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#DailyDevotion Living A Life That Is Pleasing To God

#DailyDevotion Living A Life That Is Pleasing To God

1 Thess. 4 And now, my fellow Christians, this is what we ask and urge you to do in the Lord Jesus. 2You learned from us how you are to live and please God, and that is how you are living. But now do so more and more. 3You know what instructions we gave you by the Lord Jesus. God wants you to be holy and keep away from sexual sin. 4Every one of you should know how to get a wife in a holy and honorable way and 5not in the way of passionate lust like the people of the world who don’t know God. 6No one should wrong and cheat his fellow Christian in business, because the Lord avenges all these things, as we told you and warned you before. 7God didn’t call us to be unclean, but holy. 7Now, if anyone rejects this, he doesn’t reject a man but God, Who gives you His Holy Spirit.

Paul urges and asks the Thessalonians, in the LORD Jesus, to live and please God as they had learned from Paul and company. He doesn’t explain much here as to what that entailed. He does bring up to be holy and keep away from sexual sin. That in particular must have been a problem. It’s kind of like telling people don’t eat too much or watch what they eat. Sex like eating is part of life. It’s therefore harder to control ourselves in these matters and it seems easier to be carried away with it rather than other things. It was a problem in Paul’s day and things have not changed. Sexual immorality is a problem in our day. Some may say things are worse today. Well they are probably more explicit but I can tell you that many movies throughout the history of movies were considered racy for the time and too explicit. I can tell you plenty of people were having sex out of wedlock and having children out of wedlock. Many of them did get married before their children were born back in the day.

As children of God, as the temple of God, God wants us to use our bodies in holy, chaste, and sexually pure ways. Growing up people at least even thought of “do I love him or her” before having sex. Today, I find that less the case. Throughout time, people, men and women, often feel pressured to do things they really don’t want to do because they think it’s expected of them. If you are a Christian I have good news for you. Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit expect you to remain sexually pure. They expect you to wait for marriage before having sex. They also expect that you’ll be married to someone of the opposite sex. Your partner may pressure you to have sex with them if you really love them. Your Father in heaven says if you really love him and the person you are with, you will wait till you are married. We are not animals caught up in heat like cats and dogs. We can spend our time in prayer instead of acting out on our lust.

On top of that, the next biggest problem that is perceived, which certainly is true everywhere is wronging and cheating people in business, in particular fellow Christians. Remember Jesus’ command the night he was betrayed was for his disciples to be known for loving one another. The Lord, Paul warns, will avenge this sort of behavior. All of this to say God has called us out of an unclean and immoral life to be holy. Being holy starts coming to faith in Jesus and then has Christ live his life out in us. Jesus has claimed us as his own.

Paul, speaking by the Holy Spirit reminds them here as he did in chapter two, that his word is not his own but God’s. Rejection of his teaching is rejection of God himself.

Almighty God, you have called us out of darkness and the filth of this world to live holy and pure lives. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may live lives holy and pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

Comments (2)

  1. Blessings this Monday!

  2. Thanks and blessings this Morning Monday

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