BibleDiscipleship

The Plainly-Stated Will of God for You

Sometimes we run across very plainly-stated ideas in Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is a good example:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

What is God’s will for your life? That you would be holy, as he is holy. That you would walk in the light, as he is in the light. That you would allow him to heal, purify, and transform you into a reflector of his light in this world that is so full of darkness and despair. God’s will for your life is that you would live for him.

Paul immediately goes on to describe what “your sanctification” ought to practically look like:

…that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. (1 Thes 4:3-7)

This is the will of God for you. To drive the point emphatically home, Paul makes sure his audience (ancient and modern) understands: this is an urging “in the Lord Jesus” (1 Thes 4:1). These are instructions “through the Lord Jesus” (1 Thes 4:2). Whoever disregards these instructions “disregards not man but God” (1 Thes 4:8).

This is the plainly-stated will of God for you and me: sanctification. In all that we say and do today, may we follow the lead of Jesus: “Not my will, but yours, be done.”

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