A Life Worth Living Is A Life Worth Working At. Series

We are quickly coming to the end of the first of Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians.

• But there is still one message that He wants to make clear.

• That message is to make sure that these new converts live a life that pleases God.

• So Paul is giving them some final instructions.

• Paul is reminding his converts that God calls believers to live holy lives,

• To separate themselves from sexual immorality and lusts (vv. 3–8).

• He urges them to love each other and all the brothers even more than they do now (vv. 9–10)

• And he reminds them of the importance of honest work (vv. 11–12).

Read 4:1-12

The word finally, was not intended to announce the conclusion of the letter,

• It introduces the final major section of the letter.

• These chapters deal with “what is lacking in your faith” (3:10).

• Paul is reminding his readers of the words

• That he spoke to them while he was with them.

• He is moving from their present condition

• To the next stage of their spiritual development.

• They had responded to Paul’s teaching on Christian living.

• This section covers three aspects of proper Christian living:

• 1 conduct; / 2 sexual purity and / 3 brotherly love.

Key verse. 4:1: A Life worth living is a life Worth working at.

Personal application. If the world, can’t see God’s demonstrated in our daily life, Through our behavior, then God hasn’t been seen.

• We need to live lives that please God

Paul First deals with ethical behavior, in particular holiness (4:1–8)

• In life Everyone seems to live to please someone:

• Either themself, their spouse, their parents, their child, their God, or someone else.

• Paul is saying that the motive for Christian living is to please God (cf. 2:4)

• And we do this by doing His will.

• A lot of people regard the Christian life as a set of rules that we need to follow,

• or a list of things to avoid;

• But Paul saw the Christian life as how we show our desire to please God

• Because it was God who had chosen him (1:4).

• His attitude helped prepare his readers to respond positively to his instructions.

The people were already doing this,

• Paul’s purpose was to encourage them to do what they were already doing only better.

• We should never be satisfied with our spiritual achievements

• Our lives as Christians is one of never ending growth.

• There is always something more to learn, / something more to do, and / someone else to serve.

• We can find true joy in this.

• We need to view Life as a challenge,

• Because when we view life as a challenge we always have something to look forward to in the future.

• There’s always something to do.

Paul instructs them that to be able to do God’s work we must remain Holy

• It means being sanctified.

• This Christian word refers to the ongoing process of becoming increasingly free from sin and filled with love.

• To be sanctified means to belong to God and to show the same character as God.

• One aspect of holiness that needed to be stressed to the Thessalonians was,

• Complete avoidance of sexual immorality.

Paul is making it very clear that these people need to refrain from sexual sin.

• This refers to all kinds of sexual intercourse other than that which takes place within the marriage relationship.

• The morals in the Roman Empire at the time weren’t healthy.

• Immorality was a way of life;

• And, thanks to slavery, people had the leisure time to indulge in the latest pleasures.

• The Christian message of holy living was new to this culture,

• And it wasn’t easy for these young believers to fight the temptations that were going on around them.

• Sexual immorality is wrong because it involves taking advantage of other people.

• To commit adultery is to attempt to break up an existing relationship and the bond of love within a marriage,

• And because of this it can be seen and fairly described as wronging a brother.

Now part of understanding and reading the Bible is being able to put it all in perspective.

• To take the message Paul is writing and be able to apply it to our daily lives.

• At the time Sexual Immorality was running wild in the pagan community.

• So Paul was addressing this issue.

But in todays society we need to take the instructions of

• Never harm or cheat a Christian brother” and apply it to our times,

• How do these instructions fit into the world we live in,