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1 Thessalonians 4:3
3 For [gar] this [touto] is [esti] the will [thelema] of God, [theos] even your [humon] sanctification, [hagiasmos] that ye [humas] should abstain [apechomai] from [apo] fornication: [porneia] KJV-Interlinear
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; NASB
Sanctification means to make holy, to become separated from the world. The world is a reference to that (sin, evil, untruths) which is separated from God.
Holiness is the result of the work of righteousness and justice.
Righteousness is the absolute unblemished perfection of God. In Gods righteousness there is no sin, no evil, no filth of any kind.
Justice is the process of cleansing. The washing away of sin, of evil, of filth from ones life.
When Christ went to the Cross, He accomplished these things for each one of us. He paid the price of sin. Sin is the wrong doing of every type which demands punishment for such wrong doing. Punishment is the penalty process whereby the wrongs of the world (sin) are washed away as though they were never there in the first place.
By paying that price, Christ opened up the door for each one of us. That door, which we call salvation, is accessed by means of believing in Him, in what He accomplished, in who He is and so forth. We simplify this by saying believe in Christ, which commands the entire concept of who He is, and what He did.
When we believe in Christ, we become sanctified, set apart, cleansed, separated from the world and consecrated (made holy) such that we can have a relationship with God, who is perfection and pure.
That which is impure cannot have a relationship with that which is pure. When something impure is mixed with something that is pure, then the pure becomes contaminated, therefore God cannot have a relationship with something that would contaminate. Likewise, if we are impure, then we cannot have a relationship with that which is pure, until we are made pure. We cannot purify ourselves. Someone else with greater power and ability, has to do that.
We are commanded to be sanctified, believe in Christ. And maintain our sanctification, live in fellowship. We live in fellowship by confessing our sins on a regular basis, in which case God recognizes our confession (acknowledgement) of our sins, to Him and places us in a fellowship (relationship status) with Him.
Our spiritual life functions only while we are in fellowship (abiding within our sanctified sphere).
We are to avoid fornication, or the flirting or participation in all that is unholy. All sin, all human good, all untruths, etc. are unholy. The word ‘porneia,’ is a broad term for all desires, all lusts, all sins, and so forth. Things that are vices to which one can easily become addicted.
In ancient times, these vices, were typical of things that the pagans (a general term for those who were unbelievers) were addicted to, and as such they were consumed by their addictive habits, to the destruction of their lives.
Today we have many types of things that people can become addicted to, such as alcohol, drugs, prescriptions and so forth. These things are obvious.
But the most dangerous addiction is that of indifference toward truth, or the pattern of life that you follow as an unbeliever (absent salvation), or the indifferent believer (absent functioning doctrine in the soul).
The unbeliever is separated from God, and the believer who is indifferent is simply dysfunctional in their spiritual life.
Therefore, in order to have a functional life, a complete life, a meaningful life, you must, repeat, must function day in and day out, in life, from within the sphere of a sanctified state (in fellowship), and avoid living outside of that state.
To live out of fellowship you risk being caught up in the addictive habits and lures of the world. Once addicted, that type of life is difficult to break. Once addicted, then your views and thinking, are clouded and skewed.
The only way to have a complete and meaningful life, and to be able to see and understand life completely and correctly, you must live within the fellowship sphere, and advance within that sphere, in your spiritual life.
