1 Thessalonians 4:11
Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others. This is an incredible passage. It reminds me to stay humble. Why do we want to live with and have so much? We need to live peaceful and simple lives. This is hard because I like to have things...and awards...and recognition...but as I learned today during prayer and as God has been speaking to me recently...I need to make sure that my motives are right and that I'm doing everything for his glory and honor...not mine. I love how it says that its good to work and living a simple life is a great testimony to non-Christians...I need to dwell on that one a little more, because I need to understand what that looks like.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter is really straight forward. We, who are in Christ, are not to continue to live as we formerly did, in impurity, but we are to live lives consumed with the pursuit of holiness. As it is written in 1 Peter 1: "Be holy, because I am holy." Christ has made us holy in God's sight, however, we are still undergoing the process of Sanctification (Being made holy). This process will only be completed on the last day.
Let us seek to live lives set apart from the world and wholly focused on God, for this is what holiness is.
[7] For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
ReplyDelete(1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 ESV)
SOOOO Often do I seek the approval of others rather than God. "Father continue to tranform my heart to seek your approval and do everything for you, not for man. I want to be a servant of Christ and His call on my life to make disciples. I want to see you, so purify my heart that I might find my deepest pleasure fullfilled."
verse 9:
ReplyDelete"Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other."
I wondered before in my life why I find it hard to love my brother. One of the token excuses has been that I do not know how to, but this verse claims the opposite. This verse says that God has already taught us how to love our brother. What that means is that it is my own selfish desire and laziness that keep me from loving my brother. Lord reveal to me the areas in my life where I am being lazy and selfish and help me to change.
4 "that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable"
ReplyDeletePaul previously talked about how our bodies are temples of God. So basically this is an extent of what he was saying. A temple is used to glorify and honor. So if our bodies are temples of God then we should honor our bodies in a way that brings glory and praise to our Lord. It is important to remember that we are just vessels to carry out God's will. Without Him, we would not be able to do any of the things in life we work to achieve, so why disrespect God by disrespecting our bodies? What we should do is treat our bodies as magnificent creations of God and bring glory to His name.
3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body* and live in holiness and honor— 5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.
ReplyDeleteIn confession this is a passage that just screams at me. For at times in my life even within the last few months the devil has tempted me and I have failed. This passage gives me a rock to stand on when faced with trials of the devil. When they attach because they will attack I can run to this passage and know that I am a child of God not a pagan. That I worship the Holy Lord and not the figure of his creation.
All is Great in Yahweh
9 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, 10 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,
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome verse that can be taken literally and applied in our lives in to many ways. He is calling us to love people, our brothers, which are people that it should be the easiest to love. We have been talking alot about love recently and it is another example of how God calls us to love like he does.
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of hits home with me right now. These verses are a huge comfort during times of sickness. Rejoice in the fact that we have a God who sent Jesus to die and rise again so that we can rise with him.
7-8 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
ReplyDelete--
These verses talk about sin and trespasses against God committed by not living our lives in a holy manner. By giving into temptation we sin and we reject God, whom without we cannot neither receive the Holy Spirit nor his grace for the forgiveness of the very sins that pushed us away from him.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, HCSB)
ReplyDeleteThough this is only one of many descriptions in the Bible of the day of the Lord's coming, it completely amazes me. The sheer joy and wonder it evokes in me makes it easier to accept death. As if it could not get any better, it ends with the most encouraging and astounding statement Paul could make.
14 "For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. "
ReplyDeleteI think this verse is really, really cool. Not only does it provide us with our hope for redemption and eternal life, but it does so by totally avoiding the word "death". Sure, using "sleep" instead of death might be a euphemism, but think about this: the difference between sleep and death is that in death there is no return, no waking up, yet in sleep, there is always the promise of wakefulness, regardless of whether the dream you dream is a nightmare or a good one.
-DA
1 Thessalonians 4:16
ReplyDeleteFor the Lord himself with descend from the heavens,... and the dead in Christ will rise first.
___
The idea that the we will rise from the dead is frequently far from my mind. The truth stands that even after we die, we will not lose our bodies but rather will be resurrected in them. This makes any short term concerns silly. We should not be worried about missing out on anything, except the opportunity to spread God's word.
Owen
7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible is explicit that God calls us to live pure, Christ-like lives; however, we still choose to knowingly sin on a daily basis. When we do this, it is somewhat of a slap in the face to God, who is living within us through the Holy Spirit. Despite our imperfections, however, God still chooses to show grace and mercy daily by loving us and forgiving us.