Explanation of the Text 1 Thess 4:1,2. Living to PLEASE GOD!

1Th 4:1  Moreover, brethren, as you learnt from our lips the lives which you ought to live, and do live, so as to please God, we beg and exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live them more and more truly. 
1Th 4:2  For you know the commands which we laid upon you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 

Notes:
Moreover, brethren, as you learnt from our lips the lives which you ought to live,....
- we instructed you  how to live in order to please God....
Compare :1Th 3:8  For now life is for us life indeed, since you are standing fast in the Lord. 
 1Th 3:11  But may our God and Father Himself--and our Lord Jesus--guide us on our way to you; 
1Th 3:12  and as for you, may the Lord teach you to love one another and all men, with a growing and a glowing love, resembling our love for you. 
1Th 3:13  Thus He will build up your characters, so that you will be faultlessly holy in the presence of our God and Father at the Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones. 

The Urged and Entreated them to live to please God.

How are we to live to please God?
These Thessalonian Christians had received the Instruction on Christian Living and they were applying it to their Daily lives. They were thriving in this new way of living.
Holiness is not optional for a Christian.

v.2. For you know what instructions we gave you by the Authority of Jesus Christ.
They began to walk in Holiness because now they are in Christ, and now their lives in Christ are pleasing to God.Christian Instructions on how to live holy lives is on a different plane to the Rabbinic (Halalakah).[Halakha (/hɑːˈlɔːxə/; Hebrew: הֲלָכָה‬, Sephardic: [halaˈχa]; also transliterated ashalacha, halakhah, halachah or halocho) (Ashkenazic: [haˈloχo]) is the collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the Written and Oral Torah.] The Wikipedia.

We can now live in Holiness because we are now empowered by the Spirit.

Rom 8:2  for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. 
Rom 8:5  For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things. 
Rom 8:6  Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means Life and peace. 
Rom 8:9  You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not belong to Him. 
Rom 8:10  But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness. 
Rom 8:11  And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give Life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who dwells in you. 
-For you know....."this letter is a reinforcement of the known oral commands they had received from Paul and Silas.
v.2.b. By the authority of Jesus Christ...
Paul's teaching and instructions had been authorised by the Lord Jesus Himself.
cp. 4.1 We urge and entreat you in the Lord Jesus.
Image result for picture of paul preaching
Paul Preaching : CAFNepal
This was a) Oral Tradition of Jesus Teaching latter to be part of the Written Scriptures.
b) It was teaching rooted in the Apostles' preaching.
c) It was Teaching confirmed through Charismatic Prophecy,
d) or it was Direct Revelation from the Lord Himself." Shogren

When the Apostles arrived in Macedonia they had contextualised theGospel Mesage for the gentiles. It was the Message that Christ had given them to proclaim.

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