1 Thessalonians 4:8 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

‘Therefore he who rejects, rejects not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.'

This confirms the strength behind the idea of ‘call' in 1 Thessalonians 4:7. God has not given a suggestion, He has called us out of uncleanness. Thus those who reject the necessity for purity in their sexual lives are ‘rejecting' God and His call. That is they are treating Him of no account and as someone Who can be ignored. And this is further emphasised in that when we respond to the call of God he gives His Holy Spirit to us on a continual basis. There is an emphasis on His holiness in the way the phrase is worded, ‘the Spirit of Him, the Holy one'. The present tense emphasises the continual presence of His Holy Spirit within the Christian. How then can one who is the Temple of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the One Who is superlatively clean and pure, indulge in uncleanness? It would be a contradiction of the very idea (see 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 where this idea is expressed and connected with the fact that we are not our own but have been ‘bought with a price').

1 Thessalonians 4:8

8 He therefore that despiseth,c despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.