William Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - 5:23

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William Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - 5:23


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Observe here, 1, that our apostle having exhorted the Thessalonians to labour after the highest measures of sanctification, breathes out his soul here in a most affectionate prayer to God, to sanctify them thoroughly and throughout; teaching us that instruction and supplication should go together; after we have been instant with our people we must be earnest and instant with God for them.

Observe, 2. The person whom the apostle directs his prayer for sanctification to, The God of peace: but why doth he not style him the God of grace? Because peace and unity is one very eminent part of that sanctification the apostle had prayed for, and had exhorted them before unto, Be at peace among yourselves 1Th_5:13. Now this grace being once well rooted, all the other parts of sanctification thrive the better.

Observe, 3. How thorough and prevailing a work of sanctification the apostle prays for, namely, that God would sanctify them wholly in spirit, soul, and body.

By spirit, understand the superior faculties, the understanding, the will and conscience; by soul, the inferior faculties, the passions, affections, and sensitive appetite; and by body, the outward man, the tabernacle of the soul. Now the apostle prays, that all these may be sanctified, because they are defiled.

Blessed be God, regenerating grace is as universal a principle as original sin was; it is in the understanding by illumination, in the will by renovation, in all the affections by sanctifiation, reducing those rebellious powers under the government and dominion of reason and religion.

Observe, 4. Our apostle doth not only pray for their sanctification, but for their preservation also, that they may be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, preserved in a state of grace and holiness unto the end. All the sanctified are preserved; instability is an argument of insincerity; within a while, all possibilities of falling will be removed; in the mean while, take heed of falling, by thinking it is impossible to fall; for none are so near falling as those who are most confident of their own strength and standing.