1 Thessalonians 4:3

Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ. For this is God’s will—(it is) your sanctification—that you abstain &c. The usual construction which makes ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, anticipated by τοῦτο, subject of ἐστὶν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, is not satisfactory: to say that “the sanctification” of Christians “is God’s will,” is almost tautological (to be sanctified is to be subject to God’s will, which the readers already are: cf. Hebrews 10:10); while, on the other side, to identify ἁγιασμός with ἀπέχεσθαι κ.τ.λ. is to narrow and lower the idea of Sanctification. What these Greek Christians do not sufficiently realize is that the “will of God,” having already taken effect in their “sanctification” (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 6:11, &c., and 1 Thessalonians 4:7 below), requires in them a perfect chastity. This was the specific matter of the apostolic παραγγελία; τοῦτο points on, not to ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν (which is assumed by the way), but to the infinitives ἀπέχεσθαι, εἰδέναι, κ.τ.λ.,—as much as to say, “This is God’s will for you, on this your sanctification turns, viz. that you keep clear of fornication, &c.” Θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ and ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν constitute a double predicate, setting forth the objective and subjective ground respectively, of the pure family and social life inculcated; the apostolic “charges” enforced clean living as being “God’s will” for His chosen (1 Thessalonians 1:4; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:8 below; 1 Peter 1:14 ff.), and accordingly a condition essential to personal holiness (καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις, Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:9; Colossians 3:12).

The anticipation of the anarthrous infinitives by τοῦτο has a parallel in 1 Peter 2:15 (οὔτως); similarly in James 1:27; see the examples in Krüger, Griech. Sprachlehre, i. § 51. 7. 4. Θέλημα, anarthrous, since “God’s will” is the general conception under which these παραγγελίαι fall (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:2); ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, because chaste living is the critical factor in Thessalonian sanctification.

Since ἁγιασμός attaches to the body along with the spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23), πορνεία directly nullifies it: see 1 Corinthians 6:15-20. So prevalent was this vice in the Pagan cities (cf. διὰ τὰς πορνείας, 1 Corinthians 7:2), so little condemned by public opinion—it was even fostered by some forms of religion as a sort of consecration—that abstention became a sign of devotion to a holy God, of possession by His Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:8). The temptations to licentiousness, arising from former habits and from the state of society, were fearfully strong in the case of the first Christian converts from heathenism; all the Epistles contain warnings on this subject: see e.g. 1 Peter 4:1-4, and the relapses at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 12:21, &c.); also Acts 15:29. The very sense of pudicity had in many instances to be re-created. The Christian doctrine of Holiness is the surest prophylactic against social evils; in the maintenance of personal purity it is our best support to know that God calls us to holiness of living, and that His almighty will is pledged to help our weak resolves.

Ἁγιασμός (from ἁγιάζω) denotes the act or process of making holy, then the resulting state, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 6:22; Hebrews 12:14, &c. Ἅγιος (קָדוֹשׁ) is the word which in Scripture denotes the character of God as He is made known by revelation, in its moral transcendence, infinitely remote from all that is sensuous and sinful (see 1 Samuel 2:2; Ps. 99, 111:9; Isaiah 6:3; Isaiah 6:5; Isaiah 57:15, &c.). Now it is the revealed character of God, “the Holy One of Israel,” that constitutes His claim to human devotion; our “sanctification” is the acknowledgement of God’s claim on us as the Holy One who made us, whom Christ reveals as our Father looking for His image to be reproduced in us: see Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:14 ff. In God, first the character disclosed, then the claim enforced; in us, first the claim acknowledged, then the character impressed. See, further, notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23; also on 1 Thessalonians 2:10, for the synonyms of ἅγιος.