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.