1 Thessalonians 4:7

1 Thessalonians 4:7 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
• New International Version (NIV)For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
• English Standard Version (ESV)For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
• New King James Version (NKJV)For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

Context of 1 Thessalonians 4:7

5People who do not know God strongly want to have sex in a wrong way. They cannot control themselves. You must not be like those people. 6No man among you should ever have sex with the wife of a Christian friend. That would be the same as if you robbed him. It would be a bad thing to do against him. Remember that the Lord will punish everyone who does things like that. We have already told you that. We warned you very seriously about it. God has chosen us to belong to him. He does not want us to do disgusting things. As his people, he wants us to be holy. 8So do not refuse to accept what I am saying. If you do, it is not just a person that you refuse to obey. You are refusing to obey God. And God is the one who has given his Holy Spirit to you. 9But I do not need to write to you about how you should love other believers. God himself has taught you how to love each other.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 word by word

οὐ γὰρ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ἁγιασμῷ.Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Forγάρgar · forG1063
• Godὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• Godθεόςtheos · GodG2316
• hathκαλέωkaleō · to call: callG2564
• notοὐou · noG3756
• calledκαλέωkaleō · to call: callG2564
• usἐγώegō · I/weG1473
• untoἐπίepi · upon/to/againstG1909
• uncleannessἀκαθαρσίαakatharsia · impurityG167
• butἀλλάalla · butG235
• untoἐνen · in/on/amongG1722
• holinessἁγιασμόςhagiasmos · holinessG38

Cross-references for 1 Thessalonians 4:7

• Leviticus 11:44God says, “I am the Lord your God. I am holy. Make yourselves holy. Do not touch any small animal that moves across the ground. If you do, you will not be clean or holy
• Leviticus 19:2‘Speak to Israel's people. They must be holy because I am holy. You must tell them that.
• Romans 1:7So I am writing to all you Christians who are in Rome. God loves you and he has chosen you to be his own people. I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
• Romans 8:29God already had those people in his thoughts from the beginning. He decided that they should become like his Son. So then, his Son would have many younger brothers and sisters.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2I am sending this letter to you, the people of God's church in Corinth. God has made you clean because you belong to Christ Jesus. He has chosen you to be his special people. So you join together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is their Lord, as he is our Lord.
• Ephesians 1:4Before God made the world, he chose us to be his people because of Christ. He chose us so that we would please him. Because we belong to Christ, God accepts us as completely good. This shows how much he loves us.
• Ephesians 2:10It is God who has worked in us to make us what we are. He has given us a new life because we are united with Christ Jesus. He saved us so that now we can do good things in our lives. Those are good things that he has already prepared for us to do.
• Ephesians 4:1Because I serve the Lord, I am here in prison. I really want you to live as God's own people should live. God has called you to come to him. He has chosen you to be his own people.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13We always thank God for you, our Christian friends that the Lord loves. We ought to thank God, because he has chosen to save you. God chose you to belong to him, as some of the first people that he would save. You believed God's true message. And God's Spirit makes you separate from things that are bad.
• 2 Timothy 1:9God is the one who has saved us. He has chosen us to serve him with good, clean lives. He did not save us because of any good things that we have done. He chose to do it because he is very kind. He decided to do that before time began, because of what Christ Jesus would do for us.
• Hebrews 12:14Do everything that you can to live in peace with other people. Make yourself separate from bad things. Nobody will see the Lord unless their life is good and clean.
• 1 Peter 1:14Obey God, like good children who obey their father. Before you knew the true message about Christ, you very much wanted to do bad things. But now you should not agree to live in that bad way.
• 1 Peter 2:9But you are not like that. You are a special group of people that God has chosen. You serve God like priests who serve a King. You are his own holy people who belong to him. He has taken you out of the dark place of sin, and he has brought you into his great light. He has done all this so that you can tell people how great he is.
• 1 Thessalonians 2:3When we tell people to obey God's message, we are not saying anything that is not true. We do not have a wrong purpose. We are not trying to deceive anyone.
• Galatians 5:19Everyone knows the kinds of bad things that weak people want to do. They have sex with people that they are not married to. They do things that are bad and disgusting.
• Ephesians 4:19They do not feel ashamed when they do all kinds of disgusting things. They do more and more bad things just to please themselves.

Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 4:7

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 7God hath not called us unto uncleanness - He is the creator of male and female, and the institutor of marriage, and he has called men and women to this state; but the end of this and all the other callings of God to man is holiness, not uncleanness. And they who use the marriage state as he directs, will find it conducive to their holiness and perfection.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness - When he called us to be his followers, it was not that we should lead lives of impurity, but of holiness. We should, therefore, fulfil the purposes for which we were called into his kingdom. The word “uncleanness” ( ̓́ akatharsia), means, properly, “impurity, filth;” and then, in a moral sense, “pollution, lewdness,” as opposed to chastity; Romans 1:24; Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 7not … impurity … but … holiness: Compare with 1:4; 2:12; 5:23–24; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14; 1 Peter 1:15–16.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 77. unto uncleanness--Greek, "for the purpose of." unto--rather as Greek, "in"; marking that "holiness" is the element in which our calling has place; in a sphere of holiness. Saint is another name for Christian.Read the comment

Topics related to 1 Thessalonians 4:7

• Adultery
• Chastity
• Holiness
• Injustice

In the dictionaries

• God
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Asleep
• Quiet
• Rise
• Sleep
• Trump
• Sanctification
• Thessalonians, the First Epistle of Paul to the
• Thessalonians, First Epistle to the

Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings