1 Thessalonians 4 Bible study

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1 Thessalonians Chapter 4:1–18 Holiness to the Lord 4:1–2 Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Paul has finished the main theme of his letter to the Thessalonian church and now in the final two chapters he concludes with what remains to be said—hence, ‘finally brothers’ (this is a pattern that he used in Ephesians 6:10 and Philippians 4:8). He addresses both brothers and sisters as he urges them by the authority and with the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ to live a pure and holy life, acceptable and well pleasing to God, as they had been taught by word and example through Paul, Timothy, and Silas when they were with them.

Indeed, he acknowledges that the believers were already endeavoring to live such a life, but nevertheless encouraged them to do so more and more. They were Christians who had only just begun a walk with Christ; although not yet perfect, they were to go on to perfection (Philippians 3:12). This perfection is the work of the Holy Spirit and will only be fully accomplished when we see Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10). (In Gal 3:3 Paul asked the Galatians how they could be so foolish to think that the work of perfection, begun in them by the Holy Spirit, could be completed by their own efforts.)

4:3 (NKJV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; Paul enforces his claim that the commandments he had passed on to the Thessalonian believers were given by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ (see Matt 28:20). God’s will was that they should be sanctified (separated to God, set apart) and be separated from evil things, not being conformed to the ways of this world (Romans 12:1–2). This was also the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of his disciples (John 17:17) Paul especially singles out sexual immorality (including fornication and adultery), for (as is the case in many countries today) it was prevalent in the Roman Empire and not regarded as sinful. Paul brought this matter forcefully home to the Corinthian church, too, when he wrote that those who are united with the Lord become

one spirit with him and that they are the temples of the Holy Spirit. To commit the sin of sexual immorality is to sin against one’s own body (1 Corinthians 6:15, 17–19).

4:4 That each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor.

Christians should learn to be self-controlled (sexually speaking), so that they may behave in an honorable manner, being be set apart to God in spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess 5:23).

4:5 Not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. Christians should not give in to their lusts and be slaves to their cravings, living like people who do not know God. Since Christ died for our sins and has set as free from its bondage then it should not have dominion over us (John 8:36; Romans 6:14, 18, 22).

4:6 That no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

Paul now refers specifically to adultery. He had previously warned the Thessalonians, and now does so again, that the Lord Himself will punish any man or woman who commits it, especially if by so doing they take the wife of husband of a Christian, or if by so doing they wrong their own Christian wife or husband. This distinction may seem strange at first—all adultery is an offence against God, and Paul does not diminish this fact—yet what Paul is here emphasizing is that God is the avenger of his people, and will wreak terrible vengeance on you for wronging one of his own. The Old Testament enlarges upon this sin in Proverbs 6:27– 33.

4:7–8 For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human

authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Like the Jewish nation whom God called out to be his own so believers have now been separated to God to live as his holy people, walking before him in all righteousness and purity of living (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, whoever refuses to live by these rules is not rejecting human authority but despising the authority of God (Leviticus 26:15). God who has given these commandments of holy living has also given his Holy Spirit, making our bodies his temple (1 Cor 6:19). It is the Holy Spirit that does the work of regeneration and the renewing of our minds, the way we think and act (Titus 3:5; 2 Cor 5:17). We are to avoid doing things that are contrary to the influence of the Holy Spirit, for these are the things which grieve him (Eph 4:30).

Loving and Working 4:9–10 Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more.

Paul found it unnecessary to write to the Christians at Thessalonica concerning loving one another for they had been taught to do so by God through Jesus Christ who commanded them to ‘love one another as I have

loved you’ (John 15:12) also that the love of God has poured out in their hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). This love for one another had been clearly demonstration to all believers throughout Macedonia in a practical way (1 John 3:18) yet Paul earnestly exhorts them to surpass, to let their love be greater or better than this.

4:11–12 To aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Following on from loving one another he wants them to endeavor to make it their goal to live a quiet life (Romans 12:18; 1 Peter 3:4) and not to meddle in other's affairs, for that usually leads to strife. In chapter 2:9 Paul had reminded them that while he was with them he was not a burden to them but had labored night and day to provide for himself and his companions (Acts 20:34–35). He therefore commands that they do likewise and work with their hands to provide for themselves and their families, giving to help to others in need whenever they are able (Eph 4:28). By doing this they would become respected by those outside the church and be dependent on no one, having no need (Phil 4:19).

The Christian Hope of Resurrection 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Paul now turns to what happens to those believing loved ones who die. He doesn’t want them to be ignorant concerning this or to have the same sorrow as others who have no hope beyond death.

4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, this is a fundamental belief for salvation (Romans 10:9). Paul always preached that Christ died for sins, that he was buried, and that after three days he rose again (1 Cor 15:3–4) so we know that death is not the end for a believer. When God brings back Jesus Christ he will bring with him all those believers who have died, for he is the one who lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore and has the keys of death and the grave (Revelation 1:18); therefore he is Lord of both death and life.

4:15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.

The Lord said to Martha in John 11:25–26, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even

though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." Thus, on the basis of Christ's own teaching, Paul says that those of us who are still alive when the Lord comes again will not meet him ahead of those who have previously died nor shall they enter heaven before them.

4:16 For the Lord Himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

The Lord Himself in all his glory and majesty will come down from heaven and give the loud shout of command (John 5:28), and with the voice of an archangel and the sounding of the trumpet of God. The word archangel is only used twice in the New Testament: here and in Jude 1:9, where it is applied to Michael. It is not found in the Old Testament. The trumpet blast usually accompanied the manifestation of God in all His Glory (Exodus 19:16; Ps 47:5). It was also sounded to call God’s people to assemble together and to move on (Numbers 10:2) and in the day of gladness (Numbers 10:10). At this cry of command from the Lord, sounding as it does like the call of an archangel or God’s own trumpet being sounded, those who are dead in Christ will

rise again. Their spirits will be reunited with their bodies in resurrection, and these bodies that were once subject to death will be changed to become incorruptible i.e. not subject to death (1 Cor. 15:51–54).

4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord

in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Then those who are alive and have never tasted death will be changed in the same way, in the twinkling of an eye (the smallest unit of time imaginable) and together shall rise up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the atmosphere. From that time on there will never be a parting between believers and the Lord or between all of God's people we shall be forever with the Lord. Although Paul seeks to allay any fears the Thessalonian Christians may have concerning those believers who die he does not say here about what happens to their souls before the resurrection. He does this in other places: they are absent from the body and present with the Lord, which is far better (2 Cor 5:8, Phil 1:21–23) and that they are blessed (Rev 14:13). So we see that we have no reason to sorrow in the same way as people that have no hope in Christ. Clearly, the Bible does not teach that there is a state of sleep or non-conscious existence of the dead between now and the resurrection.

4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Paul has designed this last section to give an assurance, not only to the Thessalonian Christians but to all believers, of the certainty of eternal life; that death is not the end but the beginning, and that there will be a resurrection. Therefore we should comfort one another with these truths.