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DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

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1 Thess 4:1-2

4:1 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

NIV

Paul is going to get into some specific instruction again, but before I consider them, I think it would be good to simply consider how to live in order to please God. Paul says the Thessalonians are already doing that, yet he does go on to instruct them about certain behaviors they should avoid. So how can they be living in a manner that pleases God and still need to avoid certain ways of living? However, he is urging them to live more and more as pleasing to the Lord. What I need to discover here, is what manner of living pleases the Lord. It seems it is possible to increase in that form of living to please God if he urges them to do it more and more. I do know that having faith in Jesus Christ certainly pleases God. I also have the complete word of God which I can find all sorts of instructions for holy living, but the people of Thessalonica did not have the bible to refer to for instruction. What they had was the personal instruction from Paul when he visited with them. He spent time reasoning from the scriptures, which would be the scrolls containing what we now call the Old Testament, with the Jews in the synagogue. Some of the Jews and some of the God-fearing Greeks along with some women joined him. There was great opposition as well. Nevertheless, a church of believers was in this city and now Paul writes to them and instructs them further. What I am amazed at is that all they had was his personal testimony about the scriptures that tell about Jesus being the Christ. Now they are living in a manner that pleases God. I have to come to the conclusion the living to please God is not about what I do not do, but what I do, and what I do is believe with all my heart that Jesus is God and he came in the flesh to die for my sin, and now I am forgiven and I trust in Jesus alone. My salvation, my righteousness, my life is Jesus. Now, are there areas of my life that need to be corrected? Absolutely, as long as I am captive to this flesh, I am subject to fail in any effort to be perfect and be without any sin whatsoever. So then how can I live to please God more and more if I continue to falter? I know Paul has already commended them regarding several of the ways they would be pleasing God, such as loving each other, standing firm in their faith, the word of God is active, or working in them. So I have to realize it is not about abiding in rules and regulations that please God, as the Israelites had many of those and could not keep them, in fact, God gave them the law to show them they could not live by it, but that they needed a Savior. All the law pointed to Jesus. So the way I please God is to live in Christ, to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, to trust in him, to rely solely on Jesus, and to do so more and more instead of less and less, which would imply that I cannot go back to trying to live by the law or rules, but that I have to trust on and in Jesus more and more.