Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Turn to 1 Thessalonians now, chapter 4.
[00:00:13] We're going to read this in chunks when we get to it, but first I want to read a quote from a letter that C.S. lewis wrote.
[00:00:30] In this letter, he writes, how little they know of Christianity who think that the story ends with conversion.
[00:00:38] I want us to think about that. How little they know of Christianity who think that the story ends with conversion.
[00:00:46] See, the Christian life I hope we know doesn't end end with conversion. I think to some level we would probably all assent to this and say, yeah, I agree there's more to it than just my life before Christ and how I came to him and turned to him in faith. But I think functionally, the way we live, many of us act like this, like conversion was the end of the matter.
[00:01:14] How many of us have maybe shared a testimony before? And maybe you look back and you realize, oh, I spent 95, 99%, maybe 100% of the time talking about my life before Christ and how I came to Him. Not that those are irrelevant, but now that you are a believer in Christ, what is your life like now? What is the story of God's work in your life? Continuing to say, how is it unfolding?
[00:01:45] I understand if you're a new Christian, especially then there may not be that much to talk about yet. But many of us in the room have been Christians for many years. How much do we think when we think of our testimonies? Do we think of what has come since our conversion?
[00:02:01] When we tell others of the gospel in the Christian life, do we feel tempted to just get them to conversion and do whatever we need to say to persuade them to convert? And that's really all we have in mind.
[00:02:12] We don't want to just push people to conversion and dump them and leave them. We want people to know what they are doing and getting into. In fact, a pastor I respect, his name is Mark Deverer. He is known for responding to some new converts with this question, have you counted the cost?
[00:02:33] So a zealous young person comes to his office saying, I want to follow Jesus. And he says, have you counted the cost?
[00:02:39] I think this is a sobering and actually a really helpful question for people that want to come to Christ to consider, what is life like? Are you willing to count the cost? Because the Christian life is costly. Even though, to be clear, saving grace is free. We don't earn it or merit it, but the Christian life is costly. When you become a Christian, your whole life is now dedicated to walking with God and seeking to please Him. That's what it means to follow Jesus, to walk with and please God.
[00:03:16] And as we'll read in this passage, we'll see that his will for your life, for all of our lives, is sanctification. Now, we'll discuss what that means here in a little bit. But before I get too much into this, let's review. Let's remember what has happened, what occasioned this letter to the Thessalonian Church. So the authors, Paul, Silas and Timothy, are missionaries. They planted this church that they're writing to. They witnessed the conversion of many, the vast majority of them, maybe all of them, and they loved them deeply. Therefore, when they were chased out of town by an angry mob, they were deeply hurt.
[00:03:56] However, Timothy split off and went back to check on them. And he returned again saying, hey, they're good. They're keeping the faith. They're being persecuted severely, but they have kept the faith. They're faithful, they're steadfast. And so Paul writes this letter to rejoice and to tell them to continue to be faithful and do it more and more and more.
[00:04:16] And despite whatever lies might be told about these missionaries and about Paul in particular, these Christians in Thessalonica are following the Word and they're loving one another, and they're doing this with endurance.
[00:04:30] The church is deeply, deeply important to these missionaries. If you can't tell from the first three chapters.
[00:04:39] And in chapter four, Paul finally turns now to instruct them. There's been a lot of repeating what has gone on and his desire to see them, but now he is instructing them. So that's where we pick up in this chapter, I want to point out we actually have the theme verses, or what I've called the theme verses. Paul didn't put a special mark by them to tell them, tell us that it was the theme verse. But what I think really encapsulates both of these letters in the New American Standard Bible, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1, 10, read like this.
[00:05:14] Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more.
[00:05:30] For indeed you do practice love toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more. So the theme excel still more in faithfulness, for this is God's will.
[00:05:44] Excel still more. This is to do so more and more. You know what you have been taught, hopefully, and in this case, they are doing it. But continue to do it and do it more and more.
[00:05:58] Now, the main idea for this specific passage is God's will for the Christian is sanctification.
[00:06:07] God's will for the Christian is sanctification. If you can't spell it, it's elsewhere on the handout. Therefore we must walk with and please God. So God's will for the Christian is sanctification. Therefore we must walk with and please God. Let's read these first eight verses and then we'll stop and talk about them.
[00:06:28] Paul writes, finally. Then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. Just as you are doing that you do so more and more you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That you abstain from sexual immorality. That each one of you know how to control his own body and holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter. Because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
[00:07:16] Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
[00:07:27] So our first point which comes from this first section is excel in holiness.
[00:07:37] Excel in holiness.
[00:07:39] Now, if we go through this, we'll notice that right at the beginning, Paul begins this chapter with those words finally. Then finally. Except there are still two more chapters, so don't get too antsy yet. Doesn't mean he's almost finished. These two words really kind of just mean he's. It's a big turning point. This is marking a huge transition in the letter. He's turning from the beginning, which in this case is the bulk of the letter. And now he's turning to instructions how what he has said affects them. In other words, how to apply and live out what he's writing to them about what they have taught them in the past. So it's an application section. And he actually uses very strong language to show his earnestness by saying, we ask and urge. Ask and urge. Now, these are different words. They're very similar words. And the point is this double emphasis on the command to come.
[00:08:37] In other words, I think what Paul and the missionaries are doing are saying, listen up. This is really important.
[00:08:44] This is basically the main point. We are writing to you, so pay attention to this. We ask and urge you to do this.
[00:08:52] And he says in verse one, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing that, you do so more and more.
[00:09:03] So there are three parts to this exhortation, which an exhortation is just like an encouragement or a command, a pushing and urging to do something. So the first part of this is that the Thessalonians know how to walk and please God, right? We read there, as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. So they've received it, they know how to do it.
[00:09:29] So Paul and the missionaries are simply just reminding the Church what they should already know, what they've already witnessed in the lives of the missionaries, what they've heard from their teaching. And they also were teaching them how to live out this faith. So they teach them the fundamentals of the faith and they teach them how to live it out in the world, how they can be Christians in a pagan 1st century Thessalonica. They need help how to apply these truths to our specific context, much like we need help trying to apply the truths of Christianity to where we live.
[00:10:04] Thus, the Church was taught to walk and to please God.
[00:10:09] But let's unpack those. We want to make sure we understand this. To walk refers to their conduct.
[00:10:17] So this is just how they live their lives. Paul particularly loves to use this word to describe how Christians live. It is the word walk, but sometimes it is just translated live. In fact, I think this is why we use the phrase my Christian walk to talk about my Christian walk, how I have been a Christian. If you've ever heard that, I think this is where we get it. It's this idea that the Christian life is not just ending at conversion, but it's something ongoing. It's step by step by step. It is progressing and moving forward and not being stagnant and moving and stepping and stepping. It's just ongoing, day to day, how we live.
[00:10:59] So think about it day to day, how do you live?
[00:11:04] What does your walk look like? How would you characterize it? If I were to ask you personally describe your Christian walk, what would you say? Does your Christian faith come with you every step? Is it guiding your walk? Is the Lord setting your path and your steps? Or do you find yourself often leaving your faith behind as you walk, or just leaving it at church so you can pick it up again when you get here?
[00:11:33] This phrase is a reminder that we cannot do that. We can't compartmentalize faith. We can't have our faith here. And Another part of our life here. And we can't step into these different identities wherever we are and just have our faith and be secure. If we only have our faith for at least some of the week, at least one or two days a week.
[00:11:55] If you really do believe, then you need to obviously be a Christian each and every day. That's what it means to walk with God every day.
[00:12:08] I used to be one Austin at home, and I was different Austin on the basketball court and a different one at church and a different one with my close group of friends, students. You can't live like that. That was foolishness. We can't live like that and be faithful to the Lord. We can't do them both. We must choose whom we will serve, and we should serve the Lord and walk with him day by day.
[00:12:36] Now, to please the second half of this is probably a bit more natural for us to understand. We understand. Okay. To please God seems somewhat straightforward.
[00:12:47] I think one scholar named Leon Morris, who wrote in the 1950s, he put it well, he said the whole of the Christian life is God centered.
[00:12:57] The Christian does not walk with a view to obtaining the maximum amount of satisfaction for himself. So he's saying we don't walk the Christian walk. So we can be as happy and rich and wealthy and successful and whatever else as much as we possibly can, he says, but in order to please his Lord. That's why we walk to please the Lord. Continuing, he says, Paul does not specify any particular matter in which they should please God. He is concerned with the whole life.
[00:13:28] When a man is saved by the work of Christ for Him, it does not lie open before him as a matter for his completely free decision whether he will serve God or not.
[00:13:38] He has been bought with a price.
[00:13:41] He has become the slave of Christ.
[00:13:45] We if you're in Christ, you have been bought with a price.
[00:13:51] If you've placed your faith in him, you belong to Him. Each and every decision, therefore, should be for him, should take into account God's wisdom.
[00:14:02] But if we're honest, if we examine our lives, we probably can think of many decisions, many moments even, maybe large moments and large decisions where God is completely out of view and basically irrelevant.
[00:14:18] Functionally, many of you who claim that you're Christian when you do this, you're not living like Christians at all. And this should alarm us because Christians walk to please God.
[00:14:31] Christians love and seek to please God.
[00:14:35] And Paul and the missionaries are saying that the Thessalonian Church knows how to walk and to please God because they've been taught and it's been demonstrated to them. So they've received it. They know it. Likewise, many, if not all of you have been taught. Many, if not all of you have been coming to church your whole lives, or for most of it at least, you've been discipled by the church, maybe even by your parents.
[00:15:02] You've been taught to walk with God. So are you walking to please God?
[00:15:11] Is that reflected in your life?
[00:15:13] They received it. The second part of that phrase is that so the Thessalonians know how to walk and please God. Second, the Thessalonians are walking and pleasing God. Now, we won't get too much into this, because I think we know this, right? Paul's been pretty clear that they have kept the faith. They're still walking with God. They're pleasing God.
[00:15:34] Despite the persecution and difficulties on themselves and their families. They're doing it.
[00:15:39] But then this third part of the phrase, when he says that you do so more and more, this is where I've pulled the term excel. Still more, we see that the Thessalonians must continue to walk and to please God. Again, this is the theme. To continue to do so more and more, to keep going, to keep trying, to keep climbing, when you fail to repent and continue to walk with God, walking and pleasing God each and every day to the best that we can, with the power of the Spirit guiding us.
[00:16:14] But doesn't this feel like a heavy burden?
[00:16:17] Does it feel like a heavy burden to walk and please God each and every day? Yet we know we're filled with sin and we displease him and we step off the path, maybe every moment, maybe most moments, at least frequently, each and every day.
[00:16:36] But Paul knows that they can do it. They can, though they'll fail. They can get up, they can continue the walk. And as well, he knows that they have God on their side.
[00:16:48] Just a few verses earlier, Paul has prayed about this very thing. Look at the end of chapter three, verse 12, he says, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints, he is praying for them to do this very thing.
[00:17:22] And we see later, at the verse 8, which we read a little bit ago, God has given them his Holy Spirit so they can walk in holiness. They are not alone. It is not up to them to pick up their own feet and walk, though, yes, they must do that. And they are responsible to do it. But God is with them, empowering them, enabling them, showing them the way. And the same is true for you if you're in Christ.
[00:17:49] It is his will that they would be holy. We read in verse three, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. Now, sanctification, I want everyone to think about what that means. Try to have the definition in your head. You could write it down if that helps you.
[00:18:10] All right. We're thinking of what sanctification means. I've been in church a lot, heard this word before. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe that was me when I was in your seat. I've heard it, but I couldn't have told you what it meant. It means to make holy. Now, if you didn't know it or you got it wrong, write it down. To make holy. That's as short as I can say it. Shortest possible definition, I think, is to make holy.
[00:18:36] Now, this is what he wills for their life. He wants them to be made holy. Now, he may will other things in their lives, but this is of huge importance. God wills that you be holy just as he wished it and willed it. I mean, for them.
[00:18:56] And Christians, we believe, will be made holy one day when we're in the presence of God, we know this to be true.
[00:19:06] But in the meantime, before Christ returns to complete this work, we are being sanctified by means of a process.
[00:19:17] So you may have thought or heard say that sanctification is the process of being made like Christ or the process of being made holy. Indeed, in at least one sense, it refers to this process where each and every day we seek to walk and to please God to be made more and more into his image by one degree to the next.
[00:19:40] And this sanctification refers to holiness in general, just our whole lives. And so if we are going to dive into this, any sin that remains in your life. So if you think of a sin that you struggle with, whatever is popping into your head right now, we could talk about that. And you must be sanctified from even that and even sins that you don't yet know that God will later put on your heart and mind to overcome.
[00:20:03] He wants us to be made holy.
[00:20:06] But as we think of our own lives, we're not going to just think about all these individual sins. I want us to focus on what Paul and the missionaries decide to focus on. So as you think of your own lives, let's think of the example of sexual immorality.
[00:20:22] This seems to be what is on the forefront of his mind when he tells them to be holy.
[00:20:29] Now, hopefully, at least some of you remember that I preached over Proverbs 5 through 7. Probably don't remember very much about it, and that's okay. It might be worth to read Proverbs 5 through 7 again, maybe even to listen to the sermon again, as we dealt the entire time with this topic.
[00:20:48] And it's important because sexual purity has been, is, and will always be weighty, but important for us to discuss.
[00:20:59] Now, there's not solid evidence that these Thessalonian Christians were participating in the sexual immorality of the culture. But what we can know is that it was very normal in their context. So normal that possibly, at least for some of them, maybe if they were converted after Paul was kicked out, they might have been surprised to hear him say these things.
[00:21:22] I mean, they really thought it was normal. Basically, at this time in history, in this place at least, there was absolutely no expectation for men to only have sex with their wives. Just none at all. Absolutely none. Marriages were seen mostly as family arrangements. Typically, some men in their 20s maybe would be wed with a woman in her teenage years. Maybe they had never met, maybe they had, but it was just a family thing. And so it was normal and even expected that the man would lie. With prostitutes and slaves and others. Homosexuality was also an issue.
[00:21:58] And if we're honest, in some ways it's different. But this time period wasn't not all that different from our own.
[00:22:06] We see many of the same sins celebrated and flaunted and maybe even different ones, not all the same ones. It's kind of changed with time, but we see flagrant sexual immorality normal in our world.
[00:22:22] So though the Thessalonian Christians appear to be living faithfully, by all accounts that we can see, it was so normal and so common to the people around them that that the missionaries felt the need to continually stress sexual purity to warn them about it. Again, even if none of them are doing it, they find the need to warn them specifically about this sin.
[00:22:47] And we know this makes sense because this is the sort of sin that is like a trap ready to spring. It hides it self justifies. It loves to grow in the dark.
[00:23:01] And so obviously it was necessary for him to address this.
[00:23:06] You know, how often have you heard talks and sermons and been given books or watched videos or whatever it might be, telling you to be pure, to avoid sex outside of marriage, but yet, probably just realistically, the majority of the people around you at any given time, even now, are sexual sinners in Some way or another, to varying degrees.
[00:23:33] So many of us, maybe all can't say that we've abstained from sexual immorality in verse three, whether that's from pornography on our phones or in the books we read.
[00:23:47] Maybe this is because of physically things we've done with other people that we've been dating or known. It could be flirting the line with homosexuality, bisexuality, or any of the sort. So many, if not all of us, have not controlled our own body. In Holiness, verse four, which could mean physically sinning with another person or even just with yourself.
[00:24:11] Verse 5 says, abstain from the passion of lust.
[00:24:16] Probably all of us have failed in this area as well.
[00:24:20] The most. This might be the most common, as our minds are factories of fantasies and impure thoughts. This typically goes along with other sexual sins as well. The point is, it is prevalent, even if we don't want to acknowledge it and act like it's not there. It is prevalent all through the world, all around us. And so we need to be warned, and we need to look it dead in the face, even though it's uncomfortable. And we don't like to, because it's important.
[00:24:49] Just like the Thessalonians, you all know these things. It's been demonstrated, it's been taught.
[00:24:56] We are implored to do them often. We've been warned.
[00:25:01] But yet many of us are struggling.
[00:25:05] And I want to encourage you, in particular, the ones struggling, to stop hiding it and to bring it to the light.
[00:25:14] It is so true that sin, all sin, but this sort of sin in particular festers and grows and gets stronger in darkness, but it hates the light. It hates to be made known. It is overcomeable with people. So again, referencing last week, we need the church, and we need friends, Christian friends, and we need godly parents, if you have them, take advantage of all of these things and bring it to light. Because God has not called us for impurity. But In Holiness verse 7, the call of God here refers to God calling people to salvation. So he's talking to Christians. All the recipients of this letter had been called by God to live in holiness. Every single one. No one had an excuse or an exception. And if they were to live in an unholy manner, we see that they were disregarding God completely, just disregarding Him.
[00:26:13] Now, to be clear, when you sin sexually with someone else, you're not just disregarding God, though he says you're disregarding God. We should recognize that we are also disregarding someone else. And he says as much.
[00:26:28] He says that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter.
[00:26:33] And I think this is counterculture. So I want to think about this for a moment because our culture, and maybe this hasn't reached you, but if it hasn't, it will. Talks a lot about consent as the magic word that makes everything okay. If that's there, everything is justified. When I was in college, I think I heard eight to ten lectures on this topic for every organization I was a part of. Every semester, you had to have a new lecture on this topic, which basically just told you that as long as both parties or however many parties agree to do whatever it is, then it's okay, it's fine. Which of course is ridiculous. A pastor named Mark Howell put it well, in response to this sort of thinking, he says, when we commit sexual sin with another person, we cross a boundary that God never intended to be crossed. We are taking from someone something that does not belong to us.
[00:27:31] In essence, we're really saying to the other person, I do not care about you.
[00:27:35] Sexual sin is saying to God, I don't care if I sin against you, and I also don't care if I cause another person to sin against you.
[00:27:44] This is important for us again to think about and to recognize and be warned of, because sexual sin is damaging. It makes us filthy, not holy. And God requires holiness, right?
[00:27:59] That is true. But there's good news here.
[00:28:03] The Bible has great news for those of you who are sexual sinners. Jesus is holy.
[00:28:10] Was holy is. And he died for sinners, sexual sinners even. Just like you.
[00:28:17] He did.
[00:28:18] He isn't merely going to throw you aside because you are in the gutter, because you're not sexually pure enough for Him. No, instead he decided to bear the wrath of God on the cross for your sins.
[00:28:33] That's what he did in love.
[00:28:36] No matter how hard you try alone, you can never completely get away from these sins. But in Christ you can. You can be freed. The condemnation can be wiped away if you would only trust Him. Turn from your sin, bring it to light and trust in his work.
[00:28:55] And if you do, Christ will clothe you in his pure, white righteousness before the eyes of the Father. The righteousness he attained is credited to you.
[00:29:08] Paul isn't telling the Thessalonians all this because they need to get their act together if they ever want to please God. He's saying that because they've been saved by Jesus. He. He has given them His Holy Spirit, so they must live holy lives to reflect what has been done for them.
[00:29:29] And we know from context that they were walking with and pleasing God because they have the Spirit.
[00:29:37] This is how they could, and this is how you can excel still more in faithfulness and in holiness.
[00:29:46] Point number.
[00:29:48] Excel in brotherly love.
[00:29:55] Excel in brotherly love.
[00:29:58] And we'll see this as we read verses 9 through 12. Now.
[00:30:02] Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
[00:30:35] Now, in this second chunk about brotherly love, did you catch the similar formula that we saw in verses 1 through 8? This formula of the Thessalonians? Knowing or receiving, having been taught something, them doing something, and them needing to continue to do it. More and more he's reflecting. It's the same, the same exact structure. In this chapter above, they knew, were doing and had to continue to be holy. But here Paul's focus is more directly on how the members of his church relate to one another and relate to others in society, their neighbors.
[00:31:15] They know the importance of brotherly love. He says, you don't even need us to write to you about that.
[00:31:21] They are loving one another and they must continue to love one another and do so more and more.
[00:31:30] But don't miss something important, even though it's the same kind of structure as before.
[00:31:35] All throughout the letter, we heard the missionaries remind the Thessalonians of lessons that they had taught the labor that they had worked among the Thessalonians. They hoped it wouldn't be in vain, and they had received things from Paul, Silas and Timothy. But verse nine says something different, says, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
[00:31:59] If you are in Christ. What this means is that God teaches you.
[00:32:04] You have the Spirit to illuminate the Word, to help you to understand and to apply the Word to your heart when it's read or preached or when you study it. And this is a fulfillment of prophecy. John 6:45. Jesus says, it is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. This is quoting Isaiah 54:13, which says, all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.
[00:32:33] In these days where we can have peace with God through his Son, Jesus Christ, we are also being taught by God. And we are taught by God as we know Him. If you've come on Sunday mornings, you've maybe heard us talk about the definition of theology. And we talk about. Well, it's studying God to become more like Christ. Because to know God is to then gradually start to reflect his character more and more. If you truly are knowing him, you truly are being transformed into his image.
[00:33:10] And so it's the same idea. God Himself teaches us both by his character, by his word, by his works with the spirits.
[00:33:18] This is a fulfillment of prophecy. And so we have no excuse. We must be holy. We must also love one another, because God has taught us how, and he has taught us how through a variety of means and ways. He teaches us how to do this.
[00:33:37] I think most often through just the ordinary things we do in the church. Maybe you've heard a term called the ordinary means of grace. Just the ordinary things we do. Preaching, reading the Bible, praying, singing, baptism, taking the Supper of the Lord together, coming together as a church in the first place. All these things are means through which God is teaching you who he is and how to live in a way that honors Him.
[00:34:06] When we do these things faithfully, God is teaching us. We know who he is. We become more like Him.
[00:34:13] And one of the main ways he does this, or one of the main outcomes is that we ought to become more loving.
[00:34:20] First, John 4 says, God is love.
[00:34:24] So God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.
[00:34:31] And then later in the chapter, he says, we love because he first loved us.
[00:34:37] As we get to know God, one of the main things we learn to do is love him and love others. Because as you know him, you are taught by him. Just as the Thessalonians were taught by God to love one another and to love their neighbors. And we too, if we're loving God and loving others, we must do it more and more. I don't think anyone would fight with me or argue that you don't need to improve in brotherly love.
[00:35:06] We probably can all find ways that we can improve in loving brothers and sisters in the church, loving even our neighbors, both in our neighborhood or at school, whoever we are in proximity with.
[00:35:19] That doesn't sound very controversial. But then Paul urges them to do just a few more things. And we'll just briefly touch on these in verses 11 and 12. So in short, these are members, or he's referring to some members who are probably just causing chaos in their. From their passion for the Lord. They're very zealous Christians, and I think they're just wreaking havoc in their community.
[00:35:46] They're not being helpful. And the point is that being Christians doesn't just give us the license to, to stir up controversy, to make conflict, to offend people. Just because the Gospel does offend people, it doesn't just give us the license to be careless. Does that make sense? And that's kind of what he's saying by aspire to live quietly, mind your own affairs. He doesn't want just havoc and chaos and conflict for the sake of conflict if it's damaging and unhelpful. There is wisdom in how we persuade and try to contradict a sinful world.
[00:36:26] On top of that, it seems that some of the Thessalonians were so convinced that Jesus would be returning very soon, as we'll kind of see in the next section, that they have elected to not do any work. That's why he's telling them to work with your hands as we instructed you, so you can walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. They need to work. They're sitting around saying, Jesus is coming back, I don't need to work.
[00:36:52] That was really what they were doing. And Paul is saying, no, you work until the time comes.
[00:37:00] You can be ready, but you should still live your lives.
[00:37:04] So Paul's instructions correct these behaviors and we can learn from them too.
[00:37:10] We too should try to be good members of society insofar as we can, you know, be good neighbors, be active in community, be active even in public. Politics, I think, can be a good thing for us to do.
[00:37:26] In some countries, being a Christian publicly is a death sentence, but here it's not. And so we should take advantage of the gift of freedom we have.
[00:37:36] So engage in culture and politics, have jobs, work hard, be involved. These practical things aren't ways that we're meriting salvation. It's not the most common command or exhortation you'll hear preached, but it's important because to do these things, to be active in the world while being as peaceful as possible and as public as possible, when non believers see how you live, you glorify Christ. They see a clear picture of the Gospel and what it's done in your life. But if you're not working, if you're shut up in your house trying to find the signs of the times or whatever, if you are away from the world, they're not going to see your Christian walk. They're not going to be persuaded by that because they can't see you. So we should be involved for the purpose of the spread of the gospel. And that's what he's saying here. So think about how that would look in your life.
[00:38:33] With that, let's conclude God's will for the Christian is sanctification. Therefore, we must walk with and please God. Let's pray, Father. God, we praise you for the word and for your spirit that helps us to understand and teaches us, if we're in Christ, how to walk and to please you, how to excel in holiness and brotherly love. Lord, help us to see the areas of holiness or in love where we lack, where we could honor you more and honor our brothers and sisters more.
[00:39:10] God, we ask that you would reveal us those sins and point us in the way we ought to go. Help us to be good Christians publicly that people can see and witness. They can witness what the gospel does. Even while we proclaim with our words what the gospel is, is. Lord, give us boldness to do so. We pray this in all in Christ's name. Amen.
