1 Thessalonians 4:1-5; 5:15-22; 2 Peter 3:8-9: August 2—Do you see the big picture?

Jul 1, 2009
By WILEY RICHARDS

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

Learning the will of God may consist more of experiencing than seeking. Imagine a dancer on a dark stage with a single shaft of light around the person. He, or she, learns to stay in the perimeter of light. If the light moves away, a bell rings if the dancer remains stationary away from the light. If the dancer gets to the edge, the bell rings. The object, soon learned, is to stay in the light no matter where or when it moves. God’s will works something like that. We seek to stay in His will, but if we move away, a bell, or conscience, rebukes us. He sometimes leads by opening doors and at others by closing them. We will highlight four aspects of living in the will of God.

First, we must keep a close check on our physical desires (1 Thess. 4:1-5). Verse 3 reenforces this principle in regard to fornication. Sexual promiscuity carried no hint of shame, let alone sin, in the first century. Roman emperors, for example, engaged in homosexuality without fear of losing public support. Christians, by contrast, exhibit a different kind of life. They are to walk in a way which pleases God. His command explicitly prohibits a man desiring his neighbor’s wife (Exod. 20:17). The admonition for a man to “possess his vessel” admonishes him to control his body, the seat of his passions. One cannot live within the will of God while deliberately flouting His commands.

My wife remembers the story told by a woman in Birmingham, who recounted how she and another woman rescued a young boy from a street who was crippled in his feet. They arranged for a noted doctor to correct the deformities. The woman said, “You probably would like to know what happened to the boy. He, now grown, is in jail. In teaching him how to walk, we did not teach him where to walk.”

Second, to live in the will of God we have to develop a positive attitude (5:15-18). Not rendering evil for evil is a prohibition against retaliation. You may remember the story of a woman, bitten by a rabid dog, who went to see a doctor. He gave her the sad news. The rabies would be fatal. Asking for and receiving a pencil and paper, she sat down and began writing furiously. When the doctor asked if she was writing out her will, she replied, “No! I’m making a list of people I want to bite.”

If is hard to rejoice, pray, or give thanks if you are eaten up with anger at injustices, whether real or imagined. Vengeance belongs to God (Heb. 10:30).

Third, we walk in the Spirit as we exercise our spiritual gifts (vv. 19-22). The command not to quench the Spirit probably alludes to the various ministry gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit. Some of them, such as gifts of healing or working of miracles (1 Cor. 12:9, 10), would certainly command attention. The command to “despise not prophesying” could allude to the less popular gift in the church. Prophecy could be fore-telling, but equally important, it is forth-telling, a proclamation of the Word. In clear exposition, the church could prove or test a doctrine by the truth in the Written Word, allowing the church to hold fast “that which is good,” that is the revealed truth. Abstaining “from all appearance of evil” means we should never be guilty of putting ourselves in compromising situations.

The Christian “big picture” of the world requires nothing less than the desire for everyone to be saved (2 Pet. 3:8-9). Peter hints at how much God desires that none should perish by asserting that God is long-suffering in regard to us, that “all should come to repentance.” God stands by His promises. Glance down at verse 10 and you will understand Peter’s sense of urgency. God can see a thousand years as one day and one day as a thousand years; nevertheless the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, with even the elements melting with “fervent hear.” Peter’s appeal for all to be saved reflects our Lord’s command in the Great Commission to preach the Good News to all nations, looking forward to the time when nations will bow before the Prince of Peace. That is the big picture.

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