not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God;
4 sermons cite this verse
… I forgot to tell y'all since y'all don't come. 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 3 through 5. It says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. Somebody say sanctification. That you should abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. He says, God has said, I want you to demonstrate that you have a relationship with God. And you're just not out here sleeping around with everything and everybody. but instead you're honoring God and living a sanctified life. Somebody say sanctified. Sanctified means I've been set apart. God cleaned me up. Here's what God, God saved you and cleaned you up so that you could be sanctified and you could demonstrate to the world that you have a relationship with the living God. So that's why you get married is for God's glory, number two, to obey God. And here's number three, for self-control. …
… that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, and here comes the key phrase, like the Gentiles who do not know God. When you give way to sexual lust or sexual misconduct, you act like the Gentiles who don't know God. I infer from this, knowing God is the pathway to sexual purity. Now say it again. Knowing God is the pathway to sexual purity. to which I can hear some cynical person ready to nullify verse 5 say, yeah, right, as if there aren't a thousand world-class theologians who aren't in the bondage of sexual sin sleeping around at their academic meetings in New Orleans. So what good is all this God knowledge for them? I've seen them. I've seen them. I've been there. I've been to New Orleans. And I could name the academic societies I have in mind. I've watched them go to the strip clubs. These teachers of religion. So you asked me, rightly. So what good is all this knowledge of God? …
… So each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also forewarned and testified. This idea of taking advantage and defrauding your brother is probably a reference to having an affair with another man's wife. He said, look, you don't practice sexual immorality. The heathen do that. You're called to sanctification, to be holy. Keep your vessel in honor and don't defraud somebody's, your brother in this matter. And in those days, as in these days, the world thinks nothing of having an affair. You don't get prosecuted in a court of law for having an affair. I think the law just says consenting adults. So, according to our world, you could have an affair with another man's wife, you as a married man or woman, and it wouldn't be against the law. …
13. But suppose we were guarded against all these, are there not other idols which we have need to be apprehensive of; and idols, therefore, the more dangerous, because we suspect no danger from them? For is there any danger to be feared from our friends and relations; from the mutual endearments of husbands and wives, or of parents and children? Ought we not to bear a very tender affection to them? Ought we not to love them only less than God? Yea, and is there not a tender affection due to those whom God has made profitable to our souls? Are we not commanded to “esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake?” All this is unquestionably true; and this very thing makes the difficulty. Who is sufficient for this? — to go far enough herein, and no farther? to love them enough, and not too much? Can we love a wife, a child, a friend, well enough, without loving the creature more than the creator? Who is able to follow the caution which St. Paul gives to the Christians at Thessalonica? (1 Thess. 4:5.) 14. I wish that weighty passage (so strangely disguised in our translation) were duly considered: “Let every one of you know how to possess his vessel,” his wife, “in sanctification and honour;” so as neither to dishonour God nor himself; nor to obstruct, but further, holiness. St. Paul goes on, me en pathei epithymias, which we render, Not in the lust of concupiscence, (What is this? It gives the english reader no conception at all. pathos means any violent or impetuous affection. epithymia is desire. By the two words the Apostle undoubtedly means vehement and impetuous affections,) — “as the Gentiles who know not God,” and so may naturally seek happiness in a creature. …