For this is [the] will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication;
Many people wonder what God wants for their life. Paul answers plainly: God wants His people set apart for Himself, and the first test of that is what a believer does with his own body.
People hunt for God's will as if it were hidden. On this subject, there is nothing to hunt for:
On the other hand, God has expressed His will in His Word about many things in our practical, daily lives. Do we rejoice in what He has said about the way we should behave? We can know these things for certain too. For example: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality." Many other scriptures show us plainly what conduct is right and fitting. Let us get to know them well by reading and thinking them over.
"Sanctification" sounds like a mood or a manner. Its root sense is far simpler:
To some, sanctification just means putting on a holy face. It means nothing of the sort; nor does it even mean becoming very holy, except in a secondary sense. The primary meaning of sanctify is to set apart — to separate from base uses to the service and pleasure of God.
In this letter that setting apart shows up in ordinary behaviour:
In the first letter to the Thessalonians it is clearly a question of practice. "This is the will of God, our sanctification." "For God has not called us to impurity, but in holiness" — or sanctification. Here it is plain that he is speaking of walking in holiness every day.
Paul starts with the body. The readers' background explains why:
The first quality that should mark those who profess the Name of Jesus, and tread the path of faith, is personal purity. God had called those converts out of a pagan system. There people chased the lusts of the flesh openly in everyday life, and their corrupt religion even turned those lusts into gods. Idol worship surrounded them, and it glorified lust... If these warnings were needed back then, they matter just as deeply in these last difficult days. The danger then, as now, is that we slowly stop caring about the evil, or treat it as a small thing.
The phrase "the will of God, even your sanctification" is easy to lift out on its own and stretch to mean whatever a reader wants. That is precisely the misuse one writer flags:
"The will of God, even your sanctification," is an abuse of the passage (1 Thess. 4:3); the end of it is left out, which totally alters the sense.
Yet the verse's own definition is not where Paul stops either. Abstaining is the floor, not the ceiling:
Holiness, of course, goes far beyond freedom from sensuality. Still, to stand clear of what was everywhere accepted in ordinary life was no small thing. The apostle is not content with the negative duty of abstaining. He calls on "each of them to know how to keep his own body in sanctification and honour," instead of letting it drift into sin and shame.
A letter full of the Lord's return turns, in this chapter, to bedroom ethics. That turn is deliberate:
That is what Christianity looks like in practice, and it is worthless if it is not practical... In the truth Christ has revealed there is no breadth or length, no height or depth that does not touch the state of our affections, or the character of our walk and work. No error dishonours God or damages man more than splitting theory from practice... truth is not there only to inform us, but to sanctify us.
Because it is God's will, no believer may treat it as a matter of taste. Nor does God leave him to manage it alone:
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification," is what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 4:3), showing that it is not optional for the Christian, not something to take up or drop as we please. What is more, God Himself works it out for His saints, and it covers everything. Paul went on to pray for them, "May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely" (1 Thess. 5:23). Everything about us is to come under the sanctifying touch of the God of peace.
- Stated — God's will here is not hidden. He put it in writing, so we can know it and obey it.
- Set apart — that is what sanctification means: separated from base uses to God's service. In this letter it is a matter of daily walk.
- Started at the body — purity comes first. These converts came out of a religion that glorified lust, and we slip into treating such evil lightly.
- Stretched further — abstaining is only the negative half. Quote the verse without its ending and you alter the sense; Paul presses on to sanctification and honour.
- Sustained — it is not optional, and we do not manage it alone. God Himself works it out, and the God of peace sanctifies us completely.
that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
Paul has just told the Thessalonians how to walk and please God. Now he names the first mark of it: personal purity. Older translations read "possess his own vessel" where the ESV has "control his own body," and the commentators work from that older wording. So two questions sit inside the verse. What is this "vessel"? And what does holding it "in holiness and honor" involve?
These believers had come out of a religion where immorality was part of the worship. That pressure did not stop when they believed.
The first quality that should mark those who profess the Name of Jesus, and follow the path of faith, is personal purity. These converts had been called out of a pagan system. There the desires of the flesh were not only pursued without shame in everyday life; their corrupt religion made gods of them. An idol-worshipping system surrounded them. It glorified lust, and its temple ritual included the worst immoralities... The danger then, as now, is that without really noticing it, we become indifferent to the evil, or treat it as a small thing.
Commentators differ here. Some read the vessel as the believer's own body — a thing the pagan world treated as a tool for any use it pleased.
The body was nothing more than a vessel, to be used at will for whatever purpose they chose. They were to possess this vessel, instead of letting the desires of the flesh carry them away — because they knew God.
Others read it of a man's own wife, which fits the warning that follows about wronging a brother.
Each was to possess his own vessel (his own wife) in sanctification and honour. This would guard him against the many immoralities practised among the pagans. If anyone overstepped another's rights in this matter and so wronged his brother by committing adultery, the Lord would be the avenger. It would show complete disregard for God, who has not called His people to impurity, but to sanctification — to be separated from all these things.
The Greek word behind "possess" carries more than simply having something. Here it means keeping hold of what you are in danger of losing.
The Greek word translated "possess" means more than "possess." It is not to have what is already mine, but to gain — or, as here, to keep, to hold on to, when you are in danger of not keeping it.
Verse 3 says what to avoid. Verse 4 asks for more: knowing how to handle what God has entrusted to you.
Holiness, of course, goes far beyond freedom from sensuality... And the apostle is not satisfied with the negative duty of abstaining. He calls on each of them "to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour," instead of letting it drift into sin and shame.
Why should the body be held in honour? The answer lies in what Christ has done — in His own body, and in ours.
The true honour of the body was never seen until Christ came and proved it. He proved it in His own person as man, and in ours too — redeemed by His blood and indwelt by the Holy Spirit... Even now the Lord does not look down on this temple of the Spirit. How much less will He when it is changed into the likeness of His glory?
Where does the power for this come from? Two natures are at work in the believer.
The believer is born of God, so his new nature has holy tastes and desires. But the flesh, the old nature we have from Adam, is also in us. So the power for holiness lies in walking with God in conscious dependence on Him.
Purity is only the start. The same care shapes every relationship a believer stands in.
Possessing his vessel applies to all the conduct of the believer. Verse 6 warns against overstepping proper limits to cheat or oppress one's brother in any matter. Whatever relationships we are placed in, we must be careful to respect the responsibilities that belong to them.
Darby names who is really wronged in such a case.
The man wronged in this way was not only the husband of a wife. He was the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and ought to be respected as such.
- Possess, don't drift. The word means keeping hold of what you are in danger of losing. It is the opposite of letting your life drift into sin and shame.
- Possess what? Commentators differ: some take the vessel as your own body, others as your own wife. Either way, something entrusted to you is at stake.
- Possess in honour. Christ showed the body's true worth. He took a human body Himself, redeemed ours by His blood, and made it the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
- Possess by dependence. The new nature has holy desires, but the flesh is still there. The power to keep the vessel comes from walking with God, not from willpower.
- Possess in every relationship. Purity is the first test. The same care must govern how you treat a brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger.
(not in passionate desire, even as the nations who know not God,)
Paul has just told the Thessalonians that God's will is their sanctification, and that each is to hold his own vessel in honour. This verse gives the contrast: the nations around them live by passion, and the reason is that they do not know God.
The verse speaks of "the passion of lust." A reference work in the collection lists this verse and defines that lust simply:
Undue and unlawful lust. Rom. 7:8; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5.
One writer sets the two possible uses of these human vessels side by side:
We are set to walk in a way that pleases God. So we are told plainly what God's will is. It is that we walk in practical sanctification. That sanctification stays clear of lust. It holds these human vessels as set apart for honourable uses. It does not keep them just for the gratification of evil passions, as with those who do not know God.
Thessalonica was a Greek city. Pressure on new believers came from every side at once — daily habits, learning, and worship:
The apostle pressed one thing above all: the personal purity of those who bore the name of Jesus. He pressed it the more because the Greeks failed in it completely. Their habits and their literature helped the evil along, and so did their statesmen and their philosophers. Their very religion made the defilement worse. It treated as sacred the very thing that corrupt nature is already drawn to. Few can grasp the moral horrors of that pagan world, or how little most people felt such shameless pollution. Christ changed all of this for those who believe in Him. He left an example that they should follow His steps.
The phrase "who do not know God" is more than a remark about Thessalonica's neighbours. Scripture describes the nations this way again and again, and the words return where judgment is in view:
Here the question is one of vengeance. It does not fall on unbelievers marked by two features, as Calvin says. It falls on two distinct objects of judgment. One is "those who do not know God" — the Gentiles, described in just this way in 1 Thessalonians 4:5, and in substance throughout Scripture.
The verse gives a reason, not just a comparison. What the nations lack, the believer has:
But the motives given here show the entirely new ground on which Christianity places us. This is true even for the most ordinary morality. The body was only a vessel to use at will, for whatever purpose they chose. They were to possess this vessel, instead of letting the desires of the flesh carry them away. The reason was that they knew God.
William Kelly puts the ruin and the remedy side by side:
When God is dishonoured, man is depraved. And God, in forgiving and rescuing from the wrath to come through Christ's death and resurrection, also gives a new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit acts on that life by the word, so that it bears fruits of righteousness through Him to God's glory.
Commentators differ on what the "vessel" is. Some read it as the believer's own body, as the quotation above does. Others read it as a man's wife, so that marriage itself is the safeguard:
Each was to possess his own vessel — his own wife — in sanctification and honour. This would be a safeguard against the many immoralities practised among the pagans. Suppose someone overstepped the rights of another in this matter and so wronged his brother by committing adultery. Then the Lord would be the avenger.
Why would new believers need such a warning? Their old world had shaped them, and every age brings its own pressure:
God had called those converts out of a pagan system. In it, people not only pursued the lusts of the flesh shamelessly in everyday life; their depraved religion also made those lusts divine... These warning exhortations were needed in that day. They matter just as much in these last difficult days. The danger then, as now, is that we hardly notice ourselves growing indifferent to the evil, or thinking lightly of it.
- Not knowing. Scripture keeps one description of the nations: they do not know God. That ignorance, not weak willpower, is the root of the passion named here.
- Knowing God. Christianity puts even ordinary morality on new ground. The believer possesses his vessel instead of letting desire carry him along, because he knows God.
- Knowing how. The call is not only to stay clear of lust. It is to hold the vessel in sanctification and honour. Commentators read that vessel as either the body or the wife.
- Knowing the pressure. Thessalonica's religion treated impurity as sacred. So the converts' old habits and their neighbours' lives pulled the same way.
- Knowing the danger now. The real risk is drifting into indifference, thinking lightly of what God has called us out of.