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Sheri and I don’t watch a lot of TV but we do like to watch some of the cooking shows on TV. There is one show I have seen from time to time where the chef always talks about taking his food up a notch. This is his way of saying that he wants to make every meal a little better than the last by adding deeper flavors and so on, taking it up a notch. I think most of us have a similar view when it comes to things we love to do. If there is a hobby we have or a profession we are in, we are always looking for ways to improve in it, going to the next level of knowledge or skill, taking it up a notch.
It is the same when it comes to our relationship with God. We should always be striving for ways to take it up a notch, ways to improve our love and knowledge of the Lord, our holiness and what He has and wants for us. Kind of like climbing a ladder, the higher we get the better the view. The higher we get on the ladder of maturity in Christ, the better view we have of who God is and all He has for us. These last 2 chapters of 1 Thessalonians Paul moves to teach these new believers some of the things they are lacking in order to take it up a notch in their relationship with God. These are some of the practical discipleship teachings every believer should learn. In this 1st section he focuses on some of the deeper truths of proper holy Christian living.
Vs 1-2 He begins with the word finally not because he is finishing his letter but has now gotten to the meat he desires to teach them. Paul knew from Timothy that these new believers had responded positively to his earlier teaching on living lives to please God. But now it is time to take it up a notch. These folks had proved their love for the Lord was genuine by the way they conducted themselves to live to please God above all others, even in the midst of suffering and persecution. List of rules and regulations to be part of Gun Club. There are those today who believe that when we come to faith in Christ that there is a list of rules and regulations that we have to adhere to or else. Mess up and you get punished or kicked out.
But this is not at all what it means to come into relationship with Christ and receive forgiveness of sin in our lives. Our conduct as believers is to be based upon our love for God and His touch and forgiveness to us in that love, even proving it by killing His own Son so we might have forgiveness and restoration of relationship with Him. It is out of our love for Him that we desire to obey His commands because we do not want to hurt or offend those we love. John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. If we love someone it will be our desire to please them, to make them happy. Paul was not asking these believers to do anything different from what they were already doing but to take it up a notch; that is to do so more and more. He urges them in the Lord Jesus to do so. It is by the authority of Christ that he can instruct them to take it up a notch. Jesus had given Paul this authority and He has given it to us as well. Matt. 28:18-20 If any believer truly loves the Lord they will have a desire to take their love up a notch in their walk with Him, living to please God.
Vs 3-4 Part of living as a believer is being holy, set apart from the world for the Lord, this includes our sanctification, the dedicating of one self to and to be loyal to God above all others. It is God’s will that we be holy for Him. This means that we are always pressing on toward the next level of our relationship with Him. Phil. 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. This is part of the conforming process into the image of Christ in Rom. 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. This all depends on how we respond to our daily experiences, to the Word of God and to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
One of the ways we can take our holiness up a notch is the way we deal with sexual temptation and sexual immorality. The scriptures make it clear that we need to stay away from sexual immorality. It should be avoided and abstained from at all costs. We can do this by self control and through self discipline. But this can only happen when we allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our hearts and not the old sin nature.
Every Christian is commanded to abstain from every act of sexual immorality that lies out side of the will of God for us. This means we are to stay away from premarital sex, homosexuality, extra-marital sex and any other perversion of God’s design for mankind. Gen. 2:24–25 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. The word Paul uses here for sexual immorality is a broad Greek term, porneias; it is the root of this word we get our word pornography from. It is a term that includes all sexual sin. Think about the time the Thessalonian believers lived in, sex was loosely practiced, much like today. They had friends with benefits in the sense that they could go to one of their pagan temples and have sex with the prostitutes there and it was considered an act of worship to their gods.
But to the Christian the will of God is clear; holiness and sexual immorality can not be practiced together. Unlike the food regulations of the Jews, this can not be appealed to as a freedom we have in Christ. 1 Cor. 6:12-20
Every believer needs to take their self control up a notch in this area of life. Believers must never be the victim of circumstances of their fleshly passions. Teens in a heated situation, making out. Every sexual desire can be controlled by the believer through God’s power by the Holy Spirit in us. Gal. 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. This means when we are tempted to commit sexual sin we need to choose a way out that is holy and honorable to God. 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Everyone else is doing it! Vs 5 God has called us to be separate from the way the world lives. Worldly people have no self control or self discipline because they belong to and are controlled by the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Eph. 2 We are to be holy because we know what God has done for us in Christ and His love for us in that. We understand that we were once bound over to eternal damnation but God in Christ made a way for us to be saved. We have turned from death to life in Jesus, a new way, God’s way. We are now no longer to live the old way but the new way in Christ, according to God’s will for us. Knowing God is basic to living a holy life.
Vs 6 Would you want to deliberately hurt someone? Paul has made it clear in these verses that believers must live pure and holy lives. Doing so will help us grow in our love and understanding of who God is and what He has for us. 2 Pet. 1:3-9 Paul points out for us in verse 6 the consequences for the other person involved in our immoral acts. He uses the word brother loosely meaning another person. The other person is the victim of wrong sexual activity. Sexual immorality wrongs the other person in the forbidden act which God condemns. Adultery for example. When we willingly participate in immoral sexual acts we are calling judgment down upon ourselves from God. Heb. 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Those who will not take no for an answer, by word or action, are fanning the flames of judgment to come upon themselves. Bill Clinton and his no sex statement. Sexual immorality, whatever kind, is sin and God will punish it. Paul even takes away the loop holes by saying all such sins will be punished. If we fear the wrath of God we need to abstain from all such sins because we know God condemns them. Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Vs 7 When God called us to Himself; He called us to be holy, separate from the ways of the world. We are now to live for Him, to please Him. God will give us all we need to live the holy life He called us to, if we allow Him to be head over us. He is willing to work in us because He will receive all the glory for it in our lives. Jesus came to take what was unclean and impure so to clean us up and make us useful for His kingdom purposes. Col. 1:21-23
Vs 8 Understand this, what is being taught is not man made rules but God given direction for holy living. If you don’t like what is said then take it up with Him. When God calls us into relationship with Him He calls us to be holy, set apart for Him. But, He does not ask us to be something we cannot be. He gives us all we need to be what He calls us to be. He gives us the Holy Spirit, His love and power poured out into our lives so we can live holy lives for Him, being all He desires us to be. The Holy Spirit helps us to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh so to live a holy life. Rom. 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, So, let’s take it up a notch and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us making us holy and useful for the Lord, abstaining from all sexual immorality. Benediction: 2 Pet. 1:10-11
