Job One: Excelling at pleasing God

I Thessalonians 4:1-12

November 14, 1999

Introduction: History buffs among us will recognize the name Simon Bolivar. He lived in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s and came to be known as the liberator of five South American countries. What we know today as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia owe their independence to the man Bolivar. The turning point in the history of these five countries was the Battle of Boyaca. Bolivar had called his rebel army commanders together on May 23, 1819, in Venezuela. He described a plan that would begin the defeat of Spain’s larger, better-equipped army.
Bolivar and his men would attack the enemy at its weakest point in New Granada (Colombia now)—on the other side of the Andes. The Spanish garrison commander had seen no need to post a large force to watch for guerrillas coming across 12,000 foot high peaks. Bolivar finally convinced 2500 rag-tag rebels to go with him, even though it was the rainy season, and they would have to cross swampy plains just to get to the base of the mountains. A number of the poorly clad and ill-equipped rebels died along the way, but their final entrance into New Granada completely astonished the Spanish army and victory was won.
As Scott Smith tells the story, Bolivar “rightly thought that any event likely to strike the imagination of the Granadinos as a dramatic defeat of Spain would determine a political landslide.” And that is exactly what happened, though there would be 6 more years of battles and campaigns. Simon Bolivar, as a leader of troops, knew that a battle could be lost by something as insignificant as a poorly shoed horse. His attention to detail was legendary. Bolivar would go on to become the leader of each of these five nations at one time or another. Who would dispute that he lived a life in the political world that excelled?
Perhaps the name Scott Fischer rings a bell with you. Scott led an American team up Mount Everest in May of 1996. Eight climbers died in the largest single death toll for any mountain-climbing accident in history. Scott Fischer was one of those who perished that day.
Newsweek called him “one of the strongest (mountain) climbers in the world.” His friend, Kevin Cusack, writing for World magazine (May 9, 1998), remembered a time twenty years earlier when they were preparing for a climb in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. Scott was by far the strongest climber on the team. His workout routine included 3 sets of 50 two-handed pull-ups, 25 one-handed pull-ups, and 15 two-finger pull-ups.
In the world of mountain climbing, Scott Fischer lived a life that excelled.
With the death on November first of 45 year old Walter Payton, we are reminded of a man who wanted to be the best he could be. He wanted to excel in the NFL, and he was willing to pay the price to achieve that goal. He knew that the only way to perform was to prepare and condition himself, and his favorite technique for developing his strength and stamina was to run up a hill. Near his Lake Forest home in Arlington Heights, Ill., he found the perfect site. This hill was 85 yards high and rose at a 45-degree angle. The first time he and some teammates tried it, they could only run it twice. But by the time training camp opened, Mr. Payton and his teammates could run it 25 times. By the time his football career had run its course, over 13 years, he was the best running back to play the game. Walter Payton lived a life in the world of pro-football that excelled.
History as recent as November 1, history as distant as 1819, and much of history in between would acclaim many men and women as individuals who lived lives that excelled in a number of ways.
When we come to I Thessalonians 4, we read about the kind of life that God acclaims as excellent. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it? Don’t we want to stand before Him and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”? As one of the church elders who must give an account for your soul… (You know that verse in Hebrews 13:17, don’t you? “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account…Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”); As one of the church leaders who must give an account for your soul, I certainly want all of us to live so well that God will be pleased with what we’ve done with this life He’s given us.
Let’s find what it is that God says is a life well lived as we consider His Word together.
I Thessalonians 4:1-12—Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not is lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,
and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
We can see three themes running through these twelve verses that help us to get a handle on Paul’s message in this text. Giving attention to these three things will enable us to live a life that excels. The first is, Live in Purity. The second is, Love the Brethren, and the third is, Light the Outsider. If we can trust God to discipline us each day in these three elements, we can live a life that He says is excellent.
First then, when I say, we ought to live in purity, I am paraphrasing what Paul has said in verses 3-6, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not is lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in this matter…”
It appears the Thessalonians lived in a society and culture not much different from ours—one that is sexually charged, lust focused, and far more explicit than we find acceptable. So what is ‘sexual immorality’ and what does that big word ‘sanctification’ mean that appears in verses 3,4, and 7?
In the Scriptures, there are 5 ways we can be involved in sexual immorality, so if we are committed to living a life that excels, to living in purity, we want to avoid all of these possibilities in every situation that they appear as temptations.
The Bible instructs us to avoid lust. Lust is a form of sexual immorality. Lust is a strong desire for things that are not ours. In the context of sex, lust is defined as the sinful desire for having someone who is not ours. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” In our recent study of the Proverbs, we saw many images of the adulterer: an ox going to the slaughter, a deer stepping into a noose, a person on a highway to the grave, a man walking on hot coals and scorching his feet… The sexual immorality of lust puts us in the same art gallery!
A second form of sexual immorality is adultery. Adultery is extramarital sex. It is prohibited in the Ten Commandments; its punishment in the Old Testament was the death penalty. Again, the Proverbs say adultery destroys the soul of the one who is guilty of it (6:32).
Lust and adultery will rob us of a life that excels in the sight of God.
The third robber is incest. Incest is sex with a close relative other than one’s husband or wife. Lev.18:6-18 lists those close relatives, including but not limited to, children, grandchildren, sons- and daughters-in-law, sisters, step-sisters, aunts, uncles, brothers- and sisters-in-law. Again, the Bible says the penalty for incest is death (Lev.20:11).
The fourth thief of purity is homosexuality. This term is defined as sex with a person of the same gender. This form of sexual immorality is called an abomination (Lev.18:22) and perpetrators were subject to the death penalty also (Lev.20:13).
The fifth form of sexual immorality is bestiality, sex with an animal. According to Leviticus 18, both men and women of the nations of Canaan had perverted themselves with this form of defilement.
These five forms of sexual immorality can destroy us. A sword came to the house of David and never left it because of his adultery with Bathsheba. Lust destroyed the ministry of Jimmy Swaggert. Incest has scarred the lives of more people than we want to know about. Impurity robs us of a life that excels.
So, what about that big word, sanctification? Sanctification is a good word, it means holiness. Chuck Swindoll suggests that holiness often wrongly conjures up images of stained-glass windows and hushed chambers of monasteries and cathedrals. Chuck Colson writes, “Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian.”
Paul is writing to these Thessalonians (and thus to us) that the will of God is a life of purity and holiness. If purity is the opposite of the sexual immoralities that we have defined so far, perhaps the question before us now is, “How do we do it?”
Verse 4 offers one clue. Each of us needs to know how to possess his own vessel. Translation? We need to know how our bodies function, what ignites our sex drives, how self-control works, what temptations have proven too strong for us, what situations we must avoid, what kinds of conversations lead to compromise, what kinds of touches are too personal, etc., etc. When we know these things about ourselves, we can make plans to avoid the wrong kinds of circumstances. We can plan to turn down certain invitations. We can move away from contexts that we know we are vulnerable to. We can invite the right kind of friend to ask us the questions of accountability that we all need. We can cultivate the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible reading that fortify our hearts and spirits against the wrong kinds of influences.
Then we live life free from anxiety, guilt, STM’s (sexually transmitted diseases), and emotional scars. We live freely with self-respect and confidence and a sense of well-being.
If knowing ourselves is one clue, another key to a life of purity is a healthy respect for consequences. Verse 6 warns us that God is the avenger in “all these things.” The one who is caught up in lustful passion and ends up defrauding his brother will find himself being pursued by an avenger! In this case it will be God Who is intent on exacting justice as the avenger of the Old Testament had the right and obligation to do!
Is there anyone here in his right mind who wants to experience the terror of knowing that God is on our trail, seeking justice for having taken advantage of someone else in this matter of sexual impurity? Is there anyone here in his right mind who wants to live as a fugitive, always looking over his shoulder to see if secret sins of immorality are catching up to him?
So friends, we can live a life that excels by living in purity. When we avoid sexual immorality, we declare that holiness, and the freedom and the blamelessness that come with it, is more important to us that a momentary, cheap thrill that sets God against us in discipline and judgment. God, give us the power to live pure!
A second theme in this passage that helps us to live with excellence is love the brethren. Verses 9-10 develop this thought for us.
“Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more.”
Paul is saying to his friends and to us, “Let your love for one another extend outward beyond the limits of their need!” Love others here in the church family even when they act hateful; love others here in our church body even when they don’t deserve it; love others we know are Christians enough to tell them the truth even when we know they don’t want to hear it; love the brethren enough to confront them when they are headed in the wrong direction; love others in the depths of their failures and embarrassments; love those who have used you and manipulated you for their own purposes.
The apostle John would write of the Lord Jesus as He approached His crucifixion, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” According to the commentator A. W. Pink, the Lord Jesus loved them out to the edge of His marvelous grace.
No one ever lived badly who loved greatly! A life that excels is a life lived meeting the needs of others out of the power that God provides.
The final theme of this passage that illumines for us a life that excels is the directive to light the outsider. Live in purity, Paul has said. Love the brethren, he adds. And finally, the mentor says in verses 11-12, “and… make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders…”.
All of us know what ambition is, don’t we. Os Guinness, in his book, The Call, tells the story of one young man’s ambition. Andrew Carnegie, a young boy growing up in poverty in Pittsburgh, had happened one day upon his mom, weeping in a moment of discouragement. He sought to console her by assuring her that one day he would be rich, and they would ride in a fine coach driven by four horses. “That would do no good over here,” she replied, “if no one in Dunfermline can see us.” Dunfermline was their home village in eastern Scotland. On July 27, 1881, Carnegie and his mother rode into their hometown at four o’clock in the afternoon in a carriage fit for royalty pulled, by a team of four. The Scottish weaver’s son had risen from a Pittsburgh ‘bobbin boy’ making $1.20 a week to become America’s King of Steel, the industrial Napoleon, one of the world’s richest men. He fulfilled his ambition that day.
The apostle Paul is saying, “Make it your dream, make the force that drives you day after day, make it your desire to shine the light of the Gospel on those yet outside the fold of Christ.” That is an ambition worthy of one who seeks to live a life that excels.
Here’s how to do it. Lead a quiet life. Attend to your own business. Work with your hands so you will not be in need. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it. Many folks will not come to Christ because of a great, county-wide crusade. Many will come to the Savior through our influence in the day-to-day grind of life.
In leading a quiet life, we will be seen to be good neighbors, those who support our families, those who are contributing to the good of the community. We will be seen as free from anxious busyness. One commentator asks us to put a stethoscope to our hearts and see what we might hear. Would we hear a breeze rustling the leaves on a pretty fall day? Or would we hear thunder rumbling in the distance? Or might we hear workmen sawing lumber and hammering nails? Or would we hear the final screaming lap of the Indy 500? Is there panic in our hearts today? That panic will ruin our testimony to those yet outside the faith.
In attending to our own business, we will be seen as those who do their assignments well, who are responsible for the tasks they have taken on. Walter Wangerin paints this picture for us: Imagine a carpenter crafting a fine rocking chair for a wealthy client. Now imagine him also building another rocking chair for his daughter. The difference between the two craftings is HUGE! Both chairs will be done well, and outward appearances may be slight, but the daughter’s chair will have a great deal of love woven into each detail. Paul asks us to be a testimony to those outside the church by attending well to our business, to our responsibilities.
In working with our hands, we will be seen as leading a responsible lifestyle. Laziness discredits the Gospel. Paul will write again to these believers these words (II Thess 3:11-22): “For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command… that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.”
When we lead a quiet life, attend well to our business, and work in a responsible manner, those outside the faith will see us as distinctive and attractive. I’ve probably told you too much about our son, a counselor in one of the men’s residence halls at Purdue. He’s not into sexual immorality; he’s a responsible employee of the university. His distinctive lifestyle is attractive to many who have come to know him. Some, mired in the complexities of sexual relationships, have said, “I wish I was like you.”
Conclusion: Chapter Four had begun where chapter three left off. A life of faith will establish one’s heart blameless in holiness. Paul wanted his readers to fully understand what that kind of life would involve. It would be free of sexual immorality, thus pure. It would be full of love for the brethren. And it would be a light to those yet outside the Gospel. That would be a life that excels! That would be a life that God would be pleased with.
Moses…

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