Difficult Texts From Thessalonians

Difficult Texts From Thessalonians

Biblical texts may be difficult because our English translations leaves the intended meaning obscure. Some few are difficult because of the magnitude and depth of their subject matter. Others are made difficult because of their abuse by false teachers. The three verses we are considering fall into this last category.

"NOT IN WORD ALONE"

I Thess. 1:5: "Knowing...how that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance..." The error based upon this is that preaching the gospel alone is insufficient to save the lost thus they need a direct operation of the Holy Spirit to open their sinful minds and make them perceive and respond to it. In his book, Our Doctrines, Harold Tribble, a Southern Baptist, writes: "It is not enough to read or preach the gospel. Before the harvest of soul-winning can come, the Spirit must open the mind and heart of the unconverted to see Christ in the gospel."(1)

The actual meaning of the text is as follows: a) The preaching of the apostle was not just a presentation of his own ideas. b) Rather his message came from God and was accompanied by the supernatural signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit which confirmed it as from God. (Mk. 16:20; Heb. 2:4). A similar thought is expressed in I Corinthians 2:4, "my message was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." The difference in word and power is that of discourse and dynamite.

The message was one of power in two senses: a) the gospel itself is God's power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). b) The miracles wrought by the apostles were powerful manifestations of the Spirit's power resident in the apostle (Acts 1:8).

Today, we have no miraculous powers to confirm our message. These all ceased with the completion of the New Testament (I Cor. 13:8-10). But in our New Testament we have the confirmed word of God which is the gospel, the power of God to save sinners (Rom. 1:16). II Timothy 3:16-17 indicates that such miracles are not needed. The Scriptures alone make us complete and furnished completely unto every good work.

What our religious neighbors have is not of God's Holy Spirit, because it is contradictory in its alleged manifestations and with Scripture. Would God do his work of confirmation through Catholics, Mormons and Pentecostal faith-healers who contradict and oppose each other? One man's alleged illumination leads him to expect salvation by faith alone, another by Holy Spirit baptism, another by meditorious works. But Paul tells us God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33).

The gospel faithfully proclaimed, conveys God's saving power to the human heart. It is the product of the Holy Spirit's inspiration and when obeyed, brings that same Spirit into the hearer's life ( Acts 2:38). To hear, believe and obey the gospel generates an unshakable assurance in the disciple's heart. Paul had such assurance himself. He wrote, "I know him who I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him...(II Tim. 1:12).

BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT

I Thess. 5:23 "And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be presented entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

In this concluding prayer, the apostle implores the Lord to sanctify and consecrate every part of the entire being of each disciple. They had been set apart for God upon their initial obedience to the gospel and were thus sanctified (I Cor. 1:2; 6:11). This passage makes it evident, however, that sanctification is not a one-time completed action. It is a process. As the child of God grows to higher levels of maturity, he becomes more thoroughly dedicated and consecrated to God's service. As Paul prayed, so our goal would be that we might be sanctified wholly. There should be no nook or corner of our lives into which the Lord's influence does not reach.

To express his wish that their sanctification and preservation be completed, Paul prays for their body, soul and spirit. It is this expression which is the key point of our discussion. The question has to do with the nature of man. Three possibilities are before us:

1) That of the materialist; i.e., that man is wholly mortal with no immortal spirit that can be distinguished from the body. There is both a religious version of this, i.e., Jehovah's Witnesses, and the secular version of the atheistic humanists. In their book Let God Be True, the Witnesses write, "also we see that the claim of religionists that man has an immortal soul, and therefore differs from the beast, is not scriptural." (2).

2) Some teach that man is a dual being of body and spirit. In their thinking the terms soul and spirit are used interchangeably and synonymously. Those who hold this view are styled dichotomists.

3) Trichotomists teach that man is constituted of body, soul and spirit.

As Christians, who view the Bible as our standard and authority, we flatly reject the view of the materialists. Scripture throughout speaks of the immaterial, spiritual nature of man. Solomon says, "...and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it" (Eccles. 12:7). Paul writes, "...through our outward man is decaying yet our inward man is renewed day by day (II Cor. 4:16). Again he says, "We are...willing to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (II Cor. 5:8). These scriptures and dozens more, easily refute the materialistic view.

The second and third categories are more difficult to decide between, with competent, Bible-believing scholars in both camps. Those of the Calvinistic school are unanimous in defending the dichotomistic view, while the Anglican scholars generally hold the trichotomistic view of man. Our commitment to the authority of Scripture demands that we have more than the opinion of a given school. What saith the Scripture? This is the answer for which we seek.

While some verses speak only of "soul and body," such as Matthew 10:28, we must deal with those that suggest the threefold nature of man. In addition to our text, the Hebrew writer speaks of the Word of God "dividing soul and spirit" (Heb. 4:12). If it is impossible to consider the two separately, then the Holy Spirit must have been mistaken here.

Genesis 2:7 seems to distinguish three aspects of man "...God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Here we see the clay, the physical frame; the breath of life, the spirit; and the living being, the soul.

TERMS DEFINED

Body, (soma). The body is referred to as a temple (I Cor. 6:19), a home (II Cor. 5:6-9), and the outward man (II Cor. 4:16). Scripture speaks of the body as being weak (Matt. 26:41). It comes from a human father (Heb. 12:9). It decays (II Cor. 4:16), dies (James 2:26) and returns to the earth (Eccle. 12:7). The body will be raised in the resurrection; incorruptible, glorious and in power, suited to live with God in immortality (I Cor. 15:42-52, 54).

Spirit, (pneuma). W.E. Vine gives 17 connotations for pneuma. Concerning its nature, Jesus said, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones" (Lk. 24:39). The spirit is eternal (II Cor. 4:16) and invisible (John 3:8). It is that part of man which is made in God's image (Gen. 1:26-27). It resides within the body in this realm of life. Daniel's spirit was grieved in the midst of his body (7:15). God is the father of our spirit (Heb. 12:9). He forms the spirit within us (Zech. 12:1) and at death the spirit returns to him (Eccle. 12:7). In death, the spirit retains consciousness (Lk. 16:23-24). It is immortal, being eternal in existence (II Cor. 4:16; 5:1; II Pet. 2:9).

Soul, (psuche). is assigned 10 various meanings in the lexicons. It differs from the spirit and generally means "life", "the natural life of the body".(3)

SOUL AND SPIRIT DISTINGUISHED

P.J. Gloag in the Pulpit Commentary says, "Each of the two words is sometimes used for our whole invisible nature, but when distinguished from the spirit, the soul is the lower part of our immaterial being, which belongs in common to the whole animal creation, the seat of the appetites, desires, affections." (4)

Again he says, "The spirit is the highest part of man, that which assimilates him to God; renders him capable of religion, and susceptible of being acted upon by the Spirit of God. The 'soul' is the inferior part of his mental nature, the seat of his passions and desires, of the natural propensities. The 'body' is the corporeal frame."(5)

Henry Alford writes, "The spirit is the highest and distinctive part of man, the immortal and responsible soul in our common parlance. The soul (here) is the lower or animal soul, containing the passions and desires which we have in common with the brutes, but which in us is ennobled and drawn up by the spirit."(6)

W.E. Vine observes, "The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual."(7)

According to James 2:26, "the body apart from the spirit is dead." Conversely the spirit's presence in the body equals life. This is demonstrated in Genesis 2:7 when Jehovah breathed into the lifeless body of Adam the breath (spirit) of life, he became a living soul or alive. Thus the soul in the more technical sense is the biological life which we share in common with all the other living creatures. The spirit is that which makes us distinctly God's offspring (Acts 17:29).

T.P. Brown illustrates this with an analogy of an electrical light. The bulb represents our body, the electrical energy represents the human spirit. When the spirit enters the body, the resulting light and heat represent our soul. Applying the analogy to Genesis 2:7, man formed a light bulb of the elements of the earth and channeled into it electricity and it became a shining light.(8)

In death the spirit leaves the body (James 2:26) and returns to God (Eccle. 12:7). It awaits the resurrection in the Hadean realm (Luke 16:22-26). This results in death, the end of physical life (soul), and disintegration of the physical body.

In heaven our inward man or spirit will receive a glorified body (I Cor. 15:42-44) and the resulting life will go to on eternally(I Cor. 15: 54).

Concerning the role of the soul, Vincent says, "The soul is the principle of individuality, the seat of personal impressions, having a side in contact with the material element of humanity as well as with the spiritual element. It is thus the mediating organ between the spirit and the body, receiving impressions from within and without... Spirit is the highest, deepest, noblest part of our humanity, the point of contact between God and man."(9) This could well be illustrated in the form of a pyramid with the body as the foundation, the spirit the apex and the soul in an intermediary position.

Lenski comments, "The spirit of man ought to rule supreme, wholly controlled by God's spirit, man ought to be pneumatikos. Sin enabled the psuche to control so that man became psuchikos (sensual), his bodily appetites having sway.(10) The Christian's "soul is thus controlled by the spirit and is not like the soul of pagans which runs away with the spirit and gives reign to the body." (11)

The fact that the terms soul and spirit are often used interchangeably and each with a wide variety of meanings makes this topic surely one of the most difficult in Scripture. We conclude this section with a summary by Bro. Guy Woods. "The soul as it relates to man is a generic term: the spirit, a specific one. In such a frame of reference it is easy to define spirit, it is the immortal nature infused directly from God (Heb. 12:8,9). The soul being generic, relies ion the context to indicate its meaning and is used in the following four way in the scriptures:

1) The whole person (Acts 2:41; I Pet. 3:20)
2) The physical life which man possesses in common with the lower creation (Ps. 78:50)
3) The intellectual nature and higher spiritual nature (I Cor. 2:14), the 'natural man' here is literally the soulish man, (see ASV margin)
4) Synonymously with spirit."(12) Awareness of these facts and careful attention to the context are the keys to a proper exegesis of a given text.

TRADITIONS

II Thess. 2:15. "So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours."

The point of discussion in this text has to do with the word traditions. This verse instructs us to hold on to them, while others condemn the observance of traditions. Since God does not contradict himself, there are evidently multiply meanings attached to the word. Again, context must determine the meaning.

Paradois is rendered "traditions" in our English Bible. It means "a handing down or on, to hand over, deliver."(13) Thus any teaching handed down to others is a tradition. It may be "good or bad tradition". In the New Testament we read of two kinds of traditions: those originating from men and those given by God's inspired men.

Paul warns us against those who make spoil of men through their philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men ... and not after Christ (Col. 2:8). To the Galatians he wrote that he was "zealous for the traditions of (his) father's (Gal. 1:14). He speaks here of the traditions of Judaism which were of human origin. Such a tradition was theirs called "corban". That tradition allowed a man to say to his parents "that wherewith thou mightiest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say given to God". This they said freed him of any financial responsibility to his aged parents. Since the law of God said to honor thy father and thy mother which would obviously include providing their necessities in old age, Jesus condemned this tradition as vain worship because it made void the word of God (Mk. 7:7-13).

A modern example of exalting human traditions is expressed by Bertrand Conway, a Roman Catholic spokesman citing the Council of Trent, declares that his church "receives and venerates, with an equal affection of piety, all the books of the Old and New Testaments...and also the said traditions ... preserved in the Catholic Church..."(14) If any man obeys not the divine traditions received from the apostles, he walks disorderly and our fellowship should be withdrawn from him (II Thess. 3:6).

There is yet a third kind of religious tradition not mentioned in the Scripture. This is the traditional way of doing a given thing that God has commanded. Such traditions are harmless and innocent so long as they do not lead us to make void the word of God (Matt. 15:6). In this category would be such things as the traditional time for worship services; the traditional method of distributing the Lord's Supper and a hundred others in current use among us. We must be careful never to allow such traditions to take precedence over the word of God nor to be the cause of division in the body.

Both the Catholic and Protestant bodies are filled with uninspired traditions of man, that militate against the word of the Lord. Some of these would be infant baptism, extra Biblical forms of Church government, the clergy-laity concept, etc. The faithful child of God will reject all such traditions of men and go to the law and testimony of God for light and guidance (Is. 8:20).

It is truly amazing that an ancient book of some 1,300 pages, dealing with the most profound moral and spiritual questions of the ages has so few "difficult texts" for our consideration. By far the greater part of it can easily be read and comprehended by the most humble student. May we never cease to thank God for the matchless gift of his holy word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway (Ps. 119:105).

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Harold W. Tribble, Our Doctrines, Nashville, Convention Press 1962, p. 50
(2) Committee, Let God Be True, Brooklyn, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1952, p. 68.
(3) Clyde P. Findlay, Body, Soul and Spirit, Knoxville, TN., privately printed class notes, no date.
(4) H.D. M. Spence and J.S. Excell, The Pulpit Commentary, Grand Rapids, W.B. Eerdman's Pub. Co. 1962, Vol. 21, p. 119-120.
(5) Ibid; p. 106.
(6) Henry Alford, New Testament for English Readers, Chicago, Moody Press, no date, p. 1335.
(7) W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Westwood, N. J. Fleming Revell Co., 1965, Vol. 4, p. 54.
(8) T.P. Brown, (Soul and Spirit), Gospel Advocate, Vol. 121, No. 24, June 14, 1070, p. 371, 376.
(9) M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1973, Vol. 1, p. 262.
(10) R.C.H, Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, etc., Minneapolis, Augsburg Pub. House, 1971, P. 367.
(11) Ibid., p. 368
(12) Guy N. Woods, Gospel Advocate, Vol. 121, June 14, 1979, p. 376.
(13) Vine, op cit., p. 147
(14) Bertrand Conway, The Question Box, New York, The Paulist Press, 1929, 78.

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