What Does 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Mean?
And may the God of wholeness himself set you apart through and through, and may your whole breath, living soul, and body be kept blameless until the presence of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The “peace” here is wholeness, and that wholeness reaches breath, living soul, and body together.
THE MEANING
The God of wholeness is setting you apart through and through, and your breath, living soul, and body are all within God’s keeping, held blameless. This speaks to you now and extends toward the coming of the Lord Jesus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that God’s care concerns only an invisible inner self; the verse names breath, living soul, and body together as what is set apart and kept.
THE ROOT
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
εἰρην-
eirēn-
Wholeness; peace
“God of wholeness” in this verse is eirēnē. The word translated “peace” carries the sense of wholeness, and its Greek family includes both being at peace and making peace. That makes the “God of peace” the source of an active wholeness that sets apart and keeps the entire person.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: Be at peace; live peaceably
εἰρηνεύω
This branch shows wholeness as a condition a person can inhabit.
eirēnopoieō: Make peace
εἰρηνοποιέω
This branch shows wholeness as something God brings about.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
Breathe; blow
The word rendered “spirit” is πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath, spirit, or wind), from πνέω (pneō, breathe or blow). Its root holds breath and spirit together, so the wholeness in this verse reaches living breath alongside the living soul and body.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Breathe; blow
πνέω
This verb is the source of the breath and wind sense carried by the word in the verse.
pnoē: Breath; blast of wind
πνοή
This related noun makes the root’s breath meaning explicit.
τηρηθείη
tērētheiē
GROWS FROM
τηρε-
tēre-
Keep watch over; guard
“kept” in this verse is tērētheiē. The verb translated “preserved” comes from τηρέω (tēreō, keep or guard), a word family of watching and maintaining. Its compounds keep that guarding action, opening preservation here as a life held in care through the stated horizon.
ALSO GROWS
syntēreō: Preserve; keep safe
συντηρέω
This compound carries the same guarding action into the sense of keeping something safe.
diatēreō: Keep continually; preserve
διατηρέω
This compound emphasizes continued keeping, echoing the verse’s horizon of preservation.
THE PATTERN
God’s keeping reaches across a person’s life and carries them toward a blameless appearing.
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul. The LORD watches over your going out and your coming in, from now and to the ages.Who will also make you firm until the end, unaccused in the day of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.Now to him who is able to guard you from stumbling, and to make you stand unstained before the face of his weight in leaping joy,THE THREAD
And now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Set-Apart Father, keep them in your own nature, those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are.The verb rendered “preserved” here comes from τηρέω (tēreō, keep or guard), the same verb Jesus uses when he asks the Father to “keep” his people. His request to keep them through God’s name, as God’s nature, opens preservation as belonging within what God is, all the way to the coming named in this verse.
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