1 Thessalonians 4:4-The Thessalonians Knew How to Possess Their Own Bodies with Respect to Sanctification Resulting in Honor

1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor. (NET)

1 Thessalonians 4:4 continues the thought from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 because it continues to discuss the subject of the Thessalonians experiencing their sanctification.

By way of review, the grammatical structure of 1 Thessalonians 4:1 is complex since it contains two content clauses with the first containing two comparative clauses.

Both of these content clauses contain a request which are inextricably tied to each other since the first presents the means by which the second was to be fulfilled by the Thessalonians.

The first comparative clause compares Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s doctrinal instruction as to how to live in a manner so as to please God with the necessity of doing so.

The second comparative clause compares the Thessalonians receiving instruction from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as to how they were obligated to live in a manner so as to please God and the Thessalonians already doing so.

Thus, Paul is affirming the Thessalonians were already living in a manner which pleases God.

Therefore, the first content clause presents Paul, Silvanus and Timothy politely but yet urgently and authoritatively encouraging the Thessalonians to live in a manner so that they please God just as they received instruction from them to do so, and which they were already doing.

The second content clause presents Paul, Silvanus and Timothy politely but yet urgently and authoritatively encouraging the Thessalonians to live in a manner so that they please God more and more.

Then, in 1 Thessalonians 4:2, Paul asserts that the Thessalonians were well aware of what commands that he, Silvanus and Timothy gave them by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Therefore, in these two verses, Paul is asserting that the Thessalonians were to make it their habit of excelling more and more in living their lives in a manner which pleases God because they were well aware of what commands that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy gave them by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

These commands are a reference to the various commands and prohibitions which were communicated to the Thessalonians by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy with regards to experiencing their sanctification, which is indicated by the content of the statements recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7.

Next, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Paul asserts that God’s will is the sanctification of each one of the Thessalonians.

He then defines what he means by their sanctification by asserting that for their own benefit they make it their habit of abstaining from the practice of sexual immorality.

They would benefit from this because it would result in their growing up to spiritual maturity or in other words, they would become more like Jesus Christ and thus consequently, they would be rewarded by the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.

As we noted, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is presenting the reason for the statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 that the Thessalonians continue to make it their habit of living in a manner so as to make it their habit of pleasing God and that they continue making it their habit of excelling more and more in doing so.

Therefore, a comparison of verses 1 and 3 indicates that the Thessalonians must continue to make it their habit of living in a manner so as to make it their habit of pleasing God because God’s will is their sanctification.

Specifically, His will is that for their own benefit they make it their habit of abstaining from sexual immorality.

The inference between these two verses is that by living in a manner so as to please God, the Thessalonians would be experiencing the holiness of God, i.e. experiencing their sanctification by abstaining from sexual immorality.

Now, here in 1 Thessalonians 4:4, Paul continues to discuss the topic of experiential sanctification with the Thessalonians since he continues to define or describe experiential sanctification.

In this verse, he asserts that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community knew how to make it their habit of possessing their own body with regards to experiencing their sanctification which would result in honor at the Bema Seat.

Each member of the Thessalonian Christian community existed in the state of knowing how to possess their own bodies with respect to experiencing their sanctification.

This will result in being honored by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat as a result of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy communicating the Lord Jesus Christ’s commands to them.

As we noted, this interpretation is indicated by the contents of 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3.

Therefore, 1 Thessalonians 4:4 emphasizes with the Thessalonians that each of them knew how to possess their own bodies with respect to experiencing their sanctification which will result in being honored by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat.

It also implies that this was the direct result of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy communicating the Lord Jesus Christ’s commands to them with regards to experiencing their sanctification.

Now, a comparison of 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 4:4 reveal that in the former Paul is defining or describing experiential sanctification from a negative perspective whereas in the latter he does from a positive perspective.

In the former, he is telling the Thessalonians what they must not do since he asserts that they were to make it their habit of abstaining from the practice of sexual immorality.

However, in the latter, he tells them what they must do since he asserts that they knew now to possess their own physical bodies with regards to experiencing their sanctification.

As was the case in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, the noun hagiasmos here in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 means “sanctification” since the word pertains to the act of becoming more personally dedicated to God and specifically by becoming more distinct, devoted and morally pure.

Here the word refers to the Thessalonian Christian community experiencing sanctification as a result of obeying Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s doctrinal instruction with regards to sanctification.

The noun timē, “honor” in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 refers to the Thessalonians receiving recognition from the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.

This is the direct result of the Thessalonians experiencing their sanctification by avoiding sexual immorality as a result of knowing how to possess their own bodies with regards to experiencing their sanctification.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:4, the noun skeuos pertains to the human body as the container of the soul with the implication of the function of their sexual life.

Therefore, this word refers to the human bodies of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community with the implication of the function of their sexual life.

Also, in this verse, the verb ktaomai literally means “to possess a vessel,” however, it is used here in a euphemistic manner of referring to sexual relations.[1]

Therefore, this indicates that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community knew how to possess their own physical bodies in the sense that they knew how to avoid sexual immorality of any kind.

Now, some expositors and scholars translate this expression to heautou skeuos ktasthai (τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι) as “to learn to live with his own wife” since the wife is called “the weaker vessel” in 1 Peter 3:7.

However, Paul is clearly addressing each member of the Thessalonian Christian community and not everyone in this community was married but rather, this expression is emphasizing with both the married and the single in this community they must avoid sexual immorality of any kind.

Now, as we noted in our study of 1 Thessalonians 4:3, the prepositional phrase “from the practice of sexual immorality” in this verse pertains to any kind or sexual sin of a general kind which includes many different behaviors.

It denotes any type of sexual activity outside of marriage including fornication and adultery and even prostitution and is expressing the idea that the Father’s will is that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community separate or disassociate themselves from the practice of sexual immorality.

So therefore, Paul wants the Thessalonians to have sex within the boundaries of marriage and not outside of marriage.

These sins would include fornication, adultery, polygamy, incest, prostitution, homosexuality and bestiality.

Colossians 3:1-5 indicates that the Thessalonians were make it their habit of abstaining from the practice of sexual immorality (1 Thess. 4:3) and make it their habit of possessing their own bodies with regards to experiencing their sanctification which would result in the Lord Jesus honoring them at the Bema Seat by putting to death the members of their sinful Adamic nature.

This would require the child of God appropriating by faith their identification with Christ in His death and resurrection by considering themselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God (cf. Rom. 6:1-14).

[1] Louw and Nida, 23.63