How Can We Live Pure Lives?

Please read 9 Disciplines of Growing in Christ for a 1-minute introduction to this study. Then do this short study. And lastly, read each of the 9 one minute devotions written to further explain each discipline. You can find that collection here: 9 Disciplines that Help Us Mature in Christ.

"God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives" (1 Thessalonians 4:7) and Psalm 119: 9-16 gives us nine "spiritual disciplines" for achieving that goal.   

Sadly, research reveals that most of us are "sloppy" Christians, undisciplined, without a good knowledge of God's Word, easily misled, and easily distracted. 

1. How does the following passage call us to a higher level of discipline in our lives? 
↪What does it mean to build on the foundation of Christ with gold, silver, and costly stones? 
↪What does it mean to build with wood, hay or straw? 
↪How does this affect our earthly and heavenly rewards?

1 Corinthians 3:9-15: For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. 

2. How did the new believers in Thessalonica prove that they were serious and disciplined in their faith?
↪ How would the Thessalonians have acted if they'd viewed the gospel as mere words (verse 5)?
↪ What does it mean when it says the Thessalonians became "imitators" of Paul and the other leaders (verse 6)? 

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10: For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

 copyright 2016, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated 2020