1 Thessalonians 4:5

not in the lust of concupiscence Far better, not in the passion of lust (R. V.). The sense of the last verb (to possess) is carried on, with a modified application, into this clause: not (to have it: i.e. your body) in a state of lustful passion. (For the altered meaning of the verb, comp. 1 Corinthians 3:2: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat"). This condition the state of one immersed "in" wicked desire is the opposite of "sanctification and honour."

The word "passion" signifies not so much a violent feeling, as an overpoweringfeeling, one to which the man so yields himself that he is borne along by evil as if he were its passive instrument; he has lost the dignity of self-rule, and is the slave of his lower appetites. Comp. Romans 7:5, "the passions of sins which wrought in our members;" and Romans 7:20, "It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

In such shameful bondage lived the Gentiles which know not God(an O. T. expression, Psalms 79:6; Isaiah 45:4-5; recurring in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, see note). For impurity, often in most abandoned and revolting forms, was a prevailing feature of Pagan life at this time. In Romans 1:24, &c., St Paul speaks of this as a punishment of the heathen world for its wilful ignorance of God: "He gave them up unto passions of dishonour." Man first denies his Maker; then degrades himself.

The God Whom these degraded "Gentiles knew not," is the "living and true God" of ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:9, to Whom Thessalonian believers had "turned from their idols." Coming to know Him by His gospel, they had devoted themselves to Him; and so their bodies had been redeemed from vice and dishonour, and the soul had a clean house to live in, a clean vessel to use for holy service.