Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 (NIV)
Living to Please God
4 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. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. 9 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. 10 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, 11 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, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
We saw Peter and John being bold disciples in yesterday’s devotion. Should we be bold? Yes. But with humility. Why? “So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders” (1 Thess. 4:12). Boldness to tell of God’s grace is good, but not if our lives undermine the message! If you are at your child or grandchild’s sporting event and you scream at the referees or players, your behavior might not bring respect from outsiders. If your fellow coworker knows you are a Christian, but you gossip and belittle others in the office they might lose respect for Christians or their God! Instead, is your “ambition” to live a quiet life and “mind your own business?” Let us pray for a boldly “quiet” discipleship that glorifies and honors God, not ourselves and our own agendas!