Living Holy Lives

Exeter Temple Message notes

Sunday 18^th May 2014
Bible Reading:            1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
The Christians in Thessalonica were doing well. They had faith, love, endurance and hope. Nevertheless Paul was under no illusions that the Church was perfect. Their lives needed some renovation. Although God accepts us just as we are with all our mess and disorder, he doesn’t want us to stay that way.
In chapter 4:3 he says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”  The Message translation the verse says, “God wants you to live a pure life.” The CEV, God wants you to be holy.”
What does that mean?

1. Separation

When two people make their vows at a wedding, we say they enter into the “sanctity” of marriage, or holy matrimony.  We say this because we believe that because God ordained marriage and anything that has God’s stamp of approval upon sets it on a higher level than what mere mortals think is a good idea. 
When two people get married one of the things they promise to do is to “forsake all others” There is a separation from all other romantic relationships. In the same way, God calls us into a sanctified relationship with himself.  He calls upon us to forsake all other gods and to worship only him.  The other gods in our lives are not just traditional idols but anything to which we give love, above him.  This could be a person that we put on a pedestal, whose approval we seek.  It could be our career, material things, popularity or a host of other things.
God calls us into an exclusive relationship with God like that of marriage.
Many Christians only realise as they start to walk in their new relationship with God, how many idols there have been in their lives that they are attached to and which still compete with their devotion to him.
At the same time we know that a marriage is not much of a marriage if all the arrangement is that two people agree not to fall in love with anyone else.  Marriage is more than separating ourselves from other people. Marriage vows go on to state that each party will honour, love and commit to one another in sickness and health, till death us do part.
In the Bible sanctification has to do not with separation not just from idols but becoming attached to God. It is living to please, honour and serve him. Paul recognises that devotion in the believers at Thessalonica and urges them to live like that more and more. 
To onlookers dedication to God might look like sacrifice as in order to serve God, some other pursuits may need to be left behind. However for the Christian the desire to serve a God whom they love passionately makes it feel like a privilege.  And you know when we separate ourselves from worshipping anything other than God and devote our lives to God, God is pleased.  Paul says in v 3 “It is God’s will that you be sanctified.”  In other words that’s how he wants us to live.
Entire sanctification is a way of talking about a state of total devotion God. 
As much as we want, in our own strength to be totally separated from anything that displeases God and have our hearts completely filled with love for God we know that our humanity and our weakness makes this impossible. We find it very difficult to let go of our idols as they can have a grip on our lives.
The Salvation Army has always taught that a baptism with the Holy Spirit can cleanse the heart and fill it with the Holy Spirit who empowers the believer for a sanctified life. Just as we are powerless to save ourselves we are powerless to be as pure and devoted as we need to be.  The transformation of the heart is the work of the Spirit.  How do we obtain the power we need for this transformation.  The answer is that our purity is received in the same way as our pardon.  It is by grace, through faith.  We need to come to God and ask him to make all he wants us to be and trust him that he can do it.
2.  Standards
Living a pure life, a life devoted to God means that in our lifestyle will reflect standards of behaviour that God approves of.  
Paul has to be very direct with the Thessalonians they lived in a time and a place which knew nothing of the moral boundaries set out by God in his word.  
We are living in times, when equally many people are in the same position. Many create their own morality and it is pure chance as to whether that morality pleases God or not.
a) Sexual behaviour v 3
The Message translation says, “Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.”
Put very plainly this means that God’s will for Christians is that they have no sexual relationships outside of the bounds of marriage.
It has been said, "Hollywood would like to have us believe that the best sex is the passionate, animal-instinct-driven, spur-of-the-moment sex between strangers, co-workers, neighbours, classmates or friends. But study after study shows that the people in life who are most satisfied with their sex life are husbands and wives-married people."
b) Control of physical appetites v 4
The Message translation says, “Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it as is so common among those who know nothing of God.”
This applies to more than sexual behaviour and is about an attitude we have towards any of our natural appetites. It is to do with the way we respond to hunger, thirst, rest and danger.  We have a physical response to those things but we humans have a tendency not to just meet them but to indulge and abuse them.
c) Neighbours   v11
This verse is to do with how we live in society. Christians should surely be contributors to our neighbourhoods. Paul makes it clear we should so live that our “daily life may win respect of outsiders.” People ought to see us, in such a way that they can’t deny the Lord has been working in our lives. When they see a loving marriage, disciplined children, honesty in our business, a great attitude at work, a joyful spirit and kindness to others, they ought to say. “It’s true. Jesus Christ is alive in those people.”
3. Focus
The culture that the Thessalonians Christians were living in, was not a godly one. And Paul knew that if they didn’t keep moving, they would be influenced by the world’s value system
To live in this world, and not have its values affect us takes deliberate effort.
Far too often our minds are not focused on the things of God, but rather on the things of the world.  How many of us have a passion for trash in terms of the books & magazines we read, what we watch on TV, internet or at the cinema, what language we use and what jokes we tell.
We have to keep moving to overcome the world. We not only need to start well but finish well too.
We will of course only know what pleases God is we stay close to him and learn from him.  It was understandable that the lives of the Thessalonian Christians was a little chaotic at first, they had much to learn but through Paul and through their daily walk with God, they had opportunity to grow and God could use them to shine his goodness through.

God bless
Carol