I Thessalonians Chapter 4
This chapter begins with a definition of the word sanctification. It is a purposeful walk to please God and to do so more and more. I like Paul’s definition. As believers we need to understand that we need to grow in the Lord and not remain stagnant. There is always more to learn from the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit has much more that He wants to teach each of us, and He wants to mold us to be more like Christ.
Let's Reflect
1. You will find sprinkled throughout the pages of the Bible warnings regarding this one particular sin mentioned over and over that we need to avoid as believers. God knew that this particular sin would be one of the hardest to keep under control for us humans. What is the sin?
2. This sin that Paul is warning the believers about was widely accepted by the Gentiles and since Paul is writing to Gentile believers, he feels compelled to really expound upon this point of truth. What does Paul say God has called us to, purity and what?
3. Paul also admonishes the church at Thessalonica with some practical points of living that will allow them to be a good testimony to the unsaved. What are the practical points he teaches that believers should follow?
4. We are going to keep on living in this manner until the Lord returns; and that is exactly the hope that Paul wants them to see. There is much more to look forward to as believers as we wait for Jesus. We even know that when a believer dies (they called death – sleep) our grief is not the same as those who have no hope. How can we know that we will see those believers who have gone on before us, what gives us that assuredness?
5. When the Lord returns, what will happen to the believers who are alive on the earth at that time? See verse 15.
6. Then Paul makes a neat little statement that again gives us comfort regarding our friends and relatives that have died already. What is that statement at the end of verse 15?
7. There will be audible sound when the Lord Jesus returns to take us home. What will we hear?
8. “The dead in Christ will rise first.” This sentence is a reference to the resurrected bodies of those who have gone on before us.
“There will come a day, when in God’s eternal plan, the dead in Christ will receive their resurrection bodies. Yet until that day, we are confident that the dead in Christ are not in some kind of soul sleep or suspended animation. Paul made it clear that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord. II Corinthians 5:8 Either the present dead in Christ are with the Lord in a spiritual body, awaiting their final resurrection body; or, because of the nature of timeless eternity, they have received their resurrection bodies already because they live in the eternal now.” [Guzik]
Isn’t it comforting to know that our friends and loved ones are with their Savior right now and we will see them again one day? Where is Jesus going to meet us when He returns?
