Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Thessalonians 4:3–12

Accountability for Oneself

/It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.

The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit/.

/Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia.

Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more/.

/Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody/.

Those in whom we have vested our greatest hope, are frequently those who disappoint us most greatly.

The reason this is true lies in the fact that everybody lives to please somebody.

If an individual lives to please himself, we are not disappointed should that individual fail to meet our expectations.

If an individual claims to live to please God, however, we are disappointed should that individual fail to maintain the standards required of that holy relationship.

Christians profess to live to please the Lord, and therefore, we expect much of the Christian lifestyle.

God's instruction to the Thessalonians contained a cautionary statement revealing the concern He has that His people may forget, or worse yet, neglect, a righteous life.

Paul lauds the Thessalonian saints for their faith and endurance under extreme pressure.

He reminds that that previously he personally had instructed them how to live in order to please God, and pointedly states that they were in fact pleasing God in their manner of life [*1 Thessalonians 4:1*].

This church required precise instruction, not to correct any deficit in Christian practise but to avoid error due to absorbing the prevailing attitudes.

Similarly, we require instruction not because we have begun to engage in open, flagrant immorality, but that we might we equipped to resist the pressures of the world about us.

Phillip's treatment of this passage is worthy of our consideration.

To sum up, my brothers, we beg and pray you by the Lord Jesus, that you continue to learn more and more of the life that pleases God, the sort of life we told you about before.

You will remember the instructions we gave you then in the name of the Lord Jesus.

God's plan is to make you holy, and that entails first of all a clean cut with sexual immorality.

Every one of you should learn to control his body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect, and never regarding it as an instrument for self‑gratification, as do pagans with no knowledge of God.

You cannot break this rule without in some way cheating your fellow men.

And you must remember that God will punish all who do offend in this matter, and we have warned you how we have seen this work out in our experience of life.

The calling of God is not to impurity but to the most thorough purity, and anyone who makes light of the matter is not making light of a man's ruling but of God's command.

It is not for nothing that the Spirit God gives us is called the Holy Spirit [*1 Thessalonians 4:1–8*, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Macmillan, ©1958, 1960].

*GOD'S WILL* – *our sanctification* [*vv**.

3–6a*] — It is God's will that you should be sanctified.

Sanctified is a loaded term.

Too many have imagined this passage presents a command to seek a second work of grace … a sanctifying experience.

That any should think such a thing is in itself tragic for we are given a revelation at this point and not a command.

In view is a lifestyle and not a single, unique experience.

Absent from our translation is the little conjunction for (ga;r), to direct our attention back to the earlier affirmation of the purpose for this portion of the letter which was to instruct how to live in order to please God [*v**.

1*].

Furthermore, there is no definite article associated with qevlhma (will), indicating that Paul has in view but a portion of God's will and not the whole of the will of God.

Further still, aJgiasmo;" rather than speaking of the state of holiness, points to the process of being made holy.

Purity is not a momentary impulse, but a lesson, a habit.

It is of some importance that the Greek word which speaks of God's will (qevlhma), embraces the thought not only of God's commanding will but His enabling will.

In this context, I must turn to the* **seventh verse* which reminds us of God's calling: For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

Two entirely different prepositions occur in the Greek which are translated less precisely in our English texts.

It is, according to the view of one biblical scholar bluntly insensitive to fail to make the distinction between ejpi;and* *ejn.

Therefore, Nigel Turner translates this verse: /God has not called us *to* uncleanness, but His call is addressed to us *in our state of sanctification*/ [Grammatical Insights into the New Testament, T. & T. Clark, 1965, quoted in Leon Morris, 1 And 2 Thessalonians, Eerdman's, 1984, p. 84].

Ejpi;*conveys the thought of purpose *(cf.*

Ephesians 2:10* where ejpi;denotes God's purpose in salvation).

Paul is concerned that Christians voluntarily enter into the sanctifying process, capitalising in particular on one area – that you should avoid sexual immorality.

The amplification is not unrelated to the decision of the Jerusalem council which would have been delivered only a few years prior to this letter, that the Gentile believers should abstain … from sexual immorality [*Acts 15:20,29*].

Paul provides instruction related to individual lives as well as to interpersonal relationship.

To understand the necessity of this instruction, it is important that we recognise the cultural milieu in which the church then existed and the unique view which that divine body presented to the pagans.

The Roman world was noted for low moral standards, not that there were no standards for moral conduct, but that what standards that did exist reflected the fallen condition of those living in that sordid environment.

The strictures commonly accepted in that ancient society were notoriously unequal, enshrining a dual standard in which men were granted (even expected to engage in) sexual license, while women, especially those of free families, were expected to remain chaste.

Porneiva" (sexual immorality) was not viewed as socially undesirable, but rather immorality was even seen as necessary in some instances.

For example, slavery was common and slaves were vulnerable to the predation of unscrupulous masters, being employed as sexual playthings for many masters, not unlike prostitutes who were also engaged whenever a man should desire sex.

Concubinage was commonplace, a concubine being viewed not only as a mistress but also as someone with whom a man could converse intellectually.

Wives were the source of legitimate children and as managers of the house; and that appears to have been their sole function in the minds of many.

Roman senators advocated legalised prostitution with the proceeds being used to build temples to the gods.

In short, there were few moral restraints in that ancient society.

Sex was even used to underwrite religion.

Such attitudes should not be too surprising since sex was an intimate part of many religious rituals.

You see, the gentiles viewed the gods as personifications of their own ambitions and lusts; but they did not know the true God Who is holy and Who wills the sanctification of those who would follow Him.

This is the world into which the Church was introduced – a world not unlike that in which we live today.

In that environment Christians were expected to represent a lifestyle reflecting their knowledge of and calling from God.

The Christian Faith did not adapt its moral standards to the practises of contemporary society, but endeavoured to implement the standards of God in the life of each believer thereby making an impact on society as a whole.

Through holy lives Christian changed society without a single noisy march.

It is equally vital that we remember something of the nature of moral evils, namely that moral evils are always spiritual evils.

Christians must not concern themselves only with those things which appeal to them, but they must be aware that God is concerned about their very actions.

According to this instruction each individual Christian is obligated to learn to control his own body, literally* to be enabled to gain control of his own vessel*.

That control must be in a way that is holy and honourable.

Honouring the human body as something which is sacred is to a large extent a Christian idea.

Pagan philosophers generally viewed the body as merely the repository of the soul, and therefore at best neutral and at worst evil.

The body was to be employed as a mere tool for personal gratification.

The Christian Faith insisted that the body be regarded as sacred.

Thus we Christians are therefore responsible to honour God through employment of our bodies in honourable fashion [cf.

*1 Corinthians 6:20b*].

Our obedience to the will of God in holiness has two aspects; one related to each of us individually and another related to our relationship to our brother men.

In terms of the impact of our progress in holiness individually the apostle contrasts believers and outsiders.

Believers know God and know that He is holy and honourable.

Therefore they are to learn to control their own bodies in such a way that that holiness and honour is reflected in their lifestyles.

This is in contrast to the heathen, who do not know God.  Paul speaks not of an innocent ignorance, but of blameworthy neglect of the light they had received, so that they were given up to unnatural lusts [see *Romans 1:19–32*].

The body must be treated as the Lord's property and not used as a means of wanton self‑indulgence.

This is the message of the Apostle in the Galatian letter [*Galatians 5:24*].

The heathen possessed their vessels in passionate lust, in pavqei* *ejpiqumiva".

The former of these two nouns properly denotes *a feeling which the mind suffers*, hence *a* *passion*.

It signifies an overmastering feeling in which a man is borne along by evil as though its passive instrument.

It is the passive side of vice, whereas the following noun reveals the active side.

The combination points to the surrender to one's passions.

In respect to our relationships with fellow men, we are admonished that in this matter (i.e.

referring to the issue at hand, sexual immorality), no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.

Paul's wording here is graphic, for he employs a rare word in arguing against wronging another.

The force of uJperbaivnein (which occurs only here in the New Testament) is of *crossing a boundary*.

Hence the word picture drawn is that of crossing a forbidden boundary thereby trespassing (sexually) on territory which is not one's own.

Sexual immorality violates another, for we who know God would be overstepping boundaries of fidelity, honour, and honesty.

Sexual immorality, television and Hollywood portrayals of such instances of infidelity notwithstanding, entails that I sin against God, that I sin against my own body, and that I sin against another.

Should we who are believers participate in sexual immorality, it is as though we commended the immoral lifestyle of the pagans.

Our participation, much less our commendation, legitimatises that which is against the will of God.

Therefore, we wrong our fellow man and take advantage of his ignorance of God.

 

*GOD'S WARNING* – *judgement of His people* [*vv**.

6b–8*] — Having established that sanctification of His people is the will of God (and especially sanctification as it relates to life in the arena of sexual mores) Paul next employs a differing tack in order to emphasise this truth.

By this emphatic means he will drive the point home with force.