August 22, 2023

Sanctification Isn’t Passive

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. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Did you know that the purpose of God’s salvation isn’t just to save you from hell and get you into heaven? His priority is to shape you into the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29). But God doesn’t do everything for us—we have to participate in the process with Him. Sadly, however, a lot of Christians have a passive attitude that tolerates sin and makes excuses.

When you got saved, you began your walk with Jesus, but you also stepped into spiritual warfare with Satan. The last thing our enemy wants is someone who loves the Lord and tells others about Him.

Yet many believers don’t live a holy life. In fact, some of them look and act just like the unbelieving world. In today’s passage, sexual immorality is one area of compromise that the apostle Paul addressed specifically. But in truth, we should abstain from anything that interferes with godly living.

Have you allowed something in your life that shouldn’t be there? If so, distance yourself from it now. You don’t want a thread of sin to become a rope, then a chain, and finally a cable that traps you in a stronghold. Turn back to the Lord, and let your sanctification continue.

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