1 Thessalonians 4
1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us {instruction} as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.
When Paul was with the Thessalonians he instructed them how to walk with God. He taught them how to please God. He did not just tell them that they were going to heaven and that God loved them, but gave them meat.
And even though they obeyed them, he wasn’t satisfied – he wanted them to excel even more.
Paul put forth these exhortations as requests – it is an aspect of wisdom to not give a command when a request will achieve the same effect.
2 For you know what commandments we gave you by {the authority of} the Lord Jesus.
Now Paul didn’t make up the commands himself, but he received these from God.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; {that is,} that you abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 {and} that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is {the} avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned {you.}
7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
8 So, he who rejects {this} is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
The Thessalonians were weak in one really important area – they thought it was okay to sleep with a brother’s wife! So Paul tells them the implications of that.
This particular area is really important if you want God to use you to build His kingdom, and if we reject it then we are rejecting God, and He will no longer give us His Holy Spirit – and if you don’t have the help of the Holy Spirit then you cannot build the kingdom of God.
David sensed this, and that is why after he disobeyed God in this area he pleaded with God to not take away His Holy Spirit from him (Ps 51:11).
God avenges the defrauded brother, just as He avenged Uriah, and brought great calamity on David and his household because of what David did. Those who know God clearly understand this.
David did many wrong things, but this was the one that God didn’t forget even though He forgave (1 Kin 15:4-5).
1 Ki 15:4-5 4 But for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem; 5 because David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
God wants us to be sanctified (i.e. separated from sin). This is God’s will, and if we don’t try to follow His known why will He answer us when we ask Him for direction in other things?
In general, when you shed blood you cannot build the kingdom of God (1 Chron 22:8; 1 Chron 28;3). But if you defraud your brother in this area then you reject God and He doesn’t give you His Holy Spirit.
So we have to be careful.
9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for {anyone} to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,
12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
The Thessalonians were all about loving the brethren, but it seems like some were taking advantage of the goodness of the brethren and depending too much on them. Paul admonishes them to find work so that they don’t have to depend on anyone, and especially not on those who are unbelievers.
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Christians are the only ones who can hope for the life after death. And this hope is very useful to have because it can spur us and keep us motivated in times of trial and persecution.
When someone dies in the Lord we can rejoice instead of grieving because they will be with Jesus. We can have great comfort in knowing that they are no longer in pain and suffering, and that we will meet them again.
Notice that in verse 14 Paul says that "God will bring with Him" when referring to Jesus’ return (i.e. "the coming of our Lord" mentioned in verse 15). Clearly, Paul thought that Jesus was God. This is a good verse to remember when conversing with those who do not believe in the divinity of Jesus.
Notice also the importance of truly believing that Jesus died and rose again. Paul emphasizes this in 1 Cor 15 as well. In 1 Cor 15:51-53, here is what Paul says:
1 Cor 15:51-53 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
The archangel will sound the last trumpet, Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, and at time the believers who are dead will rise first in their glorified bodies, and those who are alive in Christ will also be changed in a flash into their glorified bodies, and join with them together in the clouds, and together we will meet the Lord in the air. After that, we will never depart from the Lord.
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