1 Thessalonians 4:3
1 Thessalonians 4:33For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
JWs cite this verse as scriptural authority for the seriousness of sexual integrity and treat it as ground for the judicial-committee process when a baptised member confesses sexual sin including pornography use. Sanctification ("you should be holy") is read as the believer's responsibility to maintain Watchtower-defined cleanness; failure triggers elder evaluation, reproof or removal.
Paul names sanctification — "this is the will of God, your sanctification" — and immediately defines its content as abstaining from sexual immorality (porneia). The Reformed agreement is unconditional: sexual integrity is not optional, lust is not light, and pornography is real spiritual damage. The disagreement is structural. Paul's sanctification is the Spirit's progressive work in the believer (1 Thess 4:8 — "God, who gives you his Holy Spirit"), pursued in mutual confession (), restoration in gentleness () and Spirit-empowered mortification (). The Watchtower's response to sexual struggle bypasses those rescue channels and routes the brother into a tribunal where confession itself becomes too costly to attempt. Same sin; opposite system response. The doorstep insight: God's holiness call comes WITH the rescue architecture, not as a condition for it.