ostle was in the
thick of his conflict with the Corinthian synagogue. The thought of his
Thessalonian converts came to him like a waft of pure, cool air to a
heated brow.

The apparent want of connection in the counsels of the two last chapters
is probably accounted for by supposing that he takes up, as they
occurred to him, the points reported by the two messengers. But we may
note that the plain, prosaic duties enjoined in verses 7-12 lead on to
the lofty revelations of the rest of the context without any sense of a
gap, just because to Paul the greatest truths had a bearing on the
smallest duties, and the vision of future glory was meant to shape the
homely details of present work.

I. We need to make an effort to realise the startling novelty of 'love
of the brethren' when this letter was written. The ancient world was
honeycombed with rents and schisms, scarcely masked by political union.
In the midst of a world of selfishness this new faith started up, and by
some magic knit warring nationalities and hostile classes and wide
diversities of culture and position into a strange whole, transcending
all limits of race and language. The conception of brotherhood was new,
and the realisation of it in Christian love was still more astonishing.
The world wondered; but to the Christians the new affection was, we
might almost say, instinctive, so naturally and spontaneously did it
fill their hearts.

Paul's graceful way of enjoining it here is no mere pretty compliment.
The Thessalonians did not need to be bidden to love the brethren, for
such love was a part of their new life, and breathed into their hearts
by God Himself. They were drawn together by common relation to Jesus,
and driven together by common alienation from the world. Occasions of
divergence had not yet risen. The world had not yet taken on a varnish
of Christianity. The new bond was still strong in its newness. So, short
as had been the time since Paul landed at Neapolis, the golden chain of
love bound all the Macedonian Christians together, and all that Paul had
to exhort was the strengthening of its links and their tightening.

That fair picture faded soon, but it still remains true that the deeper
our love to Jesus, the warmer will be our love to all His lovers. The
morning glow may not come back to the prosaic noonday, but love to the
brethren remains as an indispensable token of the Christian life. Let us
try ourselves thereby.

II. What have exhor