Living to Please God

Paul asks and urges the Thessalonians in the Lord Jesus to keep walking in the God-pleasing way they had learned from him, and to do so more and more, since they already know the instructions he gave them by the Lord's authority.

F¹inally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more. ²For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Paul says God's will is their sanctification, so they must abstain from sexual immorality, exercise honorable self-control rather than pagan lust, and refuse to wrong a brother in this matter because the Lord avenges such sins. God has called them not to impurity but holiness, so to reject this instruction is to reject God, who gives His Holy Spirit.

³For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. ⁷For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. ⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

Paul says the Thessalonians have already been taught by God to love one another and are showing that love throughout Macedonia, yet he still urges them to excel more and more. He pairs that love with a quiet, disciplined life of attending to their own affairs and working with their hands so that they may walk properly before outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

⁹Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. ¹⁰And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more ¹¹and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. ¹²Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.