1 Thessalonians 4:7
For jGod hath not called us unto kuncleanness, but unto holiness.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
οὐ γὰρ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς ἐπὶ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ἁγιασμῷ.
Textual key: no entry
j:
1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
1 Peter 1:14-1:16 14. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
John 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Leviticus 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Leviticus 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
k:
1 Thessalonians 2:3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:
Ver. 7,8. These two verses are added, as further arguments to persuade to that chastity he had spoken of, called sanctification, 1Th 4:3,4. The first is taken from their Christian calling, which is not to uncleanness, but to chastity, called holiness. When they were Gentiles in state, they lived in the lust of uncleanness, but they were now called by the power of the gospel, and brought to such a profession that did forbid and condemn it. And the author of their call is God himself, though the apostles and other ministers were the instruments.
Whence he fetcheth this second argument, 1Th 4:8, that if this chastity he despised, or rejected, as we may read the text, it is not man, but God, that is despised. To despise a minister in a commandment he delivers from God is to despise God himself, Luk 10:16, &c.; and the apostle doth here intimate, not to obey the commandment of God is a despising God. Or, that the apostle was despised by some because of the outward meanness of his person, or questioning his authority.
this he adds as a third argument; so that what he had preached to them, was not from himself, but from the Holy Spirit. Or if by us he means these Thessalonians also, as some copies read it, he hath given you, &c., then he argues from the gift of the Holy Spirit they had received against living in the sin of uncleanness. This would be very disagreeable, not only to their holy calling, but the Holy Spirit God had given them. Or else these arguments of the apostle are to persuade to universal holiness, taking sanctification and holiness in a larger sense; and uncleanness, for all sin in general standing opposite thereunto.
Sin is often spoken of in Scripture under the notion of filth, defilement, pollution, &c., and so was typed forth under the law; and to be cleansed from sin is a cleansing man from filthiness, 2Co 7:1; so that to live in sin, as the apostle argues, is to live in uncleanness, to contradict our holy calling, to despise God, and to walk contrary to the nature and dictates of his Holy Spirit.