1Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. 2Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.
3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying,
‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me,
and before all the people I will be glorified.’”
Aaron held his peace. 4Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 5So they came near, and carried them in their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.
6Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Don’t let the hair of your heads go loose, and don’t tear your clothes, so that you don’t die, and so that he will not be angry with all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled. 7You shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of Yahweh is on you.” They did according to the word of Moses. 8Then Yahweh said to Aaron, 9“You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 10You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. 11You are to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Yahweh has spoken to them by Moses.”
12Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons who were left, “Take the meal offering that remains of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and eat it without yeast beside the altar; for it is most holy; 13and you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion, and your sons’ portion, of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire; for so I am commanded. 14The waved breast and the heaved thigh you shall eat in a clean place, you, and your sons, and your daughters with you: for they are given as your portion, and your sons’ portion, out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the children of Israel. 15They shall bring the heaved thigh and the waved breast with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh. It shall be yours, and your sons’ with you, as a portion forever, as Yahweh has commanded.”
16Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burned. He was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, saying, 17“Why haven’t you eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is most holy, and he has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before Yahweh? 18Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly should have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.”
19Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh; and such things as these have happened to me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in Yahweh’s sight?”
20When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight.
So what does it mean to be sanctified? "No one should wrong his brother/sister and take advantage of them."
Paul is saying I realize you are all doing this, but I want you to do it more. Paul was always encouraging them to press forward, and to move on in working for the Lord. It is easy for us to let our faith become routine and to become complacent. We lose our freshness. I hope that I keep encouraging you all on to be ALL THAT YOU CAN BE IN CHRIST. We are here for a very short time. I've become so aware of this recently. Let's PRESS ON. Let's don't give up now. Let's love one another. Let's do this thing right. Let's play out the 4th quarter correctly. Let's don't grow cold. Let's inspire one another. Let's encourage one another to be God's best.
What God wills for me is SANCTIFICATION! He wants each and every part of me that is not Christ-like to be cut out and replaced with stuff that looks like Jesus. Some of you push me and challenge me to do the right thing. You challenge me to let God have all of me. I need that. I don't always like that, but I need that. It's easy without a challenge to sit on our hands and make excuses. I've been pushing some of our men to do better! It's like some don't come to Sunday School and they don't come to men's Bible Studies, and they always find something else to do to take up their time and eternity is at stake.
These are not instructions to be saved. Most of us are already born again. This is about your sanctification. When we come to the Lord we are saved by His grace and that alone, but it is the work that He does in us that pushes us to be all that we're supposed to be in Him. We are trying to please God because we've already been saved. I just want to emphasize that so many questions I get have to do with God's will for their lives. So, these things are helpful to us to know what God's will for us is.
"Sanctified" describes something that has been taken and SET APART for God's use. In the Old Testament, in Hebrew, that was called KODESH. It was HOLY. That means "SEPARATED TO GOD". That means for example when they had tables, utensils etc that were used in the temple, couldn't be used for normal common uses of those things. It's the same thing with us. When you've been set apart by God, your life is NO LONGER FOR COMMON USE. We can never say, "This is my body, and my life, and I'm going to do with it what I want to." Why? Because our bodies don't belong to us.
"Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." He has purchased us and He has proof of that.... the marks on His hands and His feet and His side. We must live our lives to honor Him and serve Him. THAT is sanctification. We must understand the difference between divine purpose and common purpose. In the Old Testament God gave orders that just had to do with obedience.
Why were these commandments given? In Leviticus 10: 10 "10 that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean," We must learn to distinguish between things that are clean and unclean.
Paul then talks about sexual immorality. Paul knew what these Thessalonians were working with. In Greek culture, sexuality was deified. There were temples everywhere with sex acts going on with temple prostitutes. It is estimated that there were 1,000 of these temple prostitutes up in acro-Corinth. We may not worship sex in church, but our culture still sort of worships it as a centerpiece of everything. I don't watch television, but people tell me that programs now just focus every single episode on sexual matters. In our day, things weren't available like they are now. Sexual immorality is now being piped into our computers and our homes. This is affecting the minds of society.
This turns bodies and the sexual acts into objects of perversion and worship. Then in verse 4 it says that each of us is to learn to control our bodies in a holy way. We are not forced to be slaves of our bodies. Paul says we're to be holy and honorable. That means that it is possible. It is not the impossible being demanded of us. One of the fruits of the Spirit is "Self-control". When we reject that life we're rejecting the Holy Spirit.