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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 4:9, 13; 5:8, 16-24; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 John 1:6; 1 Tim. 1:5; Rom. 6:6, 19; 7:24; 8:10-11; 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:13b, 1 Cor. 6:15a, 1 Cor. 6:19-20
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul says, “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the foregoing message we pointed out that the way to preserve our spirit is first to exercise it to have fellowship with God. According to 5:16-18, we need to rejoice, pray, and give thanks. If we do this, our spirit will be pulled out of a condition of deadness and will be living. Second, we preserve our spirit by keeping it from all defilement and contamination. In this message we shall go on to consider how to preserve our soul and our body.
Our psychological heart has three main arteries. These arteries, which are also the three parts of the soul, are the mind, the will, and the emotion. It is important to know how in a practical way to have these arteries unclogged. For the unclogging of the arteries of our physical heart, doctors may prescribe medication. But in many cases surgery is required to remove the blockage. The way to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart is to make a thorough confession to the Lord. From experience I have learned that we need to stay with the Lord for a period of time to confess our defects, failures, defeats, mistakes, wrongdoings, and sins.
We may begin by confessing all the sinfulness and uncleanness that is in our mind, in our thinking. The artery of our mind can be compared to a ditch that is clogged with dirt and needs to be dug out so that water can flow through it. Our mind is filled with dirt. As a result, this artery is clogged. In order to unclog the artery of our mind, we need to confess everything that is sinful in our thoughts and in our way of thinking. By confessing our thoughts one by one, we shall remove the blockage from this artery.
As we are making confession in this way, we may confess to the Lord how natural our understanding is concerning many matters. Perhaps you do not feel that your understanding of so many things is natural. This is the reason you need to go to the Lord and say to Him, “Lord, enlighten me and expose my mind. Expose all my thoughts. Lord, bring my mind fully into Your light.” Then you should follow the enlightenment and exposure to confess the problems in your thinking one by one. For example, the Lord may show you that in your married life and family life your understanding is very natural. You may understand your spouse, your children, and your family affairs in a natural way, not at all in a spiritual way. If the Lord exposes this in you, you should immediately confess and say, “Lord, forgive me. Although I love You, my understanding of married life is altogether natural. Lord, deliver me from this natural understanding and take it out of me.” This is an illustration of the kind of confession we need to make concerning our mind. For this kind of exposure and confession it may be necessary for us to stay with the Lord for a long time.
What, then, about our will? If we go to the Lord concerning our will, He will expose it in a thorough and detailed way. It may seem as if we are being examined under a divine microscope, for one by one there will be brought to light all the germs in our will. In particular, we shall realize that we are very rebellious, that we do not know what it means to be submissive to the Lord. One by one, we need to confess the germs of rebellion in our will. The Lord may show you that, a few years ago, you were wrong in a particular matter. Then He may go on to show you how you were wrong with a certain brother or a certain sister. Each time you will need to confess. You should thank the Lord that you are under His light, under His exposure. By confessing all that the Lord exposes in our will, we unclog the artery of our will.
The artery of the emotion also needs to be unclogged. When we realize how serious is the problem we have with our emotion, we may be deeply sorrowful. We may despair and feel utterly ashamed of the condition of our emotion. We shall realize that in many cases we hate what we should love, and love what we should hate. When we come into the light of the sanctuary, we shall see that the most ugly aspect of our being is our emotion, for we do not use it properly. Both our joyfulness and our sorrow may be altogether natural. As the Lord exposes us, we may feel ashamed of the way we have expressed joy and sorrow, for that expression often was natural, fleshly, even fleshy. No wonder our psychological heart does not function normally.
If we take the time necessary to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart, we shall have the sense that our entire being has become living. Our mind, will, and emotion will all be in a very healthy condition. All the “dirt” in these “ditches” will then be dug away.
No one can do this unclogging for you. I can speak to you concerning it, but you must do it yourself. Thus, you need to go to the Lord day by day and ask Him to expose everything wrong in your mind, will, and emotion. Then in the light of what He exposes, you need to confess.
Perhaps you do not feel that you are wrong in your thoughts, in your decisions, or in your emotion. This is the reason you need to go to the Lord for His enlightening. As an illustration, sometimes we may have a physical problem that we are not aware of. Even after the doctor discovers our problem and prescribes the proper medication, we may not feel the medication is necessary. However, when we take the medication and it does its work to cleanse and heal our bodies, we shall be convinced that the doctor’s advice was right. In like manner, even though we may not feel that we are wrong in our mind, emotion, and will, we need to go to the Lord and take the “medication” He gives us. If we take it, the arteries of the psychological heart will be kept clean and unclogged.
In addition to knowing how to preserve our spirit and our soul, we must also know how to preserve our body. Sin has damaged and ruined our body. For this reason, Romans 6:6 says that our body is a “body of sin.” Furthermore, we have presented the members of our fallen body to sin, to evil, to lawlessness. Romans 6:19 says, “You presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness.” For instance, in gambling a person presents his hands to things that are sinful and unclean.
In Romans 7:24 Paul goes on to say that our body is a body of death: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” Then in Romans 8:10 Paul points out that although the spirit is life because of righteousness, “the body is dead because of sin.”
If we would preserve our body, we should live a life that never follows the old man, that never follows our soul. Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him that the body of sin might be made of none effect, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.” If we do not follow the old man, the body of sin will be made of none effect. This means that the body of sin will lose its job and become unemployed. But if we live according to the soul, we shall use our body to serve the old man. Therefore, to preserve our body first requires that we do not live according to our soul.
Second, to preserve our body requires that we not present any member of our body to anything that is sinful. For example, we should keep our eyes away from evil pictures and our ears from unclean things. Many things that are broadcast over the radio are defiling. A number of saints have testified that they cannot bear to listen to certain talk among those at school or at work because that talk is so evil. Many people of the world are able to speak concerning sinful things without any sense of shame. Thus, we need to keep our body from seeing and hearing things that will contaminate and ruin it. This is to preserve our body in sanctification.
Paul illustrates the importance of preserving our body in this way by giving in chapter four the charge to abstain from fornication. To abstain from fornication is to preserve our vessel, our body, in sanctification and honor. Therefore, in order to preserve our body, we should not present our members to anything sinful.
Today’s world is full of contamination and defilement. This makes it very difficult for us to preserve our body. Wherever we go there are defiling elements. Parents need to train their children, even those in elementary school, to keep away from these contaminating elements. Any parent who thinks that children should be allowed to be tested in order to develop resistance is seriously mistaken and in the future will regret this course of action. The parents who follow this way in caring for their children surely will reap the harvest of what they have sown.
As an elderly person, I can testify that we need to preserve our body. Do not think that as you grow older you will not need to guard yourself from lust and defilement. As long as we have not been transfigured and still remain in the old creation, we need to preserve our body.
To preserve our body is actually very difficult. It is much easier to preserve our spirit and our soul than to preserve our body. The most difficult thing for us to do in this defiling, contaminating world is to preserve our body. We need to be careful not to look at anything, listen to anything, or touch anything that will defile our body.
In 5:12-24 we see the cooperation of the holy life with the divine operation. In verses 12 through 22 we have the believers’ cooperation in living a spiritual and separated life. In verses 23 and 24 we have God’s operation in sanctifying and preserving the believers. God desires to sanctify us wholly and to preserve our spirit, soul, and body complete. However, we need to cooperate with Him. The way to cooperate is to rejoice, pray unceasingly, give thanks to Him in everything, not quench the Spirit, and not despise prophesying in the church meetings. If we cooperate in this way, our spirit will be preserved from deadness, our soul will be preserved from pollution in mind, will, and emotion, and our body will be preserved from the defilement of this age. Then in a practical way we shall have a holy life for the church life. Paul’s aim in writing 1 Thessalonians, a book for new believers, was that they would live such a sanctified and holy life for the church life.
