"Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians — How We Live Awaiting His Coming Is Most Important”

Chapter 4 is divided into two parts, the first containing an exhortation to live responsibly awaiting the return of the Lord.  The second is about the return of the Lord for us saints living under grace, the Rapture.  Today we consider the practical responsibilities of believers who are living under grace and the many challenges that the saints endure.  The primary focus here is worldliness and carnality in the church, especially in the area of sexuality and marriage although personal independence in daily living is also mentioned.  Marriage is the “norm” for relationships between the sexes and Paul strongly exhorts the Thessalonians believers in that area here.  Apart from the marriage union between one man and one woman, no sexual contact between the sexes is acceptable to God and other sexual experiences are indeed carnal and ungodly.  Believers should not even publicly need to concern themselves with these worldly matters — if all were well in the churches, but it is not.  God’s standard for believers is very high and has not changed since Adam and Eve, it seems.