{"id":443,"date":"2026-09-06T21:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=443"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:15:59","slug":"wholly-holy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/06\/wholly-holy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wholly Holy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd the very God of peace sanctify you wholly\u201d<\/em> (1 Thessalonians 5:23a, NKJV).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In New Testament language, sanctify is identical to \u201cmake holy.\u201d So, Paul prayed for the Christians at Thessalonica to be wholly holy!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some Christians may not understand that they are holy at all. Being painfully aware of their sins, they may even deny being in any way holy. But holiness is not sinless perfection! Making sinners holy involves two basic things. First, we are cleansed from our sins in the blood of Christ. At that point, we are set apart from the world as the Lord adds us to His church (Acts 2:47). Cleansed and set apart \u2013 that\u2019s being made holy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just as we urge a child we have just bathed to stay out of the mud puddle, so God wants us to stay clean in our behavior. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 exhorts, \u201cAbstain from every form of evil.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul continued to pray that the Thessalonians\u2019 \u201cwhole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming day of our Lord Jesus Christ\u201d<\/em> (v. 23b). Paul\u2019s purpose was not to make hair-splitting distinctions between spirit and soul. Rather, he used all three terms (spirit, soul, body) to refer to the entire person, in the same way that \u201clock, stock, and barrel\u201d refers to the entire rifle. Paul wanted every aspect of their entire person (and ours) to be holy! Then, when we stand before the throne of God to be judged, we will be like those in Revelation 7:14 who had \u201cwashed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Initially, we are made holy at baptism. But holiness is an ongoing process. We are to \u201ccleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 7:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Are you wholly holy?<\/span><\/p>\n

–Joe Slater<\/span><\/p>\n

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\r \t\t\r \t\t\"\"<\/a>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\tSend article as PDF<\/span>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\t\r \t\t\r \t<\/form>\r <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd the very God of peace sanctify you wholly\u201d (1 Thessalonians 5:23a, NKJV). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In New Testament language, sanctify is identical to \u201cmake holy.\u201d So, Paul prayed for the Christians at Thessalonica to be wholly holy! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some Christians may not understand that they…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Wholly Holy<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}