Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God:
μη εν παθει επιθυμιας καθαπερ και τα εθνη τα μη ειδοτα τον θεον
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 11 commentaries
Here he also shows the way one must become chaste, namely by cutting off the passions of lust. Indeed, luxury, wealth, laziness, negligence, and idleness all lead us to vile lust. “As,” he says, “the Gentiles who do not know God.” The Gentiles are such because they do not expect future punishment.
“Not in the passion of lust.” That is, not in a desire that contains passion. For there is also passionless desire, such as desire for divine things. Or he calls everything that excites lust “the passion of lust,” such as luxury, wealth, idleness, and negligence. Each of these may be called a passion of lust. Therefore, if we desire to be chaste, we must not allow ourselves any passion that excites lust. “Like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Those who do not know God have no hope of recompense. Therefore they do everything for their own pleasure.
Although there are desires for different things, when desire is named simply, without adding "desire for what," the mind usually presents only that desire by which the shameful parts of the body are aroused.
This desire not only takes possession of the whole body, and not only outwardly but also inwardly. It stirs the whole man, joining and mixing the disposition of the soul with the demand of the flesh. It is accompanied by such pleasure that none among bodily pleasures is greater.
Thus, at the moment when it reaches its greatest strength, almost all discernment and watchfulness of thought are lost.
What lover of wisdom and holy joys, who lives in marriage but knows how, as the Apostle exhorted, to keep his own vessel in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, would not prefer, if he could, to beget children without this desire?
Then, even in fulfilling this duty of planting offspring, the members created for this purpose would serve the mind just as the other members do.
Therefore do not defile the cleansed flesh with the passion of lust, as the rest of the Gentiles do, who still do not know God.
Be freed from error, says the Apostle. You have come to know the existing God. Therefore do not imitate those who live in the darkness of ignorance, and do not be enslaved to the passion of lust. Then he sets forth the law more clearly.
"This is," says St. Paul, "the will of God, your holiness" (1 Thess 4:3). And so as not to leave us in doubt or obscure misunderstanding about what he calls holiness, whether righteousness, love, humility, or patience, since holiness is acquired by all these virtues, he then directly indicates what he wished to call holiness.
"This is the will of God, your holiness: that you abstain from fornication, and that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion, as the Gentiles who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:3-5).
See with what praises he extols chastity, calling it the honor of the vessel, that is, of our body, and holiness. Consequently, by contrast, whoever remains in lustful passion is in a state of dishonor and impurity, and lives as one alien to holiness.
A little below, St. Paul adds further, again calling chastity holiness: "For God did not call us to impurity, but to holiness. Therefore he who rejects this rejects not man, but God, Who has given His Holy Spirit in you" (1 Thess 4:7-8).
He gave inviolable force and weight to his commandment when he said that whoever rejects this, that is, what I have said, rejects not man, meaning me who commands this, but God Who speaks in me. He appointed our heart as a dwelling for His Holy Spirit.
Do you see with what praises, in simple words, he extolled this virtue? First, he attributes holiness properly to it. Second, he affirms that by it the vessel of our body is freed from every impurity.
Third, when shameful impurity has been cast out, this vessel will remain in honor as a holy thing. Finally, its highest privilege is that through it the Holy Spirit will be the inhabitant of our heart.
I shall bring forward another similar testimony of the same Apostle. Addressing the Hebrews, he says: "Have peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb 12:14). Here also he affirms that without holiness, which he usually calls purity and cleanliness of soul and body, it is altogether impossible to see God.
In the moral and dogmatic part, St. Paul the Apostle sets before the Thessalonians various instructions corresponding to Timothy's report about their moral condition. Then he reasons with them about the lot of those who have died before the Second Coming of the Lord. Finally, he prevents possible moral faults among the Thessalonians and heals actual ones.
The Apostle offers instructions that the will of God is our sanctification. Therefore the Thessalonians must abstain from fornication, knowing how to keep their vessel, that is, the body, in holiness and honor.
He also teaches that the Thessalonians must in no way act unlawfully or covetously toward their brother. On the contrary, they should live quietly and attend to their own work, laboring with their own hands and lacking nothing (1 Thess 4:1-12).
The first lesson is the lesson of bodily purity, abstinence from adultery. It was so customary in the ancient Greek pagan world, which did not know the holy God and honored passions as something exalted and worthy of special esteem.
The Apostle, however, points to the honorable state of keeping oneself in holy purity, corresponding to the vessel and receptacle of God's grace. St. John Chrysostom says: "Notice that the Apostle hints at nothing so often as this (Heb 12:14; 1 Tim 5:22).
And truly, this evil is destructive for all. The Apostle also shows the way one must become chaste, namely, by cutting off lustful passions."
"By lustful passion," says blessed Theophylact, "the Apostle means everything that inflames lust: pleasures, entertainments, idleness, luxury, and the like. One must abstain from all this if one desires to be chaste."
According to blessed Theodoret's explanation, the Apostle speaks as though saying to the Thessalonians: "You have been freed from error and have come to know the true God. Therefore do not imitate those living in the darkness of ignorance, and do not be enslaved to lustful passion."
"Let everything in a Christian be pure, from the thoughts and feelings of the soul to the last motions and stirrings of the body. Let his bodily, psychic, and spiritual life be united and flow purely, as the clear water of a pure spring streams cleanly through clean places" (Bishop Theophan).
Holiness is the goal of the whole life. Therefore no one can consider himself fully holy in this life (1 Jn 1:8-9; Rom 7:19; Gal 5:7). Only the Church in her totality is holy. And she guides even her sinful members toward holiness (Mt 13:29-30; Eph 2:21; 5:25-27).
In the preceding chapters the Apostle said much that was joyful for the church of Thessalonica. Therefore he could hope that the hearts of the Thessalonians would afterward be fully disposed toward him.
Thus he naturally passes to exhortations intended to complete what was lacking in the Thessalonians' faith (see 3:10 and 13). Hoping that his words would not remain without effect, the Apostle exhorts and entreats the Thessalonians.
They have laid the beginning of their Christian life, and he asks them to become more and more perfect in it. For them, who know Christ's commandments well, this does not present great difficulty.
For God wills that the Thessalonians abstain from their former pagan vices, and above all from fornication, keeping their body, the vessel of the soul, in purity. The verb κτάομαί is used in this sense also in Ex 21:2.
If the day of the Lord overtakes other careless people like a thief in the night, it is because their life passes in darkness. For them a constant, gloomy spiritual night stretches on. But for the Thessalonians, for whom the Sun of righteousness has risen and who live in the light of day, there is no danger from thieves of the night. Thus the day of the Lord will not overtake them unexpectedly.
"Not in lustful passion." One must distinguish the manifestations of unlawfulness in this passion. Bodily movements are natural in the body, and there is no sin in them. Sin lies in how a man relates to them with his freedom and conscience.
Whoever delights in these movements, voluntarily arouses them, and is ready to satisfy them is lusting. Whoever, by frequent satisfaction of this lust, forms in himself an inclination toward its pleasures is afflicted with lustful passion. It tyrannically burdens, torments, and tortures him.
In this state it takes possession of the whole man, and he begins to conduct his life only amid such patterns as can feed and delight it. This is for the sake of the sweetness supplied by satisfaction.
In his instructions, the Apostle Paul condemns the whole domain of this passion. He begins with the first delights in the movements of the flesh, and embraces the whole range of deeds, habits, and ways of life in which it rules.
St. Chrysostom writes: "Here the Apostle also shows the way one must become chaste, namely, by cutting off lustful passions." This means its first movements, impulses, and attractions.
Blessed Theophylact adds: "By lustful passion the Apostle means everything that inflames lust: pleasures, entertainments, idleness, luxury, and the rest. One must abstain from all that inflames lust if one wishes to be chaste."
Because of its destructive effects on soul and body, this passion is called by the Apostle evil desire (Col 3:5). Because it degrades the rational creature, it is called a passion of dishonor (Rom 1:26).
"As the Gentiles who do not know God." It is reliably known that in those times the Romans and Greeks openly surrendered themselves to every unbridled form of this passion. Even now, persons and peoples returning to pagan views of life are chiefly enslaved to this passion.
To explain why the pagans and all who imitate them are like this, the Apostle points to ignorance of God. Ignorance of God here means not intellectual ignorance, but chiefly ignorance in the heart and conscience.
In the latter case, even with good theoretical knowledge, the fear of God departs from the heart. With it departs the only strong guardian of purity. What good can be expected from such a person?
Whoever does not remember God and has no fear of God gives himself without restraint to shameful deeds. "The pagans are such because they do not suppose that there will be future punishment" (Chrysostom). "Not knowing God, they do not expect due recompense for deeds, and they do everything only for their own pleasure" (Oecumenius).
By placing those who indulge lustful passion alongside pagans who do not know God, the Apostle gives Christians a strong incentive to restraint. They have loved Christianity and have come to know its great value.
From the moment of faith, Christians separated themselves from pagans both in their concepts and in their conduct. They counted it an honor that they had become other than what they had been before.
The danger of returning to the old life powerfully stirred in them the energy to avoid such deeds and occasions. This is what the Apostle sets before them.
"It is also a strong way to turn one away from fornication, that the fornicator is placed in the same rank as those who do not know God" (Damascene).
"The Apostle speaks as though saying: you have been freed from error and have come to know the true God. Therefore do not imitate those living in the darkness of ignorance, and do not be enslaved to lustful passion" (Theodoret).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS