“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23
As Paul closes his first letter to the Christians at Thessalonica, he prays for their sanctification. Notice that the source of their sanctification is the God of peace. The scope takes in every part of their being. He is not praying that the sin nature be eradicated from them, but that every part of them—spirit, soul, and body—be set apart for God.
We are made in the image of God. He is a triune Being, and so are we. Scripture teaches God to be God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Scripture also teaches that we are made up of three parts, and God desires every part of us to be set apart for His purposes and for His glory. Let me briefly touch on these three parts as they are given to us here.
Our spirit is that part of us which enables us to have communion with God. It is the part of us that allows us to understand and reason. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” We might say, then, that our spirit is our God-awareness, or that which causes us to have a consciousness toward God. This would relate to our spiritual life, affecting our worship and our prayer life. God desires for us to be set apart from anything that would defile us, as 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” This is so that nothing would derail the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our lives in connection with our relationship with God as His children (Romans 8:16), and so that nothing would hinder or prevent our worship, because God is seeking worshipers, and those who “worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).
Our soul has to do with our emotions, desires, affections, and propensities. The word for soul here is where we get our word “psychic.” It has more to do with our self-consciousness. The Lord uses this same word in John 12:27 when He said, “My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Our soul, which is the seat of our emotions, should be set apart from evil thoughts: “But those things which proceed out of a man’s mouth come from the heart and defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man” (Matthew 15:18-19). We are to abstain from fleshly appetites that would war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).
Our body is the house in which our person dwells, “our earthly house,” as 2 Corinthians 5:1 reminds us. This, we might say, has more to do with our earth-consciousness. Our body is also to be kept from defilement and evil uses (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Romans 6:19).
The Lord desires that all three areas of our lives—spirit, soul, and body—be sanctified. This means that in every area we are to be set apart for God, preserved by Him, and blameless before men, so that we do not give anyone any legitimate grounds to make accusations against us.
Anchor For Today:
Do Thou, the very God of peace, Us wholly sanctify,
And grant us such a rich increase Of power from on high,
That spirit, soul and body may, Preserved free from stain,
Be blameless until that great day; Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
-Anonymous