1 Thessalonians 5:23

“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”

“And”: Notice the connection between this verse and the previous one. God does not cleanse or sanctify people apart from their cooperation. In order to end up pure and holy, we need to depart from evil and hold to that which is good (2 Corinthians 7:1). “The God of peace”: The God who enables us to be forgiven, so we can have peace with Him (Colossians 1:21), and peace with others (Ephesians 2:14). This is another way of saying that God is the only source of spiritual blessings for mankind (Ephesians 1:3). Paul often calls God, the God of peace (Romans 15:33; Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:16). This expression should remind us that God is not the cause for the strife and unhappiness in the world. Too many people try to blame this world's problems on "Christianity". Man causes the problems, not God (Romans 3:23).

“Sanctify”: “Render sacred, declare holy, consecrate, separate from things profane, dedicate to God, purify” (Fields p. 151). “You wholly”: Compete to the end. “Consecrate you through and through” (Mof).

Paul is not teaching the idea that God mysteriously or miraculously removes all desires to sin in the believer, because Paul himself, had to buffet his body (1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 John 1:8). Instead Paul is describing the aim and goal of the Christian life, which is to be wholly pure, inside and outside, our conduct, speech, thoughts and attitude all directed towards glorifying God (Romans 6:13; Romans 6:19; Matthew 22:37). Here is great news for the Christian. Faithfulness to God, endeavoring to put on the new man completely, will result in our complete purity in eternity (Revelation 21:4).

“Spirit and soul and body”: Commentators speculate concerning if Paul here intends any distinction between the spirit and the soul. In other places, man is viewed as having. very definite dual nature (Ecclesiastes 2:7; Matthew 10:28; 2 Corinthians 4:16), yet the Hebrew writer seems to imply that there is. distinction between the soul and the spirit (Hebrews 4:12). Up to this time. have personally been unable to find. satisfactory answer as to how the soul differs from the spirit. Hebrews 4:12 seems to imply that such. distinction is not readily or easily seen, and also that such. distinction might be. very fine line.

“Be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus”: The Christian will not lose anything. He or she will not even lose their body (Romans 8:23). If the soul is more of the personality of the inner man (as some suggest), this verse could be teaching that for the faithful Christian, heaven means. cleansed and pure mind, but. mind that still remembers the good memories of this life, that is,. purified memory. It could also suggest that we will retain somewhat distinctive personalities in eternity, which means we will not be robots, but it would be. personality cleansed of all the things that got us into trouble in this life. The expression “without blame” does not require perfection in this life, but it does require sincere repentance and forgiveness (Romans 4:6). Carefully note that the Bible teaches. salvation of the entire person. We cannot separate our personal lives from our faith, neither can we say that whatever we do with our bodies or whatever we believe or think does not impact upon our relationship with God. God requires the complete loyalty of the individual.