1 Thessalonians 5:23-Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Intercessory Prayer Request for Thessalonians in Relation to Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NET)

1 Thessalonians 5:23 marks a transition from the content which appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 to the content which appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28.

This verse contains two requests which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy presented to the Father on behalf of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community while interceding in prayer for them.

The first request asked the one and only God Himself, who produces a peace which is divine in quality and character, to cause each and every member of the Thessalonian Christian community to be sanctified completely.

The second corresponds to the first and asked the Father that the entire spirit, soul and body of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community be kept blameless at the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival at the rapture.

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy describe the Father as producing a peace, which is divine in quality and character, which is indicated by the fact that the noun eirēnē functions as a genitive of product which means that it is the product of the noun theos to which it stands related.

Therefore, this expresses the idea that the Father produces this peace in and among each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

The reference to peace in this first request refers to the peace of God which the Father produces within the soul of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community through the personal agency of the Holy Spirit.

It also speaks of the peace of God which the Father produces through the personal agency of the Holy Spirit when each member of the Thessalonian Christian community interacts with each other.

The Spirit accomplishes this when the Thessalonians obey the Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy communicated to the Thessalonians in this epistle.

Now, there are many passages which teach that the peace of God originates from both the Father and the Son (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; 6:23; Phil. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:2; 3:16).

However, the rest of Scriptures also teach that the Father employs the personal agency of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this as well (cf. Rom. 8:5-6; Gal. 5:22-23; Phil. 4:6-7).

Now, this reference to the Father as producing a peace which is divine in quality and character in and among the individual members of the Thessalonian Christian community is not related to the request made by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy here in this verse to completely sanctify the Thessalonian Christian community.

Rather, it is tied to the request and various commands and prohibitions which appear in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22.

Therefore, this indicates that if the Thessalonians obey the request, and various commands and prohibitions in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, then they will experience peace as individuals and also peace when interacting with each other.

Now, as we noted, in the first request in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy wanted the Father to cause each member of the Thessalonian Christian community to be sanctified completely.

This is a reference to the completion of the Thessalonians’ sanctification at the rapture or resurrection of the church, which I call, “perfective sanctification.”

This interpretation is supported by the fact that the verb hagiazō is modified by the accusative masculine plural form of the adjective holotelēs (ὁλοτελής), which means “completely” since the word pertains to a degree of completeness.

It speaks of being entirely and totally complete in some respect and also pertains to being totally complete with the implication of meeting a high standard.

Therefore, since this word speaks of being totally complete and the verb hagiazō speaks of the sanctification of the believer by the Father, these two words refer to the final stage of the sanctification of the child of God.

The causative active voice of this verb hagiazō indicates that the Father is the ultimate cause or source of the completion of the Thessalonians’ sanctification but is not directly involved in it, implying that He uses one or more agencies to accomplish this.

Paul teaches in Philippians 3:20-21 that the Father will employ the Lord Jesus Christ as His personal agency to accomplish this at the rapture and he also teaches in Romans 8:11 that the Father will employ the Holy Spirit as His personal agency to bring about the completion of the church age believer’s sanctification.

Now, as we noted the second request in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 corresponds to the first since they both are related to sanctification but from different perspectives.

The first we noted is related to the final stage of sanctification when the church age believer receives their resurrection body which completes the third and final stage of their sanctification.

The second is related to the second stage of sanctification, which is experiential sanctification.

The second request asks the Father that the entire spirit, soul and body of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community would be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The human spirit is received at regeneration and enables the justified sinner to understand the grace of God.

The Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God reveals the grace of God.

The human spirit is in effect the new nature or Christ nature which enables the believer to understand the things of God.

However, the non-Christian cannot understand the things of God because they only have a soul (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9-16; cf. Phil. 4:23; 2 Tim. 4:22; Phlm. 25).

“Soul” in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 refers to the immaterial part of a person which is the actuating cause of an individual life and the place in which all the psychological faculties of a person are located such as the volition, mentality, conscious, emotions and subconsciousness.

“Body” is of course used in a literal sense for the human bodies of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

The adjective holoklēros is modifying the nouns pneuma, “spirit,” psuchē, “soul” and sōma, “body” and pertains to a totality with special emphasis upon the entity as a whole and being complete and meeting all expectations.

Therefore, the adjective holoklēros is expressing the idea that the spirit, soul and body of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community is complete in the sense that they meet the holy standards of God.

In other words, their entire persons, which are composed of spirit, soul and body, are complete in the sense that they meet God’s holy standards as a result of experiencing sanctification at the time the rapture takes place.

It is emphasizing the totality of the spirit, soul and bodies of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community meeting completely all of God’s holy standards and expectations for them.

In other words, it is emphasizing the totality of the person who belongs to the Thessalonian Christian community.

“Blameless” (amemptos) pertains to being without fault or blame and does not speak of sinlessness but rather it describes the manner in which a person conducts themselves so that their behavior affords nothing that an adversary could use as the basis for an accusation.

It speaks of conducting oneself in a manner so that it is impossible to bring any charge of wrong doing such as could stand impartial examination, one who cannot be laid hold of, irreproachable.

Here it describes the Thessalonians as being judged faithful by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church, which immediately follows the rapture.

It describes faithful Christians in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat as those who cannot be accused of unfaithfulness because they remained faithful to the gospel in life.

“At our Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival” refers to Jesus Christ returning at the rapture or resurrection of the church in order to remove the church bodily from the earth prior to Daniel’s seventieth week (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13-18), and to give the church age believer their resurrection body.

This event will be immediately followed by the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church, which will be immediately followed by the Lord Jesus Christ presenting to His Father the church as His spotless bride.

This prepositional phrase is indicating that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit inspired desire for each member of the Thessalonian Christian community is that they would be found faithful by the Lord Jesus “the moment” He appears at the rapture.

In other words, they want the Thessalonians to be experiencing their sanctification the moment the Lord Jesus Christ appears at the rapture of the church to complete their sanctification by giving them a resurrection body.

This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Scriptures teach that the rapture is imminent in that it could happen at any moment (cf. John 14:1-3; Romans 13:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 5:1-9; Titus 2:13; James 5:7-9; Philippians 4:5; Hebrews 10:25; 1 John 2:28; 3:2-3; Revelation 22:7, 20).

Now, these two requests in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 do not refer to the act of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy interceding in prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians but rather they simply communicate the content of their intercessory prayers for them.

So Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are revealing in this verse their Spirit inspired desire for the Thessalonian church as an indirect means of encouraging them to go forward in the Father’s plan.