This is the will of God, your sanctification.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:3 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 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. ² For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵ not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ 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. ⁷ For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. ⁸ So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹ 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; ¹⁰ for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, ¹¹ 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, ¹² so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

5 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. ² For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. ³ While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

In today’s text it says:  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 in 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.  God’s plan, His desire; His will for us is not only that we would be saved; that we would be forgiven for our sins, but His will is that we would be redeemed, saved and sanctified from our sins. Jesus didn’t die just so that we could have eternal life, but as He says in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  The abundant life Christ gives is a sanctified life; a life free from immorality and impurity.  Those who choose to continue in sin and immorality are not rejecting the religious regulations of man, but rather the will of God. They reject the love of God demonstrated in the cross. Those who know the greatness of His grace, yet choose to continue in sin rather than walking in sanctification, despise the sacrifice of Christ.

The text gives us assurance in and about these uncertain times that we live in. We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.   It is difficult when we lose those we love in this life. It is normal and natural that we grieve and mourn their absence from our lives. If God didn’t know that we would grieve, He would not have made the promise from Matthew 5:4 when Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Our comfort is that regardless of what this world brings, those who die in this life, will be raised with Christ, if they believed. Jesus words to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise,” are a comfort to us, that Jesus will continue to reveal Himself even to the time of our last breath. In John 16:33 Jesus says:  “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  Romans 8:35-39 says:  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.  We need not concern ourselves with where we are in the time line of Christ’s return. We need only to concentrate and focus on where we are in our day by day walk in sanctification; in being transformed and conformed to His image. We need only to walk in the abundance of His grace, perfected in Him.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for the power of the cross and the resurrection, that I might be raised to eternal life at the end of this time and also that I might walk in the fullness of the abundant life You came to give; fully sanctified in Your grace.  Amen.