For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification.
ου γαρ εκαλεσεν ημας ο θεος επι ακαθαρσια αλλ εν αγιασμω
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Since he said, “that you should not act unlawfully against your brother in anything,” and added that “the Lord is the avenger,” by these words he teaches that the one who inflicts injury will not remain without punishment, even when the one who suffers it is an unbeliever. The meaning of his words is this: God will punish you not in order to avenge him, but because in him you have offended God Himself. He called you, and you offended the One who called you.
After saying that you wrong your brother, and after indicating that God will avenge, he now broadens his thought. He shows that even if an unbeliever suffered this, the guilty one would still bear punishment.
For God will punish you not in order to avenge him, but for His own sake. He called you so that you might be pure, and by your impurity you have offended Him Who gave you the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, whether you defile your married slave woman or a queen, the guilt is the same, for you offend the one God. Even if you commit fornication and not adultery, God will still avenge, because you have defiled His Spirit.
Or again, it may be understood otherwise. God, seeing that in such deeds we show more contempt for Him than for men, will avenge Himself. Before men we try to keep them from seeing us with their eyes. But we show contempt for God, though He sees.
For God did not call you to the impurity in which you remained, but led you out of that impurity into this holiness in which you now stand.
The devil filled the doctrines of nonexistent gods with indecency, urging people to enter upon that path. But the true God commands us to turn away from that path and prescribes that we walk the path of chastity.
Why are you here, Christian, you who defile your body and soul with impurity? You who breathe the spirit of malice and vengeance against your neighbor? You who stretch out your hand to seize another's goods? You who make widows, orphans, and other poor people shed tears?
You who slander your brother, and strike him with your tongue as with a sword? You who lie, deceive, and by your cunning seduce your neighbor, and so forth? All this is as far removed from Christians as darkness is from light.
Why are you here? Why do you mix light with darkness? What fellowship has light with darkness? "God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness" (1 Thess 4:7).
Christian, remember your vows, given at holy Baptism. You gave them not to man, but to God. It is fearful to lie to God. God is not mocked. He will require your vows from you when He summons you to His Judgment.
There you will see to Whom you lied, and before Whom you failed to keep your vows. Remember this now, repent, and do works worthy of your vows. Do not appear with falsehood at that Judgment, and do not share the portion of liars.
"Their portion shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone... This is the second death" (Rev 21:8). "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph 5:14).
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).
Unfolding the same lesson, the Apostle teaches them to live according to the law of God, in holiness, shunning greed, impurity, and disobedience to God and to the Holy Spirit sent by Him for our sanctification.
According to St. John Damascene's explanation, "the Apostle covertly indicated adultery by a euphonious word, calling it the wronging of a brother." And St. John Chrysostom says: "First the Apostle entreated and made them blush, saying, 'as the Gentiles.'
Then by arguments he showed the vileness of this, using the expressions 'to wrong a brother in the matter.' Then he adds the chief point: 'for the Lord is the avenger.' By doing this, we do not remain without punishment.
Nor do we experience pleasure equal to the torment that awaits us. God will punish you because you have offended God Himself. He called you, and you have offended the One Who called. He will avenge Himself."
"God gave us the Holy Spirit, and we drive Him out by impurity. How then do we not offend both the Giver and the Gift?" (Oecumenius).
To this Bishop Theophan adds the thought that the Apostles too are offended, since they did not speak from themselves, but were taught by the Holy Spirit (Mt 10:20). Therefore whoever resists them sins not against man, but against God (Acts 5:4).
He is offended most of all by impurity. Therefore, on another occasion, as an incentive to purity, the Apostle especially sets forth that Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in them (1 Cor 6:19).
Then the Apostle also warns against another pagan vice: the passion of covetousness, which reaches the point of injustice toward one's neighbors. These two vices, fornication and covetousness, were among the chief causes of all the calamities of the ancient world. Horace portrayed them as gravediggers, mercilessly digging the grave for his own generation.
God will punish people for these sins. He will punish Christians especially, for they know well that these sins are contrary to God and grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
"God has not called." We have been called to the confession of the Gospel, to faith in Christ, to Christianity. By saying "us," he places himself in the same rank as the Thessalonians and all Christians.
After threats, he reminds them of the spirit of Christianity. Such is the calling of Christians, according to the pre-eternal appointment: to be pure.
"For" indicates the reason why God is the avenger, especially for acts of fornication. It is because they are directly opposed to God's calling and do not so much disturb proper relations with brethren and oneself as offend God Himself.
"God will punish you," says St. Chrysostom, "not in order to avenge the brother, but because you have offended God Himself. He called you, and you have offended the One Who called."
For this reason Christianity begins with the vow of purity and the renunciation of lustful deeds. Pagans, when receiving baptism, obligated themselves to leave these things behind and to love chastity.
Under this condition God also gives them the grace of the Holy Spirit, which requires of the recipient that the vessel of his nature be pure.
"The devil," writes blessed Theodoret, "filled the doctrines of nonexistent gods with indecency, urging men to enter this path, that is, the path of indecency. But the true God commands us to turn away from this path and prescribes that we walk the path of chastity."
Christians were sharply distinguished from pagans in this regard. Thus the latter marveled that they did not run with them into the same flood of dissipation (1 Pet 4:4).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS