Be Sanctified

1 Thessalonians 4:8

Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

From time to time, it is good to be reminded that there are warnings from the Word of God regarding things that we need to avoid as Christians. We notice in the passage that the problems the Thessalonian Christians had were not uncommon, but had been going on until now with even greater intensity. And so, the Apostle Paul stressed out that we should be holy - even as God is holy. It just doesn’t work that God is holy and we are not – otherwise, we are in fact practicing what the Devil is doing.

The Devil never changed tactics in snaring people to sin since he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Satan offers you something anytime anywhere with these three categories. Something you desire and want to covet, something you want to experience and feed your appetite, and something that will boast your ego and make you feel great! In our text today, the warnings involved are in second category. Whatever age bracket, whatever status of life you are in, whatever maturity level of Christianity you have, these tactics of the Devil work just as fine … whatever (as many people say today).

But take note, there is much emphasis on this warning about sexual immorality for it is a sin with a different sting – we even sin against our own body! (1 Cor 6:18), and our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Many people hate corrections and are not willing to submit to a sound advice – Christians included! The Lord works in different ways and uses different avenues just to put warning signs along our path. Yet, if we neglect God’s loving hand, then we are approaching God’s hand of justice. Verse 6 says that the "Lord will avenge for such sins", more so if we keep doing them. Have you ever thought of such incurable diseases brought about by this sin? Just thinking.

We as believers are going through the sanctification process (or I may say cleansing process). Jesus Christ freed us from the "penalty of sin", He is currently protecting us from the "power of sin", and He will take us out from the "presence of sin". If we don’t tap on God’s protection and make ourselves vulnerable from the power of sin, then we have to take the consequences. We are not disobeying those whom God had sent to talk and warn us, rather we are disobeying God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” says Hebrews 10:31. The best thing yet is for us to ponder on verse 7: “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.”

Are We Bearing Fruit?

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are expected to bear fruit as we walk in the Spirit of God. We need to have the “fruit” of the Spirit which is LOVE. With such fruit come the other elements of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Although the meaning of love had been so much distorted by the Devil in our culture today, believers know love in much different way – that is, the love of God we had experienced when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It wasn’t based on emotions or feelings, but based on faith on the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross.

How then can we have the buds of love in our life and make them bloom? As Jesus commanded, we need to love the LORD our GOD with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Luke 10:27). We need to love other people without conditions. We may find it very hard because we are used to protecting ourselves and fighting back. But as the people were spitting, slapping, hitting, and cursing the Lord Jesus Christ while carrying the cross – He wasn’t thinking of getting back His Godly powers and struck them with bolts of lighting. Rather, He had compassion and saw the people as potential believers in Him – for they do not know what they were doing. I think that’s how we need to love other people too, we may find them very harsh, rude, mean, and indifferent – but they are potential believers and winners in Christ. Every person living and still breathing air is a potential believer in Christ – no matter how good or bad.

Loving other believers are hard as well, and still maybe harder because they already know the Lord and yet maybe behaving like unbelievers. Acts 20:28 says that we need to shepherd other believers, for they were bought by the blood of Jesus too and they are precious! Unfortunately, we are likened more often to a sheep, probably one of the dumbest animals, that when left on its own cannot survive. If we start lashing them out with our staff, then we are in fact lashing on the Lord Jesus Christ for they are in Him. We need to shepherd one another. Whatever we do to the least of our brothers, then we are in fact doing it to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we really like to do something that is not bound by any law or regulation, which we always long for, then that is loving God and loving other people – as the Lord loved us. We need to reproduce the fruit of the Spirit.