Let’s continue our reflection on Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 5:23-24: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” Today, let’s notice that Paul invokes the God of peace for sanctification. Why? Shouldn’t he have invoked the God of holiness instead? Jeffery Weima offers a good explanation: “The meaning of this ‘peace’ that God gives stems from the OT concept of shalom… and thus does not refer merely to the resolution of conflict but has a much richer meaning, involving the restoration of the fallen created order to its former perfection and glory, thus as eschatological salvation…” (p. 417). This shows that sanctification is at the center of our redemption. The ultimate goal of our salvation has to be to fix what is broken and make it what it was intended to be. And that is what our sanctification is about. Peace in the full biblical sense of the word cannot be achieved without the restoration and perfection of God’s image in man. This is why Paul invokes the God of peace for our sanctification. Our salvation is more than just going back to the Garden of Eden before the Fall. It is to usher us into the celestial paradise where everything will be, and do, exactly according to God’s perfect design.
Read MoreLet’s continue our reflection on Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 5:23-24: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” Here, we learn that God wants us to be sanctified completely. Let’s linger there for a moment. We tend to read this and quickly move on, saying to ourselves, “Yes, that’s what God desires. But He knows, and we all know, that that is impossible in this life.” That is theologically right. Yet, if we are not careful, we can use theological truths to our detriment, not to our benefit. What is one danger of quickly saying what is mentioned above? We make up our own standard of sanctification and grow complacent about our progress (even though it may be quite slow). How would you feel if you asked someone to do something and he ignored your expectation and did a subpar job according to the standard he made up for his convenience?
Read MoreLet’s move on to another prayer of Paul’s in 1 Thess. 5:23-24: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” The first thing we notice is that sanctification is God’s work. That is why Paul prays to God to sanctify the Thessalonians. So, the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (#35).
Read MoreToday, we will finish our reflection on Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 3:11-13: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” This prayer assures us that our Lord Jesus will return with all His saints. He, who came as the suffering Servant of the Lord in His First Coming, will come as the Lord of glory in His Second Coming. His First Coming was to accomplish our salvation; His Second Coming will be to bring our salvation to its glorious consummation. He will do this by raising our bodies in resurrection glory, whether we are dead or alive at that time, and uniting our glorified spirits with our resurrected bodies. He will do this also by judging the unrepentant sinners and condemning them to eternal damnation.
Read MoreToday, we want to reflect on the last part of Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 3:11-13: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” It is interesting to note how closely Paul connects the idea of love to the idea of holiness: he wants the Thessalonians to increase and abound in love so that God may establish their hearts blameless in holiness before Him. When we think of holiness, we imagine someone who is strict and even aloof. We can say that there is a biblical reason for that. To be holy is to be set apart from the world unto God, who is holy. This may make it seem like holiness doesn’t have much in common with loving others.
Read MoreToday, we move on to another petition in Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 3:11-13: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” Yesterday, by examining Paul’s first petition, we reflected on the importance of persisting in prayer. Today, we want to reflect on the second petition: “...may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all...” (v. 12).
Read MoreToday, we move on to another prayer of Paul’s in 1 Thess. 3:11-13: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” In this prayer, there are two petitions. Today, we will deal with the first, which is “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you...” (v. 11). Why is he praying this prayer? If he wanted to go see the Thessalonians, all he had to do was simply to make all the necessary arrangements and go, right? Granted that traveling was much more difficult and complicated in the ancient world, if Paul had the will to go, surely, he could have gone. But many of us have experienced how strange life can be. There are times when we cannot do the simplest and easiest things. Think about what we have been experiencing during this pandemic. We could not do so many things that we have taken for granted—such as going out to eat with our families and friends, going to the movies, visiting the sick in the hospital, flying out to see our dying family members, etc. So, James says,
Read MoreLet’s continue to reflect on Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 3:9-10: “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?” We talked about Paul’s thanksgiving for the Thessalonians. Today, we will focus on Paul’s prayer that he might see them face to face and supply what was lacking in their faith. Why was it so important for Paul to see the Thessalonians face to face? Timothy brought a good report regarding their condition. Despite fierce persecution, they were standing firm in the Lord, they were grateful for Paul’s ministry, and they were diligent in loving one another. He no longer had to worry about their spiritual condition. Why did he want to go back to them so badly, then?
Read MoreI’m glad to be back from my vacation and resume “Today’s Word of Encouragement”. We will continue surveying Paul’s prayers in his letters. Today, we want to consider his prayer in 1 Thess. 3:9-10: “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?” There are two prayers here: one is a prayer of thanksgiving and the other is a petition that Paul and his partners might be able to come and see the Thessalonians face to face.
Read MoreToday, we move on to another prayer of Paul’s: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess. 2:13).Paul gives thanks to God for the way the Thessalonians received the message of the gospel. He knew that such reception was impossible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit—first, regenerating their hearts and, second, enlightening their eyes to recognize the Apostolic preaching as the very Word of God. Listen to what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about this:
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