purity.

"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. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 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. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit."

Now, whether you are 15, 18, 40 or 65 I want you to deal with your sexual purity. I want you to deal with your own sexual purity, because it is too easy to look around and point the finger and hope that so and so is listening. If you are going to maintain a high level of sexual purity throughout your life, then you need to…

Recognize Jesus as the sole authority on maintaining sexual purity.

When Paul began this section, he said, "Brethren, we beseech, or beg and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ (by His authority)…that as you have received from us how you ought to walk, or conduct your lives and please God, that you would continue to do so more and more." Then he goes on in the next verse to mention the teachings he gave them by the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t mention any teachings in particular, but we can see from the context that he had spent some time dealing with this subject of sexual purity to the Thessalonian believers. You see, Paul was saying to this church, "I taught you what I did by the authority of Jesus Christ. I left you those instructions because they were His instructions."

Why did Paul have to deal with sexual purity in their church? He had to do so because sexual immorality was a major problem. It was common in that day for men to take several wives. Temple prostitution was a common form of worship to the false gods of the day. It was an honor for a woman to serve as a temple prostitute. Homosexuality was common, as was using slaves for sexual gratification. Now for Jewish believers, these kinds of issues may not have been so difficult. Remember that they had grown up under a strict moral law, so the high standards of Jesus Christ, while still difficult, would have been easier to accept. On the other hand, you take these Gentile pagan converts who had grown up in a sexually immoral, anything goes culture and tell them to stop, that’s quite a different thing.

Aren’t we facing the same thing today? We’re living in a society where sex and sexual imagery is rampant. You can’t turn anywhere without being faced by it. Perhaps for a handful of Christian people who grew up in strict Christian homes, the problem is not so difficult, but that is the exception to the rule. Most of us grew up and have lived around people and ideas and images that have desensitized us to the sexually explicitness of our society.

Our favorite programs on television contain so much that we don’t even catch it anymore. I’ve mentioned this movie before, but I think it provides a good illustration of the fact. You