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“For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.” (1 Thess. 4:7, NKJV)
Paul has been calling us to sanctification, particularly in regard to our sexual behavior (1 Thess. 4:3-5). We who bear the name of Christ are not to act as do the Gentiles, those who do not know Jesus. By Gentiles Paul has in mind those who are spiritually dead and outside of Christ, sons of disobedience who are alienated from the life of God and driven by the lusts of the flesh (Eph. 2:1-3; 4:17-19).
The apostle is emphatic that we are to manage our passions and control our actions. He will go to say: “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness” (1 Thess. 4:7). Uncleanness has to do with impurity of any sort that pollutes us. It stands in stark contrast to holiness.
Paul fleshes this contrast out a bit in his letter to the Romans. “For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19).
As Christians we have a holy calling. That calling is expressed in many ways throughout Scripture but each time it has to do with our relationship to the living God and our new status in Christ. For example, to the Ephesians Paul writes: “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Eph. 4:1).
Here to the Thessalonians Paul writes that our calling in Christ is comprehensive of all of life, including the way we live our sexuality. Again, we see that this call has to do with who we are in Christ as we are united to Him in our effectual calling. “Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8).
We can be cavalier about how we conduct ourselves sexually, thinking “what’s the big deal.” That is particularly the case in a sex saturated society, driven by an insatiable appetite for sexual stimulation and gratification.
As a pastor I have seen professing Christian couples not think twice about living together and engaging in intercourse outside the bond of marriage. In most cases they are simply following the cultural model. Some even seem unaware of God’s call to holiness in this regard. Some will impose their own moral standard on the matter, such as justifying sex because they are engaged or in a committed relationship.
But God calls us to purity. Our purity relates to our position in Christ. That’s why it is so sobering to hear the apostle frame his call in terms of rejecting God “who has given us His Holy Spirit.” In other words, our willful impurity is a blatant, defiant repudiation of the God we purport to love and honor. It is also a denial of our identity in Christ who is Lord over every aspect of our being.
Paul lays out this teaching on sexual purity here in verses 3-8, beginning with a call to the holiness of sanctification and closing with reference to the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit. But right in the middle he says something that seems a rabbit trail: “that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified” (1 Thess. 4:6).
It may be that Paul has a financial concern in mind when he speaks of defrauding but more likely, given the context, he is talking about exploiting others for our sexual gratification. He has just mentioned the “passion of lust” exhibited by the Gentiles and he is urging us as Christians not to be controlled by lust but by love, as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
How is Psalm 19:12-14 an apt prayer for Paul’s teaching on sexual immorality?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
