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ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION Å UNBLAMEABLE
HOLINESS
15
IN
favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen
instead of Vashti (Esther 2:12-17).
`She required NOTHING but what ` was ` appointed'; `She obtained grace and favour MORE THAN all the virgins';
`Accepted in the Beloved'; `A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing'.
Entire Sanctification - Unblameable in Holiness.
Having already reviewed the terms which the Lord has used in making known what is involved in our
acceptance in the Beloved, we now take a wider view and examine parallel passages and other words which will
expand our vision still further, and confirm more deeply the utterly irreproachable condition of the redeemed by
grace.
Let us take the word amemptos `blameless', which is found in five different passages in the New Testament.
Memphomai, which gives us this word, means `to find fault, to complain, to blame'. Momphe is a fault or a
complaint. It will help us to understand the faultlessness that attaches to the believer, if we acquaint ourselves first
of all with the use of these positive forms of the word. The first occurrence of memphomai is in Mark 7:2, where,
when the Pharisees saw some of the disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, unwashed hands, `they found
fault'. This attitude of the Pharisees is exposed as worthless by the Lord (Mark 7:6-13). A more serious use of the
word is found in Hebrews, for it is God Himself Who finds fault.
` For if that first covenant had been faultless (amemptos) then should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold ` I will make a new covenant' Heb. 8:7,8).
The one other occurrence of memphomai is in Romans 9:19 where we read `Why doth He yet find fault?'
Momphe occurs but once, namely in Colossians 3:13, where it is translated `quarrel'. Memphimoiros occurs but
once, Jude 16, where in company with murmurers and self seekers it is translated `complainers'.
We now return to where `blameless' refers to the child of God, and although amemptos occurs elsewhere, we
confine ourselves to the first epistle to the Thessalonians, where both the adjective and the adverb are used of the
believer. First of all there is the prayer of 1 Thessalonians 3:12,13 :
` And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do
toward you: to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints'.
`Unblameable in holiness', what a thought! Holiness itself is not in question, a saint is a saint first of all by
grace. He may however turn out to be very unsaintly in some of his actions, and it is this aspect of the matter that
concerned the apostle. A similar thought is to he seen in Philippians 2:15. The apostle does not for one moment
question the filial relationship of the Philippians. They were undoubtedly and irrevocably `sons of God', but what he
was concerned about was that they should be `blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke'. So, he told
the Thessalonians, increasing and abounding love and established hearts were the necessary concomitants of
unblameable, undeniable holiness.
Referring to his own conduct among them the apostle wrote :
` Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you'
(1 Thess. 2:10).
Here again intrinsic holiness is not in mind, it is behaviour that occupies the attention `how holily ` we behaved'.
This brings us to 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
` And the very God of peace sanctify you entirely: and may your whole person, spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ'.
The word translated `wholly' and which we have rendered `entirely' is holokleros, which is found in James 1:4 in
conjunction with the word perfect, and there translated `entire'. In Acts 3:16 holokleria is translated `perfect
soundness', as over against the `unsoundness' of Isaiah 1:6 `wounds and bruises and putrifying sores'. Josephus uses