1 Thessalonians 4:5

μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας καθάπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν, not (to do this) in passion of lust, even as the Gentiles also (do), who know not God. Ἐν πάθει ἑπιθυμίας, “in a state of lustful passion”: where the man’s action is dominated by animal desire, there is no sanctity nor honour in the union; even a lawful marriage so effected is a πορνεία in spirit. Πάθος is synonymous with ἀκαθαρσία and ἐπιθυμία κακή in Colossians 3:5, and is qualified by ἀτιμίας (see ἐν τιμῇ above) in Romans 1:26; the παθήματα of Romans 7:5; Galatians 5:24, are particular forms or kinds of πάθος. This word signifies not, like Eng. “passion,” a violent feeling, but an overmastering feeling, in which the man is borne along be evil as though its passive instrument; in this sense Romans 7:20 interprets the παθήματα of Romans 7:5. For ἑπιθυμία, cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:17; this sinister sense of ἐπιθυμέω (-ία) prevails.

For καθάπερ, cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; used freely by St Paul in the two first groups of his Epistles, but not later. “The Gentiles that know not God,” is an O.T. designation for the heathen, whose irreligion accounts for their depravity (Psalms 79:6; Jeremiah 10:25); it recurs in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (see note), Galatians 4:8. Unchastity, often in abominable forms, was a prominent feature of Gentile life at this time; honourable courtship and fidelity in wedlock were comparatively rare. In Romans 1:24 ff. St Paul points to this sexual corruption, by which in fact the classical civilization was destroying itself, as a punishment inflicted upon the heathen world for its idolatry and wilful ignorance of God, and a terrible evidence of His anger on this account. Man first denies his Maker, and then degrades himself. The God, whom these lustful “Gentiles know not,” is “the living and true God” to whom Thessalonian believers had “turned from their idols” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Obeying the call of His gospel, they had consecrated themselves to His service (ἐν ἁγιασμῷ), and so they were redeemed from shame; their affections were hallowed, and their homes founded in the sanctities of an honourable love.

To “know God” is more than an intellectual act; it implies acknowledgement and due regard,—the esteeming Him for what He is (see e.g. Jeremiah 9:23 f.; Titus 1:16). Γινώσκειν is the commoner verb in affirmative statements with God for object (John 17:3; Galatians 4:9, &c.), as it implies tentative, progressive knowledge; cf., for εἰδέναι, 1 Thessalonians 4:12 below.

Bornemann proposes a new interpretation of the whole passage, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6, placing a comma at σκεῦος, thus made the object of εἰδέναι, and reading κτᾶσθαι in the absolute sense, “to make gain,” with τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν κ.τ.λ. placed in apposition to the latter. So he arrives at the following rendering: “that you abstain from fornication, that each of you know his own vessel (i.e. acknowledge, appreciate and hold to, his own wife: cf. 1 Peter 3:7), seek gain in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of covetousness as the Gentiles &c., that he do not overreach and take advantage of his brother in business.” But εἰδέναι τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος, thus taken by itself, forms a very obscure clause, and an inadequate complement to ἀπέχεσθαι … πορνείας; nor is the use of κτᾶσθαι without an object sufficiently supported by the parallels drawn from Ezekiel 7:12 f. (LXX) and Thucyd. i. 70. 4. Moreover the transition to the new topic of fairness in business dealings would be abrupt and unprepared for, if made by κτᾶσθαι without a mediating conjunction; while ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας is an expression decidedly suggesting lust and not avarice. This construction introduces more difficulties than it removes.

1 Thessalonians 4:6 appears to stand in apposition to 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, ἀπέχεσθαι … εἰδέναι κ.τ.λ. Τὸ πρᾶγμα, on this interpretation, is the matter of the marriage relationship expressly violated by πορνεία (1 Thessalonians 4:3), which must be guarded from every kind of wrong (1 Thessalonians 4:6). In acts of impurity men sin against society; while defiling themselves, they trick and defraud others in what is dearest. To this aspect of “the matter” τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν κ.τ.λ. seems to point. For the use of τὸ πρᾶγμα as relating to “the matter” in hand, cf. 2 Corinthians 7:11. ἐν τῷ πράγματι gives a wide extension, under this veiled form of reference, to the field of injury. No wrongs excite deadlier resentment and are more ruinous to social concord than violations of womanly purity; none more justly call forth the punitive anger of Almighty God (see the next clause).

On the above view, the article in τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν has an emphatic resumptive force, as in τὸ μηδένα σαίνεσθαι (1 Thessalonians 3:3; see note): (I say, or I mean) that none (understand τινά, in view of the following αὐτοῦ, rather than ἕκαστον as carried over from 1 Thessalonians 4:4) transgress (exceed the limit), and take advantage of his brother in the matter. The verbs ὑπερβαίνειν and πλεονεκτεῖν are quite as appropriate to adulterers, and the like, as to perpetrators of commercial fraud; πλεονεξία includes sins of lust as well as greed (Ephesians 4:19). Ὑπερβαίνειν, “to step over”—a good classical compound, hap. leg. in N.T.—governs, in this sense, an object of the thing (law, limit, &c.), not the person; it is probably intransitive here. Πλεονεκτεῖν in earlier Greek took a genitive of comparison, “to have advantage over”; in the κοινή it adopted an accusative,—“to take advantage of” any one. Τὸν� appears to denote the wronged person not specifically as a Christian brother, but in his human claim to sympathy and respect: cf. Matthew 5:23 f., Matthew 7:3 ff.; 1 John 2:9 ff.; also 1 Thessalonians 5:15 below.

The interpretation just given is that of the Greek Fathers, followed by Jerome; and of many moderns, including Estius, Bengel, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, Schmiedel. Most of the Latin interpreters (Vulg. in negotio), with Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Winer, de Wette, Hofmann, Lünemann, Bornemann, understand covetousness to be denounced in these words. They take ἐν τῷ πράγματι to signify “in business” generally, like the plural τὰ πράγματα; or “the (particular) business” in hand, each matter of business as it arises—cf. ἐν τῷ� in John 2:25 (τῷ cannot be read as τῳ = τινί—so in A.V.; this usage is foreign to N.T. Greek). But there is no example of πρᾶγμα (singular) used in the sense supposed; and in view of the strong emphasis thrown on the question of sexual morals in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 f., the transition to another subject should have been clearly marked. Besides, ἀκαθαρσία (1 Thessalonians 4:7) is applied elsewhere to sins of the flesh (with the possible exception of 1 Thessalonians 2:3 above), and this topic covers the whole ground of the preceding 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6.

διότι ἔκδικος Κύριος περὶ πάντων τούτων, because the Lord is an avenger respecting all these things—everything that concerns the honour of the human person and the sacredness of wedded life; cf. Hebrews 13:4, πόρνους κ. μοιχοὺς κρινεῖ ὁ θεός. For ἔκδικος, see Romans 13:4; Wis 12:12; Sir 30:6; in earlier Greek the adjective signified unjust (exlex). For the maxim, cf. Romans 12:19; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5 f.; Colossians 3:6; and in the O.T., Deuteronomy 32:35 (Heb.),—the original of St Paul’s allusions. “All these things” lie within the scope of that vengeance of God which pursues the wrongs of men toward each other; cf., in this connexion, Proverbs 5:21 f., Proverbs 6:32 ff., Proverbs 7:22-27. For διότι, see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:18. There is no reason to suppose that Κύριος means any other than “the Lord Jesus Christ,” through whom God judges the world at the Last Day: cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Acts 17:31, &c.

καθὼς καὶ προείπαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ διεμαρτυράμεθα, as indeed we foretold you and solemnly protested. As to the indispensableness of chastity to the Christian life and the fearful consequences of transgression against its laws, the Thessalonians had been plainly and impressively instructed in the first lessons of the Gospel. For προείπαμεν—in the 1st aorist form, which many familiar 2nd aorists assumed in the κοινή (see Winer-Moulton, pp. 86 f., Blass, Grammar of N.T. Greek, p. 45)—cf. προλέγω, 1 Thessalonians 3:4 and Galatians 5:21; προ-, “before” the event. The μαρτύρομαι of 1 Thessalonians 2:12 (see note) is strengthened by διά, which implies the presence of God, or the Lord, “through” whom—scil. in whose name—this warning is given; cf. διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, 1 Thessalonians 4:2, and the references there supplied.