1 Thessalonians

Chapter 5

vs 15

Two wrongs don't make a right. It's such a cliche, but can we keep ourselves from wanting to do it?

Being kind to "each other and everyone else" is a very good verse to illustrate the distinct separation made in the New Testament between Christians and non-Christians. Every time you read a verse referring to "one another", or "your brothers" or "each other" - that is referring to Christians! The letters the Bible contains are all to Christian churches. "Love your brother" does not mean "love all mankind". There are other verses that tell you to do that. But love for other Christians has so much primacy, both in the gospels and in the letters. It should radically change how we see the outworking of our faith, and perhaps to some extent Christian ministry.

vs 16-18

Here's some rapid machine-gun verses. Note the focus on how often you should do them. God's will for us in Christ is for all these things to be done all the time.

vs 19

Ok, I hate the song, but the verse is good. How often do we really think that it's us who is stifling the Spirit's work within us?

vs 20

Hot diggity daffodils. Imagine quoting this one to one of our more conservative siblings eh? This reminds me - a couple of weeks ago in Church History we were studying John Wesley and the revival in which he took part across England. Wht you often don't hear is that documented within that revival are signs of every pentecostal type thing happening, except glossolalia (tongues), although our lecturer thinks they just didn't know what to say about it. But one of his terms made me laugh, "floor time". It makes it sound like a prerequisite for involvement in a pentecostal movement, and for some churches it might be, but I just think it sounds funny. "Oh, he's clocked up several minutes of floor time". We can laugh, but then they can respond "Well, 1 Thess 5:20 mate". Then we either get into an argument about the meaning of the word prophesy or we shut the hell up. Doubtless the Thessalonians knew what PS&T meant.

It could mean, by the way, the writings of the OT prophets - Peter uses the same word in 2 Peter to talk about the OT prophets. But just about every time Paul uses it, it refers to the gift of.

vs 21

Plus, of course, PS&T refer here to testing everything - which is an obvious parallel to 1 John's "test the spirits". But they broaden it out to everything. Now this is not the Biblical equivalent of "try everything once except incest and folk dancing". Here's a lesson that the post-modern world could stand to learn - you don't need to try something to know there's something wrong with it!

Next time, when someone says "Just try it, how can you judge it without trying it first?" This is the national anthem of Hell. It's on Satan's flag. Would you eat some berries without knowing if they were poisonous or not? Dumb. Next time someone says that to you, reply "Hey, I hear having sex with corpses is a ball - oh, don't knock it till you've tried it bud". You don't need to practice necrophilia to know it's wrong. Thankfully, God brings into his kingdom people from all walks of life who have done all these bad things, so that we can point to them and say"He did it, and told me it's dumb and horrible and ruins your life". But that's not necessary for a logical decision.

This also means that you don't need to read the whole Koran to know that Mohammed is not a prophet from God. What you do need to know is how to judge what he says according to what you believe - that's what you need to know, the tenets of your own belief.

This argument poses a bit of a problem for Christians, because non-Christians can (and have, and do regularly) say that they don't want to be Christian, and our rather sneaky response is "How can you know you don't want to be a Christian if you haven't tried it?" or "if you don't really know what it means?" This sort of attitude is leaning heavily toward Arminianism, and that is a heresy boys and girls. Now I'm no hyper-Calvinist, but Arminianism has a hell of a lot more problems than Calvinism does. People who want to be Christians will be attracted to it - they will read the Bible, they will ask Christians why their lives are so different. They will make comments like "Oh, I want that thing that you've got. I don't know what it is, but I envy your life so much!" Ok, this doesn't mean that these people are walking around as undercover Christians just waiting to be saved. That's a Muslim argument. No, these people are walking around in depravity, but some want out. Sometimes it will take a challenge. Sometimes it will take explaining the gospel to them. But some people will say "Oh, I don't need to hear that right now". It's the wrong response, but we've got to respect it, and be ready for if they change their minds.

Hello Mr Tangent. You're taking me back to the point? How nice of you.

What this verse means, though, is that we as Christians should judge things by our faith, not by doing them first, and hold on to the things that are good.

vs 22

And consequently, avoid the evil.

vs 23-24

These actions are not based on us. God will sanctify. We will be kept blameless. God is faithful, he will do it. It's his job, not ours. It's a comforting thought to know that all the important stuff is taken care of.

vs 25

Don't take this literally - PS&T don't need your prayers anymore. Instead, why not pray for those who brought you to Christ, or who seek to encourage you, disciple you, mentor you? They might not be asking for it.

vs 26

Another verse with no need for literal interpretation. Please read this verse through the eyes of good hermenutics. My beard is itchy.

vs 27

Once again, just because you've read 1 Thessalonians doesn't mean you must now go and read it out in front of the church. Although it does give me a good idea for a sermon...

vs 28

And with you too.