That every one of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor;
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Warn the Lord’s people, therefore, and beg them to abound in good works, to renounce vice, not to enkindle the fires of passion—I shall not say on the sabbath, but in every season. Let them not destroy their bodies. Let there be no immorality and uncleanness in the servants of God, because we are the servants of the unblemished Son of God. Let each one know himself and possess his vessel, and when the soil of the body has been ploughed, let him wait for the fruit in due season. Let his hand not cultivate thorns and thistles. Rather let him, too, say, “Our earth has yielded her fruit,” and in the bodily passions that might once have been seen as being like thick and wild woods let there be seen the calm order of virtues that have been grafted onto each tree.
There are, then, many kinds of lusts for this or that, but when the word is used by itself without specification it suggests to most people the lust for sexual excitement. Such lust does not merely invade the whole body and outward members. It takes such complete and passionate possession of the whole man, both physically and emotionally, that what results is the keenest of all pleasures on the level of sensation. And at the crisis of excitement, it practically paralyzes all power of deliberate thought. This is so true that it creates a problem for every lover of wisdom and holy joys, who is both committed to a married life and also conscious of the apostolic ideal, that everyone should “learn how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Any such person would prefer, if this were possible, to beget his children without suffering disordered passion. He could wish that, just as all his other members obey his reason in...
We must diligently learn to avoid sexual immorality. But we “possess” our vessel, when it is pure; when it is impure, sin possesses it…. For it does not do the things which we wish, but what sin commands. “Not in the passion of lust,” Paul says. Here he shows also the manner of moderation. By moderation we should channel the passions of lust. For luxury, wealth, idleness, sloth, ease and all similar things lead to irregularity of lust within us.
He says, That each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel. It is, then, a matter to be learned, and that diligently, not to be wanton. But we possess our vessel, when it is pure; when it is impure, sin possesses it. And reasonably. For it does not do the things which we wish, but what sin commands. Not in the passion of lust, he says. Here he shows also the manner, according to which one ought to be temperate; that we should cut off the passions of lust. For luxury, and wealth, and idleness, and sloth, and ease, and all such things, lead us on to irregular lust. Even as the Gentiles, he says, which know not God. For such are they who do not expect that they shall suffer punishment.
It is quite possible to pass decisive sentences on vessels and on instruments, to the extent that they participate in the merits of their proprietors and employers…. For every vessel or every instrument becomes useful by external manipulation, consisting as it does of material which is quite extraneous to the substance of the human owner or employer. However, the flesh, being conceived, formed and generated along with the soul from its earliest existence in the womb, is mixed up with the soul likewise in all of its operations. For, although it is called “a vessel” by the apostle, such as he commands to be treated “with honor,” yet it is designated by the same apostle as “the outward man.” This is the clay, of course, which at first was inscribed with the title of a man, not of a cup, or a sword or any common vessel.
