For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
Paul wrote from Corinth, where sensuality in the guise of religion was rife. In Thessalonica, besides the ordinary licentious customs of the Gentiles, immorality was fostered by the Cabeiric (pagan) worship. About the time of Paul, a political sanction was given to this worship by deifying the Emperor as Cabeirus (Vincent, Vol. IV 34-35).