It's hard work, folks!

Try your best to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work hard, just as we taught you to do.

--- The Bible

Continuing with the first half of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, three points become clear to us.

1. No no no immorality in sex - within or outside the union of marriage. Paul spends a few verses discussing this - don't be immoral, honour your wife, don't be a slave to desires like people who don't know God

2. Strive harder. Paul mentions twice (verse 1; verse 10) that the Thessalonican church is doing everything they ought to; but, he says, work harder at it. We too, must not let lethargy sink in, once we are doing what we ought to be doing for the Lord. There are a zillion areas of improvement in a believer's life - we need to work harder at perfecting those possible areas of improvement. Becoming Christ-like is our goal - not just living well.

3. Live quietly, MYB and work hard. Paul is actually asking us to pipe down and not worry about what goes on around us. Wow. For many of us, the phrase "Mind your own business" has very wrong connotations. But here, Paul is actually using it, and then following it up with saying "Work hard, like we taught you to do". This is awesome. He is saying that us working hard at what we have to do in Christ, is way more important than us being bothered about other people and then making a huge fuss about it.

These are definitely a few points that are worth pondering. Let's see where Paul takes the Thessalonican road to, next. :) God bless you all.