A Life Pleasing to God is a life that glorifies God.
I Thessalonians 4:1-12
Introduction
A Life Pleasing to God is a life that glorifies God.
I Thessalonians 4:1-12
When you trusted Christ as your saviour, there is a worthy life to live for the Lord. We are encouraged to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
Many have a wrong idea about pleasing God, and God has always rebuked such people for their faulty idea about pleasing him.
1Thessalonians 2:15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
What is the picture of this life?
Who is required to live this life?
What are the blessings of living this life?
And many more questions to be asked
1Thessalonians 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
What makes a Life pleasing to God?
First and foremost, a life of faith pleases the Lord more than anything else, and the Bible says it is impossible to please the Lord without faith.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews gives us men and women who pleased God by living out their faith publicly, not just secretly.
But in these verses, we still find some interesting truths about life pleasing to God being explained again to these believers in Christ.
1. Keep His Commandments
verse 2
Keeping the commandments of the Lord is well pleasing to the Lord. There are so many commandments that we have in this word of God that is given to us as for our benefit.
1Corinthians 9:21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
2. Commit to Chastity
In this verse, we come to understand that the will of God is for believers to live a sanctified life and that we should abstain from fornication.
verse 3-4
Acts 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
And then verse 4 made a profound explanation of verse 3, and this will give believers an understanding of how our lives should be lived.
1Co 6:18-20 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
The Believer’s vessel is a priced vessel.
The Believer’s vessel is a purchased vessel
The Believer’s vessel is a possessed vessel
Here is another great explanation of this point in 2 Timothy
2Timothy 2:20-21 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
verse 5
Not in the lust of concupiscence, it means a desire for sexual intimacy, and not in the marriage, but outside of marriage. It could be those that are married, and those that are not married.
3. Frawn at Cheating Others
Monetarily, Bodily.
verse 6
In the context of this passage, he talks about the body. Do not defraud others. It is well explained in other verses. And one of the frightening things about defrauding others is that God is the avenger of those that are involved in it. He carries out justice on those that are defrauding others.
Pro 22:22 Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
Verse 7
Believer’s calling is for uncleanness but unto holiness. Holiness is inward which affects what you do outward. Don’t tell me how you are holy inward if you are not willing to walk on the same journey with others.
He gives the warning in verse 8
When you reject the call to chastity, not cheating on others, you are not rejecting man, but God who has called you into union with him.
He that is joined with the Lord is one body.
1Corinthians 6:16-17 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
An example is Ananias and Sapphira, his Wife
Acts 5:3-4 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
4. Demonstrated it by Love
verse 9
1Th 4:9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
1Th 4:10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
A life pleasing to God demonstrated the love of God to others because he has experienced the sacrificial love of God.
We should commend our love to others through giving, and many people understand the language of giving.
Please don’t be stingy, life does not revolve around you. The privilege that God has given to you is for the purpose of service to him.
5. Seen in his Work Life
A life pleasing to God is seen in his work life, how do you relate to work?
Are you trying to cut corners to make a living? or are you doing things in the right way?
There are so many Christians who think that duping others is the way forward for them.
It is a devilish mentality. This is a poor mentality, he has so much, and if I cheat him, he will never know. You are fooling yourself, and rubbing yourself of the blessings of being contented with what you have.
Eternal Security: Once Saved Always Saved
Study to be quiet- Be contented.
Do your own business- Work within your means
Work with your own hands- Labour for your own food, and don’t depend on the things of others are a way of life.
verse 11-12
1Thessalonians 4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
Conclusion
We are to walk honestly, we have nothing to be ashamed of by walking uprightly toward all men, both saved and the unsaved. A life pleasing to God is not a hypocritical life.
The Book of Proverbs concludes everything for us, when a man’s ways, lives, and paths please the Lord, something great happens.
Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
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