Session 5 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
look for words or phrases that help explain sanctification.
3 For this is God’s will, your sanctification:
that you keep away from sexual immorality,4 that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
5 not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles,
who don’t know God.6 This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner,
because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses,
as we also previously told and warned you.
7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.
8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man,
but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Direct attention to Pack Item 4 (Poster: Sanctification) displayed on the wall.
Read the definition of sanctification
and explain that it means to grow in personal holiness and devotion to God.
Sanctification is achieved as we actively avoid the desires of the flesh
and pursue personal holiness.
Ask:
Point out that the Lord is an avenger of offenses (v. 6).
Believers also suffer consequences for sinful living.
If believers choose to go against God’s commands and hurt our brothers and sisters in Christ,
we will experience God’s discipline. He disciplines out of love.
Discuss:
When we engage in the daily process of sanctification,
we are changed from the inside out,
and the way we love others is directly impacted.