A Pleasing Life 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 Notes

A Pleasing Life 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 Notes

ESV 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 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; 6 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. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. 9 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, 10 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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

1) Make it your lifelong goal to please God (rather than yourself) by following His Word: In particular the Word of Christ that Paul and the other apostles proclaimed!

ESV 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

Previously referred to this in chapter two!

ESV 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ¶ And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

He is talking about what Luke describes for us in Acts 17. Paul's short term missions team arrived in Thessalonica and won some people to Christ. Their fledgling congregation was immediately attacked, with the unbelieving Jews jealously creating an uproar.

ESV Acts 17:1 ¶ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

The concept that we ought to seek out how to please the Lord ties to 1 Corinthians 7, a passage that some believe should be used to help interpret this paragraph.

ESV 1 Corinthians 7:32 ¶ I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

In 1 Corinthians 7 we have a discussion about whether it is best to be married or unmarried, and about self control when it comes to sex outside of marriage. In that context Paul says that unmarried men and women have fewer encumbrances around them and are able then to focus more on the Lord and serving Him whole heartedly. Whereas a married person must seek to please their spouse and therefore they come into tension. It's a tension that Paul predicts will give many people trouble.

Paul put such a premium on seeking to please God that he relegated marriage and the option of getting married as less important than living a life pleasing to God!

If we seek to please God in order to be accepted by Him, we will always come up short. What Paul teaches here is a mature view reflected in a variety of his teachings, including the idea that Christ is the bridegroom of the Church. The concept of seeking to please the Lord is a by-product of a revelation. Our identity is in the fact that God truly loves us. He is pleased to choose us! He has qualified us to enter into His courts by His Sons priceless blood shed on the cross. He truly is in love with us and we are His beloved. So we respond to the Lord Jesus Christ by saying 'yes' to His pursuit of us.

The Thessalonians were doing well, so Paul wanted to encourage them to continue on the path they were on. Remember ESV 1 Thessalonians 3:10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? This shows that Paul was praying for them. And that he longed to strengthen and help mature their already genuine but young faith.

Remember that Paul prayed for them night and day. And you were challenged last week to pray Paul style for one another. Here are the four bullet points from that message to remind you once again how to pray for one another:

1) Pray for fellowship to happen. Don't take it for granted. Notice that Satan hinders believers getting together. 2:18
2) Pray for demonstrated love to happen between believers in the church.
3) Pray for holiness in the lives of one another.
4) Pray for an awareness and an eagerness for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Paul goes on to remind the Thessalonians of their instructions. These instructions are followed, because in his second letter Paul says ESV 2 Thessalonians 3:4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.

So Paul cared enough to show them how to live and to check on them to see if they were listening.

2) Avoid Sexual Immorality And Pursue Holiness

1 Thess 4:3 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; 6 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. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Sanctification is being set aside totally for God, purified from unholy desire and filled with a perfected love. It is the condition of blamelessness.
A heart on fire. ESV 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ¶ Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for sanctification to be completed!

ESV Hebrews 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Sanctification has been accomplished through the cross. So why do we need to pray for it to happen?
(All doctrine is eschatological). There is a future coming fulfillment in all truth that we have not touched yet. At the same time, we enter into the future coming fulfillment when the Kingdom of God expands in and among us.

ESV 1 Peter 1:16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." This is not merely the removal of evil. It is the presence also of God burning within us. Remember the burning bush that Moses encountered? "Take off your shoes for the ground you are standing on is holy ground". The burning bush, like fire generally, often symbolizes God's holiness. We are to be living sacrifices, hearts set afire with the holiness of God burning in us.

ESV Acts 15:20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
(WRITTEN A FEW YEARS BEFORE THESSALONIANS-THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH TEMPLE PROSTITUTION IN MANY PLACES)

ESV 1 Peter 3:7 ¶ Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

God avenges all evil behavior.
ESV Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

ESV Psalm 79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name!

ESV Galatians 4:8 ¶ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Former idol worshipers were locked into a system that legitimized immorality. It is like states that legalize prostitution today, except they merged prostitution with religion.

Part of the coming of Jesus to the earth will be the affliction of all those who have afflicted God's people with injustice and all those who reject God's loving offer of mercy.
ESV 2 Thessalonians 1:6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

ESV Psalm 94:2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!

ESV Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ¶ But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.



3) Witness To Outsiders By Loving One Another

1Thess 4:9 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, 10 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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.