Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23 NKJV
Even if you are not a fan of
professional sports, I think you are probably aware of the fact that
as time winds down and the end of the game is near, the approach of
the players towards the game begins to change. Now this could be a
result of the coach making adjustments, or a response to how the
other team is playing, but generally speaking most of the competitors
are very aware of the time remaining and adjust their game
accordingly.
As I have studied the subject of the
end times over the course of my life, it soon became apparent to me
that the Bible contains quite a bit of instruction on how we as
believers are supposed to live as we see the end of this age
approaching. Paul especially seems to focus on this subject in most
of his writings, and this passage is a very good example of that.
Here Paul has been talking to the Thessalonians about the rapture of
the Church and the events surrounding it, and after admonishing them
to be watchful, he immediately gives instructions on our personal
conduct.
You see, much like a player in a game
adjusting his efforts as the end approaches, we as believers need to
“adjust our game” as we see the end is near. So Paul lists a few
things we should all be aware of and use as guidelines for our walk
with God especially at such a time as this. So I want to share a few
points I see in this passage from Thessalonians with the hope it will
help you as well as it has helped me.
“Rejoice always, pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks”. Now I suppose we
could call these the big three of the Christian life. Why is that?
Maybe because it is so hard to do? Everyone will at some time or
another experience some of the hardships that life can throw at us.
Yet it is the attitude of believers towards hardships that should set
us apart from the world around us! Many of you probably saw the news
this past week of the wildfire in Central Washington which caused so
much damage. Over 60 homes and outbuildings along with a number of
animals and livestock were lost. Fortunately for us personally, the
fire got no closer than about 5 miles away, yet the effect on those
who experienced loss is devastating.
However it was amazing to hear
interviews with some of those who lost everything and yet thanked God
for sparing their lives and acknowledged that there was a reason for
it and God was in control. What a witness it is to stand up and
rejoice in the middle of suffering and thank God for the
circumstances we find ourselves in. Where the world would be bitter
and resentful, the Christian rejoices and thanks God for whatever
happens. Why? “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
for you” God arranges the events we find ourselves in for
the express purpose of allowing us the opportunity to serve Him by
exhibiting the attitudes listed above. Strange as it sounds, no one
really notices your witness when everything is going great. It's
easy to be happy when things are good, but when things go bad it
seems everyone is watching to see how you will react. Those are the
times when our witness can glorify God in ways we could never
imagine.
“Do not quench the Spirit. Do
not despise prophecies. Test all things;” Speaking of a
fire, the Greek word for “quench” literally means to put out a
fire! As hard as it seems, the fact that we are warned about this
obviously means as the end approaches some will succumb to the
temptation to ignore what the Holy Spirit is telling them to do. The
late Ray Stedman of Peninsula Bible Church shared some great words on
this verse and I think he does a much better job of explaining it
than I can, so let me share that with you.
Two simple things are here: Do not
ignore the Spirit's prompting; and do not despise the Scripture's
wisdom. The Spirit's promptings always come in two areas: Stop doing
what is wrong, and start doing what is right. If you are a Christian
at all you are familiar with the inner feeling that says, "God
wants you to do something," or "God wants you to stop doing
something." We all have felt this inner guidance. What the
apostle is saying is, "Give in to those feelings." When the
Spirit prompts you to show love to somebody, do it; do not hold back.
I once heard of a man who said,
"Sometimes when I think of how my wife works and blesses me,
it's all I can do to keep from telling her that I love her!"
There is a man being guided by the Spirit, but he is quenching the
Spirit. Do not do that. Go ahead and tell her you love her. You may
have to pick her off the floor afterward, but do not quench the
Spirit!
Then, second, do not ignore the
Scripture's wisdom: "Do not despise prophesying."
Unfortunately, because of certain cultic tendencies in our day, we
think of prophesying as some special power to predict the future
either for ourselves individually or for the world at large. But
prophesying was not that. Dr. F. F. Bruce, who is one of the great
expositors of our day, says prophesying is "declaring the mind
of God in the power of the Spirit." In those early days, before
the New Testament was written, this was done orally; prophets spoke
the mind of the Spirit in an assembly. But since the writing of the
Scriptures we have very little need for any kind of prophesying other
than that based upon the Scriptures. So prophesying really becomes
what we call today expository preaching and teaching. It is what I am
doing right now. It is opening the mind of God from the Word of God.
Do not despise that, says the apostle. That is the wisdom of God.
That is telling you how to act, how to think and how to order your
life. Do not treat it lightly. It will save you countless headaches
and heartaches if you observe it.
But, the apostle adds, "test
it." It is easy to imitate this. Anyone can stand up and say in
a deep tone of voice, "This is the word of the Lord." We
must learn to test what is said from what has already been revealed.
Paul commended the Bereans for this, saying they were more noble than
those in Thessalonica because they "received the word with all
readiness of heart and searched the Scriptures daily whether these
things were so," (Acts 17:11). Test it, is what Paul is saying.
“Now may the God of peace
Himself sanctify you completely” Do you notice who it is
here that does the changing in us? So often we think that
sanctification is a result of our hard work, when the truth is that
sanctification comes from God, and our good works are the result.
Our responsibility is to simply make the choice to allow God to work
in us and He will do the rest. “He who calls you [is] faithful, who
also will do [it].” Our Father in heaven is faithful to do what He
has promised. Ray Stedman also had this to say about this verse;
“Choose to obey and he will give you power to perform; but he will
not give you the power to perform until you make the choice to obey!”
Most of us would agree the signs of the
end are all around us. How important is it then to pay attention to
these verses which Paul uses to instruct us on how we are to live in
the very time we find ourselves in?
Keep watching.
