Teaching the gospel included teaching people how to live. This applies just as equally today. The society Paul and his co-workers were preaching into was a mish-mash of all sorts of things, most of it pagan and ungodly. Our society has no respect for Christian values. When people get saved they need to learn how to live, this applies in the area of sexual morality, attitudes to work, attitudes towards others, honesty etc. Now this does not mean that someone who gets saved has no good in them, no right attitudes, but there is much to unlearn. And all of us are still learners as well.
The Thessalonians needed to persist in following a Christian way of life.
Sexual immorality is the first concrete example. Some say that the church is obsessed with sexual immorality and that it doesn't really matter that much. Such talk is nonsense. Just think how much unhappiness is caused by sexual immorality. At the extreme end of the scale there are things like the sex-trade, child abuse and rape. At a much more mundane level much misery is caused by sexual infidelity, the deluge of pornography distorts people's view of each other, particularly how men view women. Sexual morality does matter. Get it wrong, as we are doing, and it is destructive, get it right and sex becomes the life affirming, life producing gift from God that it is meant to be.
Self-control is the vital element here. Society, in its infinite stupidity, says that telling people to just say no is unrealistic. This is a very low view of humanity indeed. Self-control is a vital fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 8 is very poignant. In society's headlong rush to introduce "same-sex-marriage" it is God that society is rejecting, not man's teaching.
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