Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Thessalonians 5:27

27 I charge you by the Lord , that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren .

The Apostle having now finish'd the Epistle, [illegible: 1 letter]ays a solemn charge upon them all, especially their Elders and Teachers to have this Epistle published. He now being himself hindred from preaching to them, he sends this Epistle to them to be read to all. He wrote it for publick use, and therefore would have none Ignorant of it, whereby they might all understand what he had wrote about his great love and care of them, and the commendations he had given of them, and the Instructions, Admonitions, Exhortations, and Comforts that were contained therein, of great use to them all: And his charge herein is in a way of Ad[illegible: 1 letter]uration, [non-Latin text not transcribed], imposing it on them as by an Oath, as Abraham did upon his Servant in the case of providing a Wife for Isaac. Gen. 24.3. And so the High Priest said to Christ, I adjure thee by the living God, &c. Mat. 26.63, Answering to the Hebrew word, hi[illegible: 1 letter]hbagnti, I adjure you, Cant. 5.8. I Charge you, O ye daughters of Ierusalem, &c. It imports the requiring of a thing in the Name and Authority of God, with a denunciation of Vengeance if it be not done.

And all this charge is about the reading of this Epistle, as he commands the Epistle to the Colossians to be read in the Church of the Laodiceans, Col. 4.16. and that from Laodicea to be read to them, but not with that Solemn charge as this is. Hence we may gather the Duty of reading the Scriptures in the Church Assemblies; as the Law of Moses was read in the Synagogues. And very early in the Christian Churches there were some appointed to be Readers. Iulian the Apostate was a Reader in the Church at Nicomedia. And if this was the first Epistle Writ by the Apostle, as some suppose it, he lays this solemn charge first for the reading of this, to shew the duty of the several Churches to the rest of the Scriptures, as they should come to their hand. The word of God should dwell richly and plentifully in the people, and therefore reading it is necessary, together with expounding and applying it. And we hence also may prove against the Papists, it ought to be made known to the people, even all the holy Brethren, and not confined to the Clergy; and to be read in their own Tongue; for so without question was this Epistle read in a language which the people understood. The Apostle was not for confining of Knowledge, and keeping the People in Ignorance, as those are who make it the Mother of Devotion.

Marginal references: Or, adjure.