The Call of Every Believer: "Live to Please God"
In Paul's letter to our Christian brothers and sisters in Thessalonica so many years ago, he made it clear that every single believer in Christ is to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Putting faith in Christ is like the first step in a million mile journey in life. A journey where God accompanies us, every step of the way. Salvation is not the end of a spiritual journey, it is the beginning.
Salvation does not bring us to a place where God is pleased with us as we are, it puts us in a place and equips us to get to the place where He is pleased with us. We immediately become His children at faith in Christ, but to live a life pleasing to our Heavenly Father we must learn His commands and through the yielding of our will to His and walking in the power of His indwelling Spirit, grow in holiness. To walk worthy of the God who called us, we must live lives "set apart" (which is what the theological word "sanctify" means) from the way the world thinks, acts, and communicates.
The Thessalonian believers were surrounded by sexual perversion in the Graeco-Roman world of their day. Sex outside of marriage was assumed, homo-sexuality was common, many of the mystery religions saw involvement with a priestess ("prostitute") as "worship." Paul wrote to these young yet maturing believers a clear command: "3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. ... 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you" (1 Thess. 4:3-4, 8)
We live in a day where in many ways our country has "caught up with" and in areas sometimes "surpassed" the depth of sexual immorality of the Graeco-Roman world. This is an area that we need to be clearly "set apart" from the rest of the world. The Christian sexual ethic is clearly superior to the fallen world. It produces healthier marriages, healthier homes, healthier children and would eliminate abortion. But for a Christian, the most important thing is that it is "the will of God." It is what is pleasing to God. Like most sin, the question is for a child of God, "Will I carry out my sinful will?" or "Will His will be done in my life?" And we need to remember, "...he who rejects this is not rejecting man but God who gives His Holy Spirit to us" (1 Thess. 4:8).
God living in us makes us able to live above the fallen culture if our will is yielded to His. "Lord, not my will but Yours be done!"
Salvation does not bring us to a place where God is pleased with us as we are, it puts us in a place and equips us to get to the place where He is pleased with us. We immediately become His children at faith in Christ, but to live a life pleasing to our Heavenly Father we must learn His commands and through the yielding of our will to His and walking in the power of His indwelling Spirit, grow in holiness. To walk worthy of the God who called us, we must live lives "set apart" (which is what the theological word "sanctify" means) from the way the world thinks, acts, and communicates.
The Thessalonian believers were surrounded by sexual perversion in the Graeco-Roman world of their day. Sex outside of marriage was assumed, homo-sexuality was common, many of the mystery religions saw involvement with a priestess ("prostitute") as "worship." Paul wrote to these young yet maturing believers a clear command: "3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. ... 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you" (1 Thess. 4:3-4, 8)
We live in a day where in many ways our country has "caught up with" and in areas sometimes "surpassed" the depth of sexual immorality of the Graeco-Roman world. This is an area that we need to be clearly "set apart" from the rest of the world. The Christian sexual ethic is clearly superior to the fallen world. It produces healthier marriages, healthier homes, healthier children and would eliminate abortion. But for a Christian, the most important thing is that it is "the will of God." It is what is pleasing to God. Like most sin, the question is for a child of God, "Will I carry out my sinful will?" or "Will His will be done in my life?" And we need to remember, "...he who rejects this is not rejecting man but God who gives His Holy Spirit to us" (1 Thess. 4:8).
God living in us makes us able to live above the fallen culture if our will is yielded to His. "Lord, not my will but Yours be done!"
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