Wholly Sanctified
1 Thessalonians 5:23
“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the goals of every Christian should be that they conform themselves into the image of God. That is what sanctification is. Sanctification is the act of separating yourself for the purpose of being used by God. This act of separating yourself is so that you will better conform into the image of God. The more that a Christian sanctifies himself, the more he will look like Christ, which will allow God to use him in a better way.
In the verse above, God shows that His desire is for the Christian to be wholly sanctified. God doesn't want the Christian to partially set himself apart for His service, but God wants the Christian to completely and entirely set his life apart for the purpose of being used by Him. God wants every Christian to be wholly conformed into His image without any resemblance of the world. In order to be wholly sanctified, God shows us what we must do to accomplish this task.
The first step to sanctification is to always rejoice. In verse 16 God commands the Christian to “Rejoice evermore.” In other words, in every situation in life we should rejoice. We are to rejoice in bad times as well as good times. We are to rejoice in difficult times as well as easy times. This is the first step towards sanctification, or setting yourself apart for God's service.
The second step is to have a prayer life. God commands us in verse 17 to never cease to pray. In other words, instead of having a prayer time, the Christian should have a prayer life. What I mean by this is you are to constantly find yourself whispering a prayer to God throughout each day. Find an excuse to pray and not an excuse not to pray.
The third step towards sanctification is to be thankful. God commands the Christian in verse 18 to be thankful for everything. Sometimes this is not the easiest thing to do, but if you are going to be conformed into the image of God, you will have to learn to thank God for everything in your life.
The fourth step is to obey the Spirit of God. In verse 19 God’s command is to “Quench not the Spirit.” In other words, don't do anything that would turn the Holy Spirit of God away from doing His work. This is talking about our lifestyle and how we live. Our lifestyle should not quench the Holy Spirit, but it should stir the Holy Spirit to do a work through us.
The fifth step is to love preaching. God says in verse 20, “Despise not prophesyings.” In the context of this verse, God was talking about preaching when He used the word “prophesyings.” In order to be sanctified, we need to regularly find ourselves listening to preaching. Preaching helps us to sanctify our lives.
The final step towards sanctification is to stay away from the presence of sin. God was not simply talking about not committing sin, but staying away from the places where sin could occur. Sin will keep us from living a sanctified life.
Christian, on a daily basis you need to practice living these steps. You will find the more you practice these steps the more you will conform into the image of God. This will result in God using you in a greater way.
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