23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
25 Brethren, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
may the God of peace (v.23) — Paul has been giving his readers instructions on how to live, but now he acknowledges that they can only do so in God’s power.
Himself (v.23) — in Greek, this pronoun is in the place of emphasis
sanctify (v.23) — tense refers to an act completed at a given time with ongoing results — a process seen in perspective and so contemplated as a complete act
completely (v.23) — not referring to an increasing degree of sanctification but that the sanctification would extend to every part
and (v.23) = and so — continuing the thought just stated
Nobody seems to be quite sure about the distinction between the spirit and the soul, and I’m not going to pretend I understand, but I do think Scripture makes it clear that there is a distinction. Here are a couple views:
The language of Hebrews 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their activities. Generally speaking the spirit is the higher, the soul the lower element. The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual, the body being the material organism animated by soul and spirit, by which alone these can receive impressions from, or communicate impressions to, the material world. — Vine, page 96.
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