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Questions · Doctrine

1 Thessalonians 5:23 and 4:3

What Christian writers said, from about AD 174 to 1930.

34 passages · 20 writers · 9 centuries

The short answer

Owen, Wesley, Watson, and Robertson read wholly in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 as covering every part of the person, spirit, soul, and body, and Calvin says Paul makes God the sole author of the entire work. Finney says the verse is a promise of entire sanctification that refers to this life, Barnes says a prayer for perfect sanctification is not proof that it is attained in the present life, and Calvin says so complete an entireness is never met with in this life. On 4:3, Tertullian and Gregory the Great read the sanctification that is God's will as abstaining from fornication, and Robertson reads it as holiness of life. Calvin says sanctification here means renouncing the world and offering ourselves to God as a sacrifice, and Spurgeon calls the will of God, even our sanctification, our separation from the world.

1 Thessalonians 5:23: sanctify you wholly

23 passages · 18 writers · 100s to 1900s

Owen says the word means universally and completely, that our whole nature is the subject of the work, and that sanctification extends to the whole spirit, soul, and body, though the work is not absolutely perfect in any of them. Wesley says the word signifies wholly and perfectly, every part and all that concerns you, and that spirit, soul, and body are to be preserved blameless till the coming of Christ. Watson says sanctification spreads into the whole man as far as original corruption did. Robertson says the singular verb shows Paul conceives of the man as an undivided whole, and that there is to be no deficiency in any part. Fausset says that in Hebrew "peace" and "wholly" (perfect in every respect) are kindred terms, and he notes Trench's reading of "wholly" as having perfectly attained the moral end, a full-grown man in Christ. Calvin says that by "sanctify you wholly" Paul makes God the sole author of the entire work, and that since so complete an entireness is never met with in this life, some progress should be made daily in purity. Finney says the verse is a prayer for, and a promise of, entire sanctification that refers to this life, and Barnes says a prayer for perfect sanctification should not be adduced as a proof that it is attained in the present life. Mayo says the best are sanctified only in part in this world, so we should press toward complete sanctification. Owen and Spurgeon say that because God is faithful, he will do what Paul prays for. Spurgeon says Paul saw a close connection between the peace of God and the sanctifying of believers, and addresses the prayer for sanctification to the God of peace. Chrysostom explains the spirit here as the gift of grace, Irenaeus says those are perfect who have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, and Origen ties the fulfillment of the prayer to the three gathered in the name of Jesus.

1550 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5.23

From this we infer, that we must, during our whole life, make progress in the pursuit of holiness. But if it is the part of God to renew the whole man, there is nothing left for free will. For if it had been our part to co-operate with God, Paul would have spoken thus — “May God aid or promote your sanctification.” But when he says, sanctify you wholly, he makes him the sole Author of the entire work. And your entire spirit. This is added by way of exposition, that we may know what the sanctification of the whole man is, when he is kept entire, or pure, and unpolluted, in spirit, soul, and body, until the day of Christ. As, however, so complete an entireness is never to be met with in this life, it is befitting that some progress be daily made in purity, and something be cleansed away from our pollutions, so long as we live in the world.

1674 · John Owen, Pneumatologia, or a Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit (Books I-V) 4.1

And he is here said to sanctify us ὀλοτελεῖς, that is, “universally and completely,” carrying on the work until it comes to perfection; for two things are intended in that expression:— First, That our whole nature is the subject of this work, and not any one faculty or part of it. Second, That as the work itself is sincere and universal, communicating all parts of real holiness unto our whole nature, so it is carried on to completeness and perfection. Both these, in the ensuing words, the apostle expresseth as the end and design of his prayer for them, and the effect of the work of grace which he prayed for: for, first, The subject of this sanctification he makes to be our whole natures, which he distributes unto our entire spirits, souls, and bodies; and, second, The end of the whole is, the preservation of us blameless in the peace of God unto the coming of Christ; — which will both of them be, immediately, more fully spoken unto.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 6.5

Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole man. ‘The God of peace sanctify you wholly.' I Thess 5:53. As original corruption has depraved all the faculties - ‘the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint,' no part sound, as if the whole mass of blood were corrupted - so sanctification goes over the whole soul. After the fall, there was ignorance in the mind; but in sanctification, we are ‘light in the Lord.' Eph 5:5. After the fall, the will was depraved; there was not only impotence to good, but obstinacy. In sanctification, there is a blessed pliableness in the will; it symbolizes and comports with the will of God. After the fall, the affections were misplaced on wrong objects; in sanctification, they are turned into a sweet order and harmony, the grief placed on sin, the love on God, the joy on heaven. Thus sanctification spreads itself as far as original corruption; it goes over the whole soul: ‘the God of peace sanctify you wholly.'

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on 1 Thessalonians 5.23

And may the God of peace sanctify you - By the peace he works in you, which is a great means of sanctification. Wholly - The word signifies wholly and perfectly; every part and all that concerns you; all that is of or about you. And may the whole of you, the spirit and the soul and the body - Just before he said you; now he denominates them from their spiritual state. The spirit - Gal. vi, 8; wishing that it may be preserved whole and entire: then from their natural state, the soul and the body; (for these two make up the whole nature of man, Matt. x, 28;) wishing it may be preserved blameless till the coming of Christ. To explain this a little further: of the three here mentioned, only the two last are the natural constituent parts of man.

1 Thessalonians 4:3: this is the will of God

11 passages · 10 writers · 200s to 1900s

Tertullian and Gregory the Great read the sanctification in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 as abstaining from fornication. Robertson says Paul states the Christian idea of sanctification as holiness of life, whereas pagan religion did not demand sexual purity of its devotees. Barnes says the word here means purity of life, and particularly abstinence from vices that debase and degrade the soul. Mayo says chastity is one branch of sanctification, and that it is the will of God in general that we should be holy. Calvin says God has called us with the design that we sanctify ourselves to him, and that sanctification means renouncing the world and offering ourselves to God as a sacrifice. Owen says the command to be holy given in these verses is the sum of the whole commanding will of God. Spurgeon calls the will of God, even our sanctification, our separation from the world, and tells his hearers that they should know what sanctification means and show it in daily life, and that it is theirs to teach men. Chrysostom says Paul nowhere so vehemently glances at any other thing as at sanctification.

1550 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4.3

When he says that this is the will of God, he means that we have been called by God with this design. “For this end ye are Christians — this the gospel aims at — that ye may sanctify yourselves to God.” The meaning of the term sanctification we have already explained elsewhere in repeated instances — that renouncing the world, and clearing ourselves from the pollutions of the flesh, we offer ourselves to God as if in sacrifice, for nothing can with propriety be offered to Him, but what is pure and holy. That ye abstain. This is one injunction, which he derives from the fountain of which he had immediately before made mention; for nothing is more opposed to holiness than the defilement of fornication, which pollutes the whole man. On this account he assigns the lust of concupiscence to the Gentiles, who know not God. “Where the knowledge of God reigns, lusts must be subdued.”

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Thessalonians 4.3

The word here rendered "sanctification" - ἁγιασμὸς hagiasmos - is not used in the Greek classics, but is several times found in the New Testament. It is rendered holiness, Rom 6:19, Rom 6:22; 1Th 4:7; 1Ti 2:15; Heb 12:14; and sanctification, 1Co 1:30; 1Th 4:3-4; 2Th 2:13, and 1Pe 1:2; see the Rom 6:19 note; 1Co 1:30 note. It means here "purity of life," and particularly abstinence from those vices which debase and degrade the soul. Sanctification consists in two things: (1) in "ceasing to do evil;" and, (2) in "learning to do well." Or in other words, the first work of sanctification is in overcoming the propensities to evil in our nature, and checking and subduing the unholy habits which we had formed before we became Christians; the second part of the work consists in cultivating the positive principles of holiness in the soul.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Thessalonians 4.3

Found only in the Greek Bible and ecclesiastical writers from αγιαζω and both to take the place of the old words αγιζω, αγισμος with their technical ideas of consecration to a god or goddess that did not include holiness in life. So Paul makes a sharp and pointed stand here for the Christian idea of sanctification as being "the will of God" (apposition) and as further explained by the epexegetic infinitive that ye abstain from fornication (απεχεσθαι υμας απο της πορνειας). Pagan religion did not demand sexual purity of its devotees, the gods and goddesses being grossly immoral.

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