Test Everything
6.29.2010Comment
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17
I read through this book this morning, this letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonians, and found the chapters really connected together. So much, that I went back and read the Introduction to the book just in order to get more information on the background. If you click on the the link and scroll down below the scripture you can read these articles. Most of the letter hinges around the second coming of the Lord, being holy, what happens to those who have already died and such, and just catching up with the folks that he had been out contact for the last couple years. That is my brief summary. Again, read the book for the full story.
What stood out to me was how the book ended. The Benediction is really longer than what I’ve re-posted. But this little section stuck out to me so I’ll speak to it. The first three verses are great. They are very much the “Go Team!” encouragement we need. “Pray without ceasing”, immediately reminds me of reading Brother Lawerence’s classic, “The Practice of The Presence of God”. A great book, I picked up in 2007 at the Mount Hermon bookstore that inspired many of the songs written for the my 2008 record, Practice of the Presence. I highly encourage reading the book, and I suppose the records not too bad of a listen either.
Now, I could have just ended the post here, with “Rejoice Always”! And if that’s where you need to stop reading, that’s okay. But I couldn’t escape the following verses, -
Apparently, the Thessalonians apparently “despised manifestations of prophecy and hence were cutting off a valuable source of encouragement and extinguishing the Spirit’s fire. Test Everything. Rather than rejecting prophecies outright on the basis of inferior prophetic words, the Thessalonians need to weigh prophecies to distinguish the true from the false. Tests presumably include the prophecy’s conformity with authoritative revelation, its value for edification, and its evaluation by those with spiritual discernment. See 1 Cor. 14:29–33 and the note on 1 Cor. 12:10 regarding the operation of prophecy in the church. what is good. In context, this most likely refers to prophecies that pass the test.” -ESV
I appreciate this commentary because I find there are many that despise prophecies because it seems like the “prophets” that get the most attention are “quack-jobs” that don’t get tested. But when this text is sandwiched between -
19 Do not quench the Spirit. and – 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
It all pans out, you know? Don’t quench, don’t despise, test, take what is good, which means what is truthful, what holds up to scripture. And then stay away from all that is bad. Makes sense to me. Probably easier said than done, but I like it. What do you think?
