1 Thessalonians 4 Godly Teaching

Godly Teaching

Intro: Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated. This is a saying that come printed inside a shoebox for a pair of running shoes I bought. I think it is fitting because depending on your goals or hobbies it is easy to think that you are dedicated to learning to play an instrument or garden or buy and read books, where other people may say you are obsessed with doing that activity.

Where is the line between dedication and obsession? Is someone crazy because they dedicate their lives to God. and stop doing things they used to do.

Is it crazy for the person who almost died from a heart attack caused by poor diet and drinking suddenly become a marathon runner. Is it obsessive for the person who was once responsible for killing and imprisoning christians now the biggest zealot who is dedicated to Christ?

This is what we are going to look at today as Paul gives the Thessalonians advice on how to live in the world they have grown up in.

Read Verses:

Big Idea: God’s Words are given to us for our instruction on how to live and please God.

I. God’s Word is Authoritative (1-2)

Paul is transitioning his letter from encouragement to instruction. The finally is me of the translations does not indicate the last item on a list, but it is as th eCSB translates, it additionally, or I am now getting to something that I did not talk about before.

Paul wants the church to remember the instructions they, Paul and his companions gave them, on how to live and please God. But verse 2 is the key here Paul says for you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of Paul’s teachings are not really his teachings,they are the commands and lessons of God. His word is put forth to the churches through Jesus. They are derived from God’s authority, not Paul’s own idea of perceived authority.

“ (1, 2 Thessalonians (NAC)): The term “instructions” does not derive from the same Greek word as was used in v. 1. This is a stronger noun connoting authority and commanding obedience. It was used in military contexts of orders issued to subordinates. The Thessalonians knew the commands the apostle had given them “by the authority of the Lord Jesus.” Continuing to live in a way that pleases God did not require the return of the apostle or the revelation of new traditions. It required obedience to the commands already received and already known to the church. It required obedience to the commands of Jesus.”

Jesus was the one who taught with Authority. He was different for every other teacher that people heard. And it is no wonder. For Jesus, since he is God he had the authority it emanated from him since he is the Logos. English Baptist preacher Benjamin Keach points out that “the doctrine of the Gospel, or word of the New Testament, was spoken by Christ Himself, the Son of God from heaven. He, in His own person and with His own mouth, gave it forth as He received it from the Father, and confirmed it by wonderful miracles. Which should we soonest believe, or is of the greatest authority, what the Son of God Himself spake, or what a human spirit should declare?”

Application 1: God’s word is the ultimate authority.

Martin Luther resisted the Roman Catholic church’s concept of the Pope’s authority. “As many of Luther’s early debates demonstrate (notably, the Leipzig debate with Eck in 1519), when the Reformer confronted his opponents with the truth of the gospel drawn from the Scriptures, their response was more often than not to appeal to either the unwritten tradition of the Church, or the infallibility of the Pope. From this, it appears that Luther concluded that both the institutional Church and the unwritten tradition were at odds with the gospel as it was directly and clearly taught in the Scriptures. If this was the case, then in light of the fact that Scripture was God’s own Word (something acknowledged by his opponents), those other authorities could not be of divine origins. Indeed, as Luther wryly noted in his defense at the Diet of Worms (1521), since Church councils and popes contradict each other, how could his conscience be bound to anything other than the Bible?”

If we hold anything other than the Bible as the ultimate authority in our life, we move God down the list. This does not mean that other things cannot act as authority, such as the nation’s laws, or creeds and confessions, but when those contradict God’s laws, then we have to take action and work to ensure the laws match up with the Biblical worldview.

TS: God’s word teaches us how to live in accordance withHis word and it is not to just to follow the rules but it makes us live a Holy life.

II. God’s Word Teaches us How to be Holy (3-8)

Paul tells the church that it is God’s will, your sanctification that you keep away from sexual immorality. That each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor.

Paul makes it a point to use sexual immorality as something that is causing problems or causing some people to sin in the church. Some commentators think that Paul uses this topic as a warning to what is going on and also it is an example of behavior that is not holy and pleasing to God.

“Sexual immorality was a common sin in the Gentile world of Paul’s day. Heathen ignorance of Biblical standards was a frequent source of problems in the early churches. Here, then, as often in his letters, Paul treats the new standard that all Christians, Gentiles and Jews alike, should live by.”

Because the people did not know or understand what the Scriptures say, they continued to live according to their own rules or the rules of society. We saw this when the riot started in Thessalonica. The Gospel message was turning society on its head.

And we may think, well I’m glad our society has advanced and we are not like those pagans and we are not immoral, but did you know that the adult entertainment business makes at least 6 billion dollars annually.

Either way, The more applicable point Paul is really talking about any immorality or looking at anything that keeps us from being closer to God Paul is getting to the point that is the most applicable portion

Application point: Verse 7 is Paul’s key statement in this section when he says for God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.

Outsiders may think that Christians are obsessed with following the rules or being perfect. And if we are doing that then it is wrong because you become legalistic. But if you are truly doing it to set themselves apart from everyone else. The Law that was given to the Israelites served that purpose. Christians pick up the same idea but the law has been fulfilled through Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

When we choose to Follow Christ, we are doing what Jonathan Edwards called chasing a better happiness located in another world. We are not concerned so much with the temporary physical pleasures that are actually sins, but instead we should be setting our affections on heaven and God hat makes the things of this world seem so much less.

Edwards goes on to say “We should travel on as a way of obedience to all of God’s commands, even the difficult as well as the easy, commands. We should travel on ina way of self denial denying all our sinful inclinations and interests. The way to heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill though it be hard, and tiresome and to the contrary to the natural tendency and bias of our flesh. We should follow Christ in the path that he has gone. We should take up our cross and follow him.”

Paul is urging people to look toward heaven and the end times comes up in the last part of this chapter and the 5th chapter of this letter, and Edwards and others preachers are trying to do the same for their congregations and their own lives. That we live with an excitement and a constant look toward God and what His will is. As Paul says, it is his will to be set apart. God sets us apart for himself.

And this is not works based theology of earning your way to heaven. But it is about having confidence in Christ because we have Been given faith from the Holy Spirit to gain assurance when it is driven by an obedient God-centered heart. We cannot be half-hearted when it comes to our faith and how we live. We have to be all in.

TS: and if we have one our God-centered heart then helps us interact with others

III. God’s Word Teaches us How to Love Others (9-12)

Paul moves on to brotherly love as his next topic of discussion for the church. Here Paul commends the church that they are taught by God to love one another and already showing this love to the brothers and sisters in the entire macdonian region. , but he encourages them, along the same lines as their behavior in general, to love one another.

Paul then moves on to telling the people to live a quiet life, mind your own business and work . He says these things for the reason so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders.

One commentary explains Working for one’s living “was often understood by the rabbis to be divinely commanded; together with the study of the Law, it was a mainstay of life.” The Greek attitude was quite different. Manual labor was considered slavish and demeaning for one who had the means to dedicate himself to loftier cultural pursuits.50 Yet manual labor did have its place and was accorded appropriate respect by many Greek moralists. Thus engaging in respectable forms of manual labor could have the intended results of garnering the respect of outsiders (Jewish and Greek) and fending off need.

Paul himself was a tentmaker and worked at that vocation when he heeded to. It is unclear if he always performed the job, but it is clear that he did work and did not try to make a living off of offerings. Paul also knew that working keeps you busy and keeps you away from being a busy body or having time to get into other people's business.

But with Paul's reason to behave properly toward outsiders is a way to show people who are not Christians what the differences between believers and non-believers are. We should be cordial and respectful, but not giving up our standards. To the contrary, “where clear Christian principles conflicted with societal norms, the Christian was to obey Christ, not appease society”

Application: We are to remain in the world and to be a witness to the World.

Paul never instructs any church to just pack up and move up to the mountains. Any church that instructs you to do so is dangerous. We are to be firmly planted in the middle of the city demonstrating why we have Joy, why we act differently.

For us in our time, civilization has grown up with and around Crhistian beliefs and so many of the precepts of loving everyone is a pillar so people are OK with that idea. What they are not ok with is the “why” we should love one another. It is because of God. Not because it just makes society run smoother. People have gotten away from the Biblical authority and are making their own rules again. They are their own authority. And so their own truth becomes what they see and how they feel about whatever it is. But you see, there is still a truth that is absolute no matter how you feel about or want to acknowledge it.

So we live like Christ followers, being obedient to God because we have been given faith by the Holy Spirit that we know have seen the real truth/ This does not make us better than others, but it should make us thankful that we have been shown the truth and we should want to help show others the same truth.

Conclusion

Paul wants the church to be all in for Christ. They need to be dedicated to living as Holy people. The Bible is the source of our instruction because it is God’s revelation of Himself to us and so He shows us what it takes to be close to him.

It is the belief in Christ is what gets you closer to God. Belief and faith that he is your Lord and savior and he is the son of God and that he is God, he wants them to obey the First commandment, Loving God.

When you have that faith, it is easier to ignore and forget what you used to do as a Pagan non believer. And you look at what you are now doing as you look toward God and the Path you are on that leads you to Him.

It is not about trying to obtain perfection because Jesus makes you perfect. It is about a faithful obedience that brings Joy to your life because we have that assurance that God is who he says he is and that he has done what he said he would do.

He also wants them to obey the second commandment love your neighbor as yourself. Love them like a brother or sister. There are no two greater commands.

Once you have tasted life, there is no need or want to go back to being dead. Just like if you have a heart attack and now you see that the old ways or old behavior led to your almost certain death. You want to change your habits and be better, not because it is the rule, but because you see that the old life was destructive.