1 Thessalonians 5:20

Despise not prophesyings

I.

What prophesyings?

1. The Scriptures written (2 Peter 1:20; 2 Timothy 3:16).

(1) The truths asserted (Acts 26:27).

(2) Commands enjoined (Mark 7:8).

(3) Promises made (Romans 4:20).

(4) Threatenings denounced (Proverbs 1:30; Amos 3:8).

2. The Scriptures preached (1 Corinthians 14:1), which they despise--

(1) Who do not come to hear them (Luke 4:16).

(2) Who do not regard what they have heard (Luke 4:20).

(3) Who do not practice what they hear commanded (Leviticus 26:15; John 13:17).

II. Why not despise them?

1. They are the Word of God (chap. 2:13).

2. They that despise them despise Him (Luke 10:16).

3. If we despise the Word we may be justly deprived of it.

4. If we despise His Word God will despise us (1 Samuel 2:30; Proverbs 1:25; Proverbs 1:28).

5. By so doing we render it ineffectual to ourselves (Hebrews 4:2). (Bp. Beveridge.)

Despise not prophesyings

Prophesying in the ordinary sense means the foretelling of future events. Here the term denotes exposition of the Scriptures.

1. Because some who do not despise the office itself may be disposed to cast contempt on particular ministers, Paul forbids a Contempt of prophesyings in general, lest by particular instances of neglect the office itself should be brought into disrepute. Ministers have peculiar gifts. One is learned, another eloquent, another argumentative, etc., but there is no faithful minister, whatever his gifts, from whom we may not reap some advantage. Those who hear with prejudice will never hear with profit, let the preacher be who he may.

2. But the apostle forbids us to despise prophesyings, intimating that an undervaluing of the one will lead to a contempt of the other. For our own sakes we are to receive the message, for His sake who sent him the messenger. Lydia’s heart was open to the one, and her house to the other.

I. The caution. Ministers are required to magnify their office, and to so discharge their duties as to preserve it from contempt (1 Corinthians 14:39). The exhortation, however, applies more particularly to hearers. Whatever be our attainments there is always room for improvement. Those despise prophesyings who--

1. Refuse attendance upon a preached gospel. Some are so openly profane as to make the Sabbath a day of worldly business or indulgence. Others pretend that they can profit more by prayer and meditation at home. Those who in former times forsook the assembling of themselves together, as the manner of some now is, did so from fear. But whatever the cause, such souls famish and are accessory to their own destruction. “Woe is me,” says Paul, “if I preach not the gospel”; and woe is the man who refuses to hear it (Proverbs 28:9; 1 Corinthians 9:16).

2. Attend the gospel but with improper disposition. Part of their time is spent in drowsiness or trifling inattention, observing their neighbours instead of the preacher. Hence when they come home they can tell more of what passed in the seats than in the pulpit. Others are not contented with plain truths; wholesome truths must be garnished to their taste. Paul represents such as having “itching ears”; and though they “heap to themselves teachers” running from one church to another, they get but little good.

3. Are apparently serious in their attendance on the Word, but who neither receive it in love, mix it with faith, nor reduce it to practice (Ezekiel 33:31). The gospel is also despised when it is attended to for unworthy purposes: to hide some iniquity, to silence conscience, to raise our reputation, or promote our worldly interest (2 Peter 2:1).

II. The reasons.

1. The weakness or wickedness of those who dispense the Word of God.

2. Familiarity on the part of the hearer. Scarcity creates a longing, but plenty breeds contempt. The Word of God is “precious” when it is scarce.

3. Insensibility and unbelief. Sinners are at ease in their sins and love to be so.

4. Profaneness and desperate wickedness. The Word reproves such, and they cannot bear it. Knowledge aggravates sin and raises a tempest in the soul.

III. The sin and danger. None but fools despise wisdom, and to despise the wisdom that cometh from above is still more dangerous presumption (Proverbs 1:7; Jeremiah 11:10). Those who despise prophesyings--

1. Despise what God has honoured and will continue to honour (Isaiah 55:10).

2. Are guilty of despising the Divine authority (1 Thessalonians 4:8).

3. Injure their own souls (Proverbs 8:34).

4. Will bring down contempt at length upon their own heads (Psalms 50:22; Hebrews 12:25). (B. Beddome, M. A.)

Careless listening

Father is ill and cannot go to church. Daughter, who has spent three years at a boarding school and is a communicant and a teacher in the Sabbath school, enters. “Well, Mary, did you have a good sermon this morning?” “Yes, splendid; I never heard Dr. X. preach better.” “What was the text?” “Oh, I don’t remember! I never could keep texts in mind, you know.” “What was the subject? Don’t you remember it or some of the ideas?” “No, papa, but I remember a beautiful figure about a bird soaring up into the air. Why, I could almost see it and hear its song!” “Well, what did he illustrate by the flight of the bird?” “Let me see. It was something about faith, or about going to heaven. I can’t just recall now what it was, but the figure was splendid.” And the father is satisfied. Why shouldn’t he be? That was the kind of listening to sermons that he taught her by his own example. If he had heard it he could not have made a better report unless there had been something in it about politics or the news of the day. We are losing the habit of attention and the use of the memory in the house of God. The story of the Scotch woman and the wool has comforted a great many careless and forgetful hearers of the Word. When criticized for claiming to have enjoyed a sermon, and to have been edified by it, though she could not remember a single idea in it, or even the text, she held up the fleece she had just washed, wrung it dry, and said: “Don’t you see the water is all gone, and yet the wool is clean. So the sermon is all gone, but in passing through my mind, as I listened, it did me good.” We think that hers was an exceptional case. We don’t believe in cleansing hearts as she cleansed wool. The Saviour said, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you.” And Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “By which also (the gospel he preached) ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you.” He evidently had no faith in the saving power of truth that merely rippled on the ear like water over a rock.