1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
Examining the manifestation and function of spiritual gifts in the public, corporate life of a community.
A PASTORAL LETTER
Dearest family,
On Sunday we began a conversation together about the manifestation and function of spiritual gifts in the public, corporate life of a community of faith like ours. How many of you found it easier to list the 9 fruits than the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit? If so, what is that telling us?
After commenting on the pre-existent attitudes and experiences that many people bring to supernatural gifts of the Spirit, I suggested that when all is said and done, there are two equal dangers that we might face.
1. An uncritical acceptance of anything that goes: Not all manifestations are equal or necessarily spiritual. They can be fleshly. To mean well is not necessarily to minister well. But we are not in the dark because there are specific scriptural tests that invite us to “prove all things and hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
2. An unspiritual response to the Giver, the Holy Spirit: There can be so much focus on the gifts that there is a failure to discern whose gifts they are. It is sad and bad when there is a failure to discern his personhood and we irreverently treat the Holy Spirit as if our domestic or spiritual valet, or we talk impersonally about the Spirit as if it is a quantifiable juice, essence, liquid, or vapor. Whenever we separate gift and giver the latter is always is always dishonored. Again, the Holy Spirit is a person – not an influence or atmospherics.
• Can be lied to (Peter to Ananias - “You have lied to the Holy Spirit!” Acts 5:3)
• Can be resisted (Stephen - “You always resist the Holy Spirit!” Acts 7:51)
• Can be insulted (“How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished …
who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29)
• Can be grieved (“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” Ephesians 4:30)
• Can be quenched (“Do not quench the Spirit” 1 Thessalonians 5:19)
You cannot hurt a power, a principle, or a proposition but you can hurt a person. Those most familiar with charismatic renewal need to heed this as much as those who oppose the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There can be a hurt Spirit even where there are gifts manifested. There’s nothing worse than a proud gift user. Our counseling rooms are filled with hurt people – what about a grieved or quenched Spirit?
TWO SPECIFIC WARNINGS
1. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 4:30) How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? Let me suggest some ways:
a. failure to recognize his person: what I have just been referring to – treating the Holy
Spirit as less than he is or as more than he is (ignoring or idolizing).
b. failure to remember his purpose: “sealed for the day of redemption” – not cooperating
with the work of the Holy Spirit which is to keep us, mature us, use us and prepare us for
what is yet to come
c. failure to realize his presence: insensitive to his workings, undiscerning of his
operations
d. failure to respect his purity: forgetting it’s the HOLY Spirit – hardening of sin and of
conscience
e. failure to respond to his promptings: avoiding conviction, disobeying his leading,
resisting his nudges
f. failure to receive his provision: The Spirit makes available to us all that Jesus has
received from the Father, including gifts and graces – given to enable and empower us to be
what Jesus wants us to be – and we then determine what we will and will not consider
relevant to us, applicable to us, desirable for us, needful for us?
2. “Do not quench the Spirit…” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Paul is responding to Timothy’s report of what issues the church was dealing with. The section in which this verse appears (vs12-22) is dealing with congregational issues: church leadership, church relationships and church worship and prayer, including the manifestation of spiritual gifts. Paul doesn’t just talk about what the Spirit does for us but what we can do to the Spirit. “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire – do not treat prophecies with contempt.” Calvin is right though when he says “The warning not to quench the Spirit has a wider application than just despising prophecy.”
What we must not miss here is that the first thing the textual context demands that we address is not just a personal response to the Spirit but a corporate / community / congregational response. The reference to prophecy tells us as much. It is possible to quench the Spirit in our public services. This has nothing to do with whether the service is liturgical or non-liturgical, Episcopal or Pentecostal – they can both be equally rigid and controlled so there remains no room for the Spirit to be expressed through other than the leaders of the service. The fact is that everyone should have “a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation” (1 Corinthians 14:7).
I went on to mention some categories of factors that can be quenching in services: control, culture, consensus, conformity, concerns, criticism, confusion. I suggest you re-listen to the message to get the details, and if you were absent on Sunday, which many of you were, then because of the community implications, I urge you to catch up with the conversation and listen to what was shared.
Before we start talking about specific gifts, let’s make sure that our relationship with the Holy Spirit is in good standing, both personally and corporately, and that we are neither grieving or quenching his person or his work.
Immediately following the injunction not to quench the Spirit, Paul says, “Test everything.” (v21) The lack of spiritual testing fosters disorder and confusion, and even false teaching that leads to questionable behavior and practice, and soon, before you know it, anything goes. Confusion always follows the failure to discern flesh from Spirit, but also the immature from the mature. Testing will not quench what is genuine and will not attribute to the Spirit what is false or fleshly. This of course assumes those present who are trustworthy to so test and discern. So what tests are we talking about? Come Sunday and find out as we continue our chat about this, fueled by a desire for a healthy community life.
Pastorally yours,
Stuart