For As we solemnly assured you, and charged you to keep continually in remembrance; this is the will of God, your sanctification That, as God hath chosen us from the rest of the world to be a people dedicated to his honour and service, we should not pollute ourselves with those abominations which are so common among the heathen, but that we should be perfectly holy in heart and life; and therefore, to mention one single branch of the contrary; that ye should abstain from fornication And every other kind of lewdness, so commonly practised among those who are unacquainted with the true religion. This beautiful transition of the apostle, shows that nothing is so seemingly distant, or below our thoughts, but we have need to guard against it. That every one of you should know Should learn and accustom himself to exercise that holy skill; how to possess his vessel His body; for this word in some other passages signifies the body, (1 Peter 3:7:) Giving honour to the wife as the weaker vessel. That is, as weaker in body. (1 Samuel 21:5,) And the vessels, bodies, of the young men are holy. The body was called by the Greeks and Romans a vessel, because it contains the soul, and is its instrument. The apostle's meaning may be, Let every man consider his body as a vessel consecrated to the service of God, and let him dread the impiety of polluting it by any vile, dishonourable indulgence whatever, or by putting it to any base use. Or, as some think, by his vessel, he may mean his wife. In sanctification and honour In a chaste and holy manner, answerable to that dignity which God has put upon it by making it his temple. Not in the lust of concupiscence Εν παθει επιθυμιας, in the passion of lust; not indulging passionate desires; as the Gentiles The heathen; who know not God To any saving purpose; and are ignorant of that pure and sublime happiness which arises from contemplating, adoring, imitating, and having communion with him. That no man go beyond
The bounds of chastity, or of matrimony; or overreach, as some render υπερβαινειν; and defraud Or, exceed toward, his brother, in any, or in the, matter Namely, of which the apostle had been speaking. Beza, Le Clerc, and some others, understand this as a prohibition of injustice in general; but the context seems to determine its meaning to that kind of injury by which chastity is violated. Probably the apostle intended here to prohibit three things; fornication, (1 Thessalonians 4:3,) passionate desire, or inordinate affection in the married state, and the breach of the marriage contract. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such Will severely punish all such gross misdeeds; as we also have forewarned you, &c. As I formerly testified to you when I preached to you in Thessalonica. For God hath not called us In so extraordinary a manner, and separated us from the rest of the world; to uncleanness To leave us at liberty to defile ourselves with any kind of sin; but unto holiness Of heart and life. He therefore that despiseth The commandments we give by authority from God, and according to his will; despiseth not man Only or chiefly; but God Speaking in and by us; who hath also given unto us Who are his divinely-commissioned teachers; his Holy Spirit To guide us in what we deliver. What naked majesty of words! how oratorical, and yet with how great simplicity! a simplicity that does not impair, but improve the understanding to the utmost; that, like the rays of heat through a glass, collects all the powers of reason into one orderly point, from being scattered abroad in utter confusion!