MONDAY 4th
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
NIV (vv16-22) – ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.’
ESV (vv16-22) – ‘Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.’
We will continue from Friday’s devotion with the remaining four instructions in these few verses.
Do not quench the Spirit – there is another verse in Ephesians 4:30 that says ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’ It is important that we allow the Holy Spirit to do what he wants to do in our lives as individuals, also in our gathering together as a fellowship of believers, we need to always be open to the leading and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, allowing him to minister among us.
Do not despise prophecies, but test everything – this instruction is so important, and it is essential that it is not split into two, so that we follow the first part, ‘do not despise prophecies’ and ignore the second ‘but test everything’. Prophecy must never be a free for all, carried out in an ad-hoc way, but prophecy should always be given in a context where it can be tested by others, prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and like the other gifts of the Spirit must never be left open to abuse, they are gifts to be treasured and used in a way that brings both encouragement to the body of Christ and glory to God
Hold fast what is good – If we have anything good in life, we want to hold on to it and treasure it, and when it comes to the good things of God, we need to hold on to them, there is another sense in that holding fast can mean that we ensure that we are anchored firmly to all that is good, that is to all that is linked to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and to God as our heavenly Father. Keep hold, don’t let go, do not allow anything or anyone to come and steal from you or to take you away from all that is yours in Christ Jesus. To help us in this way we are then told to:
Abstain from every form of evil – that is keep our lives pure, don’t play with fire, don’t get entangled with the affairs and the sinful pleasures of the world, keep ourselves wholly for the Lord Jesus, to be his and his alone.