1 Thessalonians 4
Bro David Petersen
In Chapter 4, Paul encourages the church to lead a holy life in anticipation of the Lord's return.
Walking To Please God
4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
The word "furthermore" in verse 1 shows that chapter 4 is a continuation of the discussion at the end of chapter 3 where Paul discussed abounding in love and being holy and blameless at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the overall context of this chapter is how we ought to conduct ourselves given that the Lord will return.
When Christ returns all of his saints will receive glorified sinless bodies. We will be completely holy. But we don't have to wait for Christ to return to start living holy lives. We will never be perfectly holy until we receive those glorified bodies, but we can abound more and more in this life.
Abound: the verb form of abudant. To be abundantly furnished or to abound in a thing. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10. Jesus never called anyone to mediocrity.
4:2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
If you want to walk in a way that pleases the Lord you need to obey his commandments. This walk starts with salvation. Salvation comes by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Then the Lord commands us to follow him in baptism. Without obedience to those two commands all other attempts to please the Lord apart from them amount to arrogance.
Abstaining From Fornication
4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
Sanctification comes from the Greek word "hagiasmos" which literally means a separation or a setting apart. God's people are to be set apart for his purposes. The specific application here is with respect to fornication. Our bodies are not for the general use of the world. We are not to participate in the world's meat market.
4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
The term "vessel" refers to our bodies The word is used of the human body in 2 Cor 4.
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor 4:6-7).
4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence <passionate lust>, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
The term fornication comes from the Greek: “porneia”. We get our English word “pornography” from it. Literally, it means to sell oneself and is thus associated with prostitution. Male and female temple prostitution was instutionalized throughout the Hellenistic world. The term "fornication" refers primarily to this form of religious activity; man-made pagan religion that is. The term was also applied to incest and sexual contact between two unmarried persons.
I personally struggled trying to make the logical connection between sex outside of marraige and prostitution. I wondered how the idea of selling oneself can be applied when people have the kind of free, casual sex that is so common today. But then it hit me. In essence when unmarried persons have sex they are selling themselves very cheap; for the price of zero and are therefore committing fornication.
In Bible times men usually had to pay one way or another either by paying a dowry for a wife or by paying a prostitute. Women weren't selling themselves cheap so much like they are today.
4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness <hagiasmos, the same Gr word for sanctification>.
The technical difference between fornication and adultery is that adultery involves married persons while fornication involves those who are unmarried.
This is the second time that Paul has mentioned holiness since chapter 3. The Christian life is characterized by holiness. Holiness is under-rated in our society. Holiness needs a good PR campaign because I'm here to tell you that holiness is cool. No I'm not referring to an outward pompousness like the Pharisees had. I mean an inward purity characterized by the fruit of the spirit such as love, joy, peace, gentleness, etc and shines outwardly.
In 2 Kings 4:8-11, we see that a wealthy Shunamite woman recognized holiness in Elisha: " And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there." 2 Kings 4:8-11.
There was something about Elisha that made his holiness and his separation unto God apparent to all. He was different than the rest of the world.
4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Loving One Another
4:9 But as touching brotherly love <phileo> ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love <agape>one another.
Paul is highlighting a contrast in verse 9. The word "love" is used twice in the verse, but in each case it comes from a different Greek word. In the first instance, the word is "phileo" or brotherly love. In the second it is agape or godly love. He is making a play on words by saying "I don't need to tell you anything about brotherl love because you have already graduated beyond that to godly love taught to you by the Master Himself."
He said "ye need not that I write unto you", so he doesn't. He is simply commending them for it and then immediately moves on to agape love.
4:10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
The word "increase" in verse 10 is the same Greek word as "abound" in verse 1.
Notice in verse 10 that as always in the Bible, love is expressed through action, not feelings or emotion. It says "Ye do it", not "ye feel it".
Study To Be Quiet
4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
If there ever was a time where people need to "study to be quiet" this is it! Really this is referring to a quiet life. It is the opposite of riotous living characterized by debauchery, dissipation, wildness as Paul explains in Romans:
"Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom 13:13-14).
These lusts of the flesh are the desires of the sinful nature. Sometimes people will try to justify a wild lifestyle by saying that it's natual to do these things. Let's say that I have a dog and that I bring my dog over to your house. My dog walks into your living room and does his business right there in the middle of your living room carpet. You say "What is your dog doing?!!" And my response is "Why he's just doing what is natual to him."
Jesus characterized the prodigal son's lifestyle as riotous: " And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living" (Luke 15:13).
4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
When we work for a living and lack nothing, then we even have the ability to give.
In Acts chapter 20 when Paul addressed the elders from Ephesus for the last time, he said, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:33-35).
One of the reasons that it is more blessed to give than to receive is because you have to have something in the first place in order to be able to give. That is a much better condition than being in need and being a receiver.
The Return of Christ
4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
God's promises of hope are not based on some vague notions of how we get into eternity. There is a definite plan and this chapter spells out the specifics.
Sleep: A Christian Metaphor For Death
There is no such thing as "soul sleep". Saints who have gone to be with the Lord have a spiritual conciousness and are in the presence of the Lord
We know this primarily because of 2 different things that Paul wrote.
2 Cor 5:6-8
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
So leaving our bodies through death means that we go to be with the Lord. The Lord is in a concious state and we also will be so when we are with him awaiting our glorified bodies.
Phil 1:21-24
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you..
If "to die is gain" and "it is far better to be with Christ", then we conclude that there is no soul sleep and that departed Christians are with the Lord and are concious.
4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Michael ministers in the realm of spirituality whereas Gabriel is God's CIO (Information Minister).
Dan 12:1-3
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
1 Cor 15:51-52
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Christian hope is a wonderful thing that should give us great comfort. At the coming of Christ God will make good on his promise of ressurection. We will be reunited with our loved ones who died in Christ. In the meantime we should be walking to please God as we diligently watch for the Lord's return.
1 Thessalonians
Chapter 1 |
Chapter 2 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 5