1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 – Be loving in life and live to glorify God

In verses 9-10, we see Paul progressing from the issue of chastity to charity. He was calling for the brethren to excel in loving. God would place His love in the heart of a believer. Therefore loving others should characterize a redeemed child of God. Loving others ought to be the natural outcome of those who are in Christ Jesus. And loving one another in God’s family should also be evidently clear. To be unloving toward each other would be acting out of character as a redeemed person.

Paul told the Thessalonians that loving the brethren was so much a part of them already, for God had taught them concerning it. And they had been practicing it with other believers in Macedonia. However, knowing the human tendency to depart from what one knows to be true, Paul reminded and exhorted them to excel even more in love. Love should be the mark of genuine Christianity. And we ought to make loving fellow believers and others our daily agenda.   

Finally from verses 11-12, Paul dealt with the normal everyday issues of life in a believer. He called for growth in this seemingly ordinary area. It appeared that while waiting for Christ’s glorious return, some were so carried away that they literally dropped out of life and became idle. They quit their jobs, choosing to become busybodies instead. They began to take advantage and live on the generosity of others, since they were not earning a living anymore. Paul reminded them not to let life slip away idly. He exhorted them to go about diligently in the everyday business of life. They were urged to work with their hands and to seize every opportunity to glorify and please God. He was saying to them that they could please God in the mundane things of life as they waited for the Lord’s return. How? By attending to their daily living diligently so that they would not be in need.

Work has values. It helps us to gain self-respect and also keeps us from burdening others. Having a meaningful career will help us to maintain self-respect. If we do not work we cannot take care of our own financial needs, and we will also not be able to have the means to help others in need. The value of work is not found in the wealth it will create, but in our ability to help others. This will in turn help us to respect ourselves. So let’s live meaningfully for God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 – Be morally pure

One way to please God requires that we live a morally pure life. Here Paul used the word “sanctification” to define God’s will. This word “sanctification” simply means setting oneself apart from sin to live for God’s glory. Thus, we can conclude that living a sanctified life is God’s will. It is the intention of God that every believer ought to live a consecrated life for His glory. Here Paul specifically mentioned abstinence from sexual immorality. This is God’s will. Of course, we know that sanctification and God’s will is not just about sexual purity. However, we need to know that the sensual environment which the Thessalonians were living in, made it necessary for Paul to single out this area for specific mention. He knew that they were constantly exposed to sexual temptations, and so he wrote to warn and instruct them of the dangers and the dire consequences.

The word “immorality” generally means a wide range of illegal sexual activities. It ranges from the thoughts to the practices. It could mean impurity, fornication, adultery, and all kinds of aberrant sexual behavior and so on. Here the command is to stop practicing immorality. Paul wanted them to know that it was imperative to abstain from illicit sexual practices if they wanted to please God.

In verses 4-5, Paul gave them some instructions on how to abstain from sexual immorality. He said that each believer should learn “… to possess his own vessel ….” What exactly did Paul mean? There are two widely differing understanding for the word “vessel.” One view is that it refers to the man’s body, and the other view says that it refers to one’s wife. Because the second interpretation demeans a woman by making her a vessel, most people would repudiate this position. Hence, the view that interprets the vessel as the man’s body is more widely accepted. It simply means that man is required to exercise self-control. He is to have a control over his own body, and he needs to take the necessary steps to honor his body so as to please God.

The second position, however, takes the view that the man ought to take a wife for himself. This position is made strong by the words “to possess” in verse 4. In the original interpretation, these words mean to acquire or to take. Thus, the RSV (Revised Standard Version) authors had this verse translated as “… that each of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor.” Perhaps Paul wanted them to have a proper perspective concerning their own sexual needs. And there are two ways to satisfy one’s sexual desires – a right way and a wrong way. It is absolutely wrong to indulge in any kind of immorality. The right way is to find one’s sexual fulfillment in one’s wife.

Regardless of the position one takes, Paul’s point is that sexual purity is needful to live a God-pleasing life. One needs to know that Paul was calling for man to view sex from God’s perspective, rather than be lured into practicing the aberrant sexual enticement of the world. However, take note that even in sexual intimacy with his wife, a man ought to exercise it in a sanctifying way and to exercise it honorably to please God. He is reminded not to have lustful passion like the godless Gentiles.

To sum up, we can say that verse 3 shows us the what, which is to abstain from sexual immorality. Then verses 4-5 show us the how, which is to possess one’s own vessel in sanctification and honor. And now, verses 6-8 will tell us the why that believers should not indulge in sexual immorality.

From these verses, we understand that there are consequences when one indulges in such illicit sexual activities. There are several things that could happen. There would be damage. The word used here is “transgress.” To transgress is “to get out of bound.” When that happens, people will be hurt. Someone will be defrauded or deceived. Paul warned that God would avenge the wrong committed to a brother (or sister) and would punish the offender. The other reason one should not indulge in illicit sexual activities is that God had called us into a life of purity and sanctification, not a life of impurity (v.7). Consequently, a believer who practices immorality will hurt God, Who has placed the Holy Spirit in his life. In all these, there are essentially three things: the right place for sexual intimacy is in a marriage; and the right attitude toward sexual intimacy is to practice it honorably, the goal of it all is to please God.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 – Our goal in life is to please God

Thessalonica connected Rome from the East. Being an eclectic city, people from all over the Roman Empire would be found there. Furthermore, the pagan worship in that city was associated with sexual immorality and temple prostitutes. They basically led a very sensually and materialistically oriented lifestyle. Hence, even believers were enticed to lead that kind of lifestyle. The message of Paul in Thessalonians 4 addressed that enticing culture. Our affluent Singapore is just as sensual and materialistic, this message is just as relevant to us.

The first thing Paul called for them to do was to lead the kind of life which God expects of them. The obvious place to begin with would be in their motivation. What can be a better motivation than to appeal to their desire to please the Lord? So Paul made this his starting point. He asked them to make pleasing the Lord their goal in life. In fact he exhorted them to excel even more since they had already began to live God-pleasing lives.  

The word “walk” is used metaphorically to describe one’s lifestyle. This is a term used to refer to one’s day-to-day living. So here Paul reminded them to begin at the most crucial point – do all to please the Lord. The structure of verse 1 tells us that this must be a lifestyle. It was not to be a sporadic or intermittent act, but a continuous effort. It must be a relentless effort to excel more and more. Paul must have realized how easy it was for believers to rest on their laurels, so he told them to excel even more.

Secondly, he told them the basis on which he was making the call. It was on the authority of the Lord that he made this call to them. He reminded them that this was what the Lord would want them to do. In other words, this was the Lord’s commandment; he did not act on his own. Like them, if we want to grow spiritually, we must make pleasing God our priority in life. Not only that, we also need to learn to live under the sovereign authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let’s obey the command of Christ, else we are rejecting God!

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 – Fulfilling ministry

When Timothy had returned from Thessalonica to Paul, he shared with him the good news concerning the believers there. Apparently they were still full of love and faith. Besides, they also remembered the apostle fondly, and were yearning to see him and his team just as much as Paul himself had longed to see them. So overwhelmed was the apostle that he burst out with inexplicable joy. On hearing that they were standing firm in the Lord, he was relieved, and that injected a new lease of life into him. In verse 9 we see him welled up in thanksgiving to the Lord for them. He was then motivated and moved to pray for them earnestly and unceasingly.

So inspired was Paul that he uttered a prayer for them there and then. He requested that God to open the way and direct his team to the Thessalonians again (v.11). Praise God, this prayer was answered and he visited them two times in his third missionary journey (Acts 20:1-3). He also prayed for the Lord’s love in them to increase and overflow toward one another and even for all men. Finally, he prayed that God would strengthen their hearts and cause them to walk blamelessly in holiness before God the Father. His desire was that they would be preserved and sanctified for the Coming of our Lord Jesus. Truly the Second Coming of Christ is a great motivation for us believers to live a life of holiness as well.

The certainty of His second coming set the pace for us to live well now. It’s wonderful to know that we are not trying to live our lives without any heavenly resource. We must lean on the person of the Holy Spirit as we go about each day. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, we must remain “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 – A nurturing heart

Paul had shown how much the Thessalonians meant to him. His primary concern was for their spiritual well-being. He could not take the suspense of not knowing what had happened to his beloved converts in that city. And though it would be a lonely experience for him to be left by himself at Athens, he was prepared to face it. He just longed to know how the Thessalonians were doing. In his desire to see them well, he had made several unsuccessful attempts to be there. When he finally could not take the suspense any longer, he decided to send Timothy, a brother and God’s fellow worker, there. Between Silas and Timothy, he chose to send the latter because he was not with them when the church there was first established. Besides this, Paul also had three other reasons why he sent Timothy to them.

Verse 2 tells us that he wanted firstly for their faith to be strengthened and encouraged. Then in verses 3-4 w are told that Timothy went there so that the Thessalonians would not be unsettled by their afflictions. Paul reminded them of what he had previously told them – that affliction was part and parcel of the Christian life. Finally, Timothy was sent there to find out how the Thessalonians were fairing and to return with reports concerning their welfare.

Notice that here Paul also made mention of the tempter, meaning Satan. He would attempt not only to stumble the apostolic band, but also the people who believed the apostle’s message. Paul was concerned that the Thessalonians would fall prey to the tempter’s traps and fall away. That’s why he was glad to hear that they were doing fine.

In thinking deeper, we get a sense that hardship can never be avoided in Christian life. Why? It’s because hardships strengthen our faith. They give us opportunities to trust the Lord, to draw near to Him and to prove our resolve to obey Him. The Lord had said in John 16:33 that in the world we will have tribulation. This, plus several passages in Scripture, such as Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 4:17; Phil. 1:29; Col. 1:24 and etc., reveal beyond a shadow of doubt that we will have to face many difficulties in life. And since we have been foretold of this, we should also arm our attitude not to be unduly stressed by them. Instead we should learn to draw near to God, and let Him draw nigh to us.

1 Thessalonians 2:17-20 – Be responsible and accountable

Verse 17 suggests to us that Paul’s ministry among Thessalonians was disrupted. It was the hostile Jews whom he mentioned in verses 14-15 that came to create trouble for Paul and his companions.  They were forcefully taken away from the Thessalonians for a short while. We get the feeling that to Paul the separation was a painful, unwilling and a reluctant one. However, in the spirit they were still with Paul. He had them constantly in his thoughts and heart. In that sense they were constantly with him. And he yearned to see their face again.

Paul repeatedly tried to come to them, but in each attempt Satan had prevented him. Paul seemed to put the blame squarely on Satan. How is Satan the cause of Paul’s inability to return to the Thessalonians? Since Paul was doing the will of God to advance the Kingdom, it would be an act of contradiction if God were the One putting in the obstacles. Only Satan would want to hinder the progress of God’s work. In this sense, he was the one who had hindered Paul’s return. We can see it this way: behind the scene, Satan was engineering opposition to prevent Paul from going back to the Thessalonians.

In verses 19-20, Paul raised a series of rhetorical questions. He had put much effort, while undergoing affliction, to reach them and to now hear of their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope, was a real encouragement to him. He wanted them to know that they were his joy and pride. They were his hope, joy and crown of exultation. And at the Glorious Appearing of the Lord, they would be the trophies that he would present to the Lord.

Paul’s zeal and fervor in the ministry can be felt in the reading of these verses. What kept him so vibrant in service? Apart from his love for the people he served, we can also see two aspects of Paul: his sense of duty and his sense of accountability. As long as he was serving, he would labor diligently and responsibly. He knew that ultimately when he faced the Lord, he would have to give an account of the tasks delegated to him. Like Paul, we must have genuine love when we serve, but we must keep at the forefront of our mind the sense of duty and our accountability to the Lord. Bear in mind that we are just stewards of God’s grace!   

1 Thessalonians 2:9-16 – Being pace-setters

Verses 9-12 tell us that together with his companions, Paul labored hard, day and night for his own provision, refusing to be a burden to them financially as he proclaimed the Gospel to them. He reminded the Thessalonians that they were fully aware of this and could concur with him. Paul was not just like a tender mother to them, he was also like a consistent father to them. By being a father to them, he constantly set the example by living a devout, upright and blameless life before them. It’s this kind of life that would please God. Besides, he did not just say it in words but also in action. Not only were they his witnesses but so was God. And as an instructing father, he disciplined them as his children. He not only exhorted but also encouraged and implored them, to walk worthy of God, Who had called them into His own Kingdom and glory.

In verses 13-16, Paul portrayed for us his role as God’s messenger. He ceaselessly proclaimed to them the Gospel and they accepted it as God’s Word. They willingly opened their hearts to the message and acknowledge it as God’s voice to them. As a result, their lives were changed by it. For this, Paul did not cease to thank God. Their lives were so evidently changed and bore spiritual fruit. They even emulated the examples of the believers in Judea. And like them, the Thessalonians were willing to endure the suffering and persecution from their own countrymen, even as the Judeans suffered at the hand of the Jews. In verses 15 and 16, Paul was neither anti-Jew nor anti-Semitic. He was merely stating the facts. Many of the Jews were rejecting Christ and opposing the Gospel. They were preventing others, even the Gentiles, from believing in Christ. They were storing up the wrath of God as Jesus had warned.

Like Paul, we must seek to be fervent, upright and blameless. All these are achievable when we yield to the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to take full control of our lives. We must also seek to be stable messengers of Christ in words and conduct, constantly bearing fruit. When we keep doing that, no outward threatening circumstance we encounter can ever get us down. Let’s be pace-setters for the Lord!