The following observations come from The MacArthur New Testament Commentary
Since the 1960s, when the modern sexual revolution really accelerated, Western society has had fewer and fewer rules governing sexual attitudes and behaviors. Freedom of sexual expression has in many ways become the cultural god that rules over all the other idolatrous gods of postmodern culture. People want the right, for themselves and others, to express their sexual desires at any cost, even if that means aborting the unwanted child resulting from a sexual union or risking a sexually transmitted disease.
Several obvious tenets constitute the world’s immoral, unscriptural outlook regarding sex. First, people are basically good and all but the most heinous activities should be tolerated. Therefore, virtually any kind of consensual sexual activity is good (except for child molestation), especially if one views sex as merely a way to personal gratification. Second, since sexual activity is only a biological function (cf. 1 Cor. 6:13), it is normal and necessary to engage in it without placing on it any moral restrictions. Third, since “casual” sex is just another form of fun and pleasure, it is permissible to enjoy sexual activity recreationally any time with any consenting partner. Fourth, fulfilling one’s sexual desire is a major goal in life, more important than developing meaningful personal relationships. Fifth, instant gratification is more important than delayed satisfaction. Therefore, having premarital sex is legitimate and preferable to waiting until marriage to have sex. Sixth, enjoyable sexual intercourse is the most important factor in establishing a good marital relationship. Therefore, the early stage of every romantic relationship should include sex. The couple should live together to determine sexual compatibility and fulfillment before they marry.
Christians understand that those are the dogmas of society’s permissive sexual outlook. The apostle Paul could have recognized the same tendencies in his day because, if anything, the utterly pagan Greco-Roman culture he ministered in was more sexually perverse and debauched than contemporary Western culture, which for centuries has had the beneficial influence of Christianity on its institutions. Thessalonica was part of that debased Greco-Roman culture. The city was rife with such sinful practices as fornication, adultery, homosexuality (including pedophilia), transvestism (men dressing like women), and a wide variety of pornographic and erotic perversions, all done with a seared conscience and society’s acceptance, hence with little or no accompanying shame or guilt. Unlike people in Western nations today, the Thessalonians grew up with no Christian tradition to support laws and standards that forbid the grosser manifestations of immorality. Pagan Greek society apparently did not have civil laws to prohibit immoral behavior.
Further contributing to the sexually permissive environment in Thessalonica was the influence of the mystery religions that advocated ritual prostitution. They taught that if a follower engaged with a temple prostitute, he would be communing transcendentally with the deity the prostitute represented. For example, the Temple of Aphrodite on the Corinthian acropolis employed one thousand priestesses who were essentially religious prostitutes. Thus people did not consider fornication and adultery illegal or immoral; the idolatrous religions actually condoned them.
For the Thessalonians, then, sexual sin was more customary and more tolerated than it is even by today’s standards. That reality provides a clearer perspective of Paul’s ministry at Thessalonica. When he, Silas, and Timothy planted the church there, they rescued people out of that pornographic society. Many of those new converts, who had lived in immorality, no doubt had mistresses, and many of the women likely engaged in harlotry. Their rather sudden entrance into the kingdom of God required the Thessalonians to break with their pagan background. That requirement presented them with strong challenges—old habits and the pressures from a wicked culture would seek to draw them away from their new life and back to the old. Paul, as their pastor, was concerned enough to begin the exhortation portion of this epistle with commands regarding immoral conduct.
Though the surrounding culture continually lowered its moral standards, the Thessalonians could not lower theirs. Paul’s requirement that the Thessalonian believers abstain from sexual sin did not involve a relative morality; it encompassed an absolute standard. Such an unambiguous command, however, did not single out—the way Paul would with the Corinthians—specific groups or individuals within the church who were committing certain sins (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1–13). But that lack of specificity in no way mitigated Paul’s concern for the Thessalonians’ purity. That this general, preventive exhortation to sexual morality began his list of practical instructions in the final two chapters of 1 Thessalonians highlights Paul’s major concern for sexual fidelity in Thessalonica. With this background in mind, one can examine this passage by asking three questions: What kind of sexual conduct does God require? How can a believer be sexually moral? Why should a believer be sexually moral?[1]
[1]John MacArthur, 1–2 Thessalonians, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 2002), 101.
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