1 Thessalonians 5:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

1 Thessalonians 5:19

Comments

The Spirit of God is the divine resident in every believer. What a thought: I have as my resident guest the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit who is divine, who is equal with the Father. He occupies me, and supervises me, and guards me, and keeps me. How can I behave so as to offend him? Yet how lightly we live with the Holy Spirit within us! The Spirit will be manifested in three ways: in sanctification, in the imparting of light and understanding, and then in the imparting of zeal and fervour in the service of the Lord and good works. Firstly then, the sanctifying work of the Spirit. He convicts us when we are converted. We become deeply aware that we are sinners before God and that we need Christ as Saviour and his atoning death for our sin. We come in repentance and in faith to him, and then throughout our Christian lives, it is the Holy Spirit who moves the conscience. If we are about to say something that would be wicked, dishonest, ill-tempered, how do you respond? Do you go ahead and say it anyway, pushing aside conscience? That is quenching the Holy Spirit. First of all is a personal thing. If we do it perpetually, it turns into grieving the Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us, who yearns jealously for us to protect us is distressed. The emotions of God! That extends through into resisting the Spirit: putting your whole weight against him.Secondly the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. ‘Quench not the Spirit.’ This is a flame that speaks of life, and heat and light also. We read in Luke 24 of Christ the Lord who appeared to two disciples who are walking out of Jerusalem after the crucifixion. ‘Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.’ And he preaches to them in effect. And listen to this – ‘And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?’ As Christ opened the scriptures to them, the Holy Spirit worked within, applied them in their heart, and they were warm, illuminated. So always be ready to be affected, just as when you read the Scripture yourself. It is not just a technical exercise. Thirdly, the zeal, the heat of the Spirit. The disciples noted the zeal of the Lord when he cleansed the temple and threw out those who were selling sacrificial animals and the money changers, and he made a token whip or scourge of short cords. The disciples – the Holy Spirit put it in their minds – remembered Psalm 69 – ‘The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.’ Our Saviour had great jealousy for the house of God, great feeling.

Application

Supposing you have committed a great sin, and supposing it has gone on for some time, and then comes conviction. Suddenly you became conscientious and careful. I must put this sin behind me. There is nothing more important for me than to become disentangled from this sin, this covetous desire, this outrageous uncleanness, this image looking, whatever it might be. There was a hot desire to be clean. How warmly you felt about this. Those are the tokens of repentance that the apostle looked for and he saw them in the church at Corinth. That people were deeply concerned to be right before God. Always take repentance seriously, always take the battle against sin seriously, whatever form it takes. This is the work of the Spirit. Naturally, I would quench the Spirit; I would turn away from these kind of feelings. But the Spirit so moves that I am convicted and serious and determined and anxious to be clear of the sin. That is the authentic work of the Spirit in our lives.

How many times have you read in the Scripture or heard in the preaching about the Lord’s Day? About the keeping of the Lord’s Day? About the commandment of God? About the importance of worship and hearing the Word? Of giving the day for the Lord. of keeping the television off, of never shopping on the Lord’s day, unless there is an absolute necessity. And it is has kind of rolled over. We still only come once to the services, unnecessarily. This is quenching the Spirit, despising God’s Word, not being challenged by it.

If only we could have more zeal, more zeal to defend the Scripture. more zeal to proclaim the Scripture, more zeal for the lost, more zeal for the heart. It is the Spirit who gives it to you. Do not quench it. Do not let it just be a five-minute wonder for you.

Questions

How does the Spirit manifest himself to us? Some people have entirely wrong ideas about this, and about what form he takes, in what manner he works. Today, for instance, there are many people who think that the Holy Spirit is manifested in noise and clamour, and even earthly and worldly things. And the more noise a preacher can make, and stamp up and down the platform, and rave at the top of his voice, and even screech in a blood curdling way, the more gullible and foolish people will say, the Holy Spirit was there. Well, there is nothing of that in the Scripture.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Thessalonians 5:19 Commentary and Bible Study