1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

My brother, sister and I were dressed up in our Sunday best. Mother was taking us somewhere important and she had cleaned us up and got us ready for the trip. While she was taking care of some last-minute details, we made mud pies. My sister is older than I, so it must’ve been her fault. One thing is clear, it was not my mother’s; she had washed us up and made us clean, but we chose to go play in the mud.

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified. I know that is true, Paul wrote it and I have read it. Sanctification is the work that God does in response to our consecration. We give ourselves fully to him and he washes us whiter than snow. However, we will not stay that way if we choose to play in the mud.

The Thessalonian believers were most tempted to play in the filth of sexual immorality. Jews consider Gentiles pagans because of their many immoral sexual practices. We sometimes make the mistake of believing people who are sexually immoral by God’s standards have no morals. That is not really true; almost everyone has a moral standard that they will not cross. Some are just so far down the road from God’s line in the sand that it is hard to see them. Paul talked about living a holy, and honorable life. He mentions the word honorable because many Greeks believed it was honorable to have sexual relationships as long as the female involved was of a lower social status. Some Greeks believed anything was honorable as long as it was consensual.

God calls a sanctified person to live a holy life. Paul preached that all sexual relationships outside of a marriage covenant was immoral. This was not Paul’s definition, it was God’s. Paul taught that rejecting God’s instructions was the same as rejecting God. My mother punished us for getting muddy. The Lord will also punish us for getting filthy.