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“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly [completely]; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
The Apostle Paul has just finished an epistle to some new believers—the Thessalonians. Paul had been preaching to them for less than a month, but they had left their heathen ways and accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Then Paul had to leave the area because of persecution. Shortly afterward he wrote this epistle to them, in which he speaks quite a bit about the Lord’s coming.
Now he utters a prayer, that through the God of peace, they would be completely sanctified. That means being separate from this world. Also, he prays that their spirit, soul and body would be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus. Each of us, as a human being, has a spirit, a soul and a body. Animals have souls and bodies, but no spirit. A soul is what makes animals (and humans) aware of their own existence. Plants have bodies, but do not have either a soul or spirit.
As Christians, it is important that we be separate from this world, for everything in this world system will tend to drag us down spiritually. But why does Paul talk about our spirit, soul and body like this? We will speak a bit more about it in a couple of days.
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