Honor God's Design

Honor God’s Design
 
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Finally, brothers, 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 his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 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. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
 
AS Paul has written expressed his love and joy for the Thessalonians’ faithfulness, he now writes to urge them to live pure sexual lives. We easily understand how this teaching applies to our culture today.
    One perversion of God’s law throughout history is the various accepted sins against the one man – one woman, married relationship by cultures throughout the world. But God tells us from Genesis 19 regarding Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin to this and other New Testament passages, sex-based sins have immeasurably grieved God.
    And why wouldn’t they? Every form of fleshly evil outside of God’s design is a complete disregard for God and his holy intent for humankind. He created the man. Then he created the woman to be his companion. He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. This would happen in the joy of the physical relationship God designed. He wanted a man and woman to be married, and then enjoy each other sexually. This is a perfect formula for fruitful multiplication and spiritual intimacy.  
    God takes no pity on those who persist in fornication, adultery, homosexuality and incest because each sin is an insult against his creation. God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was only the beginning of death to those who so disgraced God’s creation. Each of these sins required the death  penalty in the Levitical law.
    This judgment continues in the church. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. Again, Paul is calling the church to live a holy life, a life set apart from the world to live under God’s Word: God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
    How is it that so many “churches” and “ministers” of the gospel describe such sins as acceptable to God? Unholy thoughts have turned their minds to believe God loves all sinners, whether they repent or not. People can do what they like. The only qualification for heaven is to die. Then you go.
    But you don’t. And you won’t if you live under the power of fleshly desires, unrepentant of your sins. If one believes, “Jesus loves me anyway.” there’s no point to the cross. Who would need a Savior if all our sins were acceptable before God? May a holy life in God’s design be your testimony of your love and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.