|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 3 - 5 Previous Section - Chapters 1 - 3
ch. 3:6-13 ch.4:1-13 ch. 4:13-5:12 ch. 5:12-28 Timothy’s
Encouraging Report (ch. 3:6 - 13) In verse 6 Paul mentions that Timothy had just
arrived with good news, which was most likely the occasion for writing
this letter. The good news
that Timothy brought was concerning their “faith and love”.
Once again, Paul often puts faith and love together.
First comes faith, that is, trust in Jesus.
Then comes love, that is, selfless actions that are a result of
true faith. I think that if
you really want to love others, then you need to trust Jesus more.
Love, as defined in Biblical terms does not come natural to us.
The better of a trusting relationship we have with Jesus, the more
we will be able to love as Jesus wants us to love. That's
why Paul always puts "faith" before "love". Part of what Timothy told Paul was that these people “always had pleasant memories” of Paul and his team, even though they were with each other for a short period of time. Timothy also mentioned that “they longed to see” Paul again, which was reciprocal.
We see here Paul's feelings coming forth.
He was a man of great feelings.
I've said this before, but if you read his second letter to the
Corinthians, you will see him wearing his feelings on his sleeve, so to
speak. You see a bit of it
here. Paul begins verse 7 with the word “therefore",
suggesting a conclusion to
what he just said. He
continues to say that "in
all of our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because
of your faith”. Once again,
you see the importance of faith, or trusting Jesus in the thinking of
Paul. Paul and his companions went through great distress
and persecution. In Acts 9
Jesus told Paul that he was called to suffer for His sake, and suffer he
did. This man who suffered a lot, received a lot from the Lord. In verse 8 we see a result of hearing such good news
about the Thessalonians. Paul
says, "now we really live…”.
It is as though a great burden was lifted from Paul’s shoulders
once he found out that they were “standing firm in the Lord”.
Paul, a man of great emotion would feel the feelings caused by fear
for his people. Once knowing that they were okay, these feelings would
revert to feelings of great relief and ecstasy.
Every pastor or Christian leader should have the same
fervor as Paul had concerning the faith of God's people.
Our faith is fundamental. If
our faith is in good shape we will grow in the Lord, but if our faith is
in bad shape, we will not grow, and may even fall away from the Lord.
Paul goes as far to say in verse 9, “how can we
thank God enough for all of the joy we have in the presence of our God
because of you?” Can you see
Paul’s emotion coming through in these words?
He just can’t thank God enough for hearing such good news from
Timothy, which produced overwhelming joy in Paul’s life.
Note that Paul was thanking these people.
You might think it should be the other way around.
They should be thanking Paul for all that he did for them, for all
the trials he went through on their behalf.
I'm sure these people were thankful, but seeing Paul being thankful
of them is something. When
God's people do well in the Lord, the real servant of God is full of joy. Paul goes on to say in verse 10 that “night and day
we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is
lacking in your faith”. Again
and again in Paul’s writings you see the intensity he has for his
people. Here you see it by him
saying that he prays day and night for these people.
Even though Timothy’s report concerning their faith
was good, Paul wanted to visit them again “to supply what was lacking in
their faith”. Once again,
you see Paul’s genuine concern
about the faith of his people. Yes,
their faith was strong in the midst of trials, but Paul knew that even
with the greatest of faith, there was still room for improvement.
Trust in Jesus is a growing virtue that never ends. These words of Paul that show us his love and
compassion for those in his care is a text book of how Christian leaders
should minister today. I
believe such conviction can only come from a serious relationship with
Jesus Himself. Too often
ministry becomes pure routine. This
was not so with Paul. Verses 11 to 13 are a doxology, an ending to a letter
which gives praise to God, even though this is not the end of the letter.
In verse 11 we see that it is Paul's prayer that God the Father
and the Lord Jesus clear the way for him to visit these people
again. Note that Paul calls
God his father. Note also that
Paul links Jesus to God, as he always does.
God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only God there is. In verse 12 Paul's hope and prayer is that the
Thessalonians' love will overflow to each other and to other people as
well. The love the individual
has must overflow to others. If it doesn't, it really isn't love.
Love must be in action, not just word.
If love isn't seen in actions, then love doesn't overflow.
In verse 13 Paul's hope and prayer is that God will
strengthen the hearts of these people so they will be blameless on the day
Jesus returns to earth. This
is one reoccurring theme throughout Paul's writings.
The return of Jesus is always in the forefront of Paul's thinking.
Just meeting Jesus isn't all that Paul thinks about in connection
with his return. Paul wants to
be ready to meet JESUS. He
wants his life to be as blameless as possible so Jesus will be proud of
him. Paul would be overjoyed
and greatly humbled if Jesus smiles at him on the day they meet.
Wow, what a thought. Jesus
smiling at you because you have prepared your life to meet him.
Verse 13 ends with the words "come with all of
his holy ones." I believe
this may refer to angels, and might also refer those who have "died
in Christ".
Living
To Please God (ch. 4:1 - 12) In chapter 4 verse 1 Paul speaks about these people
pleasing God. Note how we
please God. It is by the way
we live. Pleasing God, like
loving others, is not in word but in action.
We please God by living right.
Many Christians don't think in terms of pleasing God.
I heard one pastor say that he did not want to disappoint Jesus.
This is a goo attitude to have.
In verse 2 Paul mentions that he had previously told
the Thessalonians how they should live to please God.
In fact Paul says that they are doing just that , but now he urges
them to please God in their lifestyle even more. There
is no end to maturing in Christ. If
we think we're mature, we're really not. He
reminds them that the instructions he gave them was from the authority God
gave them as apostles. Paul
believed that he had special authority as an apostle over those churches
that he started. Indeed this
is the nature of an apostle. That
being said, this is not abusive authority.
It is not a dictatorship. It's
the authority to encourage and uplift people.
Paul speaks of authority here, but remember, this apostle with
authority viewed himself as a servant.
There is no real authority without first having a heart of a
servant. The difference between modern day apostles and the
apostle Paul is that modern day apostles, yet having some authority, are
subject to what Paul taught. Modern
day apostles do not preach their own gospel as some think.
They preach the gospel as found in the New Testament .
Thus modern day apostles differ from Paul in that Paul preached the
gospel as it was taught to him by God, while modern day apostles preach
the gospel as taught to them by Paul. In verse 3 Paul says that “it is God’s will that
you should be sanctified”. This
means that it is God’s will that these people should be set apart unto
their God, that is to live for Him and not themselves.
If this is the case then, they “should avoid sexual
immorality”. Each person
should “learn to control his own body …
not in passionate lust as the heathen…” as Paul says in verse
5. Paul says that such sexual
sin is a “wrong to your brother”.
Elsewhere Paul says that sexual sin is a sin against your own body,
but here he says that it can also be a wrong towards your brother as well.
Note the alternate rendering to "control your
own body". This could
also be translated as " live with your wife", or "find a
wife". The thought here
concerns adultery. Controlling
your own body is all about having sexual relations with your wife only, no
one else. In verse 6 Paul says that “God will punish men”
for such sins”, unless they have been covered by the blood of Jesus
because of their trust in Him. It
is for this reason that Paul says each man should have his own wife and
vise versa in 1 Cor. 7:2. In verse 8 Paul is quite pointed when he says that
anyone “who rejects these instructions does not reject man but God, who
gives you His Holy Spirit”. Once
again Paul is making use of his God given apostolic authority.
Remember, God has entrusted Paul with His message, and Paul is
relating this message to others, so if someone rejects the message, they
aren’t really rejecting Paul, but God. The day in which Paul lived is no different than our
world today. Sexual sins were
prevalent then as they are today, and in some instances maybe even more
prevalent. They were even
prevalent in the church. Part
of pagan religion was the participation in sexual orgies in the centre of
town. Some pagan gods promoted such activity.
In verse 9 and 10 Paul repeats himself when he tells
his readers to love their brothers, something that they were already
doing, and something that Paul says God Himself taught them.
But even though they were doing well in this area of their lives
Paul urged them on to do better. There is always room for improvement,
even in the stronger areas of our lives. In verse 11 Paul exhorts his readers “to live a
quiet life, and to mind their own business, and to work with their own
hands…” This is
something that Paul himself did. Paul
got into much trouble with his opposition, but he did not really go
looking for such trouble. Paul
minded his own business, that is, he worked hard in the ministry that God
had for him. He supported
himself in this ministry and he was encouraging the Thessalonians to do
the same. The reason why Paul thought such a lifestyle was
important was to “win the respect of outsiders”.
We should live our lives in such a way that non-Christians, even
though they don’t believe like us, will respect us for the life we live.
If there is to be disrespect shown to us as Christians, it should
be a result of us preaching the gospel, not because we are living a unholy
life. Christians should not be seen as immoral, cheats, drunkards, or any
other such thing. The other reason why Paul tells these people to work
with their own hands and to live a quiet life is so that they will “not
be dependent on anyone”. This
too was very much evident in Paul's life.
He did not want to be dependent on others.
He would rather give than be given to, because of his love for
those God had given him. The
Coming Of The Lord (ch. 4:13 – 5:12) In verse 13 Paul
goes into a teaching mode when he tells his readers that he “does not
want them to be ignorant”. What
Paul is about to speak about now is the return of Christ, and concerning
these issues he wants his readers to be in complete understanding,
especially since there were some who were teaching things different than
what Paul taught . The return of Christ is a huge subject.
Many have given up on trying to understand the events leading to
the return of Jesus. I don't
think Paul would like that. He
says we should not be ignorant of these things, but many Christians are.
We should be keeping our eyes open for the events leading to Jesus'
return. Paul did not want these people to be ignorant like
“those who fall asleep”. The
words "falls asleep means death.
Those with out Jesus who die, die with no hope.
Paul himself had great hope in death.
He looked forward to the day when he would pass from this life into
resurrection life. In 1 Cor. 15 you read Paul’s most conclusive
thoughts concerning the resurrection of the dead.
Here he says that because Jesus died and rose from the dead, so we
also will rise from the dead at some future point. In verse 14 Paul goes on to say that because of the
resurrection of Jesus, when Christians pass away, they will also return
with Christ at the end of the age. To
me the picture looks like this. A
Christian dies, they are immediately with Jesus in what is called In verse 15 he says, “according to the Lord’s own
word, … we who are still
alive … will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep in the
Lord”. There is no direct
quote by Jesus found in the New Testament that makes this statement, so we
cannot be conclusive in just where Paul heard this quote from the Lord.
Did he hear Jesus say this by a revelation, or possibly when he was
caught up into the third heaven? Maybe.
We simply don’t know. We do know that Paul believes that Jesus
made this statement. I am sure
that there are many statements that Jesus made that are not recorded in
the Bible. Note here that Paul considered himself in the group
that would survive unto the day of Christ.
Does this mean that Paul felt that he would really see the coming
of the Lord from an earthly position.
Not necessarily. In 1
Cor. 6:14 and 2 Cor. 4:14 he groups himself with those who would be raised
into a new body and return with Christ.
This letter was written most likely before the Corinthian letters,
so unless he changed his mind between the two time periods, we really
don’t know for sure just how Paul felt about this point. It is my
feeling that as time went on Paul knew that he would die for the sake of
the gospel before Jesus returned. Paul's use of the word "we" in this verse
might well be taken as "a corporate we".
That is, we as Christians, not necessarily "we as you and
I". I am not convinced
that Paul's use of the word "we" here means him and others.
I think it could easily mean, "we, as the church, as those
Christians who are alive at the end of this age."
You might call this "we" a generic "we", not a
personal we which include himself.
Paul says that those still alive at Jesus’ second
coming “will certainly not precede” those who have died in the Lord.
The dead in Christ will rise first to meet Jesus, then after that,
those alive in Christ will be “caught up”, or “raptured ”, and
taken from this earth. In verse 16 we not that at the moment of the return
of Jesus three things will happen, maybe simultaneously.
They are; there will be a trumpet call, an archangel’s voice will
announce this coming, and Jesus Himself will give a loud command.
What specifically the angel and Jesus say at this point is not
stated by Paul. Earlier in this section we noted that Jesus was
coming back to earth with those who were dead in the Lord.
Here we note that Paul says that those who are dead in the Lord
will rise first to meet Jesus. Then
after that those who are still alive will be raptured up, or taken up to
meet Jesus in the air. How can we correlate
these two verses? This
is my explanation. You have
Jesus coming to the earth. He is literally in the sky.
He does not have the dead in Christ with Him until He gives the
command for them to rise. At the command they rise.
Then at the command those who are living in Christ will be taken up
to meet Jesus “in the air”. Then
Jesus will come all the way to earth, that is He will come with those He
has just called up, and we will all return to earth with Him. To help explain this we can take a look at history.
In Paul’s day the Romans had a custom that when an outside Roman
official visited the city, some of the city leaders would leave their post
and meet them while entering the city gates and then escort them to
wherever that official was going to. This
would be understood by Paul’s readers.
This is how it will be at the end of this age, when Jesus comes.
We will go and meet him and escort Him, or at least return with Him
to his destination, that being the earth.
In verse 17 the Greek word “harpazo” is the word
translated as “caught up” in this passage.
This word is also used when Philip was caught up, or transported
super-naturally from one place to another.
It is also used when Paul says that he was caught up into the third
heaven. This word basically
means to “snatch away”. The
word implies a sudden and forceful snatching away”.
This will be a very dramatic event, one that comes suddenly and
forcefully on the world. This is where we get our ideas concerning the
“rapture” of the church. One
thing we need to note here is that there is no hint of just when this
catching up will take place. Paul will shed a little more light as he goes
on. Of course many doctrinal
positions have been taken from these verses over the years concerning just
when this event will take place. As
it stands right now, I am not totally convinced by any one position.
We all want to know “about times and dates” when
it comes to the return of the Lord. This
subject is one of the most well discussed, well studied, and well
speculated topics in Christendom. In
chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 Paul says, “about times and dates, we do not
need to write to you, for you know very well that the Day of the Lord will
come like a thief in the night”. No
one knows the exact date, or the exact time of Jesus‘ return.
Some say that you may not know the exact date and time but you will
know the season. This could
easily be true for Jesus Himself spoke about these days and gave us many
clues, or signs of His coming. He
told us to “watch and pray”, to look for the Day of the Lord. We should note that Paul compares the coming of Jesus
to a thief coming to steel in the night.
No one knows the thief is coming. It's a surprise.
But really, the return of Jesus is no surprise to the believer
because he is watching for Jesus return.
I'm sure we in one sense of the word will be surprised, even though
we look for His return. The
point here is that the total surprise will be to those who don't believe
in his return. In verse 3 Paul says that when “people are saying
peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly”.
To me this suggests a generation of people who are not looking for
Jesus’ return. They are
caught up with their own way of living, their pursuit of “peace and
safety”. When we finally
believe we have reached societal peace and safety, and everyone is
relaxing, Jesus will suddenly come with destructive force.
As the rapture, or catching up of God’s people is sudden and
forceful, so will Jesus’ dealing with the world be sudden and forceful.
Paul calls it destructive. Jesus
will not only come for His people, but He will come to bring judgement,
which means destruction, “and the unsaved will not escape”, Paul says.
With no warning Jesus will suddenly appear out of nowhere and bring quick
judgment to the world. This
judgment is seen in two ways. God
will judge the Jews for forsaking Him, and He will judge the world for not
living for Him and how they have treated The idea of the world living in peace and safety is
one of the attributes of the last days.
I believe this is what Paul is saying here.
When world leaders get together and talk about peace and safety,
about treaties, and economic agreements, at that point the end will come.
In verse 4 Paul clarifies his thinking concerning the
subject of the thief in the night. He
says that his readers “are not in darkness”.
The Day of the Lord will not come as a surprise to the Christian
who is actually watching and praying for this day.
This day will only come as a surprise to the unbeliever, and even
perhaps to the believer who is not watching and praying.
So for you and I, we should not have to be caught off guard by
Christ’s second return. It
should not be a surprise to us. It may not be a surprise in one sense of
the word, but I think it will still be a shocking experience for all men,
saved as well as unsaved. Inv verses 5 through 5 Paul says we are “sons of
the light, and do not belong to the night”, we will be living
righteously. We will not be
like drunkards who get drunk at night.
We will be “self-controlled”.
This is Paul’s exhortation to his readers, that they should be
self-controlled, “putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the
hope of salvation as a helmet”. Once
again we have faith and love used together in the same phrase.
To faith and love Paul adds hope.
When speaking of hope, most of the time Paul is thinking about the
hope that he has in the resurrected life.
Faith, love and hope will keep us on the right track.
It will keep us awake and help us not to fall asleep so that day
catches us by surprise. Some
Christians don't think much about hope, but if you read Paul's writings
carefully, you will noticed that he speaks a lot about hope, something he
has a lot of, especially since his life on earth is very difficult. In verse 9 Paul says that “God has not appointed us
to suffer wrath, but salvation”. This
is one of the great messages from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
The wrath of God is real. There
will come a time when the world will see God’s wrath in its fullness.
On the cross God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus in order for us
to escape His wrath in the day of judgement.
If God was so upset that He killed His own son to make provision
for our salvation, how much more upset will He be with those who refuse
this provision. I believe the “wrath of God” here in verse 9 can
be linked with the “sudden destruction” mentioned in verse 3.
You should be able to conclude that when Jesus returns and brings
sudden destruction, some of this destruction may be the wrath of God in
judgement. Those who believe in a pre-trib rapture use this
verse as part of their defense. The
Great Tribulation is the time in which God pours out His wrath on the
earth. It is meant to once and
for all punish Israel
and bring her to her knees. It
is also meant to punish all the nations of the earth for their wickedness,
and especially for the way in which they have treated Paul continues by saying in verse 10, “He died for
us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with
Him”. Once again this is the
message of the gospel that Paul preached and he told his readers to
encourage themselves with these words.
Simply put, we were saved in order to live with Jesus.
In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians he
speaks more of the return of Christ. In
summery what we have learned in this chapter goes as follows. Christ will
come with a trumpet sound, an archangels shout a command from His own
mouth. This day will come when the world appears to be relatively in peace
and safety, when the unbeliever least expects it.
It will be as a thief in
the night to them but not to those Christians who are watching for that
day to come. When Jesus appears in the atmosphere, the dead in Christ will
rise first, then those who are alive and saved will rise afterwards.
We all will meet Jesus in the air.
We will return to earth with Him and He will bring destructive
judgement to the world.
Final
Instructions (ch. 5:12 - 28) In verse 12 Paul gives some closing exhortations as
he ends this letter to the Thessalonians.
He says “to respect those who work hard among you, who are over
you in the Lord …” Paul
is telling his readers to think highly of those “who work hard, and who
are over you in the Lord”. We
need to understand the sentence structure in the Greek language in this
verse. “Over you in the
Lord” is what you call a participle.
A participle is a half verb and half noun.
Sometimes this particular Greek word is translated as “leader”,
which is a noun. This is
significant. Paul is telling these people to respect those who are
actually “taking the lead
over you”. He is not saying
merely to respect your leaders,
but respect those who are doing the job of leading. This is important because just because one holds the
office of a leader, does not mean he is doing the job of a leader.
Paul says to respect the person who is actually doing the job, not
simply holding a title or an office. In
the case of the Thessalonians, their leaders appear to be doing the job.
This is not always the case. In
our day and age when church leaders are not necessarily Christian, we are
only to respect the leader who is leading according to Scripture. Even
certain Christian leaders can lead from wrong motives and in unbiblical
ways. Paul is not saying we
should submit to them. We submit to godly leaders who are actually leading
in a godly fashion. Some
people claim we submit to a leader simply because he is the leader.
I don't believe that to be Biblical. Note also the words "work hard".
Paul is joining two ideas here. He is uniting working hard with
those over you in the Lord. I
suggest that if the ones who are over you in the Lord aren't working hard,
then you think hard about how much respect to give them.
The respect is based on how hard they work.
Notice also that it is "those who are over
you." Paul does not say
"he that is over you." I
believe that Paul taught plurality of leadership in the church, not just
one man rule.
These leaders "admonish".
This means they teach, and their teaching concerns both the knowing
and understanding of Biblical
truth as well as how it is worked out in the life of the believers. Verse 13 confirms the idea of respecting those who
work hard. It says, “hold
them in highest regard … because of their work”, not because they are
called a leader. Respect for leaders is based on the work they do, not
simply the office they hold. It's
time for us to hold our leaders to proper Biblical practice.
If they don't follow Biblical practice, they need to be confronted
with the truth of Scripture. Paul says all these things to the church at
Thessalonica because their leaders are working hard and doing their job.
They are a good example of Christian leadership. Paul continues by saying, “live in peace with each
other.” Leadership sets the
atmosphere for the church. If
they are working hard on behalf of God's people, then peace will come.
Leadership needs to provide an atmosphere of peace.
Verse 14 states some more exhortations.
Paul says to “warn the idle”.
Christians are not to be idle, but to be busy in pursuit of the
things of the Lord. Being idle
leads to time spent in things that are not Godly. He also says to “encourage the weak, help the
timid”. We note here that
there are weak and timid Christians. This
is partly due to people’s God given character traits, as well as life
experiences. Not all people are strong. Yet these weak and timid
Christians can receive encouragement which would help them grow as they
should. The weak and timid may
not end up as a Paul, but they don’t have to stay weak and timid.
In verse 14 Paul says to “be patient with
everyone”. In all we do, in
all of our relationships there needs to be a measure of patience.
I am not suggesting that we be so patient that we condone sin in a
person. Paul
himself would not do that. Yet
at the same time one cannot have good relationships with others without a
measure of patience. So, when
it comes to admonishing or correcting your brother for one reason or
another, that is something you don't take lightly.
You have patience, and once the proper time comes for the
correction, you do it in patient love. In verse 15 Paul says “to be kind with each other
and to everyone else”. Kindness
is a key ingredient in Godly love. In verses 16 through 18 Paul tells us and his readers
what God’s will for our lives are. We
all want to know God’s will, yet many times we seem to miss it.
Paul says that God’s will for us is to “be joyful, pray
continually, and be thankful”. This
is not deep and heavy, but makes good sense if we are Christians.
Not doing these things makes a poor witness to those around us. In verses 19 and 20 Paul says “to not put out the
Spirit’s fire”. This is
one of the biggest downfalls of individual Christians and the church in
general. We too often dampen
the fire that the Holy Spirit lights within us.
This can be done through out and out sin.
It can be done by ignoring the moving of the Spirit, and replacing
His activity with our own. Humanism
is in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit, something the church is way to
content with. It can also be
done through an over-emphasis on tradition and denominational thinking. He also tells us not “to treat prophecy with
contempt”. Prophecy is
speaking forth the Word of God, no matter what form it is presented to us
in. Prophecy can be inspired preaching, or it can be God using a person in
the first person singular to speak to the church.
That is, when someone stands up in a meeting and says something
like “thus says the Lord…” Yet
once again, our preaching way to often is not Holy Spirit inspired, but
humanistic in nature. Then in
many churches the “thus says the Lord…” prophecies are not allowed. The KJV says, “despise not prophecy”.
The Greek word used here is “exoutheneo” which means “to make
of no account”, or “to regard as nothing”.
Churches who don’t allow prophecy regard it as nothing.
Also in many charismatic churches you may hear it so often that you
regard it as nothing. Both
are in error. In verse 21 Paul
continues by saying, “test everything”.
Not all that is called prophecy, or Holy Spirit preaching is of
God. He tells us to test
it. See if it lines up with
Scripture and the truth of the gospel.
Then he says to “hold to that which is good”.
The good things we hear, we should cling to and follow after.
The bad things we hear we should expose as being bad. In verse 22 Paul says, “avoid every kind of
evil”. The KJV says to
“abstain from every appearance of evil”.
This verse has been misunderstood and misused over the years
because of the KJV translation. There
is no hint in the original manuscript where we are to abstain from the
“appearance” of evil. It
simply says to “abstain from evil”.
Some KJV adherents would
tell us that going into a restaurant that served alcohol
is wrong because there is an appearance of evil.
This is not right. We
are told to abstain from evil, not the appearance of evil.
Jesus Himself was criticized for His association with drunkards.
If He were to interpret this verse as staying away from the
appearance of evil, He should not have made friends with drunks.
This Scripture should not have the word “appearance” as part of
the text. In verse 23 Paul says, “may God ..
sanctify you”. That
is to say, may God set you
apart for His own purposes. Non-Christians
should view us as being set apart for Jesus, not by the way we dress, and
not necessarily by the things we do or don't do, but by a holy lifestyle. Paul goes on to say in closing, “may your whole
spirit, soul and body be kept blameless…” at the coming of our Lord.
He also says that God can do this for you.
It is this verse that those who believe that we are made up of
three parts, that is spirit, soul and body use as a proof text for their
thinking. They may quite well
be right but the subject is not that simple that you can use one verse to
prove your point. When God
made man in the first place, He
made him as a “living soul”, or a living being. (Gen. 2:7)
Is the totality of man a living soul, or being, or is part of man a
soul? I am personally not
convinced of either as yet. And
what is the real difference between spirit and soul?
Do the two overlap, or are they distinctly different? Many people believe in spirit, soul, and body, but
they really don't know why they believe as they do.
The Genesis 1 and 2 account is important to this subject and must
be considered when dealing with spirit, soul and body. Paul closes his letter in verses 25 through 28.
He tells his readers to pray for him and his fellow workers,
something Paul most likely feels he needs a lot of .
Along with this request he says to greet the brothers with “a
holy kiss”. Then he
“charges” them “before the Lord” to read this letter to all of the
brothers. This letter was not
meant for a select few, but for everyone. Paul closes by saying, “the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you”. It all
boils down to the grace that our Lord Jesus has for us.
It is His grace that has saved us and His grace that keeps us
saved. It is His grace that
keeps this world together. It
will be His grace that we as believers will see when He returns to the
world to bring judgement. Paul
will have more to say about this in his next letter One last thought and that is about the word grace.
I will not prove my point here because I've done that elsewhere,
but if you study the word grace in the New Testament, you will notice that
there are two aspects to God's grace.
The first is well known, and that is "God's unmerited favour
towards us." That simply
means that God shows love and
mercy to us even though we don't deserve it.
The second aspect of God's grace is "the ability He offers us
to do what He wants us to do."
We cannot do God's will on our own, so He gives us the ability to
do it. This aspect of grace is
less known, maybe because it means we have no excuse not to do His will.
Paul knew both aspects of grace in his life, and so should we.
|