1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
You’re God-Taught
4 1-3 One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.
4-5 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.
6-7 Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and hewill take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside.
In our passage today, the Apostle Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonica of their call as Christ’s followers to live in a way that pleases God; to live in a spirited dance to the guidelines for a pure life laid out by Christ. Grace was not given so God’s family could be covered while we live sinful like the world. Grace is for salvation from sin and the power to live on the outside the new life we have received on the inside.
Christians are those who are committed to live in Christ. We can all say we accept the work of Christ for salvation and eternal life, but that is only true when we actually follow Christ toward holiness with the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to “know” God. This is the definition of a Christian—we invite the Spirit to make us in Christ’s likeness by following his teachings.
This Sunday we begin our celebration of Christ’s first advent, but we also wait and watch with great hope for his second advent when he returns for his followers. Is our greatest hope for Christ to find us living each day in a spirited dance for his glory?
Prayer: Lord, when you come back for your spiritual family, may I be dancing with hope and living each day in your power and under your holy gaze. In your second coming, may you break through the eastern sky and see your reflection in your family…please Lord in me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.