1 Thess 4:1-8; Why it is necessary to live sanctified?

Wednesday April 12,2023

The will of God and the calling of God is our sanctification.

Definition: sanctification is thinking and conducting ourselves according to God’s will in everything.

Sanctification comes from the same word from which we get saint, holy, and holiness.

In the same way it is used in our passage, Paul uses it in Rom 6.

Rom 6:19

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

In Scripture, sanctification has three phases:

Positional – made holy at the moment of salvation.

Experiential – our choices to think and behave holy.

Eternal – our holiness in heaven (both together).

It is vital in our interpretation of passages that contain the idea of sanctification to know which of the three that passage is referencing. The context will show it.

Our experiential sanctification is God’s will, and we were called for that purpose.

Eph 1:3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

The passage states that God chose us so that we would be, and this seems to have in mind both positional and experiential sanctification. The book of Ephesians deals with both kinds. Coupled with “holy” is the word “blameless.” Blameless literally means unstained, and Paul uses a synonym in our passage “uncleanliness.”

This the second main division of the letter. [the first is 2:1-3:10]

In this section Paul is going to exhort them to strive even more for abundant holiness in their lives, and despite the persecution, to also know that the Lord is coming back. The Lord’s return is comfort and motivation to press on with everything they’ve got.

1Th 4:1-8

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Sanctification is found in vs. 3 and in vs. 7. Sanctification therefore becomes a sort of set of bookends to the passage.

God’s will is our sanctification (vs. 3).

God elected us for the purpose of sanctification (vs. 7).

First, let’s see what Paul says sanctification is not.

“God has not called us for the purpose of impurity (uncleanliness).”

1Th 4:1

Paul and the men with him, who served the Thessalonians when they were there, requests and exhorts. These words also mean beseech and comfort.

“as you received instruction as to how you ought to walk (live),” the word “ought” means “it is necessary.” Paul states that it is necessary that we live in sanctification and please God. The reason given is our election. It is no more complicated than that. It turns out that the greatest motivation is the simplest – you were chosen for this very purpose.

They had already been taught what Paul is going to tell them about sanctification. They have also been living sanctified lives as we’ve seen in the first three chapters. He is not only going to tell them again, but he is going exhort them to excel (abound, extraordinary) more so.

All believers need to hear the request and exhortation of God’s will of sanctification over and again throughout life.

1Th 4:2-5

For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

“the authority of” is added by the translators of the NASB, but the preposition simply means through the Lord Jesus. They do actually know the commandments that Paul gave them. This was abundantly evident by the fact that they lived with enduring hope, faith, and love in the midst of harsh persecution. What is significant about this statement is that they are not safe from the lure of an unholy life just because they know the commandments.

The commandments have to repeated to us over and over again.

There are two major issues of immorality that Paul brings up – sex and greed.

Two big traps for believers: sex and greed.

Sexual immorality (vs. 3) and lustful passion (vs. 4) both refer to the same thing – illicit sexual activity.

The unbelievers do not know God, so they are stuck in immoral behavior.

People born separate from God, fallen DNA, born into fallen families in fallen family structures and fallen societies all mature with holes or gaps in their souls. They seek to fill these things that lack in them with things other than God. It is most natural to do so. What they don’t know is that without God, the gaps will never fill. They will never be whole and at certain times, times of depression and stress, they will know it.

Not so for the believer.

Col 2:10

in Him you have been made complete

Therefore, immorality is not of life, not the completed life.

“possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor …”

You are in control.

Your decisions will affect your body and mind.

That also means that we cannot control another human being. Only God can choose to do that. Each of us have inherent freedom in our own soul (main premise of the first paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence).

The next part of immorality that Paul emphasizes is greed.

1Th 4:6

and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

The verbs “transgress” and “defraud” go together. Transgress is a word that means to go over, and hence to transgress.

“Defraud” is used of Satan:

2Co 2:11

that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes

In our case in 1Th 4:6, and all other places in the NT, it refers to the act of taking advantage of another because you want more money. Greed.

Paul connects sexual immorality with greed because they were the two big pitfalls for mankind in the pagan world, and they still are. There is nothing new under the sun.

After a man interrupted Jesus sermon to ask Him to arbitrate between himself and his brother for the family inheritance, Jesus replied:

Luk 12:15

“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed …”

In the pagan world, filthiness is found both in sex and in money.

Sexual immorality and more money are marketed in the world as the things that will fulfill the unfilled soul.

In thousands of years, they have never done it. Not once. They do for a few moments, but they end up torturing the soul of the man or woman who has worshipped them.

1Th 4:7-8

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Paul’s brilliant move at the end of his thought is to remind us that God has given us His Holy Spirit in (preposition eis) us. God has not given us lustful passion or greed, but He has put God in us. Which should we choose?