Introduction. Read 1Thes4v1to12

Introduction.

Paul gives some sound practical advice to the Thessalonians in this passage and it remains as relevant today as when it was first given. Paul is anxious that the fledgling church lives to please God. Christians need to remember that they have not been saved entirely for their own sake. It is all too easy these days to fall into that trap. We have been saved for our own benefit and to bring glory to God.

We can consider Paul's advice under four headings:

(1) There is always room for improvement. See v1and2.

Paul had already given instructions to the Thessalonians on how to live in order to please God based, no doubt, on the teaching of Jesus. We can surmise that these were to be: humble, kind, helpful, generous, faithful, united, honest, thankful and prayerful. The Thessalonians were putting Paul's instructions into practice but there remained room for improvement. There was no reason for complacency. Complacency is the enemy of progress.

Complacency can affect performance on a variety of levels. I used to manage an under 14s boys football team at Debenham High School. Some of the youngsters also played for boys teams in a local league. A few of them had been praised over much and had an inflated sense of their own ability. They were complacent about how good they were - all budding Ipswich Town stars!! My football team never took advice, didn't improve and lost game after game. At the other end of the spectrum are the members of the England Cricket Team who went to New Zealand with every expectation of winning the series. They, too, were complacent and had too high an opinion of themselves. England never won a match!

As Christians we can always improve:

(a) Our consistency. Very few of us maintain a consistently high standard of prayer or a high level of giving.

(b) Our range of virtues. It is not a bad idea to check through the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Gal5v22. I can claim a measure of peace, kindness and faithfulness but I am certainly lacking gentleness and self-control. We all have weak spots we need to work on because that is what Satan will target.

(c) Our intensity. In Romans16 Paul commends several of the women at Rome for their hard work. There is no doubt at all that some Christians could work a lot harder for their churches. It is always a danger sign when we start to think about easing up! My dear mother had a favourite expression, "I've done my whack!" When we find ourselves thinking that - beware!

(2) Avoid sexual immorality. v3to8.

The Christians at Thessalonica were called to be different from the pagans. This was a time of great sexual permissiveness. Prostitution was rampant, mistresses commonplace, casual sex the norm and divorce tragically easy.

Paul tells the Thessalonians: Each should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable. This is not very helpful. How does a person control rampant sexual desire? An alternative interpretation from the Greek could read: Each should be able to possess his own wife in a way that is holy and honourable. Maybe Paul is saying each should be able to enjoy his own wife in a way that is holy and honourable.

Actually it doesn't matter what the precise translation is because the only way most strongly sexed persons can control their sexual desire in a legitimate way is through marriage. Paul is entirely realistic about this in 1Cor7v8and9. See exposition on 1Cor7v1to16.

The only way to satisfy hunger is to have regular meals. It is sinful to be a glutton and over eat but it is also very debilitating to be permanently hungry and to think obsessively about food. People who are starving fantasise about a plate of fried potatoes.

Sexual desire is, like hunger, a powerful drive. I think it is almost impossible for someone with a powerful sexual drive to remain celibate and without sin. The difference between hunger and sexual desire is that there is a way readily at hand to satisfy the latter. I think it is likely that all those happily married pastors who condemn pornography might well succumb to it themselves if they remained single year after year after year.

I believe that Paul is being entirely realistic in telling the Thessalonians - and everyone else - to control their sexual desire in a holy and honourable way within marriage. They should not be party to passionate, unrestrained and irresponsible lust. My interpretation explains what Paul meant by: No one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. It is totally wrong for a Christian to have casaul sex with another Christian's wife or daughter. It is also wrong to covet another Christian's wife or husband and try and entice him or her away from their partner.

Paul reinforces this sound teaching in 3 ways:

(a) He asserts that sexual permissiveness is not part of God's purpose for us. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. The church suffers when Christians start sleeping with other men's wives, divorce becomes commonplace and young Christians live together before marriage. Behaviour of this sort destroys trust, respect and unity.

The fact is that behaviour of this sort was very rare in the Grace Baptist Churches I am familiar with until recently - and even now it is not common. Men have been content to have sex with their wives and wives content to have sex with their husbands. It is perfectly possible to live this way. A very unwholesome trend about which I read in the April 2013 edition of Evangelicals Now is for young Christians NOT to marry! I can speak from bitter experience: this will cause these Christians to fall into temptation.

(b) He warns his readers that church members who ignore his teaching on this matter are not so much rejecting the rules of the church or the authority of its leaders as rebelling against God, himself. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. v8.

There were usually a few boys and girls in the schools in which I taught who rebelled against the authority of their teachers. The worst offenders were those who had contempt for everything the school stood for. Christians should be particularly careful not to show contempt for God by ignoring the teaching of Scripture and the Holy Spirit who makes its meaning plain.

(c) He issues a severe warning: The Lord will punish men for all such sins. v6.

Evil consequences attend sexual immorality. It led, for example, to King David losing the respect of his family and with it his moral authority. He didn't act when Amnon raped his half sister Tamar and as a consequence Absalom, her full brother, murdered Amnon. These incidents probably led to Absalom's rebellion against David.

We all know of pastors who leave their wives for other women. A pastor who acts in this way loses his reputation and his opportunities to teach and preach. He may also lose the good will of his children.

I knew of a young man. He was a good influence on his wife. She, her sister and her mother were all persuaded to attend the local Methodist church. The young man fell in love with someone else, committed adultery and got divorced to marry again. Neither he, nor his former wife and her family, attend church any longer. None of the young man's five children were brought up to know and love Jesus. There was a heavy, heavy price to pay for his infidelity.

(2) Cultivate brotherly love. See v9and10.

Paul writes: Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. v9.

I find this call to brotherly love quite surprising. Paul is not telling the Thessalonians to have agape or Christian love for one another. Agape is the love Paul describes so powerfully in 1Cor13. Brotherly love or affection is the sort of love that brothers and sisters of the same family have for one another. It is the love I have for my 3 brothers.

It might be as well to list some of the characteristics of this love:

• Warmth of feeling. It is a tactile love expressed in hugs and kisses.

• Frankness and easiness. There is no deception in this love. There is no side to it. We expect family members to take us as we are.

• A common bond - a unity born of having the same parents.

• Pleasure in one another's company. I am always pleased to be with my brothers. I like to talk to them. I would never ignore them.

• Provision of a certain amount of practical support and helpfulness. This will not be as great as parents provide for their children or children for their parents but it should be evident.

Paul makes the following points about brotherly love:

(a) It is something we know we should have. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

The clear teaching of the New Testament is that Christians are all members of the same family. We belong to God's family. We are children of God. So ALL our fellow Christians qualify as our brothers and sisters. We cannot pick and choose any more than we can pick and choose who is in our natural family. Consequently if we are by God's choice members of his family we should love one another as brothers and sisters.

(b) We do love one another to a surprising extent. Paul recognised this was true of the Thessalonians: You do love all the brothers through Macedonia.

If I go down the list I made above I reckon I do love my church family. I certainly spend a lot more time with them than I do my natural brothers. On my 70th birthday my three brothers took me out for a meal. I reckon it was the first time we had been together on our own since we were boys over 50 years ago.

(c) There is always scope to love more. We urge you brothers to do so more and more. There are certain things we must beware of:

• A variable warmth of feeling. We are apt to love some more than others. It is not easy to love a bore, for example. Albert was a bore and his fellow Christians were apt to avoid him! Sometimes we need to be bored for Christ's sake. We can always stop a bore and say, "Come on - now, ask me something about myself!"

• Secretiveness. When a church member is absent from the Sunday meetings it IS everyone else's business. The person concerned SHOULD warn the church leader that he is going to be absent and why.

• Casting doubts upon a person's membership of God's family. This is not a judgment we are called upon to make. I am afraid some Christians are very quick to conclude, "She's not a proper Christian."

• Attending church irregularly and missing services and events we could be at. If we love the brethren we will want to spend plenty of time with them - not the bare minimum.

• Being selective about whom we help, visit or offer hospitality. Some Christians are a pleasure to help - they are so appreciative and grateful. Others are difficult to help. They may be too proud to accept it or, at the other extreme, take it for granted. Old Jack thought he was a much better man than my fellow elder, Edward. He would sometimes belittle Edward. But, when he got into a muddle - and he got into several - the man he sent for was Edward. Over and over again Edward saw Jack right - AND NEVER A WORD OF THANKS.

(4) A holy ambition. See v11and12.

Paul describes four things we should aim at:

(a) A quiet life - at home, at work and in the church. We should avoid beating the drum, drawing attention to ourselves and boasting about our accomplishments.

There was a huge difference between Paul and the false, 'super-apostles' that disrupted the church at Corinth. The latter had letters of recommendation that they read out to the church. They publicised their qualifications, their accomplishments and their talents. The "super-apostles" descended upon the Corinthians in a blaze of publicity and proceeded to lead them astray.

Some Christians use their problems to draw attention to themselves. My brother Paul, a Grace Baptist pastor, had folk like this in his congregation. They kept bringing the same old problems to him taking up valuable time that could have been better spent visiting the old and sick.

(b) Minding our own business. When I was a good deal younger and a very keen and competitive cricketer I used occasionally to stick my oar in. If, in my position as wicket keeper, I thought our laid-back captain Dean was letting things slide I might comment: "For goodness sake, Dean, get a grip. It's about time you changed the bowling." Dean's response was predictable and unvarying: "You concentrate on your wicket keeping JR and leave the captaincy to me." As I got older this was a policy I came to adopt.

There are Christians who cause a great deal of trouble because they are always poking their nose into other people's business and meddling in things they don't really understand. Recently I set about making sure that all the tombstones in our graveyard were secure. Two or three people told me that I didn't know what I was doing and should get professional help. I could easily have taken the huff and told the critics to get on with it! However, I did know what I was doing and completed the task satisfactorily.

(c) Doing something useful. Paul told the Thessalonians to work with their hands - to take up a trade.

Our chapel, car park and graveyard provide many practical jobs for Christians to do: cleaning, decorating, washing up, all sorts of small DIY jobs, sweeping up leaves, cleaning gutters, cutting grass, clipping hedges and yew trees and so on. We are only a small fellowship but somehow these jobs get done. I am afraid there are some Christians who would never deign to undertake any of these tasks - they are not spiritual enough!

(d) Work hard for as well and long as we can. We should be the sort of people who pay our way, maintain our independence and earn the respect of non-Christians. Whatever job we are in we should do it to the highest possible standard. Christians should aim to be valued and respected members of society. No follower of Jesus should be an idle scrounger. No believer's work should be skimped, second-rate or bodged.

Many years ago I had a colleague who taught Religious Education. She made much of her role as deaconess in the Church of England. Her lessons were badly prepared, her pupil's books seldom marked and her reports invariably late. She was a poor witness.

Paul is in no doubt that good work pleases God. No Christian should short-change others through sheer idleness. It is a disgrace.