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The Pilgrim's Progress - 1 Thessalonians 4:1 - 12

 Originally written, Wednesday, Sept 2 – with apologies for being a day late in posting:  It’s mid-week, and we continue our readings thru the New Testament with 1 Thessalonians 4:1 – 12.  Even though it’s a shorter reading, it is a thoughtful and practical life in Christ material, so read it carefully, and please come back to look at some more.


The life of a Christian is a “Pilgrim’s Progress” – a journey from beginning to end.  As an allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the greatest fictional novels, if not, by many’s estimations, the best fiction ever written.  "Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" ... it is ... the Bible in another shape." ~ C. H. Spurgeon.[1]  Bunyan wrote his novel while in Prison to give a vision for the difficulties of walking through this world as a Christian.  I am not an expert on Pilgrim’s Progress, but I have a deep affection for the story and the many biblical themes Bunyan explores.  One thing is clear, the story embraces the Apostle Paul’s many challenges to various churches in his letters, as in this one at the beginning of 1 Thessalonians 4 –
“Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.  For 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” (4:1-3). 

Paul begins this emphasis at the beginning of chapter 4 with the appeal to thoughtfully “walk” out life in Christ to “please God.”  I taught young adults, ages 18 – 25, for several years in a Discipleship Training School.  Later, the school morphed into a two year Christian College, of which I served as the initial Dean of the College.  I think the question young adults most asked me is, “How can I know God’s will for my life”?  It’s a good question with sincere motives, but one that has limited ways for me to help them discern.  What they usually wanted to know was things like: “who should I marry?”,  “when will I know the right person to marry?” “what kind of career should I pursue?” and even, “how do I know whether God is calling me into ministry?”.  They are all good questions, but I wouldn’t know the answer to any of them, apart from God directly speaking to me, and he never did.  But, what I did tell them is what Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification…” (4:3a).  The one thing I could be certain of was God’s will was their sanctification.  Of course, it begs the question, what is sanctification?

The word “Sanctification” comes from the Greek word – hagiasmos (hag ee äs moss) – which means “to Sanctify” or “to make holy.”  In the previous sentences, Paul had written – “may the Spirit of God establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (3:13).  The keyword to understand is the word “holiness.”  The word “holiness” is the base word for “sanctification.” The Bible talks about God, who is Holy, “sanctifying,” meaning He “sets things apart” for His unique purposes – he makes it “holy.”    If I can use a commonplace example, it would be my toothbrush.  My toothbrush is “sanctified” or “set apart” for one purpose and one purpose only.  Now, think about that.  What if this morning there was a note on the bathroom mirror, “I hope you don’t mind, but I used your toothbrush because I couldn’t find mine, and I also cleaned some things around the edge of the sink with it.”  That would then be “my old toothbrush”! 

Paul wants them to see that God’s will is their sanctification – they, as believers in Jesus Christ, have been “set apart” to ethically live different than the world around them –
“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 in 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.  Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (4:3-8). 
Probably nothing is starker in our own culture as the ethics of Jesus compared to the ethics of secular culture.  We live in a world of individualistic ethical relativism where the response of many is “that’s fine if it works for you, but that’s not for me.”  Yet, the clarity of Christian ethics is that they are biblically bound.  Paul speaks here of “pleasing God” first.  That requires a certain amount of thinking about God’s law and the various ways it might intersect with our lives.  For example, I think most Christians would agree that we don’t have to apply laws on the mixing of seeds, the laws concerning murder, stealing, lying are not out-dated – even non-believers agree with that. 

The call to self-discipline in behavior (4:3-8) is minimal for true sanctification.  The word for “sexual immorality” is the Greek word “porneia,” from which we get the word “pornography”.  It is frightening to discover Christians who do not understand how impure pornography is.  Paul saw a Roman world engulfed in “the passion of lust (of) the Gentiles” (4:5).  As a Christian, we value God’s gift of sex, and in marriage, sex was given in the creation to the man and woman for both procreation and enjoyment.  Yet sexual ethics, even in the church, is much more likely to mirror the secular values of the world.  We might not have total agreement on where the boundary lines exist, but a clear reading of Scripture does not let us ignore the issues of what is sexually pure, and what is not –
“God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.  Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (4:7-8). 
The issue is how do we then “control his (our) own body”? (4:4).  The fork in the road is fairly distinct – one way is the way of sexual relativism, i.e., “I’ll choose for myself what is right or wrong”!  The other road is biblically directed sexual purity, i.e., “I’ll choose to follow the way God describes love.”  

This is how Paul wraps this section up with the simplicity of choosing to love God, and love others, to work in a way that demonstrates to outsiders that our commitment is to serve God (4:9 – 12).  To live in “love” (4:9), and to live simply, taking care of your life in a responsible way (4:10-11), and to live biblically, knowing the difference between the ethics of Christ and the ethics of the world (4:12).   It’s a good reminder - people outside of the church are watching what we are saying and doing, so “walk the talk.”

Peace

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