1 Thessalonians 4: Living Your Life To Please God.
1 Thessalonians 4 has two focuses.
- Living Your Life To Please God
- What Happens To Believers When They Die?
At first glance, these topics don’t seem connected at all. However, if you delve deeper into them, you’ll see how connected they really are.
The first generation of believers believed that Jesus was coming back soon as any day could be it. They lived their lives with that belief in mind.
In Acts 4, we see the people in the church selling property and giving the proceeds to the Apostles so the money could be used to support missions.
A lot of the churches did this, but they didn’t lie about it or use these gifts to get more prestige.
1 Thessalonians 4: Living to Please God
4 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.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
As a core principle, Christians need to love one another as Christ loved us. This means taking advantage of others, treating them poorly, or tearing them down is not Christlike.
If we are not showing the love of Christ, then we have to question whether Jesus lives in us or not.
The world has many beliefs, but most of them are justifications for doing wrong. Phrases, like find your own truth, and do what you feel, is right abound.
However, as Christians, our standard doesn’t come from our corrupt moral code. Our standard comes from Jesus, and we need to behave as such.
Living a holy and righteous life is making the right choices. It isn’t taking advantage of your neighbor, but instead, it’s helping them. Our goal is always to be a light for God, showing them his love. I believe that’s what is meant in 1 Thessalonians 4.
9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
I love these verses in 1 Thessalonians 4 because it says you should work with your hands and mind your own business.
Sometimes it seems like there’s one person who won’t leave you alone. For some reason, you can’t get away from them and they always give their opinion. No matter how wrong it is.
While we still should love these people, I recommend trying to remove ourselves from these types of people. Eventually, you’ll get caught up in their nosiness, and you’ll be trapped in evil conversations like them.
1 Thessalonians 4: Believers Who Have Died
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
1 Thessalonians 4 gives us some insight into what happens to believers who pass away. The early church thought Jesus was coming back any day, and they didn’t have to worry about the future.
However the older believers started to pass away, and this started to make people nervous. So Paul sent them this letter to ease their fears. Many of them can be confirmed in other areas of the Bible too.
Today the Church still believes that Jesus will come back any minute. However, we also know that people will pass away, just like others will be born.
That’s the beauty of serving Jesus, to be absent from the body is to be with Christ. This means that when we die we go to be with him.
I hope you enjoyed my latest breakdown of 1 Thessalonians 4. Let me know what you think in the comments below.