1 Thessalonians 4-5: What is God's will for me?

We read 1 Thessalonians 4–5 out loud and sit with Paul’s straight talk about holiness, hope, and a life that actually pleases God. We wrestle with “God’s will” as less of a hidden dot to find and more of a direction to live, then we end with a simple question about rejoicing, praying, and gratitude. 
• Paul’s backstory with the Thessalonian church and why he writes with joy 
• God’s will as holiness rather than a perfect personal roadmap 
• Sexual integrity as self-control and honor, not cultural rule-keeping 
• Brotherly love that grows “more and more” through a quiet, steady life 
• Working with your hands, living decently before outsiders, avoiding needless dependence 
• Grief with hope because of Jesus’ death and resurrection 
• The Lord’s return, the day of the Lord, and why Paul says to encourage each other 
• Staying alert and sober as people of the light, anchored in faith, love, and hope 
• Three practices named as God’s will: rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything 

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Transcript

Welcome And Letter Background

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Hey, this is Mike with the Out Loud Bible Podcast. We're reading through the book of First Thessalonians together, really more of a letter than a book. And it's a letter to a church in Thessalonica that Paul wished he had spent more time in, but he was kind of forced out by the local authorities and the religious leaders. And so he didn't get as much time to foster these relationships and really help them dig good, solid roots in the gospel as much as he would like to. And so fortunately, some reports came back from Timothy and others that, hey, you know what? This church in Thessalonica, they're actually doing really well. Yeah, they've had some persecution, but it's actually made them stronger and they're doing really well. And so Paul is just as an overflow of his joy for what he hears of this church, he writes this letter and uh he explains a little bit of the backstory there of uh he was uh sad to have to leave, but he's heard great things and and he hopes to pass on that encouragement to them and come back to them again soon. And here in the last half of the letter, as we read 1 Thessalonians 4 through 5, Paul is going to just give some instructions. Here's how to live a life pleasing to God. It's almost as like the the persecution now is is kind of subsided. And so now what? How do we live as Christians if we're not, you know, trying to protect our own lives all the time? Well, here we go. Here's here's uh some instructions for living as a Christian in light of the gospel. And also there's apparently some concern about those who have died, those who who were uh martyred, perhaps even in uh among the church. And so Paul gives some instructions about here's what to expect about the end of times, the Lord returning, and uh we don't have to worry about those who have, he says fallen asleep, but really referring to those who are dead. And here's what to look forward to when the day of the Lord comes, when Jesus finally comes back. So that is the substance of this last half of the letter. So let's just get into it. This is 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 in the New English Translation. Finally, then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and and urge you in

Readings On Holiness And Hope

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the Lord Jesus that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God, as in fact you are living, that you do so more and more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is God's will, that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who don't know God. In this matter, no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases. As we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly, for God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness. Consequently, the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now, on the topic of brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, and indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, and in this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need. Now, we don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you'll not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive who are left will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. Now, on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you you have no need for anything to be written to you, for you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. Now, when they're saying, Oh, there's peace and security, then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would, for you are all sons of the light and sons of the of the day. We're not of the night, nor of the darkness, so then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, our hope for salvation. For God didn't destine us for wrath, but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us, so that whether we're alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build up each other, just as you're in fact doing. And now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them most highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves, and we urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the undiscipled, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, and be patient toward all. See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what's good for one another and for all. Always rejoice constantly pray in everything, give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Don't extinguish the spirit, don't treat prophecies with contempt, but examine all things, hold fast to what's good, stay away from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this. Brothers and sisters, pray for us too. Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. I call on you solemnly in the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. A nice little nod there at the end for the importance of reading the Bible out loud. Read this letter out loud to all the other brothers and sisters. Glad we get to kind of partake in that even today in this way. But man, there's there's a lot of really great stuff here in these last two chapters of 1 Thessalonians. Um but did you catch twice in what we read today something about this is God's

Rethinking What God’s Will Means

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will? Did you catch that? I read it twice. And it's interesting because we're often going about, like, well, what's God's will for me? You know, what's what's God want me to do? What's God's will? If I can just find God's will, and then I then I can be in God's will, and then I'll know that everything I'm doing is in line with God's will. And it feels like this pressure, right? It feels like this dot that we have to find, and we have to, it's like this target we have to land on. And and if we're not, then we're operating outside of God's will. And if we're in it, then you know, we can just go forward with that. And and it feels like a lot of pressure. And here here's the thing, like God's will, as far as like individual activities or paths or decisions that you make, I I don't think there's much of a dot view of God's will as you think. I think God gives us freedom to make decisions. And we got to make sure that our decisions line up biblically and and that we seek good biblical counsel from and and wisdom from others, and we can make decisions freely, and knowing that our we're not so big that our decisions are gonna mess up God's will and and his desired outcomes. Look, he he gives us uh freedom and creativity to to make decisions. Um, but also there is, as described here in 1 Thessalonians, some things that God does will, and it's not so much specific decisions and activities and choices we make, as much as it is outcomes and ways of living. We see one, 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 says this, for this is God's will, and there's a colon there. So that's like a ooh, you want to know what God's will is? Here, if here it is, let's spell that for us. This is God's will that you become holy. God is way more concerned about your holiness than your happiness, than than individual decisions that you do, as long as we are working toward holiness, then that's God's will. And Paul does get more specific, specifically in the in the in the realm of sexual morality, that this that each of you knows how to possess his body in holiness and honor, not lustfully like every other non-believing pagan out there, I'm paraphrasing, um, and and not violating the rights of of other people or taking advantage of other people. Again, verse 7, God did not call us to impurity but holiness. Anyone who rejects this is actually not even rejecting uh he says human authority, but it doesn't, it's not rejecting cultural norms or human authority or man-made rules. No, it's actually rejecting God. He gives us his holy spirit. How else are we going to become holy except through the Holy Spirit living in us? And this is God's will, becoming holy. It's not even this is God's will that you know all the teachings of Jesus, for this is God's will that you read all the Bible, for this is God's will that you go to church regularly. That's that, I mean, those can certainly help. But that's not God's will. God's will is that you become holy. And that may require taking some things out of your life and and shutting some things down, letting some things die in your life that are not helping you become more holy. It also helps us make decisions for what to do. Well, does this help me become more holy, or is this kind of a compromise in the wrong direction? Well, we can use this to make sure that we're in line with God's heart and God's will, that we become holy. And now that phrase came again in chapter five. And in 18, verse 18, Paul says, For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And it's now at the end of some things he lists, and he lists that, hey, always rejoice,

Rejoice Pray Give Thanks

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constantly pray, and in everything give thanks. There's some other things in that section, you might want to go back and read them, but that's like three bullet points that you know what? If you just did this, if you just rejoice in everything, that doesn't mean you're happy all the time. But like James says, count it all joy when you experience trials of every kind, that kind of joy. Always rejoice. Constantly pray. That's a verse in and of itself. That's if you if you want to memorize scripture, memorize that one. First Thessalonians 5, 17. Ready? We can memorize it together right now. Constantly pray. There you go. You did it. You got it? You memorized a Bible verse today. Good job. Constantly pray. In fact, it's the shortest verse in the Bible, especially in Greek, because that is one word. It's a it's a verb form of the word pray that means ongoing. This is one word. Pray, ongoing. Constantly pray. There's your Bible memory verse for today. And in everything, give thanks. Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything, give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You want to know you're in God's will, that you're doing God's will? Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing, and give thanks for everything. Here's the question. Which one of those three is harder for you? Rejoicing always, praying constantly, or being thankful in everything? Is there one that's harder for you? For me, it's the rejoicing always. I find it hard to keep a that kind of attitude and and mindset when things are going wrong. I'll pray. I'll pray pretty regularly throughout good things, bad things, big things, small things. That's not too much of a struggle for me. And I've learned to be thankful. I could I could grow in that a lot. But I think it's harder for me personally to rejoice in all the things, even when especially when you don't feel like rejoicing. Which of these is harder for you? Pray that God helps you grow in this. It'll probably mean that he gives you an opportunity to have to practice it more. That's okay. That's how he's gonna do his good work. Pray that he helps you grow in these areas. And we can thank him that he's helping us grow to become more holy, which is his will in the first place. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here in the book of First Thessalonians. That was fun, wasn't it? We'll move on to the next one, next time on the Out Loud Bible Podcast.