Be encouraged… to live a life pleasing to God I - Thessalonians 4:1-12

Be encouraged… to live a life pleasing to God

I Thessalonians 4:1-12

Introduction: The government lately has been giving us a lot of admonitions to keep us safe from COVID-19. Some of the suggestions are probably good advice in flu season anyway! We’ve decided to move the service back up to our sanctuary a few weeks early, to allow for some social distancing for those who want that! Things have gone quite a bit further with travel restrictions now to Europe as well, colleges sending students home to study online until the end of the semester, airplanes cancelling flights and the like. Even our missionary visitor at the end of the month may be driving instead of flying up if his flight is canceled. How do you feel about the government imposing restrictions like that?  That’s one question, but some would ask when they see God’s “directions” in the Bible, “Don’t I have a right to be happy?” God wants us to experience true happiness (Ps 1), and his instructions are given to lead us on that path.  God’s Word teaches us about God, about how we can know God, and also shows us how we should live in the light of God’s character and His grace. Paul had only a few short weeks with the Thessalonians lay a foundation of God’s truth, and to instruct them concerning the Christian life. John Stott, of the great Pastor-theologians of recent history, said, 

Within a few weeks… he had taught the young Thessalonian converts not only the essence of the good news but also the essence of the good life, not only about faith in Jesus, but also about the necessity of good works by which saving faith is authenticated and without which it is dead…

       In the proceeding verses, Paul has spoken with the love of a parent to the Thessalonians. He has also made it clear that the word that He brought to them, the Gospel they received, was the very Word of God, and that they had received it as such.  He spoke the truth in love. Stott said on this section of First Thessalonians, 

It is by ‘speaking [or maintaining] the truth in love’ that we ‘grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ’. Yet this combination is rare in the contemporary church. Some leaders are great champions of the truth and anxious to fight for it, but display little love. Others are great advocates of love, but have no equal commitment to truth, as Jesus and his apostles had. Truth is hard if it is not softened by love, and love is soft if it is not strengthened by the truth.

Stott was speaking to leaders, to pastors and teachers in the church, but I think Paul was speaking to the church more broadly, to all of us who have believed in Jesus and been born-again by the Spirit. He says in that same context that it is the ministry of the Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, who produces in us “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is love, that enables us to balance truth and love in the Christian life, and so to live a life that pleases God. Paul is about to transition to practical exhortations to the church based on that balanced perspective. Again, Stott writes, 

There is an abrupt change of topic between chapter 3 and chapter 4. So far… Paul has been looking back to his visit and the events which followed it, and has been defending himself against his critics’ accusations. Now… he looks to the present and future of the Thessalonian church, and addresses himself to certain practical problems of Christian conduct which were evidently troubling them. In so doing he turns from narrative to exhortation, from his apologia to his appeal, from explanations regarding his own behaviour to instructions regarding theirs.

So, that is The Maine* Idea: God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity before the world.

I. Be encouraged… to live a life pleasing to God according to His Word (1-2)!

Finally, then [oun, “therefore], brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.  ² For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  

       Finally, then brothers… Paul is a little like a Baptist preacher, he says, “finally” but then we have two more chapters before the letter is done! It may be that the idea is that this is really the bottom line, the “big idea” that Paul wants to emphasize in this letter, as he is transitioning to some practical exhortations in this part of the letter. I had an older co-worker when I worked at the landfill who liked to talk and tell stories, and then when Archie got to point he would say, “I said all that to say this…”  Paul is going to summarize the heart of this letter, urging the Thessalonians to live a life pleasing to God, and telling them that God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity before the world. Finally then brothers… If you don’t get anything else get this, or, as my friend would say, “I said all that to say this…”

       “We ask and urge you…” Paul here uses two verbs to make his point even more emphatically. He is “asking” them, that is, he is making a request of them, but then also urging, them, making an appeal to them… The second verb is parakaleo, which Paul has used in this letter in the sense “to encourage” (the theme for our series!). Here we see the gentle side of his leadership. He does not make a demand based on his apostolic authority, but as the loving parent that he considered himself, talking to his beloved children in the Lord, he urges them in the Lord, to live in the light of their new life, a life that is pleasing to God.

       “We ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus” – Rather than evoking apostolic authority with this phrase, he is reminding his readers where they both live, the reality of their new position. They are indeed in the world, and at the moment separated by many miles. Yet they are together, in Christ, in a real sense in His presence and under His lordship, united with Him by faith. That is your address!

       “…that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God…” Notice that Paul is saying that his teaching among them was not abstract or theoretical. For Paul, theology was always practical. It made a difference in His life and conduct, and so he urges them to let their position impact their practice.

       “…just as you are doing, that you do so more and more…” You are doing well, you are living out the implications of your faith, people are talking about it! Keep striving to learn and grow and to live a life that is pleasing to God! Why? Because God has shown us His love, and so we love Him, and that overflows in our love for others. And God has spoken, and we should take Him at His word…

       “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” The God who is, has spoken. He has given us His Word. We’ve received his Word, and we are learning the instructions He has given. If we take Him at His Word, we will want to live a life that is pleasing to Him… And God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity before the world.  

II. Be encouraged… to live a life of sexual purity (3-8). 

³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;  ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,  ⁵ not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;  ⁶ that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.  ⁷For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.  ⁸Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

       For this is the will of God, your sanctification… This is a great statement to think about. Many times we are struggling to discern the will of God about something. A job opportunity, making a big purchase, deciding who to marry… There are many things we need to pray about and discern what God would have us to do. There are other things that we don’t have to pray about the “what,” we just need to ask God for the empowering grace to walk according to His will. He says here, “…this is the will of God, your sanctification…” God desires us to live differently than the world around us. And He has given us standards, absolutes, that can guide us in the choices we make. He gets specific in the next phrase…

       …that you abstain from sexual immorality… This is one prominent area of sanctification that Paul is emphasizing. God has a plan for human sexuality, that is, that it should be expressed in the context of marriage. Society may have different ideas, that is certainly true in our culture. Marriage is viewed as “optional,” extra-marital sex is considered the norm, homosexuality is viewed as natural… That is what our culture says, and it wasn’t too different from the Greco-Roman culture in Paul’s day. God has a word for sex outside of the marriage of a man and a woman—SIN. Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonians from Corinth, another city not known for its morality. Later he wrote to the church that he helped plant in Corinth saying…

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Paul was speaking about how God had transformed the lives of many in the Corinthian church. And as he wrote to the Thessalonians, they were living in a cultural situation that required God’s intervention and transformation. They needed His presence and power. We are not slaves to sin. We have been set free from bondage, and with God’s help we can make choices that honor Him. And so Paul desires for the Thessalonians that “…each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor…”  Some translations imply Paul is talking about each having his own wife. Maybe, but I think the ESV has this right, let each one control his own body… And it seems to me that our motivation should be to live as we know God would want us to: “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness…” (4:7, cf. 4:8). Chuck Swindoll addressed this text in Contagious Christianity (p.49),

Abstaining begins with “possessing” our own vessels, that is, knowing our own bodies—how our sex drives function, what weakens our self-control, and what strengthens it. Possessing our bodies involves admitting temptations we can’t handle and avoiding those enticing situations. Certain conversations with coworkers may lure us, and friendly touches may be too personal—avoid those situations. Some films, books, or magazines [or web sites!] may ignite lustful passions, and some settings may provide opportunities for compromise—stay away from them. No one remains pure by accident.

Making choices that would honor God, avoiding situations that would put us at risk. We are “holy,” set apart, now we are responsible to live that out! Look again at v.8, “Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”  This isn’t the word of an old pastor, this isn’t just the position of a stodgy old church, this is the Word of God! And don’t miss that He “…gives his Holy Spirit to you…” He gives us what we need to have victory over the flesh, to live a sanctified life. That’s the Maine* Idea: God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity before the world.

III. Be encouraged… to love one another more and more (9-10). There is a shift here to another way that we can live a life pleasing to God…

⁹ Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,  ¹⁰ for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more… 

     I like the way Mark Howell outlines these two verses: 1. You love shows (9); 2. Your love goes  (10a); and 3. You love grows (10b). That would make a good sermon, but since we want to get through this book sometime this year, I guess not!  Paul uses in these verses both the noun, filadelfia = “brotherly love,” and the verb, agapao = “steadfast love,” or “sacrificial love.” 

       Your love shows (9)- What I like about these verses is that Paul acknowledges that they had received his teaching on this subject and had begun living it out in their day to day relationships. They had been taught by God, the Spirit had applied the Word to their hearts. God had loved them, and they knew it. That love over-flowed in their relationships with others. It was part of their testimony that was sounding forth throughout Macedonia and Achaia. What does filadelfia look like? (And I am not talking about the city!). It means watching out for one another, and helping one another to stand fast and so to grow in the Lord. It is to desire “good” for your neighbor, and to do what is best for them. Love like that shows! 

       Your love goes (10a)-  Paul had referred to their labor of love in chapter one, and here he says that the Thessalonians’ love went beyond their city; it extended “toward all the brothers in the entire region of Macedonia” (4:10). It is good love our local church and the people in it. But the whole world is God’s world. And Jesus is building His church with a remnant from every tribe and nation. So we need to love His church beyond our town, beyond our peninsula, beyond our state, and beyond our nation. Brazil, China, Africa, Iran… you get the idea. It means praying for the persecuted church like they are your brothers and sisters, because they are! It means supporting missions, because God has given us much more than we need. That is the kind of love Paul is describing here, love that goes…

       Your love grows (10b)- For second time in this passage Paul says you are doing well, but don’t rest on the past, keep striving to do even better! But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more… One writer said that 

When we follow Christ, we commit to pursue Him with our entire being, including our bodies. Nothing that we have truly belongs to us; and nothing should be more important to us than following Him…

Again, we a reminded that the Christian life is a “walk,” it is ongoing, and we need to be diligent in guarding our hearts, in thinking God’s thoughts after Him, walking in the Spirit, and so, in living a life that brings glory to Him. That is part of our witness, our testimony, to the world, and that points to the Maine* Idea: God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity before the world.

IV. Be encouraged… to live responsibly in the eyes of the world (11-12).

…and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,  ¹² so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
       As pilgrims living in a fallen world, we know that we are here on assignment, and that God will give us work until our life is over, and life until our work is done. Therefore, we aspire to live quietly… etc. It does not mean we try not to be noticed. It does mean that since we are citizens of heaven, we don’t want to be offensive as we live and serve Christ in the world. The message will offend some, we can’t help that, but we don’t want to be a stumbling block to the message. So we “…mind our own affairs…” are not a busy body or a gossip. We should be a good worker, that is part of our testimony. Did some think Christ’s return was imminent, so they had stopped working, and were watching and waiting?  We are to work with our own hands, that is part of our testimony to the world. We were created for eternity, but until we are with Him, we have a part in God’s mission. Our lifestyle is a testimony to those in our sphere of influence.  The goal is that we might “…live properly before outsiders...” We want to live in a way that shows integrity, that glorifies God.
What is God saying to me in this passage? Be encouraged to live a life that is pleasing toward God.  We do that by living a life of sexual purity, by loving one another more and more, and by living a life of integrity before the world. God is pleased as we live a life of holiness, love, and integrity; we are His witnesses!
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? God so loved us, that He spared not the Son, but delivered Him up for us all… How then, should we live? How can we live a life that is pleasing to God? The good news is that God is at work in us in this process. Like a sculptor He chips away at the block of granite, until He uncovers us as the masterpiece He desires us to be. One writer said, “That vividly describes the process of sanctification. God’s ultimate goal for believers is that they will reflect the image and likeness of God.” Be patient, He is still working on us! AMEN.