That every one of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor;
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 4:4 Go To 1 Thessalonians 4
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
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.
