◄ 1 Thessalonians 4:4 ►
each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
Study Bible
each of you must know

This phrase emphasizes personal responsibility and individual accountability in the Christian life. In the context of the early church, believers were encouraged to grow in their understanding and application of God's will. The use of "must know" suggests a deliberate and conscious effort to learn and apply biblical principles. This aligns with the broader biblical theme of wisdom and knowledge, as seen in Proverbs 1:7, where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Col 1:9-10 we have not stopped praying for you and asking God…
Pro 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth…
Jas 1:5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,…

how to control his own body

The call to control one's body reflects the biblical teaching on self-discipline and purity. In the Greco-Roman world, where sexual immorality was prevalent, this instruction was counter-cultural. The body is seen as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and believers are urged to honor God with their bodies. This control is not merely physical but involves the mind and spirit, aligning with the fruit of the Spirit, which includes self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

1Co 9:27 No, I discipline my body and make it my slave…
Rom 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body…
1Co 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple…

in holiness

Holiness is a central theme in Scripture, reflecting God's nature and His call for His people to be set apart. In the Old Testament, holiness was often associated with ritual purity and the sacrificial system. In the New Testament, it takes on a moral and ethical dimension, calling believers to live lives that reflect God's character. This aligns with 1 Peter 1:15-16, which calls Christians to be holy in all their conduct, as God is holy.

2Co 7:1 Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises,…
1Pe 1:15-16 But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy…
Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness,…

and honor,

Honor in this context refers to the respect and dignity that should characterize a believer's life. It involves treating others with respect and living in a way that brings glory to God. In the cultural context of the Thessalonians, honor was a significant social value, and Paul is urging believers to live in a way that upholds their testimony before others. This is consistent with Philippians 4:8, which encourages believers to think on things that are honorable and praiseworthy.

2Ti 2:20-21 A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver……
Rom 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.…
1Pe 2:17 Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul
The apostle who authored the letter to the Thessalonians, providing guidance and encouragement to the early Christian community.

2. Thessalonica
A city in Macedonia where the church was established by Paul during his second missionary journey. It was a significant urban center in the Roman Empire.

3. Thessalonian Church
The recipients of Paul's letter, a group of believers facing challenges in maintaining their faith amidst a pagan culture.

4. Sanctification
A key theme in Paul's teachings, referring to the process of becoming holy and set apart for God's purposes.

5. Honor
A concept deeply rooted in both Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures, emphasizing the importance of living a life that reflects one's values and beliefs.
Teaching Points
Understanding Vessel
The term "vessel" (Greek: skeuos) can refer to one's body or life. Believers are called to manage their bodies and lives in a way that reflects God's holiness.

Sanctification as a Process
Sanctification is an ongoing journey. It involves daily decisions to align our actions and thoughts with God's will, growing in holiness over time.

Living with Honor
Honor involves living in a way that brings glory to God and respects the dignity of oneself and others. This includes sexual purity, integrity, and respect in relationships.

Cultural Challenges
Just as the Thessalonians faced cultural pressures, modern believers must navigate a world with conflicting values. Upholding sanctification and honor requires discernment and commitment.

Empowerment by the Holy Spirit
Believers are not alone in this journey. The Holy Spirit empowers and guides us in living a life of sanctification and honor.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does it mean to "possess your own vessel" in the context of your daily life and decisions?

2. How can understanding the concept of sanctification change the way you approach personal growth and spiritual maturity?

3. In what ways can you demonstrate honor in your relationships and interactions with others?

4. What cultural pressures do you face that challenge your commitment to living a life of sanctification and honor?

5. How can you rely on the Holy Spirit to help you maintain purity and integrity in a world with conflicting values?
Connections to Other Scriptures
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Paul speaks about the body being a temple of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the need for purity and honor in how we conduct ourselves.

Romans 12:1-2
Paul urges believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which aligns with the call to sanctification and honor.

1 Peter 1:15-16
Peter echoes the call to holiness, reminding believers to be holy in all their conduct as God is holy.
Sermons
SanctificationR. Finlayson 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5
A Deepening ConsecrationS. B. Bossiter.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
A Fuller ConsecrationC. Simeon, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Abounding More and MoreH. K. Burton.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Earnest Exhortations to a High SanctityG. Barlow.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
How to Walk So as to Please GodG. Burder.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Of Abounding More and MorePlain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times."1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Pleasing GodB. Pugh.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Pleasing God IsD. Thomas, D. D.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
So Ye Would Abound More and More1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
The Christian's Walk and its ObjectW. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
The Necessity of ProgressBp. Westcott.1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Walking So as to Please God1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Distinctive Features of a True SanctificationG. Barlow.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Holinessor. M. Ashley, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Human Holiness the Great Object of the Divine WillD. Thomas, D. D.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Of Sanctification1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Our Consecration the Will of GodDean Vaughan.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Our SanctificationE. N. Kirk, D. D.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
SanctificationJ. Davies.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Sanctification1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Sanctification of the SpiritA. W. Hare, A. M.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Sanctification the Will of GodJ. F. Denham.1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
Sanctification the Will of GodFamily Churchman1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
The Law of PurityB.C. Caffin 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
A Call unto HolinessF. Cook, D. D.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
A Caution Against ImpurityR. Fergusson.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
A Holy AtmosphereDr. Williams.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
Called to HolinessJones' Bampton Lectures.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
Commercial MoralityG. Swinnock, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
ConscientiousnessQuarterly Review1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
Desire for Holiness1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
HolinessT. Chalmers, D. D.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
How Personal Purity is to be MaintainedProf. Croskery.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
LicentiousnessProf. Jowett.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
PurityA. T. Lyttelton, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
Purity of LifeB. C. Cairn, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
Refusing to DefraudT. De Witt Talmage.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
The Curse of FraudW. Arthur, M. A.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
The Divine CallJ. W. Burn.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
The Importance of PurityGuesses at Truth.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
The Vessel of the BodyR. W. Evans, B. D.1 Thessalonians 4:4-7
How Personal Purity is to be MaintainedT. Croskery 1 Thessalonians 4:4-8
People
Paul, Thessalonians
Places
Macedonia, Thessalonica
Topics
Body, Control, Holiness, Holy, Honor, Honorable, Honour, Possess, Procure, Purity, Sanctification, Vessel, Wife
Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Thessalonians 4:4

     5136   body
     5267   control
     8340   self-respect

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

     5832   desire

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

     5792   appetite
     6183   ignorance, of God
     8135   knowing God, nature of
     8821   self-indulgence

1 Thessalonians 4:3-6

     5909   motives, importance
     6241   seduction

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7

     1065   God, holiness of
     5714   men
     6188   immorality, sexual
     6745   sanctification, nature and basis
     8162   spiritual vitality
     8273   holiness, ethical aspects
     8339   self-control

1 Thessalonians 4:4-5

     8777   lust

Library
Twenty Fifth Sunday after Trinity Living and Dead when Christ Returns.
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. 13 But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Even as Your Father which is in Heaven is Perfect. Matthew 5:48.
In the 43rd verse, the Savior says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward …
Charles G. Finney—Lectures to Professing Christians

April the Tenth Resurrection-Light
"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again...." --1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18. That is the eastern light which fills the valley of time with wonderful beams of glory. It is the great dawn in which we find the promise of our own day. Everything wears a new face in the light of our Lord's resurrection. I once watched the dawn on the East Coast of England. Before there was a grey streak in the sky everything was held in grimmest gloom. The toil of the two fishing-boats seemed very sombre. The sleeping …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Chrysostom -- Excessive Grief at the Death of Friends
Chrysostom (that is, "Of the Golden Mouth") was a title given to John, Archbishop of Constantinople. He was born of a patrician family at Antioch about 347, and owed much to the early Christian training of his Christian mother, Anthusa. He studied under Libanius, and for a time practised law, but was converted and baptized in 368. He made a profound study of the Scriptures, the whole of which, it is said, he learned to repeat by heart. Like Basil and Gregory he began his religious life as a hermit …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume I

The Relation of the Will of God to Sanctification
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification."--I THESS. iv. 3. "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.'"--I PET. i. 15, 16. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. . . . By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."--HEB. x. 9, 10. OUR discussion of the will of God landed us--perhaps in rather an unforeseen way--in the great subject of sanctification. …
Henry Drummond—The Ideal Life

Sanctification
'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.' I Thess 4:4. The word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use: thus they are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God's service. Sanctification has a privative and a positive part. I. A privative part, which lies in the purging out of sin. Sin is compared to leaven, which sours; and to leprosy, which defiles. Sanctification purges out the old leaven.' I Cor 5:5. Though it takes not …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The True Christian Life
TEXT: "My beloved is mine, and I am his."--Sol. Song 2:16. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."--Sol. Song 6:3. "I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me."--Sol. Song 7:10. These three texts should be read together, and the significant change found in each text as the thought unfolds should be studied carefully. They remind one of three mountain peaks one rising higher than the other until the third is lifted into the very heavens. Indeed, if one should live in the spirit of this …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

The Death of Death
'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.... 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the trumpet shall sound;) and the dead shall …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

"Pray Without Ceasing"
Observe, however, what immediately follows the text: "In everything give thanks." When joy and prayer are married their first born child is gratitude. When we joy in God for what we have, and believingly pray to him for more, then our souls thank him both in the enjoyment of what we have, and in the prospect of what is yet to come. Those three texts are three companion pictures, representing the life of a true Christian, the central sketch is the connecting link between those on either side. These …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Bible
THE WORD OF GOD "When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God." (1 Thessalonians 2:13.) THE Apostle here testifies that he believes himself to be the bearer of a revelation direct from God; that the words he speaks and the words he writes are not the words of man, but the Word of God, warm with his breath, filled with his thoughts, and stamped with his will. In this same epistle he writes: "For this we say unto …
I. M. Haldeman—Christ, Christianity and the Bible

The Education of the World.
IN a world of mere phenomena, where all events are bound to one another by a rigid law of cause and effect, it is possible to imagine the course of a long period bringing all things at the end of it into exactly the same relations as they occupied at the beginning. We should, then, obviously have a succession of cycles rigidly similar to one another, both in events and in the sequence of them. The universe would eternally repeat the same changes in a fixed order of recurrence, though each cycle might …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

Letter cxix. To Minervius and Alexander.
Minervius and Alexander two monks of Toulouse had written to Jerome asking him to explain for them a large number of passages in scripture. Jerome in his reply postpones most of these to a future time but deals with two in detail viz. (1) "we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed," 1 Cor. xv. 51; and (2) "we shall be caught up in the clouds," 1 Thes. iv. 17. With regard to (1) Jerome prefers the reading "we shall all sleep but we shall not all be changed," and with regard to (2) he looks …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Sanctification
TEXT: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification."--1 Thess. 4:3. It is quite significant that the Apostle Paul writes explicitly concerning sanctification to a church in which he had such delight that he could write as follows: "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

The Beginning of the New Testament
[Illustration: (drop cap T) Coin of Thessalonica] Turn to the list of books given in the beginning of your New Testament. You will see that first come the four Gospels, or glimpses of the Saviour's life given by four different writers. Then follows the Acts of the Apostles, and, lastly, after the twenty-one epistles, the volume ends with the Revelation. Now this is not the order in which the books were written--they are only arranged like this for our convenience. The first words of the New Testament …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

The Resurrection
'Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.' John 5:58, 29. Q-38: WHAT BENEFITS DO BELIEVERS RECEIVE FROM CHRIST AT THE RESURRECTION? A: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgement, and made perfectly blessed in the …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Paul a Pattern of Prayer
TEXT: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his message …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

The Doctrine of the Last Things.
A. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. B. THE RESURRECTION. C. THE JUDGMENT. D. THE DESTINY OF THE WICKED. E. THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGS. Under this caption are treated such doctrines as the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of both the righteous and wicked, the Judgments, Final Awards, and Eternal Destiny. A. THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. I. ITS IMPORTANCE. 1. PROMINENCE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 2. THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 3. THE CHRISTIAN INCENTIVE. 4. THE CHRISTIAN COMFORT. …
Rev. William Evans—The Great Doctrines of the Bible

Effectual Calling
'Them he also called.' Rom 8:80. Q-xxxi: WHAT IS EFFECTUAL CALLING? A: It is a gracious work of the Spirit, whereby he causes us to embrace Christ freely, as he is offered to us in the gospel. In this verse is the golden chain of salvation, made up of four links, of which one is vocation. Them he also called.' Calling is nova creatio, a new creation,' the first resurrection. There is a two-fold call: (1.) An outward call: (2.) An inward call. (1.) An outward call, which is God's offer of grace to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Epistles of St. Paul
WHEN we pass from primitive Christian preaching to the epistles of St. Paul, we are embarrassed not by the scantiness but by the abundance of our materials. It is not possible to argue that the death of Christ has less than a central, or rather than the central and fundamental place, in the apostle's gospel. But before proceeding to investigate more closely the significance he assigns to it, there are some preliminary considerations to which it is necessary to attend. Attempts have often been made, …
James Denney—The Death of Christ

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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