Paul's Exhortation

Matt Wood

I Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

1 Thessalonians 4:1–2

Sanctification

Holiness

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Paul's exhortation the Thessalonians to maintain holy lives which would be pleasing to God

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Introduction

Paul has just reminded the believers’ that Christ will one day return and has communicated to them his desire that they would be found holy and unblameable before Him.

Now he moves into the realm of practical instruction, urging them to remember what they had been taught and that they would continue to implement it in their daily lives.

We can see in this passage:

The Authority of the Exhortation

Paul was not urging them to holy living because of the reflection it might have on his own ministry but he urged them under the authority of Jesus Christ.

- love me keep commandments

The understanding is that if Christ were present He would exhort the believers in Thessalonica in the same manner.

Paul was not instructing them and exhorting them based upon his own preferences or standards but according to the standards that he had received from the Lord Jesus.

He had given them commandments on the authority of the Lord Jesus and now he is encouraging them to uphold those commandments.

We must be careful that as we instruct and as we exhort we are not doing so in our own authority but on the basis of the authority of the Word of God. When leading others it is vital that we are able to separate our personal preferences from the requirements of the Word of God.

The Aspiration of the Exhortation

Paul exhorts the believers to implement his teaching so that they may live in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord.

- love me keep commandments

- pleasing God

The life that is pleasing to God is one that is fruitful in every good work and is ever increasing in the knowledge of God.

This also includes abstaining from those things that would cause us not to be fruitful in our service to the Lord.

Paul had given thorough practical instruction to the believers at Thessalonica, but his fear was that they would cease to apply the instruction.

- let them slip.

Just as Paul had instructed them to increase in love toward one another and toward all men now he is instructing them to do the same in their sanctification.

The danger is always that a believer comes to a point of believing that he/she has arrived and that there is no further need of sanctification.

Paul is reminding them that the process of their sanctification is never complete and that they must continue to make progress ever increasing in holiness.

As you mature in your faith you must continue to grow in your knowledge of the Word of God but you must also continue to grow in your practical application of the Word of God.

If you are to please God, you must continue to study His Word and continue to allow it to mold, shape, and instruct you as to how you daily live your life.

The key to pleasing God is not necessarily where you are today but continuing to make progress towards the ultimate goal of Christ-likeness.

The Assertion of the Exhortation

As he exhorts the believers in Thessalonica, Paul makes it clear that they know how they ought to walk in order to please God.

Any believer in Thessalonica that was not living a life pleasing to God could not use ignorance as an excuse.

Believers today are no different than they were in Paul’s day. For most believers the problem is not that they do no know how they ought to walk it is the decision to actually implement what they know.

You and I have greater access to the Word of God and to the teaching and preaching of the Word than most people in the world. We cannot use ignorance as an excuse.

Those who were not living in such a manner would have to willfully disregard Paul’s teaching among them.

If you and I are not living a life pleasing to God it is because we have willfully disregarded the teaching, preaching, and the study of the Word of God.

The majority of believers today know how they ought to live yet they choose to disregard the clear teachings of the Word of God for any number of reasons.

May God help us to always implement every principle, every standard, every responsibility that is revealed to us through the Spirit of God coupled with the Word of God.

Let us always maintain forward progress in our spiritual growth never halting and never sliding backward.