For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:2–7 (NAS)

Every man knows what these verses are teaching. It’s the wild stallion within us that needs to be broken and trained. The only way we can possess our own vessels in sanctification and honor, short of the gift of celibacy, is to love and cherish one woman. In this God-ordained relationship all desires are fulfilled. There is, of course, the distinct possibility that a female can immorally possess her own body in lustful passion, i.e. it takes two, but these days a man can never leave his own home and fall deeply into sexual sin. Only the Holy Spirit can provide the effective firepower and shield to keep the hounds at bay, that is, to abstain from sexual sin.

On defrauding one’s brother, God has chosen the perfect mate for a man and woman to be united in purity, to become as one. Immorality acted out robs both parties of that purity. If my wife-to-be is defrauded by another man prior to or during that union, I am robbed, i.e. defrauded, of that perfection, short of the grace and mercy of God.

These are serious issues, more often then not casually treated, or worse, ignored in the church today. Thus, Paul’s warning to an otherwise loving church.