PAUL'S SALUTATION (1 Thessalonians 5:23-28)
INTRODUCTION:
Paul’s salutation is made up of three parts. It begins with a closing prayer that points the Thessalonians and us to the only source of power that we can rely upon to obey the exhortations that Paul has given us in this final chapter of his letter. That power is found in God, who sanctifies the obedient believer. Saving faith and sanctification are two inseparable acts of God, because those whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. Paul had already acknowledged in this letter that the Thessalonians had responded in saving faith to his preaching of the gospel and had been justified by God, and now as we come to the conclusion of his letter he prays for their complete sanctification. As we look at this prayer we will learn several key things about sanctification. The second part of Paul’s salutation is three personal requests that he asks the Thessalonians to do for him. The third and final part of this letter is his closing benediction. Let’s pray and then get into Paul’s closing words.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to 1st Thessalonians 5:23-28, Paul’s concluding words in this first letter to the Thessalonians. If you are able, please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along while I read.
1st Thessalonians 5:23-28,
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–28, NASB95)[1]
PAUL’S PRAYER (1st Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Paul begins his conclusion with a prayer for God to sanctify the believers entirely. This word translated sanctify means, “to set apart,” “to separate” from sin to holiness. Paul expresses this request as a wish or desire that he has for the Thessalonian believers. Sanctification is the spiritual process by which God increasingly sets believers apart from sin and moves them toward holiness, conforming them to the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not just a one-time act, but in fact it is ongoing throughout the lifetime of the believer. This process also consists of three different elements or aspects.
First, is the past element and this element is fixed, it does not change. This aspect is called “positional sanctification” which God does at the moment in which He saves each person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ. This positional sanctification is secured by God through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews gives us the fact that Christ’s death was God’s will and writes in Hebrews 10:10, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10, NASB95)[2] Then the author writes in verse 14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14, NASB95)[3] By the atoning work of Jesus Christ, God has saved all believers and has transferred them from the dominion of darkness and sin into the dominion of His righteousness and spiritual light. When we are saved, we also receive a new nature. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB95)[4] When we are redeemed God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us so that God sees us not as sinners, but as those sanctified covered with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Because of this, God declares us holy in Christ and we are called holy ones or saints.
The second element of sanctification is the future aspect, which is called ultimate or complete sanctification, this takes place when God makes us, who have put our faith in Christ, sinless in body and in spirit forever. Paul spoke of this day when he wrote Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20–21, NASB95)[5] Ultimate sanctification will be realized when God joins our new nature to our transformed and glorified bodies for all eternity. This will take place in the twinkling of an eye and we, the glorified church, will be presented as a bride without spot or blemish to our Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The third element of sanctification is the present reality, or what is called progressive or experiential sanctification. It is the sanctification that takes place between the past/positional sanctification and the future/ultimate sanctification. It is the process in which we strive, by the Spirit’s power, to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. Paul summarized it this way in 2nd Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NASB95)[6] Experiential or progressive sanctification is the pursuit of holiness. This is the sanctification that Paul always has in mind in his letters when he moves from doctrinal exposition to practical application. His desire for the Thessalonian believers and all believers was that through this experiential sanctification God would progressively conform them and us to holiness, to conformity with the image of His Son.
God is the source of sanctification. Over the past several weeks we have looked at Paul’s exhortations for Christian living, for how we are to conduct our lives and Paul was exhorting us to put these commands into action, but he makes clear here that it is God who enables the believer to obey and carry out these commands and exhortations so that we progress in sanctification. Paul understood this own principle in his life and ministry. He told the Colossian church in chapter 1, verses 28-29, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” (Colossians 1:28–29, NASB95)[7] Paul in these verses shows that human effort and divine power work together in living the Christian life. We as believers must yield ourselves to God and diligently pursue holiness yet always do so in humble dependence on Him.
In this prayer Paul identifies God as the God of peace because it is peace that is found in salvation. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are justified and we have peace with God, we are no longer at enmity, we have been reconciled and God through the death of His Son has restored peace to those who repent and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ believing that His death paid the penalty for their sin and His resurrection was the proof that God’s wrath had been satisfied. Paul to make it very clear to us that God is the one who sanctifies used Himself in the emphatic position. This work of sanctification is accomplished by God’s own actions, and He works directly by His Spirit in the lives of believers. Paul’s prayer is that God will sanctify the Thessalonians entirely. This word is a compound word in Greek made of two words, the first means “whole,” “complete” and the second means “end,” “finish.” In other words, Paul’s request is that God would sanctify the believers all the way through, to completion.
Paul goes on in this prayer praying that the body, soul, and spirit of each believer would be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul uses the phrase “body, soul, and spirit” to refer to the whole believer. If sanctification is to be complete, or all the way through, it will extend to every part of the believer, especially the body, which thinks, feels, and acts in response to the holiness of the inner person, the soul and spirit. Paul’s prayer is that we be preserved complete and without blame, ready to meet the Lord Jesus when He comes to call us home to be with Him. Paul prays that God will preserve us or keep us on the path of holiness until we receive our ultimate sanctification at the coming of Christ for the saints, then we will be made sinless forever. This is the fourth time that Paul has mentioned the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, as mentioned in the other passages, Paul is making reference to the Rapture of the church. Paul’s prayer is that when the Lord Jesus comes for the church, He will find believers faithfully pursuing the goal of being holy as their Lord is holy and longing to receive the promised heavenly perfection.
Paul reminds the Thessalonians of the faithfulness of God. The One who called you to Himself for salvation is faithful to bring to pass, to complete His sanctifying purpose. Paul expressed his confidence in God’s faithfulness when he wrote in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NASB95)[8] We must remember that sanctification is God’s priority for our lives. It is God’s will for us and is the result of Christ’s death on our behalf. Paul told Titus in Titus 2:14 that Jesus Christ, “who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:14, NASB95)[9] Sanctification should be the goal of every believer, to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ in every aspect of their life.
PAUL’S REQUESTS (1st Thessalonians 5:25-27)
After praying for the believers of Thessalonica, Paul puts before them three personal requests. Paul’s first asks the Thessalonians to pray for himself, Silas, and Timothy. These three had ministered faithfully when they had been in Thessalonica, sharing the gospel and then as Thessalonians came to faith in Christ, they began to faithfully disciple them and help them to begin growing in Christ. This was a prayer for his role as pastor and by implication, that all believers should pray for their pastors. Paul knew that his ministry could not go on without others praying for him and interceding with God that He would mightily use Paul in the ministry God had called him to do. Paul did not want the Thessalonians to pray for him just once, but Paul uses the present tense of the verb to pray indicating that he wanted the Thessalonians to make these prayers on his behalf a regular habit. This is not the only letter of Paul where he asks for prayer, he does so in many of his letters expressing his dependence on the prayers of other believers. There are a number of requests that the Thessalonians could have prayed for Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Let me list a few things that you can pray for when you pray for your pastor, and I do hope you pray for me, if Paul needed the prayers of the saints on his behalf, I certainly need your prayers. In praying for your pastor, first, pray for his safety and the safety of his family. A pastor who faithfully and consistently confronts the world’s wicked system with spiritual truth could suffer harm or his family could become a target for those hostile to the gospel. Pray for their safety. Second, pray for your pastor’s wisdom in service, that he makes good leadership decisions and uses wise judgment in resolving conflicts. Third, pray that your pastor’s future plans and priorities are consistent with God’s will for him. That he would listen to God’s leading for the future. Fourth, pray for your pastor’s effectiveness in preaching the Word of God. Fifth and finally, pray that God would spiritually strengthen your pastor and allow him to minister with integrity. I echo Paul’s words, pray for me.
Paul’s second request was that the Thessalonians display loving affection to one another. The display of affection in Paul’s day was a holy kiss. This was a tangible way for believers to demonstrate love for one another. The holy kiss was abandoned by the church in the 13th century when people began to abuse it use. Today in our culture we generally express affection by shaking hands or embracing one another. We follow Paul’s command to love one another in our greeting time each Sunday.
Paul’s third request was delivered by Paul in the strongest of terms, and that request was that they would submit to God’s Word. Because the words of Paul’s letter were divinely inspired, Paul could adjure the Thessalonians to have it read to all the church. Adjure is a word that means to bind with an oath. Paul wanted the inspired words of his letter read to everyone in the church and so he imposed this solemn oath in the Lord upon the elders of the church, obligating them to make sure everyone heard the letter. It was most likely read in a public worship service so that even those who could not read would hear its contents. The letter was to be read as God’s Word, a revelation that was true and authoritative, requiring belief and obedience. This has not changed as we read Scripture in our worship service, it is still the inspired Word of God and requires belief and obedience.
PAUL’S BENEDICTION (1st Thessalonians 5:28)
Paul closed his first letter to the Thessalonians with a benediction, praying that the Thessalonian believers would experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins and ends each of his epistles with a mention of the grace that is available to all through Jesus Christ. He does this because grace is at the heart of Christian theology. Without God’s grace there would be no believers, there would be no church. Grace is God’s unmerited favor and summarizes all that God provides believers in Jesus Christ. When we speak of grace our thoughts must go first to the cross where God’s grace was first displayed for us in the Lord Jesus Christ suffering God’s wrath and paying the penalty required for sin, for my sin. This is God’s greatest demonstration of His grace, and we must always be thankful for it because without it we would be condemned in our sin and awaiting judgment, but instead we have hope for the future, an eternal future in the presence of our gracious God.
CONCLUSION:
Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonians by praying for them, praying for their complete sanctification that they might be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. May He find us pursuing holiness when He comes to take us home to be with Him. This sanctification will be carried out by the faithful God who called us out of darkness and into His wonderful light. Paul then requested that the Thessalonians pray for him, that they demonstrate their love for one another in a tangible show of affection. Then he requested that they submit to the Word of God, listen to it, believe it, and obey it. Then Paul closed praying that the Thessalonians would experience the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s take what Paul has said in these closing verses and apply them to our own lives. Praying for our sanctification, praying for our pastor, showing loving affection to one another, and submitting to the Word of God all the while experiencing God’s grace in our life daily through our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.