Day 61, 1 Thessalonians 4 
Two decades after
Jesus commissioned His disciples to make disciples, teaching them to obey all
that He commanded, Paul was not developing "Pauline theology" that
could be scrutinized in seminaries. Rather, he was making disciples, teaching
them to obey all of Jesus' commandments. During his few weeks in Thessalonica,
Paul instructed the believers how "to walk and please God," teaching
them "commandments...by the authority of the Lord Jesus" (4:1-2).
Those words are nothing less than a reference to Jesus' Great Commission, which
the Head of the Church has never rescinded. As Paul wrote, the will of God
is our sanctification,
that is, our ever-increasing holiness. To be sanctified means to be set apart
for holy use. It is for that reason that God gives His children the Holy Spirit (4:8).
In today's reading,
Paul first turns his attention to one area of holiness that was apparently
needful for the Gentile Thessalonians, namely, sexual purity. Focusing on the
sin of adultery, he specifically addresses men, warning that God is the avenger
against one who "defrauds his brother in the matter" (4:6). The
adulterer steals what belongs to another. Take note that Paul was teaching the
commandments of Christ, who, as you know, warned that adultery, either in flesh
or mind, is a damning sin (see Matt. 5:27-30).
Technically, the man
who commits fornication (having a sexual relationship as an unmarried person),
is also potentially "defrauding his brother in the matter" by virtue
that he is having sex with someone else's future wife. God wants His people to
be sexually pure in every regard, and Paul warns in his letters that
immoral people will not inherit God's kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21;
Eph. 5:5).
Next, Paul turns his
attention to "love of the brethren," something that God Himself
teaches all true believers by the indwelling Spirit (4:9), but not something
that happens without their cooperation (4:10). That love is expressed, of
course, by meeting pressing needs, but it is also expressed by working hard so
as not to burden others with our pressing needs (4:11-12)! This was apparently
something that was also needful for Paul to say to the Thessalonians, as we'll
read in his second letter to them, "If anyone will not work, neither let
him eat" (2 Thes. 3:10). Generous Christians should be careful not to
foster laziness.
Apparently, since
Paul's departure from Thessalonica, some believers had died, and the surviving
Christians, many of whom were previously ignorant pagans, were grieving without
hope. Paul explains basic Christian doctrine regarding life after death and the
return of Jesus. Those who have died in Christ are better spoken of as
having "fallen asleep" (4:13-14) because their physical bodies will
awaken at the return of Jesus, being resurrected then.
This does not mean,
however, that those who have died in Christ are in a state of unconsciousness
or suspended animation. Their spirits are very much alive and with Christ. In
fact, when He returns, they will return with Him (4:14). At that same time,
their bodies will be resurrected from the earth and will rise to "the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (4:17). Their resurrected bodies will
then be rejoined with their spirits.
Those who are alive
when Jesus returns will rise to meet Him in the clouds, and they will also
receive new, imperishable bodies. Paul obviously believed that he, as well as
the Thessalonians, could be alive for that event. He would later write to the
Corinthians:
We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will
be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must
put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor.
15:51-53).
As Christians, we
naturally grieve when a brother or sister in Christ dies. But we don't grieve
for them; we grieve for ourselves. Moreover, we don't grieve as the world does,
that is, without hope. Rather, we know that our absence from those who have
fallen asleep in Christ is only temporary (4:18). Comforting truths
indeed!
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