Growing in Faith: A Call to Spiritual Sanctification

Earlier in this letter, Paul commended the Thessalonian believers for their faith. Now, in this passage, he strongly urged them to not only continue to live in ways that please God as they were doing but to do so more and more.

Self-Reflection: We will never be perfect, and there will always be areas of our life that we need to work on, but in each area of our lives there is always room to grow in how we can live more and more for God. The goal is to have more of Him and less of us as we progressively walk with the Lord. These verses call all believers – then and now – to ongoing spiritual growth/sanctification.

As Paul gave these commands, he emphasized that these commands came from Jesus Himself (vs 2, 7). In verse 2 Paul writes “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.” In the brief time Paul was at Thessalonica, he didn’t just preach the core Gospel truths. He taught them how to live a God-pleasing life. Again, giving us a great example of discipling others. While he shared about Christ and brought people to know Jesus, he took the time to teach what it means to follow the Lord in their day to day.

Sanctification and Self Control

1 Thess 4: 3-5a “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God”

We are children of God, but Paul exhorts us to act like it, to make our behaviour consistent with what God says that we are. God wants us to set our lives in a certain way. Paul mentions that it is God’s will for us to control our own body. Just because we have desires does not mean that we have to fulfill each and every desire, for not all desires are good desires and would Honour God.

In this passage, Paul focused heavily on sexual purity. The believers in Thessalonica grew up in a culture saturated with sexual impurity. It was the norm. Paul’s commands for purity were truly counter-cultural. Bringing it back to our times, we see much the same in our culture today. God’s standards and moral design remain the same and we are to honour Him in all of our ways. Looking at what is normal in culture should not define our standard and neither should it be used to justify or excuse any behaviour. As Paul teaches to learn to control our own body sexually, we know that we cannot do it in our own strength, we have the help of the Spirit in this, who gives self-control (Gal 5:23).

Paul brings the discussion back to God’s will: “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” Paul concludes by reminding the readers that what he teaches is not just his personal opinion or preference, but it is what God’s will for us is: “Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”(v8)

Self-Reflection: The Thessalonian believers were surrounded by a hostile culture and faced persecution and in the midst of that they kept choosing God in their every day. And Paul urges them to do so more and more. When our circumstances or environment feel stifling, may we rely on God to give us the strength to choose Him every single day in how we respond, think and in what we say. And may we not miss out on ways God can grow us spiritually in such times. And like Paul, who had words of encouragement and teaching for them may we not only do so for one another but also have someone who would do the same for us.

What kind of Witnesses

Paul then moves to two other areas of life — love and work. Paul now addresses their role in the larger society around them: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.” He gives two reasons for this: “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

Our behaviour can either make the gospel more attractive to unbelievers or just affirms for the unbeliever that they are better off where they are. In Acts 1:8 we read, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”  It is not a question of whether we will be witnesses or not, the fact is that as Christians we WILL be witnesses for Christ, the matter remains as to what kind of witnesses we will be, and that is up to us. It is a choice and may we remain intentional with what we reflect to those around us. May we indeed honour God through all of our ways so that people around us can see a glimpse of what it is like to choose Christ. 

God Bless.