See that no one render to any evil for evil, but pursue always what is good towards one another and towards all;
This letter closes with a rule for a young church facing real hostility from the people around it. The verse asks two things at once. No one is to pay back a wrong. Everyone is to chase after good — inside the church and outside it.
The first half of the verse closes a door that is always open. The command is given to the whole church, and one writer shows what refusing revenge still leaves room for:
Revenge refused. We are to see that no one pays back evil for evil. There is the ever-present danger of answering the flesh with the flesh. We may have to stay silent when someone is spiteful, and even keep away from the one who acts that way (2 Timothy 4:14-15), but in any case we are not to pay back evil for evil.
Paying a wrong back costs the person who does it. The test gets harder when the wrong comes from a fellow believer:
The Thessalonians did suffer evil from the world around, but like their Master, they were not to return it. We need this as a constant reminder, because the flesh resents unfair treatment far too quickly. But to return evil for evil only makes me the same as my persecutor and untrue to my Christian character. We may find it even more of a test if a child of God treats us badly, but of course the same applies. He must answer for his conduct, no doubt, but I must answer for mine. To have the heart set on good is the real safeguard here.
One writer sorts every possible response into three, and ranks them:
To pay back evil for evil is brutish. To pay back evil for good is devilish. To pay back good for evil is Christian.
The standard here is not what a court would award. It is what God Himself is like:
Grace is the mark of the gospel. It is the spring in God Himself, as shown in Christ, and He wants the same in His children. Not human justice, which takes the side of the just against the unjust, but unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them. So He would have us not overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good. Such is Christianity in practice, above heathenism and Judaism alike.
The verse does not stop at what to refuse. The second half gives something to chase, and to keep chasing:
Good to be pursued. While we avoid the evil, we are to "always seek to do good to one another and to everyone." The flesh loves to be busy with evil. These commands warn us not to be careless about evil, and even to deal with it when we must. Still, what we are to pursue is the good.
The good reaches everyone, not only fellow believers. One writer describes what people saved by Christ are now sent into the world to be:
People who have been led to find a Saviour in Jesus know the ransom of their souls by His blood. In Him, risen and glorified, they have received the free gifts of righteousness and eternal life. God makes them His ministers of love, of mercy, and of grace to a rebellious world... This is the highest honour put upon those who belong to Christ.
The command sits next to instructions about warning those who are out of line and helping the weak. All of it runs on one power source:
Giving up self-will, and a real sense of God at work and present with us, brings power. That power lets us warn those who are out of line, comfort the fearful, help the weak, and be patient with everyone... In no case were they to pay back evil for evil, but to follow what was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
- Pressure. The Thessalonians were suffering real evil. The command assumes provocation, not a quiet life.
- Refusal. Paying evil back makes you the same as the one who wronged you — you answer for your conduct, he answers for his.
- Grace. The standard is not fair justice. It is God's own grace — unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them.
- Pursuit. Refusing evil is only half of it. The good is something to chase, not just to admire.
- Reach. The good goes to fellow believers and to everyone else. God makes His people ministers of love and mercy to a rebellious world. The power comes from walking with Him.
rejoice always;
The letter ends with a run of short commands. The first asks for joy that never stops. Where does a believer find a supply of joy that lasts?
Joy, prayer and thanksgiving stand side by side here. One writer treats all three as ordinary Christian life, not rare heights, and then asks the reader how much of it he really knows.
In these verses we have the normal state of the Christian: perpetual joy, perpetual prayer, and perpetual thanksgiving. What do we know of perpetual joy, of a joy that never wanes? If these three things marked us more, what a different people we should be!
A command needs a source. The same writer notes the order — joy before prayer — and points to Paul in prison and to the way the Lord Himself lived.
In the order in Thessalonians, joy comes before prayer. So where does true Christian joy come from? The joy of the Lord is our strength — how do we keep it up? Paul had this joy in prison, and he told the Philippians to rejoice always. We find it only where the Lord Himself found it. He found it through obedience, and as we obey we shall prove it too… Only conscious communion with the Lord can keep a person happy. If you meditate on the Lord, even through a heavy day's work, you will find joy.
The command does not ask believers to pretend that sorrow is not real. One writer puts the deepest grief and unbroken joy side by side in the same Person.
The world is full of sorrow. In such a world the Lord was the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Yet His joy in the Father, and in the prospect before Him, was unbroken. So in the darkest hour of His rejection we read that He "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). In the same way the believer is called to "rejoice always."
(Older translations render Luke 10:21 "Jesus rejoiced in spirit.")
Why should this joy last? One writer asks what has changed since Christ went to heaven. He also warns that a gloomy believer gives a false picture of God.
Nor should the Christian give a bad impression of his God and Father, or of the portion he already has in His grace, any more than of his prospects. With what joy the disciples came back even as their Master was leaving for heaven! And the Holy Spirit came in due time to make the joy unfailing (John 4:14). What has happened since to dry up the spring? "Rejoice always."
This is not advanced ground for mature Christians only. The first readers had believed only a short time before, and they still get the whole call.
Even the Thessalonians, young believers as they were, get this call: rejoice always. And the call goes further — not only pray without ceasing, but in everything give thanks, for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them.
The three commands are not separate items on a list. One writer sees them feeding each other.
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." These three are more closely linked than our souls usually admit. Joy will always rise in proportion to prayer and thanksgiving.
There is a public side to this. Good news carried by miserable messengers argues against itself. The world watches and draws its own conclusion.
Rejoice at the news: glad tidings and sad hearts do not go well together. When we see someone heavy and sorrowful, we ask what bad news he has heard. Christian, what bad news has Christ brought from heaven with Him, that makes you walk about with folded arms and a gloomy face?… Christians, let the world see that you are no losers in your joy since you came to know the gospel. Do not let your unhappy walk make them think that becoming a Christian means saying goodbye to all joy.
- Source. We find joy only where the Lord Himself found it — in obedience and conscious communion with Him.
- Pattern. The Man of sorrows kept unbroken joy in the Father, even in the darkest hour of His rejection. The same call comes to every believer.
- Supply. The Spirit came to make the joy unfailing, and nothing since has dried up that spring.
- Company. Joy, prayer and thanksgiving belong together. Joy rises in proportion to the other two.
- Witness. Glad tidings and sad hearts do not match. A gloomy believer tells the world that faith means the end of joy.
pray unceasingly;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
in everything give thanks, for this is [the] will of God in Christ Jesus towards you;
This short command sits inside a run of three: rejoice, pray, give thanks. Together they describe how a believer is to meet whatever life brings. The last of the three comes with a reason that leaves no room for argument.
One writer takes verses 16–18 as a set. They are not heroic extras, but everyday Christian living.
In these verses we have the normal state of the Christian — perpetual joy, perpetual prayer, and perpetual thanksgiving. What do we know of perpetual joy, of a joy that never fades? If we were marked more by these three things, what a different people we should be!
William Kelly sees thanksgiving here as a counterweight to what comes naturally when life goes wrong.
A settled spirit of thanksgiving is the exact opposite of what comes naturally. By nature we complain about every kind of suffering, frustration and disappointment. So the apostle backs this call with a reason: "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Without that reason, as the church declined, people would soon have dismissed such thanksgiving as light-hearted and arrogant.
Writers stress the small preposition. Edward Dennett draws the line, then turns the duty into something warmer:
It is not, as the reader will notice, for everything, but in everything, give thanks. Almost every Christian would admit this. It is not so much a duty as a privilege: to give thanks to God in all their circumstances and trials. They may be going through deep sorrow or severe suffering. Yet if they see it in the presence of God, they will find plenty of reason for praise.
The distinction protects the verse from becoming absurd. Leslie Grant marks the one limit:
Of course we cannot give thanks for what is sinful. But whatever comes, evil or good, this thankful spirit is to be ours.
Christian living leaves many things to our own judgment. Scripture names this one outright as God's will, and Grant turns it into a test of sincerity.
This matters because it is "the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." If we are honest when we say we want the will of God, then here it is. No excuse will do for a failure to give thanks.
H. J. Vine sets this beside two other places where Scripture names God's will. Thanksgiving lands in the same class as holiness and eternal life:
Scripture says three things about God's will. First: "this is the will of God, your sanctification." Second: it is His will that we "should have eternal life," and be raised up on the last day, as we have seen. Third: "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus" for us — "give thanks in all circumstances."
The command is not obeyed by staring harder at the trouble. J. N. Darby uses Paul's thorn to show where the eye must move:
How is this to be done? Did Paul give thanks for the thorn — the very thing he thought would hinder his usefulness? Not while looking at the thing itself. It was only when his eye was fixed on the heart and the hand that had done it. There are many things we cannot give thanks for in themselves. Losing the person closest to our heart, or watching what we love be torn to pieces — we cannot thank God for the thing itself. We must see the love that has ordered it, and the hand that has appointed it; and then we can give thanks.
G. V. Wigram shows the failure from the other side, in Job's collapse when he lost everything:
He was taken up with circumstances, not with the God of circumstances. So when God touched his circumstances, he turned to cursing.
Christ Himself gave the pattern. H. A. Ironside points to the hour when He had the least natural reason to:
"At that time" — note it well. At that time, when everything was darkest and He had unspeakable anguish ahead of Him, "Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" and said, "I thank you, Father."
The opposite habit is no small thing. J. T. Mawson names what murmuring says about God:
Don't murmur, Christian, for it is a most unchristian, a most ungodly thing to do. Nothing dishonours God more, nothing does greater damage to the soul. It was the chief sin of all the sins that Israel committed in the wilderness, for it meant that they did not believe their God was fit to be trusted.
- In, not for. Give thanks in every circumstance, never for what is sinful. The setting changes; the thanksgiving does not.
- Willed, not suggested. Scripture names this as God's will, beside sanctification and eternal life. That removes every excuse.
- Look past the thing. Thanks becomes possible when the eye leaves the trouble and rests on the love that ordered it.
- Job's warning. A heart taken up with circumstances, not with the God of circumstances, breaks when they break.
- Christ's pattern. At His darkest hour He thanked the Father — the alternative, murmuring, says God is not fit to be trusted.
quench not the Spirit;
Paul closes his letter with a string of short commands. This one is about how believers treat the Spirit's work — not only in their own hearts, but in each other.
To quench something is to put out its fire. Commentators point back to Pentecost, when tongues of fire rested on the first believers.
The thought of quenching the Spirit pictures the Spirit as fire. We cannot help thinking of Pentecost, with its divided tongues of fire. That was the display in each person of the heavenly power that had come among men... Here in fact is one form of quenching the Spirit. Each one should serve another with the gift he has received (1 Peter 4:10). Instead, what the Spirit has given is ignored. The ministry that love urges is held back, and the Church suffers.
One writer draws a line between this verse and the warning in Ephesians about grieving the Spirit.
It is not at all the same as grieving the Spirit. Ephesians warns us about that. Grieving Him is a personal question. Quenching Him is just as plainly about others — mainly, I suppose, in public action, or at least in the use of their gifts. I am not to hinder another. I am not to raise difficulties about how the Holy Spirit shows Himself in any brother. It may be a great work or a very small one. That is not the question at all. The question is: is it of the Spirit? The Holy Spirit is present and at work in the Church in all sorts of ways. Respect for that would keep the greatest from quenching the Spirit in the least.
Scripture speaks of resisting, grieving, and quenching the Spirit. This verse is often preached as a warning to someone resisting conviction about sin. One writer, who had preached it that way himself, later concluded the text means something else.
Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit may be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). That makes what we do in the assembly a very solemn thing. The command "Do not quench the Spirit" is very often pressed on unbelievers. It warns them not to trifle with the convictions the Spirit works in their souls. I have preached from it many times in that sense. But however true that warning may be, it is not really the mind of God in this text... These words are not addressed to unbelievers but to the Church. They come with another command: "Do not despise prophecies." That shows the Spirit's working in ministry is what is in view.
The next verses tie the command to what happens when Christians meet.
"Do not quench the Spirit" is a command not to hinder His action through the prophets or others when the saints gather. The next verse or two shows this. The Spirit who lives in the Church claims the right to order its gatherings. Men must not interfere with His voice or quench it, whatever excuse they give. Most of Christendom ignores this command. There, people have brought in organizations and set forms of service to place everything under the control of one man or a few men.
Freedom for the Spirit does not mean accepting every claim. The same passage tells believers to weigh what they hear.
Both commands assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. Not even the least member of Christ may hinder His general movement there. Nor may anyone despise the highest form of dealing with souls — prophesying. On the other hand, no one should impose on the saints with high or exclusive claims. The truly spiritual never need such claims and would find them repulsive. The saints were to prove all things, hold fast what is good, and keep away from every form of evil.
Commentators differ on how far the command reaches. Most tie it to the gathered assembly. Others say a believer can smother the Spirit's prompting on his own.
To quench the Spirit is to refuse to follow His leading. It is also to refuse what the Spirit may give through others. Take the apostle Paul. If he had refused the Spirit's urging to preach the gospel among the Gentiles, he would have quenched the Spirit, and most of the book of Acts would never have been written. Here is another case. The Spirit of God may urge a believer to meet the material needs of a poor believer, or even of an unbeliever, and he does not do it. Then the Spirit is quenched.
- Fire. The picture is a flame put out. It recalls the tongues of fire at Pentecost. You quench the Spirit when you put out what He lights.
- Others. Grieving the Spirit is about your own walk. Quenching Him is about His work through someone else, however small the gift.
- Believers. Paul writes this to the Church, not to unbelievers. Reading it as a warning against resisting conviction misses the point.
- Freedom. Rules, fixed forms, and control by one man or a few silence the voice the Spirit claims the right to use.
- Discernment. Keeping the Spirit free is not blind trust. Prove everything, keep the good, refuse every form of evil.
do not lightly esteem prophecies;
This letter closes with quick, short commands, and this one stands right beside "Do not quench the Spirit." That placement raises three questions: what is prophecy here, why would anyone think little of it, and what does honouring it look like?
Verses 19 and 20 are not two separate topics. The second command tells you what the first one means.
The call here is not the personal one of Ephesians 4, "do not grieve the Spirit." It is "Do not quench the Spirit," followed by "Do not despise prophecies," and that pairing fixes its true meaning. Both assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. There even the least member of Christ must not hinder His general movement. And no one may despise Him in His highest way of dealing with souls, which is "prophesying."
Another writer puts the same link in a picture from the schoolroom.
"Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies" (1 Thess. 5:19-20). They are coupled together; the one who despises one loses both. If the student is too proud to learn from the assistant, he is unworthy to be taught by the master.
Prediction is not the root idea. The word means speaking on God's behalf.
So what is the nature of this "prophesying"? In the strict meaning of the word, a "prophet" was "one who spoke for another." Nations outside Israel used the name for people who spoke for a god and made his will known to men. It did not have to mean predicting the future at all. There was another word for that, and the Scriptures never use it.
Its aim is to put a person face to face with God.
The truth is that prophesying is the highest kind of communication God gives through a man. It is not a question of opening up the future, but of bringing God and the soul together. We may see an instance of it in the case of the woman of Samaria. What Christ said to her clearly brought God Himself home to her conscience. She woke up at once to the conviction that the One who spoke was a prophet.
The very thing that makes prophecy valuable is what makes it unwelcome.
Prophesying may well be the ministry people are most likely to despise, because it is not teaching that appeals to man's intellect. In the assembly or anywhere else, it speaks to the heart and conscience, for edification, exhortation, or encouragement (1 Cor. 14:3). It can search a person out. Let us never think lightly of this, for it is a continual need for the intellectual, just as for all others.
Another way people despise it is by looking at the speaker rather than the message.
Part of this responsibility, and of this looking to the Head of the Church, is not to "quench the Spirit," nor to "despise prophecies." That holds when they are the simplest, and when they come from the humblest in the Church in outward standing, if God is pleased to use them.
When a gift goes unused, the whole Church pays for it.
Here in fact is one form of quenching the Spirit. Each one should minister to another according to the gift he has received (1 Peter 4:10). Instead, people ignore what the Spirit has given and hold back the ministry that love urges. So the Church suffers. She loses so much of the blessing that might be hers, and the ability to testify to the grace she has learned.
There is a personal side too. To despise here is to think lightly of something.
"Do not despise prophecies." From the Epistle to the Corinthians we know that the one who prophesies "speaks to men to edification, encouragement, and comfort" (1 Cor. 14:3). Let us beware, then, in case we lightly esteem what God may have to say to us through His servants.
The command does not ask for blind acceptance. The next verse gives the balance.
We are not to despise prophecies. We are not to receive everything that comes to us either, even if someone claims the Spirit gave it. We are to "test everything" and "hold fast what is good" (1 Thess. 5:20-21). If Scripture proves the truth we are taught, and we hold it in faith with God, we will not waver in our convictions with every wind of doctrine. But we can also lift the teacher into a false position. Then we accept what he says because he says it, without testing it by the Word. That way we are in danger of following him into distortions of the truth.
- Coupled. Verse 20 explains verse 19. To despise prophecy is one way to quench the Spirit, and whoever despises one loses both.
- Speaking for God. A prophet is "one who spoke for another." The aim is not prediction. It is to bring God and the soul together.
- Searching. This ministry speaks to the heart and conscience, not to the intellect. That is why people brush it aside.
- Whoever the vessel. Do not discount a word because the speaker is the simplest or humblest person there. God may be pleased to use him.
- Test, don't swallow. Refusing to despise is not the same as accepting everything. Test it by Scripture and hold fast what is good.
but prove all things, hold fast the right;
This short command sits in a run of quick instructions about how believers behave when they gather. Two questions follow it. What do we test by? And who has to do the testing?
This is not a rule for private life. It follows two instructions about the Spirit's freedom when believers meet:
This is not the personal call of Ephesians 4, "do not grieve." It is "do not quench the Spirit," followed by "do not despise prophecies," and that fixes its true bearing. Both assume the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. There not even the least member of Christ may hinder His general movement, or despise Him in the highest form of dealing with souls, "prophesying." On the other hand, no one may impose on the saints with high or exclusive claims. The truly spiritual never need such claims and would find them repulsive. They were to test everything, to hold fast what is good, to abstain from every form of evil.
So freedom and testing belong together. Freedom to speak does not mean the hearers accept everything said:
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said" (1 Corinthians 14:29). To refuse this when the assembly gathers is to quench the Spirit… We are not supposed to swallow what we hear. We are told to judge what everyone says, and I do not expect you to accept my words lightly… We must judge what is spoken, not in a fault-finding spirit, but so as to know what is right, and not to approve what is wrong.
Testing needs a measure, and one writer puts the whole issue into a single question:
"Test everything." By what standard? My own understanding, or God's revealed word? "Hold fast what is good."
The Spirit who teaches the teacher also helps the hearer weigh what is taught:
The Holy Spirit would Himself teach by the written word those who, when taught, are to teach others. In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps the hearers to see whether what is taught agrees with the revealed and inspired word of God. "Test everything," says the apostle, "hold fast what is good." Reject, of course, whatever is not good. Even with apostolic teaching, those who heard were commended for comparing what was said with what God had already revealed and written (Acts 17:11).
The specific risk named is accepting truth because of who said it:
"Test everything." While we are not to despise ministry, we are still responsible to "test" it by the word. There is the ever-present danger of receiving truth on the authority of the teacher.
The same writer shows where that habit ends:
If we test the truth ministered by Scripture, and hold it in faith with God, we will not waver in our convictions with every wind of doctrine. As J. N. Darby remarked, "If I do not believe the Word until someone else approves it, I do not believe it at all; it is the approval I believe." The danger comes when we lift the teacher into a false position. Then we accept what he says because he says it, without testing it by the Word, and we may be led into perversions of the truth, and lose the truth we once professed to hold.
The duty is not reserved for leaders or the experienced:
We are not to accept anything that is said without testing it by the Word of God. We are to "test everything." However young in the faith, this was the personal responsibility of every believer. They were to take nothing for granted, and nothing on the word of another. Scripture was their one real authority.
Neglecting it has a cost, and the cost is shared:
How often, in a time of crisis, have leaders found some plausible excuse and persuaded whole companies of Christians to follow them in a path not according to the truth of God. But the blame lies not only with the leaders. It lies also with those who give them blind submission, and who in this way avoid their own responsibility to judge matters for themselves in the Lord's presence. The believers at Berea did judge: they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so (Acts 17:11).
Testing is only half the command. The second half names a common tendency:
"Hold fast what is good." Having tested what we hear, we are to hold fast the good. The tendency, too often, is to remember what is unprofitable, and to let go the good.
- Test — because ministry is free. It sits beside "do not quench the Spirit" and "do not despise prophecies." Free speaking and honest judging belong together.
- Test — by the written word. The measure is not your own understanding but God's revealed word. Even those who heard the apostles compared their words with what God had already written.
- Test — not the speaker, the message. The danger is receiving truth on the authority of the teacher. Accept it because he said it, and you believe the approval, not the Word.
- Test — every believer, however young. No one can hand this duty to someone else. Those who give blind submission share the blame when whole companies follow a wrong path.
- Then hold. Truth tested by Scripture and held with God keeps you steady in every wind of doctrine. The common failure is to remember the unprofitable and let the good slip away.
hold aloof from every form of wickedness.
Paul ends a rapid string of commands about life together — don't quench the Spirit, don't despise prophecy, test everything — and this verse is the last link in that chain. Older translations read "abstain from all appearance of evil," which raises the question the commentators keep returning to: is Paul warning about how things look, or about what things are?
One writer sets the verse inside its setting in the gathered church and explains the Greek term directly:
Both suppose the free action of the Holy Spirit in the assembly, where He must not be hindered in His general movement even by the least member of Christ, any more than despised in the highest form of dealing with souls, or "prophesying." On the other hand the saints must not be imposed on by high or exclusive claims which are never needed by, and would be repulsive to, the truly spiritual. They were to prove all things, to hold fast the good, to abstain from every form of evil. By εἶδος, translated "appearance" in the Authorised Version, is really meant kind or form.
The ESV follows that reading.
The command does not stand alone. It is the back half of a sentence whose front half tells you to test everything and keep what passes. One writer explains why the two halves need each other:
On the other hand, we are not to accept anything we are told without testing it by the Word of God. We are to "test everything." However young in the faith, this was the personal responsibility of every believer. They were to take nothing for granted, and nothing simply on someone else's word. Scripture was their one real authority. And we are to hold fast what is good, letting none of God's precious truth slip. This too was needed if they were to "abstain from every form of evil." Evil will take attractive, deceiving forms as readily as crude ones, and only the heart that holds fast what is good is protected.
The word "every" carries the weight here:
It is easy to keep away from certain forms of evil that do not appeal to us, and to be severe about sins we are not drawn to. The call is to keep away from all evil, whatever form it takes.
Testing is meant to reach a verdict, and the verdict settles the matter. There is nothing left to weigh up:
Once we recognise evil, no further enquiry is needed. There is no more asking: What should be done? That question is only fair when we face at least two choices and have to make up our mind. But once evil is recognised, only one decision fits — to abstain from it. God says, "Cease to do evil"; "Abhor what is evil"; "Abstain from every form of evil."
Commentators differ on the reach of the verse. Some read it strictly as "form" or "kind." Others hold that the older rendering carries a truth worth keeping: a believer should also stay clear of what could reasonably be misread.
We may have heard Christians say, when spoken to about something that looked crooked, "Well, my own conscience is clear on that point, and I don't care what anyone else thinks of me." But this spirit is completely against the spirit of the command before us, which means "above suspicion before all men." And it agrees with the apostle's word to the Thessalonians: "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (older translation). It is not enough to abstain from what we know is wrong. We ought to avoid everything that would give ground for just suspicion.
Three old questions turn this into a workable test before any decision:
The Christian should take care to keep his name pure as well as his conscience pure, and he does that by avoiding all appearance of evil. Bernard's three questions are worth asking ourselves before anything we take on: "Is it lawful?" May I do it and not sin? "Does it suit me as a Christian?" May I do it and not dishonour the faith I profess? "Is it helpful?" May I do it and not make a weaker believer stumble?
Such a demand would crush us on our own. One writer points to the power behind it:
Notice how the Spirit of God speaks in the letters of a power that can keep us from every fall and keep us blameless, so that even a thought of sin is never excusable. The flesh is still in us. But with the Holy Spirit acting in the new man, the flesh never has to act or shape our life. We are united to Jesus: He represents us before God, He is our righteousness. And the same One who in His perfection is our righteousness is also our life, so that the Spirit aims to show this same perfection — practical perfection — in daily life.
- Test — measure everything you hear against Scripture. No teacher's name settles a matter, and every believer, however young, carries that duty.
- Hold — a firm grip on what is good is the real defence. Evil arrives in attractive forms as often as crude ones.
- Abstain — once you recognise evil, the weighing is over. Only one response is left.
- Every — the word rules out picking and choosing: condemning the sins we never wanted, sheltering the ones we do.
- Kept — the standard is high, but the Spirit works in the believer so that the demand is never beyond reach.