“For God has not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness.”

The epistle today talks about purity in sexual conduct. St. Paul writes,

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication: that every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles who know not God.

The word, fornication, refers to sexual relations between unmarried people. It is a New Testament word that augments the Old Testament commandment against adultery. The phrase, “possess his vessel,” means something like, “control his body.” Control of the body in sanctity and honor was to be a mark that distinguished the Christian from the Gentile, who characteristically exhibited the “lust of concupiscence”–disordered and excessive human desire.

Now, a significant, if not majority, of the church in Thessalonica consisted of Gentile converts. St. Paul is here proclaiming the church to be the new Israel in which the promises of God are fulfilled. Gentile converts were called to leave behind their old pagan and Gentile manner of life to live a new life among God’s people.

This change is the essential pattern of the call to holiness. As God said to Israel, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 11:45, 1 Peter 1:15-16). To be made holy means to be set apart. God calls us to leave behind old ties and old behaviors to pursue the promises of God. In so doing, we become holy or set apart from the mass of humanity who have not heeded the call.

God called Abraham to leave his country and his family to go to the land of promise. God set him apart. God called Israel out of Egypt–and called the people to leave behind the Egyptian ways. God gave the nation his law and led them to the new land of promise. God set the nation apart from all other nations.

Even in the Old Testament, God called Gentiles to be part of his people. Ruth, the Moabite, left her home and her family to join God’s people, saying to her mother-in-law, “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Rahab left behind the pagan ways of her native Jericho to escape judgment and live according the new standards of God’s people.

Jesus called the fishermen to leave their nets and Matthew to leave behind his tax business. They followed him in a new way of life. Gentile converts to Christianity in the early church were called to walk away from the idolatrous practices of their native cities. This usually involved routines of worship at a local idol temple–which were often a sort of civic duty. Idol worship frequently involved liaisons with cult prostitutes, which were thought to bring certain benefits and which, no doubt, many men supported quite apart from any theological underpinnings.

The command to abstain from fornication is made repeatedly in St. Paul’s letter because it was so rampant in the pagan world from which his converts came and he wanted to be clear about the new standard that pertained to holiness and being a part of God’s people. They were to be set apart.

In modern times, some have sought to distinguish between New Testament standards and the standards that are appropriate for the modern world. Usually, the attempted distinction is based on the idea that St. Paul was dealing with a paganism we no longer face or that, from our supposedly superior vantage point, we may adopt a more progressive sexual ethic.

However, in looking at the situation St. Paul addressed and our own, the most evident thing is the great similarity between the two. To be sure, people in our culture don’t typically worship statues made of wood or stone. But our secular culture does revolve around similar patterns of idol worship that lead to the practice of fornication. Our idols are called Pleasure and Convenience. These idols require that sexual pleasure be seen as one of the chief pursuits in life. And they teach their followers that any limitation on free sexual expression is an unnecessary and even harmful burden.

Thus, those who would follow Christ are still called to leave behind the cultural idolatry, along with its exaltation of fornication. And converts are still called to pursue  holiness, to live new lives among God’s people according to God’s standards. Converts are still called to be set apart. If one asks, “How can you expect people to live by the biblical standard in the modern world? The answer is the timeless, biblical answer, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

To become holy means to change or, better, to be changed by God. The virtue of chastity, which is faithfulness within marriage and abstinence outside of marriage, is acquired by grace. We do not come to Christ in a state of purity. We come as unclean and are made clean by him.

The woman of Canaan in the gospel today illustrates the process of sanctification. As a Gentile and pagan, she was unclean. By perseverance in faith and prayer she obtained her petition. Her daughter was freed from demonic harassment. By perseverance in faith and prayer, the unclean was made clean.

There is a demonic component to the sexual indulgence of our culture, which stands in stark contrast with the image Christ the faithful bridegroom and the church, his pure and spotless bride. We need to persevere in faith and prayer to be saved from this error and be made whole.

The liturgy teaches us that the pursuit of holiness involves a process of transformation. We pray, “That our sinful bodies made be made clean by his body and our souls washed by his most precious blood.” Our continual return to the altar is like the prayer of the Canaanite woman and we will obtain our petition if we persevere over time.

For God has not called unto uncleanness but unto holiness.


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