What Does 1 Thessalonians 4:7 Mean?
For God did not call us into uncleanness, but in setting apart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.THE KEY
God’s call sets your life apart from what defiles and toward belonging to God.
THE MEANING
God’s call places your life in the direction of holiness now; uncleanness is not its destination. Holiness names being set apart for God, so the verse describes belonging and direction, not a badge to earn.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that God’s call leaves impurity as an equally valid destination dissolves here: the verse draws a clear line between uncleanness and holiness.
THE ROOT
ἁγιασμός
hagiasmos
GROWS FROM
ἁγ-
hag-
Set apart; belonging to what is holy.
“setting apart” in this verse is hagiasmos. The Greek word carries the sense of being set apart, not merely appearing morally polished. The contrast in the verse shows holiness as the direction and condition of a life belonging to God, opposite to what defiles.
ALSO GROWS
hagios: Holy; set apart.
ἅγιος
This is the related word Peter uses for both the One who calls and the life shaped by that call.
hagiazō: To make holy or set apart.
ἁγιάζω
This verb shows the same word family describing the act of setting something apart for God.
hagiasmos: The state or process of being set apart.
ἁγιασμός
This is the word in the verse: holiness is presented as the sphere and direction of God’s call.
THE PATTERN
God’s call sets a life apart for belonging to God, carrying it away from what defiles.
And you shall be set apart to me, for I, the LORD, am set apart, and I have separated you from the peoples, that you shall be mine.but as the one who called you is set apart, you also become set apart in all your walk.Who has delivered us and called us with a set-apart calling, not according to our works, but according to his own setting forth and the favor given us in Jesus the Anointed One, before the ages began.THE THREAD
but as the one who called you is set apart, you also become set apart in all your walk.The Greek word here is ἁγιασμός (hagiasmos, holiness or setting apart); Peter uses ἅγιος (hagios, holy or set apart) from the same word family. Thessalonians names the direction of the call, while Peter shows that the One calling and the life called into holiness share that quality.
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