1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 - Keeping Christ’s Commandments

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Plea for Purity

1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

A Brotherly and Orderly Life

9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

We are called to ever be increasing in pleasing God in Christ by keeping His commandments as we walk in willing obedience to all He spoke and demonstrated to us as He walked and talked among us (Matthew 1:23), just as God our Father did in the cool of the day in Eden’s Garden (Genesis 3:8).  We now have the second chance after falling from grace in the beginning to listen and heed God’s word to us after having been forgiven by sheer grace and offered the opportunity to start over as reborn (Galatians 2:20, 1 Peter 1:23) in this living hope of redemption and reconciliation in His Son!  We read these words to live by in all the scriptures, but especially in the New Testament which explains all of the Bible and its hidden mystery of Christ come to dwell within each of us (1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:26) as promised that we might be able to understand and follow the commandments written on our willing hearts and no longer externally on cold, hard stone.  What does God will for us to do then?  He wants us to be made ever more like Him, more holy, each passing day.  This goal is our sanctification, our being transformed more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) into holiness and in His righteousness in which we have been brought into to stand (Ephesians 6:13) in this grace.  This means we strive to put sin to death that drives us still (Romans 8:13) as we rely on His presence in us be able to do this by faith and by willing choices to put off sinful thoughts and actions and put on godly ones in their place.  We are called to stop living as the unregenerate who do not know God as we do in Christ, who live for sensual pleasures and bring others down into the more along with them as they pursue what is contrary to the design and will of God for us, such as marriage between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:24, Romans 1:24, 26-27) as the only such relationship acceptable to His design for our good and His glory as the mystery of the relationship of the church to Christ is reflected in (Ephesians 5:31-32).  If anyone refuses to accept this purity of holiness in body and soul, he is rejecting God and His Spirit who confirms these things to be true and essential as His children.  Keeping the commandments of Christ then means we listen to God teaching us from His word individually and corporately to show this true godly love to each other instead of seeking personal pleasure for ourselves at their expense.  We are called to ever increase in holiness and willingness in the direction of our life of sanctification as we aim to follow His word and live a quiet life that does not meddle in or gossip about the affairs of others as we bear our own load (Galatians 6:5) and live rightly before our fellow man in the sight of God who called us to Himself in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:20-22, 24).  Are we so striving to keep the commandments of Christ as He taught us?  The apostle was used here to urge the Thessalonians to do this and these words from God echo down the corridors of time to continue to reach our ears to urge us to do likewise.