1 Thessalonians 5:21 - Evaluate What Comes Your Way and Incorporate What is Good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21; Evaluate What Comes Your Way and
Incorporate What is Good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV) Prove all things; hold fast that
which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NIV) Test everything. Hold on to the
good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (CWR) Check out everything you read and
everything you hear and hold on to what's true.
CONTEXT
Christian Conduct
Paul's Final Advice
Watchfulness while awaiting the coming of the Lord (5:1-22)
The Way He Wants You to Live (5:12-28)
CROSS REFERENCES
1 John 4:1 (KJV) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world.
1 Cor. 2:15 (GWT) Spiritual people evaluate everything but are
subject to no one's evaluation.
Romans 12:9 (NRSV) Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold
fast to what is good;
Philip. 4:8 (KJV) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things.
COMMENTARY / APPLICATION
Prove. Careful discrimination is to be made in distinguishing
the false from the true. [SDA Commentary]
Hold fast. Having discerned the difference between the true and
the false, the good and the bad, he is to hold the good, to retain
it, in spite of all temptations to let it go. [SDA Commentary]
Christians need to test what they hear and read, by comparing it
with the Word of God, to determine if it is divine in its origin.
This is difficult, but it is possible for a spiritual believer (1
Cor. 2:14). Each Christian has the responsibility and ability to do
this, though some have more discernment than others (cf. Acts 17:11; 1
John 4:1). What is discovered to be good (i.e., in harmony with what
has been given by the Holy Spirit in the Word) should be retained.
On the other hand counterfeit teaching and living should be
rejected and avoided. [Bible Knowledge Commentary]
We shouldn't make fun of those who don't agree with what we
believe ("treat prophecies with contempt"), but we should always "test
everything," checking their words against the Bible. We are on dangerous
ground if we scoff at a person who speaks the truth. Instead we should
carefully check out what people say, accepting what is true and rejecting
what is false. [Life Application SB]
There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there
is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of
Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been
held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our
ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth
can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close
investigation. We are living in perilous times, and it does not become us to
accept everything claimed to be truth without examining it thoroughly;
neither can we afford to reject anything that bears the fruits of the
Spirit of God; but we should be teachable, meek and lowly of heart.
There are those who oppose everything that is not in accordance with
their own ideas, and by so doing they endanger their eternal interest
as verily as did the Jewish nation in their rejection of Christ.
{CW 35}
The truth is the principle that sanctifies, and therefore it
becomes us to know what is truth. We must compare spiritual things with
spiritual. We must prove all things, but hold fast only that which is good,
that which bears the divine credentials, which lays before us the
true motives and principles which should prompt us to action.--Letter
12, 1890. {2SM 56}
As long as individuals are content with a theory of truth, and
are yet lacking in the daily operation of the Spirit of God upon the
heart, which is manifested in outward transformation of character, they
are cutting themselves off from the qualification that would fit
them for greater efficiency in the Master's work. {2SM 56}
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