3– 8. ‘ In particular we call upon you to avoid all taint of impurity. For God’ s purpose regarding you is nothing less than this— that you lead a holy life, abstaining from fornication and learning to gain the mastery over your bodily passions. Lust with its dishonour is the mark of Gentile godlessness. It is a sin which, while it degrades the man himself, brings wrong and injury upon others. And hence, as we have already warned you in the most solemn manner, it incurs the just vengeance of the Lord. Therefore he who deliberately sets aside this warning is setting aside not man but God, Who is the bestower of the Spirit whose distinguishing characteristic is holiness, and of whose presence in your hearts you are already conscious.’ 3. Τοῦτογάρἐστινκτλ.] As regards construction, the emphatic τοῦτο is clearly the subject pointing forward not only to ὁἁγιασμός which is in apposition with it, but also to the succeeding inf. clauses by which the nature of the ἁγιασμός is defined, while the predicate is formed by θέληματ. θεοῦ, the absence of the art. before θέλημα pointing to the general nature of the conception as compared with the specific παραγγελίαι already spoken of. Θέλημα (almost entirely confined to Bibl. and late writers), while denoting properly the result as distinguished from the act of willing (θέλησις), is here used rather in the sense of the Divine purpose (cf. Acts 22:14, Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 5:17, Colossians 1:9; Colossians 4:12) and embraces the thought not only of God’ s ‘ commanding’ but of His ‘ enabling’ will. ‘ God works in us and with us, because our sanctification is His will’ (Denney). In the same way ἁγιασμός retains here the active force which it always has in the Pauline writings (cf. 3:13 note), and is = ‘ that you lead a holy life,’ a positive injunction restated from the negative side in the clause that follows. ἀπέχεσθαιὑμᾶςκτλ.] a warning rendered necessary by the fact that in the heathen world πορνεία (for form, WH.2 Notes, p. 160) was so little thought of (Hor. Sat. 1. 2. 33 ff., Cic. pro Cael. 20) that abstinence from it, so far from being regarded as inevitable by the first Christian converts, was rather a thing to be learned: cf. Acts 15:20 (with Knowling’ s note) and see Jowett’ s Essay ‘ On the Connexion of Immorality and Idolatry’ (Epp. of St Paul 2. p. 70 ff.). Ἀπέχεσθαι (appos. inf., Burton § 2) is here construed with ἀπό, perhaps to emphasize the idea of separation, cf. 5:22, Job 1:1; Job 1:8; Job 2:3 &c. It is found with the simple gen., as generally in class. Gk., in Acts 15:20; Acts 15:29, 1 Timothy 4:3, 1 Peter 2:11. For the act. ἀπέχω = ‘ have wholly,’ ‘ possess,’ cf. Philippians 4:18, Philem. 15, and for its technical use in the papyri and ostraca to denote the receipt of what was due (e.g. B.G.U. 612, 2 f. (i/a.d.) ἀπέχωπαρʼ ὑμῶντὸνφόροντοῦἐλα[ι]ουργίου, ὧνἔχετέ [μο]νἐνμισθώσει) cf. Deissmann BS. p. 229, Wilcken Ostraka 1. pp. 86, 106 ff., Archiv 1. p. 77 ff.