1 Thessalonians 4 - Daily Summary

 Hello! 1 Thessalonians 4 is the second last chapter of the book of First Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4 is about a godly, sanctified life and also about deceased believers. The Bible is separated into two Testaments, sixty six books, each book containing several or a lot of chapters. The Bible's chapters are often divided into further subtopics. Sometimes, subtopics overlap chapters. For example, one subtopic can start in Chapter A and end in Chapter B. The convenient thing about this fourth chapter is that all subtopics inside this chapter perfectly fit - they do not overlap to other chapters. Why is this convenient? If there is an overlapping chapter, it is difficult to fully grasp the meaning of it because my posts are in a chapter by chapter format. That is one of the reasons in the past few days I have been doing recaps. Nevertheless, I will recap 1 Thessalonians 3.

 1 Thessalonians 3 ends by telling us to strengthen our hearts and each others' hearts so we can be holy when Jesus comes. So it is no wonder, that, although in a different subtopic, Paul instructs us to live in such a way that God may be pleased. 

God wills our sanctification. Sanctification is one of God's processes and it comes after justification (God justifying us through His Grace and Our Faith). Sanctification is where God not only justifies us and accepts us but perfects us - perfecting us to be someone Holy and someone who shuns evil. This process is progressive while justification is more of a one time thing. However, sanctification is not the final stage of God's work. Don't forget glorification when a believer dies and is glorified. Someone that is "sanctified" is someone that has been refined by God.

And since it is God's will, we must avoid sins as part of being sanctified. Sexual immorality is one of the examples of a particularly tempting sin. Sexual sin was both a problem back in the era of Paul and also in our present, modern day. We certainly cannot say we are sanctified if we still fall victim to the same, wicked sins, including sexual immorality. Being lustful and sexually immoral is not controlling our bodies in a godly way, and instead we are living like pagans. Rather, we must control our physical bodies to do what is good. The Lord is a punishing God. He is loving, but we cannot ignore His Wrath. He will pour His wrath on us if we are impure.

Instead, live a Holy life, because this is God's instruction. Violating God's instructions is not rejecting a human being but the Almighty God who is the same God who gave us the Holy Spirit. So, if we must follow God's instruction, and the answer is yes, we must, we have to follow this instruction: living a Holy Life - Holy meaning we are different and separated but for God and we have been sanctified. Another important thing in sanctification and living Holy is loving other people - isn't it an instruction Jesus Himself had preached of? We were taught by God to be loving to one another. 

Verse 13 begins the second subtopic of 1 Thessalonians 4. However, this subtopic ends with the end of 1 Thessalonians 4 (as I have said before, 1 Thessalonians 4 perfectly fits in two subtopics inside). 

This second subtopic is about the believers who have passed away. However, have hope. We believe in Christ's death, but as a Christian we also must believe in his resurrection. God will bring with Jesus who had also died with Him - dead believers. Even Paul calls dying "falling asleep". For believers, it is a mere temporary cessation of activity, just like sleep. The Lord will come down from heaven and the dead will come to heaven first and then will the alive believers will join them and we will be with the Lord forever.

Thank you for reading!

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