4. - 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." [NIV]
An astonishing silence on Paul's part. Was not the centerpiece of Jesus' teaching the love commandment?. see Romans 13:8, 1 Cor. 13:1, Gal. 5:14, Eph. 5:1, James 2:8, 1 & 2 John (passim). Note that here it is not a case of failing to refer to something because everyone already knew it; Paul's statement is an exclusion of any such assumption that Jesus had taught about love.
1. Silences in passage/challenge to a historical Jesus:
A cornerpiece of Jesus' teachings was that of brotherly love.
2. Relevancy within context:
As for the passage in question I agree that it would have been a good place to mention such a teaching by Jesus, but I would disagree that it somehow "excludes" an assumption of such a teaching. The idea that since Paul mentioned the source of the teaching as God himself doesn't exclude an assumption that Jesus taught it, especially when we see in GMark that Jesus himself also mentions the source as being God's commandment, and not himself.
Just 8 verses prior to the one in question, Paul appears to give credit to Jesus:
4:1-2 "1Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus."
This could be interpreted as Paul passing along Jesus' commands from either an earthly ministry or through revelation. The source for verse 9 which follows then could have been teachings of an earthly Jesus.
If we assume the proper interpretation is that of a revelation, then I would point out another silence in the passage, which might then be unexpected: Paul describes Jesus as having not lived to please himself (Rom 15:3), being a servant to the Jews (Rom 15:8), sinless (2 Cor 5:21), and meek and gentle (2 Cor 10:1), and in Thessalonians Paul praises his readers for being imitators of the Lord in 1:6. Paul appeals to Jesus' conduct as an example others should imitate, yet in this passage Paul doesn't tell them to love one another in accordance with Jesus' example. A failure to explicitly appeal to the example of Jesus seems just as much a silence as a failure to explicitly attribute the command to Jesus.
3. Related information in other early writings:
Paul writes in Rom 15:2-3 "2Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3For even Christ did not please Himself.." Paul may be appealing to Christss own example of brotherly love, and not just his sacrifice of love. That Paul is writing with the example and teachings of Jesus in mind might be evidenced further by the similarities found in the preceding 3 chapters of ethical teachings to those of Jesus in Q1 and Q. And, in 13:13 we have Paul again appearing to appeal to Jesus as an example for ethical conduct: "13Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. "
Lastly, in the answer to #1 I mentioned possible references to Jesus' teachings by the authors of 1 John, the Didache, and 1 Clement. Examples from each of these focus on the teaching of brotherly love:
1 John focuses strongly on brotherly love and it may be saying that the commandment to love one another came from Jesus (see 1:5, 2:3, 3:11, 3:16, and 3:23). However it is not clear whether he means Jesus or God.
The Didache is full of teachings, including several that match the gospel closely, without giving attribution to Jesus, such as 1:3 "And the doctrine of the maxims is as follows: Bless them that curse you, and pray for your enemies. Fast on behalf of those that persecute you; for what thank is there if ye love them that love you? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? But do ye love them that hate you, and ye will not have an enemy."(see Mt 5:43-47 to compare), and "3:7 but be thou meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth."(see Mt 5:5 to compare) The book starts out in 1:2 with "Now the path of life is this--first, thou shalt love the God who made thee, they neighbor as thyself, and all things that thou wouldest not should be done unto thee, do not thou unto another." These clearly echo the Gospel Jesus' teachings about brotherly love and the Golden rule. Though no attribution is given for this specific doctrine, the author(s) of the Didache specifically mention the commandment in the gospel in 15:3 and 15:4 and in 8:2 quotes the Lord"s prayer, telling readers "as the Lord hath commanded in his gospel so pray ye" These indicate that the author was familiar with and was relying on the teachings in the gospel. It is therefore likely that the doctrine of brotherly love which he stresses as being the doctrine of the maxims was also known to have been part of Jesus' message in his gospel.
One of the two teachings of Jesus we find in 1 Clement directly relates to brotherly love:
"13:1-3 most of all remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake, teaching forbearance and long-suffering: for thus He spake Have mercy, that ye may receive mercy: forgive, that it may be forgiven to you. As ye do, so shall it be done to you. As ye give, so shall it be given unto you. As ye judge, so shall ye be judged. As ye show kindness, so shall kindness be showed unto you. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured withal to you. With this commandment and these precepts let us confirm ourselves, that we may walk in obedience to His hallowed words, with lowliness of mind."
4. Conclusion
The passage is preceded by a statement that may indicate it was a commandment of Jesus. It would not be unusual however for Paul to attribute the command to God, since God originally gave the command, the Gospel Jesus also does this. Also, Paul may have seen no need to remind his readers of something they were already well aware of. Each of 1 John, the Didache, and 1 Clement stress this commandment as a cornerstone of the message of Jesus, with the latter two strongly linking the message with Jesus as the kind of teacher we find in the gospels.
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