The Sanctified Walk - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
INTRODUCTION:
In the end of chapter 3 Paul prays for the Thessalonians. He prayed that they would abound more and more in love for one another and that God would establish their hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus. Paul’s prayer was for the sanctification of the Christians in Thessalonica. Paul knew that when they had placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, that their sin had been forgiven and they had been justified or declared righteous by God and they had been transformed into a new creation. When we are saved and declared righteous by God we are immediately sanctified in Christ, this is how we are viewed by God. Sanctification is the process of being separated from sin and set apart to God’s holiness. It is a process as well that is a direct result of salvation and it is a process the Holy Spirit uses to progressively match our behavior to our position of righteousness in Christ. Paul had prayed that the Thessalonian Christians would have their hearts established by God without blame in holiness, Paul was praying for this process of sanctification taking place in their lives. As we move into chapter 4, Paul speaks of this process as our walk, or our conduct as Christians and he shows how this process of sanctification is seen in our walk or conduct before God, in our walk or conduct before our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and our walk or conduct in the world. This is Paul’s teaching on living the sanctified life. Let’s open in prayer.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12. Please stand as we read God’s Word. Follow along as I read.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12,
“Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 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. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1–12, NASB95)[1]
OUR WALK BEFORE GOD (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8)
As we come to this chapter, Paul begins to instruct us as to how we are to walk or conduct ourselves before God, he begins to show us what sanctification looks like as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this process of progressively matching our behavior with our positional righteousness in Christ.
Paul begins by requesting and exhorting us in the Lord Jesus, and this word exhort has more of the idea of coming along side someone and encouraging them. Paul as an apostle of Christ could have come with that authority demanding and commanding, but instead he comes as a brother in Christ and requests and comes along side to encourage the Christians in the Lord Jesus to remember the instruction or the teaching that Paul and his companions had given to them in the short time that they were together. After they had come in faith to Jesus Christ for salvation, Paul, Silas, and Timothy had taught them from the Scriptures how they ought to walk and please God. In other words, they taught them what their new life of holiness should look like. Paul commends them that they do walk or conduct themselves in the holiness that they have in Christ, but he goes onto say that he wants them to excel still more. He desires to see more progress in this process of sanctification.
He reminds them of the commandments that they gave them by the authority of the Lord Jesus, Paul and his companions had taught them the commandments of Scripture that they might obey them by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they were not Paul’s commandments or by his authority, but they were given to them by the authority of the Lord Jesus, the one they had turned to for salvation, the One whom they had committed themselves to serve. These commandments if obeyed would please God, and as believers our greatest desire should be to please the One whom we serve, the One we owe our very life to because He has saved from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, and when He returns and we receive our glorified bodies and go to be with Him we will be saved from the presence of sin. Paul continues by saying that this holy conduct, this obedience to the commandments they were taught is God’s will for you. God’s will is your sanctification, that your behavior matches your new righteous nature.
Paul then illustrates this obedience by reminding us of one of the commandments that they were taught, Paul writes that this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. This phrase “sexual immorality” covers the whole range of sexual sins and can mean any form of sexual sin that goes against God design for sex which was one man and one woman for life. For those living in Thessalonica they understood what this meant because in their society any sexual perversion was accepted. Many of those who had turned from idols to serve the living and true God, had come out of a religion that sex was a part of their worship, and not sex with your wife, but with a temple prostitute. Our world today is not much different then the world of Paul’s day. More and more sexual sins are considered okay and accepted today, and it can be found anywhere in our society.
Paul gives us three ways in which we can abstain from sexual immorality. First, he writes that each person needs to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Paul is saying that a believer must maintain self-control over the desires of his flesh. In other words, we must know how to control our bodies, we must understand our weaknesses and the evil tendencies and avoid, resist and flee from those things which play to our weaknesses and evil desires. The vessel that Paul speaks of knowing how to possess is our unredeemed human flesh. As new creations in Christ this is the only place where sin and immorality can attack us. We must offer up our bodies as living sacrifices to God so that the Holy Spirit can renew our minds so that we are not controlled by the desires and appetites of our bodies for immorality. Paul in his writings made it clear that in order for a Christian to control his body he must rely on the Holy Spirit. Let me give you one example, Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, NASB95)[2] There are many others as we read through Paul’s letters. How do we walk by the Spirit? By knowing God and by knowing God’s Word and obeying it. We are to possess or control our bodies, Paul writes for the purpose of sanctification and honor. Sanctification means to be set apart to God for the purpose of living a pure and holy life. Honor is the result of separating ourselves from sin, from resisting it, not allowing our bodies to control us, but we control our bodies. When we do this, we show respect for our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit and the use of it parts as instruments of service for God. The goal is positive, we are to pursue separation and purity with all our heart, when we strive to be completely separate from immorality then we can honor our bodies as belonging to God and use them to glorify Jesus Christ, the head of the church.
The second way that we are to abstain from sexual immorality is by not behaving as those who do not know God. Those who do not know God are controlled by their sinful desires. They have not been transformed by God’s work of salvation. We have been transformed and should no longer pursue the lustful passions of the unsaved person. Passion means “uncontrolled desires, overpowering urges” that control us and lustful refers to out-of-control craving usually for something that is unrighteous and sinful. This is how those who do not know God live their lives, they are controlled by sin and characterized by their uncontrolled desires and craving for sin’s pleasures. As Christians we can no longer live this kind of life, God has delivered us from such habitual sinning. But we need this instruction to remind us that we do not need to live this way, but instead we can walk in holiness. We need to cultivate our relationship with God and be in His Word rather than subjecting ourselves to all that the world has to offer that is fleeting and destructive. When we expose ourselves to such temptations it will lower one’s resolve to remain pure. Instead we must stay far away and even flee immorality. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18–20, NASB95)[3]
The third way Paul tells us to abstain from sexual immorality is to never take sexual advantage of other believers. Paul says that we are not to transgress of defraud our brother in this matter of sexual immorality. Transgress means “to sin against” or “to take advantage of.” Defraud means “to selfishly and greedily take something for personal gain or pleasure at someone else’s expense.” When a believer seeks to satisfy their physical desires and gain sexual pleasure at the expense of another believer, they have violated this command. We can expect the world to tempt believers and sometimes lead them into sin, but believers should never be a stumbling block for fellow believers. Each Christian must take heed of their own holiness, and never use other believers to achieve sinful gratification. I have heard to many stories of this happening, of men putting themselves in situations where they are alone with a woman and their sinful desires took over and they took advantage of another believer. Guard yourselves men, be careful of the situations that you put yourselves in.
Paul goes on and tells us why we need to abstain from sexual immorality and seek to be holy. First, he says because the Lord is the avenger in all these things. All sin is against the Lord and He alone has the right to hand our vengeance for the sins people commit. The Lord judges and disciplines those He loves and if we give into our lusts, we will feel God’s discipline in our lives. The author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:11, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11, NASB95)[4] This concept of God’s judgment against sexual immorality was not new to the Thessalonians, Paul reminded them that he had taught this to them before and solemnly warned them. Paul had done his due diligence in teaching them in the short time he was with them. He had not only shared the Gospel with them but had been teaching them to observe all the commands of Christ. He was fulfilling Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18–20, NASB95)[5]
Paul gives them a second reason to abstain from sexual immorality and it had to do with the purpose of God, he wrote that God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. By using this word again Paul was showing the Thessalonians that when God called them to salvation, He also called them to a life of holiness. God’s purpose in saving us is to produce a holy people who would walk worthy of His call into His kingdom and glory.
Paul’s final reason that we should abstain from sexual immorality was that by disobeying this command would not mean that they were rejecting something that man had said, but that they would be rejecting God who gives the Holy Spirit. In other words, the standard of sexual morality is God’s, and He gave the Holy Spirit to believers to enable them to keep His standard. He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we might live pure and holy lives. God’s Spirit indwells us at the moment of salvation and because He is holy, it should be unthinkable to enter into sexual sin and thereby reject the Lord who gave us the Spirit and defile our bodies which is the Spirit’s temple.
Paul says that this is how we are to walk before God or conduct ourselves before God in the holiness which is ours in Christ Jesus. This is the will of God for us, our sanctification – to be separated from sin, set apart for God.
OUR WALK BEFORE EACH OTHER (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)
Paul instructed us how to walk before God, now he turns to how we should walk before our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul tells the Thessalonians believers that they are to conduct themselves before each other in love, by loving one another. He tells them that they do not need to be instructed in this because they are God taught. Because they had been transformed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He was producing this love for their brothers and sisters in them. Paul says that they practice this love toward all the church in Macedonia. Paul had planted several churches in Macedonia, in Philippi and in Berea and the Thessalonian Christians had shown their love and concern for these brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul does not elaborate on how they demonstrated this love, but it could have been by being hospitable to them and by deeds of kindness and mercy that came from a sacrificial heart of love for God’s people. Paul commends them for how they are walking before God’s people, but urges them to excel still more, to love more and to demonstrate that love even more. Peter encouraged his readers with these words in 1 Peter 1:22, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,” (1 Peter 1:22, NASB95)[6] This is what Paul meant when he told the Thessalonians to excel still more, to fervently love one another from the heart. He urges them to love more, not less.
OUR WALK BEFORE THE WORLD (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12)
Paul finally instructs the Thessalonians Christians how their walk is to be before the world, how they are to conduct themselves before the world as they walk in holiness. Paul urges them to be ambitious about three things in regard to their conduct before the world, toward those who are unbelievers. Paul first says to make it their ambition to lead a quiet life. The idea here is that they are to lead a quiet and tranquil life as they wait for return of the Lord. They are not to have hostility toward others or be the cause of conflicts, but their lives should be a witness to the transforming power of the Gospel. Second, Paul says they should be ambitious to attend to their own business, Paul seems to be telling the Thessalonians to concentrate on their own lives, to care for their own families and not be get involved in the affairs of others. In 2 Thessalonians this issue of getting involved in the affairs of others and acting life busybodies is further admonished. Paul urges them here to attend to their own business and not to meddle in the affairs of others. Paul urges them to be ambitious to work with their hands, this was one way to keep to your own business. It seems that some seemed to think that since Christ was returning soon, they could stop working and wait for His return, but they began to become a burden on others as they relied on them for support in their daily lives. Paul urges them to work and support themselves while waiting for the Lord to return. Paul says if they do these thing with ambition they, the outsiders, those in the world, unbelievers would see their behavior, that they were diligent hard workers, living in peace and tranquility with respect for the privacy of others and this would be a powerful testimony to unbelievers and make the Gospel credible, in the transformation that had taken place in these peoples’ lives.
Paul also said that if they were ambitious in leading a quiet life, in attending to their own business and working diligently with their hands then they would not be in need. They could support their own family and they could also be generous to others in need within the church and outside the church. This too would be a powerful testimony for Christ.
CONCLUSION:
Paul in this passage make practical our sanctification and how it should look first as we walk before God, then as we walk before fellow believers, and finally as we walk before the world. God’s will for us is sanctification, our being separated from sin and set apart for holiness. We are positionally righteous in Christ, this is how we are seen by God, but there is this aspect of sanctification that is a process and that is what Paul is speaking of here, the lifelong process where the Holy Spirit progressively matches our behavior to the righteousness we have in Christ. Paul in this passage is showing us our responsibility of cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He works out this holiness in us. Paul put it this way to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13, NASB95)[7] Paul told them to work out there salvation with fear and trembling, but then He tells them that it is God who is at work in their lives both to fulfill His will of their sanctification and to work in sanctifying them for His good pleasure. As the Spirit works, we cooperate as Paul explained in this passage today.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.