1 Thess: Love and its counterfeits

October 25, 2015 Speaker: Martin Slack Series: 1 Thessalonians: The Gospel in an Upside Down World

Topic: Sermon Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:9–12

What would a life that pleases God, that brings a smile to the face of God, look like, do you think? Well last week, Andy took us through the first 8 verses of chapter 4 and showed us how Paul starts out by telling us what such a life doesn’t look like – it isn’t marked by sexual immorality or controlled by lust. Which, when we live in a sex-saturated culture like we do, and when you struggle with the kind of stuff that some of us struggle with, is a big-deal.

But if I were to ask you what the opposite of sexual immorality or lust is, it wouldn’t be long before someone said, ‘love’, would it? You see, whereas lust wants to take, love gives; where lust looks at the outside, at the external, love looks deeper, at the person, at the character. Where lust wants now, love waits, and serves the one it loves whilst it waits.

And so it’s no surprise that when Paul is talking about what it means to walk and live in a way that pleases God, having said what it doesn't look like, when he comes to tell us what it does look like, right at the top of the list is love.

1 Thess 4:9-12

We’re going to look at three things: Love as the mark of God’s family, two counterfeits of love, and then why getting love right matters.

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