Lesson 9 - Blessings, Encouragement, & Requests
Question 4: In 4:1–8, sanctification required them to walk a certain way. In 5:23, it sounds as if sanctification is something God is doing to them. Is this a contradiction? Is there more than one way to understand sanctification?
Answer: This is one of the beautiful tensions in Scripture—one that shows up throughout the Christian life. No, this isn't a contradiction. Both are true. Understanding how requires us to see that sanctification works on multiple levels.
Positional Sanctification (What God Has Done): The moment you trusted in Christ, God set you apart as holy. You were sanctified—made holy in His sight through Christ's righteousness. This is a completed work. In 1 Corinthians 6:11, Paul tells believers "you were sanctified." It's done.
Progressive Sanctification (What God Is Doing): Sanctification is also an ongoing process. God is actively working in you to make you more like Christ day by day. This is what Paul prays for in 5:23—that God would sanctify them "entirely." He's asking God to complete the work He started.
Practical Sanctification (What We Must Do): We have a responsibility in our own sanctification, too. In 4:3–8, Paul makes clear that God's will is our sanctification, and then he tells us what to do about it: abstain from sexual immorality, control our bodies, live in holiness. We must actively pursue holiness.
How do these fit together? Think of it like this: God has declared you holy (position), God is making you holy (process), and you must live holy (practice).
Or as Paul puts it in Philippians 2:12–13: "work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." You work, and God works. Not either/or, but both/and.
The Christian life requires us to strive for holiness while simultaneously depending on God to produce that holiness in us. We're not passive, but neither are we doing this in our own strength. As Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
This should both humble us (we can't do it alone) and motivate us (God is at work in us, so we press on with confidence) to walk according to His will for us.
Question 5. In the latter half of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul expresses his prayer that God would preserve their “spirit and soul and body” at Christ’s return. Is Paul teaching here that we are made of three different “things”? In other words, from this, should we understand that each person is a body, soul, and spirit? Or, is there something else going on here?
Answer: No, Paul isn't teaching that we're made of three separate parts. Instead, he's using a common writing technique to emphasize completeness or totality.
Think of it like this: if someone said, "I love you with all my heart, soul, and mind," you wouldn't think they're claiming humans have three different love organs. They're just emphasizing how completely they love you.
Paul is praying that God would keep the Thessalonians holy in every part of who they are—the whole person. By listing "spirit and soul and body," he's piling up terms to stress completeness, not to give us a technical breakdown of human nature.
That said, it's understandable why some Christians take a different view. Since Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, some believers reason that his specific choice to list three distinct terms—"spirit and soul and body"—must be intentional and meaningful. They see this as Paul making a careful distinction between our spiritual capacity (spirit), our psychological/emotional life (soul), and our physical existence (body). This trichotomous view has been held by many faithful Christians throughout church history, and it deserves respectful consideration.
However, we see throughout the Bible that "soul" and "spirit" are often used interchangeably (like when Jesus "gave up his spirit" in John 19:30, but elsewhere people "give up their souls"). The Bible also uses terms like "heart," "mind," and "soul" in overlapping ways without meaning they're all different things, or things that can be clearly distinguished from each other as separate.
The key question is: Was Paul trying to teach anatomy here, or was he praying for complete sanctification? The context points to the latter. He wants his readers to be wholly devoted to God—nothing left out—so he uses comprehensive language to make that point.
If this verse were teaching three parts, we'd also have to explain why other passages only mention two (like Matthew 10:28: "body and soul"), suggesting the terms are used more fluidly than a strict three-part division would allow.