A Call to Holy Living

Reformation of Manners

Many of you will have heard of William Wilberforce. He is most famous for his tireless work in bringing about an end to slavery. In 1807, an act of parliament brought about an end to the slave trade, and then even more significantly, in 1833, slavery itself was made illegal in the British empire. William Wilberforce was a Christian man, and he explicitly acknowledged that his drive to end slavery came from those Christian convictions.

What is perhaps less well known, is that William Wilberforce aslo had something that he referred to as the reformation of manners.

Now perhaps some of you who have small children in your life, maybe you’re thinking - yes, we need better manners. More “please” and “thank you’s” and don’t get me started on the poor table manners you see these days.

If this is what you’re thinking - that’s actually not what he was talking about.

Wilberforce wasn’t focussed on etiquette, he was concerned with moral conduct.

And also just to be clear, he actually saw his quest to end slavery, and what was referred to as reformation of manners as coming straight from the same place. He called for an end to slavery, because how we live our day to day lives matter.

And so Wilberforce started, or in some cases revived societies whose intention was to promote moral conduct in society.

He introduced laws into parliament to improve morality.

In this quest, he even founded the RSPCA as he considered being kind to animals was part of good moral conduct.

He also established the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804 and the Church Missionary Society in 1799, as he saw the spread of the Bible would lead to better morality.

It’s also considered his own personal conduct meant he could lead by example.

So what difference did it make?

Things didn’t change over night, but there did start to be noticeable changed in society. Public drunkness, profanity, and gambling… things that had been widely accepted in society, became things of shame.

It’s also credited with shaping the Victorian era social values of deceny, self-discipline and duty to others.

Now, I don’t know about you, but you hear this, and on one level you think - this is great, we need something like this again today, but… if we’re being honest… we simultaneously think - this is all a bit boring.

Of all the sermon’s you could listen to, I suspect one that focussed on living an upright life is probably not high on your list. And that’s probably for a few reasons. For starters, I suspect most of us think we’re already living fairly decent lives - of course, there’s probably room for improvement from all of us, but we’re not the real problems - it’s the people out there in the wider society.

We’re also not interested, because, well… it’s boring.

We might not explicitly state it, but this kind of upright living - well… doesn’t it mean we have to cut out all of the fun stuff?

Surely this is not exactly the sort of message that is going to reach those outside the church.

And besides all of this, aren’t we people of grace? Doesn’t the fact that we’re forgiven mean we don’t need to focus on this stuff?

Well, I’m going to argue that the idea that this is about cutting out the fun for some strict boring regime is actually a lie of the devil.

The truth is, if we’re being honest with ourselves, the cheap and momentary thrills that this world has to offer vanish as quickly as they come and leave us feeling worse than we did before.

The life that Jesus has shown us is life in it’s purest form. It’s truly living. It’s something that lasts even when the world around you comes crashing down.

So whether you feel you need it or not, we’re about to have a sermon to encourage us to live the holy life.

The basis for a holy life

Now, before we do, there something worth noting in pretty much every one of Paul’s letter including this one.

You see, Paul’s letters tend to include some sort of instruction about how to live.

Those instruction never come at the start of his letter. In each of his letters, following the opening, he’ll then provide some sort of theological discussion about either what God has done or why things are the way they are. These are based on truths about who God is or what he has done.

And it’s on the back of these theological discussions that then Paul encourages his readers to live a certain way.

It is no different here in 1 Thessalonians.

You might recall back in the first chapter, he described how the power of the Holy Spirit came on them, and how they were filled with love.

He described throughout the next few chapters how even in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, yet God did not remain absent and something beautiful happened. They found hope in knowing that God is always there. They found a joy that rose above everything else.

God had done this for them.

So when we come now and say - let’s live a holy life, he’s not saying, ‘you know, it might be nice if we give this morality stuff a go’, he’s actually saying… ‘God is already moving in a powerful way among you, changing your lives in extraordinary ways, and so now this is the appropriate way we should respond to that’.

This is important for us to remember as well. The message today is not urging you to live well in order that things will go well… rather because God is already alive and active in your life, let’s live like that’s true.

Doing well already

Now, as we look at the first few verses on chapter 4, what becomes quickly apparent is that Paul actually recognises that the Thessalonians believers are already doing a pretty good job of how they are living.

They’ve heard the instructions and they have put it into action.

And I’d have to say, for the most part, if Paul was writing a letter to us here at Tanilba Bay Baptist I think he would say something similar.

But if you look at that first verse. After affirming them, he then adds “now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”

The holy life is not something you arrive at, it’s something we all constantly strive towards. We make progress, but there is always more striving to be done.

And so here’s the challenge: this message is not aimed at those people out there whose life is way off track - because they do need to be hearing the message of grace - rather this message is actually going to focus on you who are actually doing alright, but yet still fall short.

You can think of it like taking your car to a service. The car might not have any specific issue… it might be reliable enough, and yet it needs that service to keep it running tight.

Sexual Immorality

Well, the first topic that Paul focusses on is one that might possibly draw a groan from some people, but might also be something others feel we need to focus on more - sexual immorality.

In verse 3, the call is: “you should avoid sexual immorality”.

That of course sounds good, but we need to first define sexual immorality.

Based on consent?

It’s interesting that in general society we now have a definition of sexual immorality, and it all comes down to consent.

It’s even undergone quite a bit of nuance of late to better define what consent is, taking into consideration power imbalances in relationships and other such nuances.

So basically, if appropriate consent has been given, almost anything goes. I think the only exceptions is that it is still considered immoral if it involves incest, underage children, or animals. Everything else is acceptable with consent.

The logic is based on the assumption that your body is yours to do with however you wish.

We’ve even got a slogan that many have adopted - “my body, my choice”.

But when I read verse 3 a moment ago that told us to avoid sexual immorality, I only read the second half of the verse. The verse actually started: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified”.

The word “sanctified” refers to that process of setting us aside to be made holy. It implies that we are setting aside our whole lives as belonging to God - and that includes our body.

Based on God’s way

So rather than the slogan, “my body, my choice”, we need to be thinking - ‘this is the body God has given me and so I’ll use it in a way that honours God’. Admittedly it might not make for as punchy a slogan, but the point is, if we’re setting our lives aside for God because of the amazing things he has already done for us, we have to stop thinking that we can do with our bodies what we want to do.

Holy and honourable

So let’s look at verse 4. It says: “that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable”.

This means, using it in the bounds that God has created for it.

What are those bounds when it comes to sexual activity? Well, the seventh commandment says “you shall not commit adultery”. And then as you go through all the various God-given laws, it becomes clear, God has designed sex for a marriage relationship bewteen a husband and a wife. I’d suggest it’s made even clearer in verse 6 of our passage today when it says: “and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister”.

You see, within the bounds of marriage, sexual activity is a God-honouring activity. It strengthen relationships. It honours the other person. It is good.

Outside of those bounds however, it is destructive. When two people join together when there is only limited committment, the act is cheapened. It does not dignify the other person, rather it dishonours them.

Now we might ask, but what if we are committed but we haven’t yet officially got married.

Well, let me start with the ideal - because I think we should always be striving towards the ideal. The ideal is God’s intention, and God’s intention is that sexual acticity is within a marriage. If you’re committed, then get married, it’s that simple.

Now, while I will always encourage us towards the ideal, sometimes things have happened in the past that we’re no longer in an ideal situation. For example, we have two people living together before marriage, which, let’s face it, is the norm in today’s society. This is less than the ideal situation, so what should happen next? Well, this is where ideal ethics meets the real world.

Sometimes the question is something we just need to wrestle with because the answer is not always straight forward.

What I want to say though, is that just because the ideal situation might at times be out of reach, don’t ever lose sight of the ideals. Societies norms might change, but the ideals God has set for us remain timeless, and we always need to hold on to them.

But while I will maintain that sexual activity should be within a marriage relationship, we actually need to go a step further and say that you still need to honour your spouse in your sexual conduct. It is defintely possible to sexual abuse your partner even within the confines of marriage. This is why verse 4 says it must be in a way that is holy and honourable.

But let me bring this back to the original call for all of us - are you controlling your own body in a way that is holy and honourable?

Or are you letting passionate lust take over and control you?

Punishment

Now, before I move on from this brief discussion on sexual immorality, I just want to briefly touch on the fact that in verse 6 we’re told that the Lord will punish all those who commit such sexual sins.

It shouldn’t be implied that in some way sexual immorality is deserving of punishment but other sins are not. I’m going to suggest that Paul is actually adding this bit about punishment rather because people saw sexual sin as somewhat lesser. Paul is actually saying, this kind of sin is just like all other kind of sin.

This does of course need to be understood also in light of the forgiveness we receive because of the work of Christ.

But it is a reminder to us that the way we conduct ourselve sexually does matter and should be of concern to us.

Minding our business

But let me move on, because in verse 9, Paul shifts gears and thinks about the way in which they generally conduct themselves.

Now, Paul knows that for the Thessalonians, their love was not the problem, in fact they had quite a reputation for loving each other.

With this being the case, it’s interesting to see the way in which Paul urges them to be holy. Look at verse 11… “...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.”

Now, for some people, that advice might seem really easy. For others, that’s really hard.

You see, here’s the difficult part about being in a church community. We want to be looking out for one another. That is good and proper and to be encouraged. It’s good to hold people to account for their actions and at times, this might mean confronting someone about what they’ve done.

On the other hand, it’s easy to get carried away and start focussing more on other in our community rather than ourselves.

Someone elses sins are almost always easier to see than our own.

And so, while telling ourselves that we’re just being a good neighbour, we make their problems our problems.

Now, what exactly were the Thessalonians doing that prompted Paul to include this statement? And remembering of course that Timothy has just reported back to Paul what he’s seen going on there… well, we’re not specifically told.

However, reading between the lines, it would seem that these people have become somewhat idle. It’s actually assumed that they’ve become idle because of their excitement of the return of Jesus which they thought was going to happen any time now.

Unfortunately, when you are idle, your brain sometimes goes in rather unhelpful directions. You might love your brothers and sisters in Christ, but they start getting under your skin.

It all leads to a rather unholy life.

What I see in this letter a gentle reminder - if you want to lead a holy life, work hard and don’t get side tracked by others.

You know, here’s the thing… sometimes in our quest to be holy, we almost try too hard. In some ways, you could say that was the problem with the Pharisees.

You might recall, the Pharisee were in some respects quite admirable in their pursuit of holiness, but in their zeal they ended up copping quite a bit of criticism from Jesus.

And remember, Paul had been a Pharisee, so he knew what they were like. I wonder if he was almost giving advice to his former self when he told them to lead a quiet life and mind your own business.

Sometimes we need to quieten down, otherwise our own noise, as well intentioned as it might be, drowns out what need to do to move towards holiness.

Win the respect of outsiders

In verse 12, Paul describes one of the outworkings of this kind of life - he says… “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders...”

Unfortunately, sometimes when those outside the church look in, what they see is a bunch of infighting and one-upmanship. They see people more interested in justifying themselves and not much Christ-likeness.

Self-righteousness is not attractive. The way of Jesus is.

When people look in and see people working together with love for one another… people respect that.

Reformation of Manners

Now, let me bring back WIlliam Wilberforce’s reformation of manners.

I know the word manners here may be different to how we might use the word today, but yet, as counterintuitive as it might sound, I actually think this kind of reformation is exactly what this world seeks.

That might sound like a crazy thing to say when the world around us is just after the next pleasure - and there is truth to that. But yet, I think many people are realising that when you just live for the next pleasure, it’s actually very unfulfilling.

When instead you say - I want to live God’s way - there’s something very freeing about it.

Now I know in William Wilberforce’s case, he tried to implement this nation wide - but I think a good place to start for us is our own lives.

Think through the areas of your life where you are not living the way God has shown us.

Think about your sexual activity and your sexual thoughts - do they align with God’s intentions or are they more about your own desires?

Think about how you operate in the church community? Are you more concerned about your self - or more focussed on others?

Conclusion

Paul was actually pleased with how the church in Thessalonica was going, but he also knew that they needed to work hard to keep the holy life.

They didn’t need to do this in order to be saved, but Paul was urging them to do this because God had already blessed them abundantly, and this is the appropriate way to respond.

As you strive towards this holy life, you will find life becomes truly worth living.

Let me pray...