1 Thessalonians 4&5 -- Every Little Action Makes Or Unmakes Character

“We taught you how to live in a way that will please God, and you are living that way.  Now … live that way even more.”

My commentary said, “Holiness is a process, not an achievement … The will of God for His people is their sanctification … their setting apart for divine use … all believers have been set apart from the world to the service of the Lord … However, in another sense, believers should sanctify themselves from all forms of sin … The specific sin against which Paul warns is unlawful sexual activity …”

In 4:4, we read, “He wants each of you to learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.  Don’t use your body for sexual sin like the people who don’t know God … God called us to be holy and does not want us to live in sin.”

Oscar Wilde, a famous British writer, is quoted in my commentary about how he fell into sexual sin and ended up in prison and disgrace, and he amazingly nails it on the head:

“Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search of new sensation … I grew careless of the lives of others.  I took pleasure where it please me and passed on.  I forgot that every little action of the common day MAKES OR UNMAKES CHARACTER, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has someday to cry aloud from the housetop.  I ceased to be lord over myself.  I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not KNOW it.  I allowed pleasure to dominate me.  I ended up in horrible disgrace.”

That just about says it all.

Father, You fearfully and wonderfully created us as sexual beings, and Your ideal is for us to live in a marriage as husband and wife until You call us home.  The fires of passion do burn hot in us, and if we do not control them, they can destroy us.  Help me to never tire of being on the heights.  Give me the strength to not travel to the depths in search of new sensation.  Keep teaching me to control my own body in a way that is holy and honorable.  You’ve called me to be holy and not to live in sin.  Remind me every minute of every day that every little action makes or unmakes character, and that I need Your wisdom, guidance, and strength in the smallest decision.  This will protect me in the larger decisions.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford