The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received

from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel

still more.

2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these

things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.”

8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

How good is good? If our spiritual and moral attitudes and actions are pleasing to God, how can they be improved?

As we read through the verses above, we have to acknowledge to ourselves (if not to others) that we indeed have room for improvement. Paul cites the “commandments” the LORD gave the Thessalonians by way of Paul. These

are not the Ten Commandments. They are further instructions that the LORD gave Paul to pass on to the Thessalonians.

It is the will of God that we be sanctified; i.e., that we improve more and more with each day. We are to abstain from

immoralities by learning how to control ourselves. Thessalonica was a city in Greece, and the Greeks were Gentiles.

So, Paul is citing the difference here between Greek Christians and the Greek pagans, who “do not know God.” Spiritual control commences with the mind, and the Christians were not to defraud or take advantage of others, whether they be believers or not. They were to yield their minds to LORD, who is the avenger in all things that go against His will.

Finally, Paul notes that the person or persons who continue in impurity are not going against him, but against the LORD! It is the LORD who gave us the Holy Spirit; and it is that same Holy Spirit who teaches us to conform to the will of the Father. So, we all need to “listen up!” We have to be something before we can do anything. And we have to become nothing before we can become something, that is pleasing and glorifying to the LORD! Yes, it takes effort; still, the LORD provides all of that. We are just required to trust and obey.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”