1 Thessalonians 5,23: Now may the GOD of peace Himself sanctify you completely
We read here that God wants to sanctify us completely. God does not only want to sanctify us a little bit, but rather completely. He wants to sanctify our whole spirit, our whole soul and our whole body. It’s not sufficient for God when we are only a little sanctified. God wants and expects complete sanctification. Of course, here on earth we will never reach the standard that Jesus showed us through His life. Here on earth, we will never be as perfect as Jesus was. There will always be sin and failure here on earth, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for us not to strive for sanctification. Of course, God forgives sin, but He also expects sanctification.
In Matthew 5,48 Jesus says: Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
As I already mentioned, we cannot reach this standard here on earth, but it still should be our goal. And I have to confess that most of the time it’s not my goal to be perfect and to be completely sanctified. I am very often pleased with only a spark of sanctification. But God wants more. God wants more of my time, more of my goals and more of my desires. He wants more of me and he does not only want more of me, but He rather wants all of me.
He describes in 1 Thessalonians 5,15-22 how complete sanctification looks like. Always pursue what is good. Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in everything. There is no exception on God’s side, but I always try to make exceptions on my side. I don’t rejoice always. I don’t pray without ceasing. I don’t give thanks in everything and I don’t always pursue what is good. And to be honest very often I’m okay with not to pray without ceasing or not to always do good.
And I had to ask myself:
- Do I really want more of Jesus?
- Do I really want to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Do I want more of God in my life?
- Do I really strive for holiness, sanctification and complete surrender?
- How close do I actually want my relationship with God to be like? Very close or only superficial?
Very often I’m pleased with a superficial relationship with God, but God isn’t. God wants children who really want a close relationship with Him just like David. In Psalm 63 we can read how much David desired to have a close relationship with God. David was in the desert, because he was persecuted by Saul. He was running for his life. David was seeking God in a land and in circumstances where most people would have questioned the existence of God. There were no fountains of living water in this desert. David was looking for God to see His power and His glory. He praised God, although God had put him into devastating circumstances. For David the lovingkindness of God was better than his own life. Instead of worrying in his bed, He was meditating on God. David was thinking about God instead of his circumstances. He didn’t remember Saul, but rather God. David trusted God that He would fulfil His promise and make him a king. He refers to himself in Verse 11 in this Psalm as the king although Saul was still the king of Israel. David knew that his time for becoming the king would come. He rejoiced in God, because He trusted God. He wanted more of God’s presence in his life. He wanted a closer communion and relationship with God.
The sons of Korah say in Psalm 42,1-2 that their soul thirsts for God just like a deer thirsts for the water. God wants us to have a very close relationship with Him. His goal for us is perfection in everything. He wants a perfect relationship with us. God wants us to pray more, to rejoice more and to pursue more what is good. We have to give thanks in everything, because this is the will of God. It’s about obedience. We have to obey the will of God, so that we do not quench the Spirit. But the question is whether we really want more of God, because more of God means automatically less of ourselves. God wants to be everything in our lives. His goal for us is absolute surrender and perfect holiness, but very often this is not our goal. Since we are very often still living according to our old nature, we continue to sin and fail to reach God’s goal.
According to human wisdom, it’s very stupid to define goals that cannot be reached. Goals should always be reachable. People will be very disappointed and disillusioned when they try to reach a goal that they cannot reach. It’s very demotivating to define a goal for somebody that he cannot achieve. So then why does God define a goal for us, although He knows that we cannot reach it? Why does God want us to be perfect, although He knows that we will never be perfect? Because Jesus was perfect and because Jesus already reached this goal for us and because God’s goal is our perfect eternity with Him and not our perfect life here on earth. We should live with an eternal perspective and not with an earthly perspective. In heaven there will be no sin or failure. When Jesus will come or when we go to Him we will be blameless, because He who called us is faithful and He will ensure that we reach heaven. As long as we only have earthly goals, we cannot reach God’s goal of perfect holiness. We need an eternal perspective. We need eternal goals. We need to live for eternity and not only focus on this life. God wants us to be prepared for the coming of Jesus. It costs a lot to strive for a closer relationship with God. The costs of obedience can be very high. It can mean hiding in a desert like David. There are always at some point in life pain and suffering involved in our growing relationship with God. If we really want to know God’s heart, we need to be free of ourselves and that is often a very painful process. Paul said that he wanted to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Phl. 3,10). Before we can experience the power of the resurrection, we must first experience some form of death. There is no resurrection without death. There needs to be death to ourselves, so that there can be the resurrection of God’s power in our hearts. There needs to be suffering before there can be healing. There needs to be emptiness before there can be a filling with the Holy Spirit. And this should be our goal. It should be our goal to have a perfect relationship with God.
Philippians 3,12-14: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.