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Pastor's Blog November 10, 2022
"1 Thessalonians 5 ??"
For the past couple of weeks, we've been talking about the need to hold onto good things and discard bad things from our lives, in light of the second coming of Jesus. But the question remains, How do you even do this? Helpfully, Paul has some user-friendly advice.
In the last half of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 and the rest of 1 Thessalonians 5:22, Paul states, "Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil" (NIV). Similar to 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21, where the phrase "but test them all" applies to prophecies (verse 20) as well as what is good (verse 21), 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 follows the same pattern, where "hold on to what is good" applies to testing or discerning everything (verse 21) as well as the rejection of evil (verse 22). But in his instruction about embracing good and rejecting evil, Paul focuses on the concept of "having" either one.
What Paul literally says in the second half of verse 21 and all of verse 22 is: "cling to the good; keep yourself from every shape of evil." The terms "cling" and "keep" have the same root word in Greek, which is "to have" - as in "something you hold in your hand." Paul is saying we need to keep holding onto what is good by keeping it with us, and we need to let go of what is evil by keeping ourselves away from it. Even his use of the word "shape," which literally means the action of seeing the form, appearance, or shape of something, indicates that keeping your own evil and the evil of others far away from yourself is incredibly important to the Christian life.
Friends, the best preparation for the second coming of Jesus is to leave off any evil in your life - and the evil of others! - by clinging to what is good, rather than trying to fight it on its own terms.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
