rist has ready pity and forbearance,
commending them to acceptance and toleration (Rom 15; Gal 6, 1; 1 Cor
13, 7); but that such vices be regarded generally lawful and
normal--this will not do! Paul declares, "This is the will of God,
even your sanctification." And he speaks of "how ye ought to ...
please God." His thought is: Some consider these sins a matter of
little moment, treat them as if the wind blew them away and God rather
had pleasure in them as trivial affairs. But this is not true. While
God really bears with the fallen sinner, he would have us perceive our
errors and strive to mend our lives and to abound more and more in
righteousness. His grace is not intended to cloak our shame, nor
should the licentious abuse the kingdom of Christ as a shield for
their knavery. Paul commands (Gal 5, 13), "Use not your freedom for an
occasion to the flesh"; and Peter (1 Pet 2, 16), "As free, and not
using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of
God."

7. Paul, following the Hebrew way of speaking, has reference to
chastity where he says "your sanctification." He terms the body "holy"
when it is chaste, chastity being, in God's sight, equivalent to
holiness. "Holiness," in the Old Testament, is a synonym for "purity."
Again, "holiness" and "purity" are regarded as the same thing in First
Corinthians 7, 14: "Else were your children unclean; but now are they
holy."

8. The nature of the holiness and purity whereof he speaks he makes
plain himself in the words: "That ye abstain from fornication; that
each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in
sanctification and honor." The apostle does not here prohibit
matrimony, but licentiousness, and unchastity outside the marriage
state. He who is careful to keep his vessel--his body--chaste, who
does not commit adultery and is not guilty of whoredom--this man
preserves his body in holiness and purity, and properly is called
chaste and holy. The same thought is borne out in the succeeding
verse:

"Not in the passion of lust [in the lust of concupiscence], even as
the Gentiles."

9. The Gentiles, who know not God, give themselves up to all manner of
uncleanness, or disgraceful vices, as Paul records in Romans 1, 29-31.
Not that all gentiles are guilty in that respect. Paul is not saying
what all heathen do; he merely states that with the gentiles such
conduct is apparent, and quite to be expected from people "who know
not God." Under s