grace and peace (reprise)

1 Thessalonians 5:23-28

Paul comes full circle at the end of his letter. He started by saying "grace and peace to you" in chapter one and he ends by talking about the God of peace and praying that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." The key ideas in this section are: peace, sanctify, the whole person (spirit, soul and body), faithful and grace.
Paul reminds the reader that the work of sanctification is the work of God. In all his other letters he talks about the role that the followers of Christ have in their own sanctification. He talks about putting on Christ and taking of the sinful nature and its desires. He talks about living by the Spirit and not by the sinful nature. It is clear that we have a role to play but it is equally clear that I can only fulfill that role through the power of God (the fruit that Paul calls me to exhibit in my life only comes as I learn to live by the Spirit and he produces that fruit in me). So, here, Paul says that God will sanctify us through and through - that he will keep our soul, spirit and body blameless at the coming of Christ.
Paul emphasizes that God is the God of peace by repeating himself a little bit. When we hear peace we often think in terms of lack of conflict. I live at peace when I am not in conflict with others. Canada is at peace when it is not involved in any wars. Peace, in biblical terms, was much more than that. Peace contained the idea of the ideal of the kingdom of God - a person was at peace when they were experiencing life as God intended for it to be experienced, when life most clearly mirrored life in the garden of Eden. The Hebrew word was "Shalom" and it meant the welfare of the whole person. I think Paul ties into this idea when he speaks of the whole person being santified. It's not just my spirit or my soul or my body but my spirit AND my soul AND my body.
The fact that we, as humans, rebelled against God means that we should not experience Shalom or peace. We deserve God's curse, not his blessing. And if anyone should work to restore Shalom it should be us but Paul reminds us that God is the God of peace - he is the one that worked through Christ on the cross to make peace possible and he is the one at work in our spirits, souls and bodies to allow us to experience peace now. This speaks of his grace - his incredible, unmerited favour! Amazing grace! How sweet the sound...