The Benediction as a Statement

The Benediction as a Statement of Faith

"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)
The previous benedictions we looked at expressed the writer's desire to see God work in his reader's lives. This benediction, written to the Thessalonian church, goes into more detail and defines what the writer, Paul, expects to see happen to his readers. It's also what the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul wants to see happen in our lives.

We understand first that what Paul wants to see in the Thessalonian believers can only come from God. We can't make it happen for ourselves, and no other human can make it happen in another person's life. Only the God of peace has the power to work so definitively in our lives. No one else has the power.

Paul's first faith statement about his readers involves them being "set apart." That's what sanctify means-to set apart. He wants to see them wholly devoted to God's plan for them. The world that stains and maims and hinders God's work has no place in the life of any Christ-follower. Paul's statement of faith for his readers sees them living under God's influence for God's purposes. They are "in the world, but not of the world."

His vision of God's work in their lives (and ours) works its way into every part of life-spirit, soul and body. Paul wanted to see God so incorporated into his reader's lives that nothing about them remained untouched by His work. He wanted to see those who read these words give God entrée into all of life, not just part of it.

Finally, his faith statement expressed the breadth of his vision. He saw his readers "preserved blameless" as they await the coming of Jesus. Paul wanted to see the Thessalonians and the Freedom Fighters so consumed by the "setting apart" work of God's Spirit that they all would step into Jesus' presence without fault-blameless.

Remember that benedictions are "words of blessing-good words." This good word for us gives us a worthwhile goal for life. We can pursue God's work in our lives. We can yield to God's work in our lives. We can depend on God's work in our lives. And, we can anticipate the result of that work: a life unstained by the world and blameless before the Lord Jesus. We can become the fulfillment of Paul's statement of faith!

That's a good word! - Pastor John is Senior Pastor at First Baptist Toms River\

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 26; Jeremiah 9-11; 1 Timothy 6

Think about this: Truth is truth and error, error. That which is unlawful is unlawful, whether men think so or not. God has put an eternal difference between light and darkness, good and evil, which no creatures conceit can alter; and therefore no man's judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees with the truth stamped upon things themselves by God. ---Richard Sibbes