MESSAGE 4 - 1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 4 – WALK TO PLEASE GOD AND THE RAPTURE TEACHING – PART 1
PART 1
[1]. WALKING TO PLEASE
{{1Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we REQUEST AND EXHORT you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to WALK AND PLEASE God, (just as you actually do walk), that you MAY EXCEL still more. 1Thess 4:2 You know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”}}
This passage may seem a bit hard to take in at first reading and I think that is the way the NASB translates it. What Paul is saying is that he is insisting that these Thessalonians walk to please God as he instructed them, and not just do that but try to excel in doing it. After all they know the commandments given to them from God through Paul.
The first 12 verses of this chapter are about walking to please our heavenly Father. Some people please no one. Some only please their selfish selves. Some work hard to please a young woman (until married, then may not try so hard after that). Some walk to please their employer, or parents, and some live to please for a personal advantage, but the instruction for all Christians is clear – we “ought to walk and please God”. However it is more than that, for we need to excel still more – see those words at the end of verse 1. Paul desires in God that we do not be just mediocre Christians, or go with the flow Christians, for there is too much nominal Christianity out there, those who give God a bit of their time to feel some satisfaction. That is not what a true Christian is about. His and her walk must be in the first class category, the category that would get an A+ on a school awards’ night.
In his desire for them, Paul uses two words in Greek, which are translated as “ask and urge” (ESV), (NIV) “request and exhort” (NASB) and “ask and encourage” (Holman). The first word Paul uses means “to make an earnest request”. The second word means “summon, entreat, admonish”.
The first of these words is also translated in other verses as “ask, beg, implore, make request, question, urge.” The second is translated in other verses as “appeal, beg, beseech, comfort, encourage, entreat, exhort, implore, invite, plead, request, urge”. That might be a lot of words to take in but can you see what God is doing? He is pleading with you, urging you, appealing to you, to walk and please Him as one worthy of the calling in our Lord Jesus Christ.
You will notice the wording Paul uses in verse 1 - “how you OUGHT to walk and please God” = it is necessary, it is a duty, it is what is proper. (NASB, ESV). The NIV translates that as “how to live” which is a bit weak.
In verse 2, Paul draws their attention to the authority of Jesus Christ in what was passed on to them about their Christian life. We are to be persons of faith and devotion and live a life pleasing to God. A careless Christian is a contradiction.
I am supposing that in a lovely society such as in a Christian community where most are devoted Christians, it could be easier to walk and please God as there is encouragement on all sides. In a hostile society a walk for the Lord becomes a lot more difficult because of rejection, scorn, lack of support and many other factors. Well the believers in Thessalonica lived in a hostile society and our world is now progressing downward at a rapid rate and the Christian faith is the most persecuted in the world. There is no place for pretense. We must be genuine. We must count for God, and as we don’t have Paul in person to instruct us, how do we do it? That is simple. We have the whole writings of God in the bible. Do not neglect the Old Testament as that was the inspired writings of the early church.
[2]. SANCTIFICATION IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU
{{1Thessalonians 4:3-8 “For your sanctification is the will of God, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”}}
There are many ways to sin. What is the worst sin? If you took a survey of 1000 non-Christians in today’s world and asked them that question I am guessing that high on the list would be pedophilia, murder, rape, actual violence (as opposed to pretend violence in movies and digital games), and some would say religions (with this troubled world). Do the same survey among 1000 Christians, and you might get homosexuality, murder, abortion, adultery, lying, among a lot more.
In fact the worst sin, as I see it, is pride, for it was that which was the father of all sins and led to Satan being cast from heaven. He wanted to rise up to overthrow God because pride had so enclosed him, it led him into rebellion. In the bible, certain sins are highlighted, and we should note those – rebellion, disobedience, fornication, adultery, pride, lust, and dishonesty. Now and again there are lists of sins in the bible and I will read but one of them – {{1Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (There were 4 sexual sins on that list).
I wish to honour a man whose name is Israel Folau who is a Fijian but was playing Rugby (Union) in Australia. He was the best player in Australia and one of the best in the world. He is a sincere Christian and in a personal blog (nothing to do with Rugby Union) he quoted that Corinthian passage. There was immediate reaction to that and the CEO of QANTAS used his influence with the Rugby Club to have Israel dismissed. The CEO is an activist homosexual. Christians, stand true, and to do so, may be costly but God honours those who honour Him. Those who willfully persecute God’s saints will stand at the great white throne one day in eternal judgement. Homosexual persecution of Christians is growing quickly in Australia.
Sin is associated with the old nature. The sinful flesh is corrupt and rebellious against God and expresses itself in a multitude of ways in evil attitudes and behaviour. However the Christian has a new nature, one given by the Holy Spirit, and that new nature is what connects us with God. In the Scripture, the words “holy, saints, sanctification” are all closely related. It is our relationship with God who is holy. {{Ephesians 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behaviour, because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”}} That is setting the required standard for the Christian. Being imitators of Christ, must absolutely connect with being holy.
Let us look at this current passage again before we go any further. Also note the tendency we all have to read words but we read across them and they are having no impact on us. The message from the words is not getting into our brains or minds. We think, “We have just read words. What did they mean?” That is why God told us to meditate on the scriptures. Read slower and let the Holy Spirit speak to you so the word takes up residence in your soul. Here is that passage again before we comment on it:-
{{1Thessalonians 4:3 “For your SANCTIFICATION is the will of God, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
1Thess 4:4 that each of you knows how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
1Thess 4:5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God,
1Thess 4:6 and that no man TRANSGRESS AND DEFRAUD HIS BROTHER in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
1Thess 4:7 God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
1Thess 4:8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”}}
The injunction in verse 3 is to abstain from sexual immorality. No doubt the incident with Balak and Baalam was in Paul’s thinking for it was that attempt by Balak that nearly destroyed Israel and resulted in the death of thousands. These Thessalonians had come out of paganism only a few months earlier and all forms of immorality were active and acceptable among the Greek and pagan societies. It would be so easy to slip back into the old life. Even mature Christians can fall in this aspect. It is so seductive and so cunning. However to pursue that path will bring destruction and God calls us to the opposite – to sanctification, the pursuit of holiness.
Let us consider verses 3 and 4 for a bit longer. It is in verse 3 where God tells us to abstain from sexual immorality, meaning ALL forms of it. It is unfortunate that in the NIV translation, it is far too weak in translation where it says here, “you should avoid sexual immorality”. The Greek is decisive and means “IT IS GOD’S WILL THAT WE MUST ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL IMMORALITY”. There are those who say in verse 4 that “his own vessel” means a man’s wife, to be satisfied with her, and not be like lustful Solomon who had a 1000 of them.
“How to possess his own vessel” really means “to procure, win, to gain possession of.” I am not sure how that might relate to a wife, but most commentators say a man should possess his wife to sanctification, and therefore take it to mean a wife. There are others, including a number of expert Greek scholars who don’t relate it to a wife, but say that what the apostle here requires, is that every one should obtain the mastery over his own body, his vessel, and that whereas, as Gentiles, they had yielded their members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. They should now, as Christians, yield their members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
We need to think into verse 6. The command is, NOT to transgress and defraud one’s brother, and it supposes, a brother in the Lord. The Greek begins with overreaching, going beyond the limits that are set – overriding them. In this passage it is indicating that it is a sexual relationship with another brother’s wife. However the Greek is so general in the word “defraud” that it prohibits all kinds of fraud, overreaching, or covetousness, and may refer to any attempt to deprive another brother of his rights, whether it be the right which he has in his property, or his rights as a husband, or his rights in any other respect. It is a general command not to defraud; in no way to take advantage of another; in no way to deprive him of his rights. Paul goes on to state the dire consequences in that same verse. Diddling another believer in business or whatever applies here.
The word “avenger” is not often used and as far as I know, never in regard to a brother in Christ except in one other passage, and it is in the first one – {{Romans 13:4 “for it is a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid because it does not bear the sword for nothing for it is a minister of God, an AVENGER who brings wrath upon the one who practises evil.”}} The Romans verse relates to opposing the governmental authorities. Christians must be ever so careful in their lives.
Look at verses 7 and 8 concerning the call of God. What has God called us to? He has called us to sanctification, and the definition of that is [[“the process of making or becoming holy, set apart, sanctification, holiness, consecration”]]. We must never be flippant about holiness. We are NOT called to impurity, but to holiness. We are called to godly discipline, not to carelessness. [One of my Christian friends, in a delegation that went to Singapore, like all the others in the group, was given the “comforts” of specially selected girls for each room when he was in Singapore. He succumbed, and that was the end of his walk in the Christian life]. We are all liable to fall and dishonour God. Sadly we don’t live in continual sinless perfection. There is a difference, as I see it, between falling into sin as David did with Bathsheba, and living in a continual relationship in sin.
Paul is very clear in verse 8 about the one who will reject the need for sanctification. If a man wants to remain in a relationship away from Christ, (and it may not just be sexual) then he falls into the category of verse 8. If a person falls, no matter how grievous that is, the Holy Spirit wants to draw that person back to holiness in Christ, but to resist God (the Holy Spirit) and reject the light, is terribly serious.
To finish, here is a poem of mine related to failure.
FAILURE LEADS TO HURT AND SORROW
When I fail Him, I have hurt Him,
But I hurt myself so badly.
Failure is the scourge of weakness
Found in sinful natures, sadly.
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What we promise is neglected;
What is vowed not to do, we do.
Fickle minded and unfaithful,
But trying always to be true.
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Failure seizes when courage dies.
Satan’s accusations assail.
That’s the foul fruit that we will reap
Each time, our previous Lord we fail.
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Peter knew in denial’s night,
The blackness when slip led to slide.
Horrible failure swallowed him.
He went to find a place to hide.
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Jesus knows our frail commitment;
Yes, He knows our heart’s desires.
Creatures of the dust – we own that,
But to serve Him, each heart aspires.
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Lord, forgive us when we fail You.
Give us strength and help for living.
May we know the Spirit’s power,
As our lives to You we’re giving.
1 May 2022 R E Ferguson Metre = 8 throughout ABCB
PART 2 FOR CHAPTER 4 WILL COME NEXT.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
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