What does it mean to quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)?

In 1 Thessalonians the Holy Ghost is introduced with remarkable strength and simplicity, and this from their conversion throughout their whole career. (1 Thess. 1:5, 1 Thess. 4:8, 1 Thess. 5:19.) The texts need no extended remarks, save perhaps the last, which is sometimes misunderstood: "Quench not the Spirit." It is totally different from grieving of the Spirit, against which we are warned in Eph. 5. Grieving Him is clearly a personal question; whereas quenching Him is just as emphatically with regard to others, and mainly, I suppose, in public action, or, at least, in the use of their gifts. I am not to hinder another, nor to raise difficulties as to the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in any brother. It may be a great work, or a very little one. This is not at all the question; but — Is it of the Spirit? Respect for the presence and operation of the Holy Ghost in all the variety of His action in the Church would keep the greatest from quenching the Spirit in the least. God certainly does not despise the day of small things.

It may be well to distinguish between the grieving of the Spirit here spoken of, and two other expressions found in other parts of the Word. Stephen, in addressing the Jewish council, says, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." (Acts 7:51.) Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, exhorts them thus: "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings." (1 Thess. 5:19-20.) Now both these expressions differ, as the connection will show, from the grieving of the Holy Spirit of God spoken of in the passage before us. Resisting the Holy Ghost is refusing the testimony which He gives, whether by prophets, by the mouth of Jesus Himself, or by the apostles after His ascension. This the Jews had done through their whole long history, as Stephen had just been showing, and they were still persisting in the same path of unbelief. The quenching of the Spirit, on the other hand, is connected with ministry. Though Christ risen and ascended is, as we have seen, the author of gifts, their distribution and their exercise in the assembly are regulated by the "Spirit dividing to every man severally as He will." (1 Cor. 12:11.) Any usurpation of this power by man, or any rule or regulation not sanctioned by the Word, which restrains the Spirit's freedom of action in this matter, is quenching the Spirit; and as prophecy was the most important gift for "edification, and exhortation, and comfort," in the church (1 Cor. 14:2-4), the apostle connects the command, "Quench not the Spirit," with the further warning, "Despise not prophesyings."

"Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:19) is an exhortation not to hinder His action through the prophets or others in the assemblies of the saints. The next verse or two shows this. The Spirit indwelling the Church claims the right to order its gatherings and let not men under any pretext interfere with or quench His voice. This is an exhortation generally disregarded in Christendom where organizations and liturgies have been instituted in order to place everything under the control of a man or men. Under such circumstances the free and sovereign action of the Spirit would be resented as an intrusion and promptly suppressed.

"Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:19).

To quench the Spirit is to refuse to follow the leading of the Spirit, or to refuse to accept what the Spirit might give through others. For instance if the Apostle Paul had refused the urge of the Spirit of God to preach the gospel among the Gentiles, the Spirit would have been quenched, and the greater part of the Acts of the Apostles would never have been written. The quenching of the Spirit might be, if the Spirit of God urged a saint to minister to the temporal needs of a poor saint, or even of an unbeliever, and he does not do so. In such a case the Spirit would be quenched.

Grieving the Spirit is through fleshly activity on my part; quenching the Spirit, through refusing the activity of the Spirit of God. Or it might be by a believer refusing to accept ministry, because the one ministering is not approved of.

(V. 19). “Quench not the Spirit”. In the Epistle to the Ephesians we are warned against grieving the Spirit, which, the passage shows, is connected with the indulgence of the flesh. Here the context is prayer, giving thanks, and prophesying, and therefore “quenching the Spirit” would seem to consist in hindering prayer, or praise, or ministry. This quenching may be by forcing ministry apart from the leading of the Spirit, or refraining from ministry when the Spirit would lead in prayer or praise.

Such were the apostle's exhortations to guide their walk with others. As regards their personal state, joy, prayer, thanksgiving in all things, these should be their characteristics. With respect to the public actings of the Spirit in their midst, the apostle's exhortations to these simple and happy Christians were equally brief. They were not to hinder the action of the Spirit in their midst (for this is the meaning of quenching the Spirit); nor to despise that which He might say to them, even by the mouth of the most simple, if He were pleased to use it. Being spiritual, they could judge all things. They were therefore not to receive everything that presented itself, even in the name of the Spirit, but to prove all things. They were to hold fast that which was good; those who by faith have received the truth of the word do not waver. One is not ever learning the truth of that which one has learnt from God. As to evil, they were to abstain from it in all its forms.

The connection between this verse and the following should be well noted. The habit of giving thanks is important if we are to keep from quenching the Spirit. The Spirit of God should certainly be unhindered when He desires to speak through us, yet it is possible that through timidity, or through pride, or through indifference, we may be seriously guilty of quenching His working, as water quenches fire. On the other hand, we may be just as guilty of quenching the Spirit in another, by impatience, or resentment, or by belittling what the Spirit of God may be seeking to bring to our attention by another member of the body of Christ. May we judge unsparingly such selfish, sinful ways and the thoughts that lead to them. The spirit of fresh energy and devotion of a young assembly such as this could be dampened greatly by such things. In Eph. 4:30 we are told, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." The context here involves our moral character and conduct which, if wrong, hinders the Spirit of God. But in our present chapter, quenching the Spirit is hindering His speaking through us or through others.

Scripture tells us that the Holy Ghost may be resisted (Acts 7:51), may be grieved (Eph. 4:30), and may be quenched (1 Thess. 5:19); thus our actions in the assembly have great solemnity. The injunction, "Quench not the Spirit," is very commonly urged upon the unconverted as a warning not to trifle with the convictions wrought by the Spirit in their souls. I have preached from it many times in that sense. But, however true the warning thus founded on it, such is not really the meaning of the passage.

The words are not addressed to unbelievers, but to the Church; and they are coupled with another injunction — "Despise not prophesyings," which shows that it is the actings of the Spirit in ministry that are in contemplation. It is a warning to a Christian assembly, in which the Spirit of God was present, to beware of stifling, by any counter-action of theirs, His action in ministry through the members.

The apostle closes this exhortation with one which on the one hand exemplifies the abundance of the provision God has made for us, while on the other, it reminds us, how sadly, of the folly to which we are prone; and that, alas! most of all with regard to His choicest gifts: "Quench not the Spirit," he says, "despise not prophecies."

The thought of quenching the Spirit manifestly contemplates the Spirit under the figure of fire; and we cannot but think of Pentecost with its divided tongues of fire, the manifestation in the individual of the heavenly power which had come amongst men, and come to speak with a divine message to all the families of men, divided by sin, and by the judgment upon it. The Gift, and the free giving of God were thus to be manifested by means of gifts bestowed upon those who were themselves recipients of it. But this enlightening of others was in this way a matter of responsibility on the part of those thus gifted: not in fact a limited class among Christians, except indeed as they themselves create the limit, as so many do. Here in fact is one form of quenching the Spirit, when instead of ministering one to another each according to the gift he has received (1 Peter 4:10) that which the Spirit has given is ignored, the ministry that love urges to is suppressed, and the Church suffers, deprived of how much of the blessing which might be hers, and of the ability to testify of the grace that she has learned.

Certainly there are special gifts, — "evangelists, pastors and teachers," as the Word declares; but this not to restrain the manifestation of the same Spirit in others; and especially as to prophecy, of which the apostle speaks in this connection here; his own injunction is, "Covet to prophesy;" and his encouragement to it, that "ye may all prophesy" (1 Cor, 14:1, 4, 5, 24, 30, 39). This was not necessarily the utterance of predictions, as is too commonly imagined, but that speaking out of the fulness of the Spirit what would be thus the word of God Himself, the "oracle" for His people (1 Peter 4:11). This involved, not so much what is ordinarily called "gift," as spirituality — that nearness to God which makes the "man of God," and one to whom He can therefore communicate His mind. But this might be done in the simple quotation of a text of Scripture, or in "five words," — perhaps more likely so than in a long discourse, but whose testimony would be felt in heart and conscience. The effect on "one that believeth not, or one unlearned," entering in among those so engaged is that "he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth" (1 Cor. 14:24-25). But this overflow of the divine fulness which is in all the saints today as much as in apostolic times, is not limited as to time and place, as Philip's daughters who were prophetesses show, who certainly did not prophesy in the assembly. How blessed to know that such fulness is really in us all, and that the apostle urges that it should overflow, the hindrances to this being always in ourselves, the blocking of outlet to an illimitable spring, of which we may be quite or very little conscious. In how many ways may this be done! but if out of the belly there flows not the living water, it is certain that there must be some hindrance for which we are responsible, if the Lord's words be the simple, always verifiable words they must be (John 7:38).

Next we have terse but full exhortation as to our more public ways. It is not here the personal call of Eph. 4, "grieve not," but "quench not the Spirit," followed up by "despise not prophecies," which serves to fix its true bearing. 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 έἶδος translated "appearance" in the Authorised Version, is really meant kind or form.