November 7, 2023

Today’s Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 19:1-20, Matthew 15:1-20

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;” (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. For all the talk of sexual ethics in the church, it’s easy to overlook the first and most important sentence.  God wills you to be holy.  So He makes you that way.  He takes all that is unholy from you and bleeds for it. He cleanses you in the waters of Baptism and gives you a new identity. His child.  Holy. Worthy of love.  Holy people do holy things in the same way that apple trees make apples.  That isn’t to cast off the idea of good works as unimportant. It’s to recognize they flow out of what we are.  

Now we can talk about sexual sins.  In Jesus, they are forgiven.  In Jesus, you are forgiven.  But sometimes even that’s hard to hear.  There’s a reason.  It isn’t just that some sins pollute more than others.  It’s that some seem to grab hold of us in a way that they become our all.  Our identity.  That’s the real issue with these sins.  It isn’t that they can’t be forgiven.  Christ died for all the world, even sinners who sin like that. Like us.  It’s that we wrestle with these sins on such a personal level that we can finally understand the nature of original sin. It isn’t what we do. It’s who we are.  Corrupt. When we lean into that identity, we lean away from Christ.  When we would rather be known by our sin than our Savior, it says more about us than it does about Him who died to forgive us these very sins.  

You are not the sum of your lusts, your actions, your browser history, or the things you’ve endured.  You are Christ’s.  Holy. Worthy of love. Not because you’ve abstained. Because Christ died.  This is the will of God. That you be holy. So we lean into that. We try to serve our neighbor. We try to tame our lusts.  And when we fail, we return to the source of holiness to be made new all over again in Baptism.  It’s war. You’ll lose. A lot.  But Christ still wills you to be holy so firmly that He makes you that way all over again. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, forsake me not! Take not Your Spirit from me; Do not permit the might Of sin to overcome me. Increase my feeble faith, Which You alone have wrought. O be my strength and pow’r—O God, forsake me not!  (LSB 731:2)

– Pastor Harrison Goodman is content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ’s words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.