By J.C. Philpot
Preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on Lord's Day Afternoon, September 23, 1866
"And let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 2 Thessalonians 5:8, 9, 10
It seems, in some sense, wrong to have our favourites amongst the Lord's family. Should we not, it might be justly asked, love all the Lord's people alike? Are they not all loved with the same eternal love, redeemed by the same precious blood, and made partakers of the same Spirit? And yet I suppose few gracious people are altogether exempt from favouritism. But is favouritism, as a principle, right or wrong? To clear up this point, I think we should examine the grounds of our preference of some above others, and judge from them how far it is allowable and how far not to have favourites. Some, for instance, of the Lord's family are attractive from natural amiability of temper, or some similar qualification unconnected with grace. Their unvaried kindness and affection; their noble, liberal spirit; their disinterested, unselfish conduct; their gentle, winning manners; the absence in them of pride, haughtiness, and self-conceit; the sincerity and truthfulness; even their personal attractions, and other advantages of a similar kind carry with them a strange power by which almost before we are aware they twine themselves round our natural affections. Others again are naturally disagreeable, sullen, morose, ill-tempered, obstinate, selfish, unwilling to concede, rude in speech and rough in manners, easily irritated and seemingly unable to forgive, never satisfied but in being first and foremost, and determined to carry out their own will and way with little consideration for the feelings or judgment of others. Now, such persons will repel as much as the others attract; and it is as hard not to dislike the one as it is easy to like the other. And yet were these grounds of like and dislike fairly examined, they might be found scarcely at all connected with grace, and to rest almost wholly upon nature. The naturally disagreeable, though I have drawn the lines strongly to make the contrast greater, may have more real grace than those who are naturally agreeable, and weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and viewed as members of the mystical body of Christ, may have a much stronger claim upon our esteem and affection, for some of the most amiable beings in the world have no grace at all. If then your peculiar favourites even amongst the Lord's family are so upon the ground of mere natural qualifications, that reason of favouritism seems clearly wrong, for we should love the Lord's people because they are his, and because he has made them partakers of his Spirit and grace.
But now I think I can show you a true ground of favouritism as well as a false one--one that is justified by the example of our Lord and his apostles. Is it, then, wrong to love those most who manifest most of the image of Christ, who seem most deeply imbued with the spirit of their master, who walk most tenderly and affectionately in the fear of God, who display most of the grace of the gospel, and bear most fruits to the honour, praise, and glory of God? Was there not one of the disciples whom the Lord specially loved, who lay in his bosom at the last supper, and to whom upon the cross he confided the care of his mother? And does there not seem to have been a peculiar affection entertained by Paul to his "dearly beloved son Timothy?" But to what do these remarks tend and what connection have they with the subject before us? They tend to this point: It seems to me that as Timothy was one of Paul's favourite disciples, so the church of Thessalonica was one of Paul's favourite churches. If you will carefully read his two epistles to that church, bearing at the same time in mind the remark that I have made, for we do not always see a thing till our attention is called to it, you will find a spirit of peculiar affection breathing through them both. And I think you will find also evident reasons for this peculiarly affectionate spirit manifested by the apostle toward the Thessalonian believers. To show this more clearly, let me for a moment compare the Thessalonian church with some of the other churches of the New Testament. They were, then, much free from that spirit of strife and division which almost rent to pieces the Corinthian church. They had not the legal, Pharisaic spirit which so tarnished the Galatians. They had not the vacillating spirit which brought such discredit upon the Hebrews. Being young in grace they might not have had, it is true, the strong faith of the Romans which was "spoken of throughout the whole world," nor the liberality of the Philippians who, when Paul was even in Thessalonica, sent once and again unto his necessity; nor the knowledge and wisdom of the Ephesians and Colossians which qualified them to receive such deep truths as the apostle unfolds to them in those remarkable epistles. They were a very young church, for the epistle was not only the first which the apostle wrote, but it was sent to them within a year after their call by grace, and when they were yet in their first love. There was, therefore, at this time in them such a spirit of brotherly kindness and affection; their faith grew so exceedingly; their love of every one toward each other so conspicuously abounded that in these points they were a pattern to all the other churches. They were also under very heavy persecutions from their own countrymen; and yet in the midst of these outward trials the graces of faith and patience shone so eminently forth that the apostle could say, "We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure." (2 Thess. 1: 4.) There thus appear to have been some good grounds in the case of this church why Paul should write to it in a more loving, tender, and affectionate spirit than to any other of the churches.
