Paul’s Prayer for Our Sanctification - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

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 NKJV

Paul’s Prayer for Our Sanctification
What a prayer! We were at war with God, until we turned to Him away from idols. It was to serve the true and living God—the God of peace—while waiting for His Son to come (1:9). Without God’s help we cannot do anything pleasing to Him, and this is one reason for Paul’s prayer. We have been sanctified through the accomplished work of Christ and are now perfect in Him. Paul did not have to pray for this wonderful and blessed fact. However, we need God’s help to work out this position (Phil. 2:12–13).

Paul prays to the God of peace, who desires that we may enjoy the peaceful relationship of our position, even though we live in a world at war with God. Our sanctification, for which Paul prayed in this passage, is not a position: it is a work in progress, continuing until the Rapture. Then we will have reached our ultimate sanctification and will be, in actual practice, what we are positionally. Paul’s prayer is that spirit, soul, and body may be preserved. Is the spirit “superior” and the body “inferior”? No, that is Greek or pagan philosophy, which has penetrated into the Church over the centuries. Our spirit, soul, and body are different and have different functions, yet they belong together in one indivisible unit prepared by Him.

This is the way God has created us after His likeness, to be like Him morally, and to visibly represent Him who is invisible. Here is where the resurrection comes in, and Paul’s prayer refers to a work of God, not only to preserve us now, but also to keep us in that relationship even beyond the power of death. What a magnificent and preserving power! To display this victory, God will bring us back to this scene, demonstrating His glory, when the Lord Jesus will appear with us at His manifestation.

-- Alfred E. Bouter