1 Thessalonians 5:23

In these words, which conclude this epistle, observe,

I. Paul's prayer for them, Th1 5:23. He had told them, in the beginning of this epistle, that he always made mention of them in his prayers; and, now that he is writing to them, he lifts up his heart to God in prayer for them. Take notice, 1. To whom the apostle prays, namely, The very God of peace. He is the God of grace, and the God of peace and love. He is the author of peace and lover of concord; and by their peaceableness and unity, from God as the author, those things would best be obtained which he prays for. 2. The things he prays for on behalf of the Thessalonians are their sanctification, that God would sanctify them wholly; and their preservation, that they might be preserved blameless. He prays that they may be wholly sanctified, that the whole man may be sanctified, and then that the whole man, spirit, soul, and body, may be preserved: or, he prays that they may be wholly sanctified, that is, more perfectly, for the best are sanctified but in part while in this world; and therefore we should pray for and press towards complete sanctification. Where the good work of grace is begun, it shall be carried on, be protected and preserved; and all those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus shall be preserved to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And because, if God did not carry on his good work in the soul, it would miscarry, we should pray to God to perfect his work, and preserve us blameless, free from sin and impurity, till at length we are presented faultless before the throne of his glory with exceeding joy.

II. His comfortable assurance that God would hear his prayer: Faithful is he who calleth you, who will also do it, Th1 5:24. The kindness and love of God had appeared to them in calling them to the knowledge of his truth, and the faithfulness of God was their security that they should persevere to the end; and therefore, the apostle assures them, God would do what he desired; he would effect what he had promised; he would accomplish all the good pleasure of his goodness towards them. Note, Our fidelity to God depends upon his faithfulness to us.

III. His request of their prayers: Brethren, pray for us, Th1 5:25. We should pray for one another; and brethren should thus express brotherly love. This great apostle did not think it beneath him to call the Thessalonians brethren, nor to request their prayers. Ministers stand in need of their people's prayers; and the more people pray for their ministers the more good ministers may have from God, and the more benefit people may receive by their ministry.

IV. His salutation: Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss, Th1 5:26. Thus the apostle sends a friendly salutation from himself, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, and would have them salute each other in their names; and thus he would have them signify their mutual love and affection to one another by the kiss of charity (Pe1 5:14), which is here called a holy kiss, to intimate how cautious they should be of all impurity in the use of this ceremony, then commonly practised; as it should not be a treacherous kiss like that of Judas, so not a lascivious kiss like that of the harlot, Pro 7:13.

V. His solemn charge for the reading of this epistle, Th1 5:27. This is not only an exhortation, but an adjuration by the Lord. And this epistle was to be read to all the holy brethren. It is not only allowed to the common people to read the scriptures, and what none should prohibit, but it is their indispensable duty, and what they should be persuaded to do. In order to this, these holy oracles should not be kept concealed in an unknown tongue, but translated into the vulgar languages, that all men, being concerned to know the scriptures, may be able to read them, and be acquainted with them. The public reading of the law was one part of the worship of the sabbath among the Jews in their synagogues, and the scriptures should be read in the public assemblies of Christians also.

VI. The apostolical benediction that is usual in other epistles: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen, Th1 5:28. We need no more to make us happy than to know that grace which our Lord Jesus Christ has manifested, be interested in that grace which he has purchased, and partake of that grace which dwells in him as the head of the church. This is an ever-flowing and overflowing fountain of grace to supply all our wants.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Th_5:23

The very God of peace sanctify you wholly

A short but comprehensive prayer

The apostle had told the Thessalonians in the beginning of his Epistle, that he always made mention of them in his prayers; and, now he is Writing to them, and closing his Epistle, he lifteth up his whole heart for them.

I. The God to whom the apostle prays, namely, the very God of Peace. He is sometimes denominated the God of all grace, the God of love, but here--the very God of peace, not only because He is the Author of peace, but also the Lover of concord. There was a special reason for this: Paul felt that by the peaceableness and unity of the Thessalonians themselves they would best obtain those things for which he prays. God does not bestow His choice blessings on the members of a Church who are given to strife and disorder, but on those who are bound together in one by the golden cord of love. Such peace and fellowship are pleasant to behold both to men and angels; how much more to God Himself! (Psa_133:1-3).

II. The burden of the apostles prayer.

1. Sanctification. Not partial but entire--the whole man. Or, he prays that they may be more perfectly sanctified, for the best are sanctified but in part while in this world; and therefore we should pray for and press toward complete sanctification.

2. Preservation. Where the good work of grace is begun, it will be carried on, be protected and preserved; and all those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus shall be preserved to the coming of Christ Jesus. If God did not carry on His good work in the soul, it would miscarry; and therefore we should pray God to perfect it, and preserve us blameless, that is, free from sin and impurity, till at length we are presented faultless before the throne of His glory with exceeding great joy.

III. The apostles assurance anent his, prayer. Faithful is He that calleth you, he writes to his converts, who also will do it. The sovereign kindness and infinite love of God had already graciously appeared to them in calling them to the saving knowledge of His truth, and the sure faithfulness of God was their security that they would be Divinely helped to persevere to the end. Accordingly, the apostle assures them that God would do what he desired: He would effect what He had Himself promised: He would accomplish all the good pleasure of His goodness toward them. Verily, our fidelity to God depends upon Gods faithfulness to us. (R. Fergusson.)

Sanctification

I. The agent in our sanctification is the Spirit of God (2Th_2:13; 1Pe_1:2; 1Co_6:14; see also Rom_8:1-39). By the Father we are sanctified, as we are chosen by Him unto sanctification; as by His good pleasure and free grace the atonement of Christ and the sanctifying agency of the Spirit exist. By the Son we are sanctified, as His death is the only means by which we ever become holy, and by which the Spirit came into the world for the benevolent purpose of making us holy. By the Spirit we are sanctified as the immediate Agent in applying to us the blessings of Christs redemption, particularly in renewing and purifying our hearts and lives. Thus, although this work is immediately performed by the Spirit as the proper Agent, yet we are truly, though more remotely, said to be sanctified by the Father, by the Son, and by the Godhead universally considered.

II. The instruments of our sanctification are generally the Word and Providence of God.

1. The Word of God is the means of our sanctification in all cases in which it contributes to render us better, whether it be read, heard, or remembered; whether it be pondered with love, reverence, wonder, or delight; or whether, with similar affections, it be faithfully obeyed; whether its instructions and impressions be communicated to us directly, or through the medium of Divine ordinances, or the conversation, or the communion, or the example of our fellow Christians.

2. The Providence of God becomes the means of our sanctification in all the ways in which it makes solemn and religious impressions on the mind.

III. The process of sanctification may be summarily exhibited in the following manner.

1. It is progressive through life. The first sanctifying act of the Spirit of God is employed in regenerating the soul. Succeeding acts of the same nature are employed in purifying it through all the successive periods of life.

2. This process is not uniform. By this I intend that it is not the same in manner or degree every day, month, or year. From whatever cause it arises, our views are at times brighter, our vigilance more active, our resolution stronger, our temper more serene, and our energy more vigorous than at other times. This is visible in all that we speak, or think, or do, whatever may be the objects of our attention. That a state of things in us, which so materially affects ourselves in our very nature, should have an important influence on our religious interests is to be expected of course. The changes are here wrought in ourselves; and we, the persons thus changed, are those whose religion is concerned. As we are changed, therefore the state of our religion must in a greater or less degree be changed also.

3. The process of sanctification is universal. By this I intend that it affects the whole man: his views, affections, purposes, and conduct, and those of every kind. It extends alike to his duties of every kind; toward himself, his fellow creatures, and his Maker. It affects and improves indiscriminately all the virtues of the Christian character: love to God and to mankind, faith, repentance, justice, truth, kindness, humility, forgiveness, charity, generosity, public spirit, meekness, patience, fortitude, temperance, moderation, candour, and charitableness of judgment. It influences ruling passions and appetites, habits of thought and affection, of language and practice. It prompts to all the acts of piety: to prayer, praise, attendance upon the sanctuary and its ordinances, oar sanctification of the Sabbath, Christian communion, and Christian discipline.

4. The progress of sanctification is conspicuous in the life. From the commencement of Christianity in the soul the Christian course is that of a general reformation.

Remarks:

1. The considerations suggested concerning this important religious subject furnish every professing Christian with an interesting rule for the examination of his own character.

2. The same considerations furnish abundant encouragement to the Christian. Think how much God has done to accomplish this work, and you can find no room for despondency. (Timothy Dwight, D. D.)

Entire sanctification

Short of being wholly surrendered to God, we are maimed and incomplete. Holiness is the science of making men whole and keeping them whole. Christ is not come to save bits of humanity, like spars of a floating wreck, mens souls only, but to restore the finished man which God fashioned at the first, entire and without blemish. And because this is our completed life, it is our only true life. Our true life can only be that in which all our faculties find room for their harmonious development. This differs greatly from some of the notions that have gathered about the doctrine which regard the body as an enemy and persecute it accordingly; or a weak effeminacy whose conscience is troubled as to the colour of a ribbon, the size of a feather, the metal of ones watch chain; a life in which everything is suspected a ghostly mystery, a thing alike loveless and useless. Let us gladly welcome the word--entire sanctification; not the privilege of a few adventurous and favoured souls, but the everyday life of ordinary men and women in the everyday work. The word sanctification means everywhere that which is claimed by God, given to God, used for God. Take its first use, God rested on the seventh day … and sanctified it. What the Sabbath was amongst days, that man is to be amongst creatures.

I. That this is our true life is manifest in the very nature of man which is here referred to, body, soul, and spirit.

1. Man is a mystery, rent by two, we might say three, worlds.

(1) In common with the animals he has a body taken from the same earth, dependent on the same conditions, returning to the earth in the same way. And yet the beasts in following their instincts fulfil the purpose of their being, whilst man is a true man only as these instincts are checked. The reason must come in to control the appetites, but what if the passion be stronger than reason? Reason may bid the man to do right, but it does not bring the power. And, worse still, what if the reason itself drag down the man, lower the animal, and he who was sensual becomes devilish, the subject of envy, malice, pride, covetousness, revenge? What then?

(2) We turn to the other faculty--the spirit. That which looks out where reason cannot see, and listens where reason hears nothing, that which has the dread consciousness of a Presence at which reason may laugh, looking out into the dark to declare that there is nothing. But this faculty may contribute to the degradation of the man. To his other miseries this may add a thousand superstitions. Of all creatures man alone wants more than he needs, and in that one fact lies the source of mans misery. Of all animals man alone is the victim of excess. It is the infinite capacity of the spirit degraded and seeking its satisfaction through indulgence.

2. Such is this creature. In a world where all else fulfil their purpose and lie down in peace, he alone is distracted. He is too big for the world, with a mind that cannot fulfil its own ideal. Where can he find his true life, in which all that is within him can be made harmonious and balanced? Some have said, Mutilate the body to save his nobler being. Others have said, Blind the mind and mock the spirit, that the animal may be happy. Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. But surely there is a power somewhere that can keep the creature whole. Think of a steamship, steam at full pressure, engines going, sails set, yet with no hand on the helm, no lookout, no eye on the compass, hurrying on in the darkness, none knows whither. Or think of such a ship manned, yet where the forces of steam are set to one end and the sails to another, where one part of the crew will make for the Southern Cross and another steer for the North Pole. What is the remedy?

3. Let the commander come on board with due authority, then shall all these antagonistic forces be brought into harmonious working. We, seeking for deliverance, turn instinctively to our Creator. He who made us at the first must understand these faculties and can restore them to their true ends and uses. In all gradations of life we find the need of the creature met with its supply. The higher capacities of man for friendship, service, brotherhood find room and satisfaction. And is it only in the highest that we are to be left deceived? Made conscious of the infinite, yet are we to be met with the finite? If that be so, then has all nature mocked us. Every instinct within us, everything about us, cries aloud that somewhere there is that which can set the man at rest. Instinctively we lift our hands upward, assured that help must come from God. The God of Peace, who made us for Himself, can adjust the wishes and aims to His will, and the man takes his true place in the world as one having dominion over it. Here is our only true life, a life of entire consecration.

II. Our knowledge of God makes this entire sanctification our only true life. In common with other creatures, we live and move and have our being in God.

1. But this wards us from all other creatures in the world, we can give to God. This it is which makes us capable of religion. According to our gift do we find our place in one of the three great classes which divide humanity. Only to give something that we have is the mark of the heathen. Only to give something that we do is the distinction of the Jew. To give that which we are is the privilege and glory of the Christian. Take my goods and be no more angry with me, is the cry of the heathen. Behold my righteousness and remember Thy promise, speaks the Jew. I am not mine own, but Thine, live in me or I die, is the distinctive glory of the Christian.

2. But what we give to God is altogether the result of our knowledge of Him. If we know God only as Creator and Controller, who touches us only from without, we give that which is only from without. But if we know God as our Father, as Love--then is there but one offering which can satisfy Him or satisfy us, body, soul, and spirit wholly given up to Him. Before this demand of our complete surrender, there comes the revelation of God. The Epistle begins with, Grace and peace from God our Father, etc. It is in this revelation of Gods love to us that this claim finds its force. If He have given Himself to us there can be no other return than our whole being to Him. Amongst us the claims of love are such that true love is hurt and injured with less than love. If love be lacking, gifts, obedience, service do but affront and insult love. If the measure of Gods love to us be nothing less than the shame and agony and death of the Son of God, then to give Him less than our body, soul, and spirit is to make religion itself only another bewilderment.

III. Consider this life as the subject of our prayer. May the God of Peace Himself sanctify you wholly. This great work is to be done for us by God. What years of weary and wasted endeavour it would save us if we were willing to accept so obvious a truth! We linger about theories of sanctification. In seeking to make this life our own it will help us to dwell upon the three stages of sanctification as set forth in the Old Testament, the picture book of the New.

1. Sanctification is the surrender of that which is claimed. Sanctify unto me, or as it is in the original, Cause to pass over unto us. That is where sanctification begins. The demand and command of God. We have thought so much about Gods provision for our forgiveness that we have almost lost sight of the fact that forgiveness has this purpose, our perfect obedience to His will. Jesus Christ is come not to be Saviour only, but Lord. Holiness is obedience, and the beauty of Holiness is the beauty of a completed obedience. Religion may borrow the loftiest titles, and swell with the sublimest aspiration, and yet be a thing of flabby sentimentalism, without the strong pillars and girders of Gods authority. Let this surrender to God be a definite act. Our fathers often made this surrender in writing, and it is a distinct gain to make the act visible and tangible. And the process of writing gives one leisure to see into the greatness of Gods claim, and into the sincerity of our response. This is the first step we must bring into our life, the great, strong authority of God. There was an age in which the authority of God was so set forth that it concealed His love, and it produced men stern, perhaps, but grandly true, men all backbones and ribs. Let us beware lest by concealing the authority of God in His love we grow creatures without any backbones or ribs at all.

2. The second step in our sanctification is the cleansing blood. Nothing else could give such solemnity to the offering, nothing else so completely set it apart for God. This was the crimson seal upon the deed of gift. The Church of today has gone away from the Church of the first ages. The death of Christ is the ground of our salvation, that and nothing more. With them it was the resistless claim. Our answer is, Go on your happy way to heaven; theirs was, Glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are His. The blood meant ransom, redemption, but the deliverance found its purpose only in the service of God. That is the measure of the Cross of Christ--not safety only from the destroying angel, but deliverance from the bondage of sin, our victory over the world and the flesh. And that not simply as the natural effect upon us of Christs love. It is more than a passionate hatred of sin kindled by the sight of our crucified Lord; more than an enthusiastic devotion fired and sustained by the memory of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. As surely as the Cross of Christ has put me into a new relationship to God, and made it possible for Him to be just and the Justifier of him that believeth, so has that Cross put me into a new relation to the world. This is the great salvation which is provided for us. Now, in the name of Jesus Christ are we to rise to find the chains fall off, the bondage ended, the doors of the prison open, the jealous foes powerless to hold us. Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, now are we free indeed, that in everything we may be His faithful soldiers and servants until our lives end.

3. The last stage in sanctification is the Divine indwelling. Everything led up to that. Everything that was claimed was cleansed. When Moses had done all that God commanded him, then God came down and filled the place with His glorious Presence. Earth had no more to ask, and heaven no more to bestow. Up to that point God is ever seeking to lead us. Just as earth led up to man, and found its use and completeness in his coming, so was it that man led up to God. And when man came God rested from His labours, here was his resting place and home. His work was at an end, and with that indwelling all things found their finish and completion. And up to this all the great provisions of grace lead. We stand and look down through the ages and see God coming nearer to earth, until at last there cometh One who standeth and knocketh, saying, Open unto Me. Then, when He cometh in to dwell with us, paradise is restored. Once more God hath found His rest, and we have found ours, and there comes again the Sabbath calm, for that all is very good. (M. G. Pearse.)

Entire sanctification

By regeneration the heart is renewed, by justification sins are pardoned, in sanctification the life is made holy. Romanists confound justification and sanctification; but while connected they must be distinguished. The former is what is done for us, changes our state, is perfect at once, and is through the merits of Christ; the latter is what is done in us, changes our nature, is gradual, and is by the Spirit. The one gives the title, the other the fitness for glory.

I. The nature of sanctification. Separation from that which is common to that which is holy. So the furniture of the tabernacle (Exo_30:29), and priests and people were sanctified (Exo_28:41). It consists--

1. In mortifying the evils of our nature. (Rom_8:12-13). If sin is not mortified, it will prevent--

(1) Our communion with God (Eze_14:7).

(2) Growth in grace.

(3) Peace here and happiness hereafter.

That which makes clean the outside merely will never satisfy a holy God, make a holy character and fit for a holy place.

2. The consecration of the Christian to that which is holy.

(1) To the glory of God of all that he is, has, and does.

(2) To the cause of Christ which is the good of man.

II. The way of sanctification.

1. It is attributed to the redeeming, cleansing blood of Christ.

2. To the Holy Spirit (2Th_2:13 : Rom_15:16). His design is not simply to better our nature, but to cure it entirely.

3. To the Word of God as the Spirits instrument (Joh_17:17), explaining the nature, applying the promises, and imparting the hope of holiness.

4. To faith and prayer (2Th_2:13; Act_15:9; Mat_7:11). Truth sanctifies only as it is received by faith, and by prayer obtains the influence of the Spirit.

III. The characteristics of sanctification.

1. Progressiveness. We should aim at sinless perfection, and unless we increase in holiness we are increasing in sin.

2. Visibility, not of course in its essence but in its effects. We see that the tree grows, that its branches extend, that it bears fruit, although we do not see it grow.

3. Entireness. It must influence the whole man.

IV. The importance of sanctification.

1. Without it the design of Gods love to us is in vain, This is the will of God even your sanctification.

2. Without it we are strangers to the Saviours grace who died for us that He might purify unto Himself, etc.

3. Without it we are a forsaken and desecrated temple of the Holy Ghost.

4. Without it we are unfit for heaven. None but the pure in heart shall see God.

Application:

1. Use the means of sanctification, prayer, Bible study.

2. Keep before you the perfect model of sanctification in the example of Christ.

3. Never be satisfied with your attainment in sanctification. (Dr. Jarbo.)

Entire sanctification

1. Note the position of this prayer. It forms a conclusion, and this gives it a specific character.

(1) It is the natural close of the Epistle--an impressive course of precept and exhortation. Sanctification from all sins and also in its positive sense had been inculcated and prayed for, and now all previous petitions are gathered up into one.

(2) It is the close of the strain immediately preceding. As far back as 1Th_5:15, we perceive the signs of strong emotion. Pauls exhortations become very bold, and each bears the burden of perfection. The grandeur of this introduction prepares us for the grandeur of the prayer. Precisely at the point when mans ambition to be perfect has been stimulated to the utmost, the transition is made from what we can do for ourselves to what God can do foe us.

2. The peculiarities of the prayer. It is marked off from the rest of Pauls prayers in that it has more of the temple spirit and phraseology. This suggests at once a comparison with our Lords High Priestly consecration prayer (Joh_17:1-26). The Divine consecration separating believers from the world while keeping them blameless in it; having its end, on the one hand, in the unity of the mystical body in holiness, and on the other, the vision of Christs glory at His coming; and brought to its perfection by the righteous or faithful God of the Christian vocation; these form a series of ideas common to Christ and Paul.

3. The expressions by which God is invoked in Pauls prayers are always great expository helps.

(1) The God of peace is the author of reconciliation accomplished through the atoning mediation of Christ, Those only can be sanctified who have entered into the enjoyment of the Divine favour. Peace begins the state of grace, pervades it, and is its perfection (Rom_5:1).

(2) He that calleth (1Th_5:24). Sometimes the calling refers to the past--at conversion: sometimes to the final issue; here, however, it is the continuous call between the two extremes--always to holiness. This name is a remembrancer, every time we hear it, of an abiding obligation on our part, and a constant will on the part of God.

(3) The third name is not mentioned but implied. God is the only sanctifier--the Father (Joh_17:17), the Son (Heb_2:11), the Holy Ghost (2Th_2:13). Only a lax religious phraseology speaks of a mans consecrating himself. We have words for duty and virtue in every form, but this must be sanctified or set apart from our common use. Only One could say I sanctify myself.

4. Entering the prayer itself we mark its great central idea, the entireness of personal sanctification: but to clear the way we must consider what is not meant, that in which all accepted believers are entirely sanctified.

(1) They are absolutely washed from the guilt of sin (Heb_10:22). In this sense sanctification and justification are one. The soul that is justified in the forum or court mediatorial is in the temple and before the altar sanctified, and completely (Heb_10:14).

(2) They are presented to God upon an altar which makes everything holy, and they are thus set apart to the Divine service. Now that must be absolute or nothing. The offering must be either on the altar or not on it. But the oblation has yet to go up to heaven in the consuming fire as a whole burnt offering.

(3) They are complete in Christ according to the foreknowledge of God (Rom_8:30; Heb_10:14; 1Co_1:30).

(4) These several views unite in the element of imputation. But the apostles prayer uses a word which takes us into an altogether different region, Faithful, etc. (1Th_5:24). He does not ask that God may count, but that God may make them holy. The entireness of sanctification is here expressed in two ways. It is--

I. A complete consecration of the whole person or being of the Christian.

1. Consider some objections arising out of the form and construction of the sentence. It has been said that the words are too rare and uncertain to admit of a doctrine so important being based upon them. But granted that they are unusual, they are chosen with extreme precision, and bear their sense in their very form. Passing by this, two other objections, based upon it, must be noticed.

(1) One takes the form of an honourable but unsound explanation which assumes that wholly refers to the Thessalonian Church, and blameless to individual members. But there is no instance of any particular community being regarded as capable of entire sanctification. That blessedness is the prerogative of the Christian or the whole mystical body of Christ.

(2) The other less-worthy subterfuge asserts that the plain meaning of the terms must not be unduly pressed; that Pauls theology ought not to be made responsible for his exuberant phrases. This loose theory of inspiration as here applied is condemned by the fact that the text begins and ends with the power of God. And with regard to Faithful is He, it is remarkable that it is always used when the strength of the apostles language might seem to demand the confirmation of a special Divine guarantee.

2. Entire sanctification as an end attained consists of--

(1) A consecrating act of God put forth to the utmost necessary point. The work is one of Divine power which God begins, continues, and brings to perfection. He will do it. This separates our sanctification from everything which man by his own effort may attain. It is not the result of a new direction or impetus given to our faculties; through no energy of the self-consecrated will; through no mighty outgoings of the regenerate feeling; through no contemplation of the regenerate reason. There is a power above and behind using them, but not leaving the recovery of holiness to them. It is not the moral agent retrieving himself by Divine aid, but a new and more abundant life infused, sustained and carried to perfection by God Himself.

(2) This sanctifying power extends to all the elements of mans nature.

(a) His spirit is that element of his nature which is his distinction. In it he is only a little lower than the angels for a season, and has no fellowship whatever with the lower creation. Here is the seat of the Divine image, marred but never lost, and whose perfect restoration must wait until sanctification is lost in glory. Meanwhile the reason is entirely dedicated to its original function of being the depository of the supreme first principles of goodness, rectitude, and truth; the conscience is sanctified unto perfect fidelity as an internal legislator true to the truth, as an incorruptible witness pacified, and as a fearless interpreter of the Divine judgment; the will is sanctified as the servant of its own supreme choice and intention, and as the master of its own acts, by release from every impediment of unholy motives and by the constant influence of the truth applied by the spirit; the impulse behind and the end before, and all its means between consecrated in the unity of one supreme principle--the glory of God. But we are apt to lose the noblest meaning of the term spirit, by the use of these synonyms. It is the element in mans nature that is capable of God. Dead or asleep in the unregenerate, it is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit; and when it is entirely possessed by Him who quickens it--the spiritual man being filled with the Spirit, and wholly spiritual--it is wholly sanctified to the vision of God.

(b) The soul is consecrated as distinct from the spirit. This faculty, when mentioned apart from the spirit, comes between the higher and lower elements of our being. It is the sphere of the desires and passions, which are innocent in themselves, but transformed by the sinful will into worldly affections and lusts, which are restored, however, by being brought under the control of the Holy Spirit through the will, refusing them their unholy stimulants and nourishment in the world.

(c) The body is also sanctified as the instrument of spirit and soul. As such it has abundant honour put upon it as the temple of the Holy Ghost. But like spirit and soul, its sanctification is limited till sanctification and glorification shall be one.

(3) The entireness of the consecration. Wholly has reference to the person made up of these constituents. The three parts are not introduced to show that holiness becomes perfect by proceeding through these inwardly towards the centre. The sanctification is of the man in whom these unite. It begins with the self of the new man, and the Holy Ghost dwelling therein, becomes a will within the will that rules the whole; and when He has confirmed that will in supreme devotion to God, sanctification is entire.

II. The preservation of the same integral person in a state of blamelessness till the coming of Christ.

1. The same power that sanctifies as an act preserves that sanctification as a state. Entire sanctification as distinguished from sanctification is the confirmed, habitual, no longer interrupted devotion of the whole being to God. As the power which created the world sustains it by an indwelling energy, so the power which can fix upon God the strength of the whole soul can keep it fixed upon Him. A strong influence of grace descending in answer to prayer may carry the whole soul to God for a season. When the prayer of faith which brings this blessing becomes unceasing this act becomes the tranquil state of the soul. By faith we stand, and He who is faithful is able to keep us from falling.

2. This consecration is the preservation of all that belongs to Spirit, etc., in the fellowship and service of God. The whole man becomes entirely the Lords property and worshipper, His instrument and servant. Hence entire sanctification is the habitual communion with God as the supreme good of the soul; and the habitual reference of every act to the will and glory of God as the Lord of life. Love makes the whole being a whole burnt offering.

3. This state of entire consecration is preserved in blamelessness.

(1) No blame is imputed to it; by virtue of the atoning blood it is in a constant state of acceptance.

(2) It is a faultless sacrifice. The High Priest so entirely consecrates the offering to God that sin is no longer found in it.

4. The fidelity of God is pledged to the accomplishment of this. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

The sanctification of the complete man

I. Its meaning.

1. What does Paul mean by being sanctified wholly?

(1) In man there is a trinity of powers linking him with three different worlds.

(a) By the body, with its sensations, etc., we are connected with the earth.

(b) By the soul, powers merely natural, faculties, passions, and affections, we are connected with the sorrowing, rejoicing, toiling world.

(c) But there are deeper things linking us with a sublimer region, an emotion that pants for the eternal, prayers that cry out for the infinite--these are voices of the spirit.

(2) These, Paul says, are to be sanctified, i.e., consecrated.

(a) The body, not by crushing and despising it, but using it as a gift of God for His glory.

(b) The soul, not by despising its gifts as carnal, or shutting our ears to the appeals of affection, but by dedicating it to God; thus making hopes, ambitions, loves, holy.

(c) The spirit must be sanctified, for when men have used the powers of their spirit as their own they have fallen into spiritual sins, intolerance, bigotry, pride.

2. Why does Paul lay such emphasis on the consecration of all our powers? Because they are gateways of temptation from three different worlds, and unless they are consecrated we are never safe.

(1) Men have tried to purify their outward life alone, leaving soul and spirit unguarded, and then secret sins of pride and imagination break out.

(2) Men have left the spirit unconsecrated. Guarding body and soul, subduing bodily fear, and ready to meet scorn and shame, Peter, relying on his own strength, fell at the first temptation.

(3) Men have tried to hallow the spirit only, to keep their higher life apart, hence the dishonesties which have so often blemished men professing peculiar saintliness. We must be consecrated through the whole range of our powers or we shall not be consecrated at all.

II. Its attainment.

1. We cannot consecrate ourselves. We try it.

(1) We subdue the body, but the soul, with its temptations, is too strong for us.

(2) We strain all our energies to subdue sins of the intellect and affections; and then we are tempted with spiritual pride. Weary of the struggle, we say, It is all vain. It is not. Admit your weakness, and cry to God the sanctifier.

2. God preserves the entire sanctification by imparting peace. The calmness He gives when we cease our own efforts is our truest might to maintain this complete consecration.

III. Its motive. Until the coming, etc. This coming is--

1. A day of manifestation. Because that day is coming sanctify--

(1) The body, that it may shine out a glorified body in that day;

(2) The soul, that it may be able to receive the truth and light of that day;

(3) The spirit, that it may be able to commune with the Eternal Love.

2. A day of everlasting gatherings. Sanctify, therefore, body, etc., that you may be meetened for the Church of the firstborn. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The prayer for entire consecration

The momentous warning of 1Th_5:19 perhaps led to this prayer that the temple in which that holy flame was burning might be preserved in its integrity and blamelessness. Whole does not mean the three associated together, but that each may be preserved in its completeness. The prayer is threefold.

I. That they may be sanctified by the God of peace.

1. Sanctification is the condition of outward and inward peace.

2. This sanctification is to be complete wholly in their collective powers and constituents.

II. That each constituent may be preserved to our Lords coming. Each part of the man and the whole man is immortal.

III. That each so preserved may be entire and complete, not mutilated or disintegrated by sin.

1. That the body may retain its yet uneffaced image of God, and its unimpaired aptitude to be a living sacrifice to its Maker.

2. The appetitive soul, its purer hopes and nobler aspirations.

3. The spirit, its everblessed associate the Holy Spirit of God. (Bp. Ellicott.)

I pray God that your whole spirit, and soul, and body--The word rendered whole, signifies literally, whole inheritance or portion. It is applied metaphorically to a city, all whose buildings are standing, undamaged by fire or sword; to an empire, the provinces of which are entire; to an army, whose troops are yet undiminished by any casualty. St. Paul, therefore, may be considered to pray that the believers whole inheritance may be kept inviolate. And what is this inheritance? It is threefold, a Body--a Soul--a Spirit. Man, that is, is delineated not as a simple, but as a compound being. He has three constituent parts, and the apostolic prayer is to the effect that every one of these parts may be kept without loss until the day of Christs appearing. (Bp. Woodford.)

The tripartite nature of man

I. Body--sense-consciousness.

II. Soul--self-consciousness.

III. Spirit--God-consciousness. (J. B. Heard, M. A.)

There are three things of which man in his entirety consists--flesh, soul, and spirit: the one, the spirit, giving form; the other, the flesh, receiving form. The soul is intermediate between these two: sometimes it follows the spirit and is elevated by it, and sometimes it consents to the flesh and falls into earthly concupiscences. (Irenaeus.)

Body, soul, and spirit

An ancient philosopher once called the human frame a harmony of bones, and a beautiful cathedral may be well called a harmony of stones. Following the same train of thought in a wider application, I might point out to you how man in his entire composite structure of body and soul and spirit was designed by his Creator to be, as it were, a living instrument of diverse chords attuned to one perfect harmony. How should I describe the relations to each other of these factors of our human fabric? Should I call the body the sheath of the soul, and the soul the sheath of the spirit? Or the body the organ of the soul, and the soul the organ of the spirit? Or the first the utterance of the second, and the second the expression of the third? What is the body for? Not for intemperance, incontinence, greed; the body is for the Lord. He is its Builder and Redeemer: doubly Owner of it and twice Proprietor, first by creation and then by redemption. If, then, we would live to the Lord, let us keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity. But what did I say--let us keep the body in order? Why, the body is the organ of the soul; the soul rules it with a will, uses it with a will, bids it walk with feet, touch with hand, taste with tongue, speak with mouth, see with eyes. To keep the body in order, then, we must keep the soul in order--filling it with good desires, pure motives, wise counsels, noble aims and aspirations. Yes, but what is to keep the soul in order? Why, the soul itself is controlled by that of which it is the organ and the expression, even by the spirit. So, then, let each of us fill our highest nature, even the spirit, with good desires, pure motives, noble aspirations, lofty thoughts of God and heaven. But can we? Is a mans ego or self outside a man that he should pour into his own spirit good desires, as he would pour water into a cistern? A mans ego is inside the man, whether it be seated in the soul, or in the spirit, or in both. For behind the body is its ruler and director, the soul, behind the soul is its ruler the spirit: but behind the spirit of man is what? Is there no superior? Why, yes; some unseen power there is, that plays the part of King David to the harp, and makes the music of the instrument; that suggests, inspires, persuades, drawing to virtue or tempting to vice--an evil power drawing to evil, a good power to good. If Gods Spirit penetrate, intensify, illuminate mans spirit and through that reach the soul, and bend the will submissive to good, until the man subdue his own flesh to his own spirit, that man, by faith in Christ, shall save his soul alive. But if, alas! the reverse of this--if the love of the world, the lust of the eye, the pride of life should smother, stifle, quench the nobler aspiration after holiness and happiness--such a man, if he resist to the end the strivings of the Holy Ghost in the domain of his own spirit, shall, in the words of our Lord, lose his own soul--his own self. We are fearfully and wonderfully made: our triple organism is a mystery, but our double destiny is a certainty. There is to life eternal a dread alternative. There is the one way to heaven before us, and Jesus Christ is this one Way; and there is another way leading to hell. Powers of evil and powers of good surround us: the angels of God attend upon us for our well-being, the angels of Satan hover about us, tempting us to our ruin. Environed by this conflict in the air between good and evil, we must be loyal to our Master, true to our only Saviour, stedfast in prayer and watching, doing our duty in our several stations, keeping our garments unspotted of the flesh: ever using the sacramental means of grace in the Holy Supper; and so, and only so, the Spirit of Christ, which flows through the mystical veins of His Divine humanity, shall fill with its goodness and gentleness, its purity and charity, our own spirits, through them controlling our souls and bodies. For in Gods propriety of order, the body is the tabernacle of the soul, the soul is the temple of the human spirit, and the human spirit is the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost. (Canon T. S. Evans, D. D.)

Body, soul, and spirit

I. Every department of the universe of matter finds itself represented in the body of man.

1. Whenever he receives, digests, and is nourished by food, and experiences bodily pain, man lives the life of the: animal.

2. The hair, which grows and is nourished, and yet which is endowed with no sensation, belongs to, and connects us with, the vegetable kingdom.

3. Mineral matter enters largely into the composition of the circulating lifeblood, whose current throbs in every extremity of our frame--and thus a link of sympathy, and community of nature, is established between man and a third great department of matter.

II. The Soul is that, which when held in combination with the body, connects us with the beasts of the field. For by the soul is probably to be understood the passions or affections--such as have no element of reason or the higher nature in them--perhaps natural instincts would be a more generally intelligible term. It will not be denied that brutes manifest fear, when they are threatened or punished; that there is a strong spirit of emulation and competition among horses; that anger and jealousy will lead stags to encounter one another; that all animals care for their young, and that in some the maternal instinct is developed with a power which almost surpasses that feeling as it exists in man. Now fear and emulation and anger and parental affection, and other such instincts--in their crude state, unmodified by reason, and the sense of right and wrong--constitute, I suppose, the ψυχὴ, or soul, of which the apostle is here speaking.

III. The spirit comprises all that higher part of human nature, by which man holds of God and blessed angels. The spirit gives him a sympathy with the world above, even as the soul gives him a sympathy with the animals, and as the body gives him a sympathy with the material universe. Angels are said to be ministering spirits. And it is remarkable that when man is spoken of in the Scriptures as holding communion with God, the spirit and not the body is mentioned as the organ through which that communion is held (Rom_1:9; Joh_4:24). The beasts that perish cannot apprehend God, cannot understand the Divine Word and Will, or hold communion in any form with the Eternal. Why not? They have no natural capacity for doing so. Some link in their nature is wanting, which, if it were present, might make them competent to an exercise so sweet and yet so awful. That link is πνεῦμα--spirit. (Dean Goulburn.)

Body, soul and spirit sanctified

I. The three-fold nature of man. In ordinary language, which the Scripture itself does not hesitate commonly to adopt, a two-fold division of our nature is recognized--man is said to be made up of body and soul. By the word soul are understood both his moral and intellectual faculties--those points in his being which distinguish him from other animals, and to cultivate which is the proper business of his life. It is thus used to signify the highest part of his nature; and therefore in the language of those who know the true objects of his highest faculties, and the exalted state to which they might be raised hereafter, it expresses his immortal part in contradistinction to that which is to perish with this present life (Mat_10:28). But as the notions generally entertained respecting the highest part of our nature were in many respects highly erroneous--as our relation to God as our Maker and Father was lost sight of, and further, as ceasing to regard Him as the great object and centre of our being, men naturally lost all clear and lively hopes of immortality, the word soul in its common acceptation among the Greeks was inadequate to express the loftier and more enlightened conceptions of a Christian, with respect to his best faculties and their most perfect state. We find, therefore, in several passages of the New Testament that a third term is employed in addition to those of body and soul, and intended to express something superior to the soul in its common sense, as the soul is superior to the body. The third term is spirit, which, in the signification now alluded to, seems applicable to Christians only, and to denote that perfection of human nature which it was the object of the gospel to accomplish--an understanding that should know God, and affections that should love Him; or, in other words, a spiritual creature capable of enjoying communion with the Father of Spirits, and from that relation being naturally immortal. Thus, then, when this three-fold division of our nature is mentioned, the term body expresses those appetites we have in common with the brutes; the term soul denotes our moral and intellectual faculties, directed only toward objects of this world, and not exalted by the hope of immortality; and the term spirit takes these same faculties when directed toward God and heavenly things, and from the purity, the greatness, and the perfect goodness of Him who is their object, transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

II. The perfection or blamelessness of this triple nature. With the government of the body all are engaged at some periods of their lives, and some through the whole of their lives. All more or less can understand the temptations to indolence and comfort, and to the indulgence of intemperance and sensuality, How many thousands there are who live like Esau! Their appetites are keen, and their enjoyments lively; the body is alive, while the soul and spirit are almost dead; and therefore the man lives what may be called an animal life; but as a man with a soul, and much more as a Christian with a spirit, he is in the lowest state of degradation, neither fit for the life that is to come, nor yet for the life of a reasonable being even in this present world. To keep down the body, therefore, and bring it into subjection, was the object of fasting and mortification; but what is specially wanted is to raise and strengthen the soul and spirit, that the body may be able and ready to aid them in their work, which it cannot do unless it be itself sound and vigorous. The soul is commonly strengthened by the growth and cultivation of the powers of the understanding, and by the various objects which attract the mind as we come forth into actual life. But the perfection of the soul must not be preferred to that of the spirit, any more than that of the body to that of the soul. The excellence of our spirit is to feel and hope as spiritual and deathless creatures. When this takes place, how beautiful is the sight to behold the spirit, and soul, and body, each healthy and strong, and each working in its proper order to perfect its own happiness, and thereby to advance the glory of the Triune-One! (T. Arnold, D. D.)

The spiritual nature

What Paul prayed for his friends we may well pray for both ourselves and our friends--a blameless spirit, a blameless soul, a blameless body. This is the whole man.

1. What we mean by the body we very well understand. Mystery even in the body there is, it is true; but still, on the whole, what is meant by a blameless body requires no great exposition. The man with a perfect physique, the man who is a picture of perfect health, verifies himself to our senses, with his broad shoulders, his brawny, muscular limbs, the glow of health upon the cheek, his unwearied vigour by day, his sweet, undisturbed sleep at night.

2. We look in the Greek, to find the same word indiscriminately rendered life and soul. We look in the Latin, and find the word that stands for soul to be anima, that which animates the body. The soul, then, is that which gives life to this physical organization, The brain is but ashes, without intellect behind it. The heart is a mere muscular valve, if there be no affection and love which make it beat quicker in the presence of the loved one. That which gives physical organism its use, that which makes it an instrument, that which links man to his fellow man, that which deals with the transient and the visible, with that which is round about us, what philosophers classify as the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will--we call this the soul.

3. But what is the spirit? It is by the spirit that we discern the truth. It is the spirit which is ever against the flesh, antagonizing, striving for full mastery of it. It is the spirit which links us to God. It is the spirit which is the Divine and immortal principle in man, undying. So that if there be no spirit, or if it be left to die, there is no immortal life. Let us look for a few moments, and see what are some of the characteristics of this spiritual nature, what some of the indications of the possession of this spiritual in man. But how shall you know what is the value, worth, character, of your spiritual nature? He that has a spiritual nature--

I. Will have at least a hungering after the spiritual.

1. This may be, indeed, the only evidence of spiritual nature in him. It certainly is the first. Before as yet the artist knows how to paint or draw, he has in him the desire for painting; and the little boy takes up his pencil and scrawls away, trying to make forms, so bearing witness to a seed-art within him that needs development. The bird has a wish for the air before its wings are fledged and it can soar out from the nest. Our hungers indicate what we are.

2. And as the Bible expresses and interprets the desire of spirituality, so it gives its promise to those desires. You may wish for wealth, and stay poor. But the soul that longs for a stronger conscience, a clearer faith, a more eager and joyous hope, a diviner reverence, shall not go unsatisfied.

II. Has in him something that perceives the spiritual.

III. Will find expression for the spiritual. We are not all teachers, but we all live; and, after all, the true measure and final test of spiritual life is not what we think, nor what we say, but the way in which we live. I pray God that you present yourselves, spirit, soul, body, blameless before the throne of His grace.

1. Blameless in body: with no wart upon it of intemperance or sensual self-indulgence.

2. Blameless in soul, with no ignorant superstition degrading it, with no social coldness, no disfellowship of humanity, no idleness shackling the hands that should have been busy in service.

3. Blameless in spirit--what do I mean by that? I pray God that you may have--

(1) A reverence that shall always show something higher and grander and nobler and diviner than the eye has ever shown you, and shall always make you bow before it and follow after it.

(2) A hope that shall summon you to a nobler and diviner life than can be interpreted by anything the eye has ever seen or the ear has ever heard.

(3) A conscience that shall hold you rigorously and undeviatingly in the path of rectitude, not turning to the right hand nor the left under beckoning enticement or under threatening pressure and menace.

(4) A love so large, so catholic, and so inspired by Him that no wrong shall weary its patience, no iniquity shall blur or hinder its sympathy, no sorrow shall fall to touch its pity: for this makes manhood and womanhood. Not what we know: ignorance does not defile us. Not what we have done: doing does not make us. But what in the higher developments of our soul, what in our reverence, in our hope, in our faith, in our love, we are--that really makes us. (Lyman Abbott.)

The kings lodging

Manton says: If an earthly king lie but a night in a house, what care is there taken that nothing be offensive to him, but that all things be neat, clean, and sweet? How much more ought you to be careful to get and keep your hearts clean, to perform service acceptably to Him; to be in the exercise of faith, love and other graces, that you may entertain, as you ought, your heavenly King, who comes to take up His continual abode and residence in your hearts! We know a house in which an empress rested for a very short time, and the owner henceforth refused to admit other inmates. Such is his devotion to his royal guest that no one may now sit in her chair or dine at the table which she honoured. Our verdict is that he makes loyalty into absurdity by this conduct; but if we imitate him in this procedure in reference to the Lord Jesus we shall be wise. Let our whole being be set apart for Jesus, and for Jesus only. We shall not have to shut up the house; for our beloved Lord will inhabit every chamber of it, and make it a permanent palace. Let us see to it that all be holy, all pure, all devout. Help us, O Purifier of the temple, to drive out all intruders, and reserve our soul in all the beauty of holiness for the Blessed and Only Potentate. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th 5:23-26. And the very God of peace — Αυτος δε ο Θεος της ειρηνης, literally, May the God of peace himself; that is, he who is ready to give you peace with himself after all you have done; who is in Christ reconciling you to himself, not imputing your trespasses unto you, if in repentance and faith you turn to him, but on these terms preaching peace to you by Jesus Christ: sanctify you wholly — That is, may he carry on and complete the work of purification and renovation begun in your regeneration, redeeming you from all iniquity, Tit 2:14; cleansing you from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 2Co 7:1; stamping you with his whole image, and rendering you a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but made holy toward God, dedicated to and employed in his service, and without blame in the whole of your conduct toward men. The word ολοτελεις, here rendered wholly, signifies every part of you, and every part perfectly; implying that every faculty of their souls, and every sense and member of their bodies, should be completely purified, and devoted to the service of God. And I pray God — These words are not in the original, which is literally, and may the whole of you, ολοκληρον υμων, your whole constitution, the whole frame of your nature, all belonging to you, all of and about you, be made and preserved blameless. And what the apostle means by this whole constitution, or frame, of their nature, he immediately specifies, mentioning the spirit, the soul, and the body. Here, says Whitby, “the apostle justifies the ancient and true philosophy, that man is, as Nemesius styles him, τριμερης υποστασις, a compound of three differing parts. This was the doctrine of the Pythagoreans, and also that of the Platonists, who held that there is in man a soul irrational, which includes the affections of the body; and a mind, which uses the body as its instrument, and fights against it. This also was the doctrine of the Stoics, whence Antoninus saith, The three constituent parts of man are σωμα, ψυχη, νους, the body, soul, and mind. Irenæus, and Clemens of Alexandria, and Origen, say the same.” He adds, “those two excellent philosophers, Gassendus and Dr. Willis, have established this philosophy beyond all reasonable contradiction.” It appears also, as the learned Vitringa has very accurately shown, a notion prevailed among the rabbis, as well as the philosophers, that the person of a man was constituted of three distinct substances; 1st, the rational spirit, which survives the death of the body, and is immortal; 2d, the animal soul, which man has in common with the beasts, and which dies with the body; and, 3d, the visible body. Many other learned divines, however, are of opinion, that as the apostle’s design was to teach mankind religion, and not philosophy, he might use the popular language to which the Thessalonians were accustomed, without adopting the philosophy on which that language was founded: consequently that it is not necessary to consider him as intending more by his prayer than that the Thessalonian believers might be thoroughly sanctified, of how many constituent parts soever their nature consisted. “To comprehend,” says Macknight, “the distinction between soul and spirit,” which the sacred writers seem to have intimated in some passages, “the soul must be considered as connected both with the body and with the spirit. By its connection with the body, the soul receives impressions from the senses; and by its connection with the spirit, it conveys these impressions, by means of the imagination and memory, to the spirit, as materials for its operations. The powers last mentioned, through their connection with the body, are liable indeed to be so disturbed by injuries befalling it, as to convey false perceptions to the spirit. But the powers of the spirit not being affected by bodily injuries, it judges of the impressions conveyed to it as accurately as if they were true representations, so that the conclusions which it forms are generally right.” It may not be improper to add here, that the spirit, as distinguished from the two other parts included in the human constitution, seems to be supposed by the apostle (Heb 4:12) to be capable of being separated from the soul, his expression being, The word of God is quick, &c., piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit; and some have thought that he intimates, (1Co 14:14-15,) that the one may know what the other does not. Be this, however, as it may, 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, including the understanding, the judgment, conscience, and will; the animal, comprehending the affections, passions, and sensations; and corporal, 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. Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — To call you hence by death, or to summon you to appear at his bar. Faithful is he —

To his word and promises; that calleth you — By his gospel; who also will do it — Will preserve you blameless to his coming, unless you quench the Spirit. He “will not,” says Whitby, “be wanting in what is requisite on his part toward it; I say his part, for if the faithfulness of God required that he should sanctify and preserve us blameless to the end without our care, or should work in us absolutely and certainly that care, and the apostle believed this, how could he fear lest the Thessalonians should be so overcome by Satan’s temptations, as that his labour with them might be in vain, 1Th 3:5; this being, in effect, to fear that God might be unfaithful to his promise.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1Th_5:23. Sanctify you wholly.—“Rather—unto completeness. The apostle prays that they may be sanctified to the fullest extent” (Ibid.). Your whole spirit … be preserved blameless.—R.V. “be preserved entire, without blame.” “From the degree of holiness desired we pass to its range, from its intension (as the logicians would say) to its extension” (Ibid.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Th_5:23-24

A Prayer for Sanctification.

Sanctification is the supreme end of the Christian life, and everything should be made to contribute to the grand result. It is the crown and ornament of all other graces, the perfecting of every moral virtue. The fact that man is capable of so lofty a degree of personal holiness indicates that it is the supreme end for which he ought to live. He misses the glory that is within his reach if he does not attain to it. Sanctification in its radical meaning is simply separation—a separation from what is evil to what is good. It then implies to make holy that which is unholy. It begins in a moral transformation, the regeneration of the heart, and advances to perfection. Observe:—

I. That sanctification is a complete work.—“Sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless” (1Th_5:23).

1. It affects the intellectual nature of man.—“Your spirit.” It is this that distinguishes truth from falsehood and apprehends the mysteries of religion. If the intellect is sanctified, there is less danger of falling into error and heresy. Enlightened by the Holy Ghost, it enables man to prove all things and to test and judge every aspect of truth.

2. It affects the spiritual nature of man.—“Your soul”—the seat of the affections and will, the passions and appetites. The having the heart in a right or wrong condition makes the difference between the moral and the immoral character. When the heart is sanctified the passions and appetites are kept within due bounds, and the believer is preserved pure from the sinful lusts of the flesh. The same distinction between spirit and soul is made in Heb_4:12; and in Tit_1:15 a distinction is made between the intellectual and moral in the terms mind and conscience.

3. It affects the physical nature of man.—“Your body.” The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1Co_4:19), and must be kept pure and blameless—must be kept in temperance, soberness, and chastity; to pollute it with fleshly lusts is to pollute and destroy it (1Co_3:17). The body, immortalised and glorified, will be the companion of the glorified soul throughout eternity; and the Thessalonians had already been assured that the body was to rise from the grave (1Th_4:16). The whole complex nature of man is to be purified. Mere outward decency of conduct is not enough; the inner man, the intellectual, moral, and spiritual faculties must be kept in a state of purity and holiness. He hath sanctity in no part who is not sanctified in every part.

4. It is a necessary fitness to meet Christ at His coming.—“Be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Th_5:23). It is the power of God only that can keep man holy, though the utmost circumspection and vigilance are to be exercised on his part. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”—see Him now as the inner eye of the soul is clarified, and see Him at His coming in power and great glory.

II. That sanctification is a divine work.—

1. The believer is called to sanctification by the God of unswerving fidelity. “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it” (1Th_5:24). God is faithful to all His promises of help. Every promise is backed by the whole force of His omnipotence—“who also will do it.” There is nothing greater in the universe than the will of God; it actuates His power and ensures His faithfulness. Entire sanctification is therefore no impossible attainment. God calls, not to mock and disappoint, but to bless.

2. The believer is called to sanctification by the God of peace.—“The very God of peace sanctify you” (1Th_5:23). Peace and sanctification are inseparable; without holiness there can be no peace. God is the author and giver of peace, and delights in peace. Mr. Howels, of Long Acre chapel, used to say that if he saw two dogs at peace with each other, he saw there “the very God of peace”; that one atom of peace left in a world of war with God is a trace of the lingering mercy and favouring goodness of God. Peace is a reflection of the divine presence on earth. The Thessalonians had been enjoined to cultivate mutual peace and harmony (1Th_5:13), and personal holiness had been earnestly recommended (1Th_4:3). They are now taught where peace and holiness are to be found. Both are gifts of God. We have need of peace—peace of conscience, peace from the rage and fury of the world, peace and love among those who are of the household of God.

III. That sanctification is obtained by prayer.—The loftiest duty is possible with grace; the least is all but impossible without it. All grace must be sought of God in prayer. The virtue and power of all exhortation and teaching depend on the divine blessing. What God encourages us to seek in prayer is possible of attainment in actual experience. Prayer is the expression of wants we feel. It is the power by which we reach the highest spiritual excellence.

Lessons.—

1. Cherish the highest ideal of the Christian character.

2. Pray for divine help in its attainment.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

1Th_5:23. The Sanctification of the Complete Man.

I. Its meaning.—

1. There is a great trinity of powers—body, soul, and spirit—linking man with three different worlds. The physical, the intellectual, the spiritual.

2. These three ranges of powers become gateways of temptation from three different worlds, and unless they are all consecrated we are never free from danger.

II. Its attainment.—

1. We cannot consecrate ourselves.

2. God preserves the entire sanctification by imparting peace.

III. The motive for endeavouring to attain it.—“Until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1. A day of manifestation when the shadows and unrealities of time will fade in the full morning of eternity.

2. A day of everlasting gatherings.—E. L. Hull.

The Trinity.

I. The first power or consciousness in which God is made known to us is as the Father, the author of our being.

II. The second way through which the personality and consciousness of God has been revealed to us is as the Son.

III. A closer and a more enduring relation in which God stands to us is the relation of the Spirit.—It is the graces of the Spirit which harmonise the man and make him one; and that is the end, aim, and object of all the gospel.—F. W. Robertson.

1Th_5:24. The Faith of Man and the Faithfulness of God.

I. The highest object of man’s existence is to hold communion with his God.

II. Rightly to believe in Christ is to know and feel this communion.

III. The unalterable faithfulness of God is a fidelity to His own gracious engagement.

IV. The prominent character of God is unshaken stability.

V. God is faithful to His warnings as He is to His promises.—A. Butler.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 16

CONCLUSION

1Th_5:23-28 (R.V.)

THESE verses open with a contrast to what precedes, which is more strongly brought out in the original than in the translation. The Apostle has drawn the likeness of a Christian church, as a Christian church ought to be, waiting for the coming of the Lord; he has appealed to the Thessalonians to make this picture their standard, and to aim at Christian holiness; and conscious of the futility of such advice, as long as it stands alone and addresses itself to mans unaided efforts, he turns here instinctively to prayer: "The God of peace Himself"-working in independence of your exertions and my exhortations-"sanctify you wholly."

The solemn fulness of this title forbids us to pass it by. Why does Paul describe God in this particular place as the God of peace? Is it not because peace is the only possible basis on which the work of sanctification can proceed? I do not think it is forced to render the words literally, the God of the peace, i.e., the peace with which all believers are familiar, the Christian peace, the primary blessing of the gospel. The God of peace is the God of the gospel, the God who has come preaching peace in Jesus Christ, proclaiming reconciliation to those who are far off and to those who are near. No one can ever be sanctified who does not first accept the message of reconciliation. It is not possible to become holy as God is holy, until, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Gods way of holiness; and this is why the Apostle presents his prayer for the sanctification of the Thessalonians to the God of peace. We are so slow to learn this, in spite of the countless ways in which it is forced upon us, that one is tempted to call it a secret; yet no secret, surely, could be more open. Who has not tried to overcome a fault, to work off a vicious temper, to break for good with an evil habit, or in some other direction to sanctify himself, and withal to keep out of Gods sight till the work was done? It is of no use. Only the God of Christian peace, the God of the gospel, can sanctify us; or to look at the same thing from our own side, we cannot be sanctified until we are at peace with God. Confess your sins with a humble and penitent heart; accept the forgiveness and friendship of God in Christ Jesus: and then He will work in you both will and deed to further His good pleasure.

Notice the comprehensiveness of the Apostles prayer in this place. It is conveyed in three separate words - wholly (ολοτελεις), entire (ολοκληρον), and without blame (αμεμπτως). It is intensified by what has, at least, the look of an enumeration of the parts or elements of which mans nature consists-"your spirit and soul and body." It is raised to its highest power when the sanctity for which he prays is set in the searching light of the Last Judgment-in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all feel how great a thing it is which the Apostle here asks of God: can we bring its details more nearly home to ourselves? Can we tell, in particular, what he means by spirit and soul and body?

The learned and philosophical have found in these three words a magnificent field for the display of philosophy and learning; but unhappily for plain people, it is not very easy to follow them. As the words stand before us in the text, they have a friendly Biblical look; we get a fair impression of the Apostles intention in using them; but as they come out in treatises on Biblical Psychology, though they are much more imposing, it would be rash to say they are more strictly scientific, and they are certainly much less apprehensible than they are here. To begin with the easiest one, everybody knows what it meant by the body. What the Apostle prays for in this place is that God would make the body in its entirety-every organ and every function of it-holy. God made the body at the beginning; He made it for Himself; and it is His. To begin with, it is neither holy nor unholy; it has no character of its own at all; but it may be profaned or it may be sanctified; it may be made the servant of God or the servant of sin, consecrated or prostituted. Everybody knows whether his body is being sanctified or not. Everybody knows "the inconceivable evil of sensuality." Everybody knows that pampering of the body, excess in eating and drinking, sloth and dirt, are incompatible with bodily sanctification. It is not a survival of Judaism when the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us to draw near to God "in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." But sanctification, even of the body, really comes only by employment in Gods service; charity, the service of others for Jesus sake, is that which makes the body truly His. Holy are the feet which move incessantly on His errands; holy are the hands which, like His, are continually doing good; holy are the lips which plead His cause or speak comfort in His Name. The Apostle himself points the moral of this prayer for the consecration of the body when he says to the Romans, "Present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification."

But let us look, now, at the other two terms-spirit and soul. Sometimes one of these is used in contrast with body, sometimes the other. Thus Paul says that the unmarried Christian woman cares for the things of the Lord, seeking only how she may be holy in body and in spirit, -the two together constituting the whole person. Jesus, again, warns His disciples not to fear man, but to fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell; where the person is made to consist, not of body and spirit, but of body and soul. These passages certainly lead us to think that soul and spirit must be very near akin to each other; and that impression is strengthened when we remember such a passage as is found in Marys song: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour"; where, according to the laws of Hebrew poetry, soul and spirit must mean practically the same thing. But granting that they do so, when we find two words used for the same thing, the natural inference is that they give us each a different look at it. One of them shows it in one aspect; the other in another. Can we apply that distinction here? I think the use of the words in the Bible enables us to do it quite decidedly; but it is unnecessary to go into the details. The soul means the life which is in man, taken simply as it is, with all its powers; the spirit means that very same life, taken in its relation to God. This relation may be of various kinds: for the life that is in us is derived from God; it is akin to the life of God Himself; it is created with a view to fellowship with God; in the Christian it is actually redeemed and admitted to that fellowship; and in all those aspects it is spiritual life. But we may look at it without thinking of God at all; and then, in Bible language, we are looking, not at mans spirit, but at his soul.

This inward life, in all its aspects, is to be sanctified through and through. All our powers of thought and imagination are to be consecrated; unholy thoughts are to be banished; lawless, roving imaginings, suppressed. All our inventiveness is to be used in Gods service. All our affections are to be holy. Our hearts desire is not to settle on anything from which it would shrink in the day of the Lord Jesus. The fire which He came to cast on the earth must be kindled in our souls, and blaze there till it has burned up all that is unworthy of His love. Our consciences must be disciplined by His word and Spirit, till all the aberrations due to pride and passion and the law of the world have been reduced to nothing, and as face answers face in the glass, so our judgment and our will answer His. Paul prays for this when he says, May your whole soul be preserved blameless. But what is the special point of the sanctification of the spirit? It is probably narrowing it a little, but it points us in the right direction, if we say that it has regard to worship and devotion. The spirit of man is his life in its relation to God. Holiness belongs to the very idea of this: but who has not heard of sins in holy things? Which of us ever prays as he ought to pray? Which of us is not weak, distrustful, incoherent, divided in heart, wandering in desire, even when he approaches God? Which of us does not at times forget God altogether? Which of us has really worthy thoughts of God, worthy conceptions of His holiness and of His love, worthy reverence, a worthy trust? Is there not an element in our devotions even, in the life of our spirits at their best and highest, which is worldly and unhallowed, and for which we need the pardoning and sanctifying love of God? The more we reflect upon it, the more comprehensive will this prayer of the Apostle appear, and the more vast and far-reaching the work of sanctification. He seems himself to have felt, as mans complex nature passes before his mind, with all its elements, all its activities, all its bearings, all its possible and actual profanation, how great a task its complete purification and consecration to God must be. It is a task infinitely beyond mans power to accomplish. Unless he is prompted and supported from above, it is more than he can hope for, more than he can ask or think. When the Apostle adds to his prayer, as if to justify his boldness, "Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it," is it not a New Testament echo of Davids cry, "Thou, O Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, hast revealed to Thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house: therefore hath Thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto Thee"?

Theologians have tried in various ways to find a scientific expression for the Christian conviction implied in such words as these, but with imperfect success. Calvinism is one of these expressions: its doctrines of a Divine decree, and of the perseverance of the saints, really rest upon the truth of this 24th verse (1Th_5:24), -that salvation is of God to begin with; and that God, who has begun the good work, is in earnest with it, and will not fail nor be discouraged until He has carried it through. Every Christian depends upon these truths, whatever he may think of Calvinistic inferences from them, or of the forms in which theologians have embodied them. When we pray to God to sanctify us wholly; to make us His in body, soul, and spirit; to preserve our whole nature in all its parts and functions blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus, is not our confidence this, that God has called us to this life of entire consecration, that He has opened the door for us to enter upon it by sending His Son to be a propitiation for our sins, that He has actually begun it by inclining our hearts to receive the gospel, and that He may be depended upon to persevere in it till it is thoroughly accomplished? What would all our good resolutions amount to, if they were not backed by the unchanging purpose of Gods love? What would be the worth of all our efforts and of all our hopes, if behind them, and behind our despondency and our failures too, there did not stand the unwearying faithfulness of God? This is the rock which is higher than we; our refuge; our stronghold; our stay in the time of trouble. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. We may change, but not He.

What follows is the affectionate desultory close of the letter. Paul has prayed for the Thessalonians; he begs their prayers for himself. This request is made no less than seven times in his Epistles-including the one before us: a fact which shows how priceless to the Apostle was the intercession of others on his behalf. So it is always; there is nothing which so directly and powerfully helps a minister of the gospel as the prayers of his congregation. They are the channels of all possible blessing both for him and those to whom he ministers. But prayer for him is to be combined with love to one another: "Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss." The kiss was the ordinary greeting among members of a family; brothers and sisters kissed each other when they met, especially after long separation; even among those who were no kin to each other, but only on friendly terms, it was common enough, and answered to our shaking of hands. In the Church the kiss was the pledge of brotherhood; those who exchanged it declared themselves members of one family. When the Apostle says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss," he means, as holy always does in the New Testament, a Christian kiss; a greeting not of natural affection, nor of social courtesy merely, but recognising the unity of all members of the Church in Christ Jesus, and expressing pure Christian love. The history of the kiss of charity is rather curious, and not without its moral. Of course, its only value was as the natural expression of brotherly love; where the natural expression of such love was not kissing, but the grasping of the hand, or the friendly inclination of the head, the Christian kiss ought to have died a natural death. So, on the whole, it did; but with some partial survivals in ritual, which in the Greek and Romish Churches are not yet extinct. It became a custom in the Church to give the kiss of brotherhood to a member newly admitted by baptism; that practice still survives in some quarters, even when children only are baptised. The great celebrations at Easter, when no element of ritual was omitted, retained the kiss of peace long after it had fallen out of the other services. At Solemn Mass in the Church of Rome the kiss is ceremonially exchanged, between the celebrating and the assistant ministers. At Low Mass it is omitted, or given with what is called an osculatory or Pax. The priest kisses the altar; then he kisses the osculatory, which is a small metal plate; then he hands this to the server, and the server hands it to the people, who pass it from one to another, kissing it as it goes. This cold survival of the cordial greeting of the Apostolic Church warns us to distinguish spirit from letter. "Greet one another with a holy kiss" means, Show your Christian love one to another, frankly and heartily, in the way which comes natural to you. Do not be afraid to break the ice when you come into the church. There should be no ice there to break. Greet your brother or your sister cordially and like a Christian: assume and create the atmosphere of home.

Perhaps the very strong language which follows may point to some lack of good feeling in the church at Thessalonica: "I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the brethren." Why should he need to adjure them by the Lord? Could there be any doubt that everybody in the church would hear his Epistle? It is not easy to say. Perhaps the elders who received it might have thought it wiser not to tell all that it contained to everybody; we know how instinctive it is for men in office-whether they be ministers of the church or ministers of state-to make a mystery out of their business, and, by keeping something always in reserve, to provide a basis for a despotic and uncontrolled authority. But whether for this or some other purpose, consciously or unconsciously influencing them, Paul seems to have thought the suppression of his letter possible; and gives this strong charge that it be read to all. It is interesting to notice the beginnings of the New Testament. This is its earliest book, and here we see its place in the Church vindicated by the Apostle himself. Of course when he commands it to be read, he does not mean that it is to be read repeatedly; the idea of a New Testament, of a collection of Christian books to stand side by side with the books of the earlier revelation, and to be used like them in public worship, could not enter mens minds as long as the apostles were with them; but a direction like this manifestly gives the Apostles pen the authority of his voice, and makes the writing for us what his personal presence was in his lifetime. The apostolic word is the primary document of the Christian faith; no Christianity has ever existed in the world but that which has drawn its contents and its quality from this; and nothing which departs from this rule is entitled to be called Christian.

The charge to read the letter to all the brethren is one of the many indications in the New Testament that, though the gospel is a mysterion, as it is called in Greek, there is no mystery about it in the modern sense. It is all open and aboveboard. There is not something on the surface, which the simple are to be allowed to believe; and something quite different underneath, into which the wise and prudent are to be initiated. The whole thing has been revealed unto babes. He who makes a mystery out of it, a professional secret which it needs a special education to understand, is not only guilty of a great sin, but proves that he knows nothing about it. Paul knew its length and breadth and depth and height better than any man; and though he had to accommodate himself to human weakness, distinguishing between babes in Christ and such as were able to bear strong meat, he put the highest things within reach of all; "Him we preach," he exclaims to the Colossians, "warning every man, and teaching every man in every wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ." There is no attainment in wisdom or in goodness which is barred against any man by the gospel; and there is no surer mark of faithlessness and treachery in a church than this, that it keeps its members in a perpetual pupilage or minority, discouraging the free use of Holy Scripture, and taking care that all that it contains is not read to all the brethren. Among the many tokens which mark the Church of Rome as faithless to the true conception of the gospel, which proclaims the end of mans minority in religion, and the coming to age of the true children of God, her treatment of Scripture is the most conspicuous. Let us who have the Book in our hands, and the Spirit to guide us, prize at its true worth this unspeakable gift.

This last caution is followed by the benediction with which in one form. or another the Apostle concludes his letters. Here it is very brief: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." He ends with practically the same prayer as that with which he began: "Grace to you and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." And what is true of this Epistle is true of all the rest: the. grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is their A-and their W, their first word and their last. Whatever God has to say to us - and in all the New Testament letters there are things that search the heart and make it quake-begins and ends with grace. It has its fountain in the love of God; it is working out, as its end, the purpose of that love. I have known people take a violent dislike to the word grace, probably because they had often heard it used without meaning; but surely it is the sweetest and most constraining even of Bible words. All that God has been to man in Jesus Christ is summed up in it: all His gentleness and beauty, all His tenderness and patience, all the holy passion of His love, is gathered up in grace. What more could one soul wish for another than that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ should be with it?

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

5:23-28 Greek and Roman letters ended with a wish for the good health of the recipient. Jewish letters concluded with a peace blessing. Paul closes with a Christian variation on these practices.

5:23 God enables Christians to live a holy life (3:11-13). His sanctifying work extends to the spirit and soul and body, the totality of human life (cp. Matt 10:28; Mark 12:30; 1 Cor 7:34).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Th 5:23. Αὐτὸς) [The very] Himself. You will be defended, says Paul, not by my zeal, but by the Divine protection.—ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, the God of peace) who gives all that is good, and takes away all that is evil: εἰρήνη and ὁλοτελὴς, in the Hebrew שלם, are conjugates. [Therefore the following prayer shows what this title implies (involves in it).—V. g.]—ὁλοτελεῖς—ὁλόκληρον) He wishes that collectively (ὁλοτελεῖς) and as individuals (ὁλόκληρον) they should be claimed for God [as His], and being so claimed, should abide in Him: collectively, all the Thessalonians without exception, so that no one should fail; individually, every one of them, with “spirit, soul, and body.” The exposition of this verse will perhaps be more matured in course of time. There might be supposed an elegant Chiasmus, and if ὁλόκληρον were taken adverbially, it would cast new light on the exposition.[32] If we give the passage another sense, ὁλόκληρον ὑμῶν, would constitute the genus and the whole; the three following words (πνεῦμα, σῶμα, ψυχὴ) would be the parts.—ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα, your spirit and soul and body) You; he just before has called them universally: and the same persons he now denominates from their spiritual condition, my wish being, saith he, that your spirit (Gal 6:18) may be preserved ὁλόκληρον, whole and entire; then from their natural condition, and soul and body, for the nature of the whole man absolutely consists of these two parts, my wish is, that it may be preserved blameless.[33] The mention of the body agrees with the preceding discussion, 1Th 4:4, note 16.

[32] The Chiasmus would make ὁλόκληρον answer to σῶμα, and πνεῦμα to ψυχή: meaning, May your body be wholly preserved, as also your spirit and soul!—ED.

[33] The Germ. Vers. exhibits on the marg. this periphrasis of the passage:—“May your Spirit, i.e. you yourselves be most fully preserved according to your spiritual state, which you have attained in respect both of soul and body.” In accordance with this view, I may observe, is the fact, that πνεῦμα is a heavenly principle—the life from above—linking us to a higher order of beings, and imparted by “the second Adam,” who, in 1Co 15:47, is called ζωοποιοῦν πνεῦμα, “a quickening Spirit.” Hence πνεῦμα is seldom if ever found associated with unbelievers. Passages are found where this word is used of good and bad alike “yielding up the Ghost.” But these mean rather “breathed their last,” πνεῦμα being used simply of the breath. Ψυχὴ, anima, on the other hand, is the inferior principle, common to bad and good, linking us to the first Adam, the ζῶσα ψυχή, living soul; from which we derive the σῶμα ψυχικὸν, the natural or animal body—a body animated by the ψυχή, as contrasted with the σῶμα πνευματικὸν, body animated with the Spirit, spiritual, which shall be given to the believer hereafter, 1Co 15:44-47. Comp. Rom 8:11; Jud 1:19, ψυχικοί.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th_5:23. If what the apostle requires in 1Th_5:22 is to be actually realized, Gods assistance must supervene. Accordingly, this benediction is fitly added to the preceding.

αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης] the God of peace Himself; an emphatic contrast to the efforts of man.

ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης] the God of peace, i.e. who communicates Christian peace. Neither the connection with 1Th_5:22 nor the contents of the benediction itself will permit us to understand εἰρήνη of harmony. To refer to εἰρηνεύετε, 1Th_5:13, for this meaning is far-fetched.

ὁλοτελής] here only in the N. T. spoken of what is perfect, to which nothing belonging to its nature is wanting. Jerome, ad Hedib. 12, Ambrosiaster, Koppe, Pelt, and others understand ὁλοτελεῖς in an ethical sense, as an accusative of result: so that ye be entire, that is, pure and blameless. But it is better, on account of what follows, to take ὁλοτελεῖς as an adverb of quantity, uniting it closely with ὑμᾶς, and finding the whole personality of the Thessalonians denoted as if the simple ὅλους were written: in your entire extent, through and through.

καὶ ὁλόκληρον … τηρηθείη] a fuller repetition of the wish already expressed.

καί] and indeed.

ὁλόκληρος] means, as ὁλοτελής, perfectly, consisting of all its parts. ὁλόκληρον refers not only to τὸ πνεῦμα, although it is governed by it, as the nearest noun, in respect of its gender, but also to ψυχή and σῶμα. Comp. Winer, p. 466 [E. T. 661]. The totality of man is here divided into three parts: spirit, soul, and body. See Olshausen, de naturae hum. trichotomia N. T. scriptoribus recepta in s. Opusc. theol., Berol. 1834, p. 143 ff.; Messner, die Lehre der Apostel, Leipz. 1856, p. 207. We are not to assume that this trichotomy has a purely rhetorical signification, as elsewhere Paul also definitely distinguishes πνεῦμα and ψυχή (1Co_2:14-15; 1Co_15:44; 1Co_15:46). The twofold division, which elsewhere occurs with Paul (1Co_7:34; 2Co_7:1), is a popular form of representation. The origin of the trichotomy is Platonic; but Paul has it not from the writings of Plato and his scholars, but from the current language of society, into which it had passed from the narrow circle of the schools.

πνεῦμα denotes the higher and purely spiritual side of the inner life, what is elsewhere called by Paul νοῦς (reason); ψυχή 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 (ἀμέμπτως is a more exact definition of ὁλόκληρον τηρηθείη), 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.[67]

[67] According to Schrader, ver. 23 contains an un-Pauline thought, because when Paul distinguishes the ψυχή from the spirit, the latter is considered as something divine, as unutterably good, as eternally opposed to every perversity. Paul, accordingly, could not have assumed, besides the soul in man, a mutable spirit which must be preserved from blemish. But the discourse is not of the holy Divine Spirit which rules in man, but of a part of man, himself, of the νοῦς; but the νοῦς may fall into ματαιότης (Eph_4:17), may be ἀδόκιμος (Rom_1:28), μεμιασμένος (Tit_1:15), κατεφθαρμένος (2Ti_3:8), etc.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th 5:23 . εἰρήνης , with a special allusion to the breaches of harmony and charity produced by vice ( cf. connection of 1Th 3:12-13 and 1Th 4:3 f.), indolence, impatience of authority or of defects in one another (1Th 5:13 f.), retaliation (1Th 5:15 ), and differences of opinion (1Th 5:19 f.) Such faults affect the σῶμα , the ψυχή and the πνεῦμα respectively, as the sphere of that pure and holy consciousness whose outcome is εἰρήνη . ὑμῶν , unemphatic genitive (as in 1Th 3:10 ; 1Th 3:13 , cf. Abbott’s Johannine Grammar , 2559 a ) throwing the emphasis on the following word or words. πνεῦμα is put first, as the element in human nature which Paul held to be most directly allied to God, while ψυχή denotes as usual the individual life. The collocation of these terms is unusual but of course quite untechnical. ἀμέμπτως has almost a proleptic tinge = “preserved entire, (so as to be) blameless at the arrival of,” which has led to the substitution, in some inferior MSS., of εὑρεθείη for τηρηθείη ( cf. textual discussion in Amer. Jour. Theol. , 1903, 453 f.). The construction is rather awkward, but the general sense is clear. With the thought of the whole verse compare Ps. Sol. 18:6: καθαρίσαι ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραὴλ … εἰς ἡμέραν ἐκλογῆς ἐν ἀνάξει Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ , also the description of Abraham being preserved by the divine σοφία in Sap. 10:5 ( ἐτήρησεν αὐτὸν ἄμεμπτον θεῷ ).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Separate you from the world, and make you holy to himself through his spirit, in Christ in whom only you shall attain unto that true peace.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the very God--rather as the Greek, "the God of peace Himself"; who can do for you by His own power what I cannot do by all my monitions, nor you by all your efforts (Rom 16:20; Heb 13:20), namely, keep you from all evil, and give you all that is good.

sanctify you--for holiness is the necessary condition of "peace" (Phi 4:6-9).

wholly--Greek, "(so that you should be) perfect in every respect" [TITTMANN].

and--that is, "and so (omit 'I pray God'; not in the Greek) may your . . . spirit and soul and body be preserved," &c.

whole--A different Greek word from "wholly." Translate, "entire"; with none of the integral parts wanting [TITTMANN]. It refers to man in his normal integrity, as originally designed; an ideal which shall be attained by the glorified believer. All three, spirit, soul, and body, each in its due place, constitute man "entire." The "spirit" links man with the higher intelligences of heaven, and is that highest part of man which is receptive of the quickening Holy Spirit (Co1 15:47). In the unspiritual, the spirit is so sunk under the lower animal soul (which it ought to keep under) that such are termed "animal" (English Version. "sensual," having merely the body of organized matter, and the soul the immaterial animating essence), having not the Spirit (compare Co1 2:14; see on Co1 15:44; Co1 15:46-48; Joh 3:6). The unbeliever shall rise with an animal (soul-animated) body, but not like the believer with a spiritual (spirit-endued) body like Christ's (Rom 8:11).

blameless unto--rather as Greek, "blamelessly (so as to be in a blameless state) at the coming of Christ." In Hebrew, "peace" and "wholly" (perfect in every respect) are kindred terms; so that the prayer shows what the title "God of peace" implies. BENGEL takes "wholly" as collectively, all the Thessalonians without exception, so that no one should fail. And "whole (entire)," individually, each one of them entire, with "spirit, soul, and body." The mention of the preservation of the body accords with the subject (Th1 4:16). TRENCH better regards "wholly" as meaning, "having perfectly attained the moral end," namely, to be a full-grown man in Christ. "Whole," complete, with no grace which ought to be wanting in a Christian.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. And the very God of peace] That same God who is the author of peace, the giver of peace; and who has sent, for the redemption of the world, the Prince of peace; may that very God sanctify you wholly; leave no more evil in your hearts than his precepts tolerate evil in your conduct. The word wholly, ολετελεις means precisely the same as our phrase, to all intents and purposes. May he sanctify you to the end and to the uttermost, that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so may grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Your whole spirit and soul and body] Some think that the apostle alludes to the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine, which was acknowledged among the Thessalonians. I should rather believe that he refers simply to the fact, that the creature called man is a compound being, consisting,

1. Of a body, σωμα, an organized system, formed by the creative energy of God out of the dust of the earth; composed of bones, muscles, and nerves; of arteries, veins, and a variety of other vessels, in which the blood and other fluids circulate.

2. Of a soul, ψυχη, which is the seat of the different affections and passions, such as love, hatred, anger, c., with sensations, appetites, and propensities of different kinds.

3. Of spirit, πνευμα, the immortal principle, the source of life to the body and soul, without which the animal functions cannot be performed, how perfect soever the bodily organs may be and which alone possesses the faculty of intelligence, understanding, thinking, and reasoning, and produces the faculty of speech wherever it resides, if accident have not impaired the organs of speech.

The apostle prays that this compound being, in all its parts, powers, and faculties, which he terms ολοκληρον, their whole, comprehending all parts, every thing that constitutes man and manhood, may be sanctified and preserved blameless till the coming of Christ; hence we learn,

1. That body, soul, and spirit are debased and polluted by sin.

2. That each is capable of being sanctified, consecrated in all its powers to God, and made holy.

3. That the whole man is to be preserved to the coming of Christ, that body, soul, and spirit may be then glorified for ever with him.

4. That in this state the whole man may be so sanctified as to be preserved blameless till the coming of Christ. And thus we learn that the sanctification is not to take place in, at, or after death. On the pollution and sanctification of flesh and spirit, 2Co 7:1.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23 Now the God of peace himself. Having given various injunctions, he now proceeds to prayer. And unquestionably doctrine is disseminated in vain, unless God implant it in our minds. From this we see how preposterously those act who measure the strength of men by the precepts of God. Paul, accordingly, knowing that all doctrine is useless until God engraves it, as it were, with his own finger upon our hearts, beseeches God that he would sanctify the Thessalonians. Why he calls him here the God of peace, I do not altogether apprehend, unless you choose to refer it to what goes before, where he makes mention of brotherly agreement, and patience, and equanimity.

We know, however, that under the term sanctification is included the entire renovation of the man. The Thessalonians, it is true, had been in part renewed, but Paul desires that God would perfect what is remaining. From this we infer, that we must, during our whole life, make progress in the pursuit of holiness. But if it is the part of God to renew the whole man, there is nothing left for free will. For if it had been our part to co-operate with God, Paul would have spoken thus — “May God aid or promote your sanctification.” But when he says, sanctify you wholly, he makes him the sole Author of the entire work.

And your entire spirit. This is added by way of exposition, that we may know what the sanctification of the whole man is, when he is kept entire, or pure, and unpolluted, in spirit, soul, and body, until the day of Christ. As, however, so complete an entireness is never to be met with in this life, it is befitting that some progress be daily made in purity, and something be cleansed away from our pollutions, so long as we live in the world.

We must notice, however, this division of the constituent parts of a man; for in some instances a man is said to consist simply of body and soul, and in that case the term soul denotes the immortal spirit, which resides in the body as in a dwelling. As the soul, however, has two principal faculties — the understanding and the will — the Scripture is accustomed in some cases to mention these two things separately, when designing to express the power and nature of the soul; but in that case the term soul is employed to mean the seat of the affections, so that it is the part that is opposed to the spirit. Hence, when we find mention made here of the term spirit, let us understand it as denoting reason or intelligence, as on the other hand by the term soul, is meant the will and all the affections.

I am aware that many explain Paul’s words otherwise, for they are of opinion that by the term soul is meant vital motion, and by the spirit is meant that part of man which has been renewed; but in that case Paul’s prayer were absurd. Besides, it is in another way, as I have said, that the term is wont to be made use of in Scripture. When Isaiah says,

“My soul hath desired thee in the night, my spirit hath thought of thee,” (Isaiah 26:9)

no one doubts that he speaks of his understanding and affection, and thus enumerates two departments of the soul. These two terms are conjoined in the Psalms in the same sense. This, also, corresponds better with Paul’s statement. For how is the whole man entire, except when his thoughts are pure and holy, when all his affections are right and properly regulated, when, in fine, the body itself lays out its endeavors and services only in good works? For the faculty of understanding is held by philosophers to be, as it were, a mistress: the affections occupy a middle place for commanding; the body renders obedience. We see now how well everything corresponds. For then is the man pure and entire, when he thinks nothing in his mind, desires nothing in his heart, does nothing with his body, except what is approved by God. As, however, Paul in this manner commits to God the keeping of the whole man, and all its parts, we must infer from this that we are exposed to innumerable dangers, unless we are protected by his guardianship.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(23) And.—The logic of such an expression as, “Do this, and may you be happy,” lies in the writer’s own connection with both the command and the prayer: “I bid you abstain from every evil kind of thing, and I pray that God Himself may enable you to keep the commandment.”

The very God of peace.—In more usual English, “the God of peace Himself:” the contrast is between the futile efforts after holiness of which they in themselves were capable, and the almighty power of sanctification exercised by God. This sanctification (which is the special work of the Third Person) is here ascribed to the First Person of the Holy Trinity, from whom the Holy Ghost proceeds. He is called (as in Heb_13:20) the “God of peace,” not in reference to any dissensions between the Thessalonians (1Th_5:13), but because of the peace which His sanctification brings into the soul, so that it fears neither temptation’s power nor persecution’s rage. (Comp. the Second Collect for Evensong).

Sanctify you wholly.—Rather, sanctify you whole. The idea is rather that of leaving no part unsanctified, than that of doing the work completely so far as it goes: thus it serves to introduce the next sentence, which explains it.

And I pray God.—If there were need of any insertion, it should have been “We pray God:” Silas and Timothy are never forgotten throughout.

Spirit and soul and body.—This is St. Paul’s fullest and most scientific psychology, not merely a rhetorical piling up of words without any particular meaning being assigned to them. Elsewhere, he merely divides man according to popular language, into two parts, visible and invisible, “body and spirit” (1Co_6:20; 1Co_7:34, et al.); the division into “body and soul” he never uses. (Comp. Note on 1Co_2:14.) The “spirit” (pneuma) is the part by which we apprehend realities intuitively—i.e., without reasoning upon them; with it we touch, see, serve, worship God (Joh_4:23-24; Rom_1:9; 1Co_6:17; Rev_1:10, et al.); it is the very inmost consciousness of the man (see, e.g., 1Co_2:11); it is the part of him which survives death (Heb_12:23; 1Pe_3:19; comp. Luk_23:46; Act_7:59). The “soul.” (psyche) includes the intellect, the affections, and the will: and it is of the very essence of the gospel to force sharply upon men the distinction between it and the spirit (Heb_4:12). Low-living men may have soul (i.e., intellect, affection, will) in abundance, but their spirit falls into complete abeyance (Jud_1:19); the soul belongs altogether to the lower nature, so that when St. Paul uses the two-fold division, “body and spirit,” the soul is reckoned (not, probably, as Bishop Ellicott says on our present passage, as part of the spirit, but) as part of the body; and when St. Paul describes the “works of the flesh,” he includes among them such distinctly soul-sins as “heresies” (Gal_5:20). Sanctification preserves all these three divisions entire, and in their due relation to each other; without sanctification, the spirit might be overwhelmed by the other parts gaining the predominance, which would, of course, eventually be the ruin both of “soul and body in hell” (Mat_10:28. N.B., that our Lord says nothing of the destruction of the “spirit” in hell: the question is whether He there definitely meant to exclude “spirit,” or used “soul” popularly as including it). Where the New Testament writers acquired such a psychology cannot be determined, but it was probably derived from experimental knowledge of life, not from books, and all experience confirms its accuracy. Modern science tends more and more to show that “soul” is a function of “body.”

Unto the coming.—A mistranslation for “at the coming,” caused by the slight difficulty in understanding the true version. The idea is not so much that of their preservation from sin during the interval, but rather the writers hasten in eager anticipation to the Coming itself, and hope that the Thessalonians at the Coming will be found to have been preserved. “Blameless” should have been “blamelessly.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. And the very God of peace] the God of peace Himself (R. V.)—so “God Himself” in ch. 1Th_3:11, and “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself” in 2Th_2:16, where the like contrast is implied between human wish or endeavour and Divine power. With this contrast in his mind, St Paul begins, But, not and: “I bid you keep yourselves from evil; but may God, Who only can, cleanse and preserve you.” Comp. Php_2:12-13, “Work out your own salvation; for God is He that worketh in you.”

“The God of peace” is a favourite designation with St Paul (found also in Heb_13:20), in wishes and blessings: see 2Th_3:16; Rom_16:20, &c. For peace, see note on ch. 1Th_1:1. This is God’s distinguishing gift in the Gospel, that by which He makes Himself and His grace known in the hearts of men. In like fashion He is named from other gifts, “The God of patience and consolation” (Rom_15:5), “of hope” (1Th_5:13), “of love and peace” (2Co_13:11), “of all grace” (1Pe_5:10). While He is “the God of peace,” true peace is “the peace of God” (see Php_4:7; Php_4:9). And His peace bears fruit in our sanctification.

sanctify you wholly] Rather, unto completeness, or full perfection. The readers are already sanctified in Christ Jesus (see ch. 1Th_4:7-8, “in sanctification”; 2Th_2:13; comp. 1Co_1:2); 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 men they may realise the end of their being in all its length and breadth. See Trench’s Synonyms of the N.T., § xxii., on the relation of this expression to entire in next clause.

On sanctification, see notes to ch. 1Th_4:3; 1Th_4:7; also 2Th_2:13.

and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless] “I pray God” is needlessly supplied in the A.V. More precisely, and in the Greek order: entire (or in full integrity) may your spirit and soul and body, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, be preserved. The word “entire” takes up the thread of the last sentence, to the prayer of which the Apostle seeks to give more comprehensive expression. But the completeness of blessing desired now assumes a new aspect. From the degree of holiness desired we pass to its range, from its intension (as the logicians would say) to its extension. St Paul prays that in the integrity of their human person and nature they may be preserved,—“spirit, soul, and body” alike finding their safety, with their oneness, in the holy service of God.

St Paul has already treated, in ch. 1Th_4:3-8, of one chief branch of bodily sanctification. Now he thinks of this sanctity as penetrating 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[8]. The Apostle aims at making his wish exhaustive in its completeness. 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” (Rom_8:16); and he ends with “body,” the vessel (ch. 1Th_4:4) and envelope of our nature, through which it belongs to the external world and holds intercourse with it. 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 and are actualised in him. When St Paul bids the Corinthians to “cleanse” themselves “from all defilement of flesh and spirit” (2Co_7:1 : contrast 1Pe_1:22, “having purified your souls”—your individual selves), that phrase covers the same ground as this, but it treats the matter as one of contrast between man’s outer and inner relations; whereas the stress here lies on the integrity of the man himself, with his balanced and developed nature, and all his faculties in exercise. 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; his “soul,” when the world of self is guarded, when all his feelings and thoughts are sinless; his “body,” when his outward life and relations to the material world are innocent.

[8] Those who maintain a threefold analysis of human nature in Scripture are called Trichotomists; and the advocates of a twofold division, Dichotomists. Amongst the chief expositions of the former view is that given in Delitzsch’s System of Biblical Psychology, and in Heard’s Tripartite Nature of Man; on the other side, consult Beck’s Biblical Psychology, or Laidlaw’s Bible Doctrine of Man.

The connection between sanctity and safety (“be preserved”) lies in the fact that what is sanctified is given over to God. “No one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand,” said Jesus (Joh_10:29). See the next verse, and comp. 2Ti_1:12; also Psalms 121; Isa_27:3. The word “preserved” stands with emphasis at the end of the sentence. In the intercession of John 17, our Lord prays first, “Holy Father, keep them” (1Th_5:11; 1Th_5:15), then “sanctify them” (1Th_5:17). But He is thinking there of the situation of His disciples, in the midst of the world; the Apostle leads up to their future manifestation, at His coming.

St Paul writes blamelessly—not blameless (A.V.); and in—not unto—the coming &c. This adverbial adjunct must belong, despite its position, to the foregoing adjective (entire), not to the verb (be preserved); for God is the keeper in this context, and no blame can conceivably attach to the manner of His keeping: “In full integrity may your spirit and soul and body be preserved,—blamelessly entire in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the end of the Apostle’s thoughts in this letter, the goal of his readers’ hopes. It will supply the final test of the worth of character, and of the completeness of the sanctification effected in believers. Then the whole work of Christ’s servants will be brought to its issue and determination. “The Day will declare it” (1Co_3:13).

On “the coming” (parousia), and “our Lord Jesus Christ,” see notes to ch. 1Th_1:1; 1Th_1:3; 1Th_2:19; 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:14-17; on “blamelessly,” 1Th_3:13.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren, pray for us. Which is added with great beauty and propriety, after the apostle had so earnestly and affectionately prayed for them; and this is directed, not to the pastors of the church only, but to all the members of it, whom the apostle styles "brethren" in a spiritual relation, as he often does; and of whom he requests, that they would pray for him, and the rest of his fellow ministers and labourers in the word, that God would more and more qualify and fit them for their work, assist in private studies and meditations, give them freedom of thought, liberty of expression, and a door of utterance, and follow their ministrations with a divine blessing and success, and deliver them out of the hands of unreasonable men; See Gill on Heb 13:18.

.

1 Thessalonians 5:26

th1 5:26

th1 5:26

th1 5:26Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. In opposition, to an unchaste and hypocritical one. His meaning is, that they would salute the members of the church in his name, and give his Christian love and affections to them. And his view is to recommend to them brotherly love to each other, and to stir them up to the mutual exercise of it more and more.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ver. 23. That your whole spirit, soul, body] The temple consisted of three parts, so doth man; the body is as the outer court, the soul as the holy place, the spirit as the most holy. So the world is three stories high, the earth, the visible heaven, and the third heaven.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the very God of peace - The God who gives peace or happiness; compare notes, Rom 1:7.

Sanctify you - See the notes at Joh 17:17.

Wholly - ὁλοτελεῖς holoteleis. In every part; completely. It is always proper to pray that God would make his people entirely holy. A prayer for perfect sanctification, however, should not be adduced as a proof that it is in fact attained in the present life.

Your whole spirit and soul and body - There is an allusion here, doubtless, to the popular opinion in regard to what constitutes man. We have a body; we have animal life and instincts in common with the inferior creation; and we have also a rational and immortal soul. This distinction is one that appears to the mass of people to be true, and the apostle speaks of it in the language commonly employed by mankind. At the same time, no one can demonstrate that it is not founded in truth. The body we see, and there can be no difference of opinion in regard to its existence. The “soul” (ἡ ψυκὴ hē psuchē - psyche), the vital principle, the animal life, or the seat of the senses, desires, affections, appetites, we have in common with other animals. It pertains to the nature of the animal creation, though more perfect in some animals than in others, but is in all distinct from the soul as the seat of conscience, and as capable of moral agency.

See the use of the word in Mat 22:37; Mar 12:30; Luk 10:27; Luk 12:20; Act 20:10; Heb 4:12; Rev 8:9, et al. In the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy this was distinguished from the higher rational nature ὁ νοῦς, τὸ πνεῦμα ho nous, to pneuma as this last belonged to man alone. This “psyche” (ψυχὴ psuchē) “soul.” or life, it is commonly supposed, becomes extinct at death. It is so connected with the bodily organization, that when the tissues of the animal frame cease their functions, this ceases also. This was not, however, the opinion of the ancient Greeks. Homer uses the term to denote that which leaves the body with the breath, as escaping from the ἕρκος ὀδοντων herkos odontōn - “the fence or sept of thy teeth” - and as also passing out through a wound. - This ψυχή psuchē - “psyche” - continued to exist in Hades, and was supposed to have a definite form there, but could not be seized by the hands.

Ody. 2:207. See “Passow,” 2; compare Prof. Bush, Anasta. pp. 72, 73. Though this word, however, denotes the vital principle or the animal life, in man it may be connected with morals - just as the body may be - for it is a part of himself in his present organization, and whatever may be true in regard to the inferior creation, it is his duty to bring his whole nature under law, or so to control it that it may not be an occasion of sin. Hence the apostle prays that the “whole body and soul” - or animal nature - may be made holy. This distinction between the animal life and the mind of man (the “anima” and “animus,” the ψυχὴ psuchē and the πνεῦμα pneuma), was often made by the ancient philosophers. See Plato, Timae. p. 1048, A. Nemesius, de Nat. Hom. 1 Cited Glyca, p. 70; Lucretius, 3:94; 116, 131; Juvenal, 15:146; Cicero, de Divinat. 129, as quoted by Wetstein in loc. A similar view prevailed also among the Jews. rabbi Isaac (Zohar in Lev. fol. 29, 2), says, “Worthy are the righteous in this world and the world to come, for lo, they are all holy; their body is holy, their soul is holy, their spirit and their breath is holy.” Whether the apostle meant to sanction this view, or merely to speak in common and popular language, may indeed be questioned, but there seems to be a foundation for the language in the nature of man. The word here rendered “spirit” (πνεῦμα 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 (ψυχὴ psuchē) 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.

Be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - The apostle does not intimate here that either the body or the vital principle will be admitted to heaven, or will be found in a future state of being, whatever may be the truth on that subject. The 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 wind up the affairs of this lower world; see the notes on 1Th 1:10. By his praying that the “body and the soul” - meaning here the animal nature, the seat of the affections and passions - might be kept holy, there is reference to the fact that, connected as they are with a rational and accountable soul, they may be the occasion of sin. The same natural propensities; the same excitability of passion; the same affections which in a brute would involve no responsibility, and have nothing moral in their character, may be 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 cur to snarl and growl; for a lion to roar and rage; for a hyena to be fierce and untameable; for a serpent to hiss and bite, and for the ostrich to leave her eggs without concern Job 39:14, involves no blame, no guilt for them, for they are not accountable; but for man to evince the same temper, and the same want of affection, does involve guilt, for he has a higher nature, and all these things should be subject to the law which God has imposed on him as a moral and accountable being. As these things may, therefore, in man be the occasion of sin, and ought to be subdued, there was a fitness in praying that they might be “preserved blameless” to the coming of the Saviour; compare the notes on 1Co 9:27.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Spirit, and soul. The former marks the understanding, the latter the will: hence these two terms give the two principal faculties of the soul. (Bible de Vence)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The apostle here concludes all with prayer, as knowing all his exhortations and admonitions before given would not be effectual without God; and he prays for their sanctification and preservation. Though they were sanctified already, yet but in part, so that he prays for further progress in it to perfection, which he means by

wholly; a word no where used by the apostle but in this place, and variously rendered; some render it throughout, some, perfectly, some, in every part, some, in all things, some, fully, and the French, entirely. It may refer to all the parts of holiness, and the degrees of holiness, and to the whole man in the several faculties of soul and body, expressed in the next words by

spirit, soul, and body, that their whole man may be entirely separated and consecrated to God, offered up to him as a sacrifice, Rom 12:1; and hence we serve that not only the beginning, but progress in grace is from God. The apostle therefore prays for it to God, (whom he calls the God of peace, to enforce his exhortation to peace, 1Th 5:3), which confutes the Pelagians, who thought objective grace sufficient to sanctify, or that man’s nature needs only at first to be excited by God, and then can go forward of itself, being only maimed, not totally corrupted by the fall. It is true, our faculties co-operate with God, but not of themselves, but as acted by his inherent grace and indwelling Spirit.

And what the apostle prays for:

1. That Christians should endeavour after, which is a progress in sanctification to perfection. We may also note, that true sanctification reacheth to the whole man, spirit, soul, and body.

2. Preservation, which we call perseverance, expressed here both by the subject and term of it. The subject is the whole man, branched into three parts, spirit, soul, and body, figured, at least resembled, by the three parts of the temple.

Consider man naturally; and then by spirit we mean his superior faculties, as the mind, conscience, rational will.

By soul, his sensitive appetite, with the affections and passions.

By body, the outward man, the tabernacle and instrument of the soul.

The Jewish rabbins and others think all these are expressed in the creation of man, Gen 2:7; God formed man of the dust of the ground, there is his body; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, or lives, Nishmath Chaiim, Nephesh Chaijah, that is, the faculties of the rational soul; and man became a living soul, that is, the animal and sensitive life. Neither is properly meant here the Spirit of God, for he saith, your spirit; nor the sanctified part of the soul, for he prays for the preserving of their persons. Only observe, when he speaks of their spirit, he calls it their whole spirit. And by the figure zeugma, the word whole is to be carried also to soul and body; so that as he prayed their whole man might be sanctified, so their whole spirit, their whole soul, their whole body might be preserved; and the same word we find Jam 1:4, where it is rendered perfect, alludiug to the perfect possessing of all inheritance or lot that belongs to a man. And by preserving, he means not so much the substance of the spirit, soul, and body, to preserve them in being, as to preserve them in holiness. And they are preserved, partly by being delivered from the sinful distempers that are naturally in them, as ignorance, vanity, impotency, and enmity in the mind, reluctancy and obstinacy in the will, inordinacy and irregularity in the affections, disobedience to the law of God and the regular commands of the soul in the body. If these prevail, they will bring destruction; as diseases prevailing destroy the natural life. And partly also by being supplied with that grace whereby they act regularly towards God, and are serviceable to the end of man’s being, as supply of oil preserveth the lamp burning. And hereby we may understand, that not only the inferior faculties are corrupted in man’s fall, but the superior and the supreme of all, else the apostle need not have prayed for the spirit to be sanctified and preserved, as well as the soul and body. And elsewhere he prays for a renewing in the spirit of the mind, Eph 4:23. Next we may consider this preservation with respect to the term of it,

preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ: the same which the apostle means by being preserved to God’s heavenly kingdom, 2Ti 4:18; 2Pe 3:14. And those that are preserved to that day, are preserved to the end, and will be found blameless; and their whole man, spirit, soul, and body, being first sanctified, and then preserved, shall be saved and glorified. And the apostle insinuates in the word αμεμπτως, blameless, that strict discovery that will be made of persons at that day, wherein some will be blamed, and others be found without blame. And herein the apostle may have respect both to the teachers and ministers in this church, and the private members of it, that with respect to their several duties belonging to them they may be found blameless; and though, according to the strictness of the law of God, none can be without blame, yet, those that have been sincere, and have their sin pardoned, and their persons accepted in Christ, may be found blameless in the day of Christ: however, it is that which we should strive after.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. And the very God—The sole One who can perform this great work.

Of peace—This prayer for their entire sanctification closes upon the whole paragraph, 1Th_5:12-22, the sum and aim of which is their churchly peace. This peace is the aim of both the governmental cautions of 1Th_5:12-15, and of the words of harmony touching supernaturalism in 1Th_5:16-22. From that quarter of peace he would have the Spirit of the God of peace visit, enter, pervade, and sanctify their nature, whole and every part.

Sanctify— Bloomfield remarks that this term, like the Hebrew קדשׁ, properly signifies to set apart, to remove from common use, and is often in the Old Testament used of the Levitical offerings. From this meaning of apartness from the gross and common comes the idea of consecration, purity, holiness. Hence, to sanctify is to separate from sin; to bestow, by the Spirit’s aid, the power of avoiding sin and living without condemnation before God. This can never be in this our mortal life, if we are tried by the law of absolute purity. And yet we are accepted by the law of faith in Christ, and pardoned and justified even in this life. Scripture and experience teach that there may be, and often is, such a measure of the Spirit bestowed in answer to the prayer of faith, that such uncondemning state may, even after being defaulted by sin, be re-entered and more or less permanently retained. There may be a state of continuous justification, noncondemnation, undiminished divine approbation, from day to day, and of indefinite length. This spiritual power is seldom, if ever, in such measure conferred at justification, but is the result of a more powerful faith in a maturer Christian life. Though there be a continuous flow of infirmities and short comings, which the absolute would condemn, yet is there also a flow of continuous repentant faith, and a continuous flow of justifying grace and merciful acceptance through the atonement. This is that higher plane of Christian Life, that evangelical blamelessness, for which St. Paul here prays in behalf of his Thessalonians. Barnes, in his Commentary, objects, indeed, that prayer for such sanctification does not prove “that it is attained in this life;” but the apostle in the next verse assures us that God “will do it.” That it is to be done before death is plain from the word preserved, which means a continuous process previous to the coming of Christ.

Wholly—Not the whole Church; but, as Lunemann and all the best commentators agree, the whole personality of the individual. He thus prays thus for the whole being as a unit, and then distributively for the different parts of our nature.

Spirit… soul… body—While man is properly divided as twofold into body and soul, in which the soul includes the whole incorporeal nature, the Platonic subdivision of the incorporeal into soul and spirit produces a threefoldness, or (trichotomy) trinality. This Platonic triplicity is so consistent with apparent facts, that it passed into popular language and was adopted by the Rabbies. It is an unsupposable coincidence that St. Paul should fall upon it here accidentally without ever having heard of this trinality from others. It could not have been unknown to philosophical Tarsus. Notes on Mat_5:3; 1Co_2:14; 1Co_14:14; 1Co_15:44.

Unto—Rather, in. The idea of continuity is not contained in the preposition, but is implied in preserved. The prayer is, that they may be so preserved in holiness as to be found blameless in the parousia of Christ.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the very God of peace; the God who communicates peace; an expression frequently employed by Paul at the close of his Epistles (Rom_15:33 Rom_16:20; Php_4:9; 2Th_3:16) Sanctify you wholly; that is, perfectly, without anything wanting, referring to the entireness of the sanctification, which is presently expressed in detail. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body; the adjective "whole" applies to all the three substantives. The apostle here divides human nature into three parts spirit, soul, and body; and this threefold division is not a mere rhetorical statement: "The apostle pouring forth from the fullness of his heart a prayer for his converts" (Jowett); but a distinct statement of the three component parts of human nature. The "spirit" is the highest part of man, that which assimilates him to God; renders him capable of religion, and susceptible of being acted upon by the Spirit of God. The "soul" is the inferior part of his mental nature, the seat of the passions and desires, of the natural propensities. The "body" is the corporeal frame. Such a threefold distinction of human nature was not unknown among the Stoics and Platonists. There are also traces of it in the Old Testament, the spirit, or breath of God, being distinguished from the soul. Be preserved blameless. "The spirit is preserved blameless at the advent when the voice of truth rules it, the soul when it strives against all the charms of the senses, and the body when it is not abused as the instrument of shameful actions" (Lunemann). Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Vers. 23, 24.

Prayer for the sanctification and preservation of Thessalonian believers.

I IT IS A PRAYER FOR PERFECT SANCTIFICATION. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

1. It is the design of the God of peace to do this. Our Lord came to "save his people from their sins," to "redeem them from all iniquity.

2. This sanctification is to extend to body, soul, and spirit.

(1) The body is to be sanctified, for it is to become an "instrument of righteousness," a temple of the Holy Ghost," and eventually will receive its "redemption" in the resurrection. (Rom_8:23)

(2) The soul is to be sanctified. It is the principle of animal life. It is the self. The individual life of man is to be fully sanctified.

(3) The spirit points to the inner life as coming from God, as the soul is life as constituted in man. The spirit is the higher aspect of self, the spiritual man being man as grace has reconstructed him. Yet the two words are parallel, though not equivalent; signifying not two separate natures in man, but two separate functions of the same nature. Provision is made for the sanctification of the whole man.

3. It is not perfect in the present life. The very prayer that God might sanctify them wholly implies that it was an attainment yet to be reached.

II IT IS A PRAYER FOR THE PRESERVATION OF SAINTS TILL THE COMING OF CHRIST. "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.

1. It is God only who can keep us. He "keeps us from falling," that "he may present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy". (Jud_1:24) He "keeps us from evil". (Joh_17:15) Saints are "kept by his power" through faith unto salvation. (1Pe_1:5)

2. The preservation is to extend till the second advent. Not till death, but till his coming, implying that body and soul are alike to share in the final redemption. "He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ". (Php_1:6)

III THE GROUND OF HIS CONFIDENCE IN GOD"S PURPOSE OF SANCTIFICATION AND PRESERVATION. "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

1. Gods faithfulness is the guarantee. He "also will do it." He will be faithful to his oath, to his promises, to his covenant; for he has promised to cleanse his people from all their sins, and preserve them to his kingdom and glory. God is faithful "by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his. (2Co_1:8, 2Co_1:9)

2. Effectual calling is another guarantee. For whom he calls he justifies and glorifies. If he gives grace, he gives glory. The calling implies perfection, as it is the first step to it. T.C.

Vers. 23, 24.

The result of obedience to these commandments sanctification.

I IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD.

1. Peace. Peace is the blessed fruit of obedience. Be careful for nothing; live in prayer and thanksgiving, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and thoughts. But it comes from God. He is the God of peace. It is his; "My peace," the Lord Jesus says. It is God who maketh peace, who reconciles the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

2. Holiness. Holiness is the sum of all Christian graces. All the precepts contained in the previous verses are here taken together; they meet and are summed up in holiness. But no human effort can sanctify the heart without the grace of God. Therefore the apostle is not content with exhorting the Thessalonians; he prays that God may sanctity them. May he himself (he says emphatically), "the God of peace, sanctify you wholly." He goes on to expand the last word.

II IT MUST PERVADE THE WHOLE BEING.

1. The spirit. This is the highest part of our immaterial nature, the breath of life, inbreathed by Almighty God. It is the part receptive of Divine communications, which, in the regenerate, holds converse with God; which is the sphere of the operations of God the Holy Ghost. That man is spiritual in whom the spirit rules; he is natural (yucikov) in whom the soul (yuch) has usurped the place of the spirit. The evil spirit seeks to enslave the spirit of man; he strives to enter in and dwell in the spirit which should be God"s. The peace of God is the true garrison; it guards the heart and thoughts of the faithful, leaving no ingress for the wicked one.

2. The soul. Each of the two words is sometimes used for our whole invisible nature; but, when distinguished from the spirit, the soul is the lower part of our immaterial being, which belongs in common to the whole animal creation; the seat of the appetites, desires, affections. Those men in whom the animal soul predominates are called by St. Jude "sensual, not having the spirit" (yucikoi pneuma mh, e]contev). The soul is sanctified when it submits itself to the divinely enlightened spirit, when all its appetites, feelings, longings, are controlled and regulated by the sanctified spirit.

3. The body. The Christian body is a holy thing. It should be the temple of the Holy Ghost; it should be presented unto God a living sacrifice. It is sanctified when it is ruled by the spirit, when it is kept pure from the defilements of sensual sin, when its members are made instruments of righteousness unto God. The apostle prays that the whole man, spirit, soul, and body, may be preserved in the whole sphere of its existence, so as to be without blame in the great day.

4. How is this possible? God is faithful; he will do it. He calleth us. His calling is not vain, his promises are not delusive; they are true, for he is the Truth. He will do it all that he has promised, all that we pray for, more than we pray for, above all that we can ask or think; for his power worketh in us. He will do it. He will give us his Holy Spirit; he will sanctify us wholly if we yield ourselves to his purifying influences; he will preserve our entire being blameless at the coming of the Lord, if only we persevere if we abide in him. This little verse has been well called "the sum of all consolation.

LESSONS.

1. Work, but pray. Be obedient, but always look to God, and trust only in his grace; it is he that giveth holiness.

2. Pray for entire sanctification. Body, soul, and spirit all are God"s; glorify him in all.

3. Obey his calling; he will fulfill his promises. B.C.C.

Vers. 23-28.

Prayer.

I PRAYER FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE THESSALONIANS. "And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." From the object of the prayer God is here named the God of peace. The peace which takes away the discord of our nature and restores its harmony is his will and gift. But he is only the God of peace to us in our sanctification. The apostle had been exhorting to various forms of holiness. Feeling, however, how feeble his part was in their sanctification, he makes his appeal to the first Cause of Sanctification. "The God of peace himself sanctify you." In sanctification there is the idea of being set apart to the service of God. In the prayer the stress is laid on the wholeness of the sanctification. In the word translated "wholly" there is the idea of wholeness in the way of the end being reached. The materials of the temple-building and vessels were originally in a rough state. But, put into the hands of cunning workmen, they were brought up into apt and consistent and beautiful forms. And not without sprinkling of blood were they dedicated to God. So the stuff of which we are made is originally in an unpolished, defiled condition; but, in the hands of the great Artificer, through the efficacy of the blood of Christ, are we being brought up into a state in which, in our whole being, we shall be fit for being employed in the service of God. In the second part of the prayer there is brought in another aspect of the wholeness of sanctification. And the word which indicates it is brought forward in the original out of its natural position, so as to be separated from the similar word translated "wholly" only by "and." It conveys the idea of being whole in the way of being entire in its parts. "It means what represents the whole undivided possession, what is not weakened by division, and thus subsists in perfect integrity" (Delitzsch). The integrity refers to the three parts into which our nature is here regarded as divided spirit and soul and body. In some places Scripture language turns upon the distinction between the material and immaterial nature of man. Here the immaterial nature is divided into spirit and soul. And this is in keeping with the dividing asunder of soul and spirit in Heb_4:12, and also with the contrast between the present psychical body and the future spiritual body in 1Co 15. "Whilst the soul," says Olshausen, who has made a special study of this subject, "denotes the lower region of the inner man comprises, therefore, the powers to which analogous ones are found in animal life also, as understanding, appetitive faculty, memory, fancy the spirit includes those natural dispositions which constitute the true human, life; viz. reason, as the faculty of perceiving the Divine; conscience, as the faculty of distinguishing moral good and evil; free-will, as the faculty of moral choice, by which the ability to form a history is purchased." The spirit, we may say, is that by which we have the power of knowing and serving God, and of making character, and in which, in its whole range, we are separated from the brutes. The soul is the lower part of the inner man, in which, in its judgments, and longings, and recollections, and imaginings, the spirit is designed to bear rule. The body, or outer man, which is quickened by the soul, and has the power of exciting the soul, is another sphere in which, in its appetites and powers, the spirit is designed to bear rule through the soul. The spirit is wholly sanctified in the sense intended when, through the possession of the Spirit of God, reason and conscience faithfully represent the Divine voice, and the will is faithfully responsive; when, as a whole, it is the ruling center with reference to the rest of the nature. The soul is wholly sanctified when the understanding is used as a help to the keeping of Divine precepts; when the desires and affections are divinely regulated and purified and tempered; when there is a ready memory for the Word of God, and a readiness from past associations in calling up good thoughts; when the imagination is filled with Christ and the Christian ideal and the Christian prospect; when, as a whole, this part of our nature does not assert its independence of the spirit above, and can resist the charms of the senses below. The body is wholly sanctified when its various members are used as instruments of righteousness; when, as a whole, it does not aspire to rule in the soul; when it takes its law from pure judgments, and desires, and recollections, and imaginings. Such is the wholeness of sanctification in the integrity of the nature. And what, on the positive side, is represented as integrity of nature, on the negative side is represented as being without blame. Here there is a glance forward, as there frequently is in this Epistle, to the coming of Christ. It is then that the integrity of our nature is to be fully realized, and to be placed in inviolable keeping. Beyond that point, the integrity of our nature perfectly attained, no power in the universe can ever break.

II THE PRAYER GROUNDED IN THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. "Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it." There is a distinct covenanting on the part of God to bring about our sanctification. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." God, in calling, actually begins the covenant work of our sanctification, and an appeal can be made to him as the faithful God, by ourselves or others, to carry out what he has begun. Let us not be backward to remind him of his promise, or to look for it being followed by performance.

CONCLUSION.

1. Request for prayer. "Brethren, pray for us." This request for prayer conies from the three Christian workers. They were thrown upon those for whom they labored, in being themselves also compassed with infirmity. They felt that, if the Divine blessing was to rest upon their work in the highest measure, then the Thessalonian Church must join with the other Churches in giving them the assistance of their prayers.

2. The holy kiss. "Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss." This was the common Eastern form of salutation, associated with religion. Apparently the elders were thus to salute the members of the Thessalonian Church, one by one, in the name of Paul and Silas and Timothy. Propriety does not allow with us the use of this form of salutation between the various members of the Christian circle. But there is no reason why there should not be all the good feeling and fellowship with Christ of which the holy kiss is symbolic. At the same time, if love is to be sustained, it must be allowed all suitable forms of manifestation.

3. Direction as to the public reading of the Epistle. "I adjure you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the brethren." The direction is given in the most solemn manner. Paul writes in his own name, and adjures by the Lord. The adjuration was apparently founded on the importance of the Epistle, not merely to the elders to whom it was handed, but to the whole community. Let it be brought directly to bear upon all, that they may each for themselves have their impression of its contents. Such an adjuration in the first of Paul"s Epistles significantly points to the right of every Christian member to have direct access to the Word of God. "What Paul," says Bengel," commands with an adjuration, Rome prohibits with an anathema.

4. Benediction. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." He ends his Epistle as he began, by imploring grace. It is to the ever-living Divine Head of the Church that we must look for the bestowal of the blessing, and not according to the merit of any for whom we implore it, but only according to the abundance of the merit that he has obtained for them. R.F. Complete sanctification.

In concluding his Epistle, and finishing his list of practical exhortations, St. Paul sums up his desires for the welfare of his readers by one comprehensive prayer for their complete sanctification.

I CONSIDER THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION. The sanctification of a man makes a sanctuary of him. It consecrates him to the service and for the presence of God. It includes two things, the second of which is essential to the first.

1. Dedication. The sanctified man is dedicated to God. He yields himself up to the will of God. He is ready for any use to which God may put him. He lives to glorify God.

2. Purification. We have come to regard this as essentially the same as sanctification. It is not so, for Christ was sanctified, (Joh_17:19) and he never needed to be purified. But the great hindrance to our consecration of ourselves to God or to any special Divine purpose, is sin. Therefore for us the one great preliminary is purification.

II OBSERVE THE SCORE OF SANCTIFICATION. It is to be complete:

1. In range. It affects spirit, soul, and body St. Paul"s human trinity.

(1) Spirit. Our highest thoughts, aspirations, and efforts are to be sound, pure, and devoted to God.

(2) Soul. Our lower capacities of feeling and acting in our natural human life are to be equally sanctified. We cannot have a devout spirituality side by side with a carnal natural imagination. Moreover, our natural humanity, in its lower perceptions and energies, should be used for the service of God.

(3) Body. This is not only not to be degraded by vicious appetite, but to be used as an instrument for God"s service. It is unchristian to mutilate or weaken the body. This should be kept sound and healthy and vigorous for our Master"s use.

2. In intensity. The sanctification is to be thorough. Each part of our nature is to be "wholly" sanctified. We must not dedicate ourselves to God halfheartedly. He requires the whole surrender of our whole nature.

III NOTE THE SOURCE OF SANCTIFICATION. It is in God. St. Paul turns from exhortation to prayer. Here and there little duties are directed by our own will and energy. But the grand work of complete purification and consecration must be God"s.

1. By means of his spiritual influence. He sanctifies by breathing into us his Holy Spirit. Contact with God burns out sin, and lifts the soul into an atmosphere of holiness.

2. By means of his providential care. St. Paul prays that God will keep his readers "entire as we read in the Revised Version. He guards from too great temptation.

IV LOOK AT THE END OF SANCTIFICATION. This is to be "blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Preparation for the second advent. We are required to be ready to meet Christ. The glad expectation should encourage every effort to prepare, lest we should be like the foolish virgins.

2. Blamelessness. Christ comes as Judge. How sad, after longing to see him, to meet, instead of a welcome from our Lord, only stern words of rebuke! W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And may the God of peace sanctify you - By the peace he works in you, which is a great means of sanctification. Wholly - The word signifies wholly and perfectly; every part and all that concerns you; all that is of or about you. And may the whole of you, the spirit and the soul and the body - Just before he said you; now he denominates them from their spiritual state. The spirit - Gal. vi, 8; wishing that it may be preserved whole and entire: then from their natural state, the soul and the body; (for these two make up the whole nature of man, Matt. x, 28;) wishing it may be preserved blameless till the coming of Christ. To explain this a little further: of the three here mentioned, only the two last are the natural constituent parts of man. The first is adventitious, and the supernatural gift of God, to be found in Christians only. That man cannot possibly consist of three parts, appears hence: The soul is either matter or not matter: there is no medium. But if it is matter, it is part of the body: if not matter, it coincides with the Spirit.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

whole spirit and soul and body

Man a trinity. That the human soul and spirit are not identical is proved by the facts that they are divisible. Heb 4:12 and that soul and spirit are sharply distinguished in the burial and resurrection of the body. It is sown a natural body (soma psuchikon= "soul- body"), it is raised a spiritual body (soma pneumatikon). 1Co 15:44. To assert, therefore, that there is no difference between soul and spirit is to assert that there is no difference between the mortal body and the resurrection body. In Scripture use, the distinction between spirit and soul may be traced. Briefly, that distinction is that the spirit is that part of man which "knows" 1Co 2:11 his mind; the soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions, and of the active will, the self. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" Mat 26:38 see also; Mat 11:29; Joh 12:27. The word transliterated "soul" in the O.T. (nephesh) is the exact equivalent of the N.T. word for soul (Greek - εὐψυχέω ), and the use of "soul" in the O.T. is identical with the use of that word in the N.T. (see, e.g.); Deu 6:5; Deu 14:26; 1Sa 18:1; 1Sa 20:4; 1Sa 20:17; Job 7:11; Job 7:15; Job 14:22; Psa 42:6; Psa 84:2. The N.T. word for spirit (pneuma) like the O.T. (ruach), is trans. "air", "breath", "wind," but predominantly "spirit," whether of God (e.g.); Gen 1:2; Mat 3:16 or of man; Gen 41:8; 1Co 5:5. Because man is "spirit" he is capable of God-consciousness, and of communication with God; Job 32:8; Psa 18:28; Pro 20:27 because he is "soul" he has self- consciousness; Psa 13:2; Psa 42:5; Psa 42:6; Psa 42:11 because he is "body" he has, through his senses, world consciousness.

(See Scofield "Gen 1:26") .

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Concluding greetings:

v. 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

v. 24. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.

v. 25. Brethren, pray for us.

v. 26. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.

v. 27. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.

v. 28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! Amen.

The conclusions of Paul’s letters are always serene and restful, his last word invariably being one of evangelical kindness. Whether he here had in mind the vices to which he had alluded in the body of his letter, which tend to disturb the harmony of the Church, or not, his closing benediction is one of singular beauty: He Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, blameless, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the Lord, the God of peace, the apostle commends the Thessalonian Christians, for it is He that is the Author and Giver of peace; He it was that sent His Son, the Prince of Peace, for the redemption of the world, to restore the right relation between Himself and fallen mankind. This God, reconciled to them through the death of His Son, also had the power to consecrate the Christians through and through, working in them that perfection which He desires in His children, through the Word. The result of the Spirit’s sanctifying labors, then, would be that in the end the Christians would be blameless, irreproachable in soul, mind, and body. The soul, in its relation to God, the mind, in its judging of all matters pertaining to sanctification, the body, as the seat of the soul and the instrument of the mind: they all should make steady progress toward perfect sanctification. This goal may not be reached in this life, but at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ all the believers, clothed in the righteousness and holiness of their Redeemer, will be acceptable in the sight of God, washed by the blood of the Lamb that was slain. For the comfort of the Christians, who feel their own insufficiency all too well, the apostle adds: Faithful is He that calls you, who will also do this. The promises of God as to His keeping His own in the faith to the end are so numerous in Scriptures that every Christian should feel the calm certainty of the infallible Word, Joh 10:28; 2Ti 4:8-18.

So far as his own person is concerned, Paul feels constrained to add the appeal: Brethren, pray for me. Not only were great responsibilities resting upon the apostle, but he had an unusual measure of personal affliction to contend with and therefore stood in need of their constant intercession. Incidentally, ever full of kind remembrance toward all members of the churches, he bids his readers salute all the brethren with a holy kiss, a custom of the early Church which was retained for several centuries in the public services, the women saluting the women and the men the men, in a very dignified and solemn manner, to signify the sincerity of the love which united them. The apostle also impressed upon their minds with great solemnity that all the brethren should be given an opportunity to read this letter, for he wanted every single member of the congregation to be acquainted with its contents. Here again the apostle shows the fine character of a pastor who is concerned about every soul entrusted to his care and makes it a special point to reach them all by either public or private appeal. At the end of his letter the apostle places the ordinary benediction in its short form: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! It is a wish which implies not only that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, whose redemption secured free grace for all, but also that He is divine and can freely dispense of His boundless store of grace and mercy, as He obtained it for men by His suffering and death.

Summary

The apostle describes the unexpectedness of the return of Christ, which makes constant vigilance on the part of the Christians necessary; he gives his readers short instructions as to their conduct toward others and as to their personal bearing; he closes with a beautiful benediction, an appeal, and the apostolic greeting.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1, that our apostle having exhorted the Thessalonians to labour after the highest measures of sanctification, breathes out his soul here in a most affectionate prayer to God, to sanctify them thoroughly and throughout; teaching us that instruction and supplication should go together; after we have been instant with our people we must be earnest and instant with God for them.

Observe, 2. The person whom the apostle directs his prayer for sanctification to, The God of peace: but why doth he not style him the God of grace? Because peace and unity is one very eminent part of that sanctification the apostle had prayed for, and had exhorted them before unto, Be at peace among yourselves 1Th 5:13. Now this grace being once well rooted, all the other parts of sanctification thrive the better.

Observe, 3. How thorough and prevailing a work of sanctification the apostle prays for, namely, that God would sanctify them wholly in spirit, soul, and body.

By spirit, understand the superior faculties, the understanding, the will and conscience; by soul, the inferior faculties, the passions, affections, and sensitive appetite; and by body, the outward man, the tabernacle of the soul. Now the apostle prays, that all these may be sanctified, because they are defiled.

Blessed be God, regenerating grace is as universal a principle as original sin was; it is in the understanding by illumination, in the will by renovation, in all the affections by sanctifiation, reducing those rebellious powers under the government and dominion of reason and religion.

Observe, 4. Our apostle doth not only pray for their sanctification, but for their preservation also, that they may be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, preserved in a state of grace and holiness unto the end. All the sanctified are preserved; instability is an argument of insincerity; within a while, all possibilities of falling will be removed; in the mean while, take heed of falling, by thinking it is impossible to fall; for none are so near falling as those who are most confident of their own strength and standing.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 10

SANCTIFICATION AND THE COMING OF THE LORD

23. “The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.” The sinner is a stranger to the God of peace; to him he is the God of wrath and retribution. Hence, sanctification is not for sinners. Repentance and justification are the gospel pertinent to them. The appeal here is to Christians only. Hagiasai, sanctify, is in the aorist tense, and means instantaneously take the world out of you; from alpha, not, and ge, the world. Regeneration takes you out of the world, and sanctification takes the world out of you. Hence, we must have a double divorcement from the world before we can go to heaven. Against the gradualistic theology, which everywhere curses the modern pulpit, the New Testament is outspoken and decisive from Alpha to Omega. The aorist tense in this passage and hundreds more admits of no gradualism. It positively means “sanctify you this moment.” The gradualism in the plan of salvation is all on the human side. We gradually approach sanctification, suddenly enter it, and gradually progress indefinitely. The Greek for “wholly” is holoteleis, from holos, the whole, and telos, perfection. Hence, it means entirely unto perfection; i.e., every constituency of your being sanctified unto Completion. Paul makes no provision for sin, and gives no place to the devil. In E.V. this word is an adverb, qualifying sanctify. In the Greek it is a compound adjective, with a double superlative signification. It does not occur in the classic Greek. Paul, a tiptop linguist, manufactured this wonderful compound superlative adjective to describe the people whose responsibility he must bear at the pearly portals. The word describes the pronoun you, in the text. Hence, you, yourself, must be complete in every constituency of your being if you ever enter heaven. Many adroit tergiversations are resorted to by Satan’s preachers to evade a clear and unequivocal revelation of God’s truth in this passage. But not one of them can stand before the white light radiated by the Holy Ghost from these inspired words, “May your whole spirit, mind, and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The rank and file of the modern clergy are dichotomists—i.e., advocates of the two natures; i.e., soul and body—unfortunately confounding spirit and mind, and preaching intellectualism and metaphysics, instead of spirituality. John Wesley was a trichotomist, like the apostle Paul, preaching the three constituencies of humanity—spirit, mind, and body. Total depravity applies to the human spirit only, not to the mind and body. Man in the fall became a spiritual corpse, retaining his intellectual and physical life, though terribly wrecked and dilapidated. A thousand systems of counterfeit religions prevail in the world this day, consisting of mentality and materiality, without a solitary vestige of spiritual life Satan’s illusory passports to hell, all competent to live and prosper without the Holy Ghost, who alone can quicken the dead human spirit into life, sanctifying it with our entire being for an eternity of bliss. The silly heresy somewhat prevalent among ignorant people, vindicating the theory that sin remains in the body after the soul is made pure, is utterly eradicated and annihilated by this passage, as we see here that sanctification includes spirit, mind, and body; i.e., our entire being, leaving no pocket for the devil. Here you see also the peculiar prominence given to the Lord’s second coming by apostolic preaching, as in this powerful and importunate prayer for the entire sanctification of the Thessalonians, the petition involves their abiding in the experience till the Lord comes. Hence, we have the New Testament standard of religion here clear and unequivocal; i.e., entire sanctification of spirit, soul, and body, and perseverance in the experience till the Lord comes. Hence, you see the glorious climax of the New Testament gospel culminating in these beautiful and transcendent truths; i.e., and the Lord’s return to the earth to execute righteous judgments against the wicked nations and fallen Churches, and establish his kingdom from the heads of the rivers to the ends of the earth.

24. “Faithful is he who calleth you who also will do it.” Your omnipotent Savior, who is infinitely abundantly able to do this work, Calls you to sanctification. Hence, it is wicked, rebellious, and blasphemous to say you can not get it. It is not your work, but that of the omnipotent God, who creates a world in a moment. Hence, you are left without excuse, as you have nothing to do but turn over your sanctification into his hands, raise the shout of faith, and be loyal to God. He does it without any help on your part.

26. “Salute all the brothers with a holy kiss.” The word kiss is philema, from phileo, to love, and simply means a love token given—a literal kiss of the lips, or a cordial salutation in some other way. It is certainly our privilege to administer the kiss; however we should not sticklerize, lest we be brought under bondage. In this glorious full salvation the Lord breaks from our necks every yoke which Satan and men have put on us. So let us jealously conserve our perfect spiritual freedom, never permitting men or devils to lay the weight of a feather on our consciences, and see that we do not manufacture yokes with our own hands, and put them on our own necks. The world is in the devil’s bondage, and unsanctified Christians in legal bondage. Let us all watch and pray, lest men, devils or our own hands, ever interfere with this blessed, sweet, and glorious liberty, a prelibation of heavenly bliss.

27. “I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the brethren.” This verse solves the problem of legal oaths, as here we see that Paul administers an oath to the brethren, that this letter should be read to all the saints. As these people had been so recently converted out of heathenism, it was a matter of the most vital importance that it should be read to every one of them; hence Paul adjures them in the name of the Lord, thus tightening up their obligations, and augmenting the certainty of the great end in view that every disciple should hear this letter. It was not enough simply to read it in the public audience, but they must make certain investigation, finding out every absentee, hunting him up, and reading this letter to him.

28. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” This is simply an apostolic benediction, such as we find, in diversified forms and magnitudes, concluding every epistle. The popular superstition prevalent in the Churches, using only 2Co 13:13, in the dismission of a congregation, and restricting the privilege to an ordained clergyman, is by no means commendable. It is certainly the gracious privilege of every Christian conducting religious service to pronounce these benedictions pursuant to the light and leading of the Holy Spirit.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ . [May God, who makes peace between himself and mankind, himself prepare you for his judgment-day, making your entire being, in all its threefold nature, fit to be preserved, and wholly above all censure.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23–26. The God of peace. Who bestows peace of soul. Sanctify you wholly. Make you holy in every respect. Your whole spirit and soul and body. Let the whole man be preserved blameless.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

make you completely holy

This refers to God making a person sinless and perfect in his sight.

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved without blame

Here "spirit, soul, and body" represent the whole person. If your language does not have three words for these parts you can state it as "your whole life" or "you." This can be stated in active form. AT: "May God make your whole life without sin" or "May God keep you completely blameless" (See: Active or Passive)

Faithful is he who calls you

"He is faithful who calls you"

the one who will also do it

"he will be helping you"

translationWords

God

peace

holy

spirit

soul

lord

Jesus

faithful

call

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

23. Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης—. But may the God of peace Himself …: cf. 1Th 3:11 (see note), and 2Th 2:16, where a like contrast seems to be implied, under Αὐτὸς δέ, between human wish or effort and Divine power. Php 2:12 f. (“Work out your own salvation, for God it is that worketh in you”) illustrates the connexion between 1Th 5:22-23: “Keep yourselves from … evil. But may God … sanctify you.” Ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, a favourite designation with St Paul in pious wishes (see 2Th 3:16; Rom 16:20, &c.), found also in Heb 13:20. For εἰρήνη, see note on 1Th 1:1: God’s distinguishing gift in the Gospel, that by which he signalizes His grace in the hearts of men; as the Christian God is ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, so the Christian peace is ἡ εἰρήνη τοῦ θεοῦ (Php 4:7). The epithet recalls 1Th 5:13, εἰρηνεύετε ἐν ἐαυτοῖς; the directions of the previous context, from 1Th 5:12 onwards, are τὰ τῆς εἰρήνης κ. τὰ τῆς οἰκοδομῆς (Rom 14:19); when the Church is at peace, the work of sanctification goes on. As from this gift of Peace, so God is specifically named from other of His χαρίσματα in Rom 15:5; Rom 15:13, 2Co 13:11, 1Pe 5:10; in each place suitably to the wish expressed. The prayer for Sanctification in 1Th 3:11-13 above had love for its basis; this prayer rests on the thought of peace.

ἁγιάσαι ὑμᾶς ὁλοτελεῖς, sanctify you to full completeness,—peromnia (Vulg.), ganz und gar (de Wette), nach eurer ganzen Person (Schmiedel). Ὁλοτελής, hap. leg. in N.T., is a coinage of late Greek, found occasionally in Plutarch, and in Aquila’s rendering of Deu 13:17 (for כָּלִיל). It does not appear to be qualitative, as though denoting the completeness of sanctification by way of degree, but quantitative as signifying its range and unlimited comprehension; ὁλοτελεῖς is expounded by ὁλόκληρον … τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ κ.τ.λ. in the sequel; thus Œcumenius, ὁλοτελεῖς· τοῦτʼ ἔστι σώματι κ. ψυχῇ· Ὁλοτελής and ὁλόκληρος are closely synonymous, both insisting on the wholeness of the process: the former is collective, the latter distributive—the one implying a totality from which no part is excluded, the other an integrity in which each part has its due place and proportion (vollständig and vollkommen respectively, Hofmann); for ὁλόκληρος, see Trench’s Syn. § 22, and cf. Jas 1:4, Act 3:16. In the LXX and in Philo, ὁλόκληρος (rendering the Hebrew שָׁלֵם) is regularly used of the sacrificial victims, which were required to be sound and perfect in every part, ὁλόκληρος κ. τέλειος or παντελής. The doubling of ὁλο- sustains the rhetorical effect of the seven times repeated παν- of 1Th 5:14-22.

For ἁγιάζω, cf. notes on ἁγιωσύνη, 1Th 3:13, and ἁγιασμός, 1Th 4:3. The readers are already, by their calling and relations to God as believers in Christ, ἅγιοι, ἡγιασμένοι; what the Apostles ask in this closing prayer, up to which all the exhortations and warnings of the Epistle, and especially those of the last eleven verses, lead, is a sanctity impressed on the readers by God Himself, of such thoroughness moreover that it shall embrace and gather up into the integrity of a complete manhood every element and function of their nature, in which, that is to say, the soul and body shall participate no less than the spirit.

So the parallel clause, carrying forward the sanctification into preservation (note the reverse order in the prayer of Joh 17:11-19), runs καὶ ὁλόκληρον ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα … τηρηθείη, and in full integrity may your spirit and your soul and your body … be preserved! Ὑμῶν, standing in the Greek at the head of the triple subject and belonging to each member of it, we represent by the repeated “your,” in order to bring out the distinctness, marked by the tripled article, with which the three several subjects are stated. The verb at the end is singular, in consonance with ὁλόκληρον at the beginning; there is one “keeping,” embracing the totality of the man, but a keeping in which each of the three constituents has its place and share.

Over this passage the Trichotomists and Dichotomists wage war, who maintain respectively that Scripture distributes man’s nature into three or two elements—spirit, soul, and body, or spirit and flesh (body). For the former theory, see Heard’s Tripartite Nature of Man; Ellicott’s The Destiny of the Creature, &c., and the note in his Commentary on this passage; or Delitzsch’s Biblical Psychology: for the latter, Laidlaw’s Bible Doctrine of Man, or Beck’s Biblical Psychology; also the art. Psychology in Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible, and Cremer’s Biblico-Theological Lexicon s. vv. The nature of this passage forbids our finding a logical analysis in the three terms; they serve to make the wish exhaustive in its completeness.

The Apostles begin with the inmost—τὸ πνεῦμα, nearest to God who “is spirit” (Joh 4:24); for with man’s spirit the Holy Spirit directly associates Himself (Rom 8:16, &c.), and it is the primary object of Divine salvation (cf. 2Th 2:13; also 1Co 5:5; 1Co 15:45). They end with “the body,” the vessel and envelope of the spirit (see 2Co 4:7; 2Co 5:1, &c.; if not 1Th 4:4 above), the man’s outer part, through which he belongs to the κόσμος and communicates with it. “The soul,” poised between these two, is the individual self, the living personality in which flesh and spirit, common to each man with his fellows, meet and are actualized in him. When St Paul in 2Co 7:1 bids his readers “cleanse” themselves “from all defilement of flesh and spirit,” that phrase covers the same ground as this, but contrasts the man’s inner and outer relations; while the expression of 1Pe 1:22, “having purified your souls,” fastens upon the individual man and his personality in its distinctive impulses and habits; here the entire man is surveyed, with his whole nature in its manifold aspects and functions, as the subject of sanctifying grace. The πνεῦμα is “kept,” when no evil reaches the inner depths of our nature or disturbs our relations to God and eternity; the ψυχή, when the world of self is guarded and every personal motive and activity is holy; and the σῶμα, when our outward life and participation in the material world are sacred. The connexion between sanctity and safety lies in the fact that what is sanctified is given over to God, to be “kept” by Him for His own uses. The thought that Christ’s disciples, οἱ ἐν Χριστῷ as St Paul would say, belong to God the Father and are therefore cast upon His almighty protection, is at the basis of our Lord’s parting prayer in John 17. (see also Joh 6:37-45; Joh 10:26-30); it comes out in the πιστὸς ὁ καλῶν of the next verse: cf. 1Th 1:4; 2Th 2:13; Eph 1:18 b; 2Ti 1:12, also Psalms 121; Isa 27:3; “He will keep the feet of His saints,” 1Sa 2:9.

Between subject (τὸ πνεῦμα κ.τ.λ.) and verb (τηρηθείη) comes in the adverbial adjunct, ἀμέμπτως ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ: (may your spirit, &c., be preserved) without blame in the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ qualifies ἀμέμπτως: the blamelessness (“in holiness,” 1Th 3:13; see ἁγιάσαι ὑμᾶς above) is to be manifest “in,” certified at, “the παρουσία” (cf. 1Th 3:13, also 1Th 2:19 and parallels); “the day will disclose it,” 1Co 3:13. For παρουσία, see notes on 1Th 2:19, &c.; and for τοῦ κυρ. Ἰ. Χ., 1Th 1:1; 1Th 1:3, &c. The grammatical attachment of ἀμέμπτως is not so obvious. The Apostles do not write ἄμεμπτον, which would give the “preserved blameless” of the A.V., as though they were defining the state in which the readers should be kept “unto the coming” (a gross misrendering of ἐν), but ἀμέμπτως, “blamelessly,” using the adverb of manner. Now this qualification can hardly apply to τηρηθείη by itself (for the writers could not think of blame as attaching, conceivably, to God’s keeping of His saints); it defines the foregoing ὁλόκληρον, which is grammatically dependent on τηρηθείη as its secondary predicate, but logically dominates the sentence. The interjected adverbial adjunct indicates the manner in which the desired integrity of sanctification, for whose maintenance prayer is made, is to be realized at last. We may render the whole sentence thus: “In full integrity may your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved,—found blamelessly so at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” From 1Th 4:13-18 it might be inferred, as 1 Corinthians 15 abundantly shows, that in St Paul’s teaching the body, along with the spirit, of the saints participates in the glory of the Parousia; see Php 3:20 f.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. αὐτὸς δέ κτλ. Following the exhortation (4:1-5:22), a new epistolary section is introduced, the prayer. In this connection, δε is slightly adversative as if Paul had said: “I have exhorted you to ethical consecration and to the things that make for peace, but God himself is the only power that can make the exhortation effective.”

ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνη. An apt designation in the light of vv. 12-13. This “peace,” however, is not to be restricted to harmony within the brotherhood; but is to be understood of the spiritual prosperity (1:1) of which God is the author (Estius) and without which concord in the community is impossible. A similar appeal to the underlying religious sanction is seen in 1Co 14:33 where, after a reference to disorder among the prophets, God is called a God not of confusion (ἀκαταστασία) but of peace (εἰρήνη, instead of the expected εὐσχημόνη or ταξεω).

ἁγιάσαι ὑμᾶς ὁλοτελεῖ. “Consecrate you throughout,” “through and through” (Luther). The note of consecration already struck in 3:13 and 4:3-8 is heard again. As in those passages so here consecration includes not only religion, devotion to God, but conduct, ethical soundness. Furthermore, since Paul has in mind the consecration not only of the soul but of the body (4:3-8), it is probable that ὁλοτελεῖ is to be taken not qualitatively “so that you may be perfect” (Ambst, Lft., Dob., et al.) but quantitatively “wholly,” per omnia (Vulg), that is, σώματι καὶ ψυχῇ (Theophylact; cf. Grot., De W., Lün., Ell., Schmiedel, Born, Wohl., Mill. et al.).

On αὐτὸς δε, see 3:11. The phrase ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνη (not in Lxx) is mainly Pauline (Rom 15:33, Rom 15:16:20, 1Co 14:33, 2Co 13:11, Php 4:9, Heb 13:20; cf. ὁ κύριο II 3:16).—ἁγιάζει is rare in Paul (active here and Eph 5:26, passive in Rom 15:16, 1Co 1:2, 1Co 6:11, 1Co 7:14), but common in Lxx (Exo 31:13 ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ ἁγιάζων ὑμᾶ, Lev 11:44, Lev 21:8, Eze 37:28). Though the consecrating power of Christ or the Spirit possesses the believers at baptism so that they become a καινὴ κτίσι, yet the consecration is not fully perfected (cf. 3:13). For the optative ἁγιάσα, GF have the future indic. ὁλοτελή occurs only here in Gk. Bib.; Field notes it in Lev 6:23, Psa 50:21 (Aq.); cf. Aristotle, de plantis, 817 f. ὁ κόσμος ὀλοτελής ἐστιν καὶ διηνεκή; also Hermas, Mand. IX, 6, Vis. III, 6:4, 10:9, 13:4.

καὶ ὁλόκληρον κτλ. “And—to specify more exactly (Ell.), may your spirit and soul and body … be kept in their entirety,” as an undivided whole. So important for the readers is the prayer for the consecration not only of soul but of body that Paul repeats it, explaining the ἁγιάσα with ἀμέμπτως τηρηθεί; the ὑμᾶ with ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα, ἡ ψυχή, τὸ σῶμ; and the ὁλοτελεῖ with ὁλόκληρο In doing so, he makes clear that God not only consecrates the believers but keeps them (“from the baptism to the coming of Christ,” Ephr.) so that they are blameless when the Lord comes.

ὁλόκληρο like ὁλοτελεῖ which it resumes is in the predicate position and is to be interpreted not qualitatively “so as to be ethically perfect” but qualitatively “in their entirety,” “intact,” integer (Vulg), the point being that no part of the Christian personality should be lacking in consecration. Though closely connected with πνεῦμα, ὁλόκληρο like the unemphatic ὑμῶ is to be construed with all three substantives.—ὁλόκληρο differs etymologically from ὁλοτελή but is in meaning virtually synonymous with it. The former word occurs elsewhere in the Gk. Bib. Jas 1:4; Zec 11:16 (of physical soundness; cf. ὁλοκληρί Act 3:16, Isa 1:4 v. l.); Eze 15:5 (of wood not yet cut for fuel); Deu 27:6, Jos 9:2, Jos 9:1 Mac. 4:47 (of the unhewn stones for the altar); Deu 16:9 (A) Lev 23:15 (of the seven Sabbaths); Sap. 15:3 (of δικαιοσύν); 4 Mac. 15:7 (of εὐσέβει); cf. Hermas, Mand. V, 2:3 τῶν τὴν πίστιν ἐχόντων ὁλόκληρο; also A in 1Ch 24:7 = 25:9 where B has ὁ κλῆρο

ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα κτλ. Judging from the Pauline conception of the Christian as the man into whom there has entered a supernatural divine power, Christ or the Spirit (Gal 4:6, Rom 8:11, 1Co 6:19, 2Co 1:22), and from the fact that Paul is addressing Christians, it is probable but not certain that “your spirit” (cf. 1Co 14:14) designates that portion of the divine Spirit which as dwelling permanently in the individual as τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ θεου constitutes τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ (1Co 2:11). The believer and the unbeliever are so far alike that their individuality consists of an inner (ψυχή, νοῦς, καρδία, ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπο) and an outer part (σῶμ); but the believer differs from the unbeliever in that he has received from God the divine Spirit which controls and redeems his former individuality, so that at the Parousia he is raised from the dead and enters upon a life with Christ in a spiritual body. Without the indwelling πνεῦμ, man at his best (ψυχικό) is mere man, unregenerate, σαρκικό (1Co 3:3, 1Co 15:44 ff.), incapable of resurrection and life with Christ. Hence the emphasis on ὁλόκληρο at this point; the divine in man and the human individuality must be kept intact, an undivided whole, if the believer is to be blameless at the Parousia.

This view, shared substantially by Dob., appears in an anonymous catena quoted by Swete (Th. Mops. II, 39): οὐδέποτε ἐπὶ ἀπίστου τὰ τρία τέθεικεν, πνεῦμα, ψυχήν, καὶ σῶμα, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ μόνων τῶν πιστευόντων· ὧν ψυχὴ μὲν καὶ σῶμα τῆς φύσεως, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τῆς εὐεργεσίας, τουτέστιν, τὸ χάρισμα τῶν πιστευόντω Th. Mops. (who seems to take ὁλόκληρο with πνεῦμ and ἀμέμπτω with ψυχη and σῶμ) Chrys. and Theodoret interpret ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμ as the direct equivalent of τὸ πνεῦμ in v. 19.—The contrast between “my,” “our” spirit with the divine Spirit (1 Cor. 5:14, Rom 8:16) does not of necessity compel the conclusion that the human spirit in a psychological sense (= ψυχή, νοῦ etc.) is here meant, for in 1Co 14:14 where “my spirit” is contrasted with “my νοῦ,” it is evident that “my spirit” is that portion of the divine Spirit which is resident in the individual. Occasionally Paul uses τὸ πνεῦμα ὑμῶ as a designation of the Christian personality (Gal 6:18, Php 4:23, Phm 1:25) instead of ὑμεῖ (v. 28, II 3:18) or the popular ψυχη (Rom 2:9, Rom 2:11:13, Rom 2:13:1, Rom 2:16:4, 2Co 1:23, Php 2:30; also 1Th 2:8, 2Co 12:15); and this is probably the case in 1Co 16:18, 2Co 2:13, 2Co 7:13 (cf. Mat 11:29 and ἡ σὰρξ ὑμῶ 2Co 7:5); ἐκ ψυχῆ (Col 3:23, Eph 6:6) is equivalent to ἐκ καρδία as Rom 6:17 makes probable. ψυχη is rare in Paul compared with πνεῦμα, σῶμ or even καρδί; it is less frequent than νοῦ Ten of the thirteen instances have been mentioned already; in 1Co 15:45=Gen 2:7, Paul contrasts sharply πνεῦμ and ψυχη under the influence of his conception of the ψυχικό as σαρκικό; in Php 1:27 (στήκετε ἐν ἑνὶ πνεύματι, μιᾷ ψυχῆ συναθλοῦντε), where, as here, ψυχη appears alongside of πνεῦμα, πνεῦμ is the divine Spirit as such or as individualised in the believer.—Didymus (de spiritu sancto, 55, quoted by Swete (op. cit.), 39) thinks that it would be incredible and blasphemous for the Apostle to pray that the Holy Spirit integer servetur, qui nec imminutionem potest recipere nec profectum; and hence refers “your spirit” to the human spirit. Whether his objection is cogent depends on the interpretation of 1Co 5:5 and 2Co 7:1 (if σάρ here as in Col 2:5=σῶμ; cf. 2Co 7:5). Pelagius (noted by Dob.) remarks: gratia spiritus, quae quamuis in se semper integra sit, non tamen in nobis integra nisi ab integris habetur (Souter). If with Didymus Paul here speaks de humano spiritu, then πνεῦμ is a distinctively psychological term appropriate to believers and unbelievers alike, and the collocation with ψυχη which is unusual (Php 1:27, 1Co 15:45) is to be understood either (1) as rhetorical (De W., Jowett, and many), or at least as “a popular statement, not an expression of the Apostle’s own psychology” (Charles, Eschat. 410); or (2) as the “distinct enunciation of the three component parts of the nature of man” (Ell.; so most after Origen, Jerome, Apollinaris of Laodicea). Lft. ad loc. says: “The spirit which is the ruling faculty in man and through which he holds communication with the unseen world—the soul, which is the seat of all his impulses and affections, the centre of his personality—the body, which links him to the material world and is the instrument of all his outward deeds—these all the Apostle would have presented perfect and intact in the day of the Lord’s coming.”

In the O. T. man is regularly divided into an inner (spirit or soul) and an outer (body) part,—a view which prevails in the simple psychology of late Judaism (Bousset, Relig2 459) and in the N. T. Concurrent with this view is another (to Charles the more primitive), namely, that ruach is the breath of life which quickens man, body and soul, and returns at death to God (Charles, Eschat 44),—a view which occasionally appears in apocalyptic literature (ibid. 194-232). Charles (ibid. 409 ff.) understands πνεῦμ in Paul of the higher nature of man which is created anew by God in order to make possible communion with him; it of course survives death; ψυχη is a mere function of the body and perishes with it. Dob. doubts this and refers to 2Co 1:23, 2Co 12:15.

Neither Plato nor Aristotle has a trichotomy (Dob. 230 ff.); they divide man into σῶμ and ψυχη and subdivide ψυχη into three parts or powers. When νοῦ comes alongside of ψυχή it is a function of the latter, “the instrument by which the soul thinks and forms conceptions” and it has “no reality at all prior to the exercise of thought” (Arist. de anima, III, 4 (429), in Hammond, Aristotle’s Psychology, 1902, 113). In Philo, “the πνεῦμ is not a part of human nature but a force that acts upon it and within it. The dichotomy of human nature remains” (Hatch, Essays, 128). In Christianity, trichotomy does not seem certain until the second century; outside of Christianity, it is not clear before the Neoplatonists with their σῶμα, ψυχή, νοῦς (Dob.).—On the question at issue, see Wendt, Die Begriffe Fleisch und Geist, 1879; Dickson, St. Paul’s Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit, 1883; Hatch, Essays, 94-130 (for psychological terms in Lxx and Philo); Davidson, Old Testament Theology, 1904, 182 ff.; Charles, Eschat; Bousset, Relig2 459 ff.; and Lft., Ell., and Dob. on our passage.

ἀμέμπτω … τηρηθεί. “May your spirit and soul and body as an undivided whole be kept blamelessly (that is, so as to be blameless) at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (3:13). Since ἀμέμπτως τηρηθεί resumes ἁγιάσα, the logical subject of the passive optative is God. The verb τηρεῖ of itself intimates that the process of keeping intact the divine and human element in man has been going on since the baptism (Ephr.) when first the Spirit entered into the believer. The adverb ἀμέμπτω lays stress not so much on the manner of God’s activity as on the result; hence the adverb may be interpreted as an adjective (so Lillie, Pelt: ὥστε ὑμᾶς ἀμέμπτους ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ cf. Bl 76:1 and see above on 2:10 and on 3:13 where Bl read ἀμέμπτω).

Grot., Piscator, Lft., Dob., et al. take ἐ as brachyology for εἰ; cf. Bl 41:1 and 1Co 11:18. τηρεῖ (1Co 7:37, 2Co 11:9, Eph 4:3) is common in Gk. Bib.; cf. Sap. 10:5 of σοφία: εὗρεν τὸν δίκαιον καὶ ἐτήρησεν αὐτὸν ἄμεμπτον θεῷ

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The very God of peace [αυτος ο θεος της ειρηνης] . Better, the God of peace himself. God 's work is contrasted with human efforts to carry out the preceding injunctions. The phrase God of peace only in Paul and Hebrews. See Rom 14:33; Rom 16:20; Phi 4:9; Heb 13:20. The meaning is, God who is the source and giver of peace. Peace, in the Pauline sense, is not mere calm or tranquillity. It is always conceived as based upon reconciliation with God. God is the God of peace only to those who have ceased to be at war with him, and are at one with him. God 's peace is not sentimental but moral. Hence the God of peace is the sanctifier. "Peace" is habitually used, both in the Old and New Testaments, in connection with the messianic salvation. The Messiah himself will be Peace (Mic 5:5). Peace is associated with righteousness as a messianic blessing (Psa 72:7; Psa 85:10). Peace, founded in reconciliation with God, is the theme of the gospel (Act 10:36). The gospel is the gospel of peace (Eph 2:17; Eph 6:15; Rom 10:15). Christ is the giver of peace (J. 14 27; 16 33).

Sanctify [αγιασαι] . See on Joh 10:36; Joh 17:17. The primary idea of the word is separation. Hence agiov, the standard word for holy in LXX is, primarily, set apart. Agiazein is

1. to separate from things profane and to consecrate to God;

2. to cleanse or purify as one set apart to holy uses.

Wholly [ολοτελεις] . N. T. o. So that nothing shall escape the sanctifying power. %Olov complete, and telov end or consummation.

Spirit, soul, body [πνευμα, ψυχη σωμα] . It is useless to attempt to draw from these words a technical, psychological statement of a threefold division of the human personality. If Paul recognized any such technical division, it was more probably twofold; the body or material part, and the immaterial part with its higher and lower sides - pneuma and yuch. See on Rom 6:6; Rom 7:5, 23; Rom 8:4; Rom 11:3 and footnote.

Be preserved entire [ολοκληρον - τηρηθειη] . This is the rendering of Rev. and is correct. A. V. joins oJloklhron with pneuma, and renders your whole spirit. Oloklhron is predic ative, not attributive. It does not mean whole, but is derived from olov whole and klhrov allotment, and signifies having the entire allotment; complete in all parts. It occurs only here and Jas 1:4, where it is associated with teleioi perfect. It appears in LXX, as Lev 23:15; Deu 16:9; Deu 27:6. Joseph. Ant 3:12, 2, uses it of an unblemished victim for sacrifice. As distinguished from oJloteleiv wholly, ver. 23, it is qualitative, while oJloteleiv is quantitative. The kindred oJloklhria perfect soundness, only in Act 3:16. For preserved see on 1Pe 1:4.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.