Wednesday: According to God’s Design (1 Thess. 4:6-8)
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:6-8. What is Paul saying about sexual immorality?
A man who had been sexually active outside of marriage said to a pastor: “As a young man, I learned to see sex and love as one and the same thing. When I got married, however, I discovered that premarital sex destroys not only your body (I got a venereal disease) but also your mind. Although we are now Christians, my wife and I have had to struggle with the mental and emotional behaviors I brought into our marriage from the past.”
Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com
The Bible’s restrictions are not there because God wants to prevent us from enjoying ourselves. Rather, the restrictions protect us from the physical and emotional damage that occurs as a result of sexual immorality. We restrain ourselves sexually because we care about the impact of our lives on others. Every person is a soul for whom Christ died; they are not to be sexually exploited, in any way. To do so is to sin not only against that person but to sin against God, as well (see Gen. 39:9). Sex is not only about how we treat others but how we treat Christ in the person of others (see also Matt. 25:34-46).
Sex, ultimately, bears upon our relationship with God. It is the Gentiles who do not know God who live lives of passionate lust (1 Thess. 4:5). It is ignorance of God that produces immoral behavior. Those who ignore the Bible’s teachings on this subject reject not only those teachings, but they also reject the call of God and even God Himself (1 Thess. 4:8).
On the other hand, when we follow God’s design, sex becomes a beautiful illustration of the self-sacrificing love that God poured out on us in Christ (see also John 13:34, 35). It is a gift of God and, enjoyed according to God’s will for us, it can powerfully reveal the kind of love God has for humanity and the kind of closeness that He wants with His people.
We are told in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 to live a “holy life.” What is your understanding of what this means? Is this talking about more than just sexual conduct? If so, what else might it include?
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When you live a life of holiness, by succumbing to God's will; you will start to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. In order to do this though, we need to practice temperance with the Spirit's help, starting with how we eat. The more we gain the victory over appetite, is the "cleaner" our vessel becomes. This is something that we cannot do on our own, or we will fail everytime.
Lord Jesus, We thank for wanting us to be whole Christians and whole persons rightly divided in the use of our gifts and talents, in mind, body, and soul that we might be a witness for Jesus Christ our creator and not a stumbling block to others, because of negative behavior. Lord like the man and women couple in this story, bless to be the right Christian Adventist person so I can marry the right Christian Adventist person, and not lose in the process of trying to live for Jesus, because that is all that matters, so that I will be ready to marry the right Christian who wants to live for Jesus because that is all that matters, without abuse of any kind or divorce for any reason, but married in a relationship that will last for eternity; that my mother may be able to see both me and my brother marred to Christian Adventist mates before she and I are too old to know the differences, for all the right reasons and not just to have sex, amen!
All the topics are good and edifying.
Oh saints this lesson its very powerful what I get from it is that as a person you start to check your relationship with how strong its it. If you look at the sex as so strong that it can take a very powerful man down spiritually we need to pray hard saints the devil is bringing this thing to us.
I was also deeply touched by the story of the young man...no wonder the divorce rate is so high, we bring our past sexual spirits into our newly found love without asking for forgiveness from God first (1John 1:9). The devil knows how much we as humans love pleasure and he is using it as his number one tool to destroy us. I mean how do you pray if you know every now and then you can't control your body? and in that way your walk with Christ suddenly takes a back seat! So help us God not to reject Your words!
Thank you for such a lesson, I never benefited much from bible study guides, not this time, this is walking practical lesson, it's plain and simple.