Deeper Reflection
PAUL EXHORTED THE THESSALONIANS REGARDING “How you ought to walk and to please God” (v.1) in two “critical ways”¹⁰: holiness (vv.1-8) and love (vv.9-12). He addresses at length specifically about abstaining from sexual immorality in holy living (v.3). He had “solemnly warned” them about this when he was with them (v.6) and was now giving a strong reminder. We will appreciate this against the background that Thessalonians “had depraved sex lives”¹¹. “Thessalonica had all the vices of any bustling trade city. Theatrical works slid more and more towards the violent and sexually crude. Arrival by sea and land would demand drinking, gambling and sex, and part of the economy of the city was keeping visitors satisfied. Young men in particular were expected to have an active sex life, with slaves, prostitutes or lovers. Engaging in too much sex was thought to be a sign of self-indulgence and economic wantonness, but not an offense against God or the gods. Bisexuality was more common in Macedonia and Achaia than in other parts of the [Roman] empire, especially because of the shortage of marriageable women.”¹² Thessalonica was “the home of many people of the working and artisan class”¹³ and “a large, if not most” of these people made up the church.¹⁴ In the church were also people from “the higher social class”, like Jason (Acts 17:6, 9) and Aristarchus (Acts 20:4).¹⁵ But these social and economic differences did not keep the church from being strong in “brotherly love” (vv.9-10).

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¹⁰ D. A. Carson & Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, Second Edition (Zondervan, 1992, 2005), 534 ¹¹ Gary S. Shogren, 20 ¹² Gary S. Shogren, 20 ¹³ Gene L. Green, 29 ¹⁴ Gene L. Green, 30 ¹⁵ Gene L. Green, 29