5:23 Peace in the assembly was very important to Paul. The "spirit"is the part of us that enables us to communicate with God. The "soul"makes us conscious of ourselves. The "body"is the physical part that expresses the inner man. These are not the only elements that constitute humanity (cf. heart, mind, conscience, etc.), but they are the ones Paul chose here.
"It is precarious to try to construct a tripartite doctrine of human nature on the juxtaposition of the three nouns, pneuma, psycheand soma. . . . The distinction between the bodily and spiritual aspects of human nature is easily made, but to make a comparable distinction between spirit' and soul' is forced."131
Paul may have mentioned "spirit and soul and body"because these three aspects point to the believer's relationships to God, himself or herself, and other people. Together they picture wholeness. Paul's desire for his readers was that every part of them would remain without fault and that they would continue to mature and live free from legitimate grounds for accusation until Christ's return. Note again that he assumed the Lord's return would precede their deaths.
Since the Lord did not return before Paul died was he wrong to view the Lord's return as he did, namely as imminent? No, because imminent means He couldreturn at any moment, not that He willreturn very soon.
"In a prayer expressing Paul's wishes for the congregation, two of the basic themes of the letter are again highlighted. The prayer utilizes two optative verbs, asking that God may . . . sanctify' the Thessalonians and that they may . . . be kept blameless.' The prayer for sanctification reminds the readers of the exhortations in chaps. 4-5. In fact, the call for sanctification brackets these final two chapters. Chapter 4 begins with an exhortation to the people to lead sanctified lives (vv. 3-8), and chap. 5 ends with a prayer that God would sanctify his people (v. 23a). The prayer for the preservation of the saints until the coming of the Lord (v. 23b) reflects back on encouragements to persist in hope despite affliction (1:3, 10; 2:14-16; 3:5; 5:10-11)."132
5:24 Paul was confident God would do this work in the Thessalonians through the Holy Spirit assuming their proper response to Him (v. 19). The antecedent of "it"seems to be the sanctification and preservation of the Thessalonians, not the return of Christ.133
