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Resounding Faith | Instilling Devotion

October 20, 2024
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

¹Finally, 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. ²For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶that 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. ⁷For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. ⁸Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

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Purpose

To discover and experience Jesus Christ in our midst

To cultivate mutually encouraging relationships

To participate in God’s mission to the world 

Opening Prayer

Merciful Lord, grant to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Responsive Prayer — Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

That will I seek after:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life,

To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

And to inquire in his temple.

Summary and Connection

This study explores the topic of sanctification. Beginning with chapter 4, Paul changes tone from narrating his life and ministry (chapters 1-3) to exhorting the Thessalonians to live in a manner pleasing to God. Paul starts by teaching what ethical life looks like in light of the gospel, specifically with respect to sex, work, and death. In today’s passage, Paul explains sexual ethics through the lens of sanctification, which is God’s will toward the believers. Paul urges the believers to exercise self-control with their bodies, because they are called to be holy as they serve a holy God. Christian holiness isn’t avoidance or detachment from the physical, material world, but it is better viewed as a loving devotion to God. As such, sanctification affects and renews all parts of human life. We are in the midst of a sermon series called Resounding Faith, and we want to explore what it means to be “holy” and how we cultivate that holiness.

Discussion Questions

1. Looking at the Bible

Observation: Read the passage privately. What does the text say? What is the theme of this passage? Do you notice any keywords?

• According to verses 3 and 7, what is God’s will and call for us, respectively? What is significant about these statements?
• How does Paul describe sanctification and the call to holiness? How should — and shouldn’t — we understand the process of sanctification?

2. Looking at Jesus

At Central we believe that all of Scripture points to Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the theological center of the Bible. Every passage not only points to Jesus, but the grand narrative of the Bible also finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.

• How does Paul describe Christian living in verses 1-2? Compare with 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12. How does Christian living flow out of the gospel?
• We cannot manufacture holiness by our own efforts. How has Jesus made it possible for us to be holy? Compare with 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 18-20.

3. Looking at Our Hearts

• Paul says God’s will for us is sanctification (verse 3). How does this compare with your previous understanding of God’s will for us? 

4. Looking at Our World

• The understanding of marriage and sex is changing rapidly in today’s culture, and especially in New York City. How does Paul’s teaching on sex differ from the modern world’s interpretation of it?
• In what ways should we regard the biblical sexual ethic as positive and life-giving despite the critique that it is negative and life-denying? 

Sending

• View Study Guide Notes

  Question 1: Paul’s main call for the Thessalonian believers throughout this chapter is to live out the gospel — in the instruction of Jesus (verses 1-2). Paul writes that God’s will for the believers is sanctification (verse 3), and he calls them in holiness (verse 7). The underlying message is the call to holiness; the saints are to be holy in all aspects of life. The word “sanctification” in this passage comes from the Greek word hagiasmos, which has its root in the adjective hagios, which means “holy, sacred.” Sanctification literally means to make holy. To be “holy” has been explained as to be “set apart.” However, Sinclair Ferguson, in his book “Devoted to God” calls for a more personal, intimate definition. Ferguson derives our understanding of holiness from God’s holiness — from his own trinitarian being. The triune God has been holy for all time — even before there ever was anything from which to be “set apart.” For the Trinity to be holy means that each of the three persons has “absolute, permanent, exclusive, pure, irreversible, and fully expressed devotion” to the other two. God’s two main attributes, therefore — his holiness and love — are the same:

  In a sense “holiness” is a way of describing LOVE. To say that “God is love” and that “God is holy” ultimately is to point to the same reality. Holiness is the intensity of love that flows within the very being of God, among and between each of the three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

  Thus, Ferguson explains that our call to holiness means to have a “deeply personal, intense, loving devotion to God.” To be sanctified means to be devoted to God. Christ’s commandments then no longer become a duty but instead a delight out of loving devotion toward him.

  Understanding holiness as “set apart” can also imply a sense of aloofness or even asceticism. However, Paul is asking the readers to be sanctified in the areas of sex, work, and death — their daily life routines. Christian holiness is practiced within fellowship and community; it is not meant to be practiced on an island by oneself. David Powlison writes:

  To be sanctified is to have your faith simplified, clarified, and deepened … You see life, God, yourself, others more truly. And to grow as a saint is to grow in actually loving people … Becoming more holy does not mean that you become ethereal, ghostly, and detached from the storms of life. It means you are becoming a wiser human being. You are learning how to deal well with your money, your sexuality, your job … you are learning to pray honestly, bringing who God really is to the reality of human need.

  Paul is teaching ethics to the church in Thessalonica, which has become a rare practice in the contemporary evangelical church. Out of fear of legalism, the church seldom emphasizes gospel living and behavior. Although Christians are not saved through their observance of the Mosaic law, they are nonetheless required to keep God’s moral law out of gratitude for God’s grace and as a demonstration of their faith.

   

   

  Question 2: Paul reminds the Thessalonian believers of the instructions he gave them on how to live a life that is pleasing to God. For Paul, the gospel is not simply a belief but an ongoing, transformative power that should change every aspect of the believer’s life, inside and out. The gospel has an effect in the daily lives of the Thessalonians.

  Sanctification is an ongoing process for all Christians; no one has attained it, and we are to continue striving to please God “more and more” (verse 2). Jesus instructs us daily through prayer and his Word, and his Spirit exposes our sins so that we might live a life of daily repentance and faith. See Philippians 3:12-14 for reference:

  ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  Throughout the letter, Paul reminds his listeners of what he taught them during his time in Thessalonica (4:1, 2, 6, 11). Paul instructs them “in Jesus” (4:1) and “through Jesus” (4:2). He is preaching and teaching the gospel with divine authority, and the good news he proclaims is equivalent to the Word of God (2:13). As a follower of Jesus, Paul is obeying the Great Commission, making disciples and teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:20).

   

  Question 3: The first question of the Westminster Catechism is: “What is the chief and highest end of man?” to which the answer is: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.” Bestselling book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren summarizes our purpose as worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and missions. Despite varying explanations of God’s will for the saints, Paul explains here rather plainly that God desires our sanctification. We are called to cultivate holiness in our daily lives, not only by killing sin (e.g., avoiding sexual immorality) but also by devoting ourselves to Jesus and “gazing upon his beauty” (Psalms 27:4). If justification marks the beginning of the salvific process and glorification the end, sanctification can be described as the race in between. And that race is best run with our eyes fixed on Jesus. The author of Hebrews explains it well in 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

  Question 4: In “The Meaning of Marriage,” Tim Keller writes that cultural perspectives on sex throughout history have ranged from a natural appetite to a necessary evil to a form of self-expression (an individual’s fulfillment and self-realization). Keller explains that, “The Christian teaching is that sex is primarily a way to know God and build community, and, if you use it for those things rather than for your own personal satisfaction, it will lead to greater fulfillment than you can imagine.” The Bible teaches that sex is only used within marriage between a man and a woman. The media and the world have distorted sex from its original intended use, and now the biblical definition of sex seems archaic and even offensive.

  Paul requests that the Thessalonian believers control their bodies in holiness and honor. They know God is holy and that they have the Holy Spirit within them. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul uses the same argument to urge the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality. Read verses 18-20 for reference:

  ¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.