Sermon Tone Analysis

After a few rather long introductory chapters, Paul now gets to the heart of the letter, teaching his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica what he wasn’t able to teach them in person.

From 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:22, Paul writes some specific instructions and admonitions.

Instructions and admonitions about how to live.

That word—live (peripateo)—is better translated as “walking.”

"Walking” helps us visualize how the Christian life, the Christian walk is to be seen, visibly, as one behaves in a manner worthy of Jesus, that we would walk as Jesus walked.

“Walk Like a Christian” was the title I landed on early this week, and as such, I’ve been humming The Bangels’ “Walk like an Egyptian” all week (Whey oh, whey oh…)

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4. If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

This is the Word of the Lord!

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This morning, I want us to trace Paul’s argument together.

First things first, we need to see that Paul is writing to his brothers and sisters (adelphoi).

Carried along by the Holy Spirit, Paul is writing this letter to them because he loves them; they are his family in Christ—brothers and sisters.

What he’s writing is directed toward the entire Christian community there in Thessalonica, not just the men.

It’s for the combined church, male and female, young and old.

Paul begins by writing by telling them they need to:

Walk to Please God

These are instructions on how to live in order to please God.

That’s a pretty important topic—how to live in order to please God.

Paul assumes our bodies—our persons—belong to the God of creation…if we believe that God created us, then we remain obligated to do what pleases God.

We do not belong to ourselves, and no amount of protest will make it so—a perspective that stands in sharpest contrast to the “ethic of the autonomous self” so popular in contemporary culture.

In other words, what Paul states in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is a working assumption behind what he writes here in 1 Thessalonians.

He writes: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

Paul’s writing to his family, instructing them on how to live so as to please God.

This is something they are already doing—as in fact you are living, Paul writes—but he’s urging them to do so more and more.

Do so more and more.

Excel still more.

I believe this is a good word for us in all areas of Christian living, in all the areas of the Christian walk.

The NT authors would say, “Keep serving, keep giving, keep loving, keep praying, keep walking.

Do so more and more.

Excel still more.”

Paul is instructing his brothers and sisters as to how they, Christians, can walk to please God.

He’s not addressing non-Christians to tell them how they can please God.

That is an impossibility.

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God...” Hebrews 11:6

The only way to please God is to belong to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

If you are not a believer, you will never—no matter your good deeds, no matter how good a life you try to lead—you will never be able to please Him.

You need Jesus.

You need the salvation that is found ONLY in Jesus, and it’s freely offered.

In Christ, His perfect righteousness becomes our perfect righteousness; our sin is transferred to Jesus and Jesus’ innocence is transferred to us.

Jesus is what we need to please God.

And then, in Christ, with His strength and the indwelling Holy Spirit, you will be able to please God with your life.

In Christ, you will be enabled to walk in such a way that is pleasing to Him.

Walk to Please God.

Walk to Obey God

Paul’s writing to his family, instructing them on how to live so as to please God, and identifies his instructions to them as instructions given by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

That’s the definitive phrase, the operative phrase: by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

All of this is written, all of this has its footing on the authority of the Lord Jesus.

That should settle it for us, no matter what we think about what Paul has to say, what he writes here and elsewhere is based on the authority of the Lord.

What’s more, it’s not just His authority (though that should be a-plenty).

These instructions/commandments given by Paul and Silas and Timothy, under the authority of the Lord Jesus, are marching orders for the members of the church.

The word instructions/commandments in verse 2—parangelias—was originally a military word.

These are marching orders; our job is to obey.

Ours is too obey and please Him.

Warren Wiersbe writes this:

“Pleasing God means much more than simply doing God’s will.

It is possible to obey God and yet not please Him.

Jonah is case in point.

He obeyed God and did what he was commanded, but his heart was not in it.

God blessed His Word, but He could not bless His servant.

So Jonah sat outside the city of Nineveh angry with everybody, including the Lord.

Our obedience should not be with eye-service, as menpleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”

What’s expected is not obedience for obedience’s sake, but obedience that flows from a desire to please God.

Paul’s train of thought is first, walk to please God, and flowing from that, walk to obey God.

It’s the logical progression.

Obedience that comes from the heart, obedience motivated by love is the only true and proper obedience.

Paul’s writing to his family, instructing them on how to live so as to please God, identifies his instructions to them as instructions given by the authority of the Lord Jesus, and makes clear that this is God’s will for them.

Paul focuses here—1 Thessalonians 4:1-8—on a single aspect of what sanctification/being made holy encompasses.

Paul’s focus is on sexual morality/immorality.

The topic of sexual immorality would have been of particular significance for anyone recently converted from pagan culture, in view of the wide range of sexual mores and practices that existed in Greco-Roman society.

Sexual fidelity/faithfulness was demanded of wives (in order to guarantee the parentage of legitimate offspring), and in some circles upheld as a virtue in husbands as well.

Married men regularly participated in “dinner parties” that included sexual services from slaves.

A wide range of pre-marital and extramarital activity was tolerated and occasionally even encouraged.

Young men were often encouraged to be sexually active prior to marriage.

Ancient Roman literature contains numerous stories of adulterous males and even some married women who would pursue lovers.

Homosexuality was widely practiced, especially among the Greeks.

Cities were famous for their prostitutes, especially cities on major trade routes (such as Thessalonica).

Bringing this passage into our generation is relatively straightforward, for two reasons.

The sexual ethic Paul sets forth here has a theological rather than cultural basis.

That is, Paul offers in this passage what may be termed a “theological ethic.”

Paul works from the starting point of his understanding of God.

This theological basis gives a high level of authority to his instructions, because, as he points out in 4:8, anyone who rejects these instructions is not rejecting Paul but God.

It also means that his instructions are transcultural; they are not rooted or grounded in any particular culture or historical circumstances.

The circumstances of the church in the first century and today are relatively similar.

Many have noted, of course, the extensive parallels between the sexual license of first century Mediterranean culture and contemporary Western cultures.

Where the Bible is concerned, many people say, “Well, that was written a long time ago.

It was a different time.”

Yeah.

Well, yes and no.

It was a different time (1st Century A.D.), but what happened then is no different that what happens today.

It was a different time, true, but it was very much the same.

They didn’t have Teslas or TikTok, but they had the same level of sexual sin present in our day.

Just because the Bible was written a long time ago doesn’t mean it’s out-of-date.

It’s so applicable, it’ll make your head spin.

It could not be assumed that converts brought with them into the church any common understanding or expectation regarding sexual behavior.

Amid such widespread licentiousness (that is, license to do whatever you want), the church’s pagan neighbors likely thought these Christians strange to refuse such behavior.

Indeed, some members of the church, having participated in such Roman sensuality prior to coming to Christ, likely still felt the addictive pull of such temptations.

This was an area where socialization into the norms of the new community was definitely a necessity.

Paul urges them to:

Walk Differently