ACC ~ 1 Thessalonians 4 v3

AN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: For the devil tempts us. He knows what we are but does not know if we will hold out. Wishing to dislodge us from the faith, he also attempts to bring us into subjection to himself. This tempting is all that God has allowed him to do, partly because it is God’s will to save us from ourselves. For indeed, by the opportunity afforded by the commandment we are truly sinners. But the other reason God so limits the devil is to disgrace him and show him up as a failure, thereby strengthening the church and the conscience of those who are awed at such constancy. … The Lord did not suffer by the will of the Father, nor are those who are persecuted persecuted by the will of God. Indeed, either of two things is the case: persecution in consequence of the will of God is a good thing, or, those who decree and inflict suffering are guiltless. But nothing is without the will of the Lord of the universe. It remains to say that such things happen without the prevention of God. Only this way of thinking about suffering saves both the providence and the goodness of God. We must not think therefore that he actively produces afflictions (far be it that we should think this!). . . Providence is a disciplinary art—in the case of others for each individual’s sins, and in the case of the Lord and his apostles for ours. To this point the divine apostle prays: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.” STROMATA 4.12.

THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE. PSEUDO-CYPRIAN: The cardinal principles of chastity, brothers, are ancient. How so? Because they were ordained at the same time as the human race itself. For both her own husband belongs to the woman, for the reason that she may know no other besides him, and because the woman is given to the man. This latter is in order that, when what is his own has been given to him, he should seek nothing belonging to another. … Christ gave this judgment when, having been questioned, he said that a wife must not be put away except because of adultery. Thus did he honor chastity. From this has come the levitical decree, “You shall not allow adulteresses to live.” Therefore, the apostle says, “This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication.” ON THE DISCIPLINE AND ADVANTAGE OF CHASTITY 5-6.

PROPER HUMILITY. GREGORY THE GREAT: It is said through the voice of the prophet to the soul that grows proud, “You trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your renown.” For a soul to trust in its beauty is to presume within itself on its righteous works. It plays the harlot on the basis of its renown when in its righteous acts it seeks the glory of its own reputation rather than the spread of its Creator’s praise. … What then is to be done in this case but that, when the malignant spirit of pride enjoys the good things that we have done in order to exalt the mind, we should ever recall to memory our evil deeds. The goal is that we may acknowledge our sinful acts as our own and our avoidance of sin as the gift of Almighty God. And so Paul says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from unchastity.” LETTERS 122.

LAWFUL MARRIAGE. AUGUSTINE: The disease of disordered desire is what the apostle refers to, when, speaking to married believers, he says, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication, that everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the disease of desire, even as the Gentiles who do not know God.” The married believer, therefore, must not only not use another man’s vessel—which is what they do who lust after other men’s wives—but he must know that even his own vessel is not to be possessed in the disease of disordered sexual desire. Paul’s counsel is not to be understood as if the apostle prohibited conjugal—that is to say, lawful and honorable—cohabitation. ON MARRIAGE AND CONCUPISCENCE 1.8.9.

1 Thess