Live Your Life Looking at Jesus!
Thessalonians 4:1-12 New International Version (NIV)
Living to Please God
4 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, 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.
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Sat. December 5
Sometimes people hear the Gospel and then wonder, “Ok, Jesus did everything to forgive, save, and redeem me. I get that. What now?” I love Paul’s response. Live! Go about your daily life in goodness and love. In verse 11 he says, “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands.” Live a quiet life. A life of going to work, raising a family, going to church, helping your friends, caring for your neighbors, etc. Go to work. Make a living. Support yourself and your family. Mind your own affairs. Stop trying to control everyone and everything. In other words, forgive others rather than try to control them. Love others rather than making demands of them. Give mercy to others rather than holding grudges. Growing in faith means growing to think of yourself less. You are worthless. Jesus died for you! But you are not that important either. Jesus had to die for you! So, let us all look to Jesus and live quiet lives of love and mercy.