Meditations in 1 Thessalonians
Part 3 : 15. Sexual Purity
1 Thess 4:3-7 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
In the light of the “anything goes” mentality of much of our modern world – and certainly portrayed by the media – these verses create what one might call a severe culture clash. It is interesting that the apostle picks this subject as the first one for giving practical instructions for daily living.
Let’s start by observing the general principles that are laid out here, of which there are several. First of all “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” (4:3a) The word ‘sanctified’ means set apart to God or very simply, different from the rest of the world. Now why should this be? The answer is seen in the big picture of the Bible: God made the world perfect and gave man free will. Man used free will to reject God’s design and do his own thing. This meant that we see sorts of behaviour that are contrary to God’s design and what we so often fail to understand is that when you live contrary to God’s design your life ‘breaks down’ – just like a car will when the driver ignores the manufacturer’s handbook. When we come back to God through Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Spirit in us to guide and direct us, He will guide our lives back onto God’s design and thus these lives will be quite different from those in the rest of the world. Moreover we will then be in a place where God can bless our lives in ways that those living outside His design cannot receive.
But hold on to those fundamentals: 1. The world rejects God’s design in its behaviour. 2. The result of living contrary to God’s design means breakdown. 3. Jesus leads us back into living according to God’s design and thus, 4. These lives receive God’s blessing.
The second principle, that flows on from that is that, “God did not call us to be impure.” (4:7a) Any behaviour that runs contrary to God’s design means our lives have been tainted with damaging behaviour, our lives are no longer the pure and good lives they were when God originally designed and made them. If you live contrary to God’s design in this area, be under no illusion, God says you are impure and that impurity will destroy you unless it is dealt with appropriately before God.
The third principle is that Gods us now, “to live a holy life.” (4:7b) Holy means, in its weakest sense, associated with God. Holy means different, like God, perfect. Holy means living according to God’s will, God’s design. That, we must repeat again and again is what is crucial. Failure to do this means we retain destructive forces in our lives and we fail to receive God’s blessing, God’s goodness poured out. Instead we tolerate destructive behaviour patterns in our lives and wonder why they are going wrong, or why we feel there must be something better.
So Paul gives his first practical instruction: “that you should avoid sexual immorality.” (4:3b) Now the godless world challenges that there is such a thing as ‘sexual immorality’ simply because it is godless and therefore denies that there is a Creator who has designed things to work in a particular way. ‘Immorality’ suggests that there is a ‘morality’, a way laid down that is right and ‘immorality’ is contrary to that way laid down. To see the ‘morality’, the way laid down in God’s design, we must go back to the beginning: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Gen 2:21,22) There, even before the Fall, we have the design laid out: one man with one woman, a husband and a wife, a married unit, a committed couple, and they are designed to join together physically. It does not say for procreation but simply that they will join physically. The fact that they were naked and felt no shame shows the goodness of God’s design, which ever since the Fall, had been marred, spoiled and twisted as we reject His design for our relationships.
The fruits of ignoring that initial design are varied and very obvious. Adultery, emotional distress, social and relational breakdown, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, hostility, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases; they are rife within our Western communities. In our folly we think we have freedom but do not realise that we are in fact reaping God’s judgment. Paul describes the way God lifts off His hand of restraint from a people who ignore Him: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion…. , he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.” etc. etc. (Rom 1:24-31) All these things are the fruits of unrestrained sin and they are destroying individuals, relationships and society and they are the judgement of God!
The Christian is called to a different lifestyle: “each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.” (4:4-6) Sexual liberty is not freedom, it is the judgment of God and it bears its fruit which are obvious. Satan whispers, “Surely God didn’t say,” but yes He did! These things WILL happen. On a practical and pastoral level, I have observed the goodness and grace of God that does love and accept and forgive those who have lived the lifestyle and then repented and turned back to God, but I have also noted that those who have had sex before marriage, those who have lived together, those who have divorced, these people are vulnerable more than the others in the rest of their lives and struggle more to hold fast to God’s way. God’s grace IS there but it also requires a total rejection in the heart of those prior godless ways – because that is what they were. If you sleep around you are being godless. If you are unfaithful in relationships, you are godless and as Paul goes on to say – “The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.” (4:6). The warning is there.
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