When you want to know God’s will for your life, it’s best to start with things that are clear. There are few verses that say directly, “This is God’s will. Do it,” in the New Testament. In my last post, I covered one of these. Paul exhorted his audience to be thankful in, but not for, all things. A second instance in the New Testament is Paul’s instruction in 1 Thess 4:3: “For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you keep away from immorality.”

This statement has a bookend in 1 Thess 4:7. There Paul says, “that you may be an example to all who believe in Achaia and in Asia.” Paul calls upon the Thessalonian Christians to be examples of sanctification to other Christians in the general geographic region.

In an earlier post, I talked about sanctification and being holy. As I stressed there, sanctification does not consist of avoiding dancing, alcohol, and playing cards. He is not saying, “Do what you need to do so that you don’t cross the line into immoral behavior.”

He doubtless has that in mind, but I think that Paul would be impatient with someone who asked, “Well, is this specific act immoral”?

Paul is talking about what you can’t do, but he starts off with a positive, be sanctified (in practice.) However, while Paul says what you should not do, 1 Thess 4:3-7 says more about what you should do. In Paul’s world, men could do almost anything sexually. The word Paul uses is porneia, from which we get pornography. It refers to any sexual activity that is not between a husband and a wife who are married to each other.

On the negative side, Paul talks about this and a few other items related to it in Col 3:5-6. Crossing that moral line is a serious matter with God, even if our culture doesn’t much care.

According to the apostle, “Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience” (Col. 3:5-6). That is ominous. We’d rather escape God’s wrath, right?

Paul’s words in 1 Thess 4:3 echo both the ethical aspect of the Mosaic Law and what moral Gentiles in Thessalonica would have believed. So what is Paul talking about? Paul talks about this and related items in Col 3:5-6.

Crossing that moral line is a serious matter with God, even if our culture doesn’t much care. In the Bible, the marriage bond is sacred. A husband must not have sexual intercourse with any woman besides his wife.

Paul wrote, “that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;  and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things” (1 Thess. 4:4-6 NASB).

Possessing his own vessel could mean that a man should control his own body in sanctification, presenting one’s body to God, as in Rom 12:1, and honor. Committing adultery is not honorable. Or, the word for possess can also mean “acquire.” So, if a man gets a wife, he should treat her in a holy way, setting her apart for God and honoring her.

We are not sure exactly what was going on in Thessalonica, but it seems that even among the new Christians there, men were violating other men’s wives.

This could mean that there were men who did not control their passions. Or, it could mean that a man needed to protect his wife from any sexual behavior that was inappropriate for one set apart to God.

Paul keeps emphasizing sanctification. We really need to see ourselves as belonging to God over everything else, including sexual activity and how we feel about other people. You must not lust for or desire someone who is not your spouse.

Likewise, a woman is not to have sexual intercourse with a man who is not her husband. That sets pretty clear boundaries.

Jesus offers more to consider. He said that, “Every man who looks at a woman with sexual desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:28). How can a guy avoid this? It might not be possible to avoid this always, but looking at Penthouse Magazine, watching XXX videos, or going to strip clubs would all fall under Jesus’ ban.

I know of men who, though they confess Christ as Lord, are sex addicts. Pornography is designed to make one want to see more. The startling nature of what is shown causes the brain to store that image. The image also causes a good feeling, and the brain wants that feeling more. Porn is a trap awaiting any male or female who views it.

Paul intends for his audience to strive to live a life set apart to God, not ask, “Can I look at porn if I don’t do anything about it”? Paul would have us seek to please God and be an example to other Christians of how to live, not ask, “How far can I go”?

We can look at Paul’s teaching in Romans 6 to get a good idea of what he wants believers to do, how he wants them to live. Paul exhorted the believers in Colossae to focus on Jesus and the things that are above, not the things on the earth (Col 3:1-4). Then, he wrote about avoiding sexual sins and idolatry, which are close to each other.

In our culture, where sex is used to sell everything from cars to beer, this is not an easy challenge. I’m not taking up how one does that here. One might want to go to the website xxxchurch.com.

Paul is calling upon these new believers to live pure lives that can be admired by other believers and by outsiders. In other words, followers of Jesus need to be counter-cultural.

That doesn’t mean reject everything in our culture because we can’t live that way, except perhaps if one is Amish. I’d prefer to keep my cell phone, microwave, and personal computer. However, the worldviews that run our culture today are wrong-headed.

If the body of Christ reflects our culture, teens having sex outside of marriage, Christians addicted to porn, etc., there’s clearly a problem. Instead of embracing what the culture does, consider how you can be a light to others in what you do with your body.

Our culture has adopted a “if it feels good, do it” attitude. We can’t trust our feelings to be reliable guides to biblical holiness.

If our feelings warn us to get away from something, that I would trust.

If my feelings attract me to something that the Bible condemns, my feelings are irrelevant. God’s word takes precedence if I claim to follow Jesus.

I know this can be hard. It’s not hard for me as a guy to see things I don’t want to see. I once heard a woman say of teen girls, if it’s not on the menu, it shouldn’t be visible. Sounds wise to me.

I shouldn’t see some of the FB or X or random ads on the web that show up on my screen. I was looking in Youtube at a list of bicycle race stages, but it started with a bra ad. I didn’t ask for that. I’m not looking online for sexual intercourse images.

What this means is that we cannot take a passive approach to do God’s will in this area. We have to make deliberate choices to avoid any kind of immorality.

This is God’s will for you.

It comes before asking, “What career should I pursue, Lord”? There is no ambiguity in Paul’s instructions. So we have to ask ourselves, “Am I doing anything that could be considered immoral, sexual behavior”? Or, if Jesus was standing next to you, how would you live?

If so, repentance is needed. This can be hard, but if you want to do God’s will, you need to do this. We as the church need to do this.

What the Bible identifies as contrary to God’s will, we need to avoid and teach others to avoid, not attempt to explain away the command.

If you can’t obey what you know is God’s will, you shouldn’t expect to know God’s will for more specific items for your life.