Our text for these articles is I Thessalonians 5:14-22: “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
We have come to the portion of our verses above that says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God concerning you.” I hasten to say that our verse does not say, “For everything give thanks”, for if it did, we would have to give thanks for calamities, murders, deadly sicknesses, the disobedience of children, as well as that of grownups, wars etc., and the list could go on. The teaching is that we should give thanks to God for His goodness to us and for our salvation, if we are believers in Christ, for good relationships etc., even when other things may be going wrong for us. The point is that we who know Christ in salvation ultimately “have it made”, because we will be with the Lord forever. The few years that we live on earth are usually hard at some points, but this is not our eternal state, so even in the rough, tough situations we can still give thanks to God for our relationship with Him and with other believers, knowing that we will forever be with Him before too long! I have heard of people who have claimed to know God through salvation, yet when difficulty came they were angry at God. I make no brag about what I might do under certain circumstances, but I say up front that it is not wise for any believer to ever suppose that God does not have that believers best interest on His heart! So, sometimes we may be called upon to give thanks, when circumstances around us would say, “Oh you have a right to be unthankful”, but that is a lie! At age 80 I have seen many hard things, including difficulty in my own life, but I do know that God has my spiritual welfare on His heart, and I praise Him for it! We are told in our verses that the matter of giving thanks in everything is “the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”.
The next command we see is “quench not the Spirit”. The Greek meaning of “quench” is: “extinguish”, giving the idea that we should not try to “put out” the work of the Spirit in our lives, or the lives of others who are following His direction. I have been in meetings at church when it seems to me that someone was “quenching the Spirit’s work by failing to obey Him. This does not mean that every person who has “something to say” in a meeting is to be allowed to speak at will and as long as they might desire. I have learned in 62 years of preaching that some people will “take over a worship service” under the guise of being led by the Spirit to do certain things, with some even saying that the Lord was leading them to preach, when another person had been appointed to preach. God said in I Corinthians 14:31-32: “For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” So, it is not within the will of God for more than one person to be speaking at a time, for verse 31 above clearly says: For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.” God is a God of order, and when more than one person is speaking in a worship service, somebody is out of line! If God is in charge, order is in control! I realize that many well-meaning people have thought otherwise on this point, but Scripture is King, and also plain, in the case before us. When anyone says he just cannot keep from speaking while someone else is speaking, he is wrong, for our verses above say that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. So, what should be said would be: “I wanted to speak, so I did speak, even though I was speaking out of order”. By J. Briggs King