1 Thessalonians 4:1 – Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more. 2 For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.  

3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. 6 Never harm or cheat a Christian brother in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (NLT)

Morality, what is it?  What is morally right and morally wrong?  I dug into this subject recently, here are some interesting answers:  Morality is the way we think everyone else should be; Morality is a way that unhappy old folks enjoy making young folks unhappy too; The opposite of “fun”; Morality is a set of rules given by a higher authority, and if you conform to them, you will be rewarded. If you don’t conform to them, you will be punished.  

Interesting answers.  However, even if we were to define what morality is, who decides?  French philosopher Marquis de Sade put it this way:  “It is purely local and geographical; that which is vicious in Paris turns up, as we know, a virtue in Peking, and it is quite the same thing here; that which is just in Isfahan they call unjust in Copenhagen.  Amidst these manifold variations do we discover anything constant?”   

Well, for the Christian there is, indeed, a constant.  There is a moral compass. While it may be true that what is morally acceptable in one part of the world may be illegal in another, the reading today goes beyond the law of the land.  Paul reminds us that we are called – by God – to live a holy life.  He then tells us that refusing to live such a life is not merely disobeying human teachings, but rejecting God.  God has given us standards by which to live.  These standards are not given because God does not want us to have fun, quite the opposite!  The standards and guidelines given to us by God are for our own protection – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  

Do we always live up to these standards? No, but we must strive for them.  We need to note the last thing Paul says in the passage above.  Speaking of obeying God’s guidelines, Paul then says: who gives his Holy Spirit to you.  The Holy Spirit is given to us because on our own we cannot live by God’s guidelines.  On our own, there is no moral constant.  God’s Holy Spirit not only gives us strength to live a holy life, but directs our steps towards what is holy, and away from what is not.

Today, strengthened and guided by the Holy Spirit, let us live a holy life!   

Posted by Ramón Torres