1Cor 6:18, 1Th 4:3 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 18. Flee fornication . A solemn command of God--as explicit as any that thundered from Mount Sinai. None can disregard it with impunity--none can violate it without being exposed to the awful vengeance of the Almighty. There is force and emphasis in the word flee , φευγετε. Man should escape from it; he should not stay to reason about it--to debate the matter--or even to contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his virtue. There are some sins which a man can resist ; some about which he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a man is safe only when he flies; free from pollution only when he refuses to entertain a thought of it; secure when he seeks a victory by flight, and a conquest by retreat. Let a man turn away from it without reflection on it, and he is safe. Let him think, and reason, and he may be ruined. "The very passage of an impure thought through the mind leaves pollution behind it." An argument on the subject often leaves pollution; a description ruins; and even the presentation of motives against it may often fix the mind with dangerous inclination on the crime. There is no way of avoiding the pollution but in the manner prescribed by Paul; there is no man safe who will not follow his direction. How many a young man would be saved from poverty, want, disease, curses, tears, and hell, could these TWO WORDS be made to blaze before him like the writing before the astonished eyes of Belshazzar, and could they terrify him from even the momentary contemplation of the crime. Every sin , etc. This is to be taken comparatively . Sins in general; the common sins which men commit, do not immediately and directly affect the body , or waste its energies, and destroy life. Such is the case with falsehood, theft, malice, dishonesty, pride, ambition, etc. They do not immediately and directly impair the constitution, and waste its energies. Is without the body . Does not immediately and directly affect the body. The more immediate effect is on the mind; but the sin under consideration produces an immediate and direct effect on the body itself. Sinneth against his own body . This is the fourth argument against indulgence in this vice; and it is more striking and forcible. The sense is, "It wastes the bodily energies; produces feebleness, weakness, and disease; it impairs the strength, enervates the man, and shortens life." Were it proper, this might be proved to the satisfaction of every man by an examination of the effects of licentious indulgence. Those who wish to see the effects stated, may find them in Dr. Rush on the Diseases of the Mind. Perhaps no single sin has done so much to produce the most painful and dreadful diseases, to weaken the constitution, and to shorten life, as this. Other vices, as gluttony and drunkenness, do this also; and all sin has some effect in destroying the body; but it is true of this sin in an eminent degree. (d) "Flee fornication"

1 Corinthians 6:18

Verse 18. Flee fornication. A solemn command of God--as explicit as any that thundered from Mount Sinai. None can disregard it with impunity--none can violate it without being exposed to the awful vengeance of the Almighty. There is force and emphasis in the word flee, φευγετε. Man should escape from it; he should not stay to reason about it--to debate the matter--or even to contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his virtue. There are some sins which a man can resist; some about which he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a man is safe only when he flies; free from pollution only when he refuses to entertain a thought of it; secure when he seeks a victory by flight, and a conquest by retreat. Let a man turn away from it without reflection on it, and he is safe. Let him think, and reason, and he may be ruined. "The very passage of an impure thought through the mind leaves pollution behind it." An argument on the subject often leaves pollution; a description ruins; and even the presentation of motives against it may often fix the mind with dangerous inclination on the crime. There is no way of avoiding the pollution but in the manner prescribed by Paul; there is no man safe who will not follow his direction. How many a young man would be saved from poverty, want, disease, curses, tears, and hell, could these TWO WORDS be made to blaze before him like the writing before the astonished eyes of Belshazzar, Dan 5 and could they terrify him from even the momentary contemplation of the crime.

Every sin, etc. This is to be taken comparatively. Sins in general; the common sins which men commit, do not immediately and directly affect the body, or waste its energies, and destroy life. Such is the case with falsehood, theft, malice, dishonesty, pride, ambition, etc. They do not immediately and directly impair the constitution, and waste its energies.

Is without the body. Does not immediately and directly affect the body. The more immediate effect is on the mind; but the sin under consideration produces an immediate and direct effect on the body itself.

Sinneth against his own body. This is the fourth argument against indulgence in this vice; and it is more striking and forcible. The sense is, "It wastes the bodily energies; produces feebleness, weakness, and disease; it impairs the strength, enervates the man, and shortens life." Were it proper, this might be proved to the satisfaction of every man by an examination of the effects of licentious indulgence. Those who wish to see the effects stated, may find them in Dr. Rush on the Diseases of the Mind. Perhaps no single sin has done so much to produce the most painful and dreadful diseases, to weaken the constitution, and to shorten life, as this. Other vices, as gluttony and drunkenness, do this also; and all sin has some effect in destroying the body; but it is true of this sin in an eminent degree.

(d) "Flee fornication" Prov 6:25-32, 7:24-27

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Verse 3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. It is the will or command of God that you should be holy. This does not refer to the purpose or decree of God, and does not mean that he intended to make them holy; but it means that it was his command that they should be holy. It was also true that it was agreeable to the Divine will or purpose that they should be holy, and that he meant to use such an influence as to secure this; but this is not the truth taught here. This text, therefore, should not be brought as a proof that God intends to make his people holy, or that they are sanctified. It is a proof only that he requires holiness. The word here rendered sanctification αγιασμος is not used in the Greek classics, but is several times found in the New Testament. It is rendered holiness, Rom 6:19,22, 1Thes 4:7, 1Timm 2:15; Heb 12:14; and sanctification, 1Cor 1:30, 1Thes 4:3,4; 2Thes 2:13, 1Pet 1:2. Rom 6:19: 1Cor 1:30. It means here purity of life, and particularly abstinence from those vices which debase and degrade the soul. Sanctification consists in two things,

(1.) in "ceasing to do evil;" and

(2.) in "learning to do well." Or in other words, the first work of sanctification is in overcoming the propensities to evil in our nature, and checking and subduing the unholy habits which we had formed before we became Christians; the second part of the work consists in cultivating the positive principles of holiness in the soul.

That ye should abstain from fornication. A vice which was freely indulged among the heathen, and to which, from that fact, and from their own former habits, they were particularly exposed. On the fact that they were thus exposed, and on the reasons for these solemn commands on the subject, Acts 15:20; 1Cor 6:18.