1 Thessalonians 4:6

“that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter: because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified”

“Transgress”: “You cannot break this rule without in some way cheating your fellow man” (Phi). “Often in LXX, mostly in the literal sense of overpassing limits” (Vincent p. 36). “The force of crossing. boundary--here of crossing. forbidden boundary, hence trespassing (sexually) on territory which is not one's own” (Stott p. 85). “To overreach” (Morris p. 126). “And wrong”: To be covetous, i.e. (by implication) to over-reach: get an advantage, defraud, make. gain. Being. “consenting adult” does not make one immune from exploitation and sin. Morris rightly points out, “It reminds us that all sexual looseness represents an act of injustice to someone. Adultery is an obvious violation of the rights of another. But promiscuity before marriage represents the robbing of the other of that virginity which ought to be brought to. marriage” (p. 126). People often attack monogamous marriages, and point out the current divorce rate or the abuses that happen in marriage, and argue that such justifies the sinful alternative they have chosen. Yes, abuses happen in some marriages, yet remember this,. n every living-together, homosexual or adulterous relationship someone is being exploited! The very fact that God labels all sexual activity outside of marriage as "fornication", which comes from the Greek word for prostitute, is clear evidence that all such relationships are not based on true love (1 Corinthians 13:4 ff), but rather upon selfishness,. love which is bought or sold,. love that views the other person as an object or possession,. love that is willing to sacrifice the soul of the other person, for their own momentary pleasure.

“No one can commit fornication without defrauding and wronging someone. It is. sin that always wrongs and hurts others, and not just ourselves. By it men wrong someone's wife, or future wife, someone's sister, someone's marriage or future marriage” (p. 107).

“His brother”: Especially if such fornication involved. brother's wife or daughter. “In the matter”: That is, in the matter being previously discussed, unlawful sexual activity. “The Lord is the avenger in all these things”: Compare with 1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:6; and Revelation 21:8. “Avenger”: carrying justice out,. punisher. “Regular term in the papyri for legal avenger” (Robertson p. 29). “We must not understand vengeance in the sense of the settling of private scores, but rather of the administration of an evenhanded justice” (Morris p. 127). “Heathen gods were often pictured as indulging in human vices. But the true God is the avenger of vices” (Fields p. 107). “While this concept must not be distorted into something like the petty, spiteful and often unjust revenge we see among human beings, neither must its content be softened into something like the impersonal natural consequences of one's sins. Vengeance is an intensely personal act, coming from the heart and will of one who has experienced wrongdoing against himself. Thus God's vengeance is something He deliberately and personally inflicts” (Cottrell, God the Redeemer, p. 290).

“As also we forewarned you and testified”: Compare with Galatians 5:21. Truth did not change for Paul. In this letter he taught them exactly the same moral commandments that he taught while with them. “Evidently when the apostles of Christ once spoke, their teaching was not to be modified later to suit someone's pleasure and convenience” (Fields p. 107). Notice that Paul gave new converts what they needed, “Plain, frank, practical, authoritative, uninhibited just what new converts need, especially if they are exposed to pagan standards and pressures” (Stott p. 86). Here we see the relevance of the Bible, because on this point our modern society demonstrates that it cannot handle sex outside of marriage as more than the ancient world could, just look at the statistics concerning divorce, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy out of wedlock.