1 Thess. 5:19-22, Holy Spirit Living (1)

This is still conduct that revolves around our place in a local church.  But we refer to it as Holy Spirit Living because it concerns a particular aspect of body life that concerns the Spirit’s role in the Church, as you will see.  There is another command (v19) and then four additional commands (v20-22) that can be seen as carrying out the first command.

·        Do not quench the Spirit.  Notice that the Apostle does not say, do not lose the Spirit.  That is not possible under the New Covenant.  Instead we are told don’t douse the fire or diminish the flame of the Spirit.  Sin that is tolerated in our lives will do this.  When we refuse to obey, whether because of fear or pride we quench the Spirit.  When we are ignorant of His ways or we depend too much on our organizational abilities or on our own self effort we quench the Spirit. 

·        Do not despise prophecies.  Here is one of those issues related to the Holy Spirit’s work in the Body of Christ.  Prophecies are the utterances of a prophet.  This could refer to the reading of the Bible in worship services or, more likely, to the preaching of the preacher.  In a typical NT local church, before there was the written record we call the NT, it was standard that there would be both local members of the body as well as travelling or itinerant preachers.  Paul wanted to be sure that the message from these individuals were heard because they were important to the building up of the body. 

          There were two reasons why people might despise them.  It might be that the quality of speaking might vary and some would not care for those with less quality.  That apparently happened with Paul on occasion (2 Cor. 10:10; 11:5-6) and at least once with all the Apostles (Acts 4:13).  Prejudice against those with less formal education will deny the body of Christ of necessary equipping.  The other reason prophecies might be despised is that the gospel itself is despised because it is not considered true wisdom or a proper philosophical approach.  The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18).  Thus Paul himself was sent to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect (1 Cor. 1:17).  Either of these things would prevent believers from receiving the preaching not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God (1 Th. 2:13).

          But the problem, of course, is that both in NT times and today, the preacher might not be preaching sound doctrine.  We must be equipped to deal with this because false doctrine also deprives the Body of the needed word of God.  And other commands in this paragraph deal with this matter.  For now it seems to be a good thing for us to have a proper esteem for those who are given to the Church for our equipping (Eh. 4:11-16).  Let us examine ourselves.  Let us hear what the Spirit says to our articular church.