The commentator

Rev. Arthur James Mason M.A., D.D., (1851 – 1928) was an English clergyman, theologian and classical scholar. He was Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. (Wikipedia)

The commentary

An excerpt from THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS, in Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23 NKJV).

Spirit and soul and body.—This is St. Paul’s fullest and most scientific psychology, not merely a rhetorical piling up of words without any particular meaning being assigned to them. Elsewhere, he merely divides man according to popular language, into two parts, visible and invisible, “body and spirit” (1Corinthians 6:20; 1Corinthians 7:34, et al.); the division into “body and soul” he never uses. (Comp. Note on 1Corinthians 2:14.) The “spirit” (pneuma) is the part by which we apprehend realities intuitively—i.e., without reasoning upon them; with it we touch, see, serve, worship God (John 4:23-24; Romans 1:9; 1Corinthians 6:17; Revelation 1:10, et al.); it is the very inmost consciousness of the man (see, e.g., 1Corinthians 2:11); it is the part of him which survives death (Hebrews 12:23; 1Peter 3:19; comp. Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59). The “soul.” (psyche) includes the intellect, the affections, and the will: and it is of the very essence of the gospel to force sharply upon men the distinction between it and the spirit (Hebrews 4:12). Low-living men may have soul (i.e., intellect, affection, will) in abundance, but their spirit falls into complete abeyance (Jude 1:19); the soul belongs altogether to the lower nature, so that when St. Paul uses the two-fold division, “body and spirit,” the soul is reckoned (not, probably, as Bishop Ellicott says on our present passage, as part of the spirit, but) as part of the body; and when St. Paul describes the “works of the flesh,” he includes among them such distinctly soul-sins as “heresies” (Galatians 5:20). Sanctification preserves all these three divisions entire, and in their due relation to each other…”

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Endorsement by author Hebert Lockyer: “No pastor’s study should be without this set of beneficial expositions. We have no hesitation in affirming that Seminaries, Bible Institutes and Christian Colleges adding Ellicott’s Commentary on the Whole Bible to their library will prove it to be the most sought after work of its kind. Students for the ministry will not be long in discovering the rich mine of truth its pages contain.” (1954)

The full commentary is available online at
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/ebc/1-thessalonians.html