The God Of Peace
THE GOD OF PEACE
1 THESSALONIANS 5:23-28
Paul ends with the note of reassurance that the God of peace is faithful. Do you need to remember that again for your life?
Paul’s concluding word to the congregation is a prayer that they may be completely possessed by God. It will become the apostle’s frequent habit when bringing a letter to its close to think about “the God of peace,” as he does here (5:23; see also 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Romans 15:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 4:9). The reference is to God’s peace of restored relationship with him that the Thessalonians enjoyed through the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. The fellowship enjoyed with God on earth is a foretaste of unbroken fellowship throughout eternity. For that reason Paul prays that the work of sanctification, by which believers are prepared for God’s presence, may be brought to a point of maturity.
The words “spirit and soul and body” are not to be understood as providing some insight into the constituent “parts” of a person, but should be understood rhetorically as further emphasizing the term “wholly.” In a contemporary context Paul might well pray in terms of “heart and soul,” by which he would mean simply “your whole person” (see Mark 12:30). In praying that believers may be kept “sound and blameless” for their presentation to Christ at his coming, the apostle echoes a theme introduced first in the prayer of 3:13. Paul’s own experience of God’s faithfulness assures him that his prayer will be wonderfully answered (5:24).
The letter closes with three brief requests and a blessing. The request for prayer (5:25) is a reminder that Paul, Silas and Timothy also work in a context of trial, and can be sustained only through the intercession of the believers and the strength which God supplies. The kiss of peace which men shared with men, and women with women—presumably on the cheek—was the sign that God had constituted the church one family in Christ (5:26). No one was to be excluded from this sign of affection. The letter—to be read publicly—must serve to compensate for the visit he cannot undertake at this time; in it Paul has said what he would wish to say if he were present with his people. The final blessing (5:28) replaces the single word “farewell” in papyrus letters with the blessing of Christ on the congregation.