“Other business.” Are you familiar with that category? Every Baptist business meeting I have attended offered a generic agenda item called, “Other business.” In case our regular business did not cover every conceivable matter, we throw it in to make sure everything is covered.
When he wrote, “As for other matters,” Paul realized he had unfinished business with the Thessalonians. When you leave town in a hurry, sometimes, you might not cover everything you had planned to say. During his two weeks in the city, Paul preached the gospel and planted a church among those who believed. After he left, questions arose.
In this “other business” section of the letter, he reminds them to abstain from sexual immorality. Christians live to please God. The ancient Greco-Roman world was every bit as decadent as the worst of our cities today. Paul wanted the Thessalonian disciples to differentiate themselves from the culture by living holy lives. set apart to God. This meant abstaining from pre-marital, extramarital intimacy. It still does. Jesus taught that intimacy belongs to the marriage of a husband and wife. To reject God’s holy standard amounts to rejecting God. This is important. Our culture sometimes treats morality as a matter of personal preference. God gives specific instructions in scripture. We flout them at great spiritual risk to ourselves.
The second item of other business related to loving one another (1 Thess 4:3-9). Again, Paul counters current thoughts on these matters. To insist that people live lives of purity is often portrayed as unloving. In fact, God and his people are called upon to love each other enough to hold each other accountable. As we love each other well, live quiet lives, and do our own work well, we win the respect of outsiders.
