1 Thessalonians 4:1
1 Furthermore [loipon] then [oun] we beseech [erotao] you, [humas] brethren, [adelphos] and [kai] exhort [parakaleo] you by [en] the Lord [kurios] Jesus, [Iesous] that as [kathos] ye have received [paralambano] of [para] us [hemon] how [pos] ye [humas] ought [dei] to walk [peripateo] and [kai] to please [aresko] God, [theos] so [hina] ye would abound [perisseuo] more and more. [mallon] KJV-Interlinear
4 Finally then, brethren, we
request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us
instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do
walk), that you may excel still more. NASB
Finally, and that is Pauls beginning for reminding the Thessalonians, and you
and me, that because of all of these things, you have no excuse for not preparing
yourself in your spiritual life.
The truth of life is
clear and lucid, and coherent, and obvious.
We have examples all around us, that indicate that this life is a
temporary one, that the plans of man are inadequate and always head into abuses
or favoritism, and that means that the most of us, the greater population will
end up suffering in some fashion, while the favored few will have an easier
time of it, at our expense.
Humanity can pursue
noble causes, but humanity cannot attain them.
The leadership almost always has its own agenda for gaining and holding
their power and authority.They gain
their power either by force or by leading people on, with dignified causes. Don t you want your planet green? Don t you want everyone to have a healthy
life?Don t you want everyone working? And so forth.
And while no one can disagree
with these types of arguments, the real motive behind them is to gain the trust
and support of the people so the leaders can get into power.
There will always be a
number of exuberant followers, who will push the noble agenda. And they are used to the fullest in order to
gain even more following of the masses who don t especially
follow the arguments, or don t follow the particulars of the debate, whatever
it may be.They are the na ve who simply
go with the political, or whatever seems popular, flow
of society.
And all of the good
intentions, and all of the good promises, cannot be fulfilled because they are
unattainable, and that leads to the rules, and to the exceptions to the rules
and then exceptions to the exceptions.
This pattern was
followed as far back as the Levitical Priesthood, when the regulations became
so massive, that people could not even function in life for fear of violating
some rule or regulation.
And even in our more current
history, Mao, Stalin, Lennon, and Hitler, all came into power with promises of freedom
and equity, and ended up with horrendous abuses of power.
In the future, when the
Rapture occurs, there will be a huge population of people left behind on this
earth, after the believers have left.
The huge unbelieving population will not be without its problems. The anti-christ
leader will be the savior on the white horse, but who will turn disastrous policies
into mass murder campaigns.The policies
will not work, therefore someone must be blamed and
punished.Christians, Jews, Gypsies, and
others will be among those blamed.
But before we get to
the Rapture and a huge unbelieving population, there has to be a decline in the
spiritual lives of people in the world.
That means more folks looking to worldly solutions for their lives and
less to God.
And since that does not
occur overnight, then a generation or two, of negative people, have to come
into the picture.Less doctrine means
more human viewpoint.More human viewpoint
means more radical solutions.More
radical solutions means more failures because man does
not have the wherewithal to accomplish his own plans.
And as the plans fail, then
rationing is tried, rules are implemented, exceptions and favoritism are put
into placed, the blame is sought, and then people suffer because of it all.
In the past, a negative
population ended up in economic depressions, famines, wars and such
things.These served to bring them back
to reality and to God and doctrine.
But one day, that
correction in history will not occur.
The Rapture will mark
the beginning of the last big negative population handling policy of God.
With every former
worldly disaster, people turned to God through repentance and a renewed
positive attitude. God rescued them.
However, in the future,
since the believers will diminish and the negative population will increase, that
implies that there will come a time when this repentance turnaround, because of
increasing world troubles, will not occur.
A gap is people believing in Christ will occur, and quite possibly that will
be among the many reasons for Gods timing of the Rapture.
This (the Rapture), will
remove the believing population from out of a suffering and dismal world, and
shock those who simply will not turn back to God, back to God with a huge and
horrendous shock, as never before in history.
Now, you know the
future. And even though none of us know the exact timetable, we all know that
this life is determined by attitude toward God, Christ, doctrine and the
spiritual life.
Those who are for God
and will in fact pursue their spiritual life will be successful for all of
eternity.
Those who look at all
of this as a bunch of hokum, will discover the truth the hard way, and lose. And along the way they will be responsible
for causing suffering for everyone else.
The difference in your
life, between an unbelieving life and a saved life is literally infinite. The difference between a spiritually immature
life and a spiritually mature life, is also literally
infinite.And because these are the only
real realities in life worth noting, that is why Paul here in this verse beseeches
(a mild word) and exhorts (a more stern word), everyone to pursue their spiritual
life correctly, honestly, genuinely, and consistently, because so much is at
stake.
Your entire future depends
on your daily decisions, and knowing that this world is going to trend toward
the anti or indifferent attitude toward God, then this alone should encourage
you even more, to do that which no one else, or at least fewer and fewer folks,
will be doing, as time advances in the coming years or decades.