And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul here tells the Thessalonian believers that their whole persons and, thus, their whole lives must be made holy before God. Their spirits, that is, the higher nature in man (his mind and that which relates to God); their souls, that is, their lower natures (emotions and the mind’s connection to physical senses and desires); and even their bodies, though purely physical and mere “tents” that their immaterial part lives in, must all be sanctified.
O Lord, no aspect of our inner self should not be subject to your standards of holiness. Our minds, hearts, wills, consciences, desires, and even physical bodies must all bow to your Lordship. We must give an account of all we did in the body to you before the Judgment seat of Christ. Let us then live soberly and seek to be holy in our whole persons and lives. Amen.
