Tuesday 4th March
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” (NIVUK)
The first thing Paul declares is that sexual immorality should be avoided. It is difficult for us to immediately grasp if this is a shocking command or not. Paul’s audience however would have been shocked. The kind of sexual immorality Paul was rejecting was commonplace. The accepted sexual mores of the period involved what we would today describe as ‘affairs’. Slaves would routinely be expected to facilitate and satisfy the sexual desires of their owners. Males in particular had freedoms that would perhaps even horrify us today.
The call to purity then is radically counter-cultural and immensely confronting. It would be the equivalent of declaring a ban on dog-walking. Their previous, entirely natural, way of life was upended. Walking this way would be noticed. Fidelity to the Lord Jesus has consequences that were visible to those around them. Consequences that were unwelcome.
Our society has drifted, and continues to drift, closer to the sexual mores of ancient Greece and Rome. The call to avoid sexual immorality will increasingly look counter-cultural in churches today.
