1 Thessalonians 4 – 5
Verses 4:3 & 4 are important in living a life God has set for us:
3 Now this is God’s will for you: set yourselves apart and live holy lives; avoid polluting yourselves with sexual defilement. 4 Learn how to take charge over your own body, maintaining purity and honor.
Two of the biggest weaknesses in man are their sex drive and desire for wealth. For the majority, sex tends to be a driving factor, especially as we develop into men. The drive to reproduce is natural and the fact that it’s pleasurable only compounds the problem. Paul specifically tackles this desire with the men of Thessalonica.
Greed will block God and following His ways and can control your attention; sex overpowers the will to remain pure. Follow me here, ignoring God is one thing money does, but you get into sexual sins and that drive will lead down a path of destruction. Sex destroys our relationships on earth since it becomes more about using people than helping them. Sure in extreme cases greed does this but the majority of people remain ethical, just not connected.
With sex, one loses their connection with God because they override the voice telling them what is moral. In addition it violates God’s plan and laws. “Sexual defilement” is not avoiding sex, but rather what is considered loose living. I know more people whose marriages have crumbled, whose bodies now have incurable diseases and often are driven to suicide that I care to. I pray that every man thinks before getting sucked into sexual immorality including porn. All this will lead to problems in the future if not addresses leaving you with a hollow life. God is not making rules to ruin our lives but rather to make the “full” and fun.
Verses 5:14 – 21 are important for living a whole life:
14 Brothers and sisters, we strongly advise you to scold the rebels who devote their lives to wreaking havoc, to encourage the downcast, to help the sick and weak, and to be patient with all of them. 15 Make sure no one returns evil for evil, but always pursue what is good as it affects one another in the church but also all people. 16 Celebrate always, 17 pray constantly, and 18 give thanks to God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. (This is God’s will for all of you in Jesus the Anointed.) 19 Don’t suppress the Spirit. 20 Don’t downplay prophecies. 21 Take a close look at everything, test it, then cling to what is good. 22 Put away every form of evil.
This is so full of truth it is mind blowing. Help those in need! Protect and uplift your community! Celebrate! Pray! Keep away from evil! And in this all make sure you test everything to ensure it is true to God’s word. Don’t just take the word of the preacher, but rather understand fully what he is saying by diving into the Bible!