1 Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: FOR - enforcing the assertion, . Since "this is the will of God," let it be your will also. FORNICATION - not regarded as a sin at all among the pagan, so needing the more to be denounced ()....

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. O...

1-8 To abide in the faith of the gospel is not enough, we must abound in the work of faith. The rule according to which all ought to walk and act, is the commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctification, in the renewal of their souls under the influences of the Holy Spirit, and attention to appointed duties, constituted the will of God respecting them. In aspiring after this renewal of the soul unto holiness, strict restraint must be put upon the appetites and senses of the body, and on the thoughts and inclinations of the will, which lead to wrong uses of them. The Lord calls none into his family to live unholy lives, but that they may be taught and enabled to walk before him in holiness. Some make light of the precepts of holiness, because they hear them from men; but they are God's commands, and to break them is to despise God....

Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:3. _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.

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,...

EXPOSITION CONTENTS.—With this chapter the second portion of the Epistle—its practical application-commences. The apostle exhorts and entreats the Thessalonians to make progress in the Christian life, and to practice those commandments which, when he was with them, he gave them by the authority of Jesus Christ. God had called them to holiness and to the renunciation of their heathen practices. They must especially be on their guard against impurity, to which as Gentiles they were formerly so prone. He who rejected his injunctions rejected, not man, but God, whose commands they were. As they were already taught of God in the active practice of Christian love, so they must abound therein. They must not allow themselves to be led away by excitement, as if the day of Christ were at hand, but with quietness and honesty perform the duties of their earthly calling, and so commend the gospel to...

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 wh...

IV. THE SEPARATED WALK AND THE BLESSED HOPE CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The separated walk 1 Thessalonians 4:1)_ 2. The coming of the Lord for His saints 1 Thessalonians 4:13) 1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Furthermore, then, brethren, we beg you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye received from us, how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more. For ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (not in passionate desire, eve

PRACTICAL EXHORTATIONS TO PURITY OF LIFE AND BROTHERLY LOVE. The Church at Thessalonica has begun well and is encouraged to go forward. 1 THESSALONIANS 4:1. ABOUND: 1 THESSALONIANS 3:12 *. 1 Thessalonians 4:3. abstain, etc.: the inculcation of such an elementary principle of conduct seems strange, but we need to remember that certain heathen cults regarded immorality as part of the ritual of worship, and religion and immorality were to them almost convertible terms. This consecration of vice in paganism made it absolutely necessary for Paul to insist upon moral purity....

Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you have received instructions from us as to how you must behave to please God, even so you do behave, that you may go on from more to more. For you know what orders we gave you through the Lord Jesus; for this is God's will for you, that you should live consecrated lives, I mean, that you should keep yourselves from fornication, that each of you should know how to possess his own body in consecration and in honour, not in the passion of lustful desire, like the Gentiles who do not know God, that in this kind of thing you should not transgress against your brother or try to take advantage of him. For of all these things the Lord is the avenger, as we have already told you and testified to you. For God did not call us to impurity but to consecration. Therefore he who rejects this instruction does not reject a man, but...