These three verses refer to one subject, the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit so frequent in the Church at this period, but apply likewise to his ordinary influence in believers.

I. THE SIN AND DANGER OF QUENCHING THE SPIRIT. "Quench not the Spirit." Perhaps there was a tendency to repress spiritual utterances, either because they had become fanatical, or from an undue love of order. It is possible to resist the Spirit. God strives with man, who may yet resist all his importunities (Acts 7:51.), "insulting the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). Even in the case of believers, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). It is both sinful and dangerous for believers to "grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they are scaled to the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). The text suggests the idea of quenching a fire.

1. The Spirit acts upon the believer's nature like a fire, warming, purifying, refining.

2. The fire may be quenched by neglecting it quite as much as by casting water upon it. This is the tendency of neglect.

3. Sin has a tendency to quench the Spirit, as water quenches fire. We ought to stir up our gifts and graces that they may shine the brighter, and give both light and heat around us. Yet provision is made in the covenant of grace that the fire once kindled will never be quenched.

II. THERE MUST BE NO UNDERVALUATION OF PROPHESYINGS. "Despise not prophesying."

1. These were spiritual utterances, sometimes in psalms and hymns, "for the edification and exhortation and comfort" of believers, though they had the effect sometimes of laying bare the hearts of unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:25). They were more important than other gifts of the Spirit, and therefore more to be coveted (1 Corinthians 12:31).

2. They were, therefore, not to be despised.

(1) Perhaps there had been "false prophets" at Thessalonica who had tried to pervert the truth, or weak members who had abused the gift of prophecy. The tendency, therefore, to underrate the gift was natural, but not proper.

(2) Perhaps the exercise of this gift created less wonder or made less visible impression than other gifts, like those of tongues and healing. Therefore it came to be rather despised.

III. THE NECESSITY OF TESTING SPIRITUAL GIFTS. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Instead of rejecting prophesyings, they were to test them by a due spiritual discernment.

1. They were to be tested:

(1) By a comparison with the original tradition given to them (2 Thessalonians 2:2).

(2) By a comparison with the prophesyings of others who sat as judges (1 Corinthians 14:29). There was, besides, a supernatural gift of "discerning of spirits" (1 Corinthians 12:10, 14, 29).

(3) By marking the practical fruits of these prophesyings. "Hold fast that which is good." Our Lord said, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 5:15, 16). True doctrine is "according to godliness" (1 Timothy 6:3). Thus Christians are to examine the grounds of their faith, to hold fast nothing that has not first been tried, and to retain only "that which is good."

2. Believers have the capacity as well as the right to test all things. They are "to try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).

(1) They are the spiritual; "they judge all things, yet they themselves are judged of no man "(1 Corinthians 2:15). They have "an unction from the Holy One, and they know all things" (1 John 2:20).

(2) A right state of heart is necessary to this power of insight. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God" (John 7:17). "Walk as children of light... proving what is acceptable unto God" (Ephesians 5:8-10). - T.C.

Prophesying in the ordinary sense means the foretelling of future events. Here the term denotes exposition of the Scriptures.

1. Because some who do not despise the office itself may be disposed to cast contempt on particular ministers, Paul forbids a Contempt of prophesyings in general, lest by particular instances of neglect the office itself should be brought into disrepute. Ministers have peculiar gifts. One is learned, another eloquent, another argumentative, etc., but there is no faithful minister, whatever his gifts, from whom we may not reap some advantage. Those who hear with prejudice will never hear with profit, let the preacher be who he may.

2. But the apostle forbids us to despise prophesyings, intimating that an undervaluing of the one will lead to a contempt of the other. For our own sakes we are to receive the message, for His sake who sent him the messenger. Lydia's heart was open to the one, and her house to the other.

I. THE CAUTION. Ministers are required to magnify their office, and to so discharge their duties as to preserve it from contempt (1 Corinthians 14:39). The exhortation, however, applies more particularly to hearers. Whatever be our attainments there is always room for improvement. Those despise prophesyings who —

1. Refuse attendance upon a preached gospel. Some are so openly profane as to make the Sabbath a day of worldly business or indulgence. Others pretend that they can profit more by prayer and meditation at home. Those who in former times forsook the assembling of themselves together, as the manner of some now is, did so from fear. But whatever the cause, such souls famish and are accessory to their own destruction. "Woe is me," says Paul, "if I preach not the gospel"; and woe is the man who refuses to hear it (Proverbs 28:9; 1 Corinthians 9:16).

2. Attend the gospel but with improper disposition. Part of their time is spent in drowsiness or trifling inattention, observing their neighbours instead of the preacher. Hence when they come home they can tell more of what passed in the seats than in the pulpit. Others are not contented with plain truths; wholesome truths must be garnished to their taste. Paul represents such as having "itching ears"; and though they "heap to themselves teachers" running from one church to another, they get but little good.

3. Are apparently serious in their attendance on the Word, but who neither receive it in love, mix it with faith, nor reduce it to practice (Ezekiel 33:31, 32). The gospel is also despised when it is attended to for unworthy purposes: to hide some iniquity, to silence conscience, to raise our reputation, or promote our worldly interest (2 Peter 2:1, 2).

II. THE REASONS.

1. The weakness or wickedness of those who dispense the Word of God.

2. Familiarity on the part of the hearer. Scarcity creates a longing, but plenty breeds contempt. The Word of God is "precious" when it is scarce.

3. Insensibility and unbelief. Sinners are at ease in their sins and love to be so.

4. Profaneness and desperate wickedness. The Word reproves such, and they cannot bear it. Knowledge aggravates sin and raises a tempest in the soul.

III. THE SIN AND DANGER. None but fools despise wisdom, and to despise the wisdom that cometh from above is still more dangerous presumption (Proverbs 1:7; Jeremiah 11:10, 11). Those who despise prophesyings —

1. Despise what God has honoured and will continue to honour (Isaiah 55:10, 11).

2. Are guilty of despising the Divine authority (1 Thessalonians 4:8).

3. Injure their own souls (Proverbs 8:34-36).

4. Will bring down contempt at length upon their own heads (Psalm 50:22; Hebrews 12:25).

(B. Beddome, M. A.)

Father is ill and cannot go to church. Daughter, who has spent three years at a boarding school and is a communicant and a teacher in the Sabbath school, enters. "Well, Mary, did you have a good sermon this morning?" "Yes, splendid; I never heard Dr. X. preach better." "What was the text?" "Oh, I don't remember! I never could keep texts in mind, you know." "What was the subject? Don't you remember it or some of the ideas?" "No, papa, but I remember a beautiful figure about a bird soaring up into the air. Why, I could almost see it and hear its song!" "Well, what did he illustrate by the flight of the bird?" "Let me see. It was something about faith, or about going to heaven. I can't just recall now what it was, but the figure was splendid." And the father is satisfied. Why shouldn't he be? That was the kind of listening to sermons that he taught her by his own example. If he had heard it he could not have made a better report unless there had been something in it about politics or the news of the day. We are losing the habit of attention and the use of the memory in the house of God. The story of the Scotch woman and the wool has comforted a great many careless and forgetful hearers of the Word. When criticized for claiming to have enjoyed a sermon, and to have been edified by it, though she could not remember a single idea in it, or even the text, she held up the fleece she had just washed, wrung it dry, and said: "Don't you see the water is all gone, and yet the wool is clean. So the sermon is all gone, but in passing through my mind, as I listened, it did me good." We think that hers was an exceptional case. We don't believe in cleansing hearts as she cleansed wool. The Saviour said, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you." And Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "By which also (the gospel he preached) ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you." He evidently had no faith in the saving power of truth that merely rippled on the ear like water over a rock.

Paul, ThessaloniansThessalonicaContempt, Despise, Esteem, Lightly, Meanly, Prophecies, Prophecy, Prophesies, Prophesying, Prophesyings, Prophetic, Prophets, Utterances1. He proceeds in the description of Christ's coming to judgment;
16. and gives various instructions;
23. and so concludes the epistle.

1 Thessalonians 5:20

     1427   prophecy
     5896   irreverence

1 Thessalonians 5:19-20

     7968   spiritual gifts, nature of

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

     8409   decision-making, and providence

Sleep Not
"Lord, when we leave the world and come to thee, How dull, how slur, are we! How backward! How prepost'rous is the motion Of our ungain devotion! Our thoughts are millstones, and our souls are lead, And our desires are dead: Our vows are fairly promis'd, faintly paid, Or broken, or not made. * * * * * * * Is the road fair, we loiter; clogged with mire, We stick or else retire; A lamb appeals a lion, and we fear Each bush we see's a bear. When our dull souls direct our thoughts to …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

"Pray Without Ceasing"
Observe, however, what immediately follows the text: "In everything give thanks." When joy and prayer are married their first born child is gratitude. When we joy in God for what we have, and believingly pray to him for more, then our souls thank him both in the enjoyment of what we have, and in the prospect of what is yet to come. Those three texts are three companion pictures, representing the life of a true Christian, the central sketch is the connecting link between those on either side. These …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

Awake! Awake!
"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." Sleep God hath selected as the very figure for the repose of the blessed. "They that sleep in Jesus," saith the Scripture. David puts it amongst the peculiar gift's of grace: "So he giveth his beloved sleep." But alas! sin could not let even this alone. Sin did over-ride even this celestial metaphor; and though God himself had employed sleep to express the excellence of the state of the blessed, yet sin must have even this profaned, ere itself can be …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Fenelon -- the Saints Converse with God
Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray, and private tutor to the heir-apparent of France, was born of a noble family in Perigord, 1651. In 1675 he received holy orders, and soon afterward made the acquaintance of Bossuet, whom he henceforth looked up to as his master. It was the publication of his "De l'Education des Filles" that brought him his first fame, and had some influence in securing his appointment in 1689 to be preceptor of the Duke of Burgundy. In performing this …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 2

Consecration: what is It?
The second step that must needs be taken by those of us who have been living without the Fullness, before it can be obtained, is Consecration, a word that is very common and popular; much more common and popular, it is feared, than the thing itself. In order to be filled with the Holy Ghost one must first be "cleansed," and then one must be "consecrated". Consecration follows cleansing, and not vice versa. Intelligent apprehension of what consecration is, and of what it involves, is necessary to …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life

Thirty-First Lesson. Pray Without Ceasing;'
Pray without ceasing;' Or, A Life of Prayer. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.--I Thess. v. 16, 17, 18. OUR Lord spake the parable of the widow and the unjust judge to teach us that men ought to pray always and not faint. As the widow persevered in seeking one definite thing, the parable appears to have reference to persevering prayer for some one blessing, when God delays or appears to refuse. The words in the Epistles, which speak of continuing instant in …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

Early Afflictions
"Misery stole me at my birth And cast me helpless on the wild." The words of this hymn express my condition from my first advent into the world. My mother had overworked before I was born; and, as a result, I suffered bodily affliction from infancy. I was scarely two years old when I began having spasms. My eyes would roll back in my head, I would froth at the mouth, the tendons of my jaws would draw, causing me to bite my cheeks until the blood ran from my mouth, and I would become unconscious. …
Mary Cole—Trials and Triumphs of Faith

Third Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 12, 16-21. 16 Be not wise in your own conceits. 17 Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men. 18 If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. 19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. 20 But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Alarum
That is not, however, the topic upon which I now desire to speak to you. I come at this time, not so much to plead for the early as for the awakening. The hour we may speak of at another time--the fact is our subject now. It is bad to awake late, but what shall be said of those who never awake at all? Better late than never: but with many it is to be feared it will be never. I would take down the trumpet and give a blast, or ring the alarm-bell till all the faculties of the sluggard's manhood are …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Peace
Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I Pet 1:1. Having spoken of the first fruit of sanctification, assurance, I proceed to the second, viz., Peace, Peace be multiplied:' What are the several species or kinds of Peace? Peace, in Scripture, is compared to a river which parts itself into two silver streams. Isa 66:12. I. There is an external peace, and that is, (1.) (Economical, or peace in a family. (2.) Political, or peace in the state. Peace is the nurse of plenty. He maketh peace in thy borders, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Getting Ready to Enter Canaan
GETTING READY TO ENTER CANAAN Can you tell me, please, the first step to take in obtaining the experience of entire sanctification? I have heard much about it, have heard many sermons on it, too; but the way to proceed is not yet plain to me, not so plain as I wish it were. Can't you tell me the first step, the second, third, and all the rest? My heart feels a hunger that seems unappeased, I have a longing that is unsatisfied; surely it is a deeper work I need! And so I plead, "Tell me the way." …
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

Exhortations to Christians as they are Children of God
1 There is a bill of indictment against those who declare to the world they are not the children of God: all profane persons. These have damnation written upon their forehead. Scoffers at religion. It were blasphemy to call these the children of God. Will a true child jeer at his Father's picture? Drunkards, who drown reason and stupefy conscience. These declare their sin as Sodom. They are children indeed, but cursed children' (2 Peter 2:14). 2 Exhortation, which consists of two branches. (i) Let …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Christian Prayer
Scripture references: Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13; John 17; Matthew 26:41; Mark 11:24,25; Luke 6:12,28; 9:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:17,25; 1 Corinthians 14:13,15; Psalm 19:14; 50:15, Matthew 7:7; 1 Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 3:20,21; John 16:23; 14:14; James 5:16. THE PROVINCE OF PRAYER Definition.--Prayer is the communion of man with God. It is not first of all the means of getting something from God, but the realization of Him in the soul. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Paul a Pattern of Prayer
TEXT: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his message …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Even as Your Father which is in Heaven is Perfect. Matthew 5:48.
In the 43rd verse, the Savior says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward …
Charles G. Finney—Lectures to Professing Christians

Concerning Peaceableness
Blessed are the peacemakers. Matthew 5:9 This is the seventh step of the golden ladder which leads to blessedness. The name of peace is sweet, and the work of peace is a blessed work. Blessed are the peacemakers'. Observe the connection. The Scripture links these two together, pureness of heart and peaceableness of spirit. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable' (James 3:17). Follow peace and holiness' (Hebrews 12:14). And here Christ joins them together pure in heart, and peacemakers', …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Sanctification
'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.' I Thess 4:4. The word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use: thus they are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God's service. Sanctification has a privative and a positive part. I. A privative part, which lies in the purging out of sin. Sin is compared to leaven, which sours; and to leprosy, which defiles. Sanctification purges out the old leaven.' I Cor 5:5. Though it takes not …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Hindrances to Mourning
What shall we do to get our heart into this mourning frame? Do two things. Take heed of those things which will stop these channels of mourning; put yourselves upon the use of all means that will help forward holy mourning. Take heed of those things which will stop the current of tears. There are nine hindrances of mourning. 1 The love of sin. The love of sin is like a stone in the pipe which hinders the current of water. The love of sin makes sin taste sweet and this sweetness in sin bewitches the …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Concerning Worship.
Concerning Worship. [780] All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit which is neither limited to places times, nor persons. For though we are to worship him always, and continually to fear before him; [781] yet as to the outward signification thereof, in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it in our own will, where and when we will; but where and when we are moved thereunto by the stirring and secret inspiration …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Letter cxx. To Hedibia.
At the request of Hedibia, a lady of Gaul much interested in the study of scripture, Jerome deals with the following twelve questions. It will be noticed that several of them belong to the historical criticism of our own day. (1) How can anyone be perfect? and How ought a widow without children to live to God? (2) What is the meaning of Matt. xxvi. 29? (3) How are the discrepancies in the evangelical narratives to be accounted for? How can Matt. xxviii. 1 be reconciled with Mark xvi. 1, 2. (4) How …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to Growing in Grace.
I come now to speak a little to the other part of sanctification, which concerneth the change of our nature and frame, and is called vivification, or quickening of the new man of grace; which is called the new man, as having all its several members and parts, as well as the old man; and called new, because posterior to the other; and after regeneration is upon the growing hand, this duty of growing in grace, as it is called, 2 Pet. iii. &c. is variously expressed and held forth to us in Scripture; …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

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