_CONCLUSION._
"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. Faithful is He that calleth you, who
will also do it. Brethren, pray for us. Salute all the brethren with
a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto
all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you."--1 THESS. v. 23-28 (R.V.).
These verses open with a contrast to what precedes, which is more
strongly brought out in the original than in the translation. The
Apostle has drawn the likeness of a Christian church, as a Christian
church ought to be, waiting for the coming of the Lord; he has
appealed to the Thessalonians to make this picture their standard, and
to aim at Christian holiness; and conscious of the futility of such
advice, as long as it stands alone and addresses itself to man's
unaided efforts, he turns here instinctively to prayer: "The God of
peace Himself"--working in independence of your exertions and my
exhortations--"sanctify you wholly."
The solemn fulness of this title forbids us to pass it by. Why does
Paul describe God in this particular place as the God of peace? Is it
not because peace is the only possible basis on which the work of
sanctification can proceed? I do not think it is forced to render the
words literally, the God of the peace, _i.e._, the peace with which
all believers are familiar, the Christian peace, the primary blessing
of the gospel. The God of peace is the God of the gospel, the God who
has come preaching peace in Jesus Christ, proclaiming reconciliation
to those who are far off and to those who are near. No one can ever be
sanctified who does not first accept the message of reconciliation. It
is not possible to become holy as God is holy, until, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This
is God's way of holiness; and this is why the Apostle presents his
prayer for the sanctification of the Thessalonians to the God of
peace. We are so slow to learn this, in spite of the countless ways in
which it is forced upon us, that one is tempted to call it a secret;
yet no secret, surely, could be more open. Who has not tried to
overcome a fault, to work on a vicious temper, to break for good with
an evil habit, or in some other direction to sanctify himself, and
withal to keep out of God's sight till the work was done? It is of no
use. Only the God of Christian peace, the God of the gospel, can
sanctify us; or to look at the same thing from our own side, we cannot
be sanctified until we are at peace with God. Confess your sins with a
humble and penitent heart; accept the forgiveness and friendship of
God in Christ Jesus; and then He will work in you both will and deed
to further His good pleasure.
Notice the comprehensiveness of the Apostle's prayer in this place. It
is conveyed in three separate words--wholly (ὁλοτελεῖς), entire
(ὁλόκληρον), and without blame (ἀμέμπτως). It is intensified by
what has, at least, the look of an enumeration of the parts or
elements of which man's nature consists--"your spirit and soul and
body." It is raised to its highest power when the sanctity for which
he prays is set in the searching light of the Last Judgment--in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all feel how great a thing it is
which the Apostle here asks of God: can we bring its details more
nearly home to ourselves? Can we tell, in particular, what he means by
spirit and soul and body?
The learned and philosophical have found in these three words a
magnificent field for the display of philosophy and learning; but
unhappily for plain people, it is not very easy to follow them. As the
words stand before us in the text, they have a friendly Biblical look;
we get a fair impression of the Apostle's intention in using them; but
as they come out in treatises on Biblical Psychology, though they are
much more imposing, it would be rash to say they are more strictly
scientific, and they are certainly much less apprehensible than they
are here. To begin with the easiest one, everybody knows what is meant
by the body. What the Apostle prays for in this place is that God
would make the body in its entirety--every organ and every function of
it--holy. God made the body at the beginning; He made it for Himself;
and it is His. To begin with, it is neither holy nor unholy; it has no
character of its own at all; but it may be profaned or it may be
sanctified; it may be made the servant of God or the servant of sin,
consecrated or prostituted. Everybody knows whether his body is being
sanctified or not. Everybody knows "the inconceivable evil of
sensuality." Everybody knows that pampering of the body, excess in
eating and drinking, sloth and dirt, are incompatible with bodily
sanctification. It is not a survival of Judaism when the Epistle to
the Hebrews tells us to draw near to God "in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water." But sanctification, even of the body, really
comes only by employment in God's service; charity, the service of
others for Jesus' sake, is that which makes the body truly His. Holy
are the feet which move incessantly on His errands; holy are the hands
which, like His, are continually doing good; holy are the lips which
plead His cause or speak comfort in His Name. The Apostle himself
points the moral of this prayer for the consecration of the body when
he says to the Romans, "Present your members as servants to
righteousness unto sanctification."
But let us look, now, at the other two terms--spirit and soul.
Sometimes one of these is used in contrast with body, sometimes the
other. Thus Paul says that the unmarried Christian woman cares for the
things of the Lord, seeking only how she may be holy in body and in
spirit,--the two together constituting the whole person. Jesus, again,
warns His disciples not to fear man, but to fear Him who can destroy
both soul and body in hell; where the person is made to consist, not
of body and spirit, but of body and soul. These passages certainly
lead us to think that soul and spirit must be very near akin to each
other; and that impression is strengthened when we remember such a
passage as is found in Mary's song: "My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour"; where, according to
the laws of Hebrew poetry, soul and spirit must mean practically the
same thing. But granting that they do so, when we find two words used
for the same thing, the natural inference is that they give us each a
different look at it. One of them shows it in one aspect; the other in
another. Can we apply that distinction here? I think the use of the
words in the Bible enables us to do it quite decidedly; but it is
unnecessary to go into the details. The soul means the life which is
in man, taken simply as it is, with all its powers; the spirit means
that very same life, taken in its relation to God. This relation may
be of various kinds: for the life that is in us is derived from God;
it is akin to the life of God Himself; it is created with a view to
fellowship with God; in the Christian it is actually redeemed and
admitted to that fellowship; and in all those aspects it is spiritual
life. But we may look at it without thinking of God at all; and then,
in Bible language, we are looking, not at man's spirit, but at his
soul.
This inward life, in all its aspects, is to be sanctified through and
through. All our powers of thought and imagination are to be
consecrated; unholy thoughts are to be banished; lawless, roving
imaginings, suppressed. All our inventiveness is to be used in God's
service. All our affections are to be holy. Our heart's desire is not
to settle on anything from which it would shrink in the day of the
Lord Jesus. The fire which He came to cast on the earth must be
kindled in our souls, and blaze there till it has burned up all that
is unworthy of His love. Our consciences must be disciplined by His
word and Spirit, till all the aberrations due to pride and passion and
the law of the world have been reduced to nothing, and as face answers
face in the glass, so our judgment and our will answer His. Paul prays
for this when he says, May your whole soul be preserved blameless. But
what is the special point of the sanctification of the spirit? It is
probably narrowing it a little, but it points us in the right
direction, if we say that it has regard to worship and devotion. The
spirit of man is his life in its relation to God. Holiness belongs to
the very idea of this; but who has not heard of sins in holy things?
Which of us ever prays as he ought to pray? Which of us is not weak,
distrustful, incoherent, divided in heart, wandering in desire, even
when he approaches God? Which of us does not at times forget God
altogether? Which of us has really worthy thoughts of God, worthy
conceptions of His holiness and of His love, worthy reverence, a
worthy trust? Is there not an element in our devotions even, in the
life of our spirits at their best and highest, which is worldly and
unhallowed, and for which we need the pardoning and sanctifying love
of God? The more we reflect upon it, the more comprehensive will this
prayer of the Apostle appear, and the more vast and far-reaching the
work of sanctification. He seems himself to have felt, as man's
complex nature passed before his mind, with all its elements, all its
activities, all its bearings, all its possible and actual profanation,
how great a task its complete purification and consecration to God
must be. It is a task infinitely beyond man's power to accomplish.
Unless he is prompted and supported from above, it is more than he can
hope for, more than he can ask or think. When the Apostle adds to his
prayer, as if to justify his boldness, "Faithful is He that calleth
you, who will also do it," is it not a New Testament echo of David's
cry, "Thou, O Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, hast revealed to Thy
servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath Thy
servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto Thee"?
Theologians have tried in various ways to find a scientific expression
for the Christian conviction implied in such words as these, but with
imperfect success. Calvinism is one of these expressions: its
doctrines of a Divine decree, and of the perseverance of the saints,
really rest upon the truth of this 24th verse,--that salvation is of
God to begin with; and that God, who has begun the good work, is in
earnest with it, and will not fail nor be discouraged until He has
carried it through. Every Christian depends upon these truths,
whatever he may think of Calvinistic inferences from them, or of the
forms in which theologians have embodied them. When we pray to God to
sanctify us wholly; to make us His in body, soul, and spirit; to
preserve our whole nature in all its parts and functions blameless in
the day of the Lord Jesus, is not our confidence this, that God has
called us to this life of entire consecration, that He has opened the
door for us to enter upon it by sending His Son to be a propitiation
for our sins, that He has actually begun it by inclining our hearts to
receive the gospel, and that He may be depended upon to persevere in
it till it is thoroughly accomplished? What would all our good
resolutions amount to, if they were not backed by the unchanging
purpose of God's love? What would be the worth of all our efforts and
of all our hopes, if behind them, and behind our despondency and our
failures too, there did not stand the unwearying faithfulness of God?
This is the rock which is higher than we; our refuge; our stronghold;
our stay in the time of trouble. The gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. We may change, but not He.
What follows is the affectionate desultory close of the letter. Paul has
prayed for the Thessalonians; he begs their prayers for himself. This
request is made no less than seven times in his Epistles--including the
one before us: a fact which shows how priceless to the Apostle was the
intercession of others on his behalf. So it is always; there is
nothing which so directly and powerfully helps a minister of the
gospel as the prayers of his congregation. They are the channels of
all possible blessing both for him and those to whom he ministers. But
prayer for him is to be combined with love to one another: "Salute all
the brethren with a holy kiss."[22] The kiss was the ordinary greeting
among members of a family; brothers and sisters kissed each other
when they met, especially after long separation; even among those who
were no kin to each other, but only on friendly terms, it was common
enough, and answered to our shaking of hands. In the Church the kiss
was the pledge of brotherhood; those who exchanged it declared
themselves members of one family. When the Apostle says, "Greet one
another with a holy kiss," he means, as holy always does in the New
Testament, a Christian kiss; a greeting not of natural affection, nor
of social courtesy merely, but recognising the unity of all members of
the Church in Christ Jesus, and expressing pure Christian love. The
history of the kiss of charity is rather curious, and not without its
moral. Of course, its only value was as the natural expression of
brotherly love; where the natural expression of such love was not
kissing, but the grasping of the hand, or the friendly inclination of
the head, the Christian kiss ought to have died a natural death. So,
on the whole, it did; but with some partial survivals in ritual, which
in the Greek and Romish Churches are not yet extinct. It became a
custom in the Church to give the kiss of brotherhood to a member newly
admitted by baptism; that practice still survives in some quarters,
even when children only are baptized. The great celebrations at
Easter, when no element of ritual was omitted, retained the kiss of
peace long after it had fallen out of the other services. At Solemn
Mass in the Church of Rome the kiss is ceremonially exchanged between
the celebrant and the assistant ministers. At Low Mass it is omitted,
or given with what is called an osculatory or Pax. The priest kisses
the altar; then he kisses the osculatory, which is a small metal
plate; then he hands this to the server, and the server hands it to
the people, who pass it from one to another, kissing it as it goes.
This cold survival of the cordial greeting of the Apostolic Church
warns us to distinguish spirit from letter. "Greet one another with a
holy kiss" means, Show your Christian love one to another, frankly and
heartily, in the way which comes natural to you. Do not be afraid to
break the ice when you come into the church. There should be no ice
there to break. Greet your brother or your sister cordially and like a
Christian; assume and create the atmosphere of home.
Perhaps the very strong language which follows may point to some lack
of good feeling in the church at Thessalonica: "I adjure you by the
Lord that this epistle be read unto _all_ the brethren." Why
should he need to adjure them by the Lord? Could there be any doubt
that everybody in the church would hear his Epistle? It is not easy to
say. Perhaps the elders who received it might have thought it wiser
not to tell all that it contained to everybody; we know how
instinctive it is for men in office--whether they be ministers of the
church or ministers of state--to make a mystery out of their business,
and, by keeping something always in reserve, to provide a basis for a
despotic and uncontrolled authority. But whether for this or some
other purpose, consciously or unconsciously influencing them, Paul
seems to have thought the suppression of his letter possible; and
gives this strong charge that it be read to all. It is interesting to
notice the beginnings of the New Testament. This is its earliest book,
and here we see its place in the Church vindicated by the Apostle
himself. Of course when he commands it to be read, he does not mean
that it is to be read repeatedly; the idea of a New Testament, of a
collection of Christian books to stand side by side with the books of
the earlier revelation, and to be used like them in public worship,
could not enter men's minds as long as the apostles were with them;
but a direction like this manifestly gives the Apostle's pen the
authority of his voice, and makes the writing for us what his personal
presence was in his lifetime. The apostolic word is the primary
document of the Christian faith; no Christianity has ever existed in
the world but that which has drawn its contents and its quality from
this; and nothing which departs from this rule is entitled to be
called Christian.
The charge to read the letter to _all_ the brethren is one of the
many indications in the New Testament that, though the gospel is a
_mysterion_, as it is called in Greek, there is no mystery about
it in the modern sense. It is all open and aboveboard. There is not
something on the surface, which the simple are to be allowed to
believe; and something quite different underneath, into which the wise
and prudent are to be initiated. The whole thing has been revealed
unto babes. He who makes a mystery out of it, a professional secret
which it needs a special education to understand, is not only guilty
of a great sin, but proves that he knows nothing about it. Paul knew
its length and breadth and depth and height better than any man; and
though he had to accommodate himself to human weakness, distinguishing
between babes in Christ and such as were able to bear strong meat, he
put the highest things within reach of all; "Him we preach," he
exclaims to the Colossians, "warning every man, and teaching every man
in every wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ."
There is no attainment in wisdom or in goodness which is barred
against any man by the gospel; and there is no surer mark of
faithlessness and treachery in a church than this, that it keeps its
members in a perpetual pupilage or minority, discouraging the free use
of Holy Scripture, and taking care that all that it contains is not
read to all the brethren. Among the many tokens which mark the Church
of Rome as faithless to the true conception of the gospel, which
proclaims the end of man's minority in religion, and the coming to age
of the true children of God, her treatment of Scripture is the most
conspicuous. Let us who have the Book in our hands, and the Spirit to
guide us, prize at its true worth this unspeakable gift.
This last caution is followed by the benediction with which in one
form or another the Apostle concludes his letters. Here it is very
brief: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." He ends with
practically the same prayer as that with which he began: "Grace to you
and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." And
what is true of this Epistle is true of all the rest: the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ is their Α and their Ω, their first word and
their last. Whatever God has to say to us--and in all the New
Testament letters there are things that search the heart and make it
quake--begins and ends with grace. It has its fountain in the love of
God; it is working out, as its end, the purpose of that love. I have
known people take a violent dislike to the word grace, probably
because they had often heard it used without meaning; but surely it is
the sweetest and most constraining even of Bible words. All that God
has been to man in Jesus Christ is summed up in it: all His
gentleness and beauty, all His tenderness and patience, all the holy
passion of His love, is gathered up in grace. What more could one soul
wish for another than that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ should
be with it?
[22] Is it a fair inference from these words that the Epistle was to
be delivered to the elders or ruling body in the church? In other
places the Apostle writes, "Greet one another."