Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Thessalonians 4:4

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;

4. that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel ] Rather, that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel (R. V.); or, freely rendered, that each be wise in the mastery of his bodily frame.

This is the positive side of what has just been expressed negatively. The “vessel” we take to be the body, regarded as the vehicle and instrument of the inner self “the vessel of himself.” What the tool is to the hand, or vase to the essence it holds, that the body is to the man’s self. Comp. 2Co 4:7, “this treasure in earthen vessels”; similarly in 2Co 5:1-4 the body is “the earthly house of our tabernacle,” the clothing without which we should be “found naked.” The victim of sensual passion ceases to be master of his own person he is possessed; and those who formerly lived in heathen uncleanness, had now as Christians to possess themselves of their bodies, to “win” the “vessel” of their spiritual life and make it truly their own, and a fit receptacle for the redeemed and sanctified self (comp. Luk 21:19, “In your patience ye shall win your souls,” R. V., the same Greek verb). This they must “know how” (i.e. have skill) to do a skill for which there was continual need. The Greek expression for Temperance enkrateia, i.e. continence, self-control expresses a similar thought; so the simile of 1Co 9:27, “I buffet my body, and make it my slave.”

in sanctification ] For it was under this idea, and within the sphere of the new, consecrated life that such mastery of the body was to be gained (see notes on 1Th 4:3 ; 1Th 4:7). And in honour; for as lust dishonours and degrades the body (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; 1Co 6:15), so its devotion to God in a life of purity raises it to “honour.” Self-respect and regard for the honour of one’s own person, as well as reverence for God, forbid unchastity.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel – The word vessel here ( skeuos), probably refers to the body. When it is so used, it is either because the body is frail and feeble, like an earthen vessel, easily broken 2Co 4:7, or because it is that which contains the soul, or in which the soul is lodged. Lucret. Lib. iii. 441. The word vessel also (Greek skeuos) was used by the latter Hebrews to denote a wife, as the vessel of her husband. Schoettg. Hor. Heb. p. 827. Compare Wetstein in loc. Many, as Augustine, Wetstein, Schoettgen, Koppe, Robinson (Lex.), and others, have supposed that this is the reference here; compare 1Pe 3:7. The word body, however, accords more naturally with the usual signification of the word, and as the apostle was giving directions to the whole church, embracing both sexes, it is hardly probable that he confined his direction to those who had wives. It was the duty of females, and of the unmarried among the males, as well as of married men, to observe this command. The injunction then is, that we should preserve the body pure; see the notes on 1Co 6:18-20.

In sanctification and honour – Should not debase or pollute it; that is, that we should honor it as a noble work of God, to be employed for pure purposes; notes, 1Co 6:19.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Th 4:4-7

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour

The vessel of the body

1.

At best a vessel is only a frail thing; let it be of gold or silver, time and use make flaws in it, and its day is soon past.

2. It is a vile thing, being the creature and mere instrument of the hands.

3. To be of any use it must have an owner, and it must be always just what its maker chooses, and must ever do what its employer sets it to do. It may be employed for other purposes, but it does nothing suitably but that for which it was first intended. The putting of it to other work is generally the surest way of destroying it, as when a glass vessel is put on the fire.

I. Our bodies are vessels. They are frail enough–made of dust and returning to dust. They can do nothing of themselves; if there be not soul and spirit to put them to use, they are as lifeless and unserviceable as any other, and are put out of the way as useless.

II. But they are honourable and precious vessels. Made by the hand of God to contain the immortal soul, and with it the treasure of the knowledge of God. They were made to promote His honour and glory, and when put to any other service they are put out of shape, broken, and destroyed.

III. They have been degraded and injured by vile uses. Does not the commonest experience tell us this? Does not the employment of them in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil deteriorate them? Do not anxiety, intemperance, impurity, passion, vanity, ambition, derange them with all manner of diseases?

IV. In Christ Jesus, who took our body on Him, these vessels have been restored to their former heavenly service. Christ is the Saviour of the body as well as of the soul. The Holy Spirit has been given to sanctify the body and keep it holy.

V. These vessels are characterized by endless variety, according to our different posts and gifts.

VI. Being redeemed and consecrated vessels, the bodies of believers must be used for God alone. This involves–

1. Carefulness.

2. Purity.

3. Temperance.

4. Holy employment. (R. W. Evans, B. D.)

A call unto holiness

I. The contrast.

1. Holiness is eternal and Divine–the ever lasting God is the holy God.

2. Man was created in the image of the holy God.

3. By the first transgression holiness was lost; the flesh became prone to all uncleanness, inward and outward.

4. Abounding uncleanness was in the world before the flood, in Gentile nations, and in Israel.

5. Uncleanness, public and private, shameless and hypocritical, is in this professedly Christian land.

6. The world winks at uncleanness, and even tries to justify it. Not so God (Eph 5:6; 1Th 4:7).

II. The call.

1. To Israel and the Church (Lev 20:7; 1Pe 1:14-16).

2. Holiness was taught by outward purifications under the law (Exo 28:36).

3. The reason for the call: Gods purpose is to make His children like Himself, to renew their lost holiness (Eph 1:4; Eph 4:22-24).

III. The grace.

1. The God of holiness is the God of grace.

2. Grace to cleanse from uncleanness, by the atoning blood of Christ (1Co 5:11; 1Jn 1:7; Rev 1:5).

3. Grace to sanctify, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which inspires holy desires and affections.

4. Grace to strengthen, by the Holy Spirit enabling us to keep under the body and to crucify the flesh.

IV. Warnings and exhortations.

1. The Word written uses great plainness of speech on this subject; so should the Word preached.

2. The judgment recorded in Holy Scripture on the unclean. In one day God gave twenty-three thousand proofs of His hatred of uncleanness and resolve to punish it (1Co 10:8).

3. To despise the call is to despise God, and to bring down His wrath here and hereafter.

4. Secret sinner, your sin will find you out. He who exposed Davids sin will expose yours.

5. The effects of despising the call and doing what the Holy One hates are defiling, debasing, deadening, destroying.

6. Your body is the temple of God. Guard it for Him against all profanation.

7. Strive by prayer to be like Jesus–like Him in holiness now, that you may be like Him in glory hereafter. (F. Cook, D. D.)

Purity of life

Having dealt with purity of heart in the first clause of 1Th 4:3, the apostle now proceeds to deal with its correlative and manifestation.

I. Chastity. He writes to converts who but a short time before had been heathens. It was necessary to speak plainly and solemnly, for they had been accustomed to regard impurity almost as a thing indifferent. But the will of God, our sanctification, involves purity. Without it we cannot see God. God is light; in Him is no darkness at all. There is something awful in the stainless purity of the starry heavens. As we gaze into them we seem almost overwhelmed with a sense of our own uncleanness. It is a parable of the infinite purity of God. In His sight the heavens are not clean. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil; therefore only the pure in heart can see Him. That inner purity covers the whole spiritual life. It implies freedom from all the lower motives–all that is selfish, earthly, false, hypocritical; it is that transparency of character which flows from the consciousness of the perpetual presence of God. But that inner purity involves outward. Religion is not mortality, but it cannot exist without it. The religion which the Thessalonians abandoned admitted immorality. Their very gods were immoral. They were served by rites often leading to impurity. Hence the urgency of Pauls appeal. Amid the evil surroundings and depraved public opinion of a heathen town the converts were exposed to constant danger.

II. Honour. The unclean life of the heathen cities was full of degradation. The Christian life is truly honourable. The Christians body is a holy thing. It has been dedicated to God (1Co 6:13). The Christian must acquire a mastery over it in honour by yielding its members as instruments of righteousness unto God. The Christian husband must give honour to his wife. Marriage must be honourable, for it is a parable of the mystical union between Christ and His Church. Those who honour holiness honour God, the fountain of holiness.

III. The knowledge of God (1Th 4:5). The heathen knew not God. They might have known Him. He had manifested in creation His eternal power and Godhead. But they did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Rom 1:19-25). Men framed a conception of God from their own corrupt nature, and that conception reacted powerfully on their character. The Thessalonian Christians had learned a holier knowledge, and therefore their knowledge must act upon their life. They must be pure.

IV. Impurity is a sin against man. Satan is transformed into an angel of light. Impure desires assume the form of love; uncleanness usurps and degrades that sacred name. The sensualist ruins in body and soul those whom he professes to love. He cares not for the holiest ties. He sins against the sanctity of matrimony. He brings misery on families. The Lord who calls us in sanctification will punish with that awful vengeance which belongeth to Him all who, for their wicked pleasure, sin against their brethren.

V. It is a sin against God (1Th 4:8). The indwelling of the Holy Ghost makes the sin of uncleanness one of exceeding awfulness. Of what punishment shall that man be thought worthy who does such despite against the Spirit of Grace. He cannot abide in an impure heart, but must depart, as He departed from Saul. Lessons:

1. Long after holiness, pray for it, struggle for it with the deepest yearnings and most earnest efforts.

2. Flee from the slightest touch of impurity–the thought, look, word. It is deadly poison, a loathsome serpent.

3. Remember the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Keep thyself pure. (B. C. Cairn, M. A.)

How personal purity is to be maintained

The vessel is not a wife, but a mans own body. If it meant a wife, it might be said that every one would be bound to marry. The wife is, no doubt, called the weaker vessel, the evident meaning of the comparison being that the husband is also a vessel.

I. How the body is to be used.

1. Negatively.

(1) It is not to be regarded as outside the pale of moral obligation, as antinomian perverters say, basing their error on It is not I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me; in me dwelleth no good thing.

(2) It is not to be injured or mutilated by asceticism after Romish example. The apostle condemns the neglecting of the body (Col 2:23).

(3) It is not to be made an instrument of unrighteousness through sensuality–not in passion of lust. Sensuality is quite inconsistent with the very idea of sanctification.

2. Positively.

(1) The body is to be kept under control; the Christian must know how to possess himself of his own vessel. He must keep under the body; he must make it a servant, not a master, and not allow its natural liberty to run into licentiousness.

(2) He must treat it with all due honour.

(a) Because it is Gods workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made.

(b) Because it is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1Co 6:19).

(c) Because it is an heir of the resurrection.

(d) Because it is, and ought to be, like the believer himself, a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Masters use, for the body has much to do in the economy of grace.

II. Dissuasives against personal impurity.

1. The knowledge of God received by the Christian ought to guard us against it. Paul here attributes Gentile impurity to ignorance of God (1Th 4:5). The world by wisdom knew not God, was alienated from the life of God, and thus sunk into moral disorder (Rom 1:1-32).

2. The regard we ought to have for a brothers family honour (1Th 4:6). A breach upon family honour is a far worse offence than any breach upon property. The stain is indelibly deeper.

3. The Divine vengeance (1Th 4:6). If vengeance does not reach men in this world it will in the next, when they will have: their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9).

4. The nature of the Divine call (1Th 4:7). They had received a holy calling, a high calling, and although called unto liberty, they were created unto good works. They were called to be saints, for God says, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

5. The sin involves a despisal of God, who hath given us His Spirit that we may attain sanctification (1Th 4:8). God has ordered all our family relations, and any dishonour done to them involves a contempt of His authority. Conclusion: We have in this passage God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–interested in mans salvation and holiness. (Prof. Croskery.)

A caution against impurity

Fornication is a sin directly contrary to sanctification, or that holy walking the apostle so earnestly exhorts the Thessalonians to observe.

I. The caution is definitely expressed. That ye should abstain from fornication; by which words we are to understand all uncleanness soever, either in a married or unmarried state: to be sure adultery is here included, though fornication is specially mentioned. Other sorts of uncleanness are also forbidden, of which it is a shame even to speak, though such Evils are perpetrated by too many in secret. Alas for those who do such things! They are an abomination to their species! All that is contrary to chastity in heart, in speech, and in behaviour, is alike contrary to the command of Jehovah in the decalogue, and the holiness the gospel requireth.

II. The arguments to strengthen the caution.

1. This branch of sanctification in particular is the will of God. Not only is it the will of God in general that we should be holy, because He float called us is holy, and because we are chosen unto salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit; and not only doth God require holiness in the heart, but also purity in our bodies, and that we should cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Wherever the body is, as it ought to be, devoted to God, and set apart for Him, it should be kept pure for His service; and as chastity is one branch of sanctification, so this is one thing Jehovah commands in His law, and what His grace effects in all true believers.

2. This will be greatly for our honour; for this is knowing how to possess our vessel in sanctification and honour; whereas the contrary will be a great dishonour–And his reproach shall not be wiped away. The body is the vessel of the soul that dwells therein, so 1Sa 21:5; and that must be kept pure from defiling lusts. What can be more dishonourable than for a rational soul to be enslaved by bodily affections and brutal appetites?

3. To indulge the lusts of concupiscence is to live and act like heathens; Even as the Gentiles which knew not God. The Gentiles, especially the Grecians, were commonly guilty of some sins of uncleanness which were not so evidently forbidden by the Light of Nature. But they did not know God, nor His mind and will, so well as Christians do. It is not so much to be wondered at, therefore, if the Gentiles indulge their fleshly desires; but Christians should not walk as unconverted heathens, in lasciviousness, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and other like evil ways, because they that are in Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. (R. Fergusson.)

Licentiousness

was the besetting sin of the Roman world. Except by miracle it was impossible that the new converts could be at once and wholly freed from it. It lingered in the flesh when the spirit had cast it off. It had interwoven itself in the pagan religions, and was ever reappearing on the confines of the Church in the earliest heresies. Even within the Church it might assume the form of a mystic Christianity. The very ecstasy of conversion would often lead to a reaction. Nothing is more natural than that in a licentious city, like Corinth or Ephesus, those who were impressed by St. Pauls teaching should have gone their way and returned to their former life. In this case it would seldom happen that they apostatized into the ranks of the heathen; the same impulse which led them to the gospel would lead them also to bridge the gulf which separated them from its purer morality. Many may have sinned and repented again and again, unable to stand themselves in the general corruption, yet unable to cast aside utterly the image of innocence and goodness which the apostle had set before them. There were those, again, who consciously sought to lead the double life, and imagined themselves to have found in licentiousness the true freedom of the gospel. The tone which the apostle adopts respecting sins of the flesh differs in many ways from the manner of speaking of them among modern moralists. He says nothing of the poison which they infuse into society, or the consequences to the individual himself. Neither does he appeal to public opinion as condemning, or dwell on the ruin they inflict on one half of the race. True and forcible as these aspects of such sins are, they are the result of modern reflection, not the first instincts of reason and conscience. They strengthen the moral principles of mankind, but are not of a kind to touch the individual soul. They are a good defence for the existing order of society, but they will not purify the nature of man or extinguish the flames of lust. Moral evils in the New Testament are always spoken of as spiritual. They corrupt the soul, defile the temple of the Holy Ghost, and cut men off from the body of Christ. Of morality, as distinct from religion, there is hardly a trace in the Epistles of St. Paul. What he seeks to penetrate is the inward nature of sin, not its outward effects. Even in its consequences in another state of being are but slightly touched upon, in comparison with that living death which itself is. It is not merely a vice or crime, or even an offence against the law of God, to be punished here and hereafter. It is more than this. It is what men feel within, not what they observe without them; not what shall be, but what is; a terrible consciousness, a mystery of iniquity, a communion with unseen powers of evil. All sin is spoken of in St. Pauls Epistles as rooted in human nature, and quickened by the consciousness of law; but especially is this the case with the sin which is more than any other the type of sin in general–fornication. It is, in a peculiar sense, the sin of the flesh, with which the very idea of the corruption of the flesh is closely connected, just as in 1Th 4:3, the idea of holiness is regarded as almost equivalent to abstinence from it. It is a sin against a mans own body, distinguished from all other sins by its personal and individual nature. No other is at the same time so gross and insidious; no other partakes so much of the slavery of sin. As marriage is the type of the communion of Christ and His Church, as the body is the member of Christ, so the sin of fornication is a strange and mysterious communion with evil. But although such is the tone of the apostle, there is no violence to human nature in his commands respecting it. He knew how easily extremes meet, how hard it is for asceticism to make clean that which is within, how quickly it might itself pass into its opposite. Nothing can be more different from the spirit of early ecclesiastical history on this subject than the moderation of St. Paul. The remedy for sin is not celibacy, but marriage. Even second marriages are, for the prevention of sin, to be encouraged. Even the incestuous person at Corinth was to be forgiven on repentance. Above all other things, the apostle insisted on purity as the first note of the Christian character; and yet the very earnestness and frequency of his warnings show that he is speaking, not of a sin hardly named among saints, but one the victory over which was the greatest and most difficult triumph of the Cross of Christ. (Prof. Jowett.)

Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter–

Commercial morality

I. Be righteous in buying. Take heed lest thou layest out thy money to purchase endless misery. Some have bought places to bury their bodies in, but more have bought those commodities which have swallowed up their souls. Injustice in buying is a canker which will eat up the most durable wares. An unjust chapman, like Phocion, payeth for that poison which kills him, buyeth his own bane. A true Christian in buying will use a conscience. Augustine relates a story of a mountebank, who, to gain spectators, promised, if they would come the next day, he would tell them what every ones heart desired. When they all flocked about him at the time appointed he said This is the desire of every one of your hearts, to sell dear and buy cheap. But the good man desires to buy as dear as he sells. His buying and selling are like scales that hang in equal poise.

1. In buying do not take advantage of the sellers ignorance. This would be as bad as to lead the blind out of the way, and, as the text saith, those who overreach men are within the reach of a sin-revenging God. Some will boast of their going beyond others in bargains, but they have more cause to bewail it, unless they could go beyond the line of Gods power and anger. Augustine tells us a certain man was offered a book by an unskilful stationer at a price not half the worth of it. He took the book, but gave him the just price, according to its full value. Wares that are half bought through out witting a silly tradesman are half stolen (Pro 20:14; cf. 1Ch 21:22-24). Ahab never bought a dearer purchase than Naboths vineyard, for which he paid not a penny.

2. Do not work upon the sellers poverty. This is to grind the faces of the poor, and great oppression. It is no mean sin in many rich citizens who take advantage of the necessity of poor tradesmen. The poor man must sell or his family starve: the rich man knoweth it, and will not buy but at such a rate as that the other shall not earn his bread. God made the rich to relieve, not to rob the poor. Some tell us there is no wrong herein; for if poor men will not take their money they may let it alone: they do not force them. But is this to love thy neighbour as thyself? Put thyself in his place, and read Neh 5:2-4; Neh 5:12-13.

II. Be righteous in thy payments.

1. Pay what thou contractest for. If thou buyest with an intention not to pay thou stealiest, and such ill-gotten goods will melt like wax before the sun. Mark how honest Jacob was in this particular (Gen 43:12). How many would have concealed the money, stopped the mouths of their consciences with the first payment, and kept it now as lawful prize.

2. Let thy payments be in good money. It is treason against the king to make bad money and it is treason against the King of kings to pass it. He that makes light payments may expect heavy judgments.

III. Be righteous in selling. Be careful whilst thou sellest thy wares to men thou sellest not thy soul to Satan.

1. Be righteous in regard of quality. Put not bad ware for good into any mans hand, God can see the rottenness of thy stuffs, and heart too, under thy false glosses. Thou sayest Let the buyer beware; but God saith Let the seller be careful that he keep a good conscience. To sell men what is full of flaws will make a greater flaw in thy conscience than thou art aware of. If thou partest with thy goods and thy honesty, though for a great sum, thou wilt be but a poor gainer. But is a man bound to reveal the faults of what he sells? Yes, or else to take no more for it but what it is worth. Put thyself in the buyers place.

2. Be righteous in regard of quantity. Weight and measure are heavens treasure (Pro 11:1; Lev 19:35-36; Deu 25:13-15).

3. Be righteous in thy manner of selling. The seller may not exact on a buyers necessity but sell by the rule of equity. It is wicked by keeping in commodities to raise the market (Pro 11:26). Conclusion: In all thy contracts, purchases and sales cast an eye on the golden rule (Mat 7:12; 1Co 10:24; Gal 5:24). (G. Swinnock, M. A.)

Conscientiousness

The late Mr. Labouchere had made an agreement previous to his decease, with the Eastern Counties Railway for a passage through his estate near Chelmsford, for which the company were to pay 35,000. When the money had been paid and the passage made, the son of Mr. Labouchere, finding that the property was much less deteriorated than had been expected, voluntarily returned 15,000 to the company. (Quarterly Review.)

The curse of fraud

Perhaps you may once or twice in your life have passed a person whose countenance struck you with a painful amazement. It was the face of a man with features as of flesh and blood, but all hue of flesh and blood was gone, and the whole visage was overspread with a dull silver grey, and a mysterious metallic gloss. You felt wonder, you felt curiosity; but a deep impression of the unnatural made pain the strongest feeling of all which the spectacle excited. You found it was a poor man who, in disease, had taken mercury till it transferred itself through his skin, and glistened in his face. Now, go where he will, he exhibits the proof of his disorder and of the large quantity of metal he has consumed. If you had an eye to see the souls that are about you, many would see–alas! too many–who are just like that; they have swallowed doses of metal–ill-gotten, cankered, rusted metal–till all purity and beauty are destroyed. The metal is in them, throughout them, turning their complexion, attesting their disorder, rendering them shocking to look upon for all eyes that can see souls. If you have unjust gains they do not disfigure the countenance on which we short-sighted creatures look; but they do make your soul a pitiful sight to the great open Eye that does see. Of all poisons and plagues, the deadliest you can admit to your heart is gain which fraud has won. The curse of the Judge is in it; the curse of the Judge will never leave it. It is woe, and withering, and death to you; it will eat you up as fire; it will witness against you–ay, were that poor soul of yours, at this precise moment, to pass into the presence of its Judge, the proof of its money worship would be as clear on its visage as the proof that the man we have described had taken mercury is plain upon his. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

Refusing to defraud

A young man stood behind the counter in New York selling silks to a lady, and he said before the sale was consummated: I see there is a flaw in that silk. She recognized it and the sale was not consummated. The head of the firm saw the interview and he wrote home to the father of the young man, living in the country, saying: Dear sir, Come and take your boy; he will never make a merchant. The father came down from his country home in great consternation, as any father would, wondering what his boy had done. He came into the store and the merchant said to him: Why your son pointed out a flaw in some silk the other day and spoiled the sale, and we will never have that lady, probably, again for a customer, and your son never will make a merchant. Is that all? said the father. I am proud of him. I wouldnt for the world have him another day under your influence. John, get your hat and come–let us start. There are hundreds of young men under the pressure, under the fascinations thrown around about commercial iniquity. Thousands of young men have gone down under the pressure, other thousands have maintained their integrity. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness–

The Divine call

I. To what does God call?

1. Negatively: Not unto uncleanness.

(1) Of mind. Let this warn us against impure imaginations, conceptions, reflections which will make the memory one day a sink of infamy.

(2) Of heart. Let us beware of impure loves, desires.

(3) Of tongue. Away the obscene anecdote or illusion.

(4) Of life. Eschew the licentious associate, the unchaste deed.

2. Positively: Unto holiness.

(1) Let your thoughts be holy and be set on good subjects, such as are worth treasuring and will cause no pain in recollection.

(2) Let your feelings be pure. Cherish worthy objects, and aspire after noble ends.

(3) Let your words be clean, such as dignify the instrument and edify the hearer.

(4) Let your life be spent in the society of the good and in compassing righteous ends by righteous deeds.

II. Whom does God call? Us. Everybody in general–you in particular. God calls–

1. The young. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the early cultivation of habits of purity. The Holy Being says: My son, give me thy heart. All will follow if this be done. If the spring be pure so will the stream be.

2. Women. Christian women are the salt of the earth without whose influence the world had perished in its corruption. And a false delicacy should not seal the lips of those whose duty it is to remind them of their responsibility in this particular. And she whose very presence is sufficient to abash the profligate should be very tenacious and careful of her social power.

3. Men.

(1) Public men are called by God to give effect to the commandment which is holy and just and good in the national and provincial parliaments, to make virtue easy and vice difficult.

(2) Private men are called by God to purify society by precept and example.

III. How does God call?

1. By His Word which reflects His holy nature and reveals His holy laws. All its legislation, narrative, biography, poetry, prophecy, doctrine, are summed up in this: Be ye holy.

2. By His works. They were made very good. In an elaborate argument (Rom 1:20-32) the apostle shows that the natural order of things is holiness, and that men guilty of impurity sin against nature as well as God.

3. By the course of His government. History affirms the existence and administration of a Power above us, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, perished by their own corruptions–a judgment in each case no less real than that which overtook the cities of the plain. It would be difficult to find a nation that was overthrown until all that was worth preserving was dead. Righteousness exalteth a nation, etc.

4. By His economy of redemption. The Cross of Christ and the mission of the Spirit are loud protests against uncleanness and calls to holiness. Ye are bought with a price. Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost.

5. By the witness of conscience which is an echo of the voice of God.

IV. Where is the call to be obeyed?

1. At home. Let that be guarded against desecration as sacredly as a church. Watch with scrupulous care the course of conversation, and the literature upon the table.

2. In the state.

3. In society.

4. In trade. (J. W. Burn.)

Purity

Have you ever reflected upon all that is meant by these words? St. Paul was speaking to those who had but lately been heathens, who were young in the faith, natives of a heathen city, encompassed about with all the sights and sounds, the customs and habits, the fulness of the Pagan life. And what that life was, what those sights and sounds were, I suppose scarcely one of us, certainly none who have not made a special study of those times and of those customs, can even conceive. And we must remember, that it was not only an open external thing, a plague spot in society which people could shun with horror and be left uncontaminated. For the deadliness of this sin is its depths of corruption, the way in which it lays hold of everything, and the external act a sight a sound becomes an inward principle, leaving nothing free. In the midst of this world of impurity, Christianity raised the standard of absolute undoubting purity; and that standard the Church has never lowered. Other sins it may, with some colour of truth, perhaps, be said she has not always repressed; religion may have tended to produce hatred and malice; the Church may have wavered at times from the strict duty of veracity; she may have become corrupted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches; but one sin she has never touched, one sin has obtained no foothold in the Christian character, one sin has only lifted its head to be detected and denounced and defied, and that is the sin of lust and impurity. We forget what Christianity has done for us because it has done so much; we forget how natural impurity seemed to the heathen world, how they honoured it, and even deified it; and we forget too, or we have not yet become fully aware, how, with all our Christian experience and civilization, irreligion, and even perverted religion, tend to drag men back into that corruption, from which we are preserved by the protection of the Churchs faith and discipline. And this protection is given us above all by the ideal which Christianity holds up to us, the ideal of purity in the Person of Christ. Nor was the purity of Christ the purity of an anchorite; but of One whose work lay among men, and with men, and for men. He who was Purity itself, by His Divine humility condescended to men, not only of low estate, but of sinfulness, impurity, corruption. In this we may see in Him the model for us, whose lives are in the world, who also have to deal with sin, and who also can only be saved by the protecting power of an instinctive purity. But there is a yet further meaning in this active purity. Unto the pure all things are pure, not only because he cannot be touched and corrupted by what is impure, but because he himself makes them pure. The true Christian saint has been able to go forth into the world of sin and shame, and by the mere unconscious force of his instinctive purity, turn the corrupted and the impure from powers of evil into living manifestations of Christs grace. Nor is it only our fellow men that we have power to cleanse by means of our own purity and innocence: even the impure things of which the world is full are often, when brought into contact with a stainless mind, turned into means, if not of edification, at least of harmless and innocent pleasure. Remember the noble words of one of the purest of poets (Milton) who reading, as he says, the lofty fables and romances of knighthood, saw there in the oath of every knight, that he should defend to the expense of his best blood, or of his life if it so befell him, the honour and chastity of virgin or matron; from whence even then I learnt what a noble virtue chastity must be to the defence of which so many worthies, by such a dear adventure of themselves, had sworn only this my mind gave me, that every free and gentle spirit, without that oath, ought to be born a knight, nor needed to expect the gilt spur or the laying of a sword upon his shoulder, to stir him up both by his counsel and his arm to secure and protect the weakness of any attempted chastity. So that even those books, which to many others have been the fuel of wantonness and loose living, I cannot think how, unless by Divine indulgence, proved to me so many incitements to the love and steadfast observation of virtue. Such is the reflection of the ideal purity which Christ has shown us, the ideal which we have to aim at. Not a selfish isolated habit of mind, a bare freedom from corrupt thoughts and foul deeds, which is only preserved by careful separation from the things of the world, but an energising spiritual motive, an impetuous, undoubting living principle of action, which can go with us into the sin-stained world, and by the strength of its own innocence, by the glad assumption of the purity of others can make even the sinner a holy penitent. Every life should be a priestly life. Whatever may be your profession, you will be brought into contact with the sins of impurity, and unless you will share in them or at least condone, you must by your personal example fight against them. (A. T. Lyttelton, M. A.)

Called to holiness

Remark the force of the apostles expression, we are called to holiness: in modern language we should express the same idea by saying, that holiness was our profession. It is thus we say that divinity is the profession of a clergyman, that medicine is the profession of a physician, and that arms are the profession of a soldier; and it is readily understood and allowed, that whatever is a mans profession, to that he is bound to devote his time and attention, and in that it is expected he has made a proficiency. And precisely in this sense does the Scripture represent holiness to be the profession of a Christian; not merely that his profession is a holy profession, but that the very object and essence of the profession is holiness. To this Christians are called, this is their business, this they are to cultivate continually, this is the mark to which all their endeavours should be directed. (Jones Bampton Lectures.)

Desire for holiness

A group of little children were talking together. Presently this question was started: What is the thing you wish for most? Some said one thing and some said another. At last it came to the turn of a little boy, ten years old, to speak. This was his answer: I wish to live without sinning. What an excellent answer that was! King Solomon, in all his glory and with all his wisdom, could not have given a better.

A holy atmosphere

The spider is said to weave about him a web which is invisible, yet strong, through which the water or air cannot pass. This is filled with air, and surrounded and sustained by this tiny bubble, he descends beneath the surface of the water and lives where another creature would speedily perish. So it is in the power of the Christian to surround himself with a holy atmosphere, and thus nourished, to live unharmed amid a world that is full of sin. (Dr. Williams.)

The importance of purity

By the ancients courage was regarded as practically the main part of virtue: by us, though I hope we are none the less brave, purity is so regarded now. The former is evidently an animal excellence, a thing not to be left out when we are balancing the one against the other. Still the following considerations weigh more with me. Courage, when not an instinct, is the creation of society, depending for occasions of action on outward circumstances, and deriving much both of its character and motives from popular opinion and esteem. But purity is inward, secret, self-suffering, harmless, and, to crown all, thoroughly and intimately personal. It is, indeed, a nature rather than a virtue; and, like other natures, when most perfect is least conscious of itself and its perfection. In a word, courage, however kindled, is fanned by the breath of man; purity lives and derives its life from the Spirit of God. (Guesses at Truth.)

Holiness

is not abstinence from outward deeds of profligacy alone; it is not a mere recoil from impurity in thought. It is that quick and sensitive delicacy to which even the very conception of evil is offensive; it is a virtue which has its residence within, which takes guardianship of the heart, as of a citadel or inviolated sanctuary, in which no wrong or worthless imagination is permitted to dwell. It is not purity of action that we contend for: it is the exalted purity of the heart, the ethereal purity of the third heaven; and if it is at once settled in the heart, it brings the peace, the triumph, and the untroubled serenity of heaven along with it; I had almost said, the pride of a great moral victory over the infirmities of an earthly and accursed nature. There is health and harmony in the soul; a beauty, which, though it effloresees in the countenance and outward path, is itself so thoroughly internal as to make purity of heart the most distinctive evidence of a character that is ripening and expanding for the glories of eternity. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 4. How to possess his vessel] Let every man use his wife for the purpose alone for which God created her, and instituted marriage. The word answers to the Hebrew keli, which, though it signifies vessel in general, has several other meanings. That the rabbins frequently express wife by it, Schoettgen largely proves; and to me it appears very probable that the apostle uses it in that sense here. St. Peter calls the wife the weaker VESSEL, 1Pe 3:7. Others think that the body is meant, which is the vessel in which the soul dwells. In this sense St. Paul uses it, 2Co 4:7: We have this treasure in earthen VESSELS; and in this sense it is used by both Greek and Roman authors. There is a third sense which interpreters have put on the word, which I forbear to name. The general sense is plain; purity and continency are most obviously intended, whether the word be understood as referring to the wife or the husband, as the following verse sufficiently proves.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This is added as a means to prevent that sin. By vessel some understand the married wife, who is called the weaker vessel, 1Pe 3:7; and her husband is to possess her in sanctification, in chastity, as the Greek word may signify here.

And honour; for as marriage is honourable to all men, Heb 3:4, so to live chastely in a married estate is honourable also. For by whoredom man gets dishonour, and his reproach shall not be wiped away, Pro 6:33. Others by vessel understand the body, which is the vessel of the soul; the soul carries it up and down, useth it in the several functions of the vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual life. And so some understand the words of David to the priest, 1Sa 21:5; The vessels of the young men are holy, being kept from women; that is, their bodies. Fornication is said above all other sins to be a sin against the body, 1Co 6:18, and he that keeps his body chaste possesseth his vessel, keeps it under government; whereas by fornication we give it to a harlot, and that which is a member of Christ we make it the member of a harlot, 1Co 6:15; and though the words are directed properly to the masculine sex, the word being masculine, yet under that the female is comprehended. And because the practice of this duty requires care, skill, and much watchfulness against temptations, therefore saith the apostle that every man may know

how to possess his vessel in sanctification. To which is added,

and in honour; for acts of uncleanness dishonour the body; Rom 1:24; God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies, & c. God hath bestowed much curious workmanship upon the body, it is part of Christs purchase, and, with the soul, is a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, in all true saints, alld therefore should be possessed with honour. Or it is to be kept to the honour and glory of God, as 1Co 6:20, and to be offered up a holy sacrifice to him, Rom 12:1.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. knowby moral self-control.

how to possess hisvesselrather as Greek, “how to acquire (getfor himself) his own vessel,” that is, that each shouldhave his own wife so as to avoid fornication (1Th 4:3;1Co 7:2). The emphatical positionof “his own” in the Greek, and the use of “vessel”for wife, in 1Pe 3:7, andin common Jewish phraseology, and the correct translation “acquire,”all justify this rendering.

in sanctification(Rom 6:19; 1Co 6:15;1Co 6:18). Thus, “his own”stands in opposition to dishonoring his brother by lusting after hiswife (1Th 4:6).

honour (Heb13:4) contrasted with “dishonor their own bodies”(Ro 1:24).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

That everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel,…. By which may be meant, either a man’s wife, or his body, and it is not very easy to determine which, for the Jews call both by this name. Sometimes they call p a woman , which the gloss says is a “vessel” unfinished. It is reported q, that when R. Eleazar died, Rabbenu Hakkadosh would have married his widow, and she would not, because she was , “a vessel of holiness”, greater than he. Moreover, it is said r, that

“he that forces (a young woman) must drink , “in his own vessel” how drink in his own vessel? though she be lame, though she be blind, and though she is stricken with ulcers.”

The commentators s on the passage add,

“in the vessel which he has chosen; that is to say, whether he will or not, he must marry her;”

see Pr 5:15. And again, they sometimes call a man’s wife his tent: hence that saving t,

“wtva ala wlha Nya “there is no tent but his wife”, as it is said, De 5:30, go, say to them, get you into your tents again.”

And certain it is, that the woman is called the “weaker vessel” in 1Pe 3:7, between which passage and this there seems to be some agreement. The same metaphor of a “vessel” is made use of in both; and as there, honour to be given to the weaker vessel, so here, a man’s vessel is to be possessed in honour; and as there, husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge so here, knowledge is required to a man’s possessing his vessel aright. Now for a man to possess his vessel in this sense, is to enjoy his wife, and to use that power he has over her in a becoming manner; see 1Co 7:4, and which is here directed to “in sanctification and honour”; that is, in a chaste and honourable way; for marriage is honourable when the bed is kept undefiled; and which may be defiled, not only by taking another into it, and which is not possessing the wife in sanctification and honour, it is the reverse, for it is a breaking through the rules of chastity and honour; but it may even be defiled with a man’s own wife, by using her in an unnatural way, or by any unlawful copulation with her; for so to do is to use her in an unholy, unchaste, wicked, and dishonourable manner; whereas possessing of her according to the order and course of nature, is by the Jews, in agreement with the apostle, called u, , “a man’s sanctifying himself”, and is chaste, and honourable. And it may be observed, that the Jews use the same phrase concerning conjugal embraces as the apostle does here. One of their canons runs thus w:

“though a man’s wife is free for him at all times, it is fit and proper for a disciple of a wise man to use himself

, “in”, or “to sanctification”.”

When these thing’s are observed, this sense of the words will not appear so despicable as it is thought by some. The body is indeed called a “vessel”; see 2Co 4:7, because in it the soul is contained, and the soul makes use of it, and its members, as instruments, for the performance of various actions; and, with Jewish writers, we read of , “the vessel of his body” x; so then, for a man to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, is to keep under his body and bring it into subjection, and preserve it in purity and chastity; as the eyes from unchaste looks, the tongue from unchaste words, and the other members from unchaste actions; and to use it in an honourable way, not in fornication, adultery, and sodomy; for, by fornication, a man sins against his own body; and by adultery he gets a wound, and a dishonour, and a reproach that will not be wiped away; and by sodomy, and such like unnatural lusts, men dishonour their own bodies between themselves: particularly by “his vessel”, as Gataker thinks, may be meant the “membrum virile”, or the genital parts, which, by an euphemism, may he so called; see 1Sa 21:5

p T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol 22. 2. q Juchasin, fol. 48. 2. Shalsheleth Hakkabala, fol. 23. 1. r Misna Cetubot, c. 3. sect. 4, 5. s Jarchi & Bartenora in ib. t T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 7. 2. & 15. 2. u Maimon. in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 4. w Maimon. Hilch Deyot, c. 5. sect. 4. x Caphtor, fol. 57. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

That each one of you know how ( ). Further epexegetic infinitive (second perfect active), learn how and so know how (learn the habit of purity).

To possess himself of his own vessel ( ). Present middle infinitive of , to acquire, not , to possess. But what does Paul mean by “his own vessel”? It can only mean his own body or his own wife. Objections are raised against either view, but perhaps he means that the man shall acquire his own wife “in sanctification and honour,” words that elevate the wife and make it plain that Paul demands sexual purity on the part of men (married as well as unmarried). There is no double standard here. When the husband comes to the marriage bed, he should come as a chaste man to a chaste wife.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, etc. [ ] . The interpretation of vv. 3 – 6 usually varies between two explanations :

1. making the whole passage refer to fornication and adultery :

2. limiting this reference to vv. 3 – 5, and making ver. 6 refer to honesty in business.

Both are wrong. The entire passage exhibits two groups of parallel clauses; the one concerning sexual, and the other business relations. Thus :

1. Abstain from fornication : deal honorably with your wives.

2. Pursue your business as holy men, not with covetous greed as the heathen : do not overreach or defraud.

A comma should be placed after skeuov vessel, and ktasqai procure or acquire, instead of being made dependent on eiJudenai know, should begin a new clause. Render, that every one of you treat his own wife honorably. EiJudenai is used Hebraistically in the sense of have a care for, regard, as ch. 5 12, “Know them that labor,” etc. : recognize their claim to respect, and hold them in due regard. Comp. Gen 39:6 : Potiphar oujk hdei twn kaq’ auJton ouJuden “gave himself no concern about anything that he had.” 1Sa 2:12 : the sons of Eli oujk eijdotev ton kurion “paying no respect to the Lord.” Exo 1:8 : Another King arose ov oujk hdei ton Iwshf “who did not recognize or regard Joseph” : did not remember his services and the respect in which he had been held. Skeuov is sometimes explained as body, for which there is no evidence in N. T. In 2Co 4:7 the sense is metaphorical. Neither in LXX nor Class. does it mean body. In LXX very often of the sacred vessels of worship : sometimes, as in Class., of the accoutrements of war. In N. T. occasionally, both in singular and plural, in the general sense of appliances, furniture, tackling. See Mt 12:29; Luk 17:31; Act 27:17; Heb 9:21. For the meaning vessel, see Luk 8:16; Joh 19:20; 2Co 4:7; Revelation 2 27. Here, metaphorically, for wife; comp. 1Pe 3:7. It was used for wife in the coarse and literal sense by Rabbinical writers. The admonition aptly follows the charge to abstain from fornication. On the contrary, let each one treat honorably his own wife. The common interpretation is, “as a safeguard against fornication let every one know how to procure his own wife.” It is quite safe to say that such a sentence could never have proceeded from Paul. He never would have offset a charge to abstain from fornication with a counsel to be well informed in the way of obtaining a wife. When he does touch this subject, as he does in 1Co 7:2, he says, very simply, ” to avoid fornication let every man have [] his own wife “; not, know how to get one. EiJudenai know, as usually interpreted, is both superfluous and absurd. Besides, the question was not of procuring a wife, but of living honorably and decently with her, paying her the respect which was her right, and therefore avoiding illicit connections.

That he pursue his gain – getting in sanctification and honor [ ] . As a holy and honorable man. The exhortation now turns to business relations. Ktasqai cannot mean possess, as A. V. That would require the perfect tense. It means procure, acquire. Often buy, as Act 17:28; LXX, Gen 33:19; Gen 39:1; Gen 47:19; Gen 49:30; Jos 24:33; absolutely, Eze 7:12, 13.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “That every one of you should know” (eidenai hekaston humon) “That each of you all should know”, ought to know or learn, by the principle of Christian sanctification or moral holiness, Rom 12:1-2; 1Co 6:15-20.

2) “How to possess his vessel” (to heautou skeuis ktasthai) “how to possess his vessel”; to keep his own body, passions of lust, in due bounds, in subjection to the will of God, whether married or unmarried, 1Co 9:26-27; Heb 13:4 1Co 10:31. The ideal is to be always a Christian vessel that is “sanctified (set apart) and fit for the Master’s use”. 2Ti 2:21.

3) “In sanctification and honor” (en hagiasmo kai time) “in a state or condition (of) even honor”, an holy state, separated from moral wrong to moral uprightness; Jesus prayed for the sanctification of all believers, Joh 17:19; 1Pe 3:15; Even Divinely sanctioned matrimony fits one to serve God in giving physical place to proper sex relations with honor, Heb 13:4-5; 1Ti 4:1-5.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Text (1Th. 4:4)

4 that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

Translation and Paraphrase

4.

(And) that each (one) of you should know (and act like you knew) how to (get hold of yourself and) get possession of your own vessel (your body, so as to live) in sanctification and honor.

Notes (1Th. 4:4)

1.

It is no honor to commit fornication. It is an honor to be modest, pure, and (for the unmarried) virgin.

2.

What do you think Paul means by telling us to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor? What is the vessel he refers to? The natural thought that comes to our minds is that the vessel is our body, and that we are to keep control of it, and not permit ourselves to look upon a woman to lust after her, nor to commit fornication. We believe that this is the correct meaning of the verse.

3.

However, many scholarly interpreters say that the vessel is a wife, and that Paul in this verse is telling the men to procure for themselves wives as vessels for the satisfaction of their passions, rather than for them to commit fornication. Now it is a fact that the word vessel is used in 1Pe. 3:7 to describe a woman. And it is interesting to note that the Revised Standard Version of the Bible and the versions of Moffatt and Goodspeed all boldly insert the word wife into their versions, This is more of an interpretation than it is a translation.

4.

Here are our reasons for thinking that the vessel to which Paul refers is our body and not a wife:

(1)

There is nothing particularly spiritual in knowing how to take a wife. In fact the wicked are often the most proficient in doing it.

(2)

In 1Co. 7:8; 1Co. 7:27; 1Co. 7:32-33; 1Co. 7:38, Paul rather discourages marriage for many people. It therefore seems unlikely that he would here recommend marriage as a universal panacea for fornication.

(3)

The verses both immediately before and after this one caution us about fornication and lust. This leads us to think that this verse must refer to controlling our bodies and not to marrying a wife.

5.

It is beyond question that in the Scriptures our bodies are often called vessels. Note 1Sa. 21:1-15; 1Sa. 5:1-12 : Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy. Also 2Co. 4:7 : We have this treasure (the gospel) in earthen vessels (referring to the fact that our bodies are made of dust). See also 2Ti. 2:21; Act. 9:15; Rom. 9:21-23.

6.

We mentioned that some versions of the Bible boldly interpret the word vessel as wife. But others just as openly interpret it as body. So Phillips, New English Bible, and Amplified New Testament.

7.

This verse is similar to Rom. 6:19 : As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members to righteousness unto holiness (or sanctification).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(4) Should know.The clause is simply parallel to the last, and, with it, explains the word sanctification. The Bulgarian Father, Theophylact, says pointedly in reference to the word to know or understand, He indicates that chastity is a matter that requires self-discipline and study. (Comp. Eph. 5:17.)

To possess his vessel.The word rendered to possess should rather be translated, to procure, win, gain possession of. The word vessel here has been interpreted in two ways: (1) his wife; (2) his body. In favour of (1) it is argued that (while gaining possession of ones own body is unintelligible), acquiring a wife of ones own is an ordinary Greek expression; that in this context, a vessel, or instrument, is an expressive and natural metaphor; that the word was familiar to Hebrew speakers in that sense (e.g., Ahasuerus says of Vashti, in one of the Targums, My vessel which I use is neither Median nor Persian, but Chaldee); that St. Peter (1Pe. 3:7) uses the word of the wife. But it may be answered that this interpretation does not suit our context; first, because it would be laying an emphatic and binding veto upon celibacy, if each one is to acquire a wife of his own; secondly, because of the verb to know, it certainly being no part of a religious mans duty to know how to procure a wife; thirdly, because the Greek cannot be translated a vessel (or wife) of his own, but his own vessel (or wife)literally, the vessel of himselfand to speak of procuring the wife who is already ones own seems unmeaning. Furthermore, although the quotations from the Targums are certainly to the point, that from St. Peter distinctly points the other way, inasmuch as the wife is called the weaker vessel of the two, evidently meaning that the husband is also a vessel. Thus we are driven to suppose that (2) the vessel is the mans own self. This usage also is well supported. In 1Sa. 21:5, it is used in precisely this sense, and in the same context, as well as in 1Pe. 3:7. The passages, however, usually quoted in support of this interpretation from 2Co. 4:7, Philo, Barnabas, Lucretius, &c, do not seem quite parallel; for there the word signifies a vessel, in the sense of a receptacle for containing something; here it is rather an instrument or implement for doing something. Hence it approaches more nearly to the use in such phrases as Act. 9:15, a vessel of choice, or even (though the Greek word is different) to Rom. 6:13. The vessel of himself (the himself being in the Greek strongly emphasised) means, not the vessel which is his own, but the vessel or instrument which consists of himself. Thus the body, which of course is chiefly meant here, is not dissociated from the mans personality, as in the fanciful Platonism of Philo, but almost identified with it: the Incarnation has taught us the true dignity of the body. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by knowing how to gain possession of such an instrument as the body with its many faculties, rescuing it from its vile prostitution, and wielding it wisely for its proper uses. So the same Greek verb is used, and mistranslated in our version, in Luk. 21:19, In your patience possess ye your souls.

In sanctification and honour.The circumstances in whichalmost the means by whichthe man may acquire and keep this skilful power over his instrument:in a course of self-purification and of self-reverence. The reverence due to the instrument is brought out in a passage of St. Peter evidently modelled upon this (1Pe. 3:7). (Comp. also 2Ti. 2:21, an instrument for honourable purposes, and to be honourably treated, consecrated, and handy for its owners use.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. Vessel Some ancient and most modern commentators (including Wesley and Clarke) understand by this word wife; our translators, the Vulgate, and many commentators, understand the body. If the meaning be wife, then Paul’s advice is, avoid fornication by getting a wife and living in chaste matrimony. The authority for this import of the term vessel is not strong. It is used in that sense by the Rabbies, but not by St. Paul or any sacred writer. Lunemann argues vigorously for that meaning here, quoting the usual Rabbinical passages. So Megilla on Est 1:11, thus comments: “At Ahasuerus’ feast, certain impious persons said that the Medic ladies were the more beautiful; others the Persian. Said Ahasuerus to them, “My vessel, which I use, is neither Medic nor Persic, but Chaldaic.’” That Paul ever was aware of this import is not hereby proved: and certain it is he never elsewhere uses the word vessel in the sense of wife, or of exclusively the female sex. When with him vessel means person, it is either masculine or belongs to either sex. Act 9:15, “a chosen vessel;” Rom 9:21, “vessel unto honour;” 22, “vessels of wrath;”

23, “vessels of mercy;” 2Co 4:7, “earthen vessels;” 2Ti 2:21, “vessel unto honour.” The words of 1Pe 3:7, which seem to limit the term to the female sex, really do the reverse. That passage simply affirms that of the two vessels, male and female, the female is “the weaker” one. The biblical import of the word, therefore, seems to be strongly against the word wife or woman, and in favour of person or body.

But the Greek of the word possess does signify acquire, get possession of, purchase, rather than simply possess. It not only suits the idea, get a wife, but is, in fact, used in Rth 4:10 (Septuagint) to signify getting a wife by purchase. The word might, indeed, be used to signify get possession, morally, of your body, and hold it to the law of chastity; but no so striking case of this ethical sense can be quoted as the above marital one of getting a wife. So far as this word is concerned, the argument is favourable to the latter meaning. The phrase in sanctification and honour is most suitable to the mastery of the body, and the application to which that mastery is to be positively directed: just as the next phrase, next verse, describes the negative application.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Th 4:4 . That every one of you may know (understand, be capable; comp. Col 4:6 ; Phi 4:12 ) to acquire his own vessel in sanctification and honour . By , Chrysostom, Theodoret, John Damascenus, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Tertullian, Pelagius, Haimo, Calvin, Zeger, Musculus, Hemming, Bullinger, Zanchius, Hunnius, Drusius, Piscator, Gomarus, Aretius, Vorstius, Cornelius a Lapide, Beza, Grotius, Calixt, Calovius, Hammond, Turretin, Benson, Bengel, Macknight, Zacharius, Flatt, Pelt, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bloomfield, Meyer (Rom 4 th ed. p. 74), and others, understand the body ( ). [50] But (1) cannot in any way be reconciled with this interpretation. For that can only denote to gain, to acquire , but not to own, to possess (for which one in vain appeals to Luk 21:19 ; Sir 6:7 ; Sir 22:23 ; Sir 51:20 ). If one would, with Olshausen (comp. also Chrysostom), retain the idea of acquiring , and then find the sense: “to guide and master his body as the true instrument of the soul,” yet, as de Wette remarks, the contrast , 1Th 4:5 , which likewise belongs to , would be irreconcilable with it. (2) The body may be compared with a , or, when the context points to it, may be figuratively so called , but by itself can hardly be put in the sense of . All the passages which are usually brought forward do not prove the contrary; e.g. Barnabas, Ep. vii. and xi.: ( ), where has its usual meaning, and only the full expression serves as a circumlocution for the body of Christ. Philo, quod deter. pot. ins. p. 186: , and de migr. Abrah. p. 418: . Cicero, disput. Tusc. i. 22: corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum. Lucretius, iii. 441: corpus , quod vas quasi constitit ejus ( sc. animae). How different also from our passage is 2Co 4:7 , by the addition , according to which the is only compared with a ! (3) The position of the words is against it. For can only be placed first, because the emphasis rests on it; but a reference to the body of an individual cannot be emphatic; it would require to be written . Olshausen certainly finds in a support for the opposite view; but how arbitrary is his assertion, that by the genitive “the subjectivity, the , is distinguished from the ,” as only the belonging , the private possession , can be designated by ! (4) The context also does not lead us to understand of the body. Paul, namely, has brought forward the of his readers as the will of God, and has further explained this , first, negatively as an abstinence from fornication . If, now, this negative specification is still further explained by a positive one, this further positive addition can only contain the reverse, that is, the requirement to satisfy the sexual impulse in chastity and honour . The words import this, if is understood in its original meaning, “ retain a vessel ,” and the expression as a figurative designation of wife . So, in essentials, Theodore Mopsuestius (ed. Fritzsche, p. 145: ); in Theodoret ( ); Augustin, contra Julian , iv. 10, v. 9; de nupt. et concup . i. 8; Thomas Aquinas, Zwingli, Estius, Balduin, Heinsius, Seb. Schmid, Wetstein, Schoettgen, Michaelis, Koppe, Schott, de Wette, Koch, Bisping, Ewald, Alford, Hofmann, Riggenbach, and others. How suitably does the emphatic become through this interpretation, the apostle, in contrast to the , the Venus vulgivaga , urging that every one should acquire his own vessel or means to appease the sexual impulse that is, should enter into marriage, ordained by God for the regulation of fleshly lusts; comp. 1Co 7:2 , where the same principle is expressed. To regard the expression as a figurative designation of wife is the less objectionable, as this figurative designation is besides supported by Jewish usage. Thus it is said in Megilla Esther , i. 11: In convivio illius impii aliqui dixerunt: mulieres Medicae sunt pulchriores, alii vero: Persicae sunt pulchriores. Dixit ad eos Ahasverus: vas meum, quo ego utor ( ), neque Medicum neque Persicum est, sed Chaldaicum. Comp. Sohar Levit. fol. 38, col. 152: Quicunque enim semen suum immittit in vas non bonum, ille semen suum deturpat. See Schoettgen, Hor. hebr. p. 827. Lastly, add to this that the expression , in the sense of ducere uxorem, is usual ; comp. Xenoph. Conviv. ii. 10: ( ) ; LXX. Rth 4:10 ; Sir 36:24 .

] every one of you, sc. who does not possess the gift of continence; comp. 1Co 7:1-2 .

] in chastity and honour , belongs not to , so that would require to be supplied (Koppe, Schott), but to , and is an epexegesis to , so that after a comma is to be put. In there is contained . . . already implicitly included. Accordingly, by this addition there is by no means expressed in what way one should marry, which, as a too special prescription, would certainly be unsuitable; but 1Th 4:4 contains only the general prescription, instead of giving oneself up to fornication, to marry, and this is opposed as honourable and sanctified to what is dishonourable and unsanctified .

[50] In a special manner Ernest Schmid explains it: Suum vas i. e. suum corpus et in specie sua membra, quibus ad homo abuti potest. So also Majus, Observat. sacr . III. p. 75. Schomer, Woken, and Triller (comp. Wolf in loc ,). Bolten, entirely contrary to the context: is “his means, his vessels, or singularis pro plurali, his goods, his utensils.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

Ver. 4. To possess his vessel ] That is, his body, wherein the soul is, Tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte. If any ask, why so glorious a soul should be in this corruptible body? Besides God’s will, and for the order of the universe, Lombard gives this reason, that by the conjunction of the soul with the body (so far its inferior) man might learn a possibility of the union of man with God in glory, notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence, the infiniteness of both in God, the finiteness of both in man.

In sanctification and honour ] Chastity is a man’s honour; incontinence sets on an indelible blot, Pro 6:33 . Castus, quasi , ornatus. Sic ab , veneratio.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

4 .] , know how (reff.). On the meaning of , there has been much difference. Very many Commentators understand it of ‘ the body .’ (So, among others, Chrys. (see below), Thdrt., c., Thll., Tert., Pelag., Calv., Corn.-a-lap., Beza, Grot., Calov., Ham., Beng., Mac-knight. Pelt, Olsh., Baumg.-Crus.) But it is fatal to this interpretation, (1) that it must force an untenable meaning on , which can only mean ‘ to acquire ,’ not ‘ to possess .’ Chrys., whose sense of Greek usage led him to feel this, tries to fit the meaning ‘ to acquire ’ into the sense: , . , (so Olsh. also); but this is lame enough, and would not, as De W. remarks, answer for the other member of the sentence, . (2) that the mere use of , without any explanation, could hardly point at the body . In all the passages ordinarily quoted to support it, the metaphor is further explained by the context: e.g., Barnab., ep. 7, 11, pp. 744, 760, , Philo, quod det. pot. insid. 46, vol. i. p. 223, , de migr. Abr. 36, vol. i. p. 467, . , Cic. disp. Tusc. i. 22: ‘corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum,’ Lucret. iii. 441: ‘corpus, quod vas quasi constitit ejus (sc. anim).’ 2Co 4:7 is evidently no case in point, being there added, and the body being simply compared , to an earthen vessel . (3) that the order of the words is against it. In , the emphasis must lie on cf. 1Co 7:2 , . Had the body been meant, this would be without import, and it would more naturally have been (or ). (4) But a more fatal objection than any of the former is, that the context is entirely against the meaning. The has been explained to consist in . And now this comes to be specified, wherein it consists, and how it may be guarded against: viz. in carrying on the divinely-appointed commerce of the sexes in holiness and honour. In fact, the thought is exactly as in 1Co 7:2 , , . . Many have therefore understood in its literal meaning as applied to , i.e. the woman (or indeed the man , on the other side, inasmuch as the woman has over his body, see 1Co 7:4 . So that thus it would be an exhortation to the woman also: so De Wette). Thus the context would be satisfied, and the emphatic position of (as in 1Co 7:2 ); and would retain its proper meaning: that each of you should know how to acquire his own vessel (for this purpose) in sanctification ( . belong together) and honour . This sense of is found in the Jewish books (Megill. Est 1:11 ; “In convivio dixerunt aliqui: mulieres Medic sunt pulcriores: alii, Persic sunt pulcriores. Dixit Ahasuerus: Vas meum, quo ego utor, nec Persicum est nec Medicum, sed Chaldaicum”). And the expression is common: cf. Xen. Symp. ii. 10: ( : Rth 4:10 ; Sir 36:24 . And so Thdr. Mops. ( ), some in Thdrt. ( ), Aug. (contr. Jul. iv. 10 (56), vol. x. p. 765, ‘ut sciret unusquisque possidere vas suum, hoc est, uxorem:’ cf. also ib. 1Th 4:9 (35), p. 805: de nupt. et conc. i. 8 (9), p. 418, ‘non solum igitur conjugatus fidelis vase non utatur alieno, quod faciunt a quibus uxores alien appetuntur: sed nec ipsum proprium in concupiscenti carnalis morbo possidendum sciat.’ But he mistakes for possidere , and so understands the command as given conjugatis fidelibus ), Thom. Aquin., Zwingle, Est., Heins., Wetst., Schttg., Michaelis, Koppe, Schott, De Wette, Lnem., al. (Much of the foregoing note is from De W. and Ln.) The objection to the above view, that thus only men would be addressed (Calv., al.) is easily answered (besides as above, under 4) by observing that in other places also, where is in question, the male only is exhorted, e.g. 1Co 6:15-18 ; the female being included by implication, and bound to interpret on her side that which is said of the other.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Th 4:4 . Paul demands chastity from men; it is not simply a feminine virtue. Contemporary ethics, in the Roman and Greek world, was often disposed to condone marital unfaithfulness on the part of husbands, and to view prenuptial unchastity as or at least as a comparatively venial offence, particularly in men ( cf. Lecky’s History of European Morals , i. 104 f., ii. 314 f.). The strict purity of Christ’s gospel had to be learnt ( ). (lit. “vessel”) = “wife;” the rendering “body” ( cf. Barn. vii. 3) conflicts with the normal meaning of (“get,” “acquire;” of marriage, LXX. Rth 4:10 ; Sir. 36:29, Xen., Symp. , ii. 10). Paul views marriage on much the same level as he does in 1Co 7:2 ; 1Co 7:9 ; in its chaste and religious form, it is a remedy against sensual passion, not a gratification of that passion. Each of you (he is addressing men) must learn ( = know [how] to, cf. Phi 4:12 ) to get a wife of his own (when marriage is in question), but you must marry (as a Christian duty and vocation) (with a corresponding sense of the moral dignity of the relationship). The two latter words tend to raise the current estimate, presupposed here and in 1Th 4:6 , of a wife as the of her husband; this in its turn views adultery primarily as an infringement of the husband’s rights or an attack on his personal property. Paul, however, closes by an emphatic word on the religious aspect (1Th 4:6-8 ) of the question; besides, as Dr. Drummond remarks, “is it not part of his greatness that, in spite of his own somewhat ascetic temperament, he was not blind to social and physiological facts?” It is noticeable that his eschatology has less effect on his view of marriage here than in 1Co 7 . Even were taken as = “possess,” a usage not quite impossible for later Greek ( cf. Field, 72), it would only extend the idea to the duties of a Christian husband. The alternative rendering (“acquire mastery of,” Luk 21:19 ) does not justify the “body” sense of .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

every = each.

possess. Greek. ktaomai. See Luk 21:19.

his = his own.

vessel. Greek. skeuos. Compare 1Pe 3:7.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

4.] , know how (reff.). On the meaning of , there has been much difference. Very many Commentators understand it of the body. (So, among others, Chrys. (see below), Thdrt., c., Thll., Tert., Pelag., Calv., Corn.-a-lap., Beza, Grot., Calov., Ham., Beng., Mac-knight. Pelt, Olsh., Baumg.-Crus.) But it is fatal to this interpretation, (1) that it must force an untenable meaning on , which can only mean to acquire, not to possess. Chrys., whose sense of Greek usage led him to feel this, tries to fit the meaning to acquire into the sense: , . , -(so Olsh. also); but this is lame enough, and would not, as De W. remarks, answer for the other member of the sentence, . (2) that the mere use of , without any explanation, could hardly point at the body. In all the passages ordinarily quoted to support it, the metaphor is further explained by the context:-e.g., Barnab., ep. 7, 11, pp. 744, 760, ,-Philo, quod det. pot. insid. 46, vol. i. p. 223, ,-de migr. Abr. 36, vol. i. p. 467, . ,-Cic. disp. Tusc. i. 22: corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum,-Lucret. iii. 441: corpus, quod vas quasi constitit ejus (sc. anim). 2Co 4:7 is evidently no case in point, being there added, and the body being simply compared, to an earthen vessel. (3) that the order of the words is against it. In , the emphasis must lie on -cf. 1Co 7:2, . Had the body been meant, this would be without import, and it would more naturally have been (or ). (4) But a more fatal objection than any of the former is, that the context is entirely against the meaning. The has been explained to consist in . And now this comes to be specified, wherein it consists, and how it may be guarded against: viz. in carrying on the divinely-appointed commerce of the sexes in holiness and honour. In fact, the thought is exactly as in 1Co 7:2, , . . Many have therefore understood in its literal meaning as applied to ,-i.e. the woman (or indeed the man, on the other side, inasmuch as the woman has over his body, see 1Co 7:4. So that thus it would be an exhortation to the woman also: so De Wette). Thus the context would be satisfied, and the emphatic position of (as in 1Co 7:2);-and would retain its proper meaning: that each of you should know how to acquire his own vessel (for this purpose) in sanctification ( . belong together) and honour. This sense of is found in the Jewish books (Megill. Est 1:11; In convivio dixerunt aliqui: mulieres Medic sunt pulcriores: alii, Persic sunt pulcriores. Dixit Ahasuerus: Vas meum, quo ego utor, nec Persicum est nec Medicum, sed Chaldaicum). And the expression is common: cf. Xen. Symp. ii. 10: ( : Rth 4:10; Sir 36:24. And so Thdr. Mops. ( ), some in Thdrt. ( ), Aug. (contr. Jul. iv. 10 (56), vol. x. p. 765,-ut sciret unusquisque possidere vas suum, hoc est, uxorem: cf. also ib. 1Th 4:9 (35), p. 805: de nupt. et conc. i. 8 (9), p. 418,-non solum igitur conjugatus fidelis vase non utatur alieno, quod faciunt a quibus uxores alien appetuntur: sed nec ipsum proprium in concupiscenti carnalis morbo possidendum sciat. But he mistakes for possidere, and so understands the command as given conjugatis fidelibus), Thom. Aquin., Zwingle, Est., Heins., Wetst., Schttg., Michaelis, Koppe, Schott, De Wette, Lnem., al. (Much of the foregoing note is from De W. and Ln.) The objection to the above view, that thus only men would be addressed (Calv., al.) is easily answered (besides as above, under 4) by observing that in other places also, where is in question, the male only is exhorted, e.g. 1Co 6:15-18; the female being included by implication, and bound to interpret on her side that which is said of the other.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Th 4:4. , should know) , I know, not only denotes knowledge, but power of mind [mental self-control so as to], Php 4:12 : comp. [husbands, dwell with your wives] according to knowledge, 1Pe 3:7. Both are certainly required for matrimonial chastity.-, vessel) his body, 1Sa 21:5; 1Co 6:18.-, to possess, is illustrated from Luk 21:19.- , and in honour) The contrary is , disgrace, Rom 1:26; Rom 1:24 [ , affections of dishonour, i.e. vile; , to dishonour their bodies].

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Th 4:4

that each one of you know how to possess himself-Everyone should know how to govern his lusts within the limits of sanctification and honor and maintain purity and self-restraint.

of his own vessel-There can be no doubt that he employs the term to mean body. For everyone has his own body as his house in which he dwells. He would, therefore, have us keep our body pure from all uncleanness. The victim of sensual passion ceases to be master of his own person-he is possessed; and those who formerly lived in heathen uncleanness had now as Christians to possess themselves of their bodies to win the vessel of their spiritual life and make it truly their own, and a fit receptacle, for the redeemed and sanctified self. (Luk 21:19.)

in sanctification and honor,-Honorably, for the one who prostitutes his body to uncleanness covers it with infamy and disgrace. [In marriage people are to so live that they may be mutually conscious that with them marriage is an honorable estate, with nothing in it that makes them ashamed, and that it promotes their sanctification.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

should: Rom 6:19, Rom 12:1, 1Co 6:15, 1Co 6:18-20

his: 1Sa 21:5, Act 9:15, Rom 9:21-23, 2Ti 2:20, 2Ti 2:21, 1Pe 3:7

honour: Phi 4:8, Heb 13:4

Reciprocal: Est 2:12 – to go in Rom 1:24 – to dishonour 1Th 4:3 – your

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SANCTIFICATION AND HONOUR

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.

1Th 4:4

Here we have a call unto holiness.

I.The contrast.

(i.)Holiness is eternal and Divinethe everlasting God is the holy God.

(ii.)Man was created in the image of the holy God.

(iii.)By the first transgression holiness was lost; the flesh became prone to all uncleanness.

(iv.)Uncleanness was in the world before the flood, in the Gentiles, and in Israel.

(v.)Uncleanness, public and private, is in this professedly Christian land.

(vi.)The world winks at uncleanness, and tries to justify it. Not so God (Eph 5:6; 1Th 4:7).

II.The call.

(i.)To Israel and the Church (Lev 20:7; 1Pe 1:14-16).

(ii.)Holiness was taught by outward purifications under the law (Exo 28:36).

(iii.)The reason for the call: Gods purpose is to make His children like Himself, to renew their lost holiness (Eph 1:4; Eph 4:22-24).

III.The grace.

(i.)The God of holiness is the God of grace.

(ii.)Grace to cleanse from uncleanness, by the atoning blood of Christ (1Co 5:11; 1Jn 1:7; Rev 1:5).

(iii.)Grace to sanctify, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

(iv.)Grace to strengthen, by the Holy Spirit enabling us to keep under the body.

IV.Warnings and exhortations.

(i.)The Word written uses great plainness of speech on this subject; so should the Word preached.

(ii.)The judgment recorded in Holy Scripture on the unclean. In one day God gave twenty-three thousand proofs of His hatred of uncleanness (1Co 10:8).

(iii.)To despise the call is to despise God, and to bring down His wrath here and hereafter.

(iv.)Secret sinner, your sin will find you out. He who exposed Davids sin will expose yours.

(v.)The effects of despising the call and doing what the Holy One hates are defiling, debasing, deadening, destroying.

(vi.)Your body is the temple of God. Guard it for Him against all profanation.

(vii.)Strive by prayer to be like Jesuslike Him in holiness now, that you may be like Him in glory hereafter.

Rev. Dr. Flavel Cook.

Illustration

The human body is elsewhere in Holy Scripture compared to a tabernacle or tent, here it is spoken of as a vessel. The two figures convey some common ideas, both represent that which contains the true life, and both refer to its temporary and not to its permanent occupation. Both also have their proper uses, but whilst a tents use is chiefly confined to its occupier, that of a vessel relates more to its owner. Regarding our bodies as tents provided for the time of our pilgrimage, we are bidden to use them aright in our own interest. But regarding them as vessels in the household of God, we have a higher view of them brought before us, and are reminded that those vessels are not only to be used by Him, but to be kept by His servants for Him, purified and meet for the Masters use (2Ti 2:21).

(SECOND OUTLINE)

KEEPING THE BODY

Everything has been done on Gods part to cleanse this vessel of our body, to fit it for a place in the many-mansioned home. We are shocked at the impiety of the heathen king who used the vessels which he had taken from the house of God in wanton revelry and sacrilegious blasphemy; but we are guilty of even greater impiety when we dishonour our bodies and make them instruments of sin.

I. By sanctification we understand a readiness to feel and cherish the motions of the indwelling Spirit, resulting in a continual restraint upon the corrupt desires of the flesh, and a more complete dedication of the whole being to its proper Lord. By honour we understand what we may call the proper self-respect due to the body, as a vessel of grace and glory; as the redeemed property of the Lord of Hosts, designed to contain heavenly treasure, destined to occupy a position of honour in heavenly places. There lies thus before us the service and the destiny of the vessel of the body, the charge of which is committed to us by Him to Whom we belong. Oh, that we may fulfil the trust by possessing them in sanctification and honour!

II. Not only Scripture, but nature itself cries out against their abuse.We are told that in some countries a kind of glass was used for drinking-vessels, which cracked when certain common poison was put into them. In a similar way is it with our bodies; the poison of sin produces flaws in them, and abuse of their organs finds its natural result in pain, in disease, in death. Yet these results of sin may have a purifying effect if the true antidote be applied in time; and in the furnace of affliction our bodies may be so purged as to become again vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use.

III. We believe in the resurrection of the body; and we know that Jesus Himself has taken His human flesh, as the firstfruits of that resurrection, into heaven itself. This glorious prospect should surely stir our minds and move our hearts. It should remind us that our bodies are a precious gift, to be put to holy uses, destined for a glorious future. Let us then learn to set a right value upon them, and endeavour to possess them in sanctification and honour, remembering that we are pledged to keep them in temperance, soberness, and chastity, and that unless we do our best by Gods help to fulfil that pledge, we cannot hope to inherit His everlasting kingdom.

Rev. G. Cecil White.

Illustration

If the Apostle selects only one example, and that chastity, of the duties we owe to ourselves, is not the reason clear that unchastity was just one of those vices to which a community like that of Thessalonica would be most prone? Think of the state of our great maritime and commercial centres in this land! Is not licentiousness a prevailing and damning sin? But the heathen knew nothing of that command, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Their very worship was the seat and home of unchastity, their very gods being pleased with the most horribly impure rites. If the Old Testament warned the Jews against these sins, must not an apostle of the pure and holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ warn Christian men against these sins? And so the Apostle teaches us our body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, or, as the words here used will at least bear interpreting, a vessel, our own vessel, of the Holy Spirit, which is to be kept in sanctification and honour. It is only under the Cross that we can learn that we, who belong to Christ, must crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Th 4:4. Possess is a key word in this verse. It comes from KIAOMAI, which Thayer defines, “to acquire, get or procure a thing for one’s self.” The sexual desire is a natural one, and God has provided a lawful means of gratifying it, namely, the marriage relation. A wife is called a vessel (1Pe 3:7), and Paul means for a man to possess (acquire) a wife as the means of lawful gratification, instead of finding satisfaction by committing fornication. The same thing is taught in 1Co 7:2 as to the proper means of sexual gratification.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Th 4:4. That every one of you should know to possess himself of his own vessel. This is a positive duty in the matter of sanctification, as the preceding clause declared the negative duty. They were to abstain from fornication; and, that they might do so, each was to possess a wife of his own. As to the Corinthians (1Co 7:2), Paul says, To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. The word vessel is indeed susceptible of the meaning body, as well as that of wife; but that it here has the latter sense is clear1st, from the meaning of the word translated in the Authorised Version possess. This word does not mean simply possess, but acquire possession of, and could, therefore, be used only for a wife (as in point of fact it is commonly so used, as in Ecclus. 36:29, in E. V. Sir 36:24), and not of a mans own body. 2d, From the emphasis which the apostle lays on the words his own (inadequately rendered in the Authorised Version)

an emphasis which is intended to contrast his own vessel with the public and indiscriminate concubinage referred to in the preceding clause; and also with the wrong inflicted on other men by adultery, against which he proceeds to warn them. Let every man get a wife of his own, that thus neither the public prostitute nor another mans spouse may be a temptation to him. If we suppose the apostle to mean body when he uses the word vessel, it is not easy or possible to account for the emphatic words his own.

In sanctification and honour. Let every man acquire and keep his own wife with motives and in a way of which he need not be ashamed. Impurity and shame are always connected with ill-regulated appetites and lawless passions; men are therefore to marry that they may be pure and without shame. Readers of the Apocrypha will find in the marriage, and especially in the nuptial prayer of Tobit, some illustration of this passage.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 4

His vessel, his body.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:4 {3} That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

(3) Another reason, because it defiles the body.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes