May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
The author of 1 Thessalonians (which most scholars agree is Paul.. so for the sake of this entry we'll just call the author Paul) wrote this right after giving the people of Thessalonica instructions for righteous living. Actually, a few verses before this one--in verse 10--he says "[Jesus] died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him."
The purpose of life is to live together with Him (verse 10) and for Him (really all of 1 Thessalonians 5). We can only live righteously when we commit to a relationship with Him that involves Him sanctifying us (verse 23). And as we see in this key verse (verse 5), this sanctification process involves your spirit, soul, and body.
Wait... what?
I've spent the majority of my Christian walk believing lies that only my soul matters. My flesh is sinful. Only my soul and spirit yearn for Jesus.
But this is only a partial Truth.
God created us with spirit, soul, and body and nothing He does is by accident. All three are important. All three interact. This is why when you don't get enough sleep (a physical need) your soul is also affected (spiritual). This is why when your brain lacks enough serotonin (a physical need) your soul is also affected by depression (spiritual). This is why when you exercise, endorphins are produced (a physical need) and your soul feels better (spiritual). This is why when you read Scripture (a spiritual need) your whole body feels revived and energized (physical). This is why when you commit a physical sin (say for example, gossiping or committing adultery) it comes from a deeper root inside of you (like pride or sexual brokenness).
...really I could go on and on.
Our bodies are sinful, but so are our souls. My thoughts are just as evil as my actions. I have a sinful nature, not a sinful body or a sinful soul.
So the full Truth sounds more like this: My innate nature is sinful, but my entire being yearns for Jesus and through the death and resurrection of my Savior I can participate in being refined for His Kingdom.
More simply put? My spirit, soul, and body are all interacting and are all called to sanctification.
In my understanding, when Scripture speaks about sins "in the flesh" the word flesh encompasses everything about our sinful natures. It does not only pertain to our bodies. The word flesh (to me anyway) means my broken nature. It's sort of like when Scripture refers to the world as evil--the world was created by God and is meant to be good, but sin has made much of it broken. And living for the world is used as a metaphor for living for our sin as opposed to living for the Kingdom. Just like living for our flesh is used as a metaphor for living for our sinful natures as opposed to living for Jesus.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Paul immediately after says that Jesus will sanctify us. He is powerful and loving and just and good. But He also wants us to participate in that process and live together with Him (verse 10). That's why Paul offers us instructions in this chapter. Because Jesus invites us into a relationship, not a puppeteer interaction. He wants us to give our lives to Him to be sanctified (so that He can then do all the work on us).
...here I go making what I thought was going to be a short blog entry oober long once again haha so I'll try to get back to my point...
We are called to sanctification and our spiritual healthiness comes from an interaction of that spirit, soul, and body that He gave us. My idea that my soul needs to be worked on was only a half-truth because I was leaving out the fact that my soul is constantly working together with my body.
This is the lesson that I've been learning over the past month or so.
I've been frustrated for years (with myself, with my past, and with God) that I couldn't seem to find healing in a certain area. The entire category was infecting me like a disease--infiltrating my thoughts and actions and emotions--consuming me and suffocating me like ash in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. But then I realized (through many, many amazing books on this topic and time spent in Scripture) that just working on the spiritual side was not enough. Most of this brokenness was coming from the fact that I did not respect my body as part of God's creation. I viewed my body as bad and sinful and disgusting when really, we are meant to be bodily people.
So all at once I started going to the gym 6 days a week, taking vitamins, drinking water, and actually taking note of not only the calories that I put into my body but also the nutritional value of what I put into my body. Today I even ran outside which is something I have never, in 21 years, never ever done. And what I've learned during these past four weeks of being physically healthy is that I am experiencing healing.
I'm not 100% there yet. My cognitions and emotions and actions still fall short at times. But everything I've been learning over the past two years on a spiritual level are interacting with what God's been teaching me on a physical level. And it is through this interaction that I can vividly see sanctification in my life in an area that I at times doubted the Lord would heal in me.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
My body is made for good. For purpose. As a biopsychology major, this is something that I've definitely learned and been able to appreciate at a far deeper understanding. Jesus gives us spirit, soul, and body and He wants us to submit all to Him.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)
Jesus is so good. I can't believe I ever doubted that He would heal me. All the while He was just waiting for me to understand. He was waiting for me to work with Him and submit to Him. He was waiting for His daughter to appreciate His creation of her body and not just her soul.
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