Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
The believers in Thessalonica were initially sanctified. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Paul teaches that their sanctification was God’s will. And it was God’s will that they should keep on abstaining from these sexual sins. Thus, they were already partially sanctified and separated from sexual impurity. This is initial sanctification which comes along with justification. God calls all believers to live such a holy life (v 7).
However, they needed the completion of their sanctification. First Thessalonians 5:23 is more than a wish, although in the optative mood. Stephen Gibson surveyed 120 commentaries on this passage. The majority of the commentators surveyed either ignored the primary theme of sanctification in 1 Thessalonians or interpreted this passage in light of their theology. Gibson concluded:
The necessity they feel to juggle terms, dodge the point, and ignore the obvious comes from a sort of pessimism. Their emphasis of human depravity and inability actually translates into a divine inability. They simply cannot believe that God will make possible what He requires of a believer.((Gibson, Sincerity of God, 84; see also p. 7.))
It is the desire of the Spirit that our sanctification or holiness be entire. This is the only place in the New Testament where holoteles occurs. It is comprised of holos, meaning all, whole, or entirely, and telos, which means to perfect. It speaks strongly of a completeness to sanctification. The process of sanctification may occur in stages or degrees, but Paul’s concept is that it can reach a point of completeness. Hermann Cremer wrote that telos never refers merely to an end with regard to time or space in and for itself. It always includes the idea of an inner completion or qualitative end.((Biblico-Theological Lexicon, 541.))
This adjective is followed by a second adjective, olokleros, which means entire, complete, sound in every part. Wesley took it as a synonym with teleios, both meaning whole or complete.((Wesley, BE Works, 3:179; see also Trench, Synonyms, 74–77.)) Yet this second adjective describes us, while the first one describes sanctification. Sometimes this verse is used as a proof text that mankind is created in three parts. This may be more than Paul intended to say. David Cubie argues that Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 is teaching that it is “indeed the whole person who is the object of sanctification.”((Cubie, “‘Entire’ Sanctification, 154.)) William Greathouse explained that Paul probably had in mind the command of Jesus that we love God with all our heart and soul and mind (Matt 22:37). Thus, the terms “spirit and soul and body” signify the totality of personality.((Greathouse, Wholeness in Christ, 137.))
In his Notes, Wesley argued that man cannot possibly consist of three parts.((Wesley, Notes, 532.)) But rather than disagree over dichotomy or trichotomy, as these terms relate to humanity, the minimum Paul states is that our sanctification can be as thorough as our nature. Paul prays that the Thessalonian believers would completely attain this goal.
This prayer was expressed for those who had experienced the grace of God. Paul said in 1 Thess 3:10 that he prayed earnestly night and day that God would supply what was lacking in their faith. He prays for sanctifying grace that reaches the whole life and the whole person. All believers are cleansed as they walk in light, so that their mistakes and shortcomings are not imputed against them, but this is a deeper cleansing which leaves nothing out, penetrating body, soul, spirit and cleansing through and through, entirely and completely. George Peck explained:
To Christian perfection, then, we must necessarily attach the idea of holiness, or sanctification to the fullest extent of which we are capable in our present state—what St. Paul means by being sanctified wholly (1 Thess 5:23)—and by standing complete in all the will of God (Col 4:12).((Peck, Christian Perfection, 27.))
It cannot be assumed that Paul is praying for the wholeness of the Thessalonian church corporately since he referred in his prayer to the individual components of human personality. While the Savior prayed for the unity of his spiritual body in John 17, here Paul prays for the individuals comprising that body. He prays that this entire sanctification pervades their whole being.
What will this entire sanctification do? Verses 12–22 imply at least nine benefits:
- It will give us a respect for spiritual authority and for preaching (v 20).
- It will help us live in peace with one another (v 13b).
- It will give us a sensitivity to spiritual needs. The lazy need to be admonished, the fearful need to be encouraged, the weak need to be propped up—it will take patience to deal with them all (v 14).
- It will deliver us from a vindictive, get-even spirit (v 15) and make us kind.
- It will make us joyful and deliver us from blaming and grumbling (v 16).
- It will make our prayer life more consistent (v 17).
- It will make us more thankful—thankful in all circumstances (v 18). Actually verses 16–18 describe unbroken praise to God, unbroken communion with God, and unbroken awareness of God. Wesley said this is Christian perfection.((Wesley, Notes, 531.))
- It will make us more obedient to the Spirit and more discerning of the Spirit (vv 19, 21).
- It will help us live more consistently and avoid every evil and questionable practice (v 22).
Then Paul prayed that this condition be maintained in them until the return of Christ. Romans 6:6, 2 Corinthians 7:1, and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 all indicate that entire sanctification is possible before death and that this condition may be preserved until the coming of Christ. According to 1 Peter 1:13 the revelation of Jesus Christ will bring grace, but the Scriptures never claim we must wait until that moment to be perfected in love. B. B. Warfield taught that entire sanctification is obtained at the second advent,((Studies in Perfectionism, appendix to abridged edition, 462–64)) but Paul’s prayer is that they would be kept blameless in this life, culminating—not beginning—when Christ returns. This implies a continuation of what is already at work. Ernest Best explained, “Holiness, of course, will not come suddenly into existence then unless they are now already ‘holy’ and seeking holiness. If believers are preserved in the Day of Judgment, this will imply preservation until then.”((Best, A Commentary on the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, 182.))
William Burt Pope observed that the same power which sanctifies as an act preserves that sanctification as a state. This state of holiness is without defect. The whole person becomes entirely the Lord’s as his property and as his servant. “Faith in the power of God working by love keeps the spirit and soul faithful to God as the supreme object of worship and source of happiness.” All is done with the aim, conscious or latent, to glorify God. “Life has no higher perfection than this; and he who is preserved in this state is wholly sanctified.” God does not impute blame to those in this state of entire consecration.((Pope, Prayers of St. Paul, 131–33.))
According to verse 24, the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it, not simply impute it. “The fidelity of God is pledged to the accomplishment of this.” Yet “the Faithful Caller demands faith in the called.”((Pope, Prayers of St. Paul, 134–35.))
John Wesley said no man can live higher than this, but no man need to live short of this. “Farther than this we cannot go; and we need not stop short of it.”((Wesley, Notes, 531.))
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20). The sanctification process has already begun. The Holy Spirit is already at work. And so, with Charles Wesley we sing:
Finish then thy new creation,
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Sermon Suggestions
- The whole person needs to be holy—Total depravity means my intellect has been darkened, my will has been perverted, and my emotions have been alienated.((Wiley, Christian Theology, 2:128–29.))
- The whole person needs to be made completely holy—Thus, I present my body (Rom 12:1). I submit my mind or intellect. My thinking needs illumination; my attitudes need cleansing. I surrender my will and desires which are corrupt. I consecrate my heart and emotions which are estranged.
- This is a divine work involving the whole Trinity—But I cannot make myself what God intends me to be. It is God himself, the God of peace, who calls me to holiness. Christ shed his blood for my cleansing. The Holy Spirit cleanses me, filling me with himself. God is faithful and he will do what I need done!