The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 130

spirit nnd soul e.nd body be preserved entire, without blame e.t the coming of our Lord Jesus Ohrist." From the object or the jrayer God is here ne.med. the God of pee.ce, The pee.ce which takes a.way the discor or our nature and restores its harmony is his will and gift. But he is only the God of peace to us in our sanctification. The npostle he.d been exhort.ing to various forms of holiness. Feeling, however, how feeble his pa.rt was in their sanctification, he makes his appeal to the first Cause of Sanctifi- cation. "The God of peace himselr sanctify you." In sanctification there is the idea of being set ap11.rt to the Rervice of God. In the prayer the stress is le.id on the wholeness of the sanctification. In the word translated "wholly" there is the idea of wholeness in the way of the end being reached. The materials of the temple-building and vessels were origine.lly in a rough Htate. But, put into the hands or cunning workmen, they were brought up into apt and consistent and beautiful forms. And not without dprinkling of blood were they dedicated to God. So the stuff of which we are made is originally in an unpolished, defileJ condition ; but, in the hands of the great Artificer, through the efficacy of the blood of Christ, are we being brought up into a state in which, in our whole being, we shall be fit for being employed in the service of God. In the second part of the prayer there is brought in another aspect of the wholeness of sanctification. And the word which indicates it is brought forward in the original out of its nature.I position, so as to be separated from the similar word translated" wholly" only by" and.'' It conveys the idea of being whole in the way of being entire in ita parts. "It means what represents the whole undivided possession, what is not weakened by div.ision, and thus subsists in perfect integrity n (Delitzsch). The integrity relers to the three parts into which our nature is here regarded as divided-spirit and soul and body. In some places Scripture language turns upon the distinction between the material and immaterial nature of man. Here the immaterial nature is divided into spirit and soul And this is in keeping with the dividing asunder of soul and spirit in Heb. lv. 12, and also with the contrast between the present psychical body and the future spiritual body in 1 Cor. xv. "Whilst the soul," says Olshausen, who has made a special study of this subject, "denotes the lower region of the inner man~omprises, therefore, the powers to which analogous ones are found in animal life also, as under- standing, appetitive faculty, memory, fancy-the spirit includes those natural dis- positions which constitute the true human life; viz. reason, as the faculty of perceiving the Divine; conscience, 88 the faculty of distinguishing moral good and evil; free-will, as the faculty of moral choice, by which the ability to form a history is purchased." The spirit, we may say, is that by which we have the power of knowing and serving God, and of making character, and in which, in its whole range, we are separated from the brutes. 'l'he soul is the lower part of the inner man, in which, in its judgments, and longings, and recollections, and imaginings, the spirit is designed to bear rule. The bodL, or outer man, which is quickened by the soul, and has the power of exciting the sou , ii another sphere in whioh, in its appetites and powers, the spirit is designed to bear rule through the soul The spirit is wholly se.ncti.fied in the sense intended when, through the possession of the Spirit of God, reason and conscience faithfully represent the Divine voice, and the will is faithfnlly responsive; when, as a whole, it is the ruling centre with reference to the rest of the nature. The soul is wholly sanctified when the understanding is used as a help to the keeping of Divine precepts; when the desires and affections are divinely regulated and purified and tempered; when there is e. ready memory for the Word of God, and a reac!iness from past associations in calling up good thoughts; when the imagination is filled with Christ e.nd the Christian ideal e.nd the Christian prospect; when, as a whole, this part of our nature does not e.ssert its independence of the spirit e.bove, and can resist the charms of the senses below. The body is wholly sanctified when its various members are used as instruments of righteoUBness; when, as a whole, it does not aspire to rule in the soul; when it takes its law from pure judgmenta, and desires, and recollections, and imaginings. Such is the wholeness of ea.notification in the integrity of the nature. And whe.t, on the positive side, is represented as integrity of nature, on the negative Bide ia represented as being without hie.me. Here there is a glance forward, as there frequently is in this Epistle, to the coming of Christ. It is then the.t the integrity of our nature is to be fully realized, and to be placed in inviolable keeping. Beyo11d that point, the integrity of our nature perfectly attained, no power in the unlnl'l0 o,w ever break. I. TBES8ALONIAN8. ll  130 THE FlRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [oa. T.1-28