Posted by Second Sunday in Lent
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification: in Christ Jesus our Lord
In today’s epistle we hear St. Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians that they should live by the faith that they professed. Their lives should be in contrast to the idolatry of the pagans that surrounded them. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God.” They were not called to uncleanness, but rather to sanctification in Christ Jesus.
But what was the context in which St. Paul wrote these words? St. Paul had founded the Church at Thessalonica during the course of the second of his great missionary journeys as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Though there was a sizeable Jewish community in Thessalonica, St. Paul was most successful in converting Gentiles. It is likely that many of these Gentile converts were previously “God fearers” who had been accustomed to attend the synagogue and respected Judaism, but were still pagans and had not become circumcised Jews. St. Paul’s message that it was not necessary for Gentiles to become circumcised Jews in order to become heirs of the promises of God to Abraham would have appealed especially to the Gentile God fearers who respected Judaism and attended services in the synagogue, but were not prepared to become circumcised Jews. St. Paul had secured the support of St. Peter, St. James and St. John at the Council of Jerusalem that it was not necessary for Gentiles to become circumcised Jews in order to be members of the Body of Christ (Acts 15). Baptism alone was necessary, as well as the renunciation of idolatry. Hence, St. Paul reminded his Thessalonian converts that they had “turned unto God from idols, to worship the true and living God, even Jesus, whom he raised from the dead and delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1). This message had so disturbed the civil authorities in Thessalonica that St. Paul was asked to leave the city (Acts 17). He was accused of preaching another king, one called Jesus. It was clearly recognised that to claim that Jesus Christ is Lord and King was to say that the Roman Emperor, Caesar, was not the true lord. Such a claim was seen as a threat to the stability of the empire and it would be the reason why for the next few centuries so many Christians became martyrs, witnesses that there was another king, one called Jesus.
After leaving Thessalonica St. Paul moved on to Athens, where he had little success, and then on to Corinth. He was very concerned that the Thessalonians would remain faithful to the Gospel that they had received and had sent St. Timothy to exhort them to this end. When St. Timothy returned with good news about the Church in Thessalonica St. Paul wrote from Corinth in thanksgiving for the faithfulness of the Thessalonians. Hence, as with his later letter to the Philippians, the tone of this letter is on the whole positive, for there was much cause for thanksgiving. However, there were still some underlying concerns and it was to these that St. Paul turns his attention in the latter part of his epistle. Though the Thessalonians were not required to become circumcised Jews they were to totally renounce idolatry. They were not to live as Gentiles who knew not God, but were rather to live by the faith of the true and living God, the God of Israel and the world, who had revealed himself in Jesus. This was something that was easier said than done. For the whole ancient world outside Judaism was saturated by paganism. It was not simply a matter of the pagan world recognising many gods rather than only one God, for belief affected the whole of life. Many of the pagan cults were of an openly sensual and promiscuous nature and this was not thought to be in any way ethically wrong. Hence, St. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians that they need to either practice lifelong marriage or celibacy. They should abstain from fornication because they were now called to holiness. The area of sexual morality was one of the main areas where their lives should be in contrast to the laxity of the pagan world around them.
It is important to emphasise this point today because it is now conventional to suppose that there is something old fashioned and outdated about the Christian doctrine of marriage and sexual morality. It is said that this ethic is too primitive and unenlightened for people today. Twenty first century western man is said to have come of age and no longer needs to take any notice of the outmoded restrictions of another age. Indeed, this attitude is now common even within the Church itself and sermons are rarely preached on sexual morality for fear of seeming too counter cultural. But the truth of the matter is that the authentic Christian faith has always been counter cultural. It was so in the earliest days of the Church, when the faithful were exhorted by St. Paul to renounce idolatry and live by precepts that set them apart from the paganism that surrounded them, and it is true today. In fact, what people now see as a more enlightened and progressive approach to sexual ethics is merely the modern resurgence of ancient paganism. The modern pagan cults may not have the same names as their ancient counterparts, but they are clearly flourishing in the world of entertainment, of advertising and the media. It has produced a world of what has been described as private prosperity and public squalor, in which people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
But since we are today surrounded by this pagan culture, how can we possibly separate ourselves from it? This is not something we can do by our own strength. We can only rely on divine grace, the love of God that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is what the season of Lent in particular is about, a period of time of abstaining from the false values of the pagan world that surround us in order to deepen the seriousness of our Christian discipleship. We will then be strengthened in order to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil not only during Lent, but during the whole of our lives.
A good way to start to do this is to make our own the words of today’s Collect,
O God, who seest that we have no power whatever from ourselves; keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may hurt the soul.
Let us pray for grace to strengthen us to deepen the seriousness of our Christian discipleship in our own time and place.