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. 1Th 5:23
“WITHOUT BLAME” AT HIS COMING
“WITHOUT BLAME” AT HIS COMING
The remainder of the chapter is filled with brief sentences of exhortation, like cablegrams from our Heavenly Captain to his soldiers, who, in the previous section, are described as wearing the breastplate of faith and love. As we endeavor to put them into practice, we become conscious of a new and divine energy entering and quickening our nature. It is the God of peace who is at work, co-operating with our poor endeavors and sanctifying us wholly.
Each soul has a ministry to others, 1Th_5:14. A sketch is here given of the ideal believer, 1Th_5:16-22; full of joy, constant in prayer, giving thanks in everything, loving with the unquenched fire of the Holy Spirit, willing to listen to any voice that may bear a divine message, testing all events and utterances with a celestial solvent, steadfast in good, and persistent against evil. This is a high standard, and impossible of realization apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But when the inner shrine is truly surrendered to Him, He will possess the whole temple, even to our physical well-being. God is faithful and will never fail the soul that dares to be all that He wills.
(F.B. Meyer)
Each soul has a ministry to others, 1Th_5:14. A sketch is here given of the ideal believer, 1Th_5:16-22; full of joy, constant in prayer, giving thanks in everything, loving with the unquenched fire of the Holy Spirit, willing to listen to any voice that may bear a divine message, testing all events and utterances with a celestial solvent, steadfast in good, and persistent against evil. This is a high standard, and impossible of realization apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But when the inner shrine is truly surrendered to Him, He will possess the whole temple, even to our physical well-being. God is faithful and will never fail the soul that dares to be all that He wills.
(F.B. Meyer)
Paul's Prayer-Breathed by the Holy Spirit
There is much of instruction and comfort in this Apostolic prayer. The blessing prayed for is that the Thessalonian converts may be sanctified wholly, that their spirit and soul and body may be preserved. The Apostle adopts the trichotomy which in some form or other may be said to belong to almost all systems of philosophy—"body, soul, spirit" It is the combination of these three which makes up our nature; it is the due relations between these three which constitute our sole possible happiness; it is the right training of these three that is the object of that lifelong education which should begin in our earliest years, and end only with the grave. In the case of Christ’s people, the Apostle’s prayer is that body, soul, and spirit be preserved entire, without blame, being sanctified wholly—each in its complete measure and perfect proportions. Delivered from the dominion of sin and Satan, they are in God’s keeping unto holiness.
St. Paul next turns aside, very characteristically, to ask the pleadings of his Thessalonian friends with the God of peace on behalf of himself and his fellow-laborers. He who was giving thanks always for them all, making mention of them in his prayers, in the yearning love of his heart now asks them to make mention of himself in their prayers. Such is Christian fellowship. The Apostolic teacher turns from instruction and exhortation and warning to supplication for help—not man’s help, indeed, but God’s—yet God’s help brought near to him through the intercessory prayer of God’s own people.
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." In all the variations with which it appears in the Pauline epistles, this benediction never has the word "grace" a-wanting. Thus, his first epistle begins and closes with that word, which, above all others, reveals the summed sweetness of the whole Gospel. Those who have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with them on earth, cannot fail to have glory with Him hereafter in heaven.
(J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 238.)
St. Paul next turns aside, very characteristically, to ask the pleadings of his Thessalonian friends with the God of peace on behalf of himself and his fellow-laborers. He who was giving thanks always for them all, making mention of them in his prayers, in the yearning love of his heart now asks them to make mention of himself in their prayers. Such is Christian fellowship. The Apostolic teacher turns from instruction and exhortation and warning to supplication for help—not man’s help, indeed, but God’s—yet God’s help brought near to him through the intercessory prayer of God’s own people.
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." In all the variations with which it appears in the Pauline epistles, this benediction never has the word "grace" a-wanting. Thus, his first epistle begins and closes with that word, which, above all others, reveals the summed sweetness of the whole Gospel. Those who have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with them on earth, cannot fail to have glory with Him hereafter in heaven.
(J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 238.)
Notable Testimonies
Many years since I saw that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." I began by following after it and inciting all with whom I had intercourse to do the same. Ten years after, God gave me a clearer view than I ever had before of the way to obtain it; namely, by faith in the Son of God. And immediately I declared to all, "We are saved from sin, we are made holy by faith." This I testified in private, in public, and in print, and God confirmed it by a thousand witnesses. I have continued to declare this for above thirty years, and God has continued to confirm my work. -- John Wesley in 1771
"I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul; but I found something in me that would not keep sweet and patient and kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought Jesus to do something for me, and, when I gave Him my will, He came to my heart, and took out all that would not be sweet, all that would not be kind, all that would not be patient, and then HE shut the door." -- George Fox
My whole heart has not one single grain, this moment, of thirst after approbation. I feel alone with God; He fills the void; I have not one wish, one will, one desire, but in Him; He hath set my feet in a large room. I have wondered and stood amazed that God should make a conquest of all within me by love. -- Lady Huntington
"All at once I felt as though a hand-- not feeble, but omnipotent; not of wrath, but of love-- was laid on my brow. I felt it not outwardly but inwardly. It seemed to press upon my whole being, and to diffuse all through me a holy, sin-consuming energy. As it passed downward, my heart as well as my head was conscious of the presence of this soul-cleansing energy, under the influence of which I fell to the floor, and in the joyful surprise of the moment, cried out in a loud voice. Still the hand of power wrought without and within; and wherever it moved, it seemed to leave the glorious influence of the Savior’s image. For a few minutes the deep ocean of God’s love swallowed me up; all its waves and billows rolled over me."
-- Bishop Hamline
Holiness-- as I then wrote down some of my contemplations on it-- appeared to me to be of a sweet, calm, pleasant, charming, serene nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, ravishment to the soul; in other words, that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant fruits and flowers, all delightful and undisturbed, enjoying a sweet calm and the gentle vivifying beams of the sun. -- Jonathan Edwards (Streams in the Desert)
"I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul; but I found something in me that would not keep sweet and patient and kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought Jesus to do something for me, and, when I gave Him my will, He came to my heart, and took out all that would not be sweet, all that would not be kind, all that would not be patient, and then HE shut the door." -- George Fox
My whole heart has not one single grain, this moment, of thirst after approbation. I feel alone with God; He fills the void; I have not one wish, one will, one desire, but in Him; He hath set my feet in a large room. I have wondered and stood amazed that God should make a conquest of all within me by love. -- Lady Huntington
"All at once I felt as though a hand-- not feeble, but omnipotent; not of wrath, but of love-- was laid on my brow. I felt it not outwardly but inwardly. It seemed to press upon my whole being, and to diffuse all through me a holy, sin-consuming energy. As it passed downward, my heart as well as my head was conscious of the presence of this soul-cleansing energy, under the influence of which I fell to the floor, and in the joyful surprise of the moment, cried out in a loud voice. Still the hand of power wrought without and within; and wherever it moved, it seemed to leave the glorious influence of the Savior’s image. For a few minutes the deep ocean of God’s love swallowed me up; all its waves and billows rolled over me."
-- Bishop Hamline
Holiness-- as I then wrote down some of my contemplations on it-- appeared to me to be of a sweet, calm, pleasant, charming, serene nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, ravishment to the soul; in other words, that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant fruits and flowers, all delightful and undisturbed, enjoying a sweet calm and the gentle vivifying beams of the sun. -- Jonathan Edwards (Streams in the Desert)
"Love’s resistless current sweeping
All the regions deep within;
Thought and wish and senses keeping
Now, and every instant clean:
Full salvation! Full salvation!
From the guilt and power of sin."
All the regions deep within;
Thought and wish and senses keeping
Now, and every instant clean:
Full salvation! Full salvation!
From the guilt and power of sin."
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