1 Thessalonians 5:21

THE DUTY OF INQUIRY

Prove all things.’

1 Thessalonians 5:21

There was the amplest justification in the history of the Church for these warnings. St. Paul warns the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:30) of the peril which false prophets threatened. Later history showed that peril in a much more aggravated form than was known to the Church of apostolic days. Prophets abounded, and came to great honour in the ministry. With the good were found the evil. Occasionally into the ranks of the prophets there crept men who cared exceedingly little for the Spirit of God, but much for wealth, for advancement, for personal power. Then, more than ever, it was seen with what loving foresight our Lord had bidden all ‘beware of false prophets,’ and St. Paul had been moved to warn Thessalonian believers to ‘prove all things.’

St. Paul’s words, in their natural context, had therefore a clear and pertinent meaning for the early Church. But how shall we take the words and apply them to our own day and our own affairs?

I. Where are the prophets?—They are not wholly lacking. It would be a presumptuous limitation of the powers of the Holy Spirit to suggest that He does not as truly direct the speech of some as He did upon the Day of Pentecost. We humbly believe such inspiration to be frequent; it is to be sought and looked for. But the statement of every man who cries ‘Thus saith the Lord’ must bear the test of such proof as the cautions of Christ and of St. Paul would suggest. A deeper conviction of the Holy Spirit’s power may well be sought; preachers would take their preaching more seriously, and hearers might less often drift into bored and listless inattention.

But there is another and a wider application of the same words. There are other pulpits besides those of the churches, and other prophets than those of the ministry.

II. Practically what St. Paul may say to us is, ‘Cultivate an intelligent, reliable judgment in regard to all influence upon life and thought.’ There are reasons why we may extend the area of his advice. Teachers have multiplied who obtain willing pupils within the Christian Church. They are listened to with as much devotion as any ancient hearers gave to any ancient prophet. They deliver themselves upon questions of faith as well as of morals. Their influence is inevitable and must be counted with; but we are responsible for our own subservience to them. They cannot answer for us at the bar of God. We are, indeed, responsible for the effect our words and deeds have upon others; but each must also answer for himself, and himself bear his own burden of punishment.

III. But our responsibility is, of course, limited.—We can only prove and try within the bounds of our own knowledge and capabilities. The old woman in a rustic cottage cannot prove the prophet when he speaks on Biblical archaeology, or the young man of business try the prophet discoursing upon the textual criticism. Beyond our proper range no responsibility is laid upon us by God. But even then, when all allowance has been made, how vast a field remains, as to which from the time we begin to exercise an intelligent judgment, responsibility lies upon us! It covers much of the domain of faith. Men and women move amidst a babel of contradictory statements. You are told by one that a thing is false, by another that it is true, and you have to exercise your judgment upon it. If you shrink from this, you must either fall into the arms of an infallible Church, or drift aimlessly from side to side, or take refuge in utter unbelief. It is very much your business to arrive at a right judgment; you cannot evade the responsibility.

Rev. A. R. Buckland.

Illustration

‘You must have noticed in St. Paul’s epistles two strongly contrasted styles. At one time he gives himself to a long, carefully reasoned, yet, owing to his vehement nature, in parts involved argument. You may find such an argument in the opening Chapter s of the Epistle to the Romans, or in the well-known chapter, 1 Corinthians 15., in which he discusses the resurrection of the dead. At another time he produces a series of short, pithy sentences, dealing with the details of everyday life among his converts. He speaks to them in the plainest of language, in terms which might be passed from man to man, or from parent to child, and understood by the simplest minds in the Church. You have examples of such a style in Romans 12., in Colossians 3:4., and in the chapter from which my text is taken. St. Paul’s letters, indeed, always most happily combine two things, which not seldom are most unhappily divorced. He both carefully establishes the foundations of the faith, and gives the plainest advice upon Christian conduct. He is not willing that any man should misunderstand or corrupt the faith of his Master; nor yet that any convert should be in doubt as to the moral habit which that faith demands of him.’