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![]() They would therefore conclude that in the Thessalonian church there was some abuse, and that this indeed is Paul’s way to try to straighten that out.Īll of the commentators who hold that view would connect it with 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, and suggest that the Thessalonians were not understanding the truths of 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, where you have great detail outlining the abuses of charismatic gifts in the Corinthian church. Particularly, then, in verse 20, “Do not despise the prophesyings which come by the Holy Spirit,” and then in verse 21 and 22 they would interpret it as saying, “No matter what is said, you need to examine it, and if it’s good, hold to it and if it’s evil, abstain from it.”Īnd so they would wrap this whole passage around the charismatic gifts, the gifts of prophesying that occur in the church, or word of knowledge, word of wisdom perhaps, or even the speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. Those who hold the view that he is here talking about these charismatic gifts would say that when he says, “Do not quench the Spirit,” he means do not stifle the exercise of certain charismatic gifts in the assembly of the church. That it is a reference to some abuses that were going on in the Thessalonian church with regard to charismatic gifts, and that when Paul says “do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances but examine everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil,” he is really offering a corrective, because they were abusing charismatic gifts. Let me first of all say that there are some commentators – in fact, a quite a large number of them – who have felt that verse 19 is really connected to the next three verses. This is very direct, not difficult, really, to interpret, but needs careful understanding if we are to apply it, living in the time in which we live. Now we come to command number four, do not quench the Spirit. ![]() We’ve already discussed rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, three commands which are the will of God in Christ Jesus. We come to command number four in verse 19. Starting in verse 16, some commands with regard to our own spiritual relationship to the Lord. And now he’s talking about how the people or the sheep are to be related to the Great Shepherd, the Lord Himself. Then he talked about how the people are to be related to each other. ![]() He’s been talking about growing a healthy flock, and using the flock metaphor, we have noted that he was teaching about how the sheep are to be related to their shepherds, how the shepherds are to be related to their sheep that is, pastors and people. The church is only a few months old none of the believers there is older than that, and so they are in need of a reminder and a summarization of the basic elements of Christian living.Īll of this, you’ll remember, is in a context here in the closing part of the epistle, where Paul is talking about how the Christians in the church are to be related to the Lord. And also, we need to remember that this is a congregation of relatively new believers. If it seems that these commands, beginning in verse 16 and flowing down through verse 22, are rather simple, and even somewhat simplistic, we need to remember that while being simple on the one hand, they are profound on the other. Rapid-fire, he gives some very basic elements of Christian living in command form to the very young Christians in Thessalonica. ![]() We are studying these staccato commands of the apostle Paul as he concludes this epistle, as he draws it to a conclusion. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and we find ourselves at verse 19.
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