Throughout the Bible, we see many stories of people who God used in mighty ways. Oftentimes, these same people fell prey to sexual sin. One such person was King David, a man after God’s own heart. David was a shepherd’s boy who wrote many Psalms leading our hearts to worship. He also was a slayer of giants and a mighty warrior; yet he mired by sexual sin. Today, many of us have also been used in great ways by God and have also lived through, fought against and have fallen prey to sexual sin during our lives. 1 Thessalonians 4 is a microcosm of this theme as it both provides us with encouraging fruit from the gospel and also bears the deep scourge of sexual sin. Today’s passage, from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, presents four admonitions from the Lord to His people. In this writing, we will look at two of these admonitions. The first admonition is….
The Lord is Pleased with your Walk. Keep Going.
Simply put, Paul is telling the Thessalonians, YOU ARE doing great, Keep it Up! We know this because of what Paul writes:
“Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For we know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2).
In these verses, and many others in the first three chapters of Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:2-7; 2:10-11; 3:11-12), Paul tells the Thessalonian church that God is pleased with them and encourages them to keep going. Brothers and Sisters, God is also telling us that He is pleased with us and is calling us today to keep going. Just as a father loves his children, so does God love us. He does not love us because we are perfect. He loves us because we are his children. He loves you for who you are in Christ. There is no greater level of obedience that you can bring or greater act of worship than you can offer that would make the Lord love you in greater ways. He looks and sees in you in Christ and is pleased. Brother and Sister, Keep believing, keep repenting and keep going!
The second admonition that we see from this passage is…
Sexual sin is out of step with the Gospel. Run!
I Thessalonians 3:3 states the following:
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;”
This is the testimony of the Thessalonian church: real people with real lives who had past struggles and present temptations; yet, as scripture shows us, they both allowed God to sanctify them and fled from sexual immorality. Thessalonica was surrounded by a pagan culture and worship which was saturated with pagan sin. The most notable figure that was worshipped was Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility and revelry who was worshipped through ecstasy, intoxication and the pursuit of religious and erotic fervor. The Thessalonian church members were surrounded by individuals from this culture (neighbors, co-workers, etc) who participated in these practices. However, this cultural context also reveals that this is about more than sexual sin. It is about the worship of both the idols of our heart and our culture. Grace Life, I Thessalonians 4 draws us away from this false worship presented in sexual sin and draws us to worship the one true God. The admonition from the Lord to both the Thessalonian church and to us presently is to turn from sin to God. Sexual sin is not the fruit of the Christian life. The Thessalonian church could not continue to walk in the way of their culture and their previous sin. They could not claim Christ and still worship Dionysus. Likewise, we cannot walk in the ways or our sinful culture and still claim Christ. Brothers and sisters, this passage is one of the few places in scripture where we see God’s will stated with great clarity in very simple terms: two of these terms are to be sanctified (set apart for a specific purpose) and to abstain from sexual immorality. Brothers and sisters, God’s heart is for his people to turn away from sin and to trust Him more and more. Are you allowing God to sanctify you and to set you apart for a specific purpose? And, are you turning away from your heart sin and turning towards God?….
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