with Elder Elico Manenji
✝️In this chapter, the Apostle Paul teaches about God’s will, that is fleeing from fornication, adultery and any appearance of evil.
The true Christian continues to grow and progress towards holiness as they increase their relationship and knowledge of God and one another. Believers should live controllable lives and not behave like pagans who do not restrain their sexual passions.
Sexual immorality is a sin against others and God as well, God’s purpose in calling people to himself is to make them holy.
For this reason God gives His Holy Spirit to live within their bodies, to resist the work of the Spirit in our lives invite the judgment of condemnation.
Believers should not be busy bodies neither grieve for those who had died as people without hope. For the living are not at an advantage to the dead at the coming of Christ.
As Christ died and rose from the dead, so all who have died in the hope of the second coming will be raised first, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then those who will be living will be caught up in the clouds with the raised dead to meet the Lord in the air. This is the hope of the believers which should be always be their comfort.
1️⃣1 Thessalonians 4:1-12: Believers live to please and do the will of God.
⏹️Purity and holiness should be the perfection of the Christian character. Pure and holy life, without blemish is the jewel of the saints.
The Apostle thus commends believers to walk in Christ by a living faith and a holy conversation.
The Apostle Peter says, "But as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation"(1Peter 1:15).
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness"(2 Peter 3:11).
⏹️Religion is a higher call to sanctity which consists of living under Divine approval.
Religion of God is doing His will, to abstain from adultery and fornication which is a sin against God and mankind.
The Apostle says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor"
(1Thessalonians 4:3-4).
⏭️Pure religion is a daily walk towards a goal of sanctification. It is a life not based on luxury but of progressing towards the mark of our calling.
The Apostle says, "But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption"(1Corinthians 1:30).
⏭️Religion is a life modelled and patterned after the worthy example of Christ and all the saints that have passed through this journey.
The Apostle Peter says, "For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps"(1Peter 2:21).
2️⃣1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: The Lord's second coming is the hope of believers.
⏹️The Apostle urges believers not to be ignorant of their calling and hope, they are not to grieve and sorrow as people without hope.The Apostle does not here forbid sorrow for the Scriptures do not destroy tender human passions.
The Apostle says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:11-13).
⏭️The sorrow for the dead that is aggravated by ignorance of their future destiny is the one he forbids. The believers should not be like the heathens who have no knowledge of the future life and so grieve without hope of a future life or resurrection.
That believer sorrow for their dead in Christ is soothed and moderated by the great truth of a future life after death in Jesus Christ which is the blessed hope.
Jesus said, "And shall come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation"(John 5:29).
⏫That the believer should know that death is a sleep, and progression of life towards immortality.
That if death is a sleep, they which are dead are at rest from their labours, the toil of their life will be ended as they wait for the harvest of their work at the resurrection of the just and bad. All will be raised to experience their labours whether it be good or bad but not at the same resurrection.
The Apostle says, "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope"(1Thessalonians 4:13).
⏹️As sleep has an anticipation of waking up in a new day, believers commit their departed friends and relatives to the grave in a sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. The Apostle says, "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"(1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
⏭️That the dead in Christ will be raised from their holy slumber and share in the glory of His second advent when the trumpet shall sound.
That the resurrection of the dead is a Divine work after a Divine appointment, for they will be redeemed from the power of the grave at the call of Christ.
The prophet Daniel was told, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever"(Daniel 12:2-3).
⏫That the living saints will not be at an advantage but that the dead saints will be raised first and the raised saints and the living saints will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
The Apostle says, "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
⏭️That the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a sure pledge of the restoration and future blessedness of all who sleep in Him. That the resurrection of the dead will not be a private event, but audible, visible and touching event for all to see, hear and feel.
The Angel announced, "You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven"(Acts 1:11).
⏫That if we believe that Christ Himself is the Resurrection and Life, then the Word of God sheds a more clear light across the darkness of the grave, and opens a radiant with hope and immortal blessedness.
This is our hope, and all who believe and so it is a blessed hope, it is a vital knowledge of Christ that silences every murmur and prepares for every emergency in this life.
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live"(John 11:25).
🅰️Appeal
The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope that is enough to balance all our griefs and sorrows upon the event of death.
The second coming of Christ is a high permeating into the darkness, that the dead are asleep on Christ, that death can not annihilate those that have made a covenant with Jesus in His death, resurrection and life.
The comfort we have is the dead are retired out of this troublesome world to rest from all their labours and sorrows as they sleep in Jesus waiting for that glorious day, the resurrection of the just at the trumpet call. You too can be part of this blessed hope, only believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.
The Apostle says, "That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved"(Romans 10:9). Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
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