"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

December 30, 2025

Dear friends,

Here at year's end, on the eve (of the eve) of a new year, I'm reading these words from the Apostle Paul to the young believers at Thessalonica, as they were anticipating the return of Christ.

Some among them, however, were idle and unproductive in their spiritual growth, and Paul is prodding them to revive their desire for sanctification: "...we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more." (4:1)

"More and more," he says. And then again, "...you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more..." (4:9-10) Again, more and more. There's always room for improvement in the category of Christian love. We should aim for completeness.

For those of us who have walked with the Lord for many years there's a temptation to rest on a plateau, to wind things down, to drop out of the race. One of my favorite seminary professors, Howard Hendricks, would often warn us that the Christian life was a marathon, not a sprint. Too many were reaching for the bench, he said, when they were supposed to still be on the track. "You never graduate from the school of discipleship," he said.

Even when we are old and gray, even if we are confined to bed or wheelchair, we can still be unrestrained in spirit, so says the Psalmist: "But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more." (Psalm 71:14) We aim for completeness.

Waiting for the Lord to return doesn't mean doing nothing. It doesn't mean sitting on our hands. Every moment is an investment for eternity. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.” (Mere Christianity)

The battle is not over until the last enemy is vanquished. The race is not over until we cross the finish line. The work is not complete until it’s finished.

The great encouragement of this passage is that Paul says God is faithful to finish the work. The God of peace himself will do it. He will sanctify us completely. He will make our whole spirit and soul and body blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will do it. He will surely do it. Read that again and emphasize each word.

So, as we finish one year and begin another, let's not panic or slack off or give up or give in or give over. Let's trust God to finish the work.

IN OTHER NEWS

-- What Secretariat taught me about "more and more".

-- What I'm currently reading: Present Concerns, by C. S. Lewis; The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, by Robert Saucy; and The Dawn of World Redemption, by Erich Sauer. Group Bible studies I'm working on: Romans (completed), Galatians (ongoing), and the Attributes of God (beginning in January).

-- Please consider making a year-end donation in support of the Bradley Study Center, a Christian ministry to Virginia Tech students and faculty. Read about our new director: Dr. Tim Johnson.

-- Music I'm currently thinking about, namely, the best song of AD 1960s / 10th cent BC.

FINAL QUOTE.

"Neither should it be ten parts for the world and ninety parts for God. In the full one hundred parts of everything God is to be worshipped. Jesus emphatically declares: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength, with all thy soul and with all thy mind." (Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God)

That's it for this week, uh, this year. Happy 2026!

Sandy

Afterwords is an occasional newsletter on topics of interest to me (Sandy Young) since my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.