Thursday, December 10, 2015


Word of God

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God
Matthew 4:4

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians 5:23
Study notes by John Gill
Edited/Prefaced by Doktor Riktor Von Zhades

23 Now the very God of peace sanctify you throughout: and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body, may be kept blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren:

This final prayer of the Apostle for the congregation at Thessalonica asks that God keeps then and sets them apart from the non-believers. That the complete man, that is to say the renewed, and regenerated (Read 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24; 1 John 3:1-3) man be the person that Christ finds upon His return. Make note that he divides unto three separate parts spirit, soul and body. Each part playing an important role in the whole man. For what is the whole without the sum of it’s parts?

It is God Who strengthens us, knowing full well that we’re naught but flesh and blood, and even in our better moments can still set our minds upon the carnality of this temporal plane. Thus the prayers for them are asked in order that we might remain steadfast in our walk and in all our works that we might be found lacking nothing and wanting of nothing when seeking the kingdom of God and of His ways of righteousness. - Dr. R.V.Z

The apostle follows his exhortations with prayer to God, knowing the weakness and impotency of the saints to receive them, and act according to them, and his own insufficiency to impress their minds with them; and that unless the Lord opened their ears to discipline, and sealed instruction to them, they would be useless and in vain: wherefore he applies to the throne of grace, and addresses God as "the God of peace"; so called, because of the concern he has in peace and reconciliation made by the blood of Christ, and because he is the giver of peace of conscience, and the author of peace, concord, and unity among the saints, and of all happiness and prosperity, both in this world, and in that which is to comE. And the apostle might choose to address God under this character, partly to encourage boldness, freedom, and intrepidity at the throne of grace, and partly to raise hope, expectation, and faith of having his requests answered, since God is not an angry God, nor is fury in him, but the God of peace: and the petitions he puts up for the Thessalonians. Not that he thought they could be kept from sinning entirely in thought, word, or deed; but that they might be preserved in purity and chastity from the gross enormities of life, and be kept from a total and final falling away, the work of grace be at last completed on the soul and spirit, and the body be raised in incorruption, and glory; and both at the coming of Christ be presented faultless, and without blame, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, first to himself, and then to his Father.” - John Gill - 17th Century Theologian

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