Topic: Keeping Your Vessel Pure [Wednesday January 24th, 2018]
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (KJV)
1 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.
2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Key Verse: “3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).
Of the many false teachings that fill the Christian landscape today, none is perhaps more damaging than the fallacy that all our sins – past, present and future – are forgiven and that we can live the way we like. Every true Christian must be concerned about holiness of life. Charles Spurgeon captured it thus, ” A faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. Unless our faith makes us pine after holiness, it is no better than the faith of devils, and perhaps it is not even so good as that. A holy man is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit.”
When Paul the apostle exhorted the Thessalonian believers to please God in the way they walk, he specially harped on the pertinence of purity of life. He was emphatic about the nature of the general calling of believers: “God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness”; that God’s will and expectation is that Christians should be pure and chaste. Their lifestyle was to contrast with those of the unbelieving Gentiles of their day who were addicted to lusts of the flesh, fornication, adultery and all manner of uncleanness.
We also live in an era when obscenity, pornography, fleshly lusts, sexual pervasion and all sorts of uncleanness are encouraged, promoted and celebrated. This evil is increasingly fuelled by the mass media, internet, the entertainment industry and a host of other institutions run by agents of darkness. Satan is fighting his last battle and has unleashed the lethal weapon of sexual impurity and perversion to herd souls to hell.
While every sinner should repent and be cleansed by Christ’s blood, the believer should “possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” through constant prayer, absolute reliance on God’s grace, wholehearted consecration, conscious discipline of the body and untiring efforts to always put the whole armour of God.
Thought For The Day: In God’s house, only purged and consecrated vessels are for His use and honour.
Bible Reading in a Year: Genesis 35-37.
Flatimes’ Notice Board: Please do not prolong your salvation if you have not repented. Many are going home daily and tomorrow maybe too late.
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
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