More Holy Loving

1 Thessalonians 4:1–12 ESV

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. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Sermon: More Holy Loving

           It’s been a little while since we last looked at the book of 1 Thessalonians, but we are on the final message from this book. It’s a little strange to conclude in the middle, but every verse has been covered. From chapter 1 to this point, we’ve seen the endurance of the Thessalonians’ faith. Paul praised and encouraged them to keep on, even in the midst of sufferings that they and he alike were suffering. Paul shared about his wanting to be with them, to see these people he loved, but he was filled with joy in simply hearing and knowing that they had held onto that which was their hope and peace—the same that is true for us, our Lord Jesus. The end of this chapter and into chapter 5 deal with waiting expectantly for the end times as well as how the people should relate together, especially regarding their leaders. 

Here we are now in the beginning of chapter 4. The backdrop is being secure in one’s salvation, being convinced and hopeful of what Jesus offers for this life and the life to come.  To these believers, Paul gives this Spirit-filled instruction.

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the conversation topics I’ve engaged many different times with many different people is apathy in living out the Christian faith. Just to be clear, apathy can be defined as a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern; or the absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. I’ve had these kinds of conversations with fellow pastors, with members in our churches and others, with older folks, with friends in seminary.  I’ve had them in rural areas as well as suburbs and cities. Across our nation and across many denominations, but also in similar cultures around the world, there appears to be a growing apathy within Christianity.

           I’m sure I’ve touched on this subject before, but it’s something that continues to be a struggle. People are apathetic; they do not seem excited; they’re not driven to have their faith be something that captures their whole life. This isn’t a call to have our faith be all about how we feel or for emotions to be the true test of whether or not a person is saved. Not at all. But when it comes to private devotions and study of God’s word, to being committed and active in the life of God’s church, to living out the virtues of the faith and clearly loving God and others—it ought to be clear to most people who believes in Jesus. Something ought to be different about Christians, and that seems to be less and less the case.

           There are a lot of people in the world who would say, “Yes, I’m a Christian. I believe in God; I believe Jesus died to save me from my sins.” But the rest of their lives don’t seem to be “on fire” for God, as that language is sometimes used. There’s laziness and complacency. People might say they feel they’ve done enough, they’re good enough, they don’t have to do any more. 

It’s important for these conversations to be happening, because this isn’t a small issue that only affects those who are apathetic. No, it reaches farther. It can be difficult to teach and share about God and about the Bible in times like these. It can create worry among Christians who would consider themselves more mature in the faith. It’s worrisome because we want to see people committed to Christ. We want to see others experience the grace of God like we have. We want to see leaders growing in the church, growing in the faith, growing in their walk with the Lord. Perhaps, too, as we hear about persecutions carried out against brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, we want to know that we ourselves and those around us would be able to stand firm in their faith, if we had to go through similar challenges. Sometimes we get into positions where we want other people to live out their faith the exact same way as us, but ultimately, we should desire growth in sanctification and growth in believers’ passion to live out the love of God.

           That’s a summary of what’s going on today, but this isn’t new. This apathy seems to go all the way back to the early church, even to the praiseworthy, model believers in Thessalonica. As Paul saw their faith, saw their passion for God, saw their desire to sacrifice how they once lived so they could live lives pleasing and glorifying to Jesus, he encourages them to do so more and more. From what we’ve read, it doesn’t seem like they had become bored or disinterested in the faith at this point, but they were to be on guard and live proactively about this. 

So, he instructs them in two particular areas of their lives. This still applies today, so these are going to be our initial two points. First, believers are to live more and more pleasing to God regarding our sexuality. Some of the key points we hear from verses 3 through 8: “avoid sexual immorality…learn to control [your bodies] in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust…do not wrong [your] brother or take advantage of him.” All of this is helping believers see what is right because “God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life.” 

This sin, which Paul regularly warned churches about, shows that our human nature, our tendency towards sexual expression which God has given as good to husbands and wives in the committed relationship of marriage is tainted, poisoned, and disoriented. Sinful distortions of sex are all over the place today because of the devices that so many people have access to, but the devil has used this in every generation. The devil has manipulated what God created for good to draw people away from God. 

Often times when we find sexual immorality warned against in the New Testament, it’s the Greek word “porneia,” from which we get, as you can likely hear, pornography. “Porneia” means a variety of things—fornication; things having to do with prostitution, with having sex with partner to whom one is not married, for bribes, favors, or other kinds of payment. It can mean unfaithfulness as well as be connected to a style of dress with make-up, provocative clothing, and possibly jewelry as a sign or signal that a woman is a prostitute.

           Using sex for profit, using beauty to unwholesomely attract consumers and customers isn’t something that just came about with books and magazines and TV and movies and the internet. No, using the female and the male body for sexually immoral practices and reasons has been going on for thousands of years. Prostitution was a part of many ancient religious practices outside of Christianity and Judaism. If you were worshiping another god, part of your religion, part of your worship might involve engaging with a temple prostitute and a lot of this was public. 

           Most people who claim to be Christians today would probably say, “I have no problem with that; I don’t frequent prostitutes. I’m good.” Yet this seems to be one of God’s laws similar to the command not to murder. Most believers would say they haven’t done that—and yet God asks us if there is hatred in our lives. In this case, maybe we don’t engage prostitutes, but are we controlling ourselves sexually, are we keeping sexually pure the way God has intended for us and our relationships? It’s interesting to think back to the garden of Eden where man and woman were initially naked and without shame. When they fell into sin though, their awareness of their nakedness brought about wanting to cover up. Sex is still good, nakedness between marital partners is not something to be ashamed of. Yet sin has twisted our desire to be without shame no matter who we look at and no matter who we might do things with what we see, who we engage with sexually. We must be on guard about such things in our lives today, keeping sex and lust controlled, because God has created the proper expression of that for marriage.

This might be an area that makes some us uncomfortable. I can admit I don’t like preaching or teaching a whole lot about sex. But if we see it as part of God’s design for our lives and that God has a righteous and good intent for us to practice and to honor, then it’s actually an important part of our discipleship. It’s important for parents to teach their children, and for us as the body of Christ to continually encourage young folks especially, but also older folks and single folks in purity, even if people have already knowingly broke God’s teachings.

Paul encouraged the church in that area of sanctification, as Christians in our culture continue to need that encouragement as well. He also encouraged them regarding brotherly love. Verses 3 through 8 are one type of love, now in verses 9 through 12 he moves on to another and so we move on as well—Christians are to increasingly show brotherly love, that is point 2. As we’ve seen in the past, this was a part of their lives together which they were doing well. It wasn’t just because Paul had told them to do this, but he believed God had instilled and equipped the Thessalonians to be obedient in this and it was visible to many people. Then comes the interesting last paragraph, “lead a quiet life…mind your own business and…work with your hands…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

As believers in the state of South Dakota, as part of generations that value hard work, I think you all are pretty good at taking this seriously. There’s a lifestyle here of “Let me do my work,” maybe a little bit of that libertarian “Don’t tread on me.”  Most people that have lived here all their lives work hard, maybe too hard at times—but you want to provide for your family. You’ve seen faith as important and so getting the family to church worship was important. You give your time when needed. And you don’t stir the pot too much—you don’t get overly involved in politics or arguments about religion in public or online. You don’t need your name in lights; you don’t seek fame or renown. You just hope those who know you will say that you lived well.

The Thessalonians lived this virtue of brotherly love out well and so might we quite often. Yet the instruction is still given because our human nature, our tendency towards loving brothers and sisters and friends is perverted by sin. It goes all the way back to Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Saul and David, among others. Love one another is the command for us in both the Old and New Testament. And yet we find ways because of pride or hatred, because of covetousness or envy, to not love as we should. Paul’s instruction to not be dependent on anybody likely isn’t saying don’t ever ask for help. Rather, it’s an encouragement to not be lazy, not be selfish; don’t offer nothing when you are able to contribute because of the gifts God has given you.

Again, being a Christian ought to be visible to others. Part of how we do that is with brotherly love. When a person is in need, we willingly extend our help as we are able. James 1 ends on this definition of religion that is accepted by the Father as pure and faultless—"to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” We are to look after them, to be compassionate to the vulnerable. We do that not so we earn something; no, it’s brotherly love. Brotherly love is not going along with the world, seeing every action, every thought, every wind of change in culture as good and righteous, but rather extending grace while upholding truth. It is humbly following God’s ways and sharing those with others.

That brings us to our final point this afternoon. How can we take these specific encouragements and instructions to change an apathetic culture? Should we just take Paul’s words and tell them to ourselves and other Christians: “Please God more and more. Live a holy life. Love people more and more.” Ideally that would work, but telling people to do something without transforming their understanding doesn’t often produce the desired result. 

There’s a word in the passage and I’ve used it at least once in this message that changes one’s understanding, though, changes the reasoning for a holy life. That word is sanctification. Verses 2 and 3, “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” 

God’s will, his desire for our lives is our sanctification—our being set apart, our being made new, our being restored in the image of him. We don’t gain or increase in sanctification simply by doing, simply by being better at obeying laws. We grow in sanctification by our being transformed by the Holy Spirit, and in response to the Holy’s Spirit work, we can live changed lives. That change comes with a reorientation from what the world and our sinful selves say is good and right and acceptable about things like sex and about abortion; it changes what the world and the devil tell us is okay about selfishness, materialism, honoring money above all things. We don’t make the change first, but we need to continually be changed ourselves. 

An important thing to bear in mind though is that when we hear this call to do “more and more,” or to grow more and more in the faith, it is seeking after the work that God promises to do in us and with us. Being told we must or should be doing more can often lead people to simply feel not only discontent but discouraged, even depressed—it can make a person feel like, “I’m never enough.” Yet Paul isn’t seeking to depress believers—convict, yes, but we need a mindset change that enables us to understand and confess, “It’s true, I’m not enough. I do need Jesus, I need a Savior and Sanctifier.” If we have him, then we will be encouraged to continually strive for the holy life, to love in more holy ways. I’m not saying we’ll be perfect, that we’ll never get lazy, never get a bit apathetic, but we will find our passion in the Lord, not ourselves.

If you find yourselves in conversations about apathy with faith, the one thing we can continually do is pray. We pray for the Holy Spirit to move, for the truth of our entire lives needing redemption. We pray that God would make clear to us that Jesus loves us, sinners though we are. With prayer, we can then ask God to lead us and make clear to us the ways that we can disciple brothers and sisters in the faith. Whether we’re talking about young people or adults, we can seek out relationships which God has for us and matters which he has given us his truth to speak about, and we can share ways that help one another to pursue and please God for his glory. Let us truly spur one another on to good deeds for the furthering of Christ’s kingdom. Amen.