1 Thessalonians 4

SCRIPTURE

 ¹ 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.

OBSERVATION

Paul urged the Thessalonians, and all believers, to excel in Christian living more and more, but only when believers nurture the new nature with its desire for God do they attain the kind of spiritual progress Paul had in mind.

UNDERSTANDING

There is always a danger of Christians thinking they have no further need to progress in becoming more like Christ; but this side of eternity, no believer has even come close to what God desires for him spiritually.  A strong church, like the one in Thessalonica, might have been tempted to settle for the spiritual status quo because thanks to Paul’s solid instruction when he was with them, the saints were living exemplary lives and he had commended them for that (1 Thess. 1:2–4, 7; 2:13–14). As a result, they might have thought their condition was ideal and in no need of improvement. But Paul knew they could do better and encouraged them accordingly.

He was not satisfied even with his own progress:

• Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:12–14)

LIFE APPLICATION

I want to encourage you, Desert Streams Church: Keep pressing onward and upward to know Christ.  Spend time in prayer and study of His Word.  Meditate on the things of God.  Put aside time just to be with Him.

Make spending time in with the family of God a priority.