1 Thessalonians 4:3

Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

For this is God’s will: your sanctification—that you abstain from sexual immorality.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας:

Transliteration

This for estin thelēma of the Theou, the hagiasmos of you, to apechesthai you from the porneias:

Grammar Details

• *estin*: present, indicative, active, 3rd person, singular - is
• *thelēma*: nominative, neuter, singular - will/desire
• *Theou*: genitive, masculine, singular - God's (possessive)
• *hagiasmos*: nominative, masculine, singular - sanctification/holiness
• *apechesthai*: present, infinitive, middle - to abstain/keep away from
• *porneias*: genitive, feminine, singular - sexual immorality/fornication

Word Meanings

• *thelēma*: will/desire/purpose/intention
• *hagiasmos*: sanctification/holiness/consecration/purification
• *apechesthai*: abstain/keep away/refrain
• *porneias*: sexual immorality/fornication/prostitution/unchastity

Other Translations

• King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

• KJV1611 – Modern English

  For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication:

• King James Version 1611 (Original)

  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

• American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

  For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication;

• King James Version with Strong's Numbers

  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

• Tyndale Bible (1526/1534)

  For this is the will of god even that ye shuld be holy and that ye shuld abstayne from fornicacion

• Coverdale Bible (1535)

  For this is the will of God, euen youre sanctifienge, that ye shulde absteyne from whordome,

• Geneva Bible (1560)

  For this is the will of God euen your sanctification, and that ye should abstaine from fornication,

• Bishops' Bible (1568)

  For this is the wyll of God, your holynesse, that ye should abstayne from fornication:

• Authorized King James Version (1611)

  For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

• Webster's Bible (1833)

  For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

• Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

  for this is the will of God -- your sanctification; that ye abstain from the whoredom,

• American Standard Version (1901)

  For this is the will of God, `even' your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication;

• American Standard Version (1901)

  For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication;

• Bible in Basic English (1941)

  For the purpose of God for you is this: that you may be holy, and may keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh;

• World English Bible (2000)

  For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

• NET Bible® (New English Translation)

  For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,

Referenced Verses

• 1 Pet 4:2 : 2 As a result, you should no longer live the rest of your earthly life for human desires but instead for the will of God.
• 1 Thess 5:23 : 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Eph 5:17 : 17 Because of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
• Col 3:5 : 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
• Eph 6:6 : 6 Do not work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
• 1 Thess 4:4 : 4 That each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
• Rom 12:2 : 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
• Ps 40:8 : 8 Then I said, 'Here I am; I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written about me.'
• 2 Thess 2:13 : 13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits for salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.
• Eph 5:3-5 : 3 But sexual immorality, all impurity, or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper for saints. 4 Nor should there be filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are not fitting, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For you know this with certainty, that no sexually immoral, impure, or greedy person—who is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
• 1 Pet 1:2 : 2 chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
• Heb 13:4 : 4 Marriage is to be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
• Eph 5:26-27 : 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water through the word, 27 and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
• Rom 6:22 : 22 But now, having been freed from sin and bound to God, you have your fruit, which leads to sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life.
• Gal 5:19 : 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery,
• Matt 7:21 : 21 Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
• John 17:17-19 : 17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. 19 For their sake, I sanctify Myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
• Acts 15:20 : 20 Instead, we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, meat that has been strangled, and blood.
• Acts 15:29 : 29 that you abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
• Acts 20:32 : 32 And now, I entrust you, brothers, to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.
• Acts 26:18 : 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
• Matt 12:50 : 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
• Matt 15:19 : 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, and slanders.
• Mark 3:35 : 35 Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother."
• John 4:34 : 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to accomplish his work.
• Ps 143:10 : 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
• 1 Cor 1:30 : 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
• 1 Cor 6:9-9 : 9 Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
• 1 Cor 6:13-18 : 13 Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both one and the other. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 God has both raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15 Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every sin a person commits is outside the body, but the one who sins sexually sins against their own body.
• 1 Cor 7:2 : 2 But because of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
• 2 Cor 12:21 : 21 I fear that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will grieve over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality they have practiced.
• Col 1:9 : 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
• Heb 10:36 : 36 You need endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
• 1 John 2:17 : 17 The world is passing away, along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God remains forever.
• Rev 21:8 : 8 But as for the cowardly, the unbelieving, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
• Rev 22:15 : 15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
• Heb 12:16 : 16 Make sure that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.
• Heb 13:21 : 21 equip you with every good thing to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
• Titus 2:14 : 14 He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify a people for His own possession, who are eager to do good works.
• 1 Thess 5:18 : 18 Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
• Col 4:12 : 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
• 1 Cor 5:9-9 : 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. 10 I did not at all mean the sexually immoral people of this world, or the greedy, or swindlers, or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a person, do not even eat.
• John 7:17 : 17 'If anyone wants to do His will, they will know whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own authority.'
• Rom 1:29 : 29 They have become filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,