Thoughts on 1 Thessalonians 4

Today’s reading: Leviticus 5; 1 Thessalonians 3-4

There is an exhortation here in 1 Thessalonians 4 that, if we miss it, will very likely sap the joy out of following the Lord, and also very likely undermine our efforts to grow in Christ.

“Do this more and more.”

Twice in this chapter Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to continue in something “more and more.” The first time, at the beginning of the chapter, Paul says, “…as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.” And while the initial statement is generically about following the Lord, he then specifies that he is talking about sexual immorality and living in a godly way with regard to their sexuality. The second time Paul says this is in regard to loving one another, and then he expands it: “But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

The point I don’t want any of us to miss is that whether we are talking about sin as damaging as sexual immorality, or whether we are talking about learning to love one another better, in both cases the goal is the same, to grow.

Not grown, but growing

The reason I bring this up is that we do a serious disservice to ourselves and the Christian brothers and sisters we are trying to serve and help grow in the Lord when we miss this point.

It is really easy to be patient and gradually encouraging about something that we consider important, but maybe less urgent or damaging, but then to expect perfection (or close to it) when it comes to more urgent or damaging areas.

“You don’t want to give financially to support the Lord’s work? Well, Jesus says, ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ so why not start small, giving just $5 or $10 a month and see if He starts to change your heart on it?”

“You want to follow God but you aren’t part of a church or Christian community? Well, Paul warns us to ‘not forsake meeting together as is the habit of some,’ and this is an important part of spiritual life, so why not start small and find a group that you can get involved with for just an hour a week?”

“You aren’t naturally an encouraging person? Well, we are instructed multiple times to be encouraging one another regularly, so why not start small and pick one person and try to think of something to encourage them about this week?”

And I could keep going with at least a dozen more examples of very real conversations I have had over the years, either from others to me, or from me to others, along these exact same lines.

But then what happens when the sin we are talking about is more serious or more damaging? What happens when we are talking about something like sexual sin, drug use, heavy alcohol abuse, extreme anger or violence, porn, etc? Sometimes these are things that the Bible warns about explicitly, and some times these are things that socially or culturally are elevated to “exceptionally bad,” but in either case, how do we treat them?

Now I want to be clear at the outset that not all sin is the same. All sin is the same in that it separates us from God and requires forgiveness through the cross, but some sin is significantly more damaging to ourselves, to the people around us, and/or to our experience of our relationship with God. The question is, how do you deal with these more damaging areas of sin?

Too often we celebrate and encourage the tiniest bit of growth in an area we consider more mundane, but expect perfection in the areas we consider more important. The ironic (and often incredibly damaging) thing about this though is that these more important areas are often the hardest to let go of and see victory in. These are areas of physical or psycological addiction, entrenched patterns of behavior and relationship, or part and parcel of the closest relationships in our lives. 

In dealing with the most difficult sins, the areas we most need encouragement for the tiniest growth, we are often met with disappointment that “this is still an issue” or, if we do find encouragement, it is that, “there’s still grace, but let’s do better going forward.”

How discouraging is this??? That you can find encouragement and excitement for a small step like giving a little bit of money, joining a small group, reading the Bible a couple days a week, etc., but then when you are trying to make progress on the most entrenched and difficult areas of sin in your life, rather than finding encouragement and excitement for even small progress, you find admonition that it’s still an issue…

And what’s the result? At best, the person decides to hide the sin and try to “work on it” on their own, while doing the other things that get encouraged, meaning they don’t get the support and encouragement of the Body of Christ where they need it most and their growth is stunted. At worst, they give up and don’t bother trying because they know that the level of “perfection” that is expected just isn’t possible…

But what if instead we had the same view as Paul, that what we expected to see was not that the sin is eradicated, but that there is growth and movement toward the Lord? What if what we were looking for, in every area, and especially in these most difficult areas, was to continue to progress “more and more?”

Now, again, I want to clarify that not all sin is the same, and some sin is more damaging and thus more urgent to address and/or seek out help for (e.g. counseling for addiction, emotional, or abuse issues, accountability software or blockers for porn, accountability and avoidance of situations for sexual sins, etc.), but no matter how much help someone is seeking or how much progress they are making, this is a process of growth and we should focus on celebrating the “more and more,” and encouraging the continued growth, rather than exasperating them for failing to be “done.”

It is easy to see how important a damaging area of sin is and, wanting the best for the person, to push for total victory over that sin above all else, and fail to encourage and celebrate the small steps.

But no matter the area, no matter how big or small the sin is, if we are to see ourselves grow, or to help others grow, the focus has to be on progress rather than perfection.