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Pastor's Blog November 17, 2022
"1 Thessalonians 5 "
When we think about the end times, it is tempting to think in terms of destruction. With talk of plagues and judgments, it is rare for us to think of God's end time activity apart from cataclysmic doom. But Paul does just that, highlighting that the God of the end times - the God who is preparing us for the end of history with the second coming of Jesus - is a God known most explicitly by peace.
In the first half of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, the apostle says, "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through" (NIV). According to Paul, the God with whom we have to do is a peaceful God. This means that all the advice about end time preparation he has been giving us in 1 Thessalonians 5 is concerned with the God of peace, not the God of judgment, violence, or destruction. And the God of peace is ultimately interested in our sanctification, not in our condemnation and obliteration. In fact, the tense Paul uses is the subjunctive, which turns his instruction into a prayer or even a blessing: "MAY God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through." And the expression "sanctify you through and through" is a combination of the words "whole" and "complete end goal" in Greek, and literally means "complete to the end."
The God of peace wants to make you holy in a holistic way. He wants you to be whole, complete, and put back together (which is what it biblically means to be holy or sanctified), and he has covenanted to do this to, for, and in you all the way to the end when Jesus returns.
Friends, the best preparation for the second coming of Jesus is to let the God of peace take responsibility for preparing you for Jesus' return, which will definitively result in your holiness AND wholeness.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
