Your Sanctification. 1st Thessalonians 4:3 We all enjoy making some people happy. Probably the first person who comes to mind that we want to see happy is ourselves. Naturally, the happiness of our spouse and children motivates us to do what is necessary for their joy. Other family members and the Lord's people inspire love in us to do what we can to bring them pleasure. How much more should we desire to please God? The desire to please God should overflow like a never-ending stream, not just once but repeatedly. There is no limit to the need for practical holiness in a believer's life, both for their enjoyment of the Christian life and for the blessings that come to others through the testimony of a godly life.
God’s will for us is practical sanctification in our daily lives as children of God. Positional sanctification happened when God saved us, and we were “set apart” in Christ. Progressive sanctification is the ongoing process of maturing in Christ through the experiences we have with God during this life on earth before the Lord returns. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes back for His people and we are “forever with the Lord,” we will experience perfect sanctification.
Life in the first century often accepted and even encouraged sexual acts as part of pagan religious practices. Moral purity was seen as an unreasonable restriction, especially since sexual acts were incorporated into the rituals of idol worship. There were women whose sexual services were part of pagan worship when men visited the idol temples.
The contrast between Christianity and those immoral activities would have been clear and obvious to those who compared what the apostles preached with the typical religious practices of the Thessalonians' past lives. The sanctification mentioned here is the practical and deliberate setting apart of a believer’s body for the Lord. “You are not your own:” We have been bought by the precious blood of Christ, the highest price ever paid for our sanctification, and now we are called to choose personal and active sanctification in our bodies and spirits, which belong to God.
The warning Paul provided was necessary because Christians are not immune to sexual temptations. God’s will is that our bodies should be honored as creations of God with a holy purpose in His mind. God demands the personal sanctification of both men and women, emphasizing that a believer’s body is God’s temple. The Holy Spirit dwells within us.
All areas of a Christian’s life should reflect holiness. God created humans as “very good,” but sin has diminished and undermined the purpose for which we were created—“to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” When we become new creations in Christ Jesus, the holiness for which we were originally designed can now be expressed through sanctified bodies. The challenge we face daily is to avoid becoming careless under the influence of a godly society. We are constantly exposed to immoral images, words, and pressures that affect our thoughts, temptations, and attractions, which can lead to actions and behaviors. The people of God are not immune to these things that seek to provoke and defeat them and the testimony they have before the world. Even a single act that raises suspicion of immoral conduct can ruin a lifetime of public testimony for God. It is of utmost urgency that every believer “abstain from all appearance of evil.”