1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
The commands in these short verses are clear and easy to remember. They are also timeless and timely; timeless, because every generation of God’s people always had deceivers eager to lead them astray, and timely, because these last days are peculiarly days of deception. Our eternal destiny depends on how we respond to the saving and sanctifying acts of the Holy Spirit, how we understand and receive the truth of God’s inspired Scripture, how we keep ourselves from soul-destroying error and hold to God’s eternal and life-transforming truth. For the sake of our own eternal welfare, these commands are most important to learn and keep: 1. “Quench not the Spirit”; 2. “Despise not prophesyings”; 3. “Prove all things”; 4. “Hold fast that which is good”; 5. “Abstain from all evil”; 6. “Abstain from all appearance of evil”. Who can be saved and keep saved without observing these injunctions of the Lord? Who can walk with God in the narrow way that leads to heaven while carelessly and deliberately neglecting these protective concerns? These precepts and principles, implicitly obeyed, are our shield from error, danger and spiritual destruction. We keep them for our good, because disobeying them will be to our loss, eternal loss.
1. The Plea For Dedication To The Spirit’s Ministry
1 Thessalonians 5:19; Nehemiah 9:20,29,30; Isaiah 63:10-14; John 16:12-14; Titus 3:4-7; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15; Ephesians 4:30-32; Acts 1:4-8; Ephesians 5:15-18; 1 Corinthians 2:1-13.
To quench the Spirit is to kill the Church. To silence the Spirit or extinguish the fire of the Spirit, to put off the light of the Spirit’s revelation, to stop the activities and operations of the Spirit, to limit or stifle the ministry of the Spirit is to take away the life of the Church. The peril of quenching the Spirit in a believer, in a Christian or in the Church is incalculable and indescribable. Quenching the Spirit and living only by the strength or science of the natural man takes spirituality, new life, power, vision, guidance, supernatural acts, revelations, from the Church. “As the body without the spirit is dead”, so the church without the Holy Spirit is dead and lifeless. A church that quenches the Spirit becomes like the Israel of old when they disregarded the Holy Spirit (Nehemiah 9:20,29,30; Isaiah 63:10-14; Zechariah 7:12-14; Acts 7:51-53). So-called believers who “quench the Spirit” in their lives become carnal, empty, sensual and ineffective (Ephesians 4:30,31; Romans 8:5-9; Jude 19; Hebrews 10:29). The Church cannot remain alive or grow without the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. The early Church was the lively Body of Christ and fulfilled the divine purpose, because she was born, indwelt, quickened, sanctified, baptised, empowered, anointed, sent forth, renewed, revived and preserved by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2,5,8; 2:4,33,38,39; 4:31-33; 5:32; 6:3-5, 8-10; 7:55,56; 8:29,39; 9:17,31; 10:19,20,44-48; 11:22-24; 13:2-4; 15:8,9; 16:6,7; 19:2-6; 20:28; 21:4,11-14; 28:25-31). If the early Church had quenched the Spirit, they would not have been able to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). They could only fulfil the purpose of God and evangelise their generation, because they did not quench the Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit operates freely without restriction or limitation in the church, He convicts and converts sinners, restores and renews backsliders, delivers and frees us from slavery to habitual sins, purifies and sanctifies believers, empowers and strengthens believers, interpretes, illuminates the Word of God, guides us into all truth, reproduces the life and ministry of Christ in believers and ministers, sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, gives us passion for the lost, seeks to save sinners at all cost, makes us watchful and prepares us to always be in a state of readiness for the coming of the Lord. “Quench not the Spirit.”
2. The Peril Of Despising The Spirit’s Message
1 Thessalonians 5:20; 2 Chronicles 36:15,16; Proverbs 1:24-33; Isaiah 5:24,25; 30:8-13; Jeremiah 7:23-28; 26:12-15; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Revelation 22:18-21.
“Despise not prophesyings.” Some Christians misinterprete or misunderstand the word ‘prophecy’ or ‘prophesying’. Others misplace or misapply the word ‘prophesying’, as they impose their preconceived ideas on the biblical meaning. Even in the Old Testament, prophesying was always speaking or proclaiming God’s message, revealed supernaturally in agreement with God’s written Word. Any so-called prophecy that contradicted God’s written Word was always rejected as false (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Jeremiah 23:21-32). The prophets were sent to preach and proclaim, interpret and apply God’s Word to God’s people so as to bring them back to obedience and submission to God. “Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: …saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I HAVE COMMANDED you, that it may be well unto you” (Jeremiah 7:25, 23).
“Despise not prophesyings.” Despise not the faithful authoritative proclamation of God’s infallible Word, because that is the means of our conversion, sanctification, growth, usefulness and glorification. God’s infallible Word is the only source of eternal life in Christ and the only perfectly reliable source of guidance to eternal glory.
3. The Pattern Of Discerning Spiritual Ministration
1 Thessalonians 5:21; Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11,12; Ephesians 5:10,17; 1 John 4:1-6; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Psalm 119:89, 105, 130; Mark 7:7-9; 1 Timothy 6:20,21; 2 Timothy 1:13,14; Revelation 2:25; 3:3,11.
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” The Lord is calling us to real discernment as the spirit of error and falsehood is operating in the world and in the church of the last days. Prove all things, test and examine all revelations, messages, doctrines, prophetic utterances, visions, dreams, counsels, exhortations, pronouncements and declarations. To check up if a line is crooked or straight, we place a standard ruler beside it. To check up if a spiritual ministration, a prophetic utterance or a ‘new’ message is of God, we carefully compare it with God’s standard, infallible Word. “Prove all things” or examine everything. We must not just accept or believe anything on the authority or popularity of a ‘prophet’ or ‘man of God’. Examine all things by God’s infallible Word and “hold fast that which is good.” God’s Word is good enough to give us all we need to prepare us for heaven. Embracing God’s Word wholeheartedly, we shall never go astray.
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