Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

This passage is another sobering reminder that every Christian’s call to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification (i.e. making us more like Jesus in holiness) extends very expressly to the area of our sexuality and sexual activity.

The statement, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified,” tells us that God deeply desires us to not only receive His gift of the status of holiness (through faith in Jesus Christ), but also to be transformed in such a way that our outward life lines up with our set-apart status in God’s eyes. As v.7 says, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

Because we are set apart to God through our faith in Jesus, God calls us to live up to this set-apartness in every area of our lives. In other places in Scripture, the focus falls on being transformed into the image of Christ in qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

Here in 1 Thessalonians 4 (and elsewhere), Scripture makes it clear that this transformation is to include our sexuality. And according to this passage the major focus of that commitment to being transformed into sexual holiness is to “learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust” (v.4-5a). It is a question of not allowing our base passions to determine our actions, but allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us to do so by choosing to use our bodies only in ways that are pleasing to God (i.e., holy and honourable).

Holy Spirit, help me today to bring glory and honour to Jesus in the area of sexuality, in my every thought, word and deed. In His mighty Name and for His glory, I pray. Amen!