Sermon Notes:
1. We need to stay on the rails and maintain our boundaries when life rocks us. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2)
2. What having good boundaries looks like with regard to those on the outside: holiness. Holiness means disengagement from immorality. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)
3. What having good boundaries looks like, with regard to those on the inside: love. Love means meeting the needs of others and not just your own. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)
4. What having good boundaries looks like as we engage a fallen world: diligence and civility. The behavior of God’s people should win the respect of those who live in the darkness. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).
Follow-up Questions from Sunday:
Quick Review:
Looking back at your notes from this week’s teaching, was there anything you heard for the first time or that caught your attention, challenged, or confused you?
Digging Deeper:
1. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Paul tells the Thessalonians to pursue sanctification and avoid immorality, but at the same time, to be hard workers and win the respect of outsiders. This seems to echo Jesus’ prayer in John 17:14-19. This is a prayer for you, too. How has Jesus’ prayer been answered in your life? Share an example of being in the world but not of it.
2. The specific example Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 is sexual immorality. This issue keeps popping up in his other letters, due to the pervasive influence of pagan culture and the fact that, in Greek philosophy, the body (which commits sins) was sometimes thought to be less important than the soul (which existed on a higher plane, separate from sin). Read 1 Cor 6:18-20. How does Paul disarm this argument?
3. Paul doesn’t just tell the Thessalonians to live diligent and productive lives (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12); he references himself as an example. It seems the problem he mentions in 1 Thessalonians is still happening when he writes 2 Thessalonians. Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-7. Now go back and read 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12. What is the connection between faith, morality, evangelism, and how we live our everyday lives?
4. Maintaining holiness (boundaries between our lives and non-Christian values and behavior) is tricky, given that we have a mission to spread the gospel. Paul nonetheless talks about this in 2 Corinthians 6:13-18. These boundaries might look different for different people. What are some lines you draw in your own life for holiness?
5. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10. Love is a recurring theme in Paul’s letters. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Galatians 5:13-14, 22; Ephesians 3:17-19; 4:15-16; 5:1-2. List some reasons, based on Paul’s instructions to the churches he founded, why love is an essential characteristic of God’s children.