Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you
should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to
walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you
through the Lord Jesus.  For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know
how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of
lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take
advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the
avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.  For God did
not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.  Therefore he who rejects this
does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.1
Thessalonians 4:1-8 NKJV

Paul urges the Thessalonians to walk pleasing to God, for they know the
commandments of the Lord.  Last time we read "If we love Him, we obey His
commandments"( John 14:15 NKJV ).  When our hearts are genuinely tuned
into to God because we love Him, we will obey His commandments.  Jesus
taught us His requirements are easy and light in Matthew 11:29-30 NKJV
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and
My burden is light.""

God calls His chosen ones to be holy as He is holy.  Leviticus 19:2 NKJV
""Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to
them: 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy." This process
of being holy is called sanctification.  It's a setting apart or making
separate the people of God.  How are we set apart?  We are set apart by our
lifestyles and our choices.

Let's take a look at what Paul describes as sanctification or a call to
be holy.  First he says abstain from sexual immorality.  This seems like a
no-brainer, doesn't it?  There's more to sexual immorality than just the
act of sex outside of marriage though.  It's about the condition of
one's heart and trying to fill a deep spiritual longing with something it
was never meant to be filled with.  Sexual immorality doesn't just happen.
You don't wake up one day and say "I think I'll go have sex with the
next person I meet".  It's process of slowly giving yourself
away,starting with your thought life.  If we start to think about
something, and we allow ourselves to dwell on it, it begins to motivate us
towards action. Perhaps we were hurt by our spouse, we dwell on the hurt
long enough, the enemy plants lies like"you deserve better than this"
and "he/she doesn't really love you anyway" in your mind.  You
start listening to those lies and in time you the lies become real to you.
Your feelings and pride start to kick in and you find yourself acting
on those thoughts and feelings.  If you don't catch this early in the
thought phase, you're bound to actout in ways you will regret later.  As
a man thinks, so he isone proverb says.  Have you checkedyour thought life
lately?

Next, Paul goes on to say we should know how to possess his own vessel in
sanctification and honor. The bible teaches us that our body is the temple
of the Holy Spirit and our bodies are not our own. 1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is
in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" We were
purchased by the precious blood of Christ and now God owns us.We are His,
not our own.  If we would remind ourselves that this body we live in is
not our own, but rather God's temple, we might be more willing to keep it
clean,pure, and undefiled.  When you go to church (the building you worship
in) do you bring your trash and dump trash on the floor?  Of course not!
Then, why do we allow garbage to clutter our minds when our body is the
sacred temple of the Holy Spirit?  Really think about it....God's
presence, the Holy Spirit, is in you.  He's there when you are
entertaining ungodly thoughts or committing a sexual immoral act.
That thought alone should help to quench the desire to fulfill your ungodly
passion!  We are to walk by the Spirit and when we do we won't fulfill the
desires of the flesh.

How can a pure and holy God be coupled evil and darkness?  He can't.
His light overpowers the darkness. Think about how darkness flees away, when
we flip on a light switch.  Does darkness linger somewhere hidden in the
light?  No way, it's gone completely.  That's how it should be with
us,who say we are believers of Christ and have the Holy Spirit within us.
Romans 13:12 NKJV says"Therefore let us castoff the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armor of light." We are flooded with God's light,
therefore,darkness no longer exists in us.   That's cause for
rejoicing!!Jesus commissioned Paul to turn people from darkness to light in
Acts 26:18 NKJV "I now send you,  to open their eyes, in order to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are
sanctified by faith in Me.'"  We, too,are to be Christ's witnesses,
turning others from darkness to light, by living our lives sanctified by
faith in Jesus and pleasing to God.