Bible Commentaries

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.

How ye ought to walk — Every good man is a great peripatetic, walks much. Christ also walks; so doth the devil, apostates, heretics, worldlings; but with this difference: Christ walketh in the middle, Revelation 1:13 ; Revelation 2:1 ; the devil to and fro, up and down, Job 1:7 , his motion is circular, and therefore fraudulent, 1 Peter 5:8 . Apostates run retrograde, they stumble at the cross, and fall backward, Heretics run out on the right hand, worldlings on the left, James 1:14 . Hypocrites turn aside unto their crooked ways,Psalms 125:5; Psalms 125:5 . They follow Christ, as Samson did his parents, till he came by the carcase; or as a dog doth his master, till he meeteth with a carrion. The true Christian only walks so as to please God; his eyes look right on, his eyelids look straight before him, Proverbs 4:25 . He goes not back, with Hezekiah’s sun, nor stands at a stay, as Joshua’s, but rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, as David’s sun, Psalms 19:5 . Yea, he "shineth more and more unto the perfect day," as Solomon’s, Proverbs 4:18 .

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For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

For ye know what, … — It is expected therefore that ye do them; else the more heinous will be your sin, and the more heavy your reckoning,Isaiah 59:11-12; Isaiah 59:11-12 . What brought such roarings and trouble on them, and that when salvation was looked for? Our iniquities testify to our faces, and we know them.

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For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

For this is the will of God — This is his prescribing will, which we must obey; as we must submit to his disposing will, the will of his providence, and grow acquainted with his approving will, the will of his gracious acceptance, Matthew 18:14 ; John 1:23 .

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That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

To possess his vessel — That is, his body, wherein the soul is, Tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte. If any ask, why so glorious a soul should be in this corruptible body? Besides God’s will, and for the order of the universe, Lombard gives this reason, that by the conjunction of the soul with the body (so far its inferior) man might learn a possibility of the union of man with God in glory, notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence, the infiniteness of both in God, the finiteness of both in man.

In sanctification and honour — Chastity is a man’s honour; incontinence sets on an indelible blot, Proverbs 6:33 . Castus, quasi καστος , ornatus. Sic αγνος ab αγος , veneratio.

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Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

Not in the lust of concupiscence — Or, in the disease of lust, that dishonourable disease, Romans 1:26 , that wasteth not only the substance of the body, but the honesty and the honour of it.

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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.

That no man go beyond or defraud — Or, oppress or cheat. Theft by unjust getting is either επιβολη or επιβουλη , by violence or cunning contrivance. What else is this but crimen stellionatus, criminal lizard, the very sin of deception.

The Lord is the avenger — Though haply they lie out of the walk of human justice, as not coming under man’s cognizance.

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

For God hath not called us — See Trapp on " Ephesians 4:1 " It is a sure rule given by the ancients, Confusiones libidinum sunt signa cuius libet sectae. Simon Magus had his Helena, Carpocrates his Marcellina, Apelles his Philumena, Montanus his Priscilla and Maximilla, …

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He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

He therefore that despiseth — That thinks it a trick of youth to fornicate, and a trick of wit to over reach or oppress; that holds it a matter of nothing to set light by the former lessons; he shall find that he hath to deal with God and not man in this business; and that it is by the Spirit of God that we have spoken unto him, who will punish their contempt of his counsels.

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