1 Thessalonians 4 Series

This week we start the second oldest book in the New Testament as recorded in its publishing. We began with James on our year-long journey chronological study of the New Testament. Hence the reason we are calling this message series Chronos. It's a word that means “time.” We will be journeying through time back to the start of the early church. For the next few months we will be walking through the books written to those in Thessalonica.

Today, we open to the second chapter of this amazing letter to the church plant in one of the main travel junctions in all the Roman empire. A city of around 300,000 with some upper class but a great deal more working class people. The city was made up of Romans, Greeks and a powerful group of Greek speaking Jews.

The leadership collective (Paul, Silas and timothy), who had a relationship with this new church plant, were together reviewing the Christian movement and were sending this letter to the new church plant in Greece as encouragement and to correct some issues that had arisen.. Although Paul had only spent three to four weeks at this house church, he was impressed with the willingness of Thessalonians to live the mission when others would not.

Last week, Jennifer did a good job of relaying Paul’s concern for this new church and his warning to be ready for affliction and temptation. The truth is clear: the more you move closer to Jesus the more you will face persecution for your faith and temptation that leads one astray.

We pick up the scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 4: 1. Before we begin, let me remind you that we don’t have all the correspondence between the new church plant leaders and Paul. However, we have enough to understand the issues at hand.

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.

3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

These first few verses are reiterating the new believers have gotten a little off track. Thessalonica was a Roman stronghold both nationalistically but theologically.

William Barclay wrote: In Rome, for the first five hundred and twenty years of the Republic, there had not been one single divorce; but now, under the Empire, as it has been put, divorce was a matter of caprice.

Barclay continued his assessment by quotes Demonsthenes who said: We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation; we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful guardian for all our household affairs.

As Seneca said, “Women were married to be divorced and divorced to be married.” In Rome the years were identified by the names of the consuls; but it was said that fashionable ladies identified the years by the names of their husbands.

Juvenal quotes an instance of a woman who had eight husbands in five years. Morality was dead.

In Greece, home and family life were near to being extinct, and fidelity was completely non-existent

They believed in many Gods and temple prostitutes were an accepted practice and profession. Paul is reiterating a point I’m sure he made when he was present, The practice is inconsistent with a new believers way of life.

It’s why I think verse four is better read as “That each of you should learn to live with your own wife or acquire a wife” and not be in passionate lust like the pagans...”

The thought is more consistent with Paul’s early writing and better reflects the situation. Now, let’s not get down on the new believers. They probably heard Paul's rhetoric, his teaching on God’s grace and his statement about freedom in Christ. Maybe they were confused or misunderstood or didn’t want to give up the practice. After all, it was common.