1 Thessalonians 4: Stanly Community Church

Transcription

1 In a world that is fixated on sexuality, it is difficult for Christians to be pure in this area of their lives. However, a true believer knows that the God-given, human desire for sexual fulfillment must be subject to God s purpose for it. Learning to keep this desire within the will of God is necessary if a Christian is to mature spiritually and represent Christ faithfully. The Scripture repeatedly calls for sexual purity in the lives of those who have been redeemed. But this is not possible apart from God s working in and through the believer to control the desires of the flesh. By the power of the indwelling Spirit of God, one whose spirit is born again in the image and likeness of Christ has the desire for sexual purity (Gal. 5:16-26). This spiritual desire supersedes the instinctive, natural desires of the body for sexual fulfillment. But only as a Christian acts on this desire for purity by submitting to God s will are they be able to control their sexual desire. Our obedience to the Spirit of God enables us to sanctify our bodies so that we honor God. That is why, when writing to the Thessalonian believers about their spiritual maturity, Paul the apostle calls them to sanctification in regard to their sexuality. In 4:1-8 he points out that sexual purity is a mark of maturity and a staple of sanctification. 1

2 A Call to Sexual Purity (4:1-8) A Mark of Maturity (vv. 1-3a) Like any believer in any generation, the Thessalonians needed to be encouraged to mature. Without consistent admonition from God s Word, the Lord s people are vulnerable to the enticements of the world and the devil --to follow purely fleshly desires in any way imaginable. So, in order to do God s will, it must constantly be on our minds. That is why He commands that Scripture be taught in the Church and that Christians admonish one another with His truth (Rom. 15:14; Eph. 4:11-16). For this reason Paul says to his fellow believers in Thessalonica, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God (v. 1). This congregation of Christians was a good example of a faithful church (1:2-10), and they initially had faithful teachers in Paul, Silvanus and Timothy (2:1-16). But Paul knew that without ongoing instruction in God s will, they were vulnerable. His concern for their maturity is evident in that he sought to return and further build their faith (2:17-3:10). His heart s desire and prayer was that they live a life of spiritual maturity which is pleasing to the Lord (3:11-13). And maturity is what the apostle has in mind when he speaks of their need to abound more and more. This tells us that there is no satisfactory level of maturity for the Christian in this world. We do not reach a level of perfection, since we will not be perfect (i.e. completely like Christ in our love and devotion to God) until we are glorified in heaven. But we must strive for maturity. 2

3 Therefore, Paul s expectation was for maturity, and that was the goal of his ministry. He would urge and exhort Christians in the Lord Jesus. In other words, he would teach them with the authority Christ had given him to achieve this end. Paul s urging and exhortation was Christ s because the Lord Himself desires maturity in His disciples. Jesus does not just want us to be saved from sin s penalty; He wants us to be set apart from it in order to serve Him faithfully. For this very reason, the Thessalonians were asked to recall the commandments Paul and his fellow ministers had given them through the Lord Jesus (v. 2). Paul s teaching (which was shared by the other apostles and replicated in his fellow ministers and other faithful teachers of Scripture) was from Christ Himself. These believers understood that the doctrine of all the apostles was, in fact, the word of Christ to the Church (Acts 2:42). Everything Paul, Silvanus and Timothy had taught the Church, and all he was about to teach, was the will of God the Father and, therefore, the will of Christ (v. 3a). In particular, the apostle wanted to emphasize the great need for sexual purity as a mark of spiritual maturity. Because sexual desire is so very strong, it is an area of vulnerability which the enemy exploits. In fact, it is probably safe to say that a majority of temptation in the adult believer s life is of a sexual nature. Failures in this area are mostly in the thought life, but without the rebuke of Scripture this can quickly turn to actions that greatly dishonor the Lord and damage the believer s witness. 3

4 When Christians are sexually pure, they are definitely maturing in their faith. Therefore, they most certainly need to be instructed in the Lord s will regarding sexuality. And they need to view sexual purity as a staple a major component -- of the overall sanctification of the believer. For, if you are setting yourself apart to honor God in your sexuality, then you are likely controlling the flesh in every other area. A Staple of Sanctification (vv. 3b-8) Paul s entire statement in verse three reads: For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality. That is to say, God wants you as a Christian to be set apart ( sanctified ) for Him in the area of sexuality. As a Christian, you are to set aside sinful sexual practices -- to abstain from things that are outside of God s will and to fulfill your sexual desire in the way He intends. God wants us to be sanctified or set apart from sin to holiness. There is never a time when this is not His will for us. He wants us to be sanctified in every area of our lives. It is also His will that we be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), practice self-sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2), be filled with His Spirit (Eph. 5:18), be submissive (1 Pet. 2:13-15), suffer for His sake (1 Pet. 3:17), be satisfied with God s provision (1 Thess. 5:18), and be settled in our faith in Christ (Heb. 10:36). But all these are linked to sanctification. 4

5 To be sanctified sexually, we must know what not to do in this area; we need to understand what God means by sexual immorality. For human sexuality to be immoral means that it is expressed in a way that is contrary to God s will. In other words, it is sexually wrong because it is not done as God intended. So, sexual immorality is any deviation from God s intention for sex. God expressly reveals in Scripture that any sexual fulfillment is intended to be only between one man and one woman inside the boundary of the marriage covenant for their life together in this world (e.g. Gen. 2:18-25; 1 Cor. 7). God gave mankind sexual desire to both endear the husband and wife to one another as well as to ensure procreation. It is an intimate, passionate expression of their love which, as God allows, may result in a child (the one flesh of Gen. 2:24). Sexual desire is strong much like hunger and thirst, and in a perfect world it is a great blessing when satisfied. The ideal for sexuality, however, has been greatly perverted by the selfishness and lack of self-control that sin produces. In the sinner s mind, even good things are perverted; normal desires easily become addictions as we seek to find emotional fulfillment outside the context of knowing God (Eccl. 2). We become trained to seek pleasure in experiences -- memories and emotions of these experiences lingering even in the mind of the person whose spirit has been born again in Christ. That does not make sexual desire inherently sinful just as hunger and thirst are not inherently sinful. It simply means that, in order to avoid sin, we must control fleshly desires at the thought level in the power of the Spirit. 5

6 Sexual immorality takes many forms with varying degrees of perversion such as: lust (i.e. sexually impure thoughts toward someone not your spouse; e.g. looking at pornography - Matt. 5:27-28; 15:19; Jas. 1:14-15; cf. 2 Sam. 11:2-5; Prov. 6:25), sexual deprivation (i.e. denying sex to your spouse - 1 Cor. 7:1-7), adultery (i.e. sex with someone other than your spouse Ex. 20:14; Lev. 20:10; Matt. 5:28, 32; 19:9; Gal. 5:19; 1 Cor. 6:9), fornication (i.e. specifically sex between men and women who are not married - Ex. 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19), rape (i.e. forced sexual activity - Deut. 22:25-29), incest (i.e. sex with close family members - Lev. 18:6-18; Deut. 22:30), homosexuality (i.e. sex with those of the same gender Gen. 19; Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11), bestiality (i.e. sexual activity between humans and animals - Ex. 22:19; Lev. 20:15). All these are deviations from God s design for sexuality (Note: The term, sexual immorality, is sometimes translated as fornication in this verse which, in that case, refers to sexually immoral acts in general [e.g. Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor. 6:18]. But specifically, as noted above, it refers to any sex outside of marriage). All sexual immorality is sin against God, but some forms bring more severe condemnation and judgment from Him because their deviation from His intention for human sexuality is much greater (cf. Gen. 19:1-29; Rom. 1:18-32). 6

7 Verses four through eight simply contain Paul s instruction on how to keep oneself from sexual immorality. He says in verses four and five that sexual purity is that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God. The word, vessel (Gr. skeuos) is used in 1 Peter 3:7 in reference to a man s wife. However, it merely describes her body as being physically weaker than her husbands who is tasked with protecting her and providing stability in their family. Paul obviously uses the term here, as it often is in Scripture, to speak of the human body (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:21-22). Since being married is no guarantee of being sexually pure -- and talking only about men needing the wife to be pure would ignore a woman s need for purity -- it is best to see that Paul is talking about controlling ( possess ) our bodies. We are to do this by an act of the will as we choose to bring our physical desires under control and submission to the Holy Spirit. This is setting our body apart from sin ( sanctification ) not letting it be used for sinful purposes which is to honor the Lord. We learn to do this as we expose ourselves to God s Word. When we do, we know what He expects of us and can make the choices that please Him. The rest of the world (referred to as the Gentiles [i.e. the people of the nations] in verse five), which does not know God but rebels against His will, has no true desire or power to do this. The ungodly live their lives in passion of lust, which is to say that they live to satisfy their fleshly desires without any godly will to restrain them. 7

8 Circumstances, laws and fear of embarrassment prevent many sinful desires from being carried out, but they at the very least indulge them in their thoughts. They may claim wisdom, feign humility and religious zeal, and even deny themselves certain things, but they have no ability to truly sanctify their body which has the brain as its center of operation (Col. 2:20-23). If the Christian sanctifies his or her mind and body, then they will not take advantage of and defraud [their] brother in this matter of sexual immorality. Paul is talking about all the bad consequences which result from sexual sins. The sexually immoral person not only sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18), but he damages relationships both now and in the future (just think of all the emotional baggage carried into marriages by those who were previously sexually immoral). If you learn to control your sexual desire and only allow it to be fulfilled in the way God intends, then you are not hurting anyone. But if you do not, know that the Lord is the avenger of those who are wronged by these sins. Ultimately, He judges the sexually immoral person (Col. 3:4-7; Heb. 13:4). Paul forewarned and testified to the Thessalonians regarding God s judgment of this immorality. The Lord will judge believers in this matter, but He also forgives them (1 Cor. 5:1-13). Like all believers, they had been forgiven of their sins and were assured of the Lord s forgiveness should they stumble in sin again (1 Jn. 1:9), but to practice sin is indicative of a lack of true faith in Christ. If you can sin and live with it, then you do not belong to the Lord (Rom. 8:9). 8

9 The true believer may sin, but they experience guilt because their true desire is to do God s will. As Paul says in verses seven and eight: For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. In other words, the true Christian is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit who gives us the desire and strength to sanctify ourselves sexually (Phil. 2:12-13). If you are a Christian, then you should want to be pure in every area of your life. If you do not care about it, then you are not a Christian. Your sexuality is obviously an area of great importance to God. To submit your sexual desire to God s will is a definite sign of spiritual maturity and an essential part of your sanctification as a believer. Do you recognize how significant sexual purity is to serving God? Are you indifferent to God s plan for sexuality, or do you take it seriously? Is your true desire for sexual purity, and are you relying on the Holy Spirit to help you obey His will. What are you doing to ensure that you are pure in this area of your life (1 Cor. 6:18; 2 Tim. 2:22)? 9