1Thess 4:1-2 (commandments we gave you)

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 4

ADDENDUM to CORRECTION from the last installment: it was probably a span of around four years (estimating time from Acts 17:10 to Acts 20:2) or so before Paul having been run out of Thessalonica to the time he had an opportunity to visit them again.
(I knew you were curious)

1Thess 4:1-2
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

Beseech: to implore; to ask or pray with urgency.

Exhort: To incite by words or advice; to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to any laudable conduct or course of action.

So in addition to what has been said Paul is urgently asking and encouraging and motivating the Thessalonians “to walk and to please God”. “To walk”: to live and act or behave; to pursue a particular course of life.
[You usually walk after something, in biblical terms: after the flesh OR after the Spirit.]
The rub is, or the problem is, that you walk in this world in this life AND you should/need to please God; …well, brother, how are we to do that? …Does Paul assume that we can do that? …He seems to think that we have the available resources at our disposal.(?)
This should at least interest us or at most concern us… maybe.

Earlier in Chapter 1 we had the issue of “pleasing men” in contrast to what Paul said he was doing, which was pleasing God. (see also Gal 1:10)
In Chapter 2 we had the gospel of grace rejecting Jews who “please not God, and are contrary to all men”.
Those that are not saved cannot please God: “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”( Rom 8:8)
Coming to Christ by believing the gospel does please God: “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”( 1Cor 1:21)
Having faith in God pleases him: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”( Heb 11:6)
Doing what you were chose to be pleases God: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”(2Ti 2:3-4)
But it is God as well that works in the believer for the purpose of doing what is pleasing to him :“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”( Phil 2:13)

So in the second verse Paul says that the Thessalonians received of him, Silas and Timothy “how” to do it – the HOW – Paul had the instruction, look at the next verse: “For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.” Commandments given to Paul for Paul to give to the body of Christ. Therefore, we conclude that:
Jesus Christ, post resurrection – after Christ rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, gave to Paul commandments, instruction, doctrine for the saints that would come to Christ through Paul’s message. That information that Christ gave Paul is what the believer today needs to walk by in order to build appropriately upon the right foundation with the right building materials and to please God. That specific information is found in the books of Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. This scripture is “…is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works”(2 Tim 3:16-17) for the believer today, and will result in pleasing God.

So, as not to cause confusion – the whole Bible has a beginning and an end, so to speak, an arc, beginning with creation, the fall of man[Gen], and ending with a new heaven and a new earth[Rev], and a lot of things in between; the whole Bible is for the believer, and he can learn, grow, understand about God and his dealings with mankind and mankind’s redemption – But, not all the Bible is TO you TO DO, as some things are written to other people to do.

Paul does not say “walk and please God”. Paul does not say “you should walk and please God”. Paul says you “have received OF US HOW ye ought to walk and to please God”. Paul apparently brought the receipts and we should pay attention, and if we do then we can “abound more and more” (that has a nice ring doesn’t it?)

Grace and Peace James
Text STOP to Optout

[I will try to be a bit more on time as long as work does not drag me down]