I Thessalonians 5:25-27 – “Praying”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁵Brothers, be praying for us. ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷I adjure you [before] the Lord [that] the epistle be read to all the brothers.

In my last post, I noted how this is a “brothers, brothers, brothers” passage in a book of the same. In this short little triad of three verses, we see what Christian “brothers” do.

First of all, they pray for each other. Many writers have noted the humility of the Apostle Paul, that such a mightily gifted and important man should covet the prayers of what were, on the whole, a bunch of poor and socially unimportant people. But such is the nature of people who actually know Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing – and we all are keenly aware that applies to all of us. The very essence of our real relationships with Jesus is that He is a great Savior and we each need desperately to be saved – all of us. It’s “‘not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord.” In real Christianity we all desperately need Him and whether “great” or “small” in His kingdom, I am what I am by grace. I need the Lord. And so I need prayer. Whoever I am.

It is true that Paul’s humility is commendable. On the other hand, amongst us “brothers” who really know Christ, it’s just our life. And so we pray for each other and so we ask each other for prayer. Often some of my wife’s last words to me as I leave for work are, “I’ll be praying for you.” Words cannot express how much I appreciate that. I’m keenly aware that everything I’m doing is so far over my head, only the Lord Himself can grant that I should actually succeed in trying to help the communities and people I work with. I need her prayers. I can always count on my mother to be praying for me and again, words fail to express how deeply I appreciate (and need!) that kindness.

I’m struck again with the thought of people I know from work who are believers. I don’t think in all my life I’ve ever thought how much they need my prayers. If I truly see them as “brothers and sisters in Christ,” then I need to be realizing how much their lives are no different than mine – desperately in need of the Lord’s help. Together, His desire for us is that we should “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” – by our work (Titus 2:9,10). Even as I type these words, I confess it has never occurred to me how much I need to pray for them, or even how much I, like Paul, should covet their prayers.

As I have often noted, I believe the very genius of the Gospel itself is not that we meet together in a building but that, having met together as a church, we fan out to literally blanket our communities with our faith. Particularly our jobs carry even a small church into literally every corner of a community. If we in fact go there with real faith, with a real relationship with God, with a real determination to love God and love others, to be kind, to be dependable, we could become to our communities “a savor of life unto life.” But it’s not by might, nor by power!” We will succeed not because we tried but because the great God of the universe chooses to bless our feeble efforts – and that means prayer.

And of course that leads us back to the “fanning out.” From where? From our churches – where some of us brothers and sisters meet together. It is there in particular that we intersect with our ministers. We know from Eph 4:11,12 that He “gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up …” We need their Holy Spirit-gifted ministry to be the strongest people we can be. Which means, in a brotherhood, we realize they need our prayers too. Whether it’s at work or at church, we “wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph 6:12), and “we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices” (II Cor 2:11).

Speaking of Satan and his devices, I suppose if he wants to undermine the power of the Gospel, the two roots he must strike are 1) our own personal study of the Word and 2) those who would minister it to us. It’s up to each of us to carve out the time to personally seek the Lord’s truth, but obviously we need to be praying for the people who minister it to us. Paul, as a minister, knew he needed it. We mustn’t neglect to know ourselves that they need it.

I must say, although I have made it a point over the years to pray for others, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen it as an expression of our “brotherhood.” As I sit here pondering, I am asking the Lord to help me deliberately recognize others I know at work and in the community who are believers and to pray for them – and even to ask their prayers for myself, and to renew my determination to pray for my pastor and fellow church members. We are brothers. We need each other. I need them. They need me. We all need the Lord.

Let us pray.

I Thessalonians 5:25-27 – “Family”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁵Brothers, be praying for us. ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷I adjure you [before] the Lord [that] the epistle be read to all the brothers.

I want to begin by noting what I think are significant features of the grammatical structure of these three verses. I first note that the word “brothers” occurs 3x. The number three is invariably important in Scripture, being often a mark of divinity. Of course my baseball friends consider this an evidence of that sport’s divine origin – 3 bases, 3 strikes, 3 outs, etc., etc. 😏. That, of course may or may not be rue, tbut, in our passage, not only does “brothers” occur 3x, but it is the first word of v25 and the last word of v27, forming “bookends” of sorts.

Then I notice too that the word “brothers” itself occurs a total of 17x in the book of I Thessalonians. Not counting this last 3x, that leaves 14x or 2 sets of 7x. I suspect that is deliberate and that somehow the two sets form some kind of logical units. I have pondered over it and can’t see what might be happening, but I strongly suspect there is some kind of deliberate order there. The word “brothers” might be being used as a sort of bookmarks or perhaps telic dividers – but again, I can’t see it.

As usual someone at this point thinks I’m intrigued with the irrelevant but I beg to differ. I would suggest it highly significant that the word “brothers” appears in the book exactly 2 x 7x’s, then in a final triplet (3x) to conclude the book. I particularly note in this final triplet that, even in hearing it read, the “brothers … brothers … brothers” in short succession would itself leave an impression on the alert listener.  What is Paul saying? Is it not the message of the book itself? “Brothers, brothers, brothers.”

Allow me to digress. This thing of “brotherhood” is monumentally important to the church. Hebrews 2 records, “But we see Jesus … Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers … For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way …” (vv.9-17). As the old saying goes, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” Jesus broke upon a world invariably divided by class, sex, nationality, ethnicity, and whatever other reason people can find to hate each other. Suddenly there was this “church” thing where they all met together and called each other brothers. One early Roman retorted something like, “Their first Law-giver led them to believe they are all brethren!” Yes, that is right. Brothers. Rich met together with poor. Masters met together with slaves. Jews met together with Greeks. It was a marvel of the first century how Christians loved each other.

I should note that we are told in the early church men sat separate from women, and that may or may not be true, but I would suggest if it was true, that was just one of those things that was so culturally dominant (like slavery itself) that the Lord didn’t necessarily challenge it directly. I say that just to acknowledge that possible historical reality but to say I don’t think it detracts at all from this truth of the fraternal essence of Christianity. Anyone who knows their Bible knows that the “brethren” includes the “sisteren.”

This fundamental truth of “the family of God” is extremely important. God is our Father. Jesus is our elder brother. And each of us are brothers and sisters. Jesus was not ashamed to call us brothers, and neither should we be.

I know some churches try to live this out by calling each other “brother” and “sister.” That may be nice, but I wonder if its truth isn’t much larger than that. No doubt we each need to ponder our attitude toward the other Christians in our church. Do we truly in our hearts see them as brothers and sisters (whether we do or do not deliberately call them that)? Do we treat them like brothers and sisters? But then I wonder if the Lord doesn’t want us to go further and see all Christians everywhere as our brothers and sisters. I am particularly thinking at work and in the community. I wonder if we shouldn’t make a bigger deal about our brotherhood all throughout our workaday world? I work with a lot of people I may either know or strongly suspect are believers. I wonder if I shouldn’t make it a habit to actually call them “brother” or “sister” at appropriate times in order to acknowledge their faith and to encourage them that I consider them “special” to me.

I would suggest, based on the grammatical recurrence of the word, the book of I Thessalonians is a “brothers” book.

Lord help all of us to live a “brothers” life.

I Thessalonians 5:23,24 – “Blessed Assurance”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³May the God of peace Himself sanctify you [to be] complete, and may [the] whole of you – the spirit and the soul and the body – be kept blamelessly in the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.

One last thought before I leave these two verses. I want to pause and think about v24, “The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.”

Faithful. The faithfulness of God. Great is Thy faithfulness.

It’s easy to read those words, to say them, to even sing them, yet not stop to ponder their enormity. I think perhaps early in my Christian life, I thought it really was all about my faithfulness. Somehow God was just there and I was over here trying to somehow become this faithful follower of Jesus. The big battle was whether I would or would not be faithful today, or even in knowing what that meant today. Of course I failed miserably.

But as I have studied the Bible and struggled through the issues of life, I have come more and more to see that it’s all about Him. The big issue in my life is not whether I am or have been or will be faithful. The big issue is that He is. Ah, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

One of the verses that helped me the most to finally turn the corner was Psalm 112:7, “A good man will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, confident in the Lord.” “Confident in the Lord.”

“Confident in the Lord.” “The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.”

Our good God is wisely, kindly, and omnipotently ruling this world in which we live. He was for all the thousands of years before I was born and He will continue long after I’m gone. I’m alive today not because anything is really “up to me,” but because He has a great eternal plan and at least for today has allowed me to be a part of it. He will succeed whether I do or not.

Truly knowing Him, being confident in Him, brings to my world peace. It brings quiet and confidence. It brings the completeness of knowing “All is well.” And in that peace, I can truly love and be kind and even … be faithful. As I go out to my work today, I don’t know what I’ll face. I don’t know what will go “wrong.” I don’t know what people will say, what they will expect, how they’ll treat me. I know already I’ll find it physically challenging – the older I get the less and less energy I have to deal with it all. Most of the time I really don’t even find myself smart enough. Most of the time my job calls for someone far more clever than me. So, given all of that, what am I to do? Go. How? Confident in the Lord. I just need to go, confident in Him. It’s true I don’t know. It’s true I’m barely able physically. It’s true I’m not clever enough. But He is. And He will help me. So I can. I can go in peace. I can love. I can be faithful. Because He is.

I might die. But “My times are in His hands.” I honestly can say I just hope I die confident in Him. Whatever that means, when it means it.

I am so thankful for Jesus, for this saving, redeeming God who not only rescues us from hell, but gives us peace.

I so wish the whole world could realize how wonderful He is, what it’s like to live in a world ruled by my kind, wise Father. To live in peace.

I’m so thankful that we can live all day every day in this blessed assurance.

“The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.”

I Thessalonians 5:23,24 – “The Agent”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³May the God of peace Himself sanctify you [to be] complete, and may [the] whole of you – the spirit and the soul and the body – be kept blamelessly in the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.

The translation of verse 23 is very odd to me. Most translations make “complete” into an adverb, so it becomes some variation of “completely.” This is odd to me because it is an adjective, and clearly not an adverb. Even A.T. Robertson says it is a predicate adjective and specifically not an adverb, but then says it has “the force of an adverb” (whatever that means). Then, later in the verse, most translations make the adverb “blamelessly” into an adjective, “blameless.” It seems really odd to me that we can just (seemingly arbitrarily) translate an adjective as an adverb, then turn around a phrase or two later and translate an adverb as an adjective.

Most likely anyone who has stumbled across this post, at this point thinks I am quibbling over completely irrelevant details. To such persons I have to say, my first task in Bible study is to try to determine as certainly as possible what the Bible says (and what it does not say). These are the very words of God and personally I want to be as careful as possible to translate them accurately. Whether or not we’re being “sanctified completely” or “sanctified [to be] complete” are perhaps very similar, yet still different in meaning. Similarly, whether we are “kept blameless” or “kept blamelessly” are two similar but yet different thoughts. And again, my first concern is to be sure I really do understand what the Lord is saying. It may turn out that practically speaking it makes little difference, but I don’t know that yet. I do not believe I am quibbling over irrelevant details.

Second of all, I want to acknowledge that pretty much everything I will say in this post I’m saying on precariously thin ice. I’m always reminded of John Eadie’s warning, “Interpretations are generally false in proportion to their ingenuity.” Apparently most of the world’s scholars seem to think this juxtaposition of adjectives and adverbs is not only reasonable but also called for in this passage. It is perhaps reckless and even arrogant for a neophyte like myself to question them and even more so to contradict them. My problem is that in my studies not one of them offered any defensible explanation for this juxtaposing of the adjectives and adverbs. It was rare to find anyone who even noticed the difference – which is scary coming from men who are writing commentaries on the Word of God and who, for the most part I am sure were capable of careful exegesis. It makes one wonder how closely they really looked at the text. On my part, if I’m wrong, all I need is someone to show me clearly why, and I would be very happy to learn something which I obviously don’t know. But until they do, I see no reason to depart from the simple truth that adjectives are adjectives, adverbs are adverbs, and that they should be translated accordingly.

In my translation offered above, I have tried to maintain this grammatical consistency.

And, although humbly (I hope) aware of John Eadie’s warning, this is where I head off on “my own.”  I think it is a very different thing whether we are “sanctified completely” (adverb) or “sanctified [to be] complete” (predicate adjective). The focus of the adjective isn’t so much on the process as on the accomplishment of it. God doesn’t just sanctify us completely, but He sanctifies us because His goal is for us to be complete. Here again I hearken back to the Jewish concept of peace, which is precisely this – the idea of things being “complete.” Our God is a redeeming God. In a sense, the entire work of salvation is about redemption, it is about God through Christ and in the power of His Spirit, picking up His broken creation and making it complete again. Even as an unregenerate man, we all are made in the image of God. All of us. But like our image in a broken mirror, the pieces are out of place and even missing. God’s great eternal goal is to pick us up, put all the pieces back together, and make us complete again. That will be peace. Because He is the God of peace. Because He is a Redeemer.

And then I personally think it is interesting that in the latter half of the verse Paul is praying not that we should be “kept blameless,” but that we should be kept “blamelessly.” Even as I myself read the words, the “kept blamelessly” just doesn’t settle well in my brain – but as I said above, I am trying to translate accurately and it is what it is. It is very awkward to me too when we add the prepositional phrase “in the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Maybe I’m just plain wrong, but it is also possible that this is just another case where, in the ancient world, they simply didn’t think like us.

I guess what I have to say is that for me personally, retaining the adverbial “blamelessly” really emphasizes the agent here. Who is doing the “keeping?” It certainly isn’t us, since the verb is a passive – the passive makes it very definite that we are being “kept.” Although we of course already know the answer to this question, verse 24 leaves no doubt who’s doing the keeping: “The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.” Of course God is the active agent here and we are those being kept. We will in fact be kept and we will be kept blamelessly. The focus is not on us – whether we are “blameless” but on the God who keeps us and who does it blamelessly. This is even emphasized by the opening words, May the God of peace Himself …” The “Himself” is a reflexive pronoun and, in the Greek, it is the very first word of the verse.

As verse 24 assures us, God is faithful and He will accomplish it – He will accomplish this sanctifying of us to be whole and keeping us blamelessly.

Verses 12 to 22 have set a pretty high bar for all of us. Reading a whole series of admonitions like “Be joyful always,” a legalist would have good reason to despair. But Paul’s prayer reminds us that while the Christian’s call is in fact a high calling, it is God’s faithfulness, not ours, that is our hope. “He who begun a good work will complete it” (Phil 1:6). He is the God who “is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (Jude 24)

I would like to suggest that, by keeping our grammar precise, we particularly keep the focus on the Lord as the active agent. Paul isn’t so much praying that the people would do all these things, but rather committing them to the God who can and will accomplish it. That is what grace does. The Law says to us, “Do this and live.” Grace says, “Live! And do this.” Sure He wants us to do it, but, as we know Him and walk with Him, we find whatever success we enjoy we are keenly aware it was Him and not us that accomplished it. To be “better” I need to know Him better. “Beholding His image, we are changed into that image.”

He is our Hope.

I Thessalonians 5:23,24 – “The God of Peace”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³May He, the God of peace, sanctify you [to be] complete, and may [the] whole of you – the spirit and the soul and the body – be kept blamelessly in the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The One calling you [is] faithful, who will also accomplish it.

As soon as I started studying these two verses I was intrigued by Paul’s reference to the Lord specifically as “the God of peace.” This is probably a place where we really see the Jewish concept of peace shine out. At least for us Americans, we think of “peace” only as the absence of conflict. We think, for instance, in a war, there is “peace” when no one is shooting. In our lives, “peace” is when everyone else “leaves us alone.” But the Jewish concept of peace is much, much larger than that. It is more the idea of “completion,” of everything being in its place, everything being as it should – our family healthy, the crops growing, the house solid and watertight. That is the concept of the Hebrew word “shalom,” which is translated as “eirene” in Greek (as here) and “peace” in English. (Yes, in Greek it is “eirene,” which becomes our girl’s name Eirene in English).

I haven’t studied enough to know for sure exactly what was the Greek concept of “peace”, but I note in Greek:English dictionaries they define it about the way we would. What’s important here though is that even if Paul is writing in Greek, he has a Jewish mind. As is the case with all the Biblical writers, we have Jewish men writing whether they express their thoughts in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. No matter which language they’re writing in, they’re thinking like a Jew. I would suggest that is specifically why Paul calls Him “the God of peace” when he wants to express this prayer that we should be sanctified “completely” and that “the whole of us” be kept blamelessly. The One who provides completeness is “the God of peace.”

I want to pause and ponder on this name “the God of peace.”

Even a cursory perusal of the Bible would tell us the concept of peace is enormously important to God. Scanning a concordance, it is almost surprising how often the Bible refers to peace. In many of the NT epistles, He is called “the God of peace” as in II Cor 13:11, “the God of love and peace will be with you,” or as in Heb 13:20, “Now may the God of peace …” There are many, many such references. Of course we have Jesus’ words, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid … I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 14:27 & 16:33).

Of course we also have the glorious passage of Phil 4:4-9, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus ... think on these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” We can add to this many, many OT references to peace. In Psalm 4:8, David says confidently, “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety,” and in 119:165 he assures us “Great peace have them that love Thy Law.” The book of Proverbs would have us know of wisdom that “Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace” (3:17).

Isaiah is, of course full of very familiar and comforting references to peace:

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (26:3).

“The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever” (32:17).

“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be your children’s peace” (54:13).

“‘Peace, peace to him who is far and him who is near,’ says the Lord, ‘And I will heal him.’ But the wicked are not so. They are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (57:19-21).

When Jesus was coming into the world, the angels’ message was “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14), and when the risen Jesus appeared to His disciples He greeted them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19).

Of course, we all know “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace …” (Gal 5:22).

Even in the Old Testament and under the Law, the Aaronic Benediction was:

“The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine upon you

and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you

            and give you peace”

 (Numbers 6:24-26).

The true and the living God is “the God of peace.”

Whether we wish to admit it or not, we humans live troubled lives. We attempt every sort of scheme and imagination trying to somehow find peace for our lives, but what we need is the God of peace. Jesus wants to step into the raging storm of our lives and say, “Peace, be still.” If we’ll let Him, He brings with Him a “great calm.” He is the Prince of Peace and He and He alone can bring real peace to our lives and to our world. And, as we noted above, this peace is not just the absence of conflict; it is the comfort of a completed world, a world where the parts and pieces are all there and in their proper place. To know that peace, we need in the very center of our hearts and lives the God of peace.

And isn’t it sad that the whole world, it would seem, sees Him not as the God of peace? They see Him as many things – the Great Rule-Giver, the Cosmic Kill-Joy, the capricious God who expects too much and throws lightning bolts at everyone who fails. In American churches, He is the God whose service means you have to live a frantic life of endless busy-ness. And yet through it all, His voice is calling, “Peace, peace, to him that is far and him that is near.” Oh, that we would all stop listening to all the other voices screaming in our ears and whispering, whispering, whispering in our hearts; that we would pause and listen to Him, that we would pause and let Him speak peace to us, that we would welcome Him into our lives and let Him bring His peace.

He is “the God of peace.”

“Peace be unto you.”