Living to Please God

Lately I was reading from Paul's First letter to the Thessalonians. As I read the following verses and .looked at the original Greek, it was apparent the NASB translation was more accurate - and that is what follows:

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 NASB
[1] "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.

My reflections are two-fold, first the encouragement to live to please God is such a simple request, but yet so important. Our lives are not our own (Col 3:3), and as such, we should live our lives in attempt to please the Lord, in whom we now live. This is like saying to someone who just got married, to live like they are married now. Our lives have changed and we have joined ourselves to someone (The Lord), and we should live that way now. Living that way includes trying to please the person we have joined ourselves to - simple to understand but sometimes requiring us to die to our own desires and inclinations, in order to please the other person.

This leads me to my second reflection, if we have now joined ourselves to the Lord then we need to live that way in the area of our physical affections as well. Once again the marriage analogy is helpful, as in marriage we are called to limit our affections to the one we have joined yourself to, so here Paul makes the same statement. Sanctification literally means to separate oneself, and that is Paul's encouragement - that we sanctify ourselves, separate ourselves from the way we used to live, as one does when they marry. We are no longer free to seek affections from any one else other than our spouse. We live our lives and limit ourselves in our affections, and that is the heart of what Paul is saying. If we have joined ourselves to the Lord, than He is the one who is offended when we stray, or cause others to stray, and why He will avenge that wrong.

As I have said many times, the core of Christianity is relationship. Where we could apply a very religious and rule orientated view of these passages, I find it much easier to understand in the relationship context. In the first verse, Paul talks about the instructions they gave to help people understand how to live out their faith, in this marriage analogy that would be like receiving pre and post marriage counseling on how to learn to live as a married couple. Although this joining oneself to another seems self-evident, not everything is easy, nor has it been modeled correctly for us all. Instruction is very helpful in all phases of a marriage, and something that even couples married for decades can benefit from in their lives.

So let us live our lives in such a way as they please the one that we have joined our lives to - the Lord.