May the mumbling commence!
How do we do church? There are appropriate ways to do church and inappropriate ways. Paul writes about these in contrast to one another in his letter to the Thessalonians in chapter four of First Thessalonians (NEB):
And now, my friends, we have one thing to beg and pray of you, by our fellowship with the Lord Jesus. We passed on to you the tradition of the way we must live to please God; you are indeed already following it, but we beg you to do so yet more thoroughly.
For you know what orders we gave you, in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, that you should be holy: you must abstain from fornication; each one of you must learn to gain mastery over his body, to hallow and honor it, not giving way to lust like the pagans who are ignorant of God; and no man must do his brother wrong in this matter, or invade his rights, the Lord punishes all such offenses. For God called us to holiness, not to impurity. Anyone therefore who flouts these rules is flouting, not man, but God who bestows upon you his Holy Spirit.
About love for our brotherhood you need no words of mine, for you are yourselves taught by God to love one another, and you are in fact practicing this rule of love towards all your fellow-Christians throughout Macedonia. Yet we appeal to you, brothers, to do better still. Let it be your ambition to keep calm and look after your own business, and to work with your hands as we ordered you, so that you may command the respect of those outside your own number, and at the same time may never be in want. (Verses 1-12)
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Many of us have been a part of the family of God for a long while. We know the traditions. We know the Scriptures. It now comes down to obedience.
In other words: DO IT. Do it more thoroughly. Be HOLY. Set yourself apart for God’s work and way of life.
To be holy means to leave some things behind. Keep the wonderful gift of sex within the marriage. It is meant for an intimacy so deep that two become one. Don’t sully it with thinking of the other person as a sex object. That is the opposite of intimacy.
But our bodies have natural drives, right? And one of them is a sex drive. Is it wrong to satisfy that drive? These questions are the reason for the need for gaining control of our bodies.
We are more than appetites. This does not mean that we should loath our bodies. No! We are to honor and hallow our bodies… We are made in the image of God! We are called to holiness.
We are called to wed our hearts and souls and appetites and minds. If this marriage is done properly, we will see the end result of love that originates from our heavenly Father. It is a love made real in our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters. It is a love made real by the work we choose to do to support ourselves. It is a love made real by how we do the work we choose to do.
There it is again. It is not just important what we do as a church. It is equally important how we do what we do.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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