Reminiscere

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

March 1, 2026

“Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.” “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.” “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.”

Something happens when you say that a few hundred times in a day. You realize the problem is bigger than me or you, or the scandal du jour.

The little kids make it difficult. Who wants to tell a child he’s doomed?

But it’s the females that really bring clarity. A few years ago, you see, I decided I was going back to the old way, the old book. “Remember, O man, that thou art dust.” Saying that to a woman requires it to be non-gendered. And is it “man” in the general, “whole-human-race” kind of way? Or, with each successive man, woman, and child, am I addressing Adam, our first father?

For we are in him. Adam was made in God’s image. In some sense that image is effaced, and we are now in Adam’s image. Mortal. Unholy. Corrupt. Dust and ashes.

Repetition in liturgy is a feature, not a bug. It can take a lifetime to grasp what these words are saying to us.

I’ve said the matrimonial address hundreds of times now. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God,” etc. etc. “Therefore, all persons who marry shall take a spouse in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, for God has not called us to impurity but in holiness.” It sounds like a remonstrance: “Listen, pal, just because you’re getting married doesn't mean you give into your desires; you better be holy.” “Holy” comes off meaning “not fun, boring, dry and morose.” It’s like that movie “Babette’s Feast,” where they resolve to eat the meal but not enjoy it.

We live in a hedonistic age, where physical intimacy is utterly disconnected from holy marriage. Meanwhile marriage is regarded as antithetical to true liberty and joy.

But this business about taking a spouse in holiness and honor, it’s straight from today’s Epistle, 1 Thess. 4. And it’s part of a larger treatise on holiness. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” Sanctification is too big and confusing. “Holiness” is a more sturdy and straightforward English word. God wants you to be holy.

But that’s not saying enough. God demands your holiness. The ESV softens it: “You received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.” That sounds like something my doctor would say. “You really ought to exercise more.” It’s encouragement; a suggestion.

Open up the Greek and you find a little three letter word (δεῖ) that means must. “This is how you must live.” It’s not a recommendation.

And then it intensifies: “Do so more and more.” Literally, “Make progress, more.” I was talking with some of the boys in our school this week about the Olympic hockey game. I asked them if they’d seen the movie Miracle. “What’s the best line in the movie?” I wanted them to say the bit about how the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back of the jersey. But one awesome kid looked me dead in the eye and said, “Again.” Herb Brooks, the coach, drove those undisciplined, selfish players to exhaustion, saying repeatedly after each drill, “Again.”

That’s what God’s Word is saying to us today. “Again.” “Make progress, more.” It is written in Heb. 12,

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

The Lord calls us to make progress, more. For this is the will of God, your holiness. Paul starts by saying holiness involves abstinence: “that you abstain from sexual immorality.” But holiness is not only avoiding, declining, resisting. St. John Chrysostom puts it this way: “Virtue is divided into these two things, to decline from evil, and to do good. For the withdrawal from evil is not sufficient for the arrival at virtue, but it is a kind of path, and a beginning.”

Path picks up on the ubiquitous Scriptural concept of walking. To be a disciple of Jesus is to walk behind Him, in imitation. It’s not a treadmill; it’s a walk with a destination. The goal is to come to the Father, to attain the kingdom of God, to enter into life. Jesus is the Way, the path; we come to the Father through Him, walking His Way. So the first Christians were called Followers of the Way.

And here’s where I think the ESV translation misses the mark. It says that abstaining from sexual immorality means controlling your own body. Now it’s true that self-control is of great importance. But what Paul writes is each man is to “acquire his own vessel.” It means wife. What Paul is saying to the Thessalonians is the same thing he said to the Corinthians: if lust is a problem for you, you should get married.

However, just isolating those phrases leads to thinking that marriage is merely an outlet for those without self-control. It’s that kind of thinking that led the Roman religion to ban marriage among its priests, and distort the meaning of marriage for over 900 years now.

Listen anew to Paul’s words: “This is the will of God, your holiness: abstain from sexual immorality; each one of you should acquire a vessel (i.e., get married) in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust.” In other words, marriage, and marital intimacy, is a holy thing, if the man treats the woman with honor, not as an object of lust.

You see, lust is about gaining something for yourself. That’s not marriage. God’s Word tells us that marriage is love and submission, or love and respect: the man loves, the woman respects. These are holy acts. Anything else distorts the meaning of marriage, and the meaning of what it is to be human.

And now we come full circle. “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.” We’ve lost our humanity, as a race. We fell. We became enslaved to the passions. We die.

Christ has come to renew humanity, to restore us to holiness.

Jesus did not come to take away joy, but to bring it. When we walk as His disciples, we follow the path to true joy. Everything else is temporary and fraudulent.

So Paul goes on, as the chapter continues, to say that the life of holiness is, along with a loving marriage, found in brotherly love, living quietly, minding your own affairs, doing good work, and preparing for the return of Jesus.

So remember you are dust. Get married, have babies, stay married. Live in repentance every day. Don’t let Jesus go until He blesses you. He will forgive you. He will make you holy. Follow Him more and more. Again.

+INJ+