To Be One in Christ: We Have Treasure in the Jars of Clay -- the Series of Explanation and Analysis of Scripture (9) -- part I
The Explanation and Analysis of Some of the Verses in 1 THESSALONIANS -- part I
“ because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 1:5 )
We preach Gospel, not by empty words, but to show the mighty power of God, with the Holy Spirit, and with our deep conviction. The words of God that being preached are not just some simple principles, and must have the “power”, enlighten and convict in the mind of people so that people will lie prostrate and admit their sins. Those who preach the words of God should immerse themselves and be filled with the words of God first, and let the words of God put into effect on themselves first; then, they will be able to give out the words with power. In another word, those who preach the words of God should be the first to obey the words of God. Without the work of Holy Spirit, the words that we preach will be in vain and ineffective. Holy Spirit not only exposes the sins of men, but also testifies about Savior LORD Jesus Christ. If we want to testify about LORD, besides the dwelling in of the Holy Spirit, we also need the Holy Spirit overflowing (coming on) to get the spiritual power (Act 1:8). Preaching Gospel needs “deep conviction”. The apostles not only fulfill their duty to preach the Gospel, but also live the Gospel wholeheartedly. The life they live for the sake of others, is the best testimony for the Gospel they preach. The believers should live a life carefully for the sake of the worldly people -- we must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel (Php 1:27). One who lives a life at ease, could not produce effective results in preaching Gospel. Faith in addition with deeds can give good testimony about LORD; for the worldly people could not see God, but could only see those people who are with God.
“ You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 1:6 )
The joy given by the Holy Spirit is the fruit produced by being filled with Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). Even in “severe suffering”, there is still the “joy”. It is obvious that this joy is not because of the favorable circumstance, but simply because of the Holy Spirit. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ” (Rom 15:13).
If a Christian is not willing to suffer for the Gospel, he can not taste how wonderful and rich is the joy given through the Holy Spirit in the suffering by God.
“ And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 2:13 )
What we preach, is not the word of men, but the word of God. It is not by relying on the eloquence and the knowledge to make it interesting and impressive; it is not to show off ourselves; it is by the Holy Spirit to send the word of God to the hearts of people. The word of God in the mind of those who continually rely on God becomes the strength continually at work. The word of God is in us; it is the biggest resource when we endure the tests and sufferings. When the words of God work in us to a extent, our minds and thoughts, even the whole person of us, will be controlled by the words of God so that we can surpass the circumstance and overcome.
“It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-8)
The will of God is that those who are redeemed by Him should live a sanctified life according to the divine nature (2Pe 1:4); and be set apart from all the things outside God and belong to God completely. For this purpose, God give the Holy Spirit to us, to help us and to make us be completely holy. The purpose of God to choose us and make us as the citizen of the kingdom of heaven is that we can understand and obey the will of God; so that the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mat 6:10). Therefore, we believers should value the will of God. As to the Christians live in this world, they should obey the will of God on everything; thus, our living and life will be valuable. May God equip us with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ (Heb 13:21). God created men in His own image , so that we can show Him (Rom 9:23). If we want to recover the image created by God in Christ, we should sanctify ourselves, for God is completely holy. As to whatever makes us impure, we never need to particularly seek whether it is the will of God or not, for it is always against the will of God. It is God's will that we should be sanctified. Holiness is on the contrary to the sinful and evil desires. Therefore, we must get rid of the sinful and evil desires. The temptation of the “sexual immorality” is more severe and general than the temptation of any other sins and evils. The believers should be especially cautious. To avoid the temptation and do not come to the temptation is the secret to overcome the sins and evils. We should flee the evil desires, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2Ti 2:22).
Every believer should honor the body of himself and control it well so that to make it useful to the Master and prepare to do any good work . Any sexual immorality and indulgence in the sinful nature and evil desires, is a behavior that dishonor others and the body of oneself. The body of the believer is the member of the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit and is brought at a price. Therefore, do not commit any sexual promiscuous sins and indulge in the selfish desires and sinful nature; but should use it to honor God. The best way for the believers to actively use their own bodies is to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, let the holy life of Christ take the charge in them and live a holy life to please God, and offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness (Rom 6:14,19).
Do not indulge “in passionate lust ”. “Passionate lust” originally is “the lust of concupiscence”. In the beginning, when God created men, He gave men all kinds of normal desires and instincts in their bodies; for example, the appetite makes one take the food to live and grow up; the sexual urge makes men and women attracted to each other and multiply the mankind through the marriage. However, these desires and instincts are used by sins because of the fall of men and become shameful lust, as a presumptuous guest usurps the host’s role and make men do a lot of unreasonable things. These desires that are out of normal control are the “passionate lust ”. Self-pride is a kind of “passionate lust ” that is often ignored by people. The mores of society are declining daily. As to the believers live in such a corrupted and depraved society, they must not drift with the current, but should show different style and testimony from the worldly people. The behavior of the Christians should be different from the worldly people, for the worldly people do not know God, but we know God. The more the Christians know God, the more they will know how to behave in the household of God; that is, the more they will show God in their bodies.
“The Lord will punish”; it indicates that LORD will judge those who do wrong (Col 3:25), and give them the corresponding punishment. The fear of the judgment and punishment of LORD is one of our motives to keep pure and clean. “The Lord will punish ”; “God will give to each person according to what he has done.” (Rom 2:6) and all humans will hand over the accounts of their conducts in front of the throne of Christ in the end, including the Christians (1Pe 4:17).
Do not indulge in the passionate lust and selfish desires. It will not only do harm to others, but also offend God. As to those who do not obey the teachings of LORD and do wrong in the eyes of the righteous God, God will punish.
In the church, one must not wrong his brother, with words, deeds or attitude; whoever does harm to the brothers, LORD will judge and punish (Mat 18:6,10; 24:48-51).
Some people have the wrong concepts and prefer the ministry to talk more about the positive words in the church -- “do what”, while talk less about the passive and negative words -- “do not do what”. However, the teachings of God in the Bible is not in this way. The warnings and reminders proclaimed by the watchmen are an important part in the scriptures of the Bible. Only those who know their sins, confess their sins and repent, are those who understand the will of God and are truly saved.
The purpose of the calling on men from God is to set men apart from the impurity and make them holy; this is another reason that the believers should keep pure, clean and holy. The salvation from God is to make us be separated from sins, but is absolutely NOT a permission for us to set our mind at ease to continue in living in sins. Therefore, we must not rely on the grace of the forgiveness of God and dare to be contaminated by the impurity. That is a foolish, self-hurting and killing, and self-deceived concept.
“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.” (1Jo 3:7).
Since the believers have the holy life of Christ in us, we should let Christ in us be in charge and live a sanctified life. Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Php 2:5) and we should do what please Christ.
“but (reject) God, who gives you his Holy Spirit”, it implies that: (1) the purpose that God give Holy Spirit to us is to sanctify us; (2) Holy Spirit works in us; His main work is to make us holy.
God give the Spirit of Christ to each believer, in order to sanctify us so that we can live in accordance to the Holy Spirit, follow Christ, and become holy to be one in Christ (1Co 6:17; Eph 3:6). Living in the passionate lust and sins is equal to rejecting God, and especially rejecting the Holy Spirit. As to such persons, if they do not repent, they will be rejected by God in front of the throne of Christ in the final judgment. To deny oneself and take up one’s own cross daily to follow LORD (Luk 9:23) and live by the Spirit, that is the secret of the believers to be able to live a sanctified life (Rom 8:6, 13-14). If we look upon Christ, let the life of Christ take the charge in us, and live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature any more (Gal 5:16).
“ You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:5-6)
There is the particularity of the light in the believers -- the Spirit of Christ. “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” (1Jo 4:13). Therefore, the Christians should not live in the darkness any longer, for they do not belong to the darkness. The problem of the Christians is, although we have the life of light that belong to God, we often put it aside and still live by the corrupted and natural life of ourselves. Therefore, we still live in the darkness. Only by truly denying oneself and carrying the cross to follow LORD everyday, and breaking the jars of clay, we can let Christ’s life of the light in us to show. The Spirit of Christ is the treasure in us, and is also the attraction in front of us. We should carry the cross to follow LORD, go out of the darkness and enter into the light, to become sons of the light.
Since the Christians have the life and particularity of the light and day (1Th 5:5), as long as we make every effort to be one in Christ and are alert and prepared all the time, we can meet LORD with confidence at any time. Being “asleep” (refers to the deep sleep of the spirit) should not be the situation of the Christians. Therefore, no matter what, we must always “be alert and self-controlled”; this is the reminder and requirement of God to us.
“ He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:10 )
The redemption through the death of LORD Jesus Christ changes the meaning and the purpose of our life. We do not live for ourselves any longer (Rom 14:7; 2Co 5:15). Due to the union of life to Christ, the believers produce the same phenomenon of life as Christ. Due to the death of Christ as the substitute, we received His life of resurrection. No matter how is our current situation in spirit or in the body, we can all get back to LORD and live together with LORD in His life of resurrection. We have the life of Christ in us (2Ti 1:14; 1Jo 4:13), and we can live together with LORD all the time. The redemption of Christ through His death, allows us to be able to enter the effective relationship of being one in Christ: for every believer of us, we have the life of Christ in us. To live together with LORD is the secret for the believers to be alert and self-controlled. By relying on ourselves, we are not able to be alert and self-controlled; however, by living together with LORD, we are able to be alert and self-controlled to live a life. To be alert and self-controlled and to make every effort to be holy, we can be one in Christ.
“ And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:14-15)
To those who do not follow the laws, commandments, and words of God, we should warn and admonish them. There are members in the church who are timid and weak, and we should encourage and support each other. The strong one should always understand and undertake the weakness of others (Rom 14:1-15; 1Co 8:13); do not look down on them or abandon them. To admonish, warn, encourage and support others, we should be patient and help them to the end with love.
Actually, no one is good--except God alone (Mat 19:17; Mar 10:18; Luk 18:19). To “try to be kind ” is to treat others in the same way that we want God treat us. In the church, no matter how others treat us, even with bad treatments, we should not act in the way of tooth for tooth. The Christians should always overcome evil with good. Taking a revenge is absolutely not a way that the Christians should choose. The Christians are called to forgive others (Mat 5:38-42; 18:21-35). Natural instinct for natural instinct, is evil for evil. To treat others with the divine nature of the life of God is to try to be kind.
“ Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
If we rejoice in things of this world, our joy will be constantly changing. However, if we rejoice in God and things about God only, we are able to be joyful always. The joy of Christians comes from what has been accomplished by Christ, and it is lasting.
“your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. ” (Psa 45:7)
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 15:13)
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ” (Php 4:4)
The Christians should keep the close communion with God frequently and live a life that “remain in LORD” (Joh 15:4-7). The Christians should continually give thanks to God in the prayers, cast our cares on God, and continually experience the deeds of God in the prayers. Prayer is the spiritual breath of the believers; just as the breath of the body can not stop, the spiritual breath can not stop either. If in everything, a Christian always responds after a silent prayer to God, he will see that the gracious hand of God is upon him.
Apart from God, we have no good thing; therefore, we should give thanks to the grace of God in all circumstances. The Christians should always give thanks to God for everything in all the circumstances. If we admit that we actually have nothing originally by ourselves, we will give thanks to God for even a little we have at present. We have the life of Christ in us, and we should live a heavenly life: (1) Be joyful always; (2) pray continually; (3) give thanks in all circumstances. Such a life, is the will of God predestined for us.
“ Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. ” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:19-22)
The inspiration of the Holy Spirit could be put out or extinguished by us; therefore, it requires the cooperation of the believers. The more the believers are obedient to the Holy Spirit, the more prosperous the fire of the Holy Spirit will be. If the believers are hard and indomitable, and resist the Holy Spirit, the fire of the Holy Spirit will be put out.
The proper preaching of the prophecies is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, treating prophecies with contempt is equal to putting out the fire of the Holy Spirit. Being fond of hearing the preaching does not equal to thinking highly of the prophecies; hearing the words without doing the words is to treat prophecies with contempt.
The Bible teaches our Christians to test everything, including: (1) thinking the preaching of the prophecies carefully and distinguishing clearly (1Co 14:29); (2) distinguishing between spirits (1Co 12:10); (3) testing the spirits to see whether they are from God or not(1Jo 4:1); (4) testing and approving what God's will is(Rom 12:2); (5) finding out what pleases the Lord (Eph 5:10).
As to the preaching of the prophecies, after the test, what is proved to be in accordance to the truth of Bible is good; otherwise, it is evil.
We must forbidden all kinds of wrong and evil things and things that offend God. We must forbidden our hands to do the evils; we must not indulge in the selfish desires and passionate lust.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ” (1Co 6:9-10)
“ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:23-24)
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through”; it implies that the work of sanctification can be only accomplished by God through the Holy spirit. Therefore, we should cooperate with Holy Spirit, and do not put out the Spirit’s fire. To be one in Christ is to be sanctified through and through. To “sanctify you through and through”, shows that the sanctification is complete without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but is holy and blameless (Eph 5:27) like God (Eph 4:24).
The capability to be sanctified is not from man himself, but from God. We should believe that God can make men holy; and also believe that God can keep the believers in Christ blameless; that is, keep the spirit, and then soul and body, thus, the whole person blameless. By relying on Christ in us, we can be sanctified thorough and thorough.
God neither keep all the people in the whole world, nor the fake believers, but only keep those believers who are called by Him, who are willing to deny oneself and to let Christ be in charge in them. As long as we are willing to deny ourselves, God and His Holy Spirit can surely make us be holy. The faithfulness and might of God will also keep us till the Day of Christ.
It is edited and compiled under the guidance of Holy Spirit. All thanks, praises and glories be to God!
Reference:
1. Jiale Huang: “The Notes for 1 and 2 THESSALONIANS ”.
