A CHURCH CHARACTERIZED BY SEPARATION

I Thessalonians 4:1-12

With the start of chapter 4, Paul begins a new emphasis in his letter. Up to the present, Paul has dealt with personal experiences. Now he turns to practical exhortation.

The deep desire of our hearts as Christians ought to be this -- to please the Lord. In the last part of verse 1 in our text Paul says, "...ye ought to walk and to please God.”

Pleasing God is POSSIBLE. There are some individuals know who you can never please, but pleasing God is possible!

Pleasing God is PROPER - “ye ought to.” A prime purpose of the Christian life is to please God. Christians should accommodate themselves to their God; God never accommodates Himself to us. We ought to walk in a way that puts a smile on the face of God. Many of us make Him frown.

“Ought” doesn't mean something that is optional. It means something that is an obligation. Christian are expected to live in such

a way that their daily behavior is pleasing unto God.

In Hebrews 11:5 it says that Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God.

If I have a walk that pleases God is will be a walk that is characterized by

The moral climate in the Roman Empire at this time was not one of godliness. Immorality was a way of life. It was a sex saturated society. It mocked the home and the sanctity of the marriage relationship.

Now Paul uses a big word in verse 3- “sanctification." What does it mean to be sanctified? A hint is given in verse 7. The word “holiness,” in verse 7, and the word “sanctification,” in verse 3 are the same word. Thus, when the Bible speaks of sanctification it is speaking of the matter of holiness.

The idol worship from which some of these Thessalonians had been saved included the most abominable and immoral rites. The Thessalonian Christians who were Gentiles had come out of that

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I. HOLY LIVING (1-8)

background, where immorality and religion were all mixed up. There is no holiness in heathen religion. Holiness was an entirely new idea. For the first time they were faced with the fact that worshiping God involved a holy life. Paul had to deal with them as he did with the Corinthians and others, reminding them that the Christian life was to be a life of holy living.

A. THE COMMAND FOR HOLY LIVING (1-3)

“Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye

know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your

sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication”

God didn’t give us the TEN SUGGESTIONS.

This command for holy living means

1. THE WALK OF THE SAINT IS TO BE ABOUNDING (1)

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“Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please

God, so ye would abound more and more.”

God wants us to do more than just exist. He wants us to possess abundant life. Many people think, "If I get serious with God, He will take all the fun out of life." No, He will put zest in the life!

Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The words “more and more” point to spiritual growth. It is not enough to exist as a Christian, we must move toward excellence. It is one thing to park ourselves in the Christian life, but it is another thing to prevail in it. God wants us to grow in our Christian life.

Status quo in the Christian life always means stagnation, deterioration, and decay in holiness.

Christian maturity is never finished on this side of eternity. No matter how far

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a Christian has come there is still room for progress.

2. THE WORD OF THE SCRIPTURES IS TO BE ACCEPTED (2)

“For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”

Paul reminds them of what he had taught them. They are not being told something for the first time but reminded of what they know already know.

It seems that far too often some Christians just want to hear some new truth, but the truth is we are to excel in is the truth we already know.

The words of instruction Paul offered were not his alone. They came directly from God. Rejecting the Bible's instructions is a rejection of God.

3. THE WILL OF THE SAVIOUR IS TO BE ATTENDED (3)

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“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from

fornication”

Paul declares the will of God in no uncertain terms. There are many areas where we do not know the explicit will of God, but this is not one of them. We know the will of God when it comes to the boundaries of sex. Here we know clearly what God wishes. Christians can yield themselves to God’s sovereign will or assert their own independent will.

We determine God’s will from God’s Word. The Word of God is the will of God. We cannot live the Christian life without the Bible. That is the only place we can find absolutes. We find the will of God in the Word of God.

Many Christians struggle with how to know the will of God for your life. One of the ways you can know the will of God for your life is to begin to do the things that are clearly revealed in the Bible as being the will of God. Paul says very plainly in verse 3 - "this is the will of God." You don't have to wonder about it or pray about it or check it out any other way, he is telling you here is the will of God.

Look at chapter 5:18. He gives

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another one. "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” You don't have to pray about it or say, "Lord, should I be thankful?"

Here is the will of God so simple and plain that there need be no debate about it. God commands believers to abstain from sexual immorality.

While the will of God concerning service is individual, the will of God concerning sanctification is universal!

The word “abstain” means “to hold off from, to distance oneself from, to have nothing to do with.” You are abstaining from something when you separate yourself from it completely. Christians should put a lot of distance between themselves and temptation. We should not try to come as close to the fire as we can without being burned. It is interesting that the Bible’s solution to sexual sin is to not be careful but abstain!

Nothing defiles a person more than sexual sin. "The sin of immorality is one

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of hell's keenest weapons for the destruction of souls.”

See Hebrews 13:4.

Byron Paulus of Life Action Ministries tells told the story being on a commuter airline flight to Knoxville one time. He said that shortly after he got on the plane the co-pilot's voice came over the intercom with an announcement that jolted him. “When the captain boards the aircraft please applaud. He just learned that his fiancée is pregnant with twins!” Has it come to the point than we are asked to applaud an act of fornication? Something that would have been a shame to mention a generation ago is now flaunted and cheered in public.

If we are to please God we must abstain!

We are in the world, but we must not be of the world.

Handley Page, a pioneer in aviation, was flying in the Middle East in one of his best airplanes. On his journey he landed in Arabia. Unknown to him, a huge rat was attracted by the smell of food in the plane and managed to get aboard. On the next leg of the flight, Page heard

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the sickening sound of gnawing. Suspecting it was a rodent, his heart began to pound as he visualized the serious damage that could be done to the fragile mechanisms that controlled his craft. What could he do? Then the thought struck him. A rat cannot survive at high altitudes. So he pulled back on the stick. The airplane climbed higher and higher until Page found it difficult to breathe. He listened intently, then sighed with relief. The gnawing had stopped. When he arrived at his next destination he found the rat lying dead behind the cockpit. You see, we're to live in the world, but we're not to be of the world. We're to live above the world. We have been set apart so that we completely belong to Him!

B. THE CONSTRAINTS IN HOLY LIVING (4-6a)

“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter”

Paul follows the requirement with some restrictions.

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1. A CHRISTIAN IS EXPECTED TO BE IN CONTROL OF HIS BODY (4)

“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour”

Verse 4 literally commands each man to “possess his vessel.” Though some think that this might be a reference to his own wife, since 1 Peter 3:7 does refer to the wife as the “weaker vessel.” However, in this context it almost certainly means his own body.

Avoiding sexual temptation requires some “know how.” We learn from the Word of God about the “know how.”

We must know how to apply principles of God’s Word to our experience.

Holiness and “honour” control our vessel. We belong to another. We are not our own. When we set apart our lives unto God, we give Him our lives for His exclusive use.

The believer is God’s vessel. As God’s vessel, we must treat our bodies with holiness and honour. He has the right to determine how we use it.

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2. THE CHRSITIAN IS EXPECTED TO BE A CONTRAST IN HIS BEHAVIOUR (5)

“Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God”

We are not to be like the rest of the world that is driven by their hormones and desires (concupiscence).  Believers ought to be different from the unsaved.

“even as the Gentiles” - The “Gentiles” are those without Christ. Unrestrained indulgence in sexual passion is characteristic of those without Christ. The Bible divides people into three categories: the Jew, the Gentile and the church of God (1 Corinthians 10:32).

To live without restraints sexually, is to live like a heathen.

Personal relationship with God is the parent of purity. Overcoming illicit sexual passions begins with a relationship with the Lord. There is far more to conquering these sins but it begins with a relationship with God.

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A Jewish rabbi once said, "We Jews have denied Christ. You Christians, by your poor living of what He taught, have disgraced Christ.”

There should be a difference in the behavior of a child of God.

3. THE CHRISTIAN IS EXPECTED TO BE CONSIDERATE OF HIS BROTHER (6a)

“That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter….”

Verse 6, “…that no man go beyond” is the word transgress – or go over the line.

Well, who set the line? God set the line.

“Don’t go out of bounds. Don’t go too far. Don’t go where you’re forbidden to go.”

“and defraud his brother in any matter” - Defraud is a very interesting word. It means “to selfishly, greedily gain something at another’s expense.” That’s exactly what it means. It means “to take advantage of someone for personal gain and personal fulfillment.”

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We are not to use someone for our own sexual gratification.

Don’t rob their virtue. Sex before marriage is stealing. Sex outside of marriage is thievery. It is dishonesty. Sexual immorality defrauds others of the fidelity they rightfully expect from their spouse or spouse to be.

C. THE CONSEQUENCES OF HOLY LIVING (6b-8)

“because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto

holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his

holy Spirit.”

If we live holy lives, free from immorality, we will be free of three things!

1. FREE FROM PUNISHMENT (6b)

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“…because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and

testified.”

An “avenger” is one who exacts a penalty from a person. Those who commit immorality will have God to reckon with. God keeps books on this issue, and He is a very good accountant!

“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,” Hebrews 13:4. God is serious about sexual immorality.

Paul thoroughly warned the Thessalonians of God’s judgment of sexual sin. Paul bore solemn witness about what God would do with those who “GO BEYOND” and “DEFRAUD.”

Christian, don’t take your sins lightly; God doesn’t. 

A church member once criticized her pastor because he was preaching against sin in the lives of Christians. “After all,” she said, “sin in the life of a believer is different from sin in the life of an unbeliever.”

“Yes,” said the pastor, “It is worse.”

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2. FREE FROM POLLUTION (7)

“ For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

“Uncleanness” denotes something impure such as dirt.

In Adam we are controlled by the FALL; in Christ we are to be controlled by the CALL.

Sexual sin sins go against God’s calling. God summons us to a new kind of life, a life set apart to Him. Every choice me make as a Christian should contribute to our becoming more and more like the Lord Jesus. This is the call of the believer.

God didn’t call us to be filthy; He called us to be holy.

In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives a little animal called the ermine [ur-min], known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.

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Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine.

The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life.

3. FREE FROM PROFANENESS (8)

“He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy

Spirit.”

Profaneness is irreverence, disrespect, or contempt for God. The person that rejects the call of holiness is showing irreverence or contempt for God’s purpose for their life.

At the moment of salvation, God gives His indwelling Holy Spirit to each believer. The indwelling Spirit inside of each believer is

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“holy.” To live a life of immorality is to show disrespect for the Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of the believer.

1. THE DEED OF OUR REBELLION

If we regard sexual sins as a minor matter, we minimize what God has said and done for us in His giving of the His Holy Spirit. It is simply rebellion against the call of God.

2. THE DEITY OF OUR REJECTION

Any believer who rejects the divine call to holiness and maintains that he can go on living in uncleanness rejects "not man, but God."

The practice of sexual sin violates the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It spurns the Lord’s will, disregards His purposes, defies His commands, and abuses His grace.

IMMORALITY violates God’s commands.

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IMMORALTY precipitates God’s chastisement.

IMMORALITY repudiates God’s call.

IMMORALITY desecrates God’s counselor.

Paul devoted a great deal of space to this theme of sexual purity because it was a critical problem in the church of his day; however, it is also a serious problem in the church today. Far too many people today consider the marriage vows no longer sacred. Yet God has said with utmost clarity that His will for us is to walk in holiness by abstaining from sexual immorality!

“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it

toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye

increase more and more”

Christianity should always be distinguished by purity and love.

There is very little harmony without love. The greater the love, the greater the harmony.

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II. HARMONIOUS LIVING (9, 10)

The greater the volume of love, the less the criticism of each other.

We are to “love one another.”

A little girl of three or four years old learned the Bible text, “Love one another.”

“What does ‘love one another mean?’” asked her next older sister.

“Why, I must love you, and you must love me; and I’m one, and you’re another,” was the answer. Who can improve on that exegesis?

A. THE CHARACTER OF LOVE EXPLAINED - “brotherly love”

Paul is talking about the way believers are to get along with each other in the church.

Since Christians belong to the same family and have the same Father, they should love one another. This is the explanation of love Paul is talking about.

1. BROTHERLY LOVE CONTROLS ITS THIRSTS

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Brotherly love does not envy. There is always someone who is a little better or who is potentially a little better than you are.

2. BROTHERLY LOVE CONTRIBUTES ITS TREASURE

“But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” - 1 John 3:17.

3. BROTHERLY LOVE CALMS THE TEMPER

Love guards against being irritated, upset, or angered by things said or done. Love is not touchy, resentful, and quick to take offence

4. BROTHERLY LOVE CLEANSES THE THINKING

Love keeps no accounts. Love does not keep a little black book. Love has no memory for injuries. Love credits people with the best possible motives.

Love puts the best construction on things. Love does not view with suspicion.

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When someone we love does something wrong, we are inclined to put the best face on it. “He didn’t understand what he was doing,” we explain,” or “She didn’t really mean what she said.” With a person we do not like, our reaction is the opposite: “That is typical of them,” or “What would you expect from someone like her?”

5 BROTHERLY LOVE COVERS TRANSGRESSIONS

Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”

Love bears; it does not bare. You can measure your love for a person by just how quick you are to cover their faults.

B. THE CROWD OF LOVE EXTENDED - “all the brethren”

God wants us to expand our love to a broad range of believers. God wants us to love all believers! How extensive is your love? He also wants us to expand the sphere of those we love.

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The extent of our love is to reach all the brethren, regardless of race, economic background, or education.

Most of us love some of the brothers, maybe even most of the brothers. But we are to love all of them! That’s a tough assignment.

We are to love all true believers everywhere all the time…..no qualifications and no reservations.

C. THE COMPOUNDING OF LOVE EXHORTED - “increase more and more”

We should never rest in our present attainments!

1If ever there was a time in the history of the church when God’s people need to increase and abound in love it is now.

There is no problem in the church in which love could not conquer.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

THE BADGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS NOT IN THE DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS TO WHICH WE SUBSCRIBE, NOT IN THE HYMNS AND MUSIC WE PREFER,

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NOT IN OUR ORDINANCES WE CHERISH, BUT IN OUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER AS CHRISTIANS.

“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands,

as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that

ye may have lack of nothing.”

In verses 11 and 12 there is a very practical admonition. Paul is a very practical man.

A. HE EXHORTS THEM TO NOT BE DOMINATED BY THE CARES OF THIS WORLD – “study to be quiet”

The word “study” that is used here means to be strongly ambitious about something…to apply one’s life to something. The Thessalonians were to make every effort to pursue a tranquil life.

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II. HONEST LIVING (11,12)

Christians should have settled souls, not noisy souls .Don’t get worked up over trivial things.

B. HE EXHORTS THEM TO NOT BE DEFICIENT IN THEIR WORK – “to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you”

Christians should mind their own business. A busybody mentality is not of Christ. Many people are much better at telling others how to run their business than at running their own. Someone has said, “It is a terrible thing for religious people to have nothing to do but be religious.”

For some it is easier to mind other people's business than our own. Some people are experts at raising their neighbor's children. Concentrate on your own life.  

“to work with your own hands, as we commanded you” - Work is a blessing, not a curse. The Christian ought never to be a parasite. Most of our life will be spent working to earn our bread. If we cannot be holy at our work, it is useless to attempt being holy elsewhere.

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C. HE EXHORTS THEM TO NOT BE DISHONRABLE AS A WITNESS “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.”

The conduct of life before non-Christians and Christians should be becoming to Christianity. The word "honestly" denotes becomingly, in a seemly manner.

1. TOWARD THOSE WITHOUT   - DON’T BE A HINDERANCE TO THE SINNER - DON’T BE A DISGRACE

Paul is talking about evangelism here.  The key to evangelism is not a strategy that unfolds in a pamphlet, or a tract, or an evangelistic technique.  The key to evangelism is the integrity of the lives of Christians who manifest to a troubled, agitated, messed-up world a behavior that is filled with love and peace and tranquility and diligence.

The platform of integrity makes our message believable.  An honest day's work is a good testimony to those without Christ. The only way to show that Christianity is the best of all

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faiths is to show that it produces the best of all men. When we Christians show that our faith makes us better workers, truer friends, better neighbors, kinder men and women, then we are really preaching.

Our lives are sermons that daily draw others to Jesus or push them away from him.

2. TOWARD THOSE WITHIN – DON’T BE A NUISANCE TO THE SAINTS – DON’T BE A DEADBEAT

     And then he adds this in verse 12,  "that ye may have lack of nothing.” Paul wants them to behave in such a way that we are an testimony to outsiders, and he wants them to behave in such a way that other believers are not always having to meet their need. 

There is a good kind of independence we should all strive for. It’s the kind that comes from paying your bills on time every time so that you don’t have to depend on others to pay it for you.

There is nothing wrong with accepting charity in the time of need. But to come to depend on it and to think it is owed you … that is a terrible sin.

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Conclusion

     Anticipation of the Lord's return, beloved, is no excuse for irresponsible living. 

If we are going to please God and not be ashamed at His coming, our walk must be characterized by

HOLY LIVNGHARMONIOUS LIVNG

HONEST LIVING

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