November 6, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 1 Thessalonians? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Thessalonians 4 (NIV)
Living to Please God
1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.…..Continue Reading
it is no wonder there are so many instances where God reminds us in the word to avoid sexual immorality. We can be led astray so easily by our feeling and emotion and sexuality can so greatly cloud our judgement. Satan has helped to build our society to be such a sexualized one built on personal gratification and following our “feelings” instead of the truth of God and so it seems fitting knowing this common pitfall of man that Paul would warn against this.
We should live “quiet” lives. Lives where we live within our means, work hard and be honest. But most of all be grateful for what we have instead of using the same “feelings” principal to always want more and more therefore feeding our desires instead of keeping our focus on the truths of God.
Amen!
Amen, Kelly!
1 Thessalonians 1-4; 2 Samuel 7
I Thess 4:7 Paul reminds us that we are called to be holy, and not unclean. He knows folks have real problems with sexual relationships outside of marriage, and calls the church to come out if it. This is the process of sanctification.
I Corinthians 6:9-20 is a detailed parallel passage; they struggled too.
I defer discussing my perspectives on 4:13ff, but am always pleased to hear your comments though! Peace, gy
1 Thessallions – 4
Need to be reminded a lot these days to keep avoiding sexual immorality. It’s everywhere. End of this chapter Paul is comforting those that wonder about what happens to lived ones who have died. Whatever our lord has planned for the future and where He reigns and for how long. Who cares. As long as we reign with him Rapture. Tribulation. Millennial. I’ll stay a pan-trib. Whatever pans out is fine with me. My solid is intact. Hallelujah!!
How important it is for us to grab hold of the things of God in worship, the Word, the Spirit, prayer and the fellowship of believers so that we join Him in His sanctifying work, because God not only wanted to save us from hell, but also from ourselves. God is aware in this process the sexual dynamic that He has put in each of us and how easily that can be corrupted by wrong desire and behavior. We need to embrace God’s way in these things and reject the ways of the world as they make that part of their lives more important than they should because the desires of the flesh is all they have. Sexual immorality is doing anything outside of the ways dictated by God (mostly in Leviticus 18) and we are wise to follow His ways in them. Wrong desire in the sexual realm can destroy us and those around us. Remember when we sin sexually we sin against ourselves. And that is why it is so important that we live holy and honorably. And a good antidote to such things is loving others in the way that we should. Love in fact summarizes the whole law and is a good protection against all kinds of disobedience.
Now in terms of our existence in the function of the world, we should try to live a quiet life, not comparing ourselves to other people and just working hard and taking care of our responsibility. And as we live, we know death is an unavoidable part of it all. And yet in Christ, there is a peace even in that. We grieve for those we lose, but not like those who have no hope. Because we know one day, everyone in Christ will be raised. It is not important to Paul here when this will happen, but the fact and reality that it will happen and is our great hope, confidence and consolation for our lives and the lives of others.
1 Thessalonians 4
Paul is exhorting the believers to live their lives as sanctified in Christ as Paul and the others have taught and given their lives as an example. Latter Paul encourages the believers for they have that hope in Christ that they will be resurrected from the dead and be with Christ forever. When Christ comes back He will descend from Heaven with great power. The dead in Christ will rise first and then those who are still living and believers will be caught up together in the clouds to meet Jesus. Praise God. And we be with Him forever. These are only the believers. There is no mention here to unbelievers so I believe this would be the Rapture. For latter He will reign on earth for a 1,000 years. Can you picture this. All the believers who have already died will come out of the graves around the world. How can people still alive and seeing this not recognize what is happening. Probably think that they were taken by aliens. Better to believe the lie than to acknowledge God. But however it happens I am ready to go be with the Lord. That is the important thing but are we telling the lost how to be saved and to live for Him so they won`t go through the tribulation. God bless us as we live for Him.
Paul says….”each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;” He is talking about sexual immorality, but I believe that “possessing your own vessel” can apply to many things. Since believers have the Holy Spirit, we should know that we have the fruit of self-control in our power. We do not have to do x-sin, we are not helpless to obey it, we are dead to it (according to many other verses by Paul) in fact the flesh died on the cross with Christ. We should exhibit self-control in our daily walk, we can “possess our vessel”.
Other use of the word “possess” is in Luke 21:19 “By your patience possess your souls.” This is referencing facing persecution, and I believe refers to staying in the faith…stand (like Ephesians 6- full-armor “stand”).
“possess your own vessel” can also mean: to marry a wife! according to Blue Letter Bible – Strong’s.
God called us to live a holy life. Let us strive to do so more and more with the help of the Holy Spirit. We should keep our focus on the present task at hand, not on what others are doing. In other words, mind our OWN business. If we live this way, we can win the respect of others so that our testimony is taken seriously, from one who speaks the truth in love. And it is very encouraging to know that one day we will be caught up in the air with the Lord to live with him forever! This is something we can look forward with fervent hope and anticipation, praise God and thank you Jesus!
1Thessalonians 4