1. Our sanctification is the will of God because He is the avenger of all such as do things contrary to that purity which He enjoins.
  2. Because God has called us, not to uncleanness, but to holiness.
  3. Because God has given unto us His Holy Spirit.—The Spirit is called the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Holiness, not only because He is essentially and perfectly holy in Himself, but because He is the Author of holiness in believers. These considerations are motives to stir up and animate our wills to obey and co-operate with the will of God.—R. Mant.

Why was the Spirit sent? or, We must needs be Holy.

  1. The coming of the Holy Ghost is to make us new creatures by giving us the strength to become so.
  2. Since sanctification is declared to be the special work of the Holy Ghost, this clearly proves the difficulty of that work.
  3. The work of sanctification is something more than merely driving out the evil one.
  4. Love and devotion to God are necessary to holiness.
  5. Strength—the strength of the Holy Spirit—is necessary to defend holiness.—A. W. Hare.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–7.

Distinctive Features of a True Sanctification.

It is comparatively easy for some minds to grasp the broad outlines of a grand undertaking, but they fail in working out the details. It is a fatal defect and involves the ruin of the whole scheme. The peculiar genius of minds like these is to deal with things in the mass; but they have not the ability or the patience to master a numerous and complicated series of minute particulars. They are more theoretical than practical; they are strong in the concrete, but feeble in the abstract faculty. So it is possible to form a bold conception of some great, leading Christian virtue, to expatiate on its exquisite beauty, to exalt in grandiose terms its supernatural dignity, and to enforce with magisterial importance its superlative necessity, but all the while to be lamentably deficient in practical attention to the thousand and one little details which, in every-day life, constitute the essence of the virtue. Sanctification is an aspect of the Christian life, facile and seductive in theory, but difficult and commonplace in practice. It is the essence and perfection of the Christian life, and is attained, not by some magical feat of the mental powers, but by patient plodding, stern conflicts, and hard-won moral victories. It is the sublime but little understood science of living aright, in the sight of God and man. Secretary Walsingham, in writing to Lord Burleigh, said: “We have lived long enough to our country, to our fortunes, and to our sovereign; it is high time that we began to live for ourselves and for our God.” In the above verses are portrayed the distinctive feature of a true sanctification. Observe:—

I. A true sanctification consists in the maintenance of a personal chastity.—1. This involves an abstinence from gross sensual indulgence. “That you should abstain from fornication” (ver. 3). A word that designates, not only the actual transgression known by that name, but all the sinful lusts of the flesh. This vice is a prolific source of many other vices. It is like the fabled Hydra, or many-headed snake, of which it is said that when one head was cut off another grew in its place. Fornication is the root of extravagance, drunkenness, disease, poverty, profanity, murder, and irreparable infamy. It is a sin the most bewitching, the most prevalent, the most fatal in its tendencies, and against which the most terrible vengeance of Heaven has been declared. It brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, fire and brimstone upon Sodom, pestilence upon the Israelites, and destruction upon the nations of antiquity. Prior to Christianity, it was hardly regarded as a vice. The apostolic teaching revealed its enormity, denounced it with righteous indignation, and supplied the spiritual weapon by which it is to be slain.

2. Involves a rigid maintenance of bodily purity.—“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (ver. 4). The vessel of the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and whatever would defile or disgrace that sacred shrine must be carefully avoided. The apostle seems to imply there is a kind of art in chastity which all should practise. “That every one of you should know”—should have skill—the power of self-control. Christianity is the science of sciences, the art of living well, and no small skill is necessary in regulating the exercise of the Christian virtues. To possess—to rule the body in purity, keep a diligent guard upon the senses (Job xxxi. 1; Prov. xxiii. 33; Gen. xxxix. 6, 7), avoid the company of the sensual; be temperate; be industrious; continue instant in prayer.

3. Involves a masterly restraint upon the passionate outgoings of evil desire.—“Not in the lust of concupiscence; not in the passion of lust; even as the Gentiles which know not God” (ver. 5). Ignorance is the origin of unchastity; and the apostle shows to what extent of wickedness man may go who knows not God. An old writer says, “Ignorance is a master, a mother-sin; pull it, thou pullest all sin.” Concupiscence is the rudimentary stage of evil desire; unchecked, it spreads through the soul, inflames the passions, and rises into an ungovernable tempest of lust. Evil must be restrained in its earliest manifestation, banished from the region of thought. The longer it is harboured, the more powerful it becomes.

“We are not worst at once—the course of evil
Begins so slowly and from such slight source,
An infant’s hand might stem its breach with clay;
But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy shall strive in vain
To turn the headlong current.”