Let's Get it On… Or Not
- Now onto another topic. Let's talk about sex.
- Don't get too excited. Paul wants the Thessalonians to know that they should be living the kind of lives that would make God one proud papa. This isn't sounding too sexy…
- So what does that mean? Lay off the sex outside of marriage.
- Paul says that Christians need to act differently than the Gentiles in their midst. They need to keep it in their pants and not walk around like huge lustful horn dogs all the time. Um, are the Gentiles sex maniacs or something?
- But why? Well, because if the Holy Spirit is in you, you'd better think twice about what you do with your body. God will not be pleased if he sees any hanky panky going on. And remember, he sees everything.
Love Is All You Need
- Now, let's talk about amore.
- Paul knows he doesn't have to tell the Thessalonians this (even though he's gonna do it anyway), but they should love each other. They're pretty awesome at it already but Paul thinks they should keep trying to get better at it. Constant vigilance, right?
- Love is important when it comes to non-Christians, too. Show them respect, and basically, keep a low profile so Gentiles won't start trying to find reasons to persecute you. (Side note: Paul was not very good at taking his own advice on this.)
Death Is the End…Or Is It?
- And last, but definitely not least, Paul wants all the Thessalonians to know that God is going to bring this whole living-on-Earth thing to an end real soon. And, boy, is it gonna be epic.
- Jesus died and then came back to life, so he's going to make sure everyone who followed him and died already is going to come back to and have eternal life. So there's no need to fret about these guys. They're covered.
- Anyone's who's still alive and has put their faith in him will get a pretty sweet reward, too.
- One day soon, Paul says, you'll see Jesus descend from Heaven with all kinds of trumpet blasts and shouts and archangels following him. See? Epic.
- The dead will be raised up to Heaven and the living will float up into the clouds to high five Jesus (or something like that).
- Then all the faithful will live with God forever.