Living to Please God

Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4.1-12
Sometimes we hear some outrageous stories. Here is one I shared with our Alpha groups this week for their final sessions.

Every year, Stumpy and his wife Martha went to the State Fair. And every year, Stumpy would say, "Martha, I'd like to ride in that there airplane." And every year, Martha would reply, "I know, Stumpy, but that airplane ride costs ten dollars, and ten dollars is ten dollars."

This one year Stumpy and Martha went to the fair and Stumpy said, "Martha, I'm 71 years old. If I don't ride that airplane this year I may never get another chance." Martha replied, "Stumpy, that there airplane ride costs ten dollars, and ten dollars is ten dollars."

The pilot overheard them and said, "Folks, I'll make you a deal. I'll take you both up for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say one word, I won't charge you, but if you say one word it's ten dollars." Stumpy and Martha agreed, and up they went.

The pilot performed all kinds of twists and turns, rolls and dives, but not a word is heard. He even does a nose dive, pulling up 15 feet above the ground, but still not a word. They land and the pilot turns to Stumpy, "By golly, I did everything I could
think of to get you to yell out, but you didn't."

Stumpy replied, "Well, I was gonna say something when Martha fell out… but ten dollars is ten dollars!" (story as told by Owner-LaughALot@ListFarm.com 23 Oct. 1999).

Quite a story! Stumpy and Martha had quite a swag of problems. Both of them were lacking in real care for one another's needs.

What is the basic motivation of our life? Why do we do things really? Are we driven by money, pleasure, popularity, ambition…?

Pleasing God

The passage we are going to look at talks about a life that pleases God. That is rather different from the way our lives operate most of the time.

The apostle Paul seems to have trouble finishing what he needs to say. Chapter 3 begins "finally", as does chapter 4. "…you learnt from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, how you have been living" (1 Thess. 4.1).

Do you think that is good motivation for living? If you have been redeemed, if you have come to recognise that Christ has given his all for you, how should that change your life? What next? That's what Paul is talking about here. Sometimes people suggest it is an unworthy motive - to do something because you want to please God. But we are meant to please God. It is not that we are making God love us - he loves us already. "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Rom. 5.8) - that is the amazing love of God.

In writing to the Ephesians, Paul writes, "For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it" (Eph. 2.8-9). When we are talking about pleasing God, it is not so that we can earn our way into God's favour. Rather, it is because we have received the grace and love of God poured out upon us in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what fires our living. Think of what we want to do for the God who loves us. Yet we can only do it by God's grace - because he gives us his grace and his Spirit - the grace that forgives us, the Spirit who empowers us and leads us forward.

"And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more" (1 Thess. 4.1c).

Behind the Scenes

We don't know all the things that were happening in Thessalonica. But obviously there were some problems among the people in that church. As we will see later in this chapter, they had the idea that Jesus was going to come soon. Then all of a sudden Christians started to die. Are they missing out on what is going to happen when the Lord returns? That's not so at all. Don't be worried about them. We need to be ready for the Lord's coming. There are a number of very practical instructions he gives in chapter 5.

There is a particular problem relating to sexual immorality. "God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality" (1 Thess. 4.3). "Sexual immorality" has to do with any use of the sexual part of our nature which is contrary to the way God has intended it to be. Our sexuality is particularly designed by God to be expressed within the marriage of a man and a woman for life. That is the purpose of God. God's grace is available to bring forgiveness for all kinds of sin, but where people continue to live in some other situation is a violation of God's purpose for us. God wants us to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality.

Notice verses 4 and 5, "Each of you men should know how to live with his wife in a holy and honourable way, not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God." Some people have the idea that the only purpose of marriage is to legalise human lust. But that's not the purpose of marriage at all. Within marriage, the expression of our sexuality is to be a giving of ourselves, rather than an attitude of seeking for ourselves.

"In this matter, then [this gives us a little hint of what may have been happening in the Thessalonian church], no man should do wrong to his fellow-Christian or take advantage of him. We have told you this before, and we strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that. God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness. So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit" (vv. 6-8).

It is a very serious matter, but we come with our lives to the Lord. He sees us and knows us. He understands us. He understands the feelings that we have. But God has designed us. When we live in the purity and faithfulness that Paul is talking about here, it's not like standing on your head or doing handstands. We can have the idea that the Christian life is acting abnormally. But the Christian life is the most normal life in the world.

In the final Alpha session, Nicky Gumbel quotes someone who was asked, "Why are you a Christian?" to which he gave the reply, "So that I can be truly human." This is how God has designed us. God has made us for holiness and godliness. He has called us to that out of whatever other forms of lifestyle we may have had. Remember the old hymn with the refrain, "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!" No matter who we are, to be away from God is to be away from home. To return to God is to come home.

Practical Christian Living

So we come on to verses 9 and 10. Paul has been talking about a life that pleases God and about a particular concern in the Thessalonian church. Now he moves on specifically, "There is no need to write to you about love for your fellow-believers. You yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another. And you have, in fact, behaved like this towards all the brothers and sisters in all Macedonia. So we beg you, our brothers and sisters, to do even more."

Love for one another. He's not talking about sexual love, but Christian love - that genuine care, that reaching out that doesn't try to manipulate in any way the other person, that reaches out genuinely with the love of Christ. By his word and his Holy Spirit God has instructed you - "taught by God how you should love one another."

Do you allow God to teach you? Do you read the Word? Let it soak in. Begin reading with a prayer, "Lord, teach me what I need to know about the Christian life. Teach me what I need to know about care for other Christians. Teach me what I need to know about relationships with others as I enter into the life of this world. Teach me, Lord!" And as we read, let it be with the consciousness that God the Holy Spirit is present to enable us to translate into reality the things that we are taught. I trust that we are all allowing the Lord to teach us, allowing his Spirit to empower us.

The Christian life is the most normal life that there is, but we have a whole lot of baggage that Christ died on the cross to get rid of and that we have to be willing to lay aside. It has no rightful place in our lives, no power over our lives except the power that we give it. Lay it aside. Lay it at the foot of the cross. Then step forward in the power of the Holy Spirit to do what the Lord is teaching us to do. We are taught by the Lord. He is teaching us - coaching us in how to live.

A previous parish bought an old 37-seater Bedford bus. A number of people went about getting their bus licences. I was the first one to get my licence on that bus. I recall a women's prayer group who met the morning I had to go for my test. In their prayer for me, one of the women prayed, "Lord Jesus, just set in Peter's seat and hold his hands while he is holding onto the steering-wheel!" That was an unusual way of praying for my need. Yet that is what the Christian life is like. We are allowing the Lord Jesus to guide us, to control us, to empower us… We need the will that seeks his will so that we enable him to do that.

"Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before" (v. 11).

What are you like at doing all those things? To live a quiet life… Some people are all the time stirring up trouble. To mind your own business… What is this saying about the church in Thessalonica? What were the people doing that causes Paul to write this? Were they meddling in other people's affairs? And to earn your own living… This comes up later in the letter, because there were people saying that "the Lord's coming again! I don't have to work. You can look after me." They were "sponging" on all the other Christians. Paul is saying, "Don't do that. Earn your own living. Stand on your own feet." That was a special word to the Thessalonian situation where those people weren't living as they should. We are meant to be caring for one another, for anyone who is in need.

"In this way you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need" (v. 12).

All of us in society depend on one another a great deal. We do what we can. These people were just sitting idly by doing nothing, not lifting a finger to care for themselves. That is a very different matter.

So then what does it mean to live a life that pleases God? It means, first of all knowing that God loves us. We have to understand the grace of God for us. We have to begin there or we think of pleasing God in order somehow to earn his favour. A life that pleases God is a life that flows from his grace, that flows from his Holy Spirit within. This is very different from saying, "Now let me see. I think I owe someone else a good turn today." Does our life flow from the grace of God?

Well, ten dollars is ten dollars. We would like to know what happened to poor old Martha. Stories like that keep us guessing how it all ended up! Ten dollars is ten dollars. What motivates us? May our lives spring from the life of God - the grace of God for us, the Spirit of God within us.


© Peter J. Blackburn, Maroochydore Uniting Church, 31 October 1999
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © International Bible Society, 1992.

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