Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Thessalonians 4:3

ἁγιασμός (in apposition to τοῦτο, θέλημα without the article being the predicate) = the moral issue of a life related to the Ἅγιος (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:8), viewed here in its special and negative aspect of freedom from sexual impurity. The gospel of Jesus, unlike some pagan cults, e.g., that of the Cabiri at Thessalonica (cf. Lightfoot's Biblical Essays, pp. 257 f.), did not tolerate, much less foster, licentiousness among its worshippers. At Thessalonica as at Corinth Paul found his converts exposed to the penetrating taint of life in a large seaport. As the context indicates, ἁγ. ὑμῶν = “the perfecting of you in holiness” (ἁγ. in its active sense, ὑμῶν genitive objective: so Lünemann, Ellicott, Bahnsen). The absence of any reference to δικαιοσύνη is remarkable. But Paul's dialectic on justification was occasioned by controversies about ὁ νόμος which were not felt at Thessalonica. Besides, the “justified” standing of the believer, even in that synthesis of doctrine, amounted practically to the position assured by the possession of the Spirit to the Christian. In his uncontroversial and eschatological moments, Paul taught as here that the experience of the Spirit guaranteed the believer's vindication at the end (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10) and also implied his ethical behaviour during the interval. The comparative lack of any allusion to the forgiveness of sins (cf. e.g., 1 Thessalonians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:13) does not mean that Paul thought the Thessalonians would be kept sinless during the brief interval till the parousia (so Wernle, der Christ u. die Sünde bei Paulus, 25 32); probably no occasion had called for any explicit teaching on this commonplace of faith (1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Corinthians 15:11).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Thessalonians 4:3

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