Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
These days one of the more volatile conversations in North America and Europe is discussion about ‘alternative lifestyle’, particularly as it relates to sexuality, gender identity and freedom to both define and live out your ‘preferred personal identity’. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this is not a matter of discussion or personal freedom in many parts of the world under the restriction of either strongly held cultural norms or national laws or strict religious laws.
Would you be surprised to know this is not a new issue for the human race? In fact, in various forms these very same ‘debates’ and lifestyle choices are seen as major social issues in the Bible all the way back to the times of Genesis 18,19, and in every society and generation since.
The first century Roman empire was no different and as we rejoin Paul writing his first letter to his Christian friends who live in the Macedonian city of Thessalonica, Paul addresses this issue in a straightforward way, challenging them to look closely at their lifestyles, seeking to discern if they are living God honoring lives. Paul writes: “brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God…Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more… It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God.” (1 Thess. 4:1-5) Wow, that’s powerful. I’ve underlined that in my Bible, what about you?
While we don’t have any record of exactly what Paul taught the Thessalonians about Godly living during the three weeks he and his team were in Thessalonica, (Acts 17:1-10) God’s standard of holy living has been understood since the earliest days. Do you notice Paul’s use of the word “sanctified”? That means set apart as holy, pure, and sacred unto God. God’s desire, then and now, is that when a person turns away from their sinful lifestyle and enters into a relationship with Holy God, the Holy Spirit cleanses them of their sin and lives within them… the Holy Presence of God with that person all the time! “Sanctified” means that ‘born again’ person lives more and more under the Holy influence of God and their life reflects the holiness of God in them! Can you see that, my friends, in Christians that you know? Can you see it in yourself?
When God rescued 1 million Hebrew slaves from Egypt (Exodus 14) and led them to Mount Sinai, declaring them to be HIS chosen people, (Ex. 19:4) one of the things Moses learned from God and sought to teach the people was how to live God honoring, holy lives. It began with the 10 Commandments and then several chapters of specific, God given instructions on living in marriage and family and community and society in ways that create safe, mutually respectful and beneficial relationships… God honoring living. (Exodus 20-23)
Those God-given guidelines and principles for honorable living became essential to the Jewish way of life and distinguished them as a society from the pagan and wicked, immoral peoples who lived in the nations all around them. God’s desire was to live among His people, so His very presence would motivate them to live God honoring lives, and that’s why Moses and the people built a Tabernacle, a “Tent of Meeting”, (Exodus 40) and it was placed right in the very center of their traveling city as they left Egypt and spent 40 years traveling the desert before entering the land God had promised them. (Numbers 9,10) Now think about that for a moment. What difference would it make in your city if the Presence of God was strongly evident? What difference does it make in a home, a family, when the Presence of God is recognized and honored by every member of that family?
I’m sure you see the initial focus of Paul’s challenge for the people to live sanctified, God honoring lives. “…avoid sexual immorality; each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God…” (1 Thess. 4:3-5) Paul wrote.
Sexuality is a wonderful, God designed aspect of animal and human life. Male and Female. Two distinctly different, wonderful, magnificent designs and creations of God. Our distinctions as male and female begin in conception as our cells form while still in our mother’s womb. God decides our DNA, our chromosome makeup, then God develops the design and shape of our bodies, and finally when a baby is born, instantly the world can tell what God has made… a baby BOY or a baby GIRL.
From that moment till the time of death, God’s design is that each person learns to honor God through how they care for, nurture, develop and utilize their uniqueness as male or female. It is not difficult for us to recognize the schemes of the devil and his kingdom of darkness and deception in attempting to disrupt God’s perfect design and the holy unity of male and female, living God honoring lives, and raising up the next generation of children to do the same, is it? What do those schemes look like in your city?
“Sexual immorality” is a term used throughout the Bible to describe any sexual behavior that is contrary to God’s holy design for how sexuality is expressed. God’s design is that sexuality is always expressed in God honoring, holy, sacred ways, males and females, each made wonderfully in God’s image and each distinctive from each other. (Psalm 139;
1 Corinthians 6:12-20)
The devil’s contrary design is that sexuality is defiled, selfish, seductive, vile, violent, abusive, manipulative and so many other attitudes and actions which mock God’s wonderful, holy design for sexuality. It’s not difficult for us to discern attitudes, words, and behavior which is contrary to what God has designed as “holy sexuality”, is it?
Did you notice Paul’s challenge that God honoring living is LEARNED! “Each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable…” Part of the privilege of parenting is parents teaching their children to celebrate their God design! God designed and made them a boy or girl, and parents and grandparents have the privilege to teach little children what it means to enjoy being who God designed and made them to be. It is a scheme of the devil to introduce any thoughts into the minds of children that God made a mistake, or God put a girl inside a boy’s body, or that a child can set aside God’s sovereign design for them and choose which gender they want to be, then go about trying to undo what God has done and remake themselves into something other than what God made!
Now friends, since this is such a big deal in some modern societies, I urge you to give this serious thought from God’s perspective! Don’t be deluded or fooled or deceived into self-destructive thinking. Look around, children are being destroyed by distortion of God’s sovereign, holy design for human sexuality!
Did you notice Paul’s use of the strong word CONTROL? “Each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.” If you are a parent or grandparent, I’m sure you remember the sometimes-challenging process of ‘potty training’ a child. It’s the process of teaching a child to control their bladder and wait until they are at a toilet before expelling their natural human byproducts which are produced by our kidneys, bladder and other digestive system organs. It’s one thing to ‘potty train’ a child during their awake hours, it’s an entirely different struggle to teach children to control their bladders while they are sleeping, am I right? I have a granddaughter who is nearly a teenager and still struggles with nighttime bladder control! I have some male friends who have had prostate cancer and had their prostate surgically removed and they too struggle with bladder control! Controlling our bodies is something we all attempt everyday in many ways, isn’t that true? Do you struggle controlling your diet or your affection for sugar? Do you struggle with an addiction to anything… TV watching, alcohol, smoking, drugs, carbonated beverages, ice cream as a few examples? What does it require of you and me to learn to CONTROL our own bodies, in every way, and live God honoring lives?
Now this is such an important discussion I’m going to stop right here, urging us to think deeply about what we see in this powerful statement of Paul’s, and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow and we’ll continue seeking God’s guidance to think wisely and live God honoring lives in our God given sexuality!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 4:1-5.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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