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Sunday, July 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Murdock Translation

1 Thessalonians 4:7

For God did not call you unto impurity, but to sanctification.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Chastity;   Holiness;   Injustice;   Thompson Chain Reference - Chastity-Impurity;   Impurity;   The Topic Concordance - Calling;   Despisement;   Holiness;   Teaching;   Uncleanness;   Will of God;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Call of God, the;   Chastity;   Holiness;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Thessalonians, Epistle to the 1 and 2;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Call;   Holiness;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Holy, Holiness;   Marriage;   Sanctification;   Thessalonians, First and Second, Theology of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Call, Calling;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Thessalonians, the Epistles to the;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Holy;   Immorality;   Sanctification;   Vengeance;   1 Thessalonians;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Holiness;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Thessalonians, First Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Abstinence;   Call, Called, Calling;   Perseverance;   Thessalonians Epistles to the;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Holiness;   6 Holiness Sanctification;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Thessalo'nians, First Epistle to the,;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Sanctification;   Thessalonians, the First Epistle of Paul to the;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 20;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.
King James Version (1611)
For God hath not called vs vnto vncleannesse, but vnto holinesse.
King James Version
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
English Standard Version
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
New American Standard Bible
For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification.
New Century Version
God called us to be holy and does not want us to live in sin.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
Legacy Standard Bible
For God did not call us to impurity, but in sanctification.
Berean Standard Bible
For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
Contemporary English Version
God didn't choose you to be filthy, but to be pure.
Complete Jewish Bible
For God did not call us to live an unclean life but a holy one.
Darby Translation
For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification.
Easy-to-Read Version
God chose us to be holy. He does not want us to live in sin.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For God hath not called vs vnto vncleannesse, but vnto holinesse.
George Lamsa Translation
For God has not called you unto uncleanness but unto holiness.
Good News Translation
God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness.
Lexham English Bible
For God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness.
Literal Translation
For God did not call us to impurity, but in purity.
Amplified Bible
For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness [to be dedicated, and set apart by behavior that pleases Him, whether in public or in private].
American Standard Version
For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
Bible in Basic English
Because it is God's purpose that our way of life may be not unclean but holy.
Hebrew Names Version
For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
International Standard Version
For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.Leviticus 11:44; 19:2; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:14-15;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
For Aloha hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto sanctification.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For God hath not called vs vnto vncleanenesse, but into holynesse.
English Revised Version
For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
World English Bible
For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
Weymouth's New Testament
God has not called us to an unclean life, but to one of purity.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For God clepide not vs in to vnclennesse, but in to holynesse.
Update Bible Version
For God called us not for impurity, but in sanctification.
Webster's Bible Translation
For God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
New English Translation
For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.
New King James Version
For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
New Living Translation
God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.
New Life Bible
For God has not called us to live in sin. He has called us to live a holy life.
New Revised Standard
For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For God did not call us, with a permission of impurity, but, in sanctification.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification.
Revised Standard Version
For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For god hath not called vs vnto vnclennes: but vnto holynes.
Young's Literal Translation
for God did not call us on uncleanness, but in sanctification;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For God hath not called vs to vnclennesse, but vnto holynes.
Mace New Testament (1729)
for God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness:
Simplified Cowboy Version
God did not invite us in to talk big, but to ride hard.

Contextual Overview

1 Wherefore, my brethren, I entreat you, and beseech you by our Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk, and to please God, so ye would make progress more and more. 2 For ye know what command we gave you in our Lord Jesus the Messiah. 3 For this is the pleasure of God, your sanctification; and that ye be separated from all whoredom; 4 and that each one of you might know how to possess his vessel, in sanctity and in honor; 5 and not in the concupiscence of lust, like the rest of the Gentiles who know not God: 6 and that ye dare not to transgress and to overreach any one his brother, in this matter; because our Lord is the avenger of all these, as also we have said and testified to you in time past. 7 For God did not call you unto impurity, but to sanctification. 8 He therefore who spurneth, spurneth not man but God, who hath given his Holy Spirit in you.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

God: Leviticus 11:44, Leviticus 19:2, Romans 1:7, Romans 8:29, Romans 8:30, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:1, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, 2 Timothy 1:9, Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 1:14-16, 1 Peter 2:9-12, 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Peter 2:22

uncleanness: 1 Thessalonians 2:3, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19, 2 Peter 2:10

Reciprocal: Leviticus 11:45 - be holy Leviticus 20:7 - General Numbers 15:40 - be holy Psalms 110:3 - beauties Isaiah 35:8 - The way Luke 1:75 - General John 17:19 - for 1 Corinthians 5:1 - fornication 2 Corinthians 7:1 - perfecting Ephesians 5:3 - fornication Colossians 1:22 - to Titus 2:12 - denying 1 Peter 1:15 - as 2 Peter 1:3 - called

Cross-References

Acts 10:35
but, among all the nations, he who feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable with him.
Romans 6:16
Know ye not, that to whomsoever ye give up yourselves to serve in bondage, his servants ye are, whom ye serve; whether it be to sin, or whether it be to righteousness, that ye give ear?
Romans 12:1
I beseech you, therefore, my brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, by a rational service [fn] .
Romans 14:18
For he who is in these things a servant of Messiah, is pleasing to God, and approved before men.
Romans 15:16
that I should be a minister of Jesus Messiah among the Gentiles, and should subserve the gospel of God, that the oblation of the Gentiles might be acceptable, and be sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:6
that the glory of his grace might be glorified, which he poured upon us by his Beloved One;
1 Timothy 5:4
But if a widow hath children, or grandchildren, let them first learn to show kindness to their own households, and to repay the obligations to their parents; for this is acceptable before God.
Hebrews 11:4
By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than that of Cain; and on account of it, he is testified of that he was righteous, and God bore testimony to his offering; and in consequence thereof, though dead he yet speaketh.
James 1:15
And this [fn] lust conceiveth, and bringeth forth sin; and sin, when mature, bringeth forth death.
1 Peter 2:5
And ye also, as living stones, are builded and become spiritual temples, and holy priests, for the offering of spiritual sacrifices, acceptable before God, through Jesus the Messiah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For God hath not called us,.... The Syriac version reads "you". This is another reason to enforce the above exhortations, and to caution them against the above unclean practices, taken from the end of the effectual calling by the efficacious grace of God, which is not

unto uncleanness of any sort, as before specified. This they had lived in before their calling, and were now called from it into communion with Christ, who loves righteousness, and hates iniquity; and by the Gospel, which teaches to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to forsake all impurity, both of flesh and spirit:

but this call is

unto holiness of life and conversation in general, and to chastity in thought, look, word, and actions in particular; for God that calls is holy, and therefore those who are called ought to be so; the calling with which they are called is an holy calling, principles of grace and holiness are wrought in their souls, when they are called; and the end of their calling is to live soberly, righteously, and godly; and then, and then only, do they walk worthy of that calling wherewith they are called, and of God who has, by his grace, called them to his kingdom and glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness - When he called us to be his followers, it was not that we should lead lives of impurity, but of holiness. We should, therefore, fulfil the purposes for which we were called into his kingdom. The word “uncleanness” (ἀκαθαρσία akatharsia), means, properly, “impurity, filth;” and then, in a moral sense, “pollution, lewdness,” as opposed to chastity; Romans 1:24; Rom 6:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. God hath not called us unto uncleanness — He is the creator of male and female, and the institutor of marriage, and he has called men and women to this state; but the end of this and all the other callings of God to man is holiness, not uncleanness. And they who use the marriage state as he directs, will find it conducive to their holiness and perfection.


 
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