To Please God.

How are we to live in the Lord? What is expected of us? What efforts are to be made?

Remember -

2Ti 3:14  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 

2Ti 3:15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

2Ti 3:17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

All scripture is profitable for DOCTRINE.

All scripture is profitable for REPROOF.

All scripture is profitable for CORRECTION.

All scripture is profitable for INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

If scripture isn't applicable to us today, then it's of no use whatsoever. I believe scripture is very applicable to us today. In the scriptures I have found proof beyond doubt of its authenticity, in prophetic writings logically unraveled so that they have come to pass fitting like the perfect garment tailor made to a specific form. If I gave you a letter stating what your future would hold in several key points for the next seventy years and after fifty of those years every single prophecy I made came to pass exactly as described, would you doubt that the prophecies I made for the next twenty years of your life would happen? No. You'd be foolish to discount them if all of the previous predications came to pass.  The Bible is like that, predictions were made thousands of years in advance, and one after another they've come to pass so I have NO doubt the rest will occur, and NO doubt about the authenticity of the word of God.

We are told this-

1Th 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. 

How should we walk, how should we live in order to please God?

1Th 4:2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 

We can read of the commandments the Lord gave and here the expounding on the will of God for us we read the following.

1Th 4:3  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 

For us to be made holy we need to keep from letting our lustful passions take control over us, as they are very prone to do, and decidedly keep from engaging in those lusts outside of their proper place.  JUST because we have passions, JUST because by nature we have desires that are a powerful force within us does not mean we should yield to them.  I can remember a very wise older woman once telling me that she understood what I was going through as I struggled with my passions, that she too had to deal with them.  It sort of shocked me because of the person I knew her to be I thought she'd never have had to war with her passions. All of us have to WAR with the natural passions inside of us. Whether it's lust or anger, greed or any other passion that arises it needs to be controlled. Just because you have a natural tendency towards thieving, does not make it okay to yield to that tendency. When we are told that we should abstain from fornication we are being told that fornication will be something that we have to deal with in our lives. Because fornication would be something common to all mankind throughout history, back 2000 years or so ago when this was written all the way to today, we need to hear the admonition to abstain. If fornication wasn't then and isn't now an issue of note, we would not need instruction about our behavior. The will of God for our being made holy is that we don't fornicate.

1Th 4:4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 

1Th 4:5  Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God

Possessing our lives in holiness and honor is not given into our lusts, our very powerful lusts.  Our natural desires allowed to rule over our intellectual control is something promoted by those who do not know God. They do not realize or if they do, they choose not to accept as truth, that sin brought to us tendencies towards all sorts of things that we claim are inherited by nature and therefore acceptable. Throughout life we must hold in check many things that are not accepted as being good. When we live outside the boundaries of what society has determined to be acceptable then society punishes us for our actions. Man deciding what is acceptable and what isn't allows for many things God would not allow, and if we would live for God we have to live in the boundaries He has set for us- no matter what our natural inclinations.  Some of the things God has set boundaries on, society agrees with, but not all. The veering off course from what God has dictated comes about when man wants to indulge in what they presume to be harmless and natural pursuits.

There was a time in history and NOT too long ago, that sex outside of marriage- fornication, was considered very wrong. If a woman were to find herself pregnant and the otherwise secret knowledge of her wrong doing was known, she was shamed. Today over the last sixty or so years, it's become acceptable to fornicate and have babies outside of marriage, the shame has been removed. Does this make it acceptable to God? No, and it never will.

We are also told…

1Th 4:6  That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 

We are not to defraud anyone in any matter.  We are not to harm another in any way, it is the opposite of God's commandment for us to love one another.

1Th 4:7  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 

We are not called to live for our base passions. Those passions will want to live in us, they will want us to yield to them at every turn so that they have preeminence over us and our lives are centered around fulfilling the passions of our self-centeredness. We are called OUT of those natural inclinations we are told to recognize they exist in ourselves and to war against them at every opportunity. We can't sit back and expect our sinful nature to disappear. What a shocking surprise for anyone that does expect to no longer have lusts to war against, the war is unending until our Savior returns. Sanctification is a process of being made holy, it's not instantaneous. Salvation is instant upon accepting the Lord as our Savior, accepting His sacrifice for our sins, but sanctification is a lifelong yielding to the will of God over our own willfulness. A daily yielding. Yielding to God over each of our sometimes constant temptations towards fulfilling a sinful lust, no matter its origin, no matter its type.

May God help us all, and keep us from the evil of the world, from the evil of the natural sin resulted lusts that are unique to each of us in degree and kind. As we war in this spiritual battle, may the spirit have priority over the flesh.

All glory to God, all thanksgiving, praise and honor!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!!!!!!!