1 Thessalonians 5: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless…”

I enjoy TV shows about automobile restoration. Most of the shows have a focus on one part of the automobile. Some focus on restoring the body appearance. Others focus on the engine’s power and performance. A few focus upon radical transformation of the original car’s appearance. I enjoy them all.

Just as an automobile restoration can be broken down into separate parts of focus, the human life can as well. The Greeks liked to focus upon the soul or spirit. They thought that the very essence of what it meant to be human resided in the spiritual. That led them to a heresy that said that as long as you kept your spirit clean, God did not care what your body did. The Hebrew thought was more centered on unity. They did not think the essence of a human lived within the heart, but was in the union between the body and mind and could not be separated into individual parts.

Modern theologians and philosophers love to argue about what Paul meant by using spirit, soul and body. Some try to say he was talking about three distinct parts of human life, just as a car has an engine, body and transmission. Others believe the spirit and soul meant the same thing to Paul, and he saw us as being two parts, body and spirit. I think both arguments are missing the point. The keyword to understanding what Paul was saying is the word “whole.” He had just prayed that God would sanctify the Thessalonian Christians “through and through”. He wanted them to understand that “through and through” included all that they were, no matter how they chose to see themselves as parts. He wanted them to live blameless in every aspect of their life.

God does not do partial restorations. When we obey, God’s Holy Spirit restores and transforms our power, performance, and appearance. God doesn’t just sanctify our heart, he sanctifies our whole life.