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1Co 10:8, “Nor are we to commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
Neither let us commit fornication … – The case referred to here was that of the licentious contact with the daughters of Moab, referred to in
And fell in one day – Were slain for their sin by the plague that prevailed.
Three and twenty thousand – The Hebrew text in Numbers 25:9, is twenty-four thousand. In order to reconcile these statements, it may be observed that perhaps 23,000 fell directly by the plague, and 1,000 were slain by Phinehas and his companions (Grotius); or it may be that the number was between 23,000 and 24,000, and it might be expressed in round numbers by either – Macknight. At all events, Paul has not exceeded the truth. There were at least 23,000 that fell, though there might have been more. The probable supposition is, that the 23,000 fell immediately by the hand of God in the plague, and the other thousand by the judges; and as Paul’s design was particularly to mention the proofs of the immediate divine displeasure, he refers only to those who fell by that, in illustration of his subject – There was a particular reason for this caution in respect to licentiousness:
(1) It was common among all idolaters; and Paul in cautioning them against idolatry, would naturally warn them of this danger.
(2) it was common at Corinth. It was the prevalent vice there. To “Corinthianize” was a term synonymous among the ancients with licentiousness.
(3) so common was this at Corinth, that, as we have seen (see the introduction), not less than 1,000 prostitutes were supported in a single temple there; and the city was visited by vast multitudes of foreigners, among other reasons on account of its facilities for this sin. Christians, therefore, were in a special manner exposed to it; and hence, the anxiety of the apostle to warn them against it.”
I had been warned by people that they did not like the way I preached against sexual sins. Since I do not get pay for doing it, why should I do it anyway? A sleepless night of deliberation forced me to do it.
Eze 33:7, “Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a
watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them a warning from Me.”
Eze 3:18-19, “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way so that he may live, that wicked person shall die for wrongdoing, but his blood I will require from your hand. However if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die for wrongdoing, but you have saved yourself.”
The Word of God says not only I clear myself from the responsibility, I have saved myself.
Verse 18. – Thou givest him not warning, etc. The word, as in the parallels already referral to, is characteristic of Ezekiel, almost indeed, peculiar to him. Psalm 19:11 may be noted as another instance of its use. When the watchman saw danger coming, he was to blow the trumpet (Ezekiel 33:3-6). The prophet was to speak his warnings. Thou shalt surely die; literally, dying thou shalt die. Were the words of Genesis 2:17 in the prophet’s mind? To save his life; literally, for his life, or that he may live. Shall die in his iniquity. Do the words refer only to physical death coming as the punishment of iniquity? or do they point onward further to the judgment that follows death, the loss of the inheritance of eternal life which belongs to those whose names are written in the book of life? Looking to the tremendous responsibility implied in the words, we can hardly, I think, in spite of the questions which have been raised as to the belief of the Hebrews in the immortality of the soul, hesitate to accept the latter meaning. Ezekiel anticipates the teaching of Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8, if, indeed, that meaning was not already familiar to him in Exodus 32:32, 33. For “in” his iniquity we may, perhaps, read “because of.” The negligence of the watchman does not avail to procure a full pardon for the evil doer. The degree in which it may extenuate his guilt depends on conditions known to God, but not to us. In any case, as in our Lord’s words (Luke 12:47, 48), a man’s knowledge and opportunities are the measure of his responsibility. But the unfaithful watchman has his responsibility. It is as though the blood of the sinner had been shed. His guilt may be described in the same words as that of Cain (Genesis 9:5). Compare St. Paul’s words in Acts 18:6 and Acts 20:26 as echoes of Ezekiel’s thought. Ezekiel 3:18.”
America claims to be a Christian nation, many pastors and preachers do not preach against sexual immorality. There was a Black preacher who preached a false gospel and he was certified by FBI as an immoral person. The Blacks covered up the sin of their preachers. A White Christian lady told me white churches do the same. America has become a defiled land. Why they are not doing it? They lose members of the congregation by doing it. The churches who do not preach against sexual sins prosper, their silence constitutes a license. It is sad that peole who sing in the choir and participate in youth ministry commit sexual immorality. Many church members claim ignorance of what is fornication or what is adultery. If you read through this article, you no longer can claim ignorance. Fornication is sexual intercourse committed by unmarried persons. Adultery is sexual intercourse committed by married persons with persons who are not their spouses. Jesus adds that anyone who marries or has sex with a divorced person has committed adultery. Mat 5:32, “but I
say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” In America, millions of young people commit fornication at their campuses or their homes. Parents become concerned only when the girl gets pregnant. Men who commits sexual immorality do not get pregnant. Consequently millions of abortions had been done, only God knows. A white young woman confessed that she had sex with her brother so that they do not need to pay. So campuses and homes have become brothels, the only difference is the fact they do not need to pay.
Forbidden Sexual Practices
Lev 18:1-30, “Then the LORD said to Moses,
“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I AM the LORD your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the LORD your God. If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I AM the LORD.
“You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I AM the LORD.
“Do not violate your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.
“Do not have sexual relations with any of your father’s wives, for this would violate your father.
“Do not have sexual relations with your sister or half sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born into your household or someone else’s.
“Do not have sexual relations with your granddaughter, whether she is your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for this would violate yourself. “Do not have sexual relations with your stepsister, the daughter of any of your father’s wives, for she is your sister.
“Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister, for she is your father’s close relative.
“Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.
“Do not violate your uncle, your father’s brother, by having sexual relations with his wife, for she is your aunt.
“Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, so you must not have sexual relations with her.
“Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife, for this would violate your brother.
“Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. And do not take her granddaughter, whether her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives, and this would be a wicked act.
“While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
“Do not have sexual relations with a woman during her period of menstrual impurity.
“Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife.
“Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I AM the LORD.
“Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.
“A man must not defile himself by having sex with an animal. And a woman must not offer herself to a male animal to have intercourse with it. This is a perverse act.
“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways.
Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.
You must obey all My decrees and regulations. You must not commit any of these detestable sins. This applies both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.
“All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and this is how the land has become defiled.
So do not defile the land and give it a reason to vomit you out, as it will vomit out the people who live there now.
Whoever commits any of these detestable sins will be cut off from the community of Israel.
So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I AM the LORD your God.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1. Purity in those connected through the relationship of parent and child.
The first Pentad: Kinship of the first degree, Leviticus 18:6-10.
The second Pentad: Kinship of the second degree, Leviticus 18:11-15.
SECTION III.
CHAPTER 18. MORAL UNCLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This being the subject of the three following chapters (chapters 18-20), they naturally form a sequence to chapters 11-17, which have dealt with ceremonial uncleanness and its purification. It is a remarkable thing that, except by implication in connection with the sin offerings and the trespass offerings and the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, there has not yet been a single moral precept, as such, in the Book of Leviticus, and there has been very little recognition of sin as distinct from pollution. All has been ceremonial. But the ceremonial is typical of the moral, and from the consideration of ceremonial uncleanness and its remedy, we now proceed to the consideration of moral uncleanness and its penalty. It is to be noticed too that, while the ensuing laws are commanded as the positive injunction of God (verses 2, 30), which of itself is sufficient to give them their authority and force, they are still founded, like the ceremonial prohibitions, upon the feelings of repugnance implanted in the mind of man. To enter into the marriage relation with near relatives is abhorrent to a sentiment in mankind so widely spread that it may be deemed to have been originally universal, and the same abhorrence is entertained towards other foul sins of lust. Ugliness, which creates disgust by its ugliness, symbolizes sin; immorality, which inspires abhorrence by its immoral character, proves itself thereby to be sin. The section deals first with sin in the marriage relation, next with sexual impurities connected with marriage, then with other cases of immorality, and lastly with the penalties inflicted on these sins in their character of crimes. Verses 1-5 form an introduction to the Hebrew code of prohibited degrees of marriage and of forbidden sins of lust. The formal and solemn declaration, I am the Lord your God, is made three times in these five verses. This places before the people the two thoughts:
1. That the Lord is holy, and they ought to be like him in holiness;
2. That the Lord has commanded holiness, and they ought to obey him by being holy. Because the Lord is their God, and they are his people, they are, negatively, to refrain from the vicious habits and lax customs prevalent in the land of Egypt wherein they dwelt, and in the land of Canaan whither they were going, the sensuality of which is indirectly condemned by the injunctions which command purity in contrast to their doings; and, positively, they are to keep God’s statutes, and his judgments, as laid down in the following code, which if a man do, he shall live in them. The latter clause is of special importance, because it is repeated in the same connection by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:11, 13, 21), and in the Levitical confession in the Book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:29), and is quoted by St. Paul in a controversial sense (Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12). Its full meaning is that by obedience to God’s commands man attains to a state of existence which alone deserves to be called true life – “the life which connects him with Jehovah through his obedience” (Clark). And this involves the further truth that disobedience results in death. Accordingly, St. Paul uses the text as being the testimony of the Law with regard to itself, that salvation by it is of works in contrast with faith. (Cf. Luke 10:28.) We have no evidence to tell us what were the doings of the land of Canaan in respect to the marriage relation, but this chapter is enough to show that the utmost laxity prevailed in it, and we may be sure that their religious rites, like those of Midian (Numbers 25), were penetrated with the spirit of licentiousness. With regard to the doings of the land of Egypt, we have fuller information. We know that among the Egyptians marriage with sisters and half-sisters was not only permissible, but that its propriety was justified by their religious beliefs, and practiced in the royal family (Died. Sic., 1:27; Die. Cass., 42). Other abominations condemned in this chapter (verse 23) also, as we know, existed there (Herod., 2:46), and if queens could be what in later times Cleopatra was, we may imagine the general dissoluteness of the people. Among Persians, Medes, Indians, Ethiopians and Assyrians, marriage with mothers and daughters was allowed, and from the time of Cambyses, marriage with a sister was regarded as lawful (Herod., 3:31). The Athenians and Spartans permitted marriage with half-sisters. All these concessions to lust, and ether unclean acts with which the heathen world was full (verse 22; Romans 1:27), were fallings away from the law of purity implanted in the heart of man and now renewed for the Hebrew people. Leviticus 18:1.”
It must be said that all God’s “decrees and regulations” written above not only apply to the Jews, the people of Israel, they also apply to the New Testment Christians, ALL BELIEVERS.
Mat 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies,
and slanderous statements.”
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,…. Of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, of fellow creatures, and of all sorts of wickedness. The thoughts of sin are evil, are to be hated, forsaken, and for which men are accountable to God. All wicked imaginations, carnal reasonings, lustful desires, and malicious contrivances, are here included; which take their rise from, and are devised, and forged, in the corrupt heart of man.
Murders; inveterate hatred of men’s persons, malice prepense, schemes to take away life, all angry and wrathful words, and actual effusion of man’s blood.
Adulteries; uncleanness committed between married persons, both in thought, and deed:
fornications; unlawful copulations of persons in a single state:
thefts; taking away from others by force or fraud, what is their right and property:
false witness: swearing falsely, or exhibiting a false testimony to the hurt of his neighbour, either his name, person, or estate:
blasphemies; evil speakings of God or men. To which Mark adds “covetousness”; a greedy and insatiable desire after the things of the world, or the neighbour’s goods: “wickedness”; doing hurt and mischief to fellow creatures: “deceit”; in words and actions, in trade and conversation: “lasciviousness”; all manner of uncleanness, and unnatural lusts: “an evil eye”; of envy and covetousness: the vitiosity, or corruption of nature, is, by the Jews (h), called “the evil eye”: “pride”; in heart and life, in dress and gesture; and “foolishness”; expressed in talk and conduct.”
1Co 5:9-11, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous,
or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”
“But now.” In this Epistle. This shows that he had written a former letter.
I have written to you. – Above. I have designed to give this injunction that you are to be entirely separated from one who is a professor of religion and who is guilty of these things.
Not to keep company – To be wholly separated and withdrawn from such a person. Not to associate with him in any manner.
If any man that is called a brother – Any professing Christian; any member of the church.
Be a fornicator … – Like him who is mentioned, 1 Corinthians 5:1.
Or an idolater – This must mean those persons who, while they professed Christianity, still attended the idol feasts, and worshipped there. Perhaps a few such may have been found who had adopted the Christian profession hypocritically.
Or a railer – A reproachful man; a man of coarse, harsh, and bitter words; a man whose characteristic it was to abuse others; to vilify their character, and wound their feelings. It is needless to say how much this is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, and to the example of the Master, “who when he was reviled, reviled not again.”
Or a drunkard – Perhaps there might have been some then in the church, as there are now, who were addicted to this vice. It has been the source of incalculable evils to the church; and the apostle, therefore, solemnly enjoins on Christians to have no fellowship with a man who is intemperate.
With such an one no not to eat – To have no contact or fellowship with him of any kind; not to do anything that would seem to acknowledge him as a brother; with such an one not even to eat at the same table. A similar course is enjoined by John; 2 John 1:10-11. This refers to the contact of common life, and not particularly to the communion. The true Christian was wholly to disown such a person, and not to do anything that would seem to imply that he regarded him as a Christian brother. It will be seen here that the rule was much more strict in regard to one who professed to be a Christian than to those who were known and acknowledged pagans. The reasons may have been:
(1) The necessity of keeping the church pure, and of not doing anything that would seem to imply that Christians were the patrons and friends of the intemperate and the wicked.
(2) in respect to the pagan, there could be no danger of its being supposed that Christians regarded them as brethren, or showed to them any more than the ordinary civilities of life; but in regard to those who professed to be Christians, but who were drunkards, or licentious, if a man was on terms of intimacy with them, it would seem as if he acknowledged them as brethren and recognized them as Christians.
(3) this entire separation and withdrawing from all communion was necessary in these times to save the church from scandal, and from the injurious reports which were circulated. The pagan accused Christians of all manner of crime and abominations. These reports were greatly injurious to the church. But it was evident that currency and plausibility would be given to them if it was known that Christians were on terms of intimacy and good fellowship with pagans and intemperate persons. Hence, it became necessary to withdraw wholly from them to withhold even the ordinary courtesies of life; and to draw a line of total and entire separation. Whether this rule in its utmost strictness is demanded now, since the nature of Christianity is known, and since religion cannot be in “so much” danger from such reports, may be made a question. I am inclined to the opinion that the ordinary civilities of life may be shown to such persons; though certainly nothing that would seem to recognize them as Christians. But as neighbors and relatives; as those who may be in distress and want, we are assuredly not forbidden to show toward them the offices of kindness and compassion. Whitby and some others, however, understand this of the communion of the Lord’s Supper and of that only.”
2Pe 2:14, “having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having hearts trained in greed, accursed children.”
Having eyes full of adultery – Margin, as in the Greek, “an adulteress;” that is, gazing with desire after such persons. The word “full” is designed to denote that the corrupt passion referred to had wholly seized and occupied their minds. The eye was, as it were, full of this passion; it saw nothing else but some occasion for its indulgence; it expressed nothing else but the desire. The reference here is to the sacred festival mentioned in the previous verse; and the meaning is, that they celebrated that festival with licentious feelings, giving free indulgence to their corrupt desires by gazing on the females who were assembled with them. In the passion here referred to, the “eye” is usually the first offender, the inlet to corrupt desires, and the medium by which they are expressed. Compare the notes at Matthew 5:28. The wanton glance is a principal occasion of exciting the sin; and there is much often in dress, and mien, and gesture, to charm the eye and to deepen the debasing passion.
And that cannot cease from sin – They cannot look on the females who may be present without sinning. Compare Matthew 5:28. There are many men in whom the presence of the most virtuous woman only excites impure and corrupt desires. The expression here does not mean that they have no natural ability to cease from sin, or that they are impelled to it by any physical necessity, but only that they are so corrupt and unprincipled that they certainly will sin always.
Beguiling unstable souls – Those who are not strong in Christian principle, or who are naturally fluctuating and irresolute. The word rendered beguiling means to bait, to entrap, and would be applicable to the methods practiced in hunting. Here it means that it was one of their arts to place specious allurements before those who were known not to have settled principles or firmness, in order to allure them to sin. Compare 2 Timothy 3:6.
An heart they have exercised with covetous practices – Skilled in the arts which covetous men adopt in order to cheat others out of their property. A leading purpose which influenced these men was to obtain money. One of the most certain ways for dishonest men to do this is to make use of the religious principle; to corrupt and control the conscience; to make others believe that they are eminently holy, or that they are the special favorites of heaven; and when they can do this, they have the purses of others at command. For the religious principle is the most powerful of all principles; and he who can control that, can control all that a man possesses. The idea here is that these persons had made this their study, and had learned the ways in which men could be induced to part with their money under religious pretences. We should always be on our guard when professedly religious teachers propose to have much to do with money matters. While we should always be ready to aid every good cause, yet we should remember that unprincipled and indolent men often assume the mask of religion that they may practice their arts on the credulity of others, and that their real aim is to obtain their property, not to save their souls.
Cursed children – This is a Hebraism, meaning literally, “children of the curse,” that is, persons devoted to the curse, or who will certainly be destroyed.”
To my bitter experience, I have found people in banking and finance industires are evidently “having hearts trained in greed.” The Bible clearly says that greedy people will be cast into Hell.
Why should I write about such an unpopular subject? In fact I have one motive, Jas 5:19-20, “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” American way of life — the unmarried have sexual intercouse like the married — is straying from the truth, I would be so happy if my writing will turn him or her back. It will be worth it.
James 5:19-20. Brethren — As if he had said, I have now warned you of those things to which you are most liable. And in all these respects watch, not only over yourselves, but every one over his brother also. Labour, in particular, to recover those that are fallen. For if any of you do err from the truth — From the right way in which he ought to walk, if he be seduced by any means from the doctrine and practice of the gospel; and one — Any one; convert him — Be a means of bringing him back into that way from which he had wandered; let him know — Who has been enabled to effect so good a work; that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way — From the false doctrine and bad practice to which he had turned aside, shall produce a much happier effect than any miraculous cure of the body; for he shall save a precious immortal soul from spiritual and eternal death, and shall hide a multitude of sins — Namely, the sins of the persons thus converted, which shall no more, how many soever they are, be remembered to his condemnation. “The covering of sin is a phrase which often occurs in the Old Testament, and always signifies the pardoning of sin. Nor has it any other meaning here. For surely it cannot be the apostle’s intention to tell us, that the turning of a sinner from the error of his way will conceal from the eye of God’s justice a multitude of sins committed by the person who does this charitable office, if he continueth in them. Such a person needs himself to be turned from the error of his way, in order that his own soul may be saved from death. St. Peter has a similar expression, (1 Peter 4:8,) love covereth a multitude of sins; not, however, in the person who is possessed of love, but in the person who is the object of his love.” — Macknight.
1Co 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, northose habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers,
nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Know ye not — With all your boasted knowledge; that the unrighteous — That is, not only the unjust, but those destitute of true righteousness and holiness, comprehending the various classes of sinners afterward mentioned, the term unrighteous here including them all: shall not inherit the kingdom of God — Namely, the kingdom of eternal glory. And can you contentedly sacrifice this great and glorious hope which the gospel gives you, for the sake of those pleasures of sin which are but for a short season? Be not deceived — By a vain imagination that the Christian name and privileges will save you, while you continue in the practice of your vices. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, &c. — Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because these things generally accompanied it. Indeed, among the heathen idolatry was not only a great crime in itself, but was the parent of many other crimes. For the heathen were encouraged in the commission of fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness, theft, &c., by the example of their gods. Nor effeminate — Who live in an easy, indolent way, taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this, that these good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites, those infamous degraders of human nature? We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought to be the least; nor indeed till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell. And such were some of you — Namely, in some kind or other; but ye are washed — Delivered from the guilt and power of those gross abominations. Ye are sanctified — Renewed in the spirit of your minds, dedicated to, and employed in the service of God; conformed, at least in a measure, to his image, and possessed of his divine nature, and this not before, but in consequence of your being justified. Or, Ye are regenerated and purified, as well as discharged, from the condemnation to which ye were justly obnoxious. See the nature of justification explained in the notes on Romans 3:21-22; and its fruits, on Romans 5:1-5. In the name of the Lord Jesus — Through his merits, or his sacrifice and intercession; and by the Spirit of our God — Creating you anew, and inspiring you with all those blessed graces which are the genuine fruits of his divine influences, Galatians 5:22-23. You ought therefore, as if he had said, to maintain the most grateful sense of these important blessings which God hath conferred upon you, to stand at the utmost distance from sin, and to be tender of the peace and honour of a society which God hath founded by his extraordinary interposition, and into which he hath been pleased in so wonderful a manner to bring even you, who were in a most infamous and deplorable state.”
Gal 5:19-21, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice
such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21. Now the works of the flesh — By which that inward corrupt principle is discovered; are manifest — Are plain and undeniable. He says works, in the plural, because those of the flesh are distinct from, and often inconsistent with each other. But the fruit of the Spirit is mentioned in the singular, (Galatians 5:22,) the graces thereof being all consistent, and connected together. Which are these — He enumerates those works of the flesh to which the Galatians were most inclined, and those parts of the fruit of the Spirit of which they stood in the greatest need; adultery — A crime to be considered in the first rank of enormities, as being the most prejudicial to society, destroying conjugal happiness, introducing confusion and ruin into families, alienating the affection of parents from their children, causing them to neglect their education; fornication — Which, how light soever heathen may make it, is in the sight of God a very grievous offence; uncleanness — Of every kind and degree; lasciviousness — All immodesty, as the indulging of wanton thoughts, and reading lascivious books. The Greek word means any thing, inward or outward, that is contrary to chastity; idolatry — The worshipping of idols; this sin is justly reckoned among the works of the flesh, because the worship paid to many of the gods consisted in the most impure fleshly gratifications; witchcraft — Or sorcery, as Macknight renders φαρμακεια, observing, that the expression “being placed immediately after idolatry, means those arts of incantation and charming, and all the pretended communications with invisible and malignant powers, whereby the heathen priests promoted the reverence and worship of their idol gods, and enriched themselves. In this sense the word is used concerning Babylon, (Revelation 18:23,) εν τη φαρμακεια σου, By thy sorcery were all nations deceived; that is, by a variety of wicked arts and cheats, the nations were deluded to support Babylon in her idolatries and corruptions. Hatred — Or enmities, as εχθραι signifies; variance — Ερεις, strifes; emulations — Transports of ill-placed and ill-proportioned zeal; wrath — Θυμοι, resentments; εριθειαι, contentions, as the word appears here to signify; seditions — Or divisions, in domestic or civil matters; heresies — Parties formed in religious communities; who, instead of maintaining true candor and benevolence, renounce and condemn each other. Envyings — Frequently manifesting themselves against the prosperity and success of others; murders — Which are often the effect of such evil dispositions and practices as those above mentioned; and, to complete the catalogue, all kinds of irregular self-indulgence, and particularly drunkenness — Which renders a man worse than a beast; and those disorderly and gluttonous revellings — Or luxurious entertainments, by which the rational powers are, in a great measure, extinguished, or, at least, rendered incapable of performing their offices in a proper manner. Some of the works here mentioned are wrought principally, if not entirely, in the mind, and yet they are called works of the flesh. Hence it is clear that the apostle does not, by the flesh, mean the body, or sensual appetites and inclinations only, but the corruption of human nature, as it spreads through all the powers of the soul, as well as the members of the body; of which I tell you before — Before the event; I forewarn you; as I have told you also in time past — When I was present with you; that they who do such things — Who are guilty of such evil practices; shall not inherit the kingdom of God — Whatever zeal they may pretend for the externals of religion, in any of the forms of it. Awful declaration!.”
Someone was so wrong, “Finally, we can safely assume that there will be sex in eternity because God created sex in Eden before humanity’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death. Thus, in Eden Restored we can rest assured that God will not remove our sexual nature; rather, He will redeem it. In the new heaven and new earth, sex will no longer be for the purpose of procreation. Nor will it involve sexual intercourse, for “at the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). In heaven we will experience a kind of spiritual intercourse that eludes our understanding on earth. In paradise, romance subverted will become romance sublime. It will be agape-driven rather than animal-driven. For in Eden Restored, we will fly full and free, unfettered by the stain of selfishness and sin.”
Watch out the false prophets and false preachers and false teachers as if the Word of God needs their approval. They have private interpretation of the Word of God to suit their private passions.
Luk 20:34-36, “Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and the women are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, for they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Verses 34-36. – And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more. How different are the few rare pictures which our Master draws of the heaven-life to those painted by the great founders and teachers of other world-wide religions! In his world beyond the grave, while he tells us of a continuing existence, of varied and ever-increasing activity, in contradistinction to the Nirvana of Buddha, in these pictures of Jesus the sensual paradise of Mohammed, for instance, finds no place. Marriage is, according to our Lord’s teaching, but a temporary expedient to preserve the human race, to which death would soon put an end. But in the world to come there will be no death and no marriage. We may assume from his words here that the difference between the sexes will have ceased to exist. They are equal unto the angels. Equal with the angels in being immortal; no death; no marriage. Jesus in this place asserts that angels have a body, but are exempt from any difference of sex. The angels are here introduced because our Lord was speaking with Sadducees, who (Acts 23:8) denied the existence of these glorious beings. He wished to set the seal of his teaching on the deeply interesting question of the existence of angels. Luke 20:34.”
It is an exercise of futility if you are willing to hear how some so-called theologians pontificate their theories about sex in eternity. Remember, it is not Augustine or anybody else that matters. Jesus Christ has the ultimate authority because He is the Word of God. I am so indignant and infuriated that there are people who would follow false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers in opposition to the clear teaching of the Holy Bible.
Jesus says, Mar 10:6, “But from the beginning of creation,
God CREATED THEM MALE AND FEMALE.”
Christians do no believe in Black Liberation movements. Christians do not accept the concept or affirm the lifestyles of LGBTQ. It is the Word of God that matters ultimately in any doctrine or the Christian faith.
Rev 12:10, “Then I heard a loud voice in Heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night.”
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven – The great enemy was expelled; the cause of God and truth was triumphant; and the conquering hosts united in celebrating the victory. This representation of a song, consequent on victory, is in accordance with the usual representations in the Bible. See the song of Moses at the Red Sea, Exodus 15; the song of Deborah, Judges 5; the song of David when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, 2 Samuel 22; and Isaiah 12:25. On no occasion could such a song be more appropriate than on the complete routing and discomfiture of Satan and his rebellious hosts. Viewed in reference to the time here symbolized, this would relate to the certain triumph of the church and of truth on the earth; in reference to the language, there is an allusion to the joy and triumph of the heavenly hosts when Satan and his apostate legions were expelled.
Now is come salvation – That is, complete deliverance from the power of Satan.
And strength – That is, now is the mighty power of God manifested in casting down and subduing the great enemy of the church.
And the kingdom of our God – The reign of our God. See the notes on Matthew 3:2. That is now established among people, and God will henceforward rule. This refers to the certain ultimate triumph of his cause in the world.
And the power of his Christ – His anointed; that is, the kingdom of Christ as the Messiah, or as anointed and set apart to rule over the world. See the notes on Matthew 1:1.
For the accuser of our brethren is cast down – The phrase “our brethren” shows by whom this song is celebrated. It is sung in heaven; but it is by those who belonged to the redeemed church, and whose brethren were still suffering persecution and trial on the earth. It shows the tenderness of the tie which unites all the redeemed as brethren, whether on earth or in heaven; and it shows the interest which they “who have passed the flood” have in the trials, the sorrows, and the triumphs of those who are still upon the earth. We have here another appellation given to the great enemy – “accuser of the brethren.” The word used here – κατήγορος katēgoros, in later editions of the New Testament κατήγωρ katēgōr – means properly “an accuser,” one who blames another, or charges another with crime. The word occurs in John 8:10; Acts 23:30, Acts 23:35; Acts 24:8; Acts 25:16, Acts 25:18; Revelation 12:10, in all which places it is rendered “accuser” or “accusers,” though only in the latter place applied to Satan. The verb frequently occurs, Matthew 12:10; Matthew 27:12; Mark 3:2; Mark 15:3, et al.
The description of Satan as an accuser accords with the opinion of the ancient Hebrews in regard to his character. Thus he is represented in Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5; Zechariah 3:1-2; 1 Chronicles 21:1. The phrase “of the brethren” refers to Christians, or to the people of God; and the meaning here is, that one of the characteristics of Satan – a characteristic so well known as to make it proper to designate him by it – is that he is an accuser of the righteous; that he is employed in bringing against them charges affecting their character and destroying their influence. The propriety of this appellation cannot be doubted. It is, as it has always been, one of the characteristics of Satan – one of the means by which he keeps up his influence in the world – to bring accusations against the people of God. Thus, under his suggestions, and by his agents, they are charged with hypocrisy; with insincerity; with being influenced by bad motives; with pursuing sinister designs under the cloak of religion; with secret vices and crimes. Thus it was that the martyrs were accused; thus it is that unfounded accusations are often brought against ministers of the gospel, palsying their power and diminishing their influence, or that when a professed Christian falls the church is made to suffer by an effort to cast suspicion on all who bear the Christian name. Perhaps the most skillful thing that Satan does, and the thing by which he most contributes to diminish the influence of the church, is in thus causing “accusations” to be brought against the people of God.
Is cast down – The period here referred to was, doubtless, the time when the church was about to be established and to flourish in the world, and when accusations would be brought against Christians by various classes of calumniators and informers. It is well known that in the early ages of Christianity crimes of the most horrid nature were charged on Christians, and that it was by these slanders that the effort was made to prevent the extension of the Christian church.
Which accused them before our God – See the notes on Job 1:9-10. The meaning is, that he accused them, as it were, in the very presence of God.
Day and night – He never ceased bringing these accusations, and sought by the perseverance and constancy with which they were urged to convince the world that there was no sincerity in the church and no reality in religion.”
Num 5:16-28. “Then the priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before the LORD, and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware container; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water. ‘The priest shall then have the woman stand before the LORD and let down the hair of the woman’s head, and place the grain offering of reminder [fn]in her hands, that is, the grain offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. ‘And the priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has had sexual relations with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, as you are under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; if, however, you have gone astray, though
under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had sexual intercourse with you”
(then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “may the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD’S making your thigh shriveled and your belly swollen; and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, to make your belly swell up and your thigh shrivel.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, Amen.” ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness. ‘Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness. ‘And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its reminder offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. ‘When he has made her drink the water, then it will come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her [fn]and cause bitterness, and her belly will swell up and her thigh will [fn]shrivel, and the woman will become a curse among her people. ‘But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be immune and conceive children.”
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
The priest was to bring her near to the altar at which he stood, and place her before Jehovah, who had declared Himself to be present at the altar, and then to take holy water, probably water out of the basin before the sanctuary, which served for holy purposes (Exodus 30:18), in an earthen vessel, and put dust in it from the floor of the dwelling. He was then to loosen the hair of the woman who was standing before Jehovah, and place the jealousy-offering in her hands, and holding the water in his own hand, to pronounce a solemn oath of purification before her, which she had to appropriate to herself by a confirmatory Amen, Amen. The water, which the priest had prepared for the woman to drink, was taken from the sanctuary, and the dust to be put into it from the floor of the dwelling, to impregnate this drink with the power of the Holy Spirit that dwelt in the sanctuary. The dust was strewed upon the water, not to indicate that man was formed from dust and must return to dust again, but as an allusion to the fact, that dust was eaten by the serpent (Genesis 3:14) as the curse of sin, and therefore as the symbol of a state deserving a curse, a state of the deepest humiliation and disgrace (Micah 7:17; Isaiah 49:23; Psalm 72:9). On the very same ground, an earthen vessel was chosen; that is to say, one quite worthless in comparison with the copper one. The loosening of the hair of the head (see Leviticus 13:45), in other cases a sign of mourning, is to be regarded here as a removal or loosening of the female head-dress, and a symbol of the loss of the proper ornament of female morality and conjugal fidelity. During the administration of the oath, the offering was placed in her hands, that she might bring the fruit of her own conduct before God, and give it up to His holy judgment. The priest, as the representative of God, held the vessel in his hand, with the water in it, which was called the “water of bitterness, the curse-bringing,” inasmuch as, if the crime imputed to her was well-founded, it would bring upon the woman bitter suffering as the curse of God.”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
5:11-31 This law would make the women of Israel watch against giving cause for suspicion. On the other hand, it would hinder the cruel treatment such suspicions might occasion. It would also hinder the guilty from escaping, and the innocent from coming under just suspicion. When no proof could be brought, the wife was called on to make this solemn appeal to a heart-searching God. No woman, if she were guilty, could say Amen to the adjuration, and drink the water after it, unless she disbelieved the truth of God, or defied his justice. The water is called the bitter water, because it caused the curse. Thus sin is called an evil and a bitter thing. Let all that meddle with forbidden pleasures, know that they will be bitterness in the latter end. From the whole learn, 1. Secret sins are known to God, and sometimes are strangely brought to light in this life; and that there is a day coming when God will, by Christ, judge the secrets of men according to the gospel, Ro 2:16. 2 In particular, Whoremongers and adulterers God will surely judge. Though we have not now the waters of jealousy, yet we have God’s word, which ought to be as great a terror. Sensual lusts will end in bitterness. 3. God will manifest the innocency of the innocent. The same providence is for good to some, and for hurt to others. And it will answer the purposes which God intends.”
As far as I know, there has never been a precedent cited above and practiced in the New Testament.
Act 15:29, “that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from acts of sexual immorality; if you keep
yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(29) From meats offered to idols.—The specific term takes the place of the more general word which St. James had used. The change, if the two words were not used, as is possible, as altogether equivalent, may be thought of as favouring the Gentiles by narrowing the prohibition to a single point.
Fare ye well.—The closing salutation was, like the opening, a Greek and not a Hebrew one. It meets us again in Acts 23:30. Both were naturally used in a letter addressed to Greeks, and intended to be read by them and by Hellenistic Jews. It does not occur, however, in any of the Epistles of the New Testament.
It is natural to ask, at the close of the great encyclical letter, in what relation it really stood to the life of the Apostolic Church. As a concordat between the contending parties it was framed, as has been said, with a sagacity that may well be looked on as inspired. But obviously it was not, and from the nature of the case could not be, more than that. The time had not come for proclaiming to the Church of Jerusalem the full width of St. Paul’s teaching (Galatians 2:2), and accordingly, though something may be read between the lines, the decree seems to treat the precepts of Noah as perpetually binding, places moral and positive obligations on the same footing, and leaves the ground on which they are “necessary” an open question. St. Paul, who had accepted it as a satisfactory settlement of the matter in debate, never refers to it, even when he is discussing the chief point with which the decree dealt (1 Corinthians 8-10). In his narrative of what passed on this occasion (Galatians 2:1-10) there is no mention of it. The private conference with the three great “pillars” of the Church was for him more than the decree of the synod, and he felt himself able to discuss the whole question again on different grounds, and with a more distinct reference to spiritual and ethical principles. It was wrong to eat things sacrificed to idols, not because the act of so eating in itself brought defilement, but because it might involve a participation in the sin of idolatry in the consciousness of the eater, or wound the conscience of the weaker brother who saw him eat. It was natural that those who lacked his largeness of view should become slaves to the letter of the rules long after the grounds on which they rested had ceased to exist, and so we find that the prohibition of blood was re-enforced in the so-called Apostolic Canons (c. 62), and in the fourth century by the Council of Gangra (c. 2), and in the seventh by that at Constantinople, known as in Trullo (c. 67), and continues to be the binding rule of the Greek Church still. In Africa and in Europe, however, truer views prevailed (August, cont. Faust. xxxii. 13), and not even the most devout believer in the inspiration of the Apostles, or in the authority of primitive antiquity. would venture to urge that the two last precepts of the four here enjoined were in any degree binding. Hooker (Eccl. Pol. iv., xi., § 5) rightly refers to this decree as a crucial instance proving that commands might be divine and yet given only for a season, binding as long as the conditions to which they applied continued, but no longer. It would almost seem, indeed, as if St. Paul felt that the terms of the decree had the effect of placing the sin of impurity on the same level with that of eating things sacrificed to idols, and things strangled, and blood, and so tended to keep men from seeing it in its true hatefulness. Those who claimed a right, which in the abstract St. Paul could not deny, to eat of things strangled or offered to idols, thought themselves free to fall back into the old license of the heathen world, and he needed far stronger motives than the canons of the council to restrain them (1Corinthians 5:9-10; 1Corinthians 6:15-20, and found those motives in the truths that they had been bought with a price, that the will of God was their sanctification, and that their bodies were His temple.”
1Th 4:3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”
Abstain in Greek is apechō which means to hold oneself from; to keep oneself from; to hold back, keep off, prevent (Strong’s Concordance); to refrain deliberately; to hold back; — which occurs 19 times in the New Testament.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, &c.] The connection will be clearer if we render thus: For this is God’s will—it is your sanctification—that you abstain from fornication, &c.
It was not some counsel or wish of his own that he pressed on the Thessalonians under the authority of Christ; it was nothing less than God’s holy will: the primary ground of this charge. At the same time it was their sanctification. God’s will and their consecration to Him are the double reason for their leading a chaste life; and these two reasons are one, the latter springing out of the former. God had chosen them to be His own (comp. ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:4). And He willed that their sanctification should be realised and carried into effect in the important particular about to be stated. This will of God was proclaimed in His “call,” by which the Thessalonians had been summoned to a pure and holy life (ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:12). In all endeavours after purity it is our best support to know that God wishes and means ms to be holy; that His almighty help is at the back of our weak resolves, Who both “puts into our minds good desires” and “brings the same to good effect.”
“Sanctification” is the act or process of making holy: then, in the second instance, it comes to denote the result of this process, the state of one who is made holy,—as in Romans 6:22, “You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life;” similarly in Hebrews 12:14, “Follow after sanctification.” It is synonymous with consecration, i.e. devotion to God,—but to God as the Holy One.
Holy is the single word which by itself denotes the Divine character, as it is revealed to us in its moral transcendence, in the awfulness and glory of its absolute perfection, raised infinitely above all that is earthly and sinful (see 1 Samuel 2:2, Psalms 99, Psalm 111:9, Isaiah 57:15, &c). Now it is the character of God—“thy Maker … and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel”—that constitutes His right to the consecration of those to whom He is revealed. Our “sanctification” is the acknowledgement of God’s claim upon us as the Holy One Who made us. This involves our assimilation to His nature. In Him, first the character, then the claim: in us, first the claim admitted, then the character impressed. In short, Sanctification is fulfilment of the supreme command, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16; Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7).—See, further, notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:7, and ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:23; also on ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:10, for the difference between the two Greek words for holy used in this Ep.
St Paul makes chastity a part of holiness. He finds a new motive and powerful safeguard for virtue in the fact of the redemption of the body. Our physical frame belongs to God; it is a sharer in Christ’s resurrection, and in the new life received through Him. “Know you not,” he asks, “that your bodies are limbs of Christ,—a temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have from God? Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). This is bodily sanctification. And faith in Christ effectually subdues impure and sensual passion.
The foul and heathenish vice of fornication was so prevalent in Greek cities and so little condemned by public opinion—it was even fostered by some forms of pagan religion—that abstinence from it on the part of the Thessalonians was a sign of devotion to a Holy God. But their purity was imperilled from the condition of society around them, and in many cases from former unchaste habits. The temptations to licentiousness assailing the first generation of Christians were fearfully strong; and all the Epistles contain urgent warnings upon this subject. The sense of purity had to be re-created in men gathered out of the midst of pagan corruption.”
The purpose of abstaing from sexual immorality is sanctification which is the will of God for every believer.
2Th 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you] Comp. ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:3, and notes. The strain of the opening thanksgiving of the two Epistles is here blended. For while this clause repeats the first words of 2Th, the sentence that follows echoes 1 Thessalonians 1:4.
Here the subject, we, bears emphasis: “we, with this sad prospect of apostasy and delusion in view.” Those who see deeply into the evil of the world, its immense power and untold possibilities, turn with the greater satisfaction to that which “speaks better things.”
brethren beloved by the Lord (R.V.) is parallel to “beloved by God” (1 Thessalonians 1:4 : see note).
“The Lord” is surely Christ, as distinguished from “God” in the adjoining clauses. The Church assailed by persecution, and appalled by the thought of Antichrist, finds in the love of Christ her refuge (comp. Romans 8:35; Romans 8:39). To the same Divine Protector the Apostle commits his “brethren,” so dear to him (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17; ch. 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:5). He recalls in this expression the blessing pronounced on Benjamin, his own tribe, in Deuteronomy 33:12 : “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; He covereth him all the day long, and he dwelleth between His shoulders.” The two phrases correspond precisely in the Greek.
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation] Better, in that God chose you; see note on ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:3.
These words are partly borrowed from Deuteronomy 7:6-7; Deuteronomy 10:15; Deuteronomy 26:18 : “Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. He hath chosen you to be a peculiar people unto Himself … He set His love upon yon;” &c.
The Apostle’s thanksgivings in the First Epistle centred in the fact of the “election” of the Thessalonian believers in Christ. (See note on election, 1 Thessalonians 1:4; and context.) To this his grateful thoughts now revert. God deals with them far otherwise than He will do with those to whom He “sends effectual delusion … that they may be judged” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12): He “chose you for salvation … not for wrath” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). How safe and high above fear are “God’s elect” (Romans 8:33-39)!
“From the beginning” points to the time when the Gospel first visited the Thessalonians; so the “election” of 1 Thessalonians 1:4 is associated with the “coming of our gospel to you” (1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). Then it was that, practically and in human view, God chose this people—i.e. selected them for His own out of the world in which they moved. In later Epistles this “beginning” is traced back, on its Divine side, to “the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4, &c.), and shown to be a part of that which was absolutely “from the beginning” (comp. 1 John 1:1). There is an absolute beginning of salvation, hidden in the nature and eternal counsels of God; this is its relative, historical and manifest beginning (comp. Php 4:15; Acts 15:7).
And this choice is “unto salvation,” in the utmost sense of the word, extended in 2 Thessalonians 2:14 to “the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ;” comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (see note).
This salvation rests on God’s election; at the same time it has its human conditions: salvation (experienced) in sanctification of spirit and faith in the truth. God chooses none to salvation apart from these qualifications; the end implies the way. It is believing and sanctified men who wear “for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Comp. 1 Peter 1:2 : “Elect … in sanctification of spirit” (or the Spirit).
“Chosen unto salvation” stands in contrast with “son of perdition” and “the perishing” (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:10); “sanctification of spirit” and “belief in truth” on the part of God’s elect, with the “pleasure in unrighteousness” and “belief in the lie” that mark the dupes of Antichrist. These are the moral preconditions of final salvation and perdition respectively.
St Paul writes sanctification of spirit, without the definite article. No doubt “spirit” may grammatically denote “the (Holy) Spirit,” but the Apostle can scarcely have so intended here. For (1) the intimate connection of this phrase with “belief of truth” inclines us to read the two (Greek) genitives alike—“truth” being the object of “faith,” and “spirit” of “sanctification.” (2) “Your spirit” is the primary object of the sanctification prayed for in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. That memorable prayer is probably in the mind both of writer and readers. (3) “Sanctification of spirit,” understood as an inward state of the Thessalonians, is a condition of “salvation” the opposite of the disposition described in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 as marking “those who perish” at the coming of Antichrist. For this reason sanctification is put first; but it depends in turn upon faith,—“belief in the truth.” See Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:13. The normal order therefore is that of 1 Timothy 2:15, “in faith and sanctification.”—For sanctification, see note to 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
Lit., belief of truth. The Apostle is not stating what the truth is that saves, but that it is truth which saves, and faith in it as truth. A truth-accepting faith is the root of salvation, while the disposition to “believe the lie” is the root of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). “Sanctify them in the truth,” prayed Jesus for His disciples; “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The trustful acceptance of the truth revealed by Christ brings with it the consecration of our spirit to God. In such faith and consecration our salvation lies.
Section IV. Words of Comfort and Prayer
Ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 to 2 Thessalonians 3:5Passing from the last Section, we breathe a sigh of relief, and gladly join in thanksgiving for those who will “prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).
Under the solemn feelings awakened by his contemplation of the image of Antichrist, the Apostle turns to his readers, blending thanksgiving with exhortation and renewed prayer on their account. (1) He renders thanks to God Who had chosen and called them to salvation, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; (2) he urges them to be steadfast, 2 Thessalonians 2:15; (3) he prays that God’s love may be their comfort, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17. In turn he (4) requests their prayers for himself, ch. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2; (5) he assures them of God’s faithfulness, and of his own confidence in them, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; and (6) prays once more for Divine guidance on their behalf, 2 Thessalonians 2:5.”
Now you have learned God’s will is to abstain from sexual immorality, to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and faith in the truth. You do well.
To receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is to receive the eternal life.
WILLIE WONG THOUGHT
WILLIE WONG
AUGUST 5, 2025
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