He Who Rejects, Rejects God
6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. 7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. 8 Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.
Sexual sin is treated as a wrong done to a specific person, and rejecting the teaching is treated as rejecting its author.
That no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter. The framing is what makes the paragraph distinctive. Two commercial words are used — overreaching and defrauding — so the sin is described as a person being cheated rather than a rule being broken.
That has a consequence stated without softening: the Lord is an avenger in these things, the word describing one who exacts justice for a wronged party. And Paul had said it before — as we forewarned you and testified.
Verse 7 restates the ground positively: God called us not for uncleanness but in sanctification. The calling sets the terms, so the argument rests on their standing rather than on a threat.
Then verse 8 raises the stakes of dismissing it. He who rejects this rejects not man but God — the verb means to set aside as invalid, and Paul refuses to let the teaching be treated as his opinion, the same move as 1 Thessalonians 2:13. The final clause is the strongest: God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you. The Spirit is named in a paragraph about the body, and the joining is not accidental.
settled What this mark means