Thursday: How is your Walk? 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Teachers note: The text of this class deals with some sensitive issues, primarily dealing with sexuality. This class material will touch on the issue, but is not the emphasis of this class. As always, use your judgement based on the age/maturity of the campers you are working with. Please keep in mind as you are preparing this lesson, that these morning sessions are combined boys and girls class. Also, Friday’s afternoon Focal Point will be covering the topic of purity a little more in depth.

Intro- In our class yesterday we talked about Christian relationships/fellowship and how important these relationships are to the lives of each individual Christian. Today we are going to look at how we are supposed to live as Christians. One thing is clear, we have a different standard.

Setting the stage: The church in Thessalonica was a group of Christian’s who had a sincere faith. They were good people. Paul was bold enough in many letters to call out sinfulness when it was present, but the church in Thessalonica was continually being praised by him for all that they were doing. However, even though, they were deserving of praise in many areas of their walk with the Lord, Paul urged them to do better.

We discussed:

1 Thessalonians 4:1 ESV

1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

Spend time discussing the fact that Paul informed the church here that they were walking in a way that was pleasing to the Lord. Yet, Paul told them to do so more and more. Other translations say, “Excel still more”

This is huge. What we see is that when we are living a life that is pleasing to God, we still need to improve.

Discuss: Why should we always try to improve, if what we are doing is good?

If there is room for improvement, then we aren’t giving God our best

If there is room for improvement, we aren’t setting the example IN ALL THINGS that we should be setting.

We need to be more holy.

We live in a world that doesn’t understand holiness. In fact, it is often mocked. People that have a moral standard that they live by are sometimes referred to as “holier than thou”. We need to avoid giving the impression that we are “better” than anyone. However, we must never be ashamed of striving for holiness.

1 Thessalonians 4:2–5 ESV

2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

In this text, Paul uses the word “Instruction” which was a military term meaning “command”. The things Paul was saying were not optional, although many in his day (and ours) treat them as such.

These instructions came “through” Jesus. In other words, if someone is following Jesus, then they are heeding these instructions, If they are not heeding these instructions, they are not following Jesus.

Discuss: How nice would it be, if you knew exactly what God wanted from you? - The good news, is Paul tells us in V. 3 that God’s will is our sanctification.

Sanctification- dedication to the Lord, and/or dedication to moral purity- from the Dictionary of Biblical Languages

dedication to the Lord, and/or dedication to moral purity

God’s will for you, is for you to be dedicated to him and His moral standards.

It is important to note that God is the one who determines if something is right or not. How I feel about what is right or wrong doesn’t change whether or not it is right or wrong. Our loyalty lies with God and His standard.

Notice that Paul urged them to not be like the Gentiles.

Once you are in Christ, your standard changes. It no longer matters how you used to act, it doesn’t matter how others around you act. Your standard has been raised dramatically.

You have likely heard that “Holy” can be defined as “Set- apart” - Meaning, that there has to be something different about you and your behavior than the behavior of those who are not in Christ.

Paul was urging the Christians to not be like the world around them in this respect. Keep in mind,

A person who isn’t striving for holiness is a person who doesn’t know God.

1 Thessalonians 4:5 ESV

5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

There is a difference between knowing that there is a God, and knowing God. The more you know Him the more you want to be like Him, and strive to please Him.

If we stop striving for holiness and being better IN ALL THINGS then chances are, we have stopped having a relationship with God.

We need to be aiming for the right target.

What is our target? What are we supposed to do? Is being a Christian simply a bunch of things that we do NOT do? It is important to understand what our target is, because if we don’t know what we are aiming for, we will never hit it.

Our lives as Christians certainly requires us to abstain from sin, but our sole focus isn’t to avoid sin. It is to fulfill our mission.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 ESV

11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,

Paul told the Thessalonians to “aspire” to… several things. What does “aspire” mean?

The Greek word used here for aspire is only found here in the NT and it means- “To have ambition/a fixed goal”

Let’s look at what Paul said the Christians should be ambitious about, what their goals should be, what is their target?

To live quietly

Paul told them to live “quietly” literal meaning- “Well-ordered, lack of disturbances, settled down”

One could rephrase that in our way of speaking and say, “Be drama free”. We live in a world that LOVES drama. As Christians, we need to run the other way.

Our lives are not to be about drama of any kind. No one wants to be part of a group that is filled with drama, so it is our goal to be different from the world in this respect.

Mind your own affairs (mind ya bidness)

How easy is it for people to get sucked into everyone else’s life? Especially with social media, it is easy to sit back and “judge” other people’s lives.

Do you want to really be different from the world? Take care of your own life.

Work with your hands

There was a cultural problem going on in Thessalonica. Some Christians decided against working for a living because they knew that the well-off people in the church would care for their needs.

Paul urged them to stop that and to work with their own hands.

If we want to be a disciple of Christ, and a good example to those around us, we need to be hard workers.

Colossians 3:23 ESV

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

What is the purpose of all of these goals?

Why do we set goals?

Generally when someone decides they are going to start exercising, the reason they want to exercise is because they...

Want to be healthy

Want to lose weight

Want to explore...

They don’t just decide to workout every day, and when someone asks, “Why?” they reply.... “I have no idea.” We set attainable goals so that we can reach our ultimate goal.

What is the goal that the Thessalonians were trying to reach by living quietly, minding their business, and working hard?

V.12- “So that you may walk properly before outsiders”

In other words, the reason for having these goals and striving for these things, is so that your example IN ALL THINGS will set a good example for those around you. Even those outside of the church. Perhaps it will be your example that will lead someone to Jesus.