MESSAGE 18 - 1THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 5:23 – MAY THE GOD OF PEACE SANCTIFY YOU PRESERVING BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT
{{1Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may THE GOD OF PEACE Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”}}
PART 1. THE GOD OF PEACE
Paul introduces this next thought with the phrase “the God of peace”. Our God is a God of peace. Allah is a god of war and revenge. What do we mean by the term “God of peace”. It means that God Himself is peace; He promotes peace, and works for peace for all His beloved. How do we marry this phrase with another character attribute of God – that God is a God of wrath? Well it is not difficult. Wrath must be employed to eradicate the enemy of peace so that peace might remain, and be universal. Sadly, soon in this world, the wrath of God will come on to the world because it is full of evil, and upon men and nations who hate peace and hate the Christians of peace. God will fight against His enemies who are our enemies too, and after He has prevailed then God lives among His people as the God of peace.
A God of peace must take measures to ensure that God’s peace will be the final outcome in the universe (or “world” if you like). These measures ensure that enemies are dealt with, and this we see in the Old Testament a lot, when God intervened on behalf of His earthly people, Israel. God brought in peace through the evil being replaced. However the greatest act of God in being the God of peace, was to send His Son into the world that through Him the dividing wall of hostility between God and man might be taken away, so that God’s peace is freely available for all human beings. It was not the Lord coming into the world that did that, but His work on the cross when the penalty for sin was paid to the last marked up transgression.
Ann Cousins wrote –
"Oh Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head; our load was laid on Thee.
Thou stoodest in the sinners stead; did bear all ill for me.
A victim led, Thy blood was shed; now there's no load for me.
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Death and the curse were in the cup. Oh Christ, ‘twas full for Thee.
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop; ‘tis empty now for me.
That bitter cup, love drank it up; now blessings draught for me.”
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(sometimes – “Now cloudless peace for me.”)
The sinful world might like the concept of a God of peace who is like a santa claus giving out presents to sinners regardless of their sin or sinful intentions. God will not stand for that. God’s peace must be in harmony with His righteousness and holiness. God’s righteousness and holiness condemn sin so that there is no peace in man’s natural state, but the sacrifice of Christ has brought holiness, righteousness, peace and forgiveness together into perfect harmony. You who hear me today, can only know the God of peace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no redemption except through blood, and the blood of the Lamb was shed for your peace.
Daniel Whittle wrote –
Come sing, my soul, and praise the Lord,
Who has redeemed you by His blood;
Delivered you from chains that bound,
And brought you to redemption ground.
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Refrain:
Redemption ground, the ground of peace!
Redemption ground, O wondrous grace!
Here let our praise to God abound!
Who saves us on redemption ground.
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“THE GOD OF PEACE” is a favourite term with the Apostle Paul. In {{Hebrews 13:20, he writes, “Now may THE GOD OF PEACE who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, Heb 13 v 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”}}
In 2 Thessalonians 3 v 16 Paul uses “the Lord of peace”. In Romans 16:20, he writes, {{“THE GOD OF PEACE will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”}}
In 2 Corinthians 13 v 11, he urges the saints - {{“Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and THE GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE will be with you.”}}
Our God is a God of peace and love. The god of Islam is a god of war, and love is not mentioned for Allah. There is a hymn that speaks of the sublime truth that could only be written by a man who knew the God of peace in his life. Henry Lyte was moved to write this hymn as he was dying of tuberculosis in 1847:-
Abide with me. Fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
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Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see –
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
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I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r??
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
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I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless.
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
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Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee.
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
He finished the hymn on the Sunday he gave his farewell sermon in the church where he served so many years. The next day, he left for Italy to regain his health. He didn't make it to Italy, though – he died in Nice, France, three weeks after writing these words. Here is an excerpt from his farewell sermon: [[“O brethren, I stand here among you today, as alive from the dead, if I may hope to impress it upon you, and induce you to prepare for that solemn hour which must come to all, by a timely acquaintance with the death of Christ.”]] For more than a century, the bells of his church at All Saints in Lower Brixham, Devonshire, have rung out “Abide With Me” daily. The hymn was sung at the wedding of King George VI of Britain and at the wedding of his daughter, the Christian Queen Elizabeth II.
PART 2. THE IMPORTANCE OF HIMSELF
In our key verse you will notice the use of the word “Himself”. If you leave this word out of the verse you get, {{“Now may the God of peace sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”}}
Well, there is nothing wrong with that verse if you leave out the word “Himself”, except a very personal component has been omitted. The use of Himself, makes the verse a very touching and personal matter. It is God, HIMSELF – a God who takes a personal and individual interest in each of His children whom He has brought into His peace - that personal God who will sanctify His redeemed children. The Lord said, “I know My sheep by name”. That is the special care He gives to each of us. We can be so thankful for the word, “Himself”, for it means His own hand is upon us, for His own hand holds us. We are not left to our own devices. He, Himself, is with us each step of life’s road.
PART 3. GOD’S WORK IS SANCTIFICATION
Paul wrote this to the Hebrews – {{Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”}} The KJV and the NIV use the word “holiness” instead of the NASB “sanctification” in that Hebrews verse. The word is from “hagios” meaning holy. God is holy and nothing unholy is acceptable to Him; nor can it ever come before Him. The blood of Christ has cleansed us. The sanctification of God prepares us for His presence in heaven. It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, and that is why He indwells us.
The wonderful work of justification has declared us righteous before God, and made us acceptable to Him. The work of sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s work to make us holy, more and more holy, more in tune with the very nature of God.
Paul prays that God will sanctify entirely, or “wholly” in some versions. It means, “unto completeness, or full perfection of holiness”. The readers are already sanctified in Christ Jesus as 1Thessalonians 4:7-8, indicates. The Apostle prays that they may be sanctified to the fullest extent, or rather, that God may so sanctify them as to bring them to the full perfection of their nature, that as sanctified people, they may realise the end of their being, in all its length and breadth. To sanctify them --> This word means to render pure, or to cleanse from sins. Sanctification in the heart of a Christian is progressive. It consists in his becoming more like God and less attached to the world; in his getting the power over evil thoughts, and passions, and impure desires; and in his becoming more and more weaned from earthly objects, and attached to those things which are unseen and eternal.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges adds this – [[“The word also means "to consecrate, to set apart to a holy office or purpose." In John 17:19 Jesus said, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” When Jesus prayed here that God would sanctify them, he probably included both these ideas, that they might be made personally more holy, and might be truly consecrated to God as the ministers of the gospel.]]
I have been thinking today of the great white throne judgement that happens after the 1000 year Millennial reign of Christ. There was a politician in my State of Queensland who joined the Australian Labor party (Marxist) for the one express purpose to get an abortion law passed in Queensland. She succeeded and now millions of unborn human lives are murdered right up to the day of delivery. This is such an affront to the holiness of God from a wicked, unholy person, that the great white throne judgement for her will be most severe. God’s holiness will not be underdone.
PART 4. SPIRIT, AND SOUL, AND BODY
1Thessalonians 5:23 is the only place in the whole bible where these three terms are put together. What do they signify? When I was in my teens and tried to follow speakers everywhere so I could learn, one such speaker had a chart as a diagram dividing the Godhead into God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Then he divided up man into a tripartite being – spirit and soul and body and it was said that this is what it meant to be created in the image of God. I don’t really know for sure what that means but one verse says – {{Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”}}
From that verse we see soul and spirit are separate. In our Thessalonians verse, the apostle’s words were certainly not intended to teach us philosophy, or to imply more than a prayer that all our powers of mind and body, the rational (spirit), including the understanding, the judgment, conscience, and will; the animal (soul), comprehending the affections, passions, and sensations; and corporal (body), namely, the members and senses of our bodies, should be wholly sanctified; that is, purified from pollution, dedicated to God, and employed in glorifying him.
It is impossible to divide each of these correctly, especially sprit and soul. Many have attempted to do that and one has done it this way – [[“Consider man naturally; and then by spirit we mean his superior faculties, as the mind, conscience, rational will. By soul, we mean his sensitive appetite, with the affections and passions. By body, we mean the outward man, the tabernacle and instrument of the soul.”]] Another (Albert Barnes) has said – [[“The word here rendered "spirit" (p?e?µa, pneuma), refers to the intellectual or higher nature of man; that which is the seat of reason, of conscience, and of responsibility. This is immortal. It has no necessary connection with the body, as animal life or the psyche (????`, psuche¯) has, and consequently will be unaffected by death. It is this which distinguishes man from the brute creation; this which allies him with higher intelligences around the throne of God.”]]
Some Christian scholars say man has a spirit, soul and body, and all animal life has a soul and body. We can imagine a lion having a soul, if by soul, we mean the seat of emotions. Poke a lion with a stick and see what happens. However, I can’t sort of think of a germ or amoeba having a soul.
PART 5. BE PRESERVED COMPLETE WITHOUT BLAME
Paul’s prayer is that the whole person, the whole tripartite person, is preserved complete and blameless until the coming of the Lord. This is a challenge for holiness. God wants holiness for His people, that they might be made complete and presented before Him blameless when He comes.
Be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - The apostle does not suggest here that either the body or the things of life will be admitted to heaven, or will be found in a future state of being, whatever may be the truth on that subject. His prayer is, that they might be entirely holy, and be kept from transgression, until the Lord Jesus should come - that is, until He should come either to remove them by death, or to take them in the Rapture.
By his praying that the "body and the soul" - meaning here the animal nature, and the seat of the affections and passions and physical body - might be kept holy, there is reference to the fact that because they connect with an accountable soul, they may be the occasion of sin. The natural behaviour, and wild passion, and the same affections which a beast would have, involve no responsibility, for they have nothing moral in their character. It is a very different thing in man, who is placed under a moral law, and who is bound to restrain and govern all his passions by a reference to that law, and to his higher nature.
For a dog to snarl and growl; for a lion to roar and rage; for a hyena to be fierce and untamable; for a serpent to hiss and bite, and for the ostrich to leave her eggs without concern that Job speaks of, Job 39:14, involves no blame, no guilt for them, for they are not accountable; but for man to display the same temper, and the same lack of affection, makes him guilty, for he has a higher nature, (and a spirit) and all these things should be subject to the law that God has imposed on him as a moral and accountable being. As these things may, therefore be the occasion of sin in a man, and ought to be subdued, Paul prayed that they might be "preserved blameless" to the coming of the Saviour.
Now to end with a few thoughts from Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges I collected -
[[This holiness must penetrate the whole being of the man. It is not necessary to regard spirit and soul and body as three distinct logical divisions of man’s nature. He begins with the innermost - your spirit, “nearest to God” Who is spirit, and with which the Holy Spirit directly unites Himself, “witnessing to our spirit” (Romans 8:16); and he ends with “body,” the vessel (1 Thessalonians 4:4) and wrapping of our nature, through which it belongs to the external world. The “soul,” poised between them, is the individual self, the living personality, in which spirit and flesh, common to each man with his fellows, meet in him. When Paul bids the Corinthians to “cleanse” themselves “from all defilement of flesh and spirit” in 2 Corinthians 7:1, it means much the same as this, but the stress here lies on the integrity of the man himself.
Hence the verb (be preserved) is singular - spirit, soul, and body forming one whole man. The “spirit” is “kept,” when no evil reaches the inner depths of the man’s nature, or disturbs his relations to God and eternity. Nor will it disturb his “soul,” when the world of self is guarded, when all his feelings and thoughts are sinless. Nor will it disturb his “body,” when his outward life and relations to the material world are innocent.]] [end of Cambridge quote]
PART 6. The Precious Last Part
{{“Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”}} This is our motivation for being blameless; for being busy with the Lord’s work; for encouraging one another in this increasingly difficult world. Do not forget this extra touch of our Lord – {{2Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. 2Tim 4 v 8 In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, BUT ALSO TO ALL WHO HAVE LOVED HIS APPEARING.
EVEN SO, COME LORD JESUS
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
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AN ADDITION FOR ANY WHO WANT TO LOOK FURTHER -
This is from F B Meyer, the great Greek scholar:
p?e?µa (spirit) denotes the higher and purely spiritual side of the inner life, what is elsewhere called by Paul ???? (reason); ???? is the lower side, which comes in contact with the region of the senses. The spirit is preserved blameless in its totality at the advent, i.e. so that it approves itself blameless at the advent (?µ?µpt?? is a more exact definition of ????????? t????e??), when the voice of truth always rules in it; the soul, when it strives against all the charms of the senses; and, lastly, the body, when it is not abused as the instrument of shameful actions.
