1 Thessalonians 4:1-5

4  Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. ² For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, ⁵ not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;^[1]

Our nation and world has become so accepting of almost any and every lifestyle. In one sense it is not surprising that the world so be so licentious, but this same mentality has successfully invaded the church. Paul urges his readers to live to please God, which is in fact what they were doing. But today rather than living to please God we tend to live to please ourselves. There does not seem to be the same level of passion for the gospel or for walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

According to Paul, God’s will is that we should be sanctified, meaning to be set apart for sacred usage or to be made pure and holy. It is interesting that Paul then ties such sanctification to the avoidance of sexual immorality and the control of our flesh. Such is the great issue of our time. Our discussions, even in the church, around sexuality focus on self-fulfillment when we should be concerned with what will please God. It is the heathen that live in passionate lust not the people of God. To teach in such a way today, however, is dangerous. Paul would be called hateful, insensitive and unloving. What has happened to us? We used to hear sermons in church with titles like: It’s Holiness or Hell! But now we have acquiesced to the standard of heathen society.

How can we live in such a way that will please God? Paul’s answer is simple, but not popular. Separate yourself, which is what it means to be holy. He says we “should learn to control [our] own [bodies] in a way that is holy and honorable.” We learn by study and practice, by example, by what we see and hear. We learn by receiving instruction and by being led and guided. In the process we will have some failure but we can get back up and back into the journey. There are many who are living their lives in such a fashion, but the days require that we live to please God more and more, and as we do so those watching us will see that there is a better way: the way of holiness.

Dear Father, we confess before you the desires of our hearts and minds that grieve rather than please You. We have allowed ourselves to be drawn away from holy living by following what we have seen and heard around us. The pleasures of sin draw us and we struggle to stand. Fill us today with a passionate desire to commune with You, to please You in every way. Take away the dissatisfaction with holy living and replace it with a greater love for You. Help us to make the hard decisions concerning what we need to cut out and off in our lives so as to be singularly focused on You. Enable us to listen to the leading of Your Spirit rather that of our flesh so that we might live today in a way that is holy and honorable. Amen.