1 Thessalonians 4.9-Paul Commends the Thessalonians for Practicing the Love of God (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday September 29, 2024

First Thessalonians Series: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-Paul Commends the Thessalonians for Practicing the Love of God

Lesson # 58

1 Thessalonians 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. (NIV84)

The first statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 asserts that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community possesses absolutely no need whatsoever for Paul, Silas and Timothy to write to any of them at this particular time concerning the topic of Christian love.

This statement marks a transition from the statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 to the statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12.

The former exhorts the Thessalonian Christian community to continue making it their habit of experiencing their sanctification by abstaining from the practice of sexual immorality while the latter exhorts them to continue making it their habit of practicing the love of God in their lives when interacting with each other.

The manifestation or exercise of Christian love among the children of God is the result of the believer obeying the Lord’s command in John 13:34 to love one another as He has loved the believer.

This is an expression of the (agape) love of God in the life of the believer since the believer’s love for God and the body of Christ is the response by faith to the love God demonstrated towards the believer through the work of the Son and the Spirit (1 John 4:16; Romans 5:5).

The believer’s agape, “divine-love” is the production of the Holy Spirit in the sense that the Spirit produces this love in the believer who obeys His voice, which is heard through the teaching of the Word of God.

The practice of divine-love is the direct result of agape, “divine-love” being reproduced by the Spirit in the believer who is obedient to the Spirit’s voice, which is heard through the teaching of the Word of God (Galatians 5:22-23) and is an expression of God’s love in the believer towards one’s fellow believer.

Therefore, this is love is motivated by the believer’s love for God in response to God’s love for them and empowered by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

The second statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 presents the reason for the first and emphatically asserts that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community was taught by God for the purpose of making it their habit of divinely loving one another.

Therefore, this statement indicates that the Thessalonians possessed absolutely no need whatsoever for Paul, Silas and Timothy to write to them regarding the topic of Christian love because each one of them was taught by God for the purpose of making it their habit of divinely loving one another.

The reference to the practice of divine-love in this causal clause again refers to the function of God’s love in the life of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

This interpretation is indicated by the fact that Paul is speaking of the love which is reproduced in the child of God by God the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord’s command in John 13:34 to love one another.

In other words, this love is divine in quality and character because is resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

God’s attribute of love is reproduced and manifested in the life of the child of God by God the Holy Spirit when the former responds to God’s love for them by accepting by faith this love for them.

This faith is demonstrated by their obedience to the Son’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 to love one another as He loves and which command originates with the Father.

Obedience to this command manifests the believer’s love for God according to John 14:15 and 1 John 4:21.

Therefore, when the child of God obeys the command to love their fellow child of God, it is a love which is divine in quality and character because it resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

This reproduction of the love of God in the life of the child is called “the fruit of the Spirit” by the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22.

The reciprocal pronoun allēlōn, “one another” is used in regard to the interaction between members of the Thessalonian Christian community with each other and denotes the mutual exchange of exercising the love of God for one another.

Now, the reference to God in this causal clause is a reference to the Holy Spirit, which is indicated by the fact that Paul asserts in 1 Thessalonians 4:8 that to reject his teaching is to reject the authority of God the Father who gave the Thessalonians the Holy Spirit so that they could understand this command and practice it.

Paul mentions the Holy Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 4:8 in connection with the doctrinal instruction that he, Silas and Timothy communicated to the Thessalonians because the Holy Spirit gave the Thessalonians the capacity to obey this instruction.

The third statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 presents the purpose of the second statement in this verse and asserts that the purpose for which the Thessalonians were taught by God was in order that they would make it their habit of divinely love one another.

Therefore, a comparison of the second and third statements indicates that the purpose for which the Thessalonians were taught by God was so that they would make it their habit of divinely loving one another.

This purpose clause expresses the reciprocal nature of God’s love since the Christian’s love for God and their fellow believer and fellow human being involves “reciprocation.”

Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the noun reciprocation, “a mutual exchange, a return in kind or of like value; alternating motion” and they define the verb reciprocate, “to give and take mutually; to return in kind or degree, compliment gracefully; to make a return for something.”

If we paraphrase these definitions and give them a spiritual application, we could say the following: With reference to the believer’s relationship with God there is to be a mutual exchange, a give and take between the believer and God in the sense of the believer obeying, honoring, respecting, revering and being dedicated and devoted to God, even to the point of self-sacrifice.

This exchange between the believer and God is the proper, appropriate, obedient and obligatory response by the believer to God’s revelation of Himself since the believer has been created and redeemed for God’s purpose and good pleasure.

With reference to the believer’s relationship with other believers there is to be a mutual exchange, a give and take between believers in the sense of the believer honoring and respecting his fellow believer, being dedicated and devoted to his fellow believer, even to the point of self-sacrifice.

This exchange between the believer and his fellow believer is the proper, appropriate, obedient and obligatory response by the believer to his fellow believer since both he and his fellow believer were created by God, according to His image of God, redeemed at the cross and fellow members of the body of Christ.

The reference to the practice of divine-love or God’s love among the Thessalonians is the fourth time Paul has addressed this subject in this epistle with the Thessalonians (cf. 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:6, 12).

This reveals to us how important this subject was in the mind of Paul when he wrote this letter to the Thessalonians.

In 1 Thessalonians 1:3, the expression tou kopou tēs agapēs (τοῦ κόπου τῆς ἀγάπης), “your labor which is motivated by your divine-love” also speaks of the Thessalonians’ service or work on behalf of the Lord but from the perspective of the difficulty of their service.

It refers to the Thessalonians serving God, each other and those outside of the Christian community while experiencing persecution and which service was motivated by their love for God.

In other words, their Christian self-sacrificial service was motivated by God’s self-sacrificial act of sending His one and only Son to the cross for them while they were His enemies and which act manifested His attribute of love (cf. 1 John 4:7-21).

The reference to the Thessalonians’ love in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 pertains to the exercise of divine-love that was produced by the Holy Spirit in the Thessalonians when they exercised faith in the Spirit inspired teaching of the gospel which results in obedience to the Lord’s Spirit inspired command to love another.

In this verse, it is used of the Trinity’s attribute of love, which manifested itself in the lives of the Thessalonians because they exercised faith in the gospel message that God loves them and which faith manifested itself by their obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired to love one another.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, the noun agapē, “divine-love” does not refer to the function of human love but rather, the word pertains to the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who exercises faith in the Spirit inspired teaching of the gospel.

This results in obedience to the Lord’s Spirit inspired command to love another.

Here it is used of the Trinity’s attribute of love, which manifests itself in the life of child of God who exercises faith in God’s love for them and which faith manifests itself in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired to love one another.

The noun agapē contains the figure of metonymy which means that the love of God is put for the exercise or the practice of this love and is used of the love of God manifested in the lives of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

It indicates that they reflected God’s love towards the Lord Jesus by demonstrating this love in their relationships with their fellow members of the body of Christ and with the non-Christian community.