“Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.” 1st Thessalonians 4:1-8

In election, God the Father sanctified the children of God. This means that God sovereignly chose a vast but exact number of people from the human race. He “set them apart” to be His for all eternity. This is a sovereign work of God.

In the new birth, The Holy Spirit separates our spirit unto God. We are given a new nature that now desires to worship God and seek His fellowship. This is also a sovereign work of God.

As we live in this newness of life, we now find that we have two natures warring against one another. Paul calls the old nature the flesh and the new nature the spirit. In these verses, Paul is reminding us of our personal responsibility in response to the knowledge of our election of God and regeneration. In the new birth, we have now been given the power to subdue sin (the old nature) in our lives and improve ourselves in the “practice of sanctification.”


Our relationship with God is founded solely upon the sovereign work of God which we see in election and regeneration. However, our daily fellowship with God includes our responsibility to live holy even as God is holy.