It is called illumination, the illumination of the Spirit. In the New Testament, we read it described as an anointing which comes from above. It is an amazing realisation that this word of God is authentic, and it is true. One moment you are thinking to yourself, ‘Why do Christians make so much of the Bible? It is just a very old book. Why do they trust it so? Yes, it is rather an extraordinary and wonderful book, but they say it is divine, but how do they know? They can tell me about its special characteristics, its uniqueness. Yes, I am very impressed to hear that it was composed over a period of about 1600 years by so many different authors, and yet amazingly unlike any other human literature it has one theme and it all adds up. How could that ever have happened without endless committees constantly revising it – yet there have not been any?’ And then there is a change. Through the hearing or the reading of the Bible and seeking after God, suddenly overnight almost, a new conviction has dawned. ‘This book is divine. It has a moral demand upon me. I am under its authority. It is special. It is infallible.’ I find this book had an amazing power and integrity. I see its divine character. I see the doctrine of salvation. I see the principle of grace that salvation is free and unearned, secured by the work of Jesus Christ.Now even after you have had that, the devil can sow doubts in your mind. And of course, because of our limited human understanding, we shall have some problems which we shall seek to resolve in the right spirt, I hope. It will not be that we will understand everything and never again be susceptible to temptation and doubt. But there is this tremendous difference as we grasp that it is indeed the Word of God.We must thank God as individuals, and we must thank God in our prayer meeting and as a congregation constantly for the miracle of grace which opens eyes and enables people to see. If we do not thank him except occasionally and half-heartedly, we expose ourselves to the temptation that we have done it ourselves.

Application

I remember the case of a gentleman, youngish man, who was doing extremely well in his career. A man with a brilliant mind, very thoughtful. He believed in the doctrines of the Bible. He believed these things and he thought he was saved, but he had this great problem. ‘I do not think I should yield my mind to something which I cannot rationally prove.’ Do you know what the problem was really? He had not received that miracle, that anointing which just opens your eyes to the divine reality of God’s revelation of the Scripture.

It is so important by the way for the preacher not to obscure the Word. Sometimes the preacher can be tempted. He can use far too many illustrations. He can dazzle his hearers with wonderful illustrations. Be careful, he may actually not be helping the understanding of the Word of God, he may be obscuring it. He may be giving the people something which has its own intrinsic interest and fascination, but which obscures the Word of God.

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1 Thessalonians 2:13 Commentary and Bible Study