Here we have these three benedictions where he mentions the God of peace. Did you catch the consistent theme? They all deal with spiritual maturity or completion. They have elements of doing right or doing good, doing noble things. Here in I Thessalonians, he mentions the word outright—sanctify. So he is talking about sanctification.
They are all part of the same process of growth. And he includes the concept of God giving us peace so that we can do these things. We have a guarantee, you can say, that if we are engaged in the process we are living at peace. Our minds and our actions are noble and good and worthy. We are doing godly things as often as possible, living godly lives, and seeking sanctification or seeking holiness.
In Hebrews it is pursuing holiness. If we do those things, the God of peace will be with you. That is comforting, is it not?
Now let us take an even wider view of these benedictions. They describe a condition of unity with God. Oneness, wholeness. We have peace with God on a few different levels. We are actively behaving or growing, living in holiness in unison with Him. We are pursuing the same goal.
Like the image that we see in the peace offering under the covenant, we can say that we at that point are in intimate fellowship with God and our High Priest. And the relationship is free from any corrosive conflict or any cross purposes. We are all going the same way. We are all doing the same thing.
And this condition, if we are walking with God, produces the third kind of peace: contentment and satisfaction that, with God, we are whole. We are complete and headed for eternal life in His Kingdom. We have an internal peace knowing that we are loved. We are provided for, we are protected, and we are guided by the sovereign God of the universe.
