Dive into 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 with Add Bible as we explore the Apostle Paul’s teachings on sanctification, brotherly love, and living a life pleasing to God. Discover how these ancient words hold powerful relevance for our modern lives through personal reflections from over 35 years of journaling. Get a deeper understanding of the call to purity and the encouragement to excel in your spiritual journey through the insights shared in this episode.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today brings us to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Listen to Faith Comes by Hearing’s reading of the 18 verses of this chapter.
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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. 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.
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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.
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Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
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Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
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In 1992, when I read 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I wrote concerning verses 1 and 10, excel still more. And then concerning verses 3 through 17, the will of God, sanctification, stay away from sexual immorality. And then concerning verse 11, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands. Then lastly, I wrote, we are going to be always with the Lord. One year later, in 1993, I wrote, Excel Still More. And I was referring to verse 1. And then referring to verse 3. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that is abstained from sexual immorality. And verse 7. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity. but in sanctification. And then I wrote concerning verse eight, consequently, he who rejects this, and that’s sanctification, is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. I continue to write, so God wants us sanctified. Part of that is sexual purity. Those who reject that notion are rejecting God. We have a lot of that going on today. Next, I wrote about verse 10. Excel still more. And I finished with verses 11 and 12. Lead a quiet life. Work. Behave properly. Don’t be in need. And one more year later, in 1994, I wrote about this chapter, Excel Still More. And I wrote, in what? And I made a list. Walk and please God. Sexual morality. Sanctification. Love one another. Lead a quiet life. Attend to your own business. So now let’s take a look at chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians. I find a little humor in the first phrase of verse 1. Finally then, brothers… That’s the beginning of chapter four. There’s all of chapter four and all of chapter five left. So it kind of reminds me of when I hear preachers say, in closing, and they go on and on. Now, some Christians ask, what is the will of God for my life? So here is an example of the will of God for your life. It’s in verse 3. 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 of 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. So there are several aspects of what the will of God is for our lives right here in these verses. Let’s go back over this list. Let’s start with sanctification. I looked in my ESV Study Bible for a definition of sanctification. I didn’t find one, so I asked Siri on my Apple smartphone. And here’s what she has to say. Sanctification means set apart or declare holy, consecrate, free from sin, purify. Not bad, Siri. So sanctification is the will of God for our lives. So is abstaining from sexual immorality. So is controlling our own body so that we don’t cave into the passions of lust. The will of God is also that we don’t wrong our brothers, our neighbors. And the will of God is holiness. Sometimes we might ask questions we don’t want the answers to. But those are some pretty tall orders of what the will of God is for our lives. Next, Paul covers brotherly love. And brotherly love is probably also part of the will of God for our lives. And he describes it by saying, do it more and more. And he lists how in verse 11. To aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. You might remember in our book introduction, part of the concerns the church had was that some people weren’t working. They were depending on wealthier Christians, and they weren’t making their own living. Paul addresses that right here. He makes it pretty clear, doesn’t he? Work with your hands. Depend on no one. And then he goes on to address one of their other concerns about those people who died. Did they miss the second coming? He answers their question very clearly in verses 13 and 14. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep. In other words, those who have died. That you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. He continues to answer that question, but he also answers the second question, and that is, what about those of us who are alive now? Have we missed the second coming? So let’s go on with verse 15, some of these famous verses in Scripture. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord. So it’s not Paul’s opinion, he’s heard this from the Lord, that we who are alive who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. That answers the questions of the Thessalonians. Nobody has missed the second coming. Nobody has missed the day of the Lord, dead or alive. The word rapture does not appear in scripture, but this is a passage most referred to when we talk about the rapture. It’s that time when the Lord himself will descend from heaven. We’ll hear the voice of an archangel. We’ll hear the sound of the trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise, and anybody who is still alive will be caught up with them in the air, forever to be with the Lord. Paul answers the questions of the Thessalonians. He answers our questions too, about how things will end here on earth. And he finishes the chapter with these words. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. I hope you are encouraged by what we’ve read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Whether we die or whether we’re here when the Lord comes back, either way, we’re going to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. That’s eternal life. Lord, we thank you for the day of the Lord. We thank you for the rapture. We thank you that you are the King of kings and Lord of lords. You said you would come back and you will. And we thank you that as you encourage the Thessalonians with these words, we also can be very encouraged with these words. So thank you for encouraging us as we spend time in your word. We give you the praise and the glory. You deserve it all. Amen.
