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Sanctification and your Walk Toward Holiness
WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION and WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Walking instructions to please God more

Not ME – the deception of SIN

Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. – 1 Thessalonians 4:1 KJV

SOUNDS LIKE GOOD FATHERLY ADVICE, doesn’t it?

Allow me to tell you a story about a letter.
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ONCE UPON A TIME there were some gentile pigs (as Jews supposed them to be) 
who having fled their straw and stick houses to a brother's brick-built house where these young believers thought they were safe from the enemy.

BUT did some young saint slip out through a wider door of their former sins?
And won't the unclean pig only to be barbecued by the enemy?

Paul, a father of these tender believers, knows that the enemy may deceive them. 
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The apostles Paul and Silas have recently received good news about the Thessalonians from Timothy.

ἀπόστολος – Apostles of Christ
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and communication with the Church
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1 Thessalonians 3: .. we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith..

BEFORE Paul’s speech to the idol worshipers of Athens — BETWEEN the two missionary journeys (the first with Barnabas and this with Silvanus) — the risen Jesus sent out JEWS and GENTILES with clarification of the GOOD NEWS (Gospel) of ALL believers becoming sanctified by the blood of the Cross and a call to holiness and righteousness in Christ.

Epistle from the Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15:20

.. we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
but should write to them
to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Acts 15:19b-20 ESV

Letters from other Church Fathers about Sanctification

In the sense that Jesus’ biological half-brother James sends out this apostolic instruction and another letter to the Church, for he too is an apostle (although not by a personal journey into the nations).

In A.D. 49 James writes:

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:4

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
from a recent letter from James 1:21 ESV written ~A.D. 49 ~ the same time as the Council at Jerusalem

Galatia was a large Roman province which at that time included the region north to the Black Sea but most populated along the Mediterranean and included Cypress, Pamphylia and other regions.

Paul has already written a general epistle to the Galatians in A.D. 49 which includes churches founded during his first missionary journey.

Sanctification of children learning to walk in Christ

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God,

how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Paul’s letter (epistle) to the Galatians 4:8-9 ESV

“Abba! Father!” WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES of these things!
Now the works of the flesh are evident:
- sexual immorality,
- impurity,
- sensuality,
- idolatry,
- sorcery,
- enmity,
- strife,
- jealousy,
- fits of anger,
- rivalries,
- dissensions,
- divisions,
- envy,
- drunkenness,
- orgies,
- and things like these.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul’s letter (epistle) to the Galatians 5:19-21 ESV
A.D. 50 –

Paul, so pleased with his Thessalonian children, now warns of dangers before them.

1 Thessalonians 4:

2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
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The Apostle sent by Christ our Lord to the Nations commands his beloved young children.
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3 For this is the will of God,

your sanctification:
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Before we continue with Paul's command through the Lord Jesus and God the Father let's DEFINE a term sometimes omitted from some English translations of the Holy Bible.
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ἁγιασμός – Lexicon :: Strong’s G38 – hagiasmos

a word used only by Biblical and ecclesiastical writings signifying:
1. consecration, purification, τὸ ἁγιάζειν.
2. the effect of consecration: sanctification of heart and life, 1 Corinthians 1:30 (Christ is he to whom we are indebted for sanctification); 1 Thessalonians 4:7; Romans 6:19, 22; 1 Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 12:14; ἁγιασμὸς πνεύματος sanctification wrought by the Holy Spirit, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2.
It is opposed to lust in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 f. (It is used in a ritual sense, Judges 17:3 [Alexandrian LXX]; Ezekiel 45:4; [Amos 2:11]; Sir. 7:31, etc.) [On its use in the N. T. cf. Ellicott on 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:13.]
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The King James and other versions of the Bible generally translate this as SANCTIFICATION or HOLINESS. Paul will use it 3x in the next few verses of his Epistle and uses its root word in his benediction [5:23], as well as later in a second letter.
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God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:13B

that you abstain ἀπέχω

from sexual immorality

Here’s a HOT TOPIC in Thessaloniki now OR anywhere in every generation.

πορνεία

porneia

“fornication” is the old word for this “porneia” behaviour nearly no one remembers.
- illicit sexual intercourse
  - adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
  - sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
  - sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11-12
- metaph. the worship of idols
Each must control our body

4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.
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"..possess his own vessel" [acquire his OWN wife, referring to fornication or adultery, states the King James] 
"..in sanctification and honor,"

THERE IT IS AGAIN - SANCTIFICATION of the flesh (for HOLINESS of the vessel of our spirit).
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WHY CONTROL IT?
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Again, from the KJV, the reason lies at the end of Paul's single long sentence which began back in v.3.
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For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter:

because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
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Remember v. 2 pointing back to their previous instruction in Christ?
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OR ELSE!

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

ἀκαθαρσία – UNCLEANNESS?
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 (Isn't there a better way for a 21st century Christian to read this?)
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Of course we could use other words to describe those who refuse to wash their flesh in the sanctifying cleansing water of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible almost always points toward an imagery of walking in the way Christ would be recognized by OUR witness.

Lexicon :: Strong’s G167 – akatharsia

ἀκαθαρσία, -ας, ἡ, (ἀκάθαρτος) [from Hippocrates down], uncleanness;
a. physical: Matthew 23:27.
b. in a moral sense, the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living: Romans 1:24; Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; used of impure motives in 1 Thessalonians 2:3. (Demosthenes, p. 553, 12.) Cf. Tittmann i., p. 150f.

⁸Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
1 Thessalonians 4:8 ESV

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy then return to their opening praise of the Thessalonian church.

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.

But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
1 Thessalonians 5:27 KJV – conclusion of the first Epistle from Paul to the Thessalonians

Next (or should I say, LAST) – eschatology

I have already detailed Paul’s praise for this church with the enemy at the door of its brick house, BUT we won’t want to overlook the Apostle’s warning of later times like these…

Some commentators believe Paul’s principle purpose in writing to the Thessalonians is warning about last times.

.. the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Stay tuned.
July 17, 2023
If God wills – a Mission ends, a Journey Home
ACTS of the Apostles 18:

θεοῦ θέλοντος – theos thelō – that is: IF GOD WILLS. Not only is this Paul’s response to many who urge the Apostle to stay longer on his second missionary journey, but once the Apostle returns home we will see this familiar approach in a third missionary journey.

God wills it.

WHY has the Apostle to the Gentiles remained in Corinth ACAIA for a year and a half?

We might easily ask WHY DID JESUS convict Paul fourteen years ago on a road to Damascus and then five years ago send the Apostle who had persecuted Christ’s followers with Barnabas to Cypress and Galatia back in A.D. 47?

Appearances of the Lord embolden the apostles and followers of Christ.

We haven’t thought of Peter much during Paul’s two missionary journeys, but do you recall how his visions emboldened this Jewish fisherman? He will soon write [in A.D. 64]:

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
First Letter of Peter 3:17-18 NET

PAUL, like PETER had also escaped death emboldened by what God said IN PERSON as well as in Scripture.

Do Not Be Afraid of their Attack

Once God said, I am with you, Paul proclaimed Christ to the Corinthians for 18 months.

18:12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal..

17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.

The Lord Jesus had appeared to the Apostle AND spoken to him in a dream.

Paul the Apostle was unafraid because of what God said.

And how comforting to have the Word assure us that NO HARM will come to us due to our witness of the Gospel of Truth.

Before we leave Greece & ACHAIA

What god said differs according to traditions and culture.

(IF your god is NO God at all THEN human flesh will seek its own desires.)

Athens and Corinth

more about the resurrection?
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Although I have already emphasized the impact of culture on Paul's troubles with the Gentile cultures, due to the ongoing importance to his 3rd missionary journey as well as 21st century of the Common Era idolatries let's consult additional commentaries as a summary.
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In Paul’s day, Corinth was already an ancient city. It was a commercial center with two harbors and had long been a rival to its northern neighbor, Athens.

Corinth was a city with a remarkable reputation for loose living and especially sexual immorality. In classical Greek, to act like a Corinthian meant to practice fornication, and a Corinthian companion meant a prostitute. This sexual immorality was permitted under the widely popular worship of Aphrodite (also known as Venus, the goddess of fertility and sexuality).
David Guzik :: Study Guide for Acts 18

The city of Corinth
- A political center – Capital of Achaia
- A commercial center
- A pagan center
  - The temple of Aphrodite, goddess of sex
  - The mystery religions
- A wicked center
  - Prostitution in the religions
  - Homosexuality in the city
  - The problem of drunkenness
- Source: Bill Acton :: Acts 18 – The Witness on the Second Missionary Journey (Part 3)
(Pick your 21st c. C.E. city parading its sin. Not so different.)

From Athens to Corinth,

from intellectual pride to sensual lust. – Bill Acton

“There had been culture shock in Athens, and now Paul experienced moral shock in Corinth. Its sweat and perfume and grit smothered Paul’s righteous soul, and he became depressed.” (Hughes)

The duration of Paul’s stay in Corinth shows where his heart was in ministry. He was no “in and out” evangelist, but a man committed to making disciples.
David Guiak

I must go home
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Allow me the liberty to move Luke's account of ACTS 18 from good narrative into chronological order of events.
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18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers..

At Cenchreae [21st c. Kechries] he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

and with him Priscilla and Aquila (native of Pontus, Jews from Rome deported to Corinth).

and [they] set sail for Syria (with stops in other port cities).

19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them [Priscilla and Aquilla] there

but he himself [Paul] went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
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Once again some Jews are responsive to the Gospel of their obviously Jewish brother. All they had to do was take a look at the Apostle's shaved head symbolizing his Nazarite vow.
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20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,”

and he set sail from Ephesus.

by way of Jerusalem

22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church

and then he went down to Antioch.
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in the year of our Lord (A.D.) 51
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Here ends the SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY OF PAUL …

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
June 30, 2023
Death, Judgment and Resurrection in light of your own
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:31 NIV – the Apostle Paul to the men of Athens at Mars Hill

The Good News of Death!

The Apostle Paul has just proclaimed Jesus Christ to a LARGE PUBLIC gathering of Greeks in Athens as an unknown god.

Lectures about God in Athens’ University of Idols

.. but now he commands all people everywhere to repent – Acts 17:30 ESV

Had this been the 20th century you might have expected an altar call at Mars Hill as public witness of the Apostle’s anointed mission. But that’s not what he did.

In fact, Paul left town and headed for a new province of Achia and the larger city of Corinth (for Athens was now but a rebuilt remnant of its former ancient glory).
The Good News of Death!
Acts 17:
Resurrection
Judgment on Mars Hill
but NOW God COMMANDS you to REPENT!
Proof of Judgment (and the One to Judge)
What had happened back in Lystra?
Acts 14:
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead..
ἀνάστασις (anastasis) νεκρός (nekros)
Acts 17:
- 16b his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
- 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons,
- and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Just like in most cities and towns the Apostle has already engaged various groups of listeners in the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.

“He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus [Mars Hill], saying,

“May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Acts of the Apostles 17:18b-19 ESV

AND as often happens, once Paul proclaims Christ at the risen Son of the Living God the Apostle’s preaching this Good News to the intelligentsia of Athens yields mixed results. The truth of the Gospel sows more seeds of controversy into the hearts of sinners who must confront our own mortality, death and judgment.

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
Acts 17:32 ESV

Resurrection

What else could Paul have said?

The philosophers among the learned men of Athens had already chosen sides in their entrenched idolatries of self. These men suggesting a willingness to hear more from Paul only sought to use this preacher of foreign gods to support their own unending philosophical debates.

The Apostle must have also wondered if the Jews of Athens might soon provoke discord in the crowds as had happened recently as the Paul and Silas had fled Thessalonica then Berea?
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(Many of the Jews did not believe in resurrection or apply the prophesies of their own Scriptures to the leaven of culture in their daily 'better-than-thou' lives.)
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To the Jew who does NOT believe in resurrection death is the end of life — the end of a brief mortal time God gives to Jews and Gentiles alike. DEATH may come as a penalty of righteous men to put an END to the unrighteous. But even the righteous will expire once the LORD has blessed their mortal days.

The pagan Greeks and pagan Romans, however, worshipped idols of their own making and mythology, molded by the manifold desires of their creatively sinful flesh and guiltless justification of their wicked minds.

The GREEK and ROMAN gods were DEAD monuments of STONE with no authority over the living worshipers of the temples who willfully indulgenced in wickedness.

So Paul went out from their midst.

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Acts 17:33-34 ESV

18:1 Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα χωρισθεὶς ὁ Παῦλος ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηνῶν ἦλθεν εἰς Κόρινθον

After these things he departed Athens and went to Corinth.
Acts 18:1 LSB

Judgment on Mars Hill

It seems rather ridiculous to look upon a copper Mars (Ares) or stone statue of Athena as gods mortal men should worship. [v. 29]

Paul points out that the Living God does not live in temples. [vs. 24-25]

The Living God made man — men and women of every place and nation; therefore we ought to see ourselves as sons and daughters of God. [vs. 26-28]

(God knows that you didn’t know better — that is, before now) v.30a

but NOW God COMMANDS you to REPENT!

Paul did not side with the Stoics.

At Tarsus, Paul certainly had opportunities for hearing Stoic lectures on philosophy. .. Although not a Stoic technical term, syneidēsis, which Paul used as “conscience,” was generally employed by Stoic philosophers. In 1 Corinthians 13 and in the report of Paul’s speech at Athens (Acts 17), there is much that is Hellenistic, more than a little tinged by Stoic elements—e.g., the arguments concerning the natural belief in God and the belief that human existence is in God.
Britannica – excerpt on Roman Stoicism

Neither did the Apostle side with the Epicureans.

As part of his Physics, Epicurus’s psychology held that the soul must be a body…

“The gods are not to be feared. Death is not a thing that one must fear. Good is easy to obtain. Evil is easy to tolerate.”
Britannica

And as we know well from his persecution by the Jews, Paul’s Gospel was not seen as good news to many Jews to whom the Apostle to the gentiles generally sought to convince first in a new town that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ predicted by Scripture.

The JEWS know God’s LAW and read the Prophets who warned them in the past to REPENT.

NOW, the Apostle provides the same proof of the LORD’s COMMAND to Jew and Gentile alike.

Proof of Judgment (and the One to Judge)
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The Apostle Paul has no reason to return to the centuries-extended debates of Greek philosophers or Jewish parties to traditions formed when God kept silent after speaking through His Prophets.
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πίστις

Pistis – a word Paul uses here translated in the English Standard Version of the Bible as PROOF – provides an insight into his closing of a logical argument stated before his listeners in the areopagus.

The same Greek word is translated in the New Testament (King James Version) can also be translated as assurance or belief, even as fidelity; but beyond our limited English understanding most times [239x in KJV] pistis is translated as faith.
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Our 21st century faith seems to lack assurance and proof, let along fidelity to the One God our Lord. Never-the-less, study from Strong's definition Lexicon :: Strong's G4102 - pistis
the better understanding of Paul's audience of first century philosophers.
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1. conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it
2. fidelity, faithfulness – A. the character of one who can be relied on
What had happened back in Lystra?

Acts 14:

And Paul, looking intently at him [a man lame from birth] and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

¹⁹But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
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This incident of PROOF had occurred on the Apostles' first missionary journey and Paul had returned to them on this current mission.

Same word -- and just after this listen to how Paul uses it in witnessing the PROOF of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit to the church.
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27 And when they arrived [returned to the church in Antioch Syria] and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts of the Apostles 14:27 ESV

πίστις – Lexicon :: Strong’s G4102 – pistis
- in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things
  - relating to God
- the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
  - relating to Christ
- a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
NOW, Paul uses this same word [pistis] referring to Jesus Christ as PROOF even to the Greeks. And how is CHRIST PROOF?

In act and deed GOD has provided the PROOF by the resurrection of Jesus — an act of FAITH proven which NO MAN could do (who is not God). AND by this PROOF men must believe the command of GOD TO REPENT.

because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:31 LSB – from Paul’s speech at the areopagus in Athens

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead..

God IS.

God excused your ignorance (as your philosophers sought to argue for or against the Him who created the heavens and the earth and all mankind.

God now commands all men to repent, for He as set a day to judge the world in righteousness. (Of course NO man is righteous, no not one.)

God appointed a righteous JUDGE to judge YOU and the world.

(NOT by condemning you to death which is inevitable for moral beings, but after YOU die! (No human EVER escapes DEATH! — that is, except the One Man anointed by God to JUDGE our faith in Him.)

PROOF TO ALL:

the RESURRECTION of Christ Jesus!

ἀνάστασις (anastasis) νεκρός (nekros)

Resurrection of the dead

Paul could have returned to Mars Hill to debate with philosophers who continuously look for a new argument about life, death, resurrection, God or gods and how we should live in some semblance of righteousness. Even twenty-one centuries later the debates of the philosophers still seek their own new truths.

Some will respond to the GOOD NEWS of God. MANY will continue the debate in unbelief.

The Apostle, therefore, journeys on to ACHAIA and Corinth where they will nurture and build yet another church for more than a year before Paul’s return to SYRIA.

ACTS of the Apostles [18] – To Be Continued… in Corinth

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
May 24, 2023