“1 Thessalonians 4”

Saturday, July 08, 2017

Verses 1-12 discuss living a life that pleases God. The apostle deals with three major areas:

• verses 1-8 – walking in holiness
• verses 9-10 – walking in brotherly love
• verses 11-12 – walking in honesty and integrity

Remember that they had previously had a problem with idolatry (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Immorality always follows idolatry, because, when God’s moral standards are no longer being followed, then anything goes. You can make up your own rules and decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong (and sometimes people decide that nothing at all is wrong).

Two important things that most distinguished first century Christians from their society was their moral purity and their love. So Paul addresses those subjects here.

He reminds them of the need for personal purity and holiness in the first eight verses of the chapter. He makes certain that they understand the immorality of fornication and adultery. Those are tragic sins against the Lord and will be devastating to His people, both personally and collectively.

Paul also wants to assure that they will continue to be loving toward one another. They were doing well in this area but he wanted them to “increase more and more.”

He also wants them to be people of honesty and integrity and to work hard so they can be a good example for the world and share with others.

As we come to verses 13-18, Paul addresses the subject of the Second Coming. Their main concern seemed to be for their deceased loved ones. Would they go to heaven? Or did they miss their chance since they had died before the Lord’s return?

Paul seeks to relieve their fears. His description of the second coming is at once exciting, terrifying and comforting. Perhaps the key question here is this, is the thought of the judgment day a comforting one for you?

--Roger Hillis

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