Abstain From Sexual Immorality: 1 Thess Lesson 26

Abstain From Sexual Immorality

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

 We are going to return to 1 Thessalonians 4 this morning as we continue our verse by verse journey through this very important letter from the Apostle Paul to this very good church at Thessalonica. I will just remind you that when we got to chapter 4 we finally got to the instruction part of the letter. The first three chapters were descriptive. The last two chapters are prescriptive. Paul began the exhortation/instruction part of this letter with an overarching challenge to excel still more. So much good had resulted, yet Paul challenges them to excel still more. He knew that no one sits in neutral in our spiritual walk. We are either moving forward or failing. I don’t think Paul necessarily saw complacency, but rather understood the need to challenge these believers to keep pressing on.

 Paul follows up his challenge to excel still more with a clear and undeniable truth that applies to every genuine Christian. Verse 3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” We looked fairly extensively last week at the doctrine of sanctification and the reality that this is something that has happened to every believer in two aspects. First, God set us apart and sanctified us at the time of our conversion. We are identified as “saints” or those who are declared holy. Second, He is continuing to set us apart and purify us in order that our practice in this life moves more and more into conformity with our position as saints.

 After challenging these people to excel still more and reinforcing this challenge with a clear and undeniable statement regarding the will of God being our sanctification, Paul now moves into some specific areas. He wants them to excel still more in these specific areas. He wants the evidence of progressive sanctification to be seen in some practical aspects of their walk as Christians. These specific areas are addressed, I believe, because Timothy had been sent to encourage and strengthen them as to their faith, and had returned to give a report to Paul concerning some specific areas of need. These areas addressed are based on Timothy’s observations while being back among the Thessalonians. The first area specifically addressed is the issue of sexual purity. Please stand with me as we read verses 1-8.

 One of the very important aspects of scripture interpretation is to understand the cultural context into which this letter was originally written. The men who are in our Bible study class on Wednesday night have learned this. We can’t fully understand Paul’s instruction if we only read this in the context of our modern culture. Knowing something of the culture in which the Thessalonians lived is helpful. What do we know about the culture of the Thessalonians? We know a great deal. And what we know is that it was even more morally corrupt than even our society of today. At least up until the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s our culture had been influenced by traditional Christian values. The Thessalonians lived in a perverse and debauched culture that did not have any moral restraints. Every perversion we see today was common in that society and everything was practiced without shame or guilt, and without any legal restraints. Every form of sexual perversion was encouraged, practiced, and even celebrated.

 We see moral restraints being rejected in our culture and the morality of our culture is on a continual slide into the proverbial sewer. But we still have a long way to go to get to the point where things would be as morally corrupt as they were in Thessalonica. If I were preaching this message only to mature adults I might be inclined to go into specifics of the perversions that were commonly practiced and accepted in that culture. But suffice it to say that these new believers had been plucked out of a cesspool of sexual debauchery. They continued to live in a society that not only saw nothing wrong with these sexual experiences, but even celebrated them as noble. And there is the strong likelihood that as Timothy went back to check on these dear people, he was seeing some things that caused him concern. So Paul calls these young Christians to excel still more, and to pursue sanctification, and abstain from sexual immorality.

 This was a widespread problem affecting every church in the early church age. This is why so many of the New Testament letters address the issue. All the way back to the first church council in Acts 15, and the debate over whether or not circumcision was necessary for salvation, the decision from the first church council denied the heresy that was being argued about circumcision. And they outlined these directives to those who were coming to faith in Christ, “that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication.” Nothing was added to faith, but a few things were to be excluded from the life of the one who came to faith.

 Look at 1 Cor. 5:9-11, and 2 Cor. 12:21. Galatians 5:19 says, “the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality…” and other things. Ephesians 5:3 says, “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.” Col. 3:5 says, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. Hebrews 13:4 tells us, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

 With this much written to the various churches it is easy to understand just how prominent an issue this was and how extensive a problem this posed for the converts to Christianity. But here is what you will not find. You won’t find Paul caving to the culture. You won’t find anything that indicates that God has abandoned His standards just because the culture thrives on a selfish, hedonistic, sexually charged eroticism. God’s standards do not change. 

 This is why this exhortation has as much relevance today as it did then. While our culture might not be as illicit as the ancient culture, we are under intense pressure to abandon God’s standards of morality and to not only accept every kind of abhorrent perversion, but to actually celebrate the perversions of the LGBTQ+ culture. We will not. The word of God is still relevant. This is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. The argument ends right there. There is no room for a Christian to be involved in sexual immorality. And there is no excuse for a Christian to be involved in any form of sexual immorality.

 The Greek word translated “abstain” is not hard to understand. It means abstain. It means to refrain. It simply means that we keep away from sexual immorality. This means that no Christian young person should be involved in an intimate physical relationship prior to marriage. It means that no married person should be involved in any kind of physical intimate relationship with anyone other than their spouse. This means that all the alphabet soup nonsense of the gender identity crowd is not to have any place in the Christian’s life. And it means that those websites that people, including many who call themselves Christians, go to are among those things from which we are to abstain.

 I shouldn’t need to point this out, but notice that Paul does not say to just taper off, and try to do a little less this month than you did last month. Notice that Paul does not say that unless you are convinced you are in love with the other person don’t do it. Paul doesn’t say that its ok to get as close to sin as you can as long as you don’t go all the way. I’ve heard all the excuses. You cannot embrace excuses and allow compromise and obey the will of God in this area of your life. Total abstinence from all forms of sexual immorality is the will of God for His true children. Peter confirms this in 1 Peter 2:11 where he admonishes believers by writing, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshy lusts which wage war against the soul.”

 Abstain! Refrain! Keep yourself from the cesspool of immoral, sexual compromise in any form. The Greek word translated “sexual immorality” is “porneia.” Obviously, we get our word “pornography” from this word. The KJV translates it “fornication.” It refers to any form of lewdness or any sexual sin.

 Now I want you to notice something important in this text. Notice how Paul begins his discussion of this issue on a very personal level. He says, “you abstain from sexual immorality.” He says in verse 4 “that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Paul starts his discussion of this issue on the personal level because the root of the problem lies with whom? It lies with the individual who engages in the sexual immorality. 

At least implied here is the fact that we cannot blame the culture. We cannot blame the lust that fills our minds just because the young and attractive members of the opposite sex won’t cover their bodies as they should. They should cover their bodies but to assign the blame for my lust is to fail to see where the root of the problem lies. We can’t blame a problem with pornography on the fact that there is so much of it and it is so readily available on the internet. I am responsible for what my computer shows me. It should not be there but it is and the problem is not the internet. The problem is the sinful heart.

 Jesus was perfectly clear as to the source of adultery and fornication. In Matthew 15:19 He said, “For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and slanders.” Paul begins on the individual level because this is the individual Christian’s responsibility to abstain from sexual immorality.

 There is something I think that should be pointed out about this text. The verb “abstain” is a present tense verb, meaning that this should always be happening. It is an infinitive mood verb, which expresses purpose or result. Interestingly, it is a middle voice verb. If it was an active voice this would mean that the subject of the sentence “you” was fully responsible for the action of the verb. If it was a passive voice verb it would indicate that the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb. As a middle voice verb it means that the subject of the sentence participates in the action of the verb.

 What are the implications of the middle voice in this text? I think it means that we are responsible to do our part and abstain, and God will help us abstain through His Spirit who indwells. We would be completely dishonest if we were to say that total abstinence from sexual immorality was easy at the heart level. The temptations are strong. Crossing the line in our minds is far too easy. If obedience to this depended exclusively on me, I would be defeated consistently. But the middle voice indicates to me that there is One who helps me in the battle. We will learn more about that as we get toward the end of this passage.

 We need to understand an interpretational challenge from verse 4. What does it mean for someone to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor? There are two possible meanings. The word in the Greek was often used to mean to purchase or acquire something. It can also mean to control, or keep under control. That is the meaning here. The question of interpretation involves the meaning of “vessel.” It is used in some places to mean “wife” as in 1 Peter 3:7 where Peter calls the wife the “weaker vessel.” If this is the meaning, then Paul is saying that each one should know how to possess his own wife in sanctification and honor. That isn’t a bad understanding of the meaning, but I don’t think that is what Paul has in mind.

 The other use of “vessel” in Scripture refers to a person’s own body. In 2 Cor. 4:7 Paul writes, “But we have this treasure (the gospel) in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” Paul goes on in that passage to talk about the affliction he bore in his body. I believe Paul is calling all believers to possess their own bodies in sanctification and honor. Otherwise, the “each of you” would only be referring to the men. Women also have a responsibility to abstain from sexual immorality and possess their own bodies in sanctification and honor. I think the essence of this instruction is expressed in 2 Tim. 2:19-22. 

 Verse 5 explains the problem with the individual who does not know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. The conjunction “not” is used to point out this contrast. In presenting this contrast, Paul is giving us the pathology of the problem behind sexual immorality. If you have a biopsy on something that isn’t supposed to be in or on your body the doctors will get back a pathology report. A pathology report describes the nature or source or cause of the problem. The words used here are literally a pathology report revealing the nature, cause, and source of sexual immorality.

 Paul says, “not in lustful passion…” The word “lustful” is the Greek word “pathos” and it means “strong desire.” It does not always mean a strong desire that is bad. Paul used the same word back in 2:17 to describe the great desire he had to be reunited with the Thesssalonians. It is when the word is used in conjunction with “epithumia” which is translated “passion” it means the lusts that dishonor those who indulge them. I have called this a pathology report because here is what my favorite Greek scholar writes about these two words together. Spiros Zodhiates writes, “Pathos is the soul’s diseased condition out of which the various lusts spring. Epithumia is the active lust or desire springing out of the diseased soul.”

 This pathology report is an assessment of whom?  Paul tells us. He says that the Gentiles who do not know God are those whose lives are dominated and controlled and dictated by lustful passions. So dominant, and so strong, and so controlling are these lustful passions that Paul tells us in Romans 1 that those Gentiles who do not know God will deny the evidence of creation and conscience so they can pursue the lusts of their impure hearts. So God gives them over to the lusts of their hearts, and to the degrading passions that are behind the homosexual movement, and to a depraved mind so that they do things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness and wickedness.

 Paul further describes the pathology of the Gentiles who do not know God in Ephesians 4:17-19. The Gentiles “walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they, having become calloused, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 I have focused a lot of attention on the part of this passage that addresses sexual immorality on the individual level. Why? Because this is a problem that must be dealt with on the individual level. Paul is clear. The will of God is your sanctification, and my sanctification, and that each one of us individually abstain from sexual immorality and know how to possess our own vessels in sanctification and honor. If we are not doing that, or if we consistently fail in this area of our lives, we must deal with what Paul presents here. Either we abstain from sexual immorality, and learn how to possess our own bodies in sanctification and honor, or we are controlled by the lustful passions and are like the Gentiles who do not know God.

 I present it like that because Paul draws that stark of a contrast. I present it like that because its time for some who call themselves Christians to be confronted with the truth. If you call yourself a Christian but you are not totally committed to total abstinence from sexual immorality, and you are not devoting yourself to self-control and fleeing youthful lusts and abstaining from every form of evil, you need to take a serious look at the true condition of your heart. This is what Paul is calling the Thessalonians to understand. There is not room for you to keep one foot in the world of sexual immorality and one foot in the church. It is up to each of us as individuals to decide if our feet reside in verse 4 or verse 5 of this passage. We can’t stand in both verses. As an individual we are in one or the other.

 Some surveys reveal that 40-50% of the men who claim to be Christians regularly view inappropriate material. While it is easy to blame the porn industry, the problem is the lustful passions of those who do not know God. It is a problem that must first be addressed on the individual level. My fear is that those who indulge those lustful passions are not Christians at all, but are like the Gentiles who do not know God. They need to repent and believe and be saved.

 Having dealt with the issue of sexual immorality on the individual level, Paul moves on to what happens between people when there is sexual immorality. Look at verse 6. Paul goes on to write, “and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter…” Sexual immorality, in any form, involves transgressing and defrauding a brother. A brother can be a reference to either a man or a woman. The principle of who is our brother was clarified by Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

 The word “transgress” literally means “to overstep certain limits, to go too far, to go beyond what is right.” To “defraud” someone is to take advantage of someone. It describes selfishly taking advantage of someone else for personal pleasure. Sexual sin always occurs for selfish reasons and always at someone else’s expense. The claim that no one gets hurt as long as there are two consenting adults is a dangerous lie. Someone always gets hurt. 

 Some people defend the watching of pornographic material on their computer or smart phone as harmless. It does irreparable harm to the one who watches it. It does incalculable harm to the people who were performing those sinful acts in front of the camera. And if you are married, you are transgressing and defrauding your spouse when you do those kinds of things.

 Lest any of us think we might be excluded from these expectations please notice that Paul says that “no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter…” Who among us would therefore be excluded? It isn’t ok for this to happen among any who are a part of the body of Christ. No one in whom the Spirit of God dwells should be participating in any form of sexual immorality.

 Then Paul gives a really good reason that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter. It is “because the Lord is the avenger in all these things.” Just like it is a mistake to overlook the little word “no” as in “no man transgress and defraud his brother…” We want to make sure we notice the word “all” in this phrase. The Lord is the avenger in “all” these things. There is a tendency among people who are controlled by their lustful passions to believe that they can get by with a little indiscretion now and then. We don’t. The meaning of the word “avenger” is “one who executes justice.”

 You are probably familiar with the verse in Romans 12:19 that says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” I know we often focus on the emphasis of that verse that tells us to not take our own revenge. And we shouldn’t. But we don’t always pay as much attention to the rest of the verse that quotes Deuteronomy 32:35. The emphasis of that verse is that the Lord has said, “I will repay.” It doesn’t say “I might repay and I might not.” Ephesians 5:6 tells us that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 

 Finally, Paul moves from his discussion of the implications of sexual immorality on the individual, then to the wrongs committed against others, and in verses 7-8 to the most serious of the problems with sexual immorality, and that is the problem God has with it. Sexual immorality is a personal issue. It is a brotherhood issue. It certainly is an issue that has serious implications in our relationship to God.

 For a Christian to fail to abstain from sexual immorality, and learn how to possess his own body in sanctification and honor, is to deny the purpose of God in the work of sanctification and the power of God in the work of sanctification. Look first at verse 7 where the purpose of God is explained. “For God has not called you for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. God’s reason for rescuing us from the domain of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of His beloved Son is so that He might make us holy. He did not call us for the purpose of impurity. The word “impurity” speaks of any kind of uncleanness or filth in a natural or physical sense. It refers to any kind of moral uncleanness or lewdness.

 This is substantially supported other places in Scripture. Leviticus 19:2 tells us, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Romans 8:29 says, “for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” There is as clear a purpose statement as you will find. He called us to conform us to the image of Jesus, not for the purpose of impurity. Ephesians 1:4, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” We would do well to remember that anything remotely connected to sexual immorality is not among the good works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

 1 Peter 1:14-16 reads, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior.”

 Not only do we deny the purpose for which God has called us to sanctification, but we also deny and reject the power He has given to bring His transforming work to fruition. See verse 8. “So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” The word “rejects” means to cancel, get rid of, despise, and disregard. 

 This isn’t about rejecting Paul’s admonition. That would not be good. This isn’t about causing a black eye to the church and ruining your testimony as a Christian. That isn’t good either. This isn’t about damaging or destroying your marriage and hurting your family. That would be awful. This is about rejecting the God who has made you one of His precious elect, called you out of darkness and given you spiritual life through His work of regeneration, who has sanctified you and has give you His Holy Spirit. His Spirit indwells to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment, to guide you into all the truth, to empower you to obey.

 These are the closing words of John MacArthur in his commentary on this passage.  “The practice of sexual sin violates the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It spurns the Lord’s will, disregards His purposes, defies His commands, rejects His love, and flouts and abuses His grace. Perhaps most frightening and sobering of all, those who engage in sexual immorality discount the reality of God’s righteous judgment against sin. Thus the apostle’s exhortation to the Thessalonians ought to prompt all believers to faithfully heed these words and diligently use the means God has given them to abstain from all forms of sexual sin.”