1 Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification - It is the will or command of God that you should be holy. This does not refer to the purpose or decree of God, and does not mean that he intended to make them holy - but it means that it was his command that they should be holy. It was also true that it was agreeable to the divine will or purpose that they should be holy, and that he meant to use such an influence as to secure this; but this is not the truth taught here. This text, therefore, should not be brought as a proof that God intends to make his people holy, or that they are sanctified. It is a proof only that he requires holiness. The word here rendered “sanctification” - ἁγιασμὸς hagiasmos - is not used in the Greek classics, but is several times found in the New Testament. It is rendered holiness, Rom 6:19, Rom 6:22; 1Th 4:7; 1Ti 2:15; Heb 12:14; and sanctification, 1Co 1:30; 1Th 4:3-4; 2Th 2:13, and 1Pe 1:2; see the Rom 6:19 note; 1Co 1:30 note. It means here “purity of life,” and particularly abstinence from those vices which debase and degrade the soul Sanctification consists in two things:

(1) In “ceasing to do evil;” and,

(2) In “learning to do well.” Or in other words, the first work of sanctification is in overcoming the propensities to evil in our nature, and checking and subduing the unholy habits which we had formed before we became Christians; the second part of the work consists in cultivating the positive principles of holiness in the soul.

That ye should abstain from fornication - A vice which was freely indulged among the pagan, and to which, from that fact, and from their own former habits, they were particularly exposed. On the fact that they were thus exposed, and on the reasons for these solemn commands on the subject, see the Act 15:20 note, and 1Co 6:18 note.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1Th_4:3-7

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification--

Holiness

Holiness, like sin, is many-sided, and each separate side presents us with a different view of its requirements and perfections.

In this chapter holiness stands for purity and chastity, and also for liberality in our dealings one with another. A man may be both pure and liberal, and yet, as being proud, wilful, and revengeful, may be very far from being holy. Purity and liberality, or just dealing, are two conditions of holiness--are essential to its presence--yet they by no means exhaust its qualifications. The highest form of holiness is love, a love which at once purifies the affections, exalts the heart, and conforms us to the likeness of Him in whom all holiness finds its example and perfection.

I. The sanctified is one who is loved by God, and who asks for his love in return. All unholiness keeps us away from God.

II. The sanctified is also the wished-for one. This is the wishing of God, etc. The creation by God implied a dedication to God (Isa_43:7; Col_1:16). The wishing of God was made null and void by the fall; yet in His infinite love for man He went on wishing for man still. The purpose of the Incarnation was to reconsecrate lost and fallen man.

III. The sanctified is also the dear and honoured one; he is precious in the sight of the Lord (Psa_91:15; Joh_12:26).

IV. He who is sanctified is also dutiful and reverend towards God; not as being moved by threatenings or encouraged by promises, but as being brought within the sphere of the operations of God the Holy Ghost. I cannot be holy unless my holiness produce some kind of fruit and leads to some practical result.

V. The sanctified one is also rooted and grounded in the faith, since holiness is gained by faith passing into action. Every successive conquest over sin deepens his spiritual life, and becomes part of such office by which the soul is consecrated to God.

VI. The sanctified or consecrated one is also pure. Sanctification involves regeneration, or a new birth. (or. M. Ashley, M. A.)

Of sanctification

The notion of the word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to an holy use. Sanctification hath a privative and a positive part.

1. A privative part, mortification, which lies in the purging out of sin. Though it takes not away the life, yet it takes away the love of sin.

2. A positive part, vivification, which is the spiritual refining of the soul, which in Scripture is called a renewing of your mind and a partaking of the Divine nature. The priests in the law not only were washed in the great laver, but adorned with glorious apparel; so sanctification not only washes from sin, but adorns with purity.

I. What is sanctification?

1. Sanctification is a supernatural thing: it is Divinely infused. Weeds grow of themselves. Flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirits planting; therefore it is called the sanctification of the Spirit.

2. Sanctification is an intrinsical thing: it lies chiefly in the heart. It is called the adorning the hidden man of the heart. The dew wets the leaf, the sap is hid in the root.

3. Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole man. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. He is not a sanctified person who is good only in some part, but who is all over sanctified; therefore in Scripture grace is called a new man; not a new eye or a new tongue, but a new man. A good Christian, though he be sanctified but in part, yet in every part.

4. Sanctification is an intense ardent thing: fervent in spirit. Sanctification is not a dead form, but it is inflamed into zeal.

5. Sanctification is a beautiful thing; it makes God and angels fall in love with us, the beauties of holiness.

6. Sanctification is an abiding thing: His seed remaineth in him.

7. Sanctification is a progressive thing.

II. What are the counterfeits of sanctification? There is something looks like sanctification which is not.

1. The first counterfeit of sanctification is moral virtue.

2. The second counterfeit of sanctification is superstitious devotion.

3. The third counterfeit of sanctification is hypocrisy; when men make a pretence of that holiness which they have not. A pretence of sanctification is not to be rested in. Many ships that have had the name of the Hope, the Safeguard, the Triumph, yet have been cast away upon the rocks; so many who have had the name of saintship have been cast into hell.

4. The fourth counterfeit of sanctification is restraining grace. When men forbear vice, though they do not hate it, this may be the sinners motto, Fain I would, but I dare not. Here is no change of heart. Sin is curbed, but not cured; a lion may be in chains, but is a lion still.

5. The fifth counterfeit of sanctification is common grace, which is a slight, transient work of the Spirit, but doth not amount to conversion.

III. Wherein appears the necessity of sanctification?

1. God hath called us to it: God hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness.

2. The necessity appears in this: without sanctification there is no evidencing our justification; justification and sanctification go together: but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified.

3. Without sanctification we have no title to the new covenant. If a man make a wilt, and settle his estate upon such persons as he names in the will, none else but they can lay claim to the will; so God makes a will and testament, but it is restrained and limited to such as are sanctified; and it is high presumption for any else to lay claim to the will.

4. There is no going to heaven without sanctification: Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

5. Without sanctification all our holy things are defiled: Unto them that are defiled is nothing pure.

IV. What are the signs of sanctification?

1. Such as are sanctified can remember a time when they were unsanctified.

2. The second sign of sanctification is the indwelling of the Spirit: The Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

3. The third sign of sanctification is an antipathy against sin.

4. The fourth sign of sanctification is the spiritual performance of duties, viz., with the heart, and from a principle of love. The sanctified soul prays out of a love to prayer; he calls the Sabbath a delight.

5. The fifth sign, a well-ordered life. Be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Where the heart is sanctified, the life will be so too: the Temple had gold without as well as within.

6. The sixth sign, steadfast resolution.

V. What are the chief inducements to sanctification?

1. It is the will of God that we should be holy. In the text, This is the will of God, your sanctification. As Gods Word must be the rule, so His will the reason of our actions: this is the will of God, our sanctification. Perhaps it is not the will of God we should be rich, but it is His will that we should be holy. Gods will is our warrant.

2. Jesus Christ hath died for our sanctification. Christ shed His blood to wash off our impurity.

3. Sanctification makes us resemble God.

4. Sanctification is that which God bears a great love to. A king delights to see his image upon a piece of coin: where God sees His likeness, there He gives His love.

5. Sanctification is the only thing doth difference us from the wicked.

6. It is as great a shame to have the name of a Christian, yet want sanctity, as to have the name of steward, and yet want fidelity; the name of a virgin, yet want chastity.

7. Sanctification fits for heaven: Who hath called us to glory and virtue. Glory is the throne, and sanctification is the step by which we ascend to it.

VI. How may sanctification be attained to?

1. Be conversant in the Word of God: Sanctify them through Thy truth. The Word is both a glass to show us the spots of our soul, and a laver to wash them away.

2. Get faith in Christs blood; purifying their hearts by faith.

3. Breathe after the Spirit; it is called the sanctification of the Spirit.

4. Associate with sanctified persons. Association begets assimilation.

5. Pray for sanctification. (T. Watson.)

Distinctive features of a true sanctification

It is comparatively easy for some minds to grasp the outlines of a grand undertaking, but they fail in working out the details. They are more theoretical than practical. So it is possible to form a hold conception of some leading Christian virtue--beauty, dignity, and necessity; but all the while to ignore the little details which, in everyday life, constitute the essence of the virtue. Sanctification is the perfection of the Christian life, and is attained, not by some magical feat, but by patient plodding and stern conflicts. It is the sublime but little understood science of living aright, in the sight of God and man. Secretary Walsingham, in writing to Lord Burleigh, said: We have lived long enough to our country, to our fortunes, and to our sovereign; it is high time that we began to live for ourselves and for our God. Observe:

I. That a true sanctification consists in the maintenance of a personal chastity.

1. This involves an abstinence from gross and sensual indulgence. Fornication (1Th_4:3) designates not only the actual transgression, but all the sinful lusts of the flesh. This vice is the source of many others. It is like the fabled Hydra, of which it is said that when one head was cut off another grew in its place. It is the root of extravagance, drunkenness, disease, poverty, murder. It is bewitching, prevalent, most fatal in its tendencies; and against it terrible vengeance has been declared and executed.

2. Involves a rigid maintenance of bodily purity (1Th_4:4). The vessel of the body is The temple of the Holy Ghost, and whatever would defile that must be shunned. The apostle implies that there is a kind of art in chastity which all should practice. Know, i.e., have skill, the power of self-control. Christianity is the science of sciences, the art of living well; and no small skill is necessary in regulating the exercise of the Christian virtues. To possess, to rule the body in purity, keep a diligent guard on the senses (Job_31:1; Pro_23:33; Gen_39:6-7); avoid the company and conversation of the sensual; be temperate, industrious, prayerful.

3. Involves a masterly restraint on the passionate outgoings of evil desire (1Th_4:6). Ignorance is the origin of unchastity; and the apostle shows to what an extent of wickedness a man may go who knows not God. An old writer says: Ignorance is a master, a mother sin: pull it, thou pullest all sin. Evil must be restrained in its earliest manifestation; banished from the region of thought. The longer it is harboured, the more powerful it becomes.

II. That a true sanctification consists in the universal exercise of strict justice (1Th_4:6). Note--

1. That no violation of justice is allowable. The prohibition extends not only to acts of unchastity, but to all the transactions of life. The value of a commodity is governed by its relation to the immediate wants of man. In nature that which has life and sense is more excellent than an inanimate creature: in this view an insect is superior to a diamond. But with regard to use, a loaf of bread is of more value than a thousand insects. Justice requires there should be a fair proportion between a thing and its price. To exact a price which is beyond the worth of the commodity sold, or to give a sum which is below its due value, is to overreach on the part either of the seller or the buyer. The commercial world of the present day might ponder with advantage the wholesome lessons to be learnt from the practice of an ancient Christian simplicity. The man who begins a course of dishonesty by defrauding a stranger will soon reach the point of cheating his dearest brother and chuckle at his unjust success.

2. That every violation of justice will be certainly punished. The rogue will not always triumph; and his ill-gotten gains may be the instruments of his curse. An all-seeing Eye watches and an Unseen Hand rests on all his accumulations. The successful robber is apt to lull himself into a false security. But the Lord is the avenger of all such (Pro_22:22-23; Pro_23:10). Not that we are to act honestly from the fear of punishment; but while striving to act rightly from love to God and a sense of duty, it is also salutary to remember that vengeance belongeth unto the Lord, and He will recompense. Where human justice fails, the Divine vengeance will supply the deficiency.

III. That a true sanctification recognizes the supreme authority of the Divine call (1Th_4:7). A holy life gives no license to sin. Everything is in favour of holiness; the caller is holy (1Pe_1:15), the instrument holy (Joh_17:17), and the Spirit, the immediate worker, is the fountain of all holiness. Religion is a holy calling, because it leads to holiness; and though it finds us not holy, yet it makes us so. They answer not their calling who commit any manner of sin. Unmercifulness, cruelty, fornication, fraud and uncleanness are not of God. In every temptation to evil remember the Divine calling. Lessons: A true sanctification--

1. Provides for the chastity of the whole man.

2. Governs all the transactions of daily life.

3. Responds to the highest call of God. (G. Barlow.)

Sanctification of the Spirit

I. Why the Spirit was sent. The first purpose which was to be answered by Christs coming in the flesh was, as St. Paul tells us, that He might redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Christs death has answered that purpose fully; for, as the same apostle declares, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. But there are other things in Christianity beside the death of Christ; and they must have their purpose also. Why was the Holy Ghost sent to us? and why does He vouchsafe to come? He comes to sanctify us men. You remember that, in the account of the creation, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him. This image of God in the soul of man--for that, of course, is the thing meant--did net descend from Adam to his children. He lost it at the fall, and so could not leave it to his posterity. Adams first son was born in the likeness of sinful man. What was the consequence? All flesh corrupted his way upon the earth. At last it became quite clear that, so long as this evil root--this hereditary taint--remained within us uncorrected, so long men would go on sinning; nay, would grow worse and worse; just as a bowl with a bias, if you try to send it straight, the longer it rolls, the further it will swerve. Now, if this state of things could be allowed to go on, Christ would have died in vain; therefore, that He might finish the work He had begun for us, He sent His Holy Spirit to correct the bias of our evil nature, and gradually renew the image of God in our souls. This includes the renewal in the spirit of our minds, and the putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Here, then, is another great purpose which the plan of our redemption is meant to answer. The death of Christ was to redeem us; the coming of the Holy Ghost is to sanctify us. For this is the will of God, etc.

II. The spirits difficulty in sanctifying. That must needs be a great and difficult task which the Holy Ghost has taken upon Himself. Could a lesser arm have upheld us in our battle against sin, God would have sent us that lesser and weaker arm. But He sends us His own Spirit. The work, then, from its importance and difficulty, must be worthy of that eternal Spirit. It is a war against sin and Satan. Satan has lodged himself in the heart, and knowing the value of the heart, he will fight for it inch by inch. But the work of sanctification is something more than merely driving out Satan: it is binding the old man which has hitherto held a tyrannous sway within us, and replacing him by the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. To sanctify or hallow a thing is to set it apart for Gods service. Thus Christians are called in Scripture holy and saints, because they are Gods people and serve Him. So when we say that it is Gods will we should be sanctified or hallowed, this is the same as saying that our hearts ought to be like a church. A church is a house of prayer; and our hearts should be full of prayer also. Again, a church is the place for reading and explaining the Word of God; and the Word of God must be the food of our minds and the delight and meditation of our hearts. Moreover, a church is the last place for doing any wicked thing; so should it be with the heart of a Christian. Above all, a church is devoted to God; and this is the chief mark of a Christian: he should be devoted--heart and mind, soul and body, wholly given up to Gods service. Not always praying, not always reading the Bible; but he is to be always serving God. Strength, as well as liveliness, is necessary to a principle; and it is the principle of sanctification to give ourselves up to God, and to give up everything that offends Him. In fine, it is in a measure living the life of heaven upon earth. This is Gods will, and this is our beatitude. (A. W. Hare, A. M.)

Our consecration the will of God

I. Our sanctification.

1. This word has been misunderstood and abused.

(1) There are some who expect to become different beings, with different ideas and qualities from those they now have. Thus when they find old sins reappearing under new names, needing the revival of grace, they become disheartened, and doubt their Christianity.

(2) Others take refuge in small improvements, and think the work of sanctification is going on because this lust has died out or that temper curbed.

2. Let us grasp its meaning. It is applied in Scripture--

(1) To things: the Sabbath, Mount Horeb, the Tabernacle, Altar, Temple; and in each case means consecration, for no moral change can pass over these things.

(2) To persons: priests, prophets, the Jewish nation; and still the idea is appropriation, the stamping with Gods image and superscription.

(3) We pass on to gospel times.

(a) Sometimes it is the grand universal consecration which Christ made in redemption: By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

(b) Sometimes it is the first great individual consecration at conversion: The blood of the covenant wherewith he warn sanctified; But ye were washed, ye were sanctified.

(c) Sometimes, as in the text, it is the progressive realization in spirit and conduct of the one all embracing consecration; not a change of nature, but an increasing, brightening presence of the Holy Spirit in the soul, into transformation of character and life.

(d) Sometimes the complete identification of the will of man and the will of God, which is consecration consummated.

3. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this view. This is the redeemed man living his redemption, the forgiven man living his absolution, the consecrated man living his consecration.

(1) Here is the antidote to self-righteousness: Nor I, but Christ liveth in me.

(2). Here is the antidote to despondency: In me truly there dwelleth no good thing; but I am encouraged to look to God for help.

(3) Here is the antidote to all that petty, piecemeal, retail righteousness which dwarfs the aspirations of many. There are many who are building their little separate towers for the chance of reaching heaven--one trying to build a treasure house of charity, another to beautify taste into piety, another to construct a substitute for grace out of natural negative virtues, but all missing the very point of Christian perfection, the becoming in deed that which God has made us all in idea--His entirely. Consecration is the being absolutely, and of a glad heart, Gods.

4. There are special foes of this consecration.

(1) It is a ruinous error to dream of the ideal and to neglect the practical This is antinomianism.

(2) There are sins which make havoc of this consecration, of which St. Paul speaks in the context--sins which divide allegiance, sully loyalty, and fill Gods temple with foul and filthy idols.

II. Our sanctification is the Will of God.

1. Gods will is the true law of our lives. This is expressed without reservation, and all amounts to this--our consecration.

2. What God wills He will help us to realize. If there is failure, it is attributable to want of prayer, faith, and cooperation with God.

3. There is no way of acceptance with God but in conformity to His will. God being what He is, must will our sanctification. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. (Dean Vaughan.)

Human holiness the great object of the Divine will

1. God has a will. Will implies reason; God is infinite reason. Will implies force; it is determination: God is infinite force. Will, free, uncontrolled, is the expression of the willers nature. Gods nature is holy, benevolent, unchangeable.

2. God has a will concerning man. Insignificant though man be as compared with the universe, and less than nothing as compared with his Maker, he, nevertheless, engages the mind and heart of God. Glorious truth this!

3. Gods will concerning man is his holiness. Sanctification mans holiness, and holiness is moral excellence, assimilation to Himself. If this be the will of God concerning man, two conclusions deserve special notice.

I. That mans grand duty chimes in with his moral intuitions and highest interest. What is the grand duty of man? Obedience to the Divine will. Philosophy can return no other answer.

1. Our moral intuitions urge us to holiness. There is one ideal character which they are constantly intruding on our notice, urging us to cultivate. Moral souls everywhere on earth feel that they should be true, honest, generous, pure, and devout; in other words, that they should be holy.

2. Our highest interest urges us to holiness. The history of the world shows that men have been prosperous and happy in proportion to their virtues; and human consciousness attests that men are only inwardly happy as they feel that they have lived and done the thing that is right and true. So, then, the great demand of the Bible, instead of being in the slightest degree incongruous with human nature or its interests, blends in with the strictest accordance.

II. That man has an infallible guide to determine the successful in prayer and effort. He who goes with Gods will goes with omnipotence, and if he goes rightly, must succeed.

1. Successful prayers are prayers for holiness. He who prays for health, long life, secular property, has no reason to expect an answer only so far as these are sought with the grand motive of promoting holiness. God has not promised to answer any prayer that has not the desire for holiness as its inspiration.

2. Successful efforts are efforts for holiness. Efforts after wealth, influence, power, fame, may, and frequently do, succeed; but what then? If the inspiring motive has not been holiness, the end, which is happiness, is not obtained. Since Gods will is our holiness, no human effort for happiness not aiming at the grand end has ever been, or can ever be, successful. Whatever may be the appearance of things, all prayers and effort not aiming at holiness are failures. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Sanctification the will of God

I. The sanctification of man is the avowed object of God in all the dispensations of His grace.

1. The patriarchal (Gen_30:1).

2. The Mosaic (Exo_19:1-25.; Lev_11:1-47.).

3. The Christian (Eph_5:25-27).

II. God has shown this to be His will in the construction of Revelation, which offers a system of truths admirably calculated as an instrument to effect it.

1. Mans responsibility.

2. Gods perfections.

3. The doctrine, exhibition, and temporal and eternal punishment of sin.

4. The provision and offer of redemption.

5. Holy precepts, to which are attached abundant rewards.

III. The Scriptures reveal and instruct us how to receive the agency of a Divine Person, whose operations are particularly directed to this object.

1. He is the Author of our regeneration, which is holiness began.

2. He is the Author of the truth, which is the means of holiness, and applies that truth to the heart.

3. He is the Fountain of continual supplies of that grace, growth in which is progressive sanctification. (J. F. Denham.)

Sanctification the will of God

It is Gods will, the great purpose that He has at heart, that men should be holy. Sanctify them through Thy truth, etc. Pardon and all other blessings are means to this end. The Great Sculptor plans and labours only for a torso in room of a statue without this; the Great Builder would never see the top stone in His chosen temple without this; the Great Husbandman would never taste of the fruit of His labour without this. Now, if our sanctification--our growing holiness here and our perfected holiness hereafter--is Gods will, then--

I. Holiness is a great and blessed consummation. Good is the will of the Lord. There can be nothing so great and blessed for any creature as to have Gods will perfected in it. Only in holiness are eternal life and blessedness possible. To have the thoughts pure, the life at every point and in all its interests set like music to the words of Gods law, the soul moulded into the image of Christ, that is to have heaven begun.

II. God will spare no pains to create and perfect holiness in a mans soul. He has spared no sacrifice, in that He sent His Son; for it was the essence and heart of Christs mission to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, etc. And still towards and in us He will direct His working to this great end. He will prune this vine, that it may bear more fruit. He will cut, and chisel, and polish, till the fair image of Christ is seen. And as we smart, and weep, and wonder at our heavenly Fathers severity, let us think of His great purpose.

III. We are bound to cooperate with God in this great end. God wills it, said the Crusaders, and buckled on their armour for the conquest of the Holy Land. God wills it that we should pray, and strive, and fight for a purer and higher conquest. And what a start God gives us in His forgiveness through Christ! He thereby gives us freedom, gratitude, momentum; and in our whole warfare with sin He gives His Holy Spirit to inspire, direct, and sustain.

IV. We are assured of success. If it is His will, who can be against us? (Family Churchman.)

Sanctification

I. Distinguish it from related terms. From--

1. Regeneration is once for all done, and is the beginning of holiness, whereas sanctification is its progressive advancement. One is the implantment of holy principles and affections; the other their issue in a holy character.

2. Justification, while it does now exclude the present, has special reference to the past, while sanctification is chiefly directed to the present and the future. The one is something done for us, the other something done in us. The one is a change of relation, the other a change of character. The one implies pardon, the other purity.

3. Morality. This may exist without sanctification, as is seen in the lives of many worldly men. But sanctification cannot exist without morality. Morality is not to be disparaged; but there is no perfection without Christ.

II. What do we mean by sanctification? Religion implanted in the heart and conspicuous in the life.

1. The kingdom of God is within you. Christianity begins in the heart, and forms the life by forming the dispositions. It works from centre to circumference. It does not consist in having, but in being.

2. Its fruits will always be apparent. Grace in the germ is hidden, but it is always manifest in the life. It is a light that shines, a fire that burns. How grace grows is a mystery; but when grown it is read and known of all men. Your life as to its source and supply is hid with Christ in God; but as to its practical effect, it is a city set on a hill.

III. Its cause.

1. The ultimate cause is God the Holy Ghost. Men may fashion a block of stone into the figure of a man, so admirably that the sculpture seems to look, and breathe, and speak; but it is not a man. It is merely an image; it wants life, which no created power can give. So it is here. Spiritual life in all its stages is a direct inspiration from God, and impossible without such inspiration. And He who gives life alone can sustain it.

2. The instrumental cause is truth. Of His own will begat He us, etc. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Sanctification is the effect not of the separate, but conjoint influence of the Holy Spirit in the heart, and the Word on the understanding, the one removing prejudice, the other dispersing ignorance.

IV. Sanctification is a progressive and harmonious work.

1. Where there is life there will be progress--in vegetation, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and in each case gradually.

2. This is a progress that affects the whole manhood, a harmonious development of an entire Christian character. Just as in the healthful growth of a tree there is growth, not only of the roots but the shoots, branches, foliage, and fruit; so in the Christian the development is not of one grace, but of all. There is much diversity. Grace does not produce uniformity in the human character; but still the finest specimen of a Christian is the man in whom all graces are in their proportion.

3. Its beginning is here, but its progress forever. Heaven begins on earth, and earth merges into heaven.

V. Sanctification is the will of God. Not simply the command, but the good pleasure of God.

1. It is necessarily so. He who is Light cannot love darkness; He who is Life cannot love death.

2. It is wrought in harmony with the nature of the human will. God works in what we have to work out.

3. What an encouragement is this! In all our struggles after goodness we may be sure of Divine sympathy and help.

4. With what solemnity does this invest the subject, for it follows that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. (J. Davies.)

Sanctification

I. Its nature.

1. It is the invariable result of union with Christ (Joh_15:5). He whom the Blood cleanses walks in the light. He who has a lively hope in Christ purifies himself, as He is pure (1Jn_1:7; 1Jn_3:3).

2. It is the outcome and invariable consequence of regeneration. The new creature lives a new life (1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:9-14; 1Jn_5:4-18).

3. It is the only certain evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is essential to salvation (Rom_8:9). The Spirit never lies idle in the soul, but makes His presence known by His fruits (Gal_5:22). It, is nonsense to suppose that we have the Spirit if we do not walk in the Spirit (Gal_5:25; Rom_8:14).

4. It is the only sure mark of Gods election. There is much that is mysterious about this subject; but nothing is plainer than that the elect are known by their holy lives (1Th_1:3).

5. It is a thing that will always be seen. It cannot be hid.

6. It is a thing for which every believer is responsible. Every man has power to lose his own soul; but believers are under special obligation to live holy lives.

7. It is a thing which admits of growth and progress.

8. It depends largely on a diligent use of Scriptural means--Bible reading, private prayer, attendance on public worship, regular communion. There are no spiritual gains without pains.

9. It does not prevent a man having a great deal of inward spiritual conflict (Gal_5:17; Rom_7:1-25).

10. It cannot justify a man, but it pleases God (Rom_3:20-28; Heb_13:16; Col_3:20; 1Jn_3:22). Just as a parent is pleased with the efforts of his little child to please him, though it be only by picking a daisy, so our heavenly Father is pleased with the poor performances of His believing children. But they must first be believing--i.e., justified children; for without faith it is impossible to please God.

11. It will be found absolutely necessary as a witness to our character in the day of judgment, it will then be utterly useless to plead our faith if it has not been evidenced by our works.

12. It is necessary to train us for heaven. Then hope to get there; but the only way is the way of holiness. We must be saints before we die if we are to be saints in glory. When an eagle is happy in an iron cage, a fish happy on dry land, then will an unsanctified man be happy in heaven.

II. Its visible evidence.

1. It does not consist in--

(1) Talk about religion (1Jn_3:18).

(2) Temporary religious feelings (Mat_13:20).

(3) Outward formalism and external devoutness.

(4) Retirement from our place in life (Joh_17:15).

(5) The occasional performance of right actions (Mar_6:20).

2. It will show itself in--

(1) Habitual respect to Gods law, and the habitual effort to live in obedience to it as the rule of life (1Ti_1:8; Rom_7:22).

(2) An habitual endeavour to do Christs will (Joh_15:14).

(3) An habitual desire to live up to the standard which Paul sets before the Churches in the closing chapters of nearly all his Epistles.

(4) Habitual attention to the active graces which our Lord exemplified, and especially the grace of charity (Joh_13:34-35; Col_3:10).

(5) Habitual attention to the passive graces of Christianity, which are especially shown in submission to God and forbearance towards man (1Pe_2:21-23; Gal_5:22-23).

III. The relation of sanctification to justification.

1. In what are they alike?

(1) Both proceed originally from the free grace of God.

(2) Both are part of the great work of salvation which Christ has undertaken on behalf of His people.

(3) Both are found in the same persons.

(4) Both begin at the same time.

(5) Both are alike necessary to salvation.

2. In what they differ.

(1) Justification is the reckoning a man to be righteous for the sake of Christ; sanctification is making a man righteous.

(2) The righteousness we have by our justification is not our own, but Christs; that which we have by sanctification is our own, imparted by the Holy Ghost.

(3) In justification our works have no place at all, simple faith in Christ being the one thing needful; in sanctification our works are of vast importance, and are commanded by God.

(4) Justification admits of no growth; sanctification is essentially progressive.

(5) Justification has special reference to our persons; sanctification to our natures.

(6) Justification gives us our title; sanctification our meetness for heaven.

(7) Justification is the act of God about us; sanctification the work of God within us.

IV. Application.

1. Let us awake to a sense of the perilous state of many professing Christians (Heb_12:14).

2. Let us make sure work of our own condition.

3. We must begin with Christ. We must first live and then work.

4. We must continually go on as we began (Eph_4:16).

5. Let us not expect too much from our hearts here below. The more light we have the more we shall see our own imperfection. Absolute perfection is yet to come.

6. Let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification. (Bp. Ryle.)

Our sanctification

I. The intrinsic evidence of the fact that God desires our sanctification.

1. Sanctification is the restoration of that which was ruined by the apostasy. If it were only to bring things back to the primitive order which He pronounced to be very good, it is in Gods view most desirable that man should be made holy. We do not wish to see a ship dismasted, a man lame, or a machine out of order. It delights us to see them restored to their natural state. So God delights in a restoration to the primitive moral order.

2. Sanctification is the complete reconciliation of man to God. As a lover of order, He must be pleased to see man reconciled to the perfect order He has established. Sin is a quarrel with Gods arrangements. Sanctification is a return to perfect harmony with God and His government.

3. It is the restoration of perfect loveliness to man. God abhors sin partly because of its moral repulsiveness, and loves holiness because of its moral beauty.

II. The actions of God in reference to mans sanctification.

1. We see more than desire; we see great earnestness in these. This earnestness comes to us in the form of authority. We are made for law, and are susceptible to the requirements of authority. See, then, the eternal God coming down to Sinai to make a law requiring men to be holy, and throwing around that law all the sanctions of Divine approbation and displeasure. To this mighty influence He adds the potent discipline of His Providence pruning us that we may be fruitful. Then, further, there is the mission of Christ, and the ministry of the Spirit.

2. With our minds full of these facts, let us see their practical consequences.

(1) We should rejoice in afflictions. God, in chastening us, is aiming at our perfection. Christ was made perfect through suffering.

(2) We should be earnest in the use of religious ordinances. These are the appointed means. Sanctify them through Thy truth. And we should be confident of success in the right employment of them.

(3) We should labour for each others sanctification. As we are bound to pray, Thy will be done, etc., so we are bound to desire that every human being may carry out that will by being holy.

Conclusion: If God wills the sanctification of all men, then--

1. The condition of the irreligious is fearful.

2. Every one who knows what the will of God is, is bound at once to seek after holiness. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th 4:3-6. For — As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification — That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication — And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know — Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel — His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1Pe 3:7 :) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1Sa 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle’s meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour — In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence — Εν παθει επιθυμιας, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles — The heathen; who know not God — To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond —

The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render υπερβαινειν; and defraud — Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter — Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (1Th 4:3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such — Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. — As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us — In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness — To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness — Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth — The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man — Only or chiefly; but God — Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us — Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit — To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1Th_4:4. How to possess his vessel.—R.V. “to possess himself of his own vessel.” With the long list of names in view of those who interpret “vessel” as meaning “body,” it is almost daring to hint at another meaning. The list, however, is strong of those who regard the expression as a figurative designation for a wife, and 1Pe_3:7 decides us.

1Th_4:5. Not in the lust of concupiscence.—R.V. “not in the passion of lust.” “The word passion signifies not so much a violent feeling as an overpowering feeling, one to which a man so yields himself that he is borne along by evil as if he were its passive instrument; he has lost the dignity of self-rule, and is the slave of his lower appetites” (Findlay).

1Th_4:6. That no man go beyond and defraud.—R.V. “transgress, and wrong.” “More exactly, that none overreach and take advantage of his brother in the matter. ‘The matter’ of the last two verses.… The apostle sets the wrong in the strongest light: it is to cheat one’s brother, and that in what touches most nearly the sanctities of life” (Ibid.). The Lord is the avenger.—The heathen deities, so far as they were anything, were oftener patterns than avengers of such things, and they who made them were only too like them.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Th_4:3-7

Distinctive Features of a True Sanctification.

It is comparatively easy for some minds to grasp the broad outlines of a grand undertaking, but they fail in working out the details. It is a fatal defect, and involves the ruin of the whole scheme. The peculiar genius of minds like these is to deal with things in the mass; but they have not the ability or the patience to master a numerous and complicated series of minute particulars. They are more theoretical than practical; they are strong in the concrete, but feeble in the abstract faculty. So it is possible to form a bold conception of some great, leading Christian virtue, to expatiate on its exquisite beauty, to exalt in grandiose terms its supernatural dignity, and to enforce with magisterial importance its superlative necessity, but all the while to be lamentably deficient in practical attention to the thousand and one little details which, in every-day life, constitute the essence of the virtue. Sanctification is an aspect of the Christian life, facile and seductive in theory, but difficult and commonplace in practice. It is the essence and perfection of the Christian life, and is attained, not by some magical feat of the mental powers, but by patient plodding, stern conflicts, and hard-won moral victories. It is the sublime but little understood science of living aright, in the sight of God and man. Secretary Walsingham, in writing to Lord Burleigh, said: “We have lived long enough to our country, to our fortunes, and to our sovereign; it is high time that we began to live for ourselves and for our God.” In the above verses are portrayed the distinctive feature of a true sanctification. Observe:—

I. A true sanctification consists in the maintenance of a personal chastity.—

1. This involves an abstinence from gross sensual indulgence. “That you should abstain from fornication” (1Th_4:3). A word that designates, not only the actual transgression known by that name, but all the sinful lusts of the flesh. This vice is a prolific source of many other vices. It is like the fabled Hydra, or many-headed snake, of which it is said that when one head was cut off another grew in its place. Fornication is the root of extravagance, drunkenness, disease, poverty, profanity, murder, and irreparable infamy. It is a sin the most bewitching, the most prevalent, the most fatal in its tendencies, and against which the most terrible vengeance of Heaven has been declared. It brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, fire and brimstone upon Sodom, pestilence upon the Israelites, and destruction upon the nations of antiquity. Prior to Christianity it was hardly regarded as a vice. The apostolic teaching revealed its enormity, denounced it with righteous indignation, and supplied the spiritual weapon by which it is to be slain.

2. Involves a rigid maintenance of bodily purity.—“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1Th_4:4). The vessel of the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and whatever would defile or disgrace that sacred shrine must be carefully avoided. The apostle seems to imply there is a kind of art in chastity which all should practise. “That every one of you should know”—should have skill—the power of self-control. Christianity is the science of sciences, the art of living well, and no small skill is necessary in regulating the exercise of the Christian virtues. To possess—to rule the body in purity, keep a diligent guard upon the senses (Job_31:1; Pro_23:33; Gen_39:6-7), avoid the company of the sensual; be temperate; be industrious; continue instant in prayer.

3. Involves a masterly restraint upon the passionate outgoings of evil desire.—“Not in the lust of concupiscence; not in the passion of lust; even as the Gentiles which know not God” (1Th_4:5). Ignorance is the origin of unchastity; and the apostle shows to what extent of wickedness man may go who knows not God. An old writer says, “Ignorance is a master, a mother-sin; pull it, thou pullest all sin.” Concupiscence is the rudimentary stage of evil desire; unchecked, it spreads through the soul, inflames the passions, and rises into an ungovernable tempest of lust. Evil must be restrained in its earliest manifestation, banished from the region of thought. The longer it is harboured, the more powerful it becomes.

“We are not worst at once—the course of evil

Begins so slowly and from such slight source,

An infant’s hand might stem its breach with clay;

But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy shall strive in vain

To turn the headlong current.”

II. A true sanctification consists in the universal exercise of strict justice.—

1. That no violation of justice is allowable. “That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter” (1Th_4:6). The prohibition extends not only to acts of unchastity, but to all the transactions of life. The value of a commodity is governed by its use, its relation to the immediate wants of man. In nature that which has life and sense is more excellent than an inanimate creature; in this view an insect is superior to a diamond. But with regard to use, a loaf of bread is of more value than a thousand insects. Justice requires there should be a fair proportion between a thing and its price. To exact a price which is beyond the worth of the commodity sold, or to give a sum which is below its due value, is to overreach on the part of either the seller or the buyer. The commercial world of the present day might ponder with advantage the lessons to be learnt from the practice of an ancient Christian simplicity. The man who begins a course of dishonesty by defrauding a stranger will soon reach the point of cheating his dearest brother and chuckle at his unjust success.

2. That every violation of justice will be certainly punished.—“Because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified” (1Th_4:6). The rogue will not always triumph; and his ill-gotten gains may be the instruments of his curse. An all-seeing Eye watches all his sinuous trickeries, and an unseen Hand rests on all his covetous accumulations, and by-and-by the blow of vengeance will be swift and terrible. The successful robber is apt to lull himself into a false security; he has escaped disaster so often and so long that he begins to fancy his villainy may be continued with impunity. But their “judgment lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not,” for “the Lord is the avenger of all such” (see Pro_22:22-23; Pro_22:10). Not that we are to act honestly from the fear of punishment; but while striving to act rightly from love to God and a lofty sense of duty, it is also salutary to remember that vengeance belongeth unto the Lord, and He will recompense. Where human justice fails, the divine vengeance will supply the deficiency, that injustice may not escape unpunished.

III. That a true sanctification recognises the supreme authority of the divine call.—“For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (1Th_4:7). A holy life gives no licence to sin. Everything is in favour of holiness—the caller is holy (1Pe_1:15), the instrument holy (Joh_17:17), and the Spirit, the immediate worker, is the fountain of all holiness. Religion is a holy calling, because it leads to holiness; and though it finds us not holy, yet it makes us so. They answer not their calling who commit any manner of sin. Unmercifulness, cruelty, fornication, and uncleanness are not of God. In every temptation to evil remember the divine calling.

Lessons.—A true sanctification—

1. Provides for the chastity of the whole man.

2. Governs all the transactions of daily life.

3. Responds to the highest call of God.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

1Th_4:6. Reason for Conscientiousness.—A man was once asked why he was so very particular to give good measure—over good—and he replied: “God has given me but one journey through this world, and when I am gone I cannot return to correct mistakes.”

Respect for Conscientiousness.—Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, once remarked respecting one of his pupils who was in the habit of attending to all his duties conscientiously and faithfully, “I could stand hat in hand to that boy.”

1Th_4:7. Christian Holiness.

I. The nature of holiness.—Conformity to the nature and will of God. Not to be confounded with virtue.

II. The origin of holiness.—It is immediately connected with regeneration. No holiness in man previous to this.

III. The progress of holiness.—The seed, the tree. The dawn, the day. The child, the man.

IV. The objects of holiness.—In reference to God, to the moral law, to duty, to sin.

V. The influence of holiness.—“There is an energy of moral suasion in a good man’s life passing the highest efforts of the orator’s genius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of God and duty than the tongues of men and angels.”—G. Brooks.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:3 God’s will is for you to be holy: The foundation of Christian ethics is not philosophical speculation about virtue but doing God’s will (Rom 12:1-2; Eph 6:6; Heb 10:36; 13:20-21). Holiness (1 Thes 4:4, 7) embraces all of a person’s life (5:23); here it involves staying away from sexual sin (Greek porneia, any sexual union outside marriage).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Th 4:3. Θέλημα, a will) [a thing which God wills]. So ch. 1Th 5:18, without the article. There are many wills, Act 13:22.—ὁ) The mark of the subject.—ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, your sanctification) The word, your [i.e. present sanctification, as contrasted with the past], recalls to the memory of the Thessalonians their former profane condition. Sanctification especially includes chastity.—ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας, from fornication) Exalted Christians as they were, yet they required to be admonished respecting this sin; for the Gentiles had no scruples as to carnal lewdness.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th_4:3. Further specification of τίνας παραγγελίας, according to its contents. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ] for this (the following) is the will of God.

τοῦτο] not the predicate (de Wette, 2d ed.), but the subject (comp. Rom_9:8; Gal_3:7; Winer, 5th ed. p. 130 [E. T. 199]), is emphatically placed first, accordingly not superfluous (Pelt).

θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ] without the article, as the will of God is not exhausted with what is afterwards adduced. The words are without emphasis; they resume only the idea already expressed in 1Th_4:2, although in another form. For a command given διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ is nothing else than θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ.

ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν] namely, your sanctification, in apposition to τοῦτο and the subject-matter, whereas τοῦτο was only a preliminary and nominal subject. ἁγιασμός has an active meaning, your sanctification (ὑμῶν, the genitive of the object), i.e. that you sanctify yourselves, not passive (Estius, Koppe, Usteri, p. 236; Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius), so that it would be identical with ἁγιωσύνη, 1Th_3:13. Calovius, Wolf, Flatt, de Wette, Koch, Alford, and others take ἁγιασμός as a quite general idea, under which not only ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ., but also 1Th_4:6, are specified as particulars. This view, in itself entirely suitable, becomes impossible by the article τό before ὑπερβαίνειν, 1Th_4:6. This does not permit us to consider 1Th_4:6 as a parallel statement to ἀπέχεσθαι, 1Th_4:3, and εἰδέναι, 1Th_4:4, but places the statement τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν κ.τ.λ. evidently on the same level with ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν. Accordingly τοῦτο receives a double specification of the subject-matter in the form of apposition(1) in ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, and (2) in τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν, 1Th_4:6. Thus the meaning is: For the following is the will of God, first, that ye sanctify yourselves, and then that ye overreach not, etc. But from this relation of the sentences it follows that ἁγιασμός must denote holiness in a special sense, i.e. must be considered in special reference to sins of lust, thus must be used of striving after chastity (Turretin, Pelt, Schott, Olshausen, Bloomfield, and others).

ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν is further epexegetically explained(1) negatively by ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας, and (2) positively by εἰδέναι κ.τ.λ., 1Th_4:4. In an entirely erroneous manner by Hofmann, according to whom the stress is to be laid on θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦτο is to indicate ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ., and ὁ ἁγιασμός is a parenthetic apposition. Moreover, a contradiction to the praise of the church, expressed elsewhere in the Epistle, is not contained in the exhortation, 1Th_4:3 ff. (Schrader), as the reception of Christianity never delivers, as with the stroke of a magician, from the wickedness and lusts of the heathen world which have become habitual; rather a long and constant fight is necessary for vanquishing them.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th 4:3 . ἁγιασμός (in apposition to τοῦτο , θέλημα without the article being the predicate) = the moral issue of a life related to the Ἅγιος ( cf. 1Th 4:8 ), viewed here in its special and negative aspect of freedom from sexual impurity. The gospel of Jesus, unlike some pagan cults, e.g. , that of the Cabiri at Thessalonica ( cf. Lightfoot’s Biblical Essays , pp. 257 f.), did not tolerate, much less foster, licentiousness among its worshippers. At Thessalonica as at Corinth Paul found his converts exposed to the penetrating taint of life in a large seaport. As the context indicates, ἁγ . ὑμῶν = “the perfecting of you in holiness” ( ἁγ . in its active sense, ὑμῶν genitive objective: so Lünemann, Ellicott, Bahnsen). The absence of any reference to δικαιοσύνη is remarkable. But Paul’s dialectic on justification was occasioned by controversies about ὁ νόμος which were not felt at Thessalonica. Besides, the “justified” standing of the believer, even in that synthesis of doctrine, amounted practically to the position assured by the possession of the Spirit to the Christian. In his uncontroversial and eschatological moments, Paul taught as here that the experience of the Spirit guaranteed the believer’s vindication at the end ( cf. 1Th 1:9-10 ) and also implied his ethical behaviour during the interval. The comparative lack of any allusion to the forgiveness of sins ( cf. e.g. , 1Th 3:5 ; 1Th 3:10 ; 1Th 3:13 ) does not mean that Paul thought the Thessalonians would be kept sinless during the brief interval till the parousia (so Wernle, der Christ u. die Sünde bei Paulus , 25 32); probably no occasion had called for any explicit teaching on this commonplace of faith (1Co 15:3 ; 1Co 15:11 ).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the sum of those things, which he delivered them, to dedicate themselves wholly to God. And he condemneth plainly all filthiness through lust, because it is altogether contrary to the will of God.

See John 19:17.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For--enforcing the assertion that his "commandments" were "by (the authority of) the Lord Jesus" (Th1 4:2). Since "this is the will of God," let it be your will also.

fornication--not regarded as a sin at all among the heathen, and so needing the more to be denounced (Act 15:20).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. This is the will of God, even your sanctification] God has called you to holiness; he requires that you should be holy; for without holiness none can see the Lord. This is the general calling, but in it many particulars are included. Some of these he proceeds to mention; and it is very likely that these had been points on which he gave them particular instructions while among them.

That ye should abstain from fornication] The word πορνεια, as we have seen in other places, includes all sorts of uncleanness; and it was probably this consideration that induced several MSS., some versions and fathers, to add here πασης, all. Directions of this kind were peculiarly necessary among the Greeks, and indeed heathens in general, who were strongly addicted to such vices.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3 For this is the will of God. This is doctrine of a general nature, from which, as from a fountain, he immediately deduces special admonitions. When he says that this is the will of God, he means that we have been called by God with this design. “For this end ye are Christians — this the gospel aims at — that ye may sanctify yourselves to God.” The meaning of the term sanctification we have already explained elsewhere in repeated instances — that renouncing the world, and clearing ourselves from the pollutions of the flesh, we offer ourselves to God as if in sacrifice, for nothing can with propriety be offered to Him, but what is pure and holy.

That ye abstain. This is one injunction, which he derives from the fountain of which he had immediately before made mention; for nothing is more opposed to holiness than the defilement of fornication, which pollutes the whole man. On this account he assigns the lust of concupiscence to the Gentiles, who know not God. “Where the knowledge of God reigns, lusts must be subdued.”

By the lust of concupiscence, he means all base lusts of the flesh, but, at the same time, by this manner of expression, he brands with dishonor all desires that allure us to pleasure and carnal delights, as in Romans 13:14, he bids us have no care for the flesh in respect of the lust thereof. For when men give indulgence to their appetites, there are no bounds to lasciviousness. Hence the only means of maintaining temperance is to bridle all lusts.

As for the expression, that every one of you may know to possess his vessel, some explain it as referring to a wife, as though it had been said, “Let husbands dwell with their wives in all chastity.” As, however, he addresses husbands and wives indiscriminately, there can be no doubt that he employs the term vessel to mean body. For every one has his body as a house, as it were, in which he dwells. He would, therefore, have us keep our body pure from all uncleanness.

And honor, that is, honorably, for the man that prostitutes his body to fornication, covers it with infamy and disgrace.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(3) For.—The word further enforces the appeal to their memory: “Ye know what commandments . . . for this (you will recollect) is what God wants;” “a commandment given through the Lord Jesus,” being, of course, identical with “God’s will.”

Your sanctification.—In apposition to the word this. The mere conversion, justification, salvation of us are not the aim of God: He would have us holy. The general idea of sanctification passes however here, as the following clauses show, into the more limited sense of purification.

Fornication.—The word is often used in late Greek for any kind of impurity, as, e.g., 1Co_5:1, of incest; but here it must be understood in its strict sense. To the Gentile mind, while the wickedness of adultery or incest was fully recognised, it was a novelty to be told that fornication was a “deadly sin;” hence the strange connection in which it stands in the Synodal letter to the Gentile churches (Act_15:20; Act_15:29; Act_21:25). This consideration also makes it easier to understand how St. Paul can praise these Gentile Thessalonians so heartily, although they need earnest correction on this vital point. It is a true instance of the sacerdotal metriopathy (or, compassionate consideration) towards the ignorant and deceived. (See Heb_5:1-2.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, &c.] The connection will be clearer if we render thus: For this is God’s will—it is your sanctification—that you abstain from fornication, &c.

It was not some counsel or wish of his own that he pressed on the Thessalonians under the authority of Christ; it was nothing less than God’s holy will: the primary ground of this charge. At the same time it was their sanctification. God’s will and their consecration to Him are the double reason for their leading a chaste life; and these two reasons are one, the latter springing out of the former. God had chosen them to be His own (comp. ch. 1Th_1:4). And He willed that their sanctification should be realised and carried into effect in the important particular about to be stated. This will of God was proclaimed in His “call,” by which the Thessalonians had been summoned to a pure and holy life (ch. 1Th_5:23-24; comp. 1Th_2:12). In all endeavours after purity it is our best support to know that God wishes and means ms to be holy; that His almighty help is at the back of our weak resolves, Who both “puts into our minds good desires” and “brings the same to good effect.”

“Sanctification” is the act or process of making holy: then, in the second instance, it comes to denote the result of this process, the state of one who is made holy,—as in Rom_6:22, “You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life;” similarly in Heb_12:14, “Follow after sanctification.” It is synonymous with consecration, i.e. devotion to God,—but to God as the Holy One.

Holy is the single word which by itself denotes the Divine character, as it is revealed to us in its moral transcendence, in the awfulness and glory of its absolute perfection, raised infinitely above all that is earthly and sinful (see 1Sa_2:2, Psalms 99, Psa_111:9, Isa_57:15, &c). Now it is the character of God—“thy Maker … and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel”—that constitutes His right to the consecration of those to whom He is revealed. Our “sanctification” is the acknowledgement of God’s claim upon us as the Holy One Who made us. This involves our assimilation to His nature. In Him, first the character, then the claim: in us, first the claim admitted, then the character impressed. In short, Sanctification is fulfilment of the supreme command, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1Pe_1:15-16; Lev_11:44; Lev_19:2; Lev_20:7).—See, further, notes on 1Th_4:7, and ch. 1Th_5:23; also on ch. 1Th_2:10, for the difference between the two Greek words for holy used in this Ep.

St Paul makes chastity a part of holiness. He finds a new motive and powerful safeguard for virtue in the fact of the redemption of the body. Our physical frame belongs to God; it is a sharer in Christ’s resurrection, and in the new life received through Him. “Know you not,” he asks, “that your bodies are limbs of Christ,—a temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have from God? Therefore glorify God in your body” (1Co_6:15-20). This is bodily sanctification. And faith in Christ effectually subdues impure and sensual passion.

The foul and heathenish vice of fornication was so prevalent in Greek cities and so little condemned by public opinion—it was even fostered by some forms of pagan religion—that abstinence from it on the part of the Thessalonians was a sign of devotion to a Holy God. But their purity was imperilled from the condition of society around them, and in many cases from former unchaste habits. The temptations to licentiousness assailing the first generation of Christians were fearfully strong; and all the Epistles contain urgent warnings upon this subject. The sense of purity had to be re-created in men gathered out of the midst of pagan corruption.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification,.... Which is another reason to enforce the above exhortation. "Sanctification" is internal or external. Internal sanctification is the work of the Spirit of God, and is a principle of spiritual life in the soul, a divine and spiritual light in the understanding, a flexion of the will to the will of God, and a settlement of the affections on divine things, and is an implantation of every grace in the heart. External sanctification arises from this, and lies in holiness of life and conversation; and is what is chiefly designed, as appears both by what goes before, and follows after: and this is "the will of God"; the will of his purpose and decree; for in the same decree that he wills the salvation of any by Jesus Christ, he also wills their sanctification in heart and life, and here and hereafter: and this is his approving will, or what is well pleasing in his sight, being agreeable to his nature, and divine perfections, particularly his holiness, in which he is glorious; and it is his will of command, and what he requires in his law, which is holy, just, and good, and perfectly agrees with the sound doctrine of the Gospel, and the revelation of his will in both.

That ye should abstain from fornication: which is particularly mentioned, abstinence from it being a branch of external holiness; and because that this sin was common among the Gentiles, and not esteemed a sin by them; as also to observe to these Christians, that as simple fornication was not to be allowed of, much less other acts of uncleanness, as adultery, incest, sodomy, and the like, which were iniquities that greatly prevailed among the Heathens. The Syriac version renders it, "from all fornication"; on this subject the apostle enlarges in some following verses.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

Ver. 3. For this is the will of God] This is his prescribing will, which we must obey; as we must submit to his disposing will, the will of his providence, and grow acquainted with his approving will, the will of his gracious acceptance, Mat 18:14; Joh 1:23.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

What in the former verse he called commandments from Christ, he here calls the will of God; or he had some further duties to lay before them, which he had not yet given commandments about, which were the will of God. There is the secret and revealed will of God, and his revealed will is about things to be believed or practised. The latter is here meant, so that the will of God is put figuratively here for the things he willeth, or commandeth of us. And that which the apostle first mentions is sanctification, which is often taken for holiness in general, which consists in men’s conformity to the will of God both in the heart and life. But I think not so taken here, but for chastity, as opposite to the sin of uncleanness, as the apostle explains it in the next words. For to

abstain from fornication is the will of God. And by it is meant all unchasteness, either of persons married or unmarried; and that either in the heart, or in speech, or in the eye, or lascivious gesture, as well as in the very act itself. It was a sin common among the Gentiles, especially the Grecians, and judged as no sin. And therefore it is particularly mentioned and forbidden to the believing Gentiles by the council of Jerusalem, lest they should apprehend it not to be an evil, Act 15:20. For it is not so evident by the light of nature as many other moral evils; and therefore the apostle tells the Thessalonians that it is the will of God they should abstain from it, and that is a sufficient ground either of doing or not doing. This will of God is expressed in the seventh commandment, which though the Jews well knew, yet these new converted Gentiles might not yet so well understand. And therefore the apostle in his several Epistles to the Gentile churches doth dehort them from it, especially the Corinthians, 1Co 6:9, and that by many arguments. It is a sin which corrupts and effeminates the mind, captivates the heart, consumes the flesh, and wastes men’s estates. So that this will of God that forbids it is a good will, Rom 12:2, as all the commandments of God are said to be for our good, Deu 10:13.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. For this—To sum up the whole of these commandments.

Will— Without the Greek article, a will. So Bengel, “Many are God’s wills or volitions. Act_13:22.” But it is a very dangerous distinction which some theologians make, (as Barnes here,) between God’s decree or “secret will,” and his commandments or “revealed will;” as if God decreed one thing and commanded its opposite.

Sanctification—Holiness; avoidance of evil and practice of good, through the blessed guidance and aid.

Abstain from fornication—Which abstain is a particular branch of sanctification; the negative, of which 1Th_4:4 gives the positive.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this is the will of God. The phrase, "the will of God," has two significations in Scripture: the one is the determination of God his decree; the other is his desire, that in which he delights a will, however, which may be frustrated by the perversity of his creatures. It is in this latter sense that the word is here employed. Even your sanctification; complete consecration; holiness taken in its most general so. use. Our holiness is the great design of Christ"s death, and is the revealed will of God. Some (Olshausen, Lunemann) restrict the term to moral purity, and consider the next clause as its explanation. (comp. Rom_12:1) That ye should abstain from fornication ; a vice fearfully prevalent among the heathen, and which, indeed, they hardly regarded as wrong. Especially it was the great sin of Corinth, from which the apostle wrote, the patron goddess of which city was Venus.

HOMILETICS.

Vers. 3, 7.

Holiness the design of revelation.

Holiness is the end aimed at in all the dispensations of God.

(1) God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy; (Eph_1:4)

(2) Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity; (Tit_2:14)

(3) the Holy Spirit is conferred to sanctify us (Tit_3:5; 2Th_2:13)

(4) the Word is the instrument of sanctification; (Joh_17:17) and

(5) God chastens us in order that we might be made partakers of his holiness. (Heb_12:10) In short, holiness is salvation our restoration to the moral image of God.

Sanctification, a Divine Arrangement.

this is God"s will, your sanctification." The first duty expressed is personal holiness.

I THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION.

1. It implies the consecration of all our faculties and powers, both of body and mind, to Gods service.

2. It implies personal purity in heart and life. We are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God". (2Co_7:1)

II THE GROUND OF THE EXHORTATION.

1. It is Gods will. That ought to stimulate to exertion and encourage to prayer. "Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.

2. It was the design of Christs death; for he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works". (Tit_2:14)

III THE MEANS OF SANCTIFICATION.

1. It is by the truth. "Sanctify them by thy truth: thy Word is truth.

2. It is by his ordinances.

3. It is by his providences. (Psa_119:71; Heb_12:10; Rom_2:4)

4. It is, above all, by the Spirit of holiness, as its sole Author. T.C.

Warning against sins of impurity.

The apostle comes at once to particulars. "That ye should abstain from fornication." Though adultery and incest were crimes among the heathen, fornication was not accounted a sin at all. Therefore we can understand the emphatic place which is assigned to this sin in the synodal letters to the Gentile Churches, (Act_15:20-29) The Gentiles "walked after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.

I CONSIDER THE HEINOUSNESS OF THIS SIN.

1. It is a sin against God. So Joseph regarded it. (Gen_39:9) The law to restrain from this sin is grounded in the reason, "For I the Lord am, (Lev_19:2) The Divine nature which believers share through grace is quite inconsistent with "the corruption that is in the world through lust". (2Pe_1:4) This sin is likewise inconsistent with the design of the gospel of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. (2Co_7:1; Eph_4:29, Eph_4:30)

1. It is a sin against our neighbor. This is implied in the seventh commandment.

2. It is a sin against our own bodies. (1Co_6:18) Sinners dishonor their own bodies. (Rom_1:24)

4. It is a sin against the soul. "Whoredom takes away the heart". (Hos_4:11)

II CONSIDER THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SIN.

1. It Wastes the body. (Job_20:11)

2. It wars against the soul. (1Pe_2:11)

3. It causes shame. (Pro_6:33; Eph_5:12)

4. It entails poverty. (Pro_6:26)

5. It excludes from the kingdom of God. (1Co_6:9, 1Co_6:10) T.C.

Vers. 3-8.

The law of purity.

I PURITY OF HEART.

1. The will of God the rule of the Christian life. To please God is the strongest desire of the true Christian; and we please him by obedience. The Lord delighteth not in outward observances as he doth in "obeying the voice of the Lord." The Christian"s prayer is, "Thy will be done." The standard of that obedience is the obedience of the angels in heaven. It is above our reach; but it is what we are bidden to aim at, what we are told to pray for in our daily prayers. It should be the effort of our lives to lift ourselves up, by the grace of God assisting us, nearer and nearer to that heavenly rule. Without that grace we are helpless; but "I can do all things," says St. Paul, "through him that strengtheneth me.

2. The will of God is our sanctification. He willeth that all men should be saved; but salvation is possible only through sanctification; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Sanctification is the separation from all that is evil, the entire consecration of the whole man to the service of God, the gradual conforming of the human will to the blessed will of God. Christ is our Sanctification. "He of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification." Faith brings us near to him, and he becomes our Righteousness; then the work of sanctification begins. It is a progressive work, slow and gradual. The more the believer grows in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more does that blessed knowledge exert its hallowing power. The beauty of holiness, the sweetness of fellowship with God, the glories of his coming kingdom, are more and more deeply felt. Then, when the affections are set upon things above, and the heart"s love is centered upon God, the soul reacheth forth after Christ, longing above all things to be like him, yearning after holiness with a strong, intense desire, eagerly striving to purge itself from the defilement of sin, and to advance ever onwards in the work of sanctification; and that because the Lord. Jesus Christ dwelleth there himself, and the pulses of his love beat in the converted heart. He is our Sanctification. He abideth in his people"s heart by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All holy desires, all good counsels, all just works, come from him from his inspiring, elevating present. This is the will of God; this is what God would have us to be. It is a very high and heavenly state; yet in its various degrees it must be by the grace of God within our reach. For he is the God of truth; his promises are not deceitful; his commandments do not mock us with a standard impossible of attainment.

II PURITY OF LIFE.

1. Chastity. The apostle is writing to converts who but a short time before had been heathens. It was necessary to speak very plainly and solemnly on this subject; for the heathen commonly regarded that impurity, which is so great a sin in the sight of God, almost as a thing indifferent. But the will of God is our sanctification, and sanctification involves purity. Without sanctification we cannot see the Lord; but the pure in heart shall see him. God is light; in him is no darkness at all. There is something awful in the stainless purity of the starry heavens. As we gaze into them, we feel ourselves oppressed with an overwhelming sense of our own uncleanness. It is a parable of the ineffable purity of God. In his sight the heavens are not clean. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil; therefore only the pure in heart can see his face. That inner purity covers the whole spiritual life. It implies freedom from all lower motives all that is selfish, earthly, false, hypocritical; it is that transparency of character which flows from the consciousness of the perpetual presence of God. But that inner purity, which is so large an element in sanctification, involves the perfect purity of the outward life. Religion is not morality, but it cannot exist without morality. It transcends morality, but it implies it. This was not the teaching of the religion which the Thessalonians had abandoned. That admitted immorality. Their very gods were immoral. They were served, not by purity of life, but by sacrifices and outward rites often leading to impurity. Hence the urgency of the apostle"s appeal Amid the evil surroundings of a heathen town, living in an atmosphere of depraved public opinion, new converts were exposed to constant and great dangers. St. Paul reminds them that holiness, without which there is no salvation, is impossible without

2. chastity. Fornication is not, what they once deemed it, a thing indifferent. It is an awful sin against God. Christianity has taught us this. We know it well. We wonder at the light way in which heathen writers speak of abominations which now we shrink from naming. But the sin exists still in terrible strength. It hides itself, indeed; it walketh in the darkness; Christianity has driven it there. But still, alas! it slays its thousands and its ten thousands. It cuts a soul away from God with a fearful rapidity. It fills the man with impure images, unholy desires. It drives out of the heart the thought of God. The soul that is tainted with this foul leprosy cannot pray. It cannot endure the thought of the presence of God in his heart-searching nearness, in his awful purity. Impurity destroys the possibility of the slightest approach to that sanctification without which we cannot see God. Hence the necessity of the apostle"s earnest words, "The will of God is your sanctification; and there can be no sanctification if ye live in uncleanness.

3. Honor. The unclean life of the heathen cities was full of sin and shame. The Christian life is truly honorable. The Christian"s body is a holy thing. It has been dedicated to God. It is "for the Lord". (1Co_6:13) The Christian must acquire a mastery over it in honor. He must yield his "members as instruments of righteousness unto God." The Christian husband must give honor to his wife. Christian marriage must be honorable, for it is a parable of the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. The life of holiness and purity is a thing to be honored. Those who honor holiness honor God, who is the most holy One, the one Fountain of holiness.

1. The knowledge of God. The heathens knew not God. They might have known him. He had manifested in the works of creation his eternal power and Godhead. But they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. Their false gods resembled men, not only in their form, but also in their sins and uncleanness. Men had framed a conception of Deity from their own corrupt nature, and that conception reacted powerfully upon their character. Their gods were like them, and they were like their gods. The Thessalonian Christians had learned a holier knowledge. They must not live like the heathen, who knew not the true and living God. Their knowledge must act upon their life. They must be pure.

1. Impurity is a sin against man. "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." Impure desires assume the form of love; uncleanness usurps

2. and degrades the sacred name of love. The sensual man ruins in body and in soul those whom he professes to love. He uses words of tenderness. He is the most cruel, the deadliest enemy in his wicked selfishness. He cares not for the nearest and holiest ties. He sins against the sanctity of matrimony. He brings misery upon families. Seeking only the gratification of his own wicked lust, he transgresses and wrongs his brethren. But his sin will bring swift punishment upon him. The Lord is the Avenger in all such things. He called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. Sanctification is the very sphere in which the new life moves and energizes. Uncleanness is utterly alien to it. The Lord who called us in sanctification will punish with that awful vengeance which belongeth to him all who for their wicked pleasure sin against their brethren.

3. It is a sin against God. God hath given us his Holy Spirit. He hath given that great gift "unto you," the apostle says to you Thessalonians. He gave it once, he is giving it still. It is this great fact which makes uncleanness in Christians a sin of such exceeding awfulness. Their bodies are the temples of God the Holy Ghost. To bring impure thought into that most sacred presence, to defile that body which he has taken to be his Church and shrine, is an outrage, an insult to that Divine Majesty. Such a man hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. Of what punishment shall he be thought worthy? The Spirit of purity cannot abide in an impure heart. He will depart, as he once departed from Saul. There are awful things in Holy Scripture said of those who resist the Holy Ghost, who will not listen to his still small voice speaking in the heart, but continue to vex him by willful and persistent disobedience, till at last his voice is heard no more, and his gracious influences are quenched. It is enough to fill the thoughtful Christian with shuddering awe when he reflects on that sanctification which the Word of God requires, and contrasts it with the fearful prevalence of sins of impurity.

LESSONS.

1. Long after holiness, pray for it, struggle for it with the deepest yearnings of the heart, the most earnest efforts of the life.

2. Flee from the slightest touch of impurity the thought, the look, the word. It is a deadly poison, a loathsome serpent; it stingeth unto death.

3. Remember God the Holy Ghost dwells in the Christian"s heart. Keep thyself pure. B.C.C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sanctification - Entire holiness of heart and life: particular branches of it are subjoined. That ye abstain from fornication - A beautiful transition from sanctification to a single branch of the contrary; and this shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

This is the will of God, even your sanctification: that is, this is the will of God, eminently and emphatically revealed in his word, that Christians should be holy and pure, chaste and clean: not indulging themselves in those impure and filthy lusts of the flesh, fornication, and all manner of uncleanness, which the Gentiles, who knew not the true God savingly, were addicted to, and, in a most beastly manner, guilty of; but that every one should know how to possess and make use of his body, and all its members, as the vessel and instrument of the soul, in holiness and honour.

Observe here, 1. How the apostle descends from general to particular duties: he exhorted the Thessalonians, 1Th 4:1, in the general, to walk so as to please God; here he exhorteth them in particular, to purity and chastity, both of heart and life, and to watch against all the violent eruptions of concupiscence in their earthly members; teaching us, that the ministers of God must not satisfy themselves with giving general exhortations to a good life, but must treat of particular sins and duties, and endeavour to put men upon the practice of the one, and to reclaim them from the other; thus doth our apostle here.

Observe, 2. The particular duty exhorted to, sanctification; a comprehensive word, and of a large extent; in the general, it consists in a conformity of our natures to the nature of God, and in a conformity of our lives to the will of God.

In particular, sanctification here stands in opposition to all bodily uncleanness, as the next words do plainly shew, that ye should abstain from fornication, that is, all filthiness and uncleanness contrary to chastity; intimating to us, that as there are no sins that human nature is more inclined to, than the lusts of the flesh; so there are no sins that a Christian should more guard against, and strive to mortify and subdue, as being contrary to that purity of nature and life which the gospel directs, and the Holy Spirit assists unto.

Observe, 3. The argument which our apostle here uses to enforce his exhortation to purity and holiness; This is the will of God; ’tis both the command of God that we should be holy, and the will of God to make us holy; now the signification of God’s will ought to be a sufficient inducement to us to desire it, and endeavour after it. This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.

Observe, 4. The remedy prescribed against all bodily uncleanness, and that is, a careful preserving the vessel of the body free from all fleshly pollution, and in that measure of purity and chastity which is suitable to the honour put upon it by God, in being made a temple for the Holy Ghost, That every one should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.

Where note, the title given to our body, it is called a vessel; it is, first, the Spirit’s vessel, he resides in it as in his temple; and accordingly, it seems to be an allusion to the consecrated vessels of the temple, in which a more than ordinary cleanness and purity was found:

Secondly, it is the soul’s vessel, ’tis its vessel or receptacle, in which, for a time, it is preserved; and it is the instrument of the soul, by which it acts and performs its office and function.

Now, it is every person’s, every man and woman’s duty, to possess their body, and to be masters of it, not to be possessed by it, or enslaved to it, but to keep it in subjection to, and as the instrument of, the soul; the body is God’s curious workmanship, ’tis Christ’s precious purchase, ’tis the soul’s receptacle, ’tis the Holy Ghost’s temple; therefore, to be kept holy, pure, and clean, like the consecrated vessels of the temple.

Observe, 5. Our apostle exhorts the Thessalonians, not only to abstain from the outward act of uncleanness, but to mortify and subdue the inward lust of concupiscence, 1Th 4:5, or, as the word signifies, the feverish fit, or violent passion of burning desire, which boileth within, through all the members of the body without.

There is a divine art in the exercise of chastity, and no small skill required to keep a man’s soul and body free from fleshly uncleanness; in order to which, inordinate desires must be resisted, the outward senses guarded, enticing and ensnaring objects avoided, wanton company declined, meat, drink, and sleep, soberly used, our lawful callings diligently followed, the first motions to uncleanness suppressed, prayer to God renewed; and, if these prevail not, marriage, God’s special remedy, holily made use of. Thus may Christians possess their vessels in sanctification and honour, not in the lusts of concupiscence.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication ;

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3–8. This is the will of God. What he had taught them was the will of God and needful to their sanctification, or holiness of life. That ye abstain from fornication. The student of the Epistles will note how often this command is repeated to Gentile churches, a fact easily explained when we remember that fornication was considered no sin among the heathen.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

you avoid sexual immorality

"you stay away from sexually immoral acts"

know how to possess his own vessel

Possible meanings are 1) "know how to live with his own wife" or 2) "know how to control his own body"

in the passion of lust

"with wrongful sexual desire"

no man

Here "man" refers to a man or a woman. "no one" or "no person" (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)

transgress and wrong

This is a doublet stating the same idea in two ways to reinforce the concept. AT: "do wrong things" (See: Doublet)

the Lord is an avenger

This can be made explicit. AT: "the Lord will punish the one who transgressed and will defend the one who was wronged" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

forewarned you and testified

"told you beforehand and strongly warned against"

translationWords

will of God

sanctify

sexual immorality

holy

honor

lust

Gentile

God

transgress

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

3. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ. For this is God’s will—(it is) your sanctification—that you abstain &c. The usual construction which makes ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, anticipated by τοῦτο, subject of ἐστὶν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, is not satisfactory: to say that “the sanctification” of Christians “is God’s will,” is almost tautological (to be sanctified is to be subject to God’s will, which the readers already are: cf. Heb 10:10); while, on the other side, to identify ἁγιασμός with ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ. is to narrow and lower the idea of Sanctification. What these Greek Christians do not sufficiently realize is that the “will of God,” having already taken effect in their “sanctification” (see 2Th 2:13; cf. 1Co 1:2; 1Co 1:30; 1Co 6:11, &c., and 1Th 4:7 below), requires in them a perfect chastity. This was the specific matter of the apostolic παραγγελία; τοῦτο points on, not to ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν (which is assumed by the way), but to the infinitives ἀπέχεσθαι, εἰδέναι, κ.τ.λ.,—as much as to say, “This is God’s will for you, on this your sanctification turns, viz. that you keep clear of fornication, &c.” Θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ and ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν constitute a double predicate, setting forth the objective and subjective ground respectively, of the pure family and social life inculcated; the apostolic “charges” enforced clean living as being “God’s will” for His chosen (1Th 1:4; cf. 1Th 4:8 below; 1Pe 1:14 ff.), and accordingly a condition essential to personal holiness (καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις, Eph 5:3; Col 3:9; Col 3:12).

The anticipation of the anarthrous infinitives by τοῦτο has a parallel in 1Pe 2:15 (οὔτως); similarly in Jas 1:27; see the examples in Krüger, Griech. Sprachlehre, i. § 51. 7. 4. Θέλημα, anarthrous, since “God’s will” is the general conception under which these παραγγελίαι fall (cf. 1Th 5:18; 1Pe 4:2); ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, because chaste living is the critical factor in Thessalonian sanctification.

Since ἁγιασμός attaches to the body along with the spirit (1Th 5:23), πορνεία directly nullifies it: see 1Co 6:15-20. So prevalent was this vice in the Pagan cities (cf. διὰ τὰς πορνείας, 1Co 7:2), so little condemned by public opinion—it was even fostered by some forms of religion as a sort of consecration—that abstention became a sign of devotion to a holy God, of possession by His Holy Spirit (1Th 4:8). The temptations to licentiousness, arising from former habits and from the state of society, were fearfully strong in the case of the first Christian converts from heathenism; all the Epistles contain warnings on this subject: see e.g. 1Pe 4:1-4, and the relapses at Corinth (1Co 5:1; 2Co 12:21, &c.); also Act 15:29. The very sense of pudicity had in many instances to be re-created. The Christian doctrine of Holiness is the surest prophylactic against social evils; in the maintenance of personal purity it is our best support to know that God calls us to holiness of living, and that His almighty will is pledged to help our weak resolves.

Ἁγιασμός (from ἁγιάζω) denotes the act or process of making holy, then the resulting state, as in 2Th 2:13; Rom 6:22; Heb 12:14, &c. Ἅγιος (קָדוֹשׁ) is the word which in Scripture denotes the character of God as He is made known by revelation, in its moral transcendence, infinitely remote from all that is sensuous and sinful (see 1Sa 2:2; Ps. 99, 111:9; Isa 6:3; Isa 6:5; Isa 57:15, &c.). Now it is the revealed character of God, “the Holy One of Israel,” that constitutes His claim to human devotion; our “sanctification” is the acknowledgement of God’s claim on us as the Holy One who made us, whom Christ reveals as our Father looking for His image to be reproduced in us: see Mat 5:48; 1Pe 1:14 ff. In God, first the character disclosed, then the claim enforced; in us, first the claim acknowledged, then the character impressed. See, further, notes on 1Th 4:7 and 1Th 5:23; also on 1Th 2:10, for the synonyms of ἅγιος.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3.] further specification (γάρ) of the παραγγελίαι: see above.

τοῦτο is the subject, not the predicate (as De W.): see Rom 9:8: Gal 3:7: not superfluous, as Pelt, but emphatically prefixed (so Lünem.).

θέλημα τ. θεοῦ serves to take up again the διὰ τ. κυρ. Ἰησοῦ.

The article may be omitted, because the predicate θέλημα τ. θ. is not distributed (?): but in this case, τὸ θέλ. would be equally applicable, there being no danger of τὸ θέλ. being mistaken for ‘the whole will,’ but rather specifying ‘that which forms part of the will.’ This explanation is not to be abandoned, as Ellic., on account of the merely occasional omission of the article after a noun substantive, mentioned by Middleton and Ellic.: for the reason of that omission is to be sought rather in logic than in idiom. Rather perhaps should we say that there is in Greek a tendency to omit articles before predicates, even where such an omission cannot be logically pressed.

ὁ ἁγ. ὑμ. is in apposition with θέλ. τ. θ. as a ‘locus communis,’ the will of God respecting us being known to be our sanctification, and then this, sanctification being afterwards specified as consisting in ἀπέχεσθαι, &c. Therefore ἁγιασμός must be taken in the most general sense, and that which is afterwards introduced, ἀπέχεσθαι, &c., as a part of our ἁγιασμός.

ὑμῶν is the objective genitive, of you.

ἀπέχεσθαι and εἰδέναι are not the negative and positive sides of ὁ ἁγ. ὑμ. as Lünem. and Ellic.,—for the negative comes in again in verses 5, 6,—but the latter (εἰδέναι to διεμαρτυράμεθα, ver. 6) further specifies and ensures the former.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. τοῦτο γάρ κτλ “Well, to be explicit, God’s will is this.” With the explanatory γάρ, τὸ πῶ and τίνα (v. 2) are resumed by τοῦτ, a predicate probably, placed for emphasis before the subject θέλημα τοῦ θεου; and are further explained in ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶ By saying “God’s will,” Paul lays stress once more on the divine sanction already evident in the introduction (vv. 1-2), “in” and “through” the Lord Jesus.

Though ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶ and ἀπέχεσθα are in apposition with τοῦτ, it is yet uncertain whether τοῦτ is subject (Lft. and most comm.) or predicate (De W., Dob.). Since τοῦτ resumes the objects τὸ πῶ and τίνα, and since the prompting subject is Christ (διὰ τοῦ κυρίο) who expresses the will of God, it is perhaps better to take θέλημα τοῦ θεου as subject and τοῦτ as predicate. On τοῦτο γά, cf. especially 5:18; also 4:15, 2Co 8:10, Col 3:20, etc. In Paul regularly (except 1Co 7:37, Eph 2:3) and in Lxx frequently, θέλημ refers to the divine will. In Paul we have either τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεου(Rom 12:2, Eph 6:6; with κατα, Gal 1:4 (cf. 1 Ezr 8:16); or ἐ, Rom 1:10); or θέλημα θεου (5:18; with δια, Rom 15:32, 1Co 1:1, etc.) like εὐαγγέλιον θεου (Rom 1:1). We expect here either τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεου (A) or θέλημα θεου (D; so BD in 5:18 where א has θέλημα τοῦ θεου). The omission of only one article here may be due to the influence of the Hebrew construct state (Bl 46:9). But neither here nor in 5:18 is the total will of God in mind; multae sunt voluntates (Bengel). Paul does not use θέλησι; cf. ἡ θέλησις τοῦ θεου (Tob. 12:18, 2 Mac. 12:16).

ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶ = τὸ ὑμᾶς ἁγιάζεσθα. God’s will is “your consecration”; that is, either that you may be consecrated or better that you consecrate yourselves. The word ἁγιασμό denotes both the process of consecration (as here) and the state of the consecrated (as vv. 4. 7; see SH on Rom 6:19). The consecrating power is God (5:23), Christ (1Co 1:2, 1Co 1:30), or the Spirit (v. 8, II 2:13; cf. Rom 15:16). Though in itself, as Vorstius (apud Poole) observes, ἁγιασμό is a general term, yet the immediate context, ἀπέχεσθα … πορνεία, and the contrasts between αγιασμό and πάθος ἐπιθυμία (vv. 4-5) and between ἁγιασμό and ἀκαθαρσί (v. 7) suggest the restriction to impurity.

In the N. T. ἁγιασμό is chiefly in Paul; but only here do we have the article or the personal pronoun (cf. Eze 45:4). On ἐν ἁγιασμῷ, cf. vv. 4, 7 Test. xii, Benj. 10:11 Ps. Sol. 17:33 1 Clem. 35:2; on ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματο II 2:13, 1Pe 1:2; on εἰς ἁγιασμό, Rom 6:19. Rom 6:22, Amo 2:11. For ἁγιασμό = ἁγιωσύν, cf. Test. xii, Lev 18:7 (πνεῦμα ἁγιασμου) with 18:11 and Rom 1:4 (πνεῦμα ἁγιωσύνη).

ἀπέχεσθα … πορνεία “That you hold aloof from fornication”; for true consecration to God is moral as well as religious. Every kind of impurity is a sin not simply against man but against God (cf. v. 8 and Psa 50:6: σοὶ μόνῳ ἥμαρτο).

What was unclear in τὸ πῶ (v. 1), τία (v. 2), and τοῦτ (v. 3) and what was still general in ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶ, now (vv. 3b-6a) becomes clear and specific in the two pairs of infinitives, ἀπέχεσθα and εἰδένα, κτᾶσθα and ὑπερβαίνει, placed in asyndetical apposition with ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶ Dibelius thinks it unnecessary to take the infin. as appositive, “since the infinitive often appears in such hortatory enumerations (see Pseudophokylides)”; on such infinitives, but without subject, cf. Rom 12:15, Php 3:16 and Bl 69:1. In the Lxx ἀπέχεσθα takes either the genitive alone or the gen, with ἁπο, (both constructions in Sap. 2:16); classic Gk. prefers the former, Paul the latter (5:22). Paul uses the plural πορνεία (1Co 7:2) but not πᾶσα πορνεί (so F here); the word itself suggests all forms of sexual immorality. On the generic τῆ, cf. 1Co 6:13, 1Co 6:18.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fornication. Paul wrote from Corinth, where sensuality in the guise of religion was rife. In Thessalonica, besides the ordinary licentious customs of the Gentiles, immorality was fostered by the Cabeiric worship (see Introduction). About the time of Paul, a political sanction was given to this worship by deifying the Emperor as Cabeirus.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.