Warnings, Exaltations & Instructions: The Church at Thessalonica
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
A few years ago, I had the privilege of going to a Penguin’s game at the Mellon Arena with a few of my friends. As we waited for the game to begin, we decided to go to our favorite food stand to get the game started right. We visited the nacho stand.
Now, in this particular season, my friend had gone to quite a few Penguin games and had made an acquaintance at one particular nacho booth. Because of going there so often, the man who worked there would always pile on more nachos and add more cheese for my friend than for anyone else. So, we searched for this particular stand. When we found it, the vendor said hello to my friend who ordered nachos for all of us. It was astounding how many nachos and how much cheese he put in our containers. There were mountains of nachos that dwarfed the sizes of all other customers. We were extremely happy.
Just as we started to leave, a voice called out to the worker at the stand. His boss had come to the back door of the booth and stood there with a disgusted look. “What are you doing? Why are you giving these guys so much?” The man, with a straight face, turned around and with a straight face stated, “Boss, it wasn’t me.” That was quite a statement to make since he was the only guy working at this particular vendor booth. However, the boss just shook his head and exited the booth.
When I look back at this experience, I realize that this food vendor is a lot like most of us. Nothing is ever our fault. Do you agree with that statement? We have excuses for everything that we do. If we do something wrong, we can almost always find someone or something else to blame. We never take the blame for ourselves. Let me give you a few examples. First of all, how many of you are familiar with the Peanuts comic strip. I hope most of you are. Now, one of their reoccurring themes involves Lucy holding a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Now, every time Charlie goes to kick, what does Lucy do? She pulls the football away and Charlie Brown ends up flying through the air and getting hurt. In one of these strips where this occurs, Charlie goes on to tell Lucy that it is going to be her fault if he gets really hurt sometime doing this. Lucy answers back, “It’s not my fault – you’re the one who keeps trusting me!” This was an excuse to shift the blame from her onto Charlie Brown.
In real life, how many of you have been following the Mark Foley story in the news? In case you haven’t heard, Foley was a Congressman who sent illicit messages to a male page who was only 17 years old. Now, instead of taking the blame for this action, Foley told the press that he had an alcohol problem and that he was molested as a child. Now, don’t get me wrong. These are both horrible things, but they are just used as an excuse. He still made the choice to send these messages to the child, and he should never use past situations or situations to justify his behavior. We do this all the time though.
This even happens in the church. So many times, I hear people explain away sin and wrong behaviors. They use phrases such as, “In my fleshly nature I did this,” or “The devil made me do it.” Well, as a book title in our library says, “If the devil made you do it, you blew it.” We use excuses all the time for our mistakes and sins and for not doing more for God. And then, we say that God loves us and understands and will forgive us. All this is true, but I think it’s time we take a step forward in one of the fruit of the spirit. It’s time we start practicing self-control. Let’s take a look at what Paul tells the church at Thessalonica about this area in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now, we ask you and urge you to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such things, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
In this passage, the exaltations, warnings, and instructions all blend together. Let’s take a look at the areas that are brought up and how they pertain to self-control. Before we do, let’s ask the Lord to bless our time.
1. Self-control is commanded by God.
When I was a kid growing up, one of the rules I remember having to abide by was that I was not allowed to ride my bike on the road. My parents were concerned with my safety, but I thought that they were trying to hold me down. So, one day, when my parents were not home and I was being watched by the neighbor’s, I decided that I was going to take the opportunity to ride on the road. So, my friend and I took off care free down the road to the bridge, and we rode back home. We were sure to get away with this, so we didn’t have a care in the world.
Not long after my parents came home, my grandfather’s truck pulled in the driveway. I didn’t think anything of it, but little did I know that he had been working on the roof of the house down the street and had witnessed our entire escapade on our bikes down the road. And now, to my horror, he was telling them all about it. I tried to blame my friend for making me do it, but it was no use. I did something wrong, so I basically just got ready to be spanked because I knew I had broken one of their commands. I knew that punishment was coming.
Sometimes, I think we do things that we think we get away with. We break the commands of our God, and we forget that he is everywhere watching what we do. And, when we fail in the area of self control, there is no excuse that flies before God. We are told in this passage, “that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable.” God is telling us that we are responsible for our own actions. It is our responsibility to control our own actions and make the right decisions. He will be there to help us though.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13, we are told the following. “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.” God does two things for us as Christians when we are tempted. First, he never allows us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. This means that in every situation, we have the capability of controlling our actions. Secondly, God also provides a way for us to escape the temptation. It is then our choice to either take the way out or to sin. This is what self control is all about – having the strength to take the way out in every sin.
If we look back to the Greek, the word used here translated as self-control literally means, “self mastery.” If you are a master at something, you are completely in control of it. If you are a master of ceremonies, you are an expert in hosting and communications. If you are a master craftsman, you are the best of the best when it comes to making things with your own hands. If you are a Jedi master, you are the strongest in the force and have the greatest fighting skills. So, when we are told to be masters of ourselves, what does that mean? It means we have complete control over our actions, thoughts, attitudes, appetites, and the like. That is what God is calling us to be. He is still there to pick us up when we fall and ask forgiveness, but it is time that we start taking up our part of the bargain. We must begin taking responsibility for our actions and stop making excuses because God has commanded us to control our actions with his help. Remember, God desires obedience more than sacrifice.
2. Self-control is an on-going process.
At one time in my life, I was somewhat fluent in three languages. I had taken four years of Spanish in high school and was again learning how to speak it for an upcoming mission trip to Peru. I was also taking a course in American Sign Language and was involved in a religious signing group. And, I also knew English as my native language. Today, I regret to say that I am only still fluent in one language. What happened to the other two languages? I think the phrase “Use it or lose it,” applies here. After the semester was over, I had no need to do sign language any more. Therefore, I didn’t continue in the learning process. Also, after my mission trip, I had no need to keep speaking Spanish, so it went away as well. I found that if I made no effort to keep going or get better in these languages, they became just a distant memory.
Now, Paul gives the Thessalonians an exaltation right off the bat in our Scripture this morning. In Paul’s earlier visit to this church, he had given them instructions on how they were to live. And, to Paul’s joy, he has heard reports that they are living according to the instructions that he had given to them. What he is telling them is that they have been practicing self-control, and this is a good thing. When we are able to live in the way that God wants us to, it requires that we make decisions that will result in living a right life. After all, before we were Christians, we all went after our own fleshly desires and wants, but these Christians had enough will and control to forsake the desires of flesh and follow the ways of God. This is especially astounding because they had only heard of Christianity a few months earlier, and they were already walking in the ways of the Lord. This was very encouraging to Paul and he commended them for their right actions.
However, Paul goes on to instruct them further. Right after telling them what a good job they had done thus far, he asks them and urges them to do this more and more. As I read this, I thought that these Thessalonians must be a lot like we are. We have a hard time taking a compliment without getting a big head. It would have been easy for the Thessalonians to read Paul’s words and think that they had it made. “We’ve got this Christianity thing down so we can just coast into the finish line,” might have been their response. But, Paul reminds them that this is an ongoing process and they cannot stop. They must, as a matter of fact, make the effort to increase their self-control more and more. After all, Satan does not take a break. In fact, Paul knows that the closer this church gets to God, the more Satan is going to try and get them to sin. If they stop making the effort to control themselves, they are going to give in to sin sooner or later. Just like I lost my ability to speak in two languages when I stopped using them, we loose our ability to stand up to sin if we don’t keep learning and making the effort to control ourselves. We do this by staying connected to God’s Word and to the Lord through prayer.
3. Self-control affects how we relate to others.
A man passed by a cage at the zoo and noticed that in the cage was both a large lion and an active monkey. He saw a zoo worker nearby and asked, “How does that work having both a lion and a monkey in the same cage?”
“It works ok for the most part,” she replied.
“Do they ever not get along?”
“Every once in a while,” she explained.
“What happens then?” the man asked.
“We just get a new monkey.”
That is the answer you find in many churches and in society when it comes to relationships. When the church or the people in it are not the loving environment that we think they should be, we often just get a new monkey. Here is what I mean by that.
In our relationships, when things go sour, it is so easy to give up on that relationship. When someone hurts us, it is so easy to hurt them back and give up on having a relationship with them. When things don’t go our way in the church, it is easy to give up on the church or to go and find a new one. When the going gets tough, it is easy to take on the lion mentality in which we get rid of the monkey that is already there and learn to live with a new one. Now, eventually, that monkey is going to make a mistake or get on your nerves, so they will need replaced as well. It can become a never ending cycle. This is where self control must come in.
Right after telling us to control our bodies, the Scripture tells us that no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother. This is a self control issue as well. No matter what someone does to you; no matter what someone says to you; no matter how someone else treats you – you are the one to stay in control. It is always your responsibility to control your thoughts, words, attitudes, and actions. That’s a tough teaching. However, if we show the self control that we are called to as Christians, we will not lash out at another even if they lash out at us. We will not look for ways to get back at others even when they wrong us. We will always forgive even when forgiveness is not asked for. We will always seek what is best for the other person and not what is best for us even when the other person is not looking out for us. That is how self control manifests itself in our relationships.
Comedian Jack Parr once made the following statement. He quipped, “Looking back, my life seems like one big obstacle race, with me being the chief obstacle.” I think he is right. It’s time we get over ourselves. It’s time we stop making excuses about our behavior. It’s time we take responsibility and control of our lives and strive everyday to live in the way God has commanded. We must make it a priority to look for the way out of ever temptation. We must take our opportunity every day to grow in our self control lest we lose it. It’s time we start loving others as we should by taking control of our attitudes and emotions. Feel free to come and pray as we close in a song. Let’s pray.
