1 Tessalonicenses 5
David Guzik · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 Tessalonicenses 5:17
Guzik notes that we are commanded to pray without ceasing but... We can’t bow our heads, close our eyes, and fold our hands without ceasing, but those are customs or prayer, not prayer itself. Prayer is communication with God, and we can live each minute of the day in a constant, flowing, conversation with God. There is significant, important value in a time where we shut out all other distractions and focus on God in a time of closet prayer (Mt 6:6-note). But there is also room - and great value - in every-moment-of-the-day fellowship with God. There are many valuable implications from this command... · The use of the voice is not an essential element in prayer. · The posture of prayer is not of primary importance. · The place of prayer is not of great importance. · The particular time of prayer is not important. · A Christian should never be in a place where he could not pray.
1 Tessalonicenses 5:18
Guzik comments that... After each one of these exhortations - rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks - we are told to do them because it is the will of God. The thought isn’t “this is God’s will, so you must do it.” The thought is rather “this is God’s will, so you can do it.” It isn’t easy to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, but we can do it because it is God’s will. (Ref) This is God's will - Paul was not teaching that we should thank God for everything that happens to us, but in everything. Even in evil circumstances, we can still be thankful for God's presence and for the good that He will accomplish through the distress. Will (2307)(thelema from thelo = to will with the "-ma" suffix indicating the result of the will = "a thing willed") generally speaks of the result of what one has decided. One sees this root word in the feminine name "Thelma." In its most basic form, thelema refers to a wish, a strong desire, and the willing of some event. (Note: See also the discussion of the preceding word boule for comments relating to thelema). Zodhiates says that thelema is the "Will, not to be conceived as a demand, but as an expression or inclination of pleasure towards that which is liked, that which pleases and creates joy. When it denotes God's will, it signifies His gracious disposition toward something. Used to designate what God Himself does of His own good pleasure. (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. AMG) Thelema - 62x in 58v - Mt 6:10; 7:21; 12:50; 18:14; 21:31; 26:42; Mark 3:35; Luke 12:47; 22:42; 23:25; Jn 1:13; 4:34; 5:30; 6:38, 39, 40; 7:17; 9:31; Acts 13:22; 21:14; 22:14; Ro 1:10-note; Ro 2:18-note; Ro 12:2-note; Ro 15:32-note; 1Cor 1:1; 7:37; 16:12; 2Cor 1:1; 8:5; Gal 1:4; Ep 1:1-note, Ep 1:5-note, Ep 1:9-note, Ep 1:11-note; Ep 2:3-note; Ep 5:17-note; Ep 6:6-note; Col 1:1-note, Col 1:9-note; Col 4:12-note; 1Th 4:3-note; 1Th 5:18-note; 2Ti 1:1-note; 2Ti 2:26-note; He 10:7-note, He 10:9-note, He 10:10-note, He 10:36-note; He 13:21-note; 1Pe 2:15-note; 1Pe 3:17-note; 1Pe 4:2-note, 1Pe 4:19-note; 2Pe 1:21-note; 1Jn 2:17; 5:14; Rev 4:11-note. NAS = desire(1), desires(1), will(57). Thelema has both an objective meaning (“what one wishes to happen”) and a subjective connotation (“the act of willing or desiring”). The word conveys the idea of desire, even a heart’s desire, for the word primarily expresses emotion instead of volition. Thus God’s will is not so much God’s intention, as it is His heart’s desire. It is God’s gracious disposition. Don't complain about thorns among the roses! Be grateful for roses among the thorns! (Jas 1:2-note; Phil 4:6-note) All the way my savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who thro’ life has been my guide? heav’nly peace divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well; For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well; Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for ev’ry trial, Feeds me with the living bread; Tho’ my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! a spring of joy I see; Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! a spring of joy I see; All the way, my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father’s house above: When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song thro’ endless ages: Jesus led me all the way; This my song thro’ endless ages: Jesus led me all the way; Do not meet adverse circumstances of life with a spirit of stoic resignation but with a spirit of unfailing gratitude. (Heb 12:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 see notes He 12:5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11 to help understand this powerful truth of God's discipline & its ultimate purpose...then with that perspective you can offer thanks in everything, even though you may feel or be experiencing sorrow. It is "Him-possible") In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are in prison in Philippi and Luke records that... But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25) Such an attitude is possible only by the grace of God and the empowering Spirit of God. As someone has said ''He who can say 'Amen' to the will of God in his heart will be able to say 'Hallelujah' also.'' Ray
1 Tessalonicenses 5:19
Guzik - We can quench the fire of the Spirit by our doubt, our indifference, our rejection of Him, or by the distraction of others. When people start to draw attention to themselves, it is a sure quench to the Spirit... this command is based on the familiar image of the Holy Spirit as a fire or a flame. Though there is a sense in which fire cannot be created, we can provide the environment in which it can burn brightly. Yet a flame can be extinguished when it is ignored and no longer tended, or when the flame is overwhelmed by something else. (1 Thessalonians 5) Tim Schoap - Paul has in view the work of the Spirit, in particular the direction and guidance of the Spirit that is given in "prophetic utterances." Paul’s point here has especially to do with the prophetic gifts and ministry of the Spirit - the "speaking" gifts: teaching, preaching, tongues and their interpretation, "wisdom," "knowledge," and the like. How then do we quench the Spirit? When we ignore Him, whether willfully or unconsciously. When we do not listen to what the Spirit is telling us, by not spending time in God’s Word or by not putting ourselves under the Word’s authority. Can any believer acting in this way be filled with the Spirit? Walking by the Spirit? Unlike filling and walking, grieving and quenching are actions, not states of mind or mental attitudes. Grieving focuses on our relationship with other believers. Grieving the Spirit is more tightly focused than quenching the Spirit. Quenching focuses on our response to the Word of God. Quenching the Spirit is a broader sin, more general in nature. Grieving is primarily sins of speech and relationships within the body, affecting its unity. Quenching is primarily ignoring the prompting of the Spirit to obedience, affecting the believer’s purity. Both grieving and quenching are actions which reject the control of the Spirit (filling) and dependence on the Spirit (walking) in favor of the flesh, resulting in sin’s mastery. Is it possible to be filled with the Spirit, yet harbor some secret (or open) sin? No. Is it possible to grow spiritually? Yes - for example, Peter with the Galatians. Our own experience confirms that we grow in some areas while others stubbornly continue to bedevil and beset us. So what? How do we apply this practically so that we know some of Christ’s triumph over sin? Think back to the beginning of this lesson for a moment, to those formulaic expressions of the Spirit’s ministry. Campus Crusade’s = desire; confess; claim MacArthur’s Eph. 5:18 = Col. 3:16 Chafer’s = grieve not, quench not, walk by = filled with While they are not inaccurate, they are too rote to be complete. They are inadequate to express the core of the Spirit’s ministry - relationship. They tend too easily toward manipulation: "Do this, and God will do that." Relationships are not defined and built by keeping lists. They are built with one key ingredient: trust, which flows from love. That ingredient of trust then has real implications for the control we give someone in our life. How will we act with someone if we trust them? Vulnerable, open, accepting, forgiving, listen to them, talk to them. We must approach the Spirit as a person, as someone we are in relationship with, and trust him. What does it mean to trust someone? Willingness to give up control. The level of control you grant someone is directly affected by your level of trust. How does it feel to be out of control? Do any of us have it? No, but we all like to pretend. Prov. 19:21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand. Prov. 20:24 Man's steps are ordained by the Lord, how then can man understand his way? Control is an illusion, and the need to know "why" is merely to increase our illusion of control. Gal. 5:17 says "the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." It is almost as if we stand in the middle, and can trust in the flesh of self-effort with the result being sin’s mastery, or the Spirit of Life, with the result of putting to death the deeds of the body. In reality there is no choice but to trust, to yield control, to live in relationship to the Holy Spirit. How do you destroy a relationship? Ignore them, act against them or their wishes, insist on control, distrust. Who do you trust? (From Tim Schoap's "The Spiritual Life") F B
1 Tessalonicenses 5:20
Guzik - We recognize that the Lord speaks to and through His people today, and we learn to be open to His voice. Of course, we always test prophecies (following the command to test all things), but we do not despise prophecies. James Denney adds that... The prophet was a man whose rational and moral nature had been quickened by the Spirit of Christ, and who possessed in an uncommon degree the power of speaking edification, exhortation, and comfort. In other words, he was a Christian preacher, endued with wisdom, fervor, and tenderness; and his spiritual addresses were among the Lord’s best gifts to the Church. Such addresses, or prophesyings, Paul tells us, we are not to despise. Now despise is a strong word; it is, literally, to set utterly at naught, as Herod set at naught Jesus, when he clothed Him in purple, or as the Pharisees set at naught the publicans, even when they came into the Temple to pray. Of course, prophecy, or, to speak in the language of our own time, the preacher’s calling, may be abused: a man may preach without a message, without sincerity, without reverence for God or respect for those to whom he speaks, he may make a mystery, a professional secret, of the truth of God, instead of declaring it even to little children; he may seek, as some who called themselves prophets in early times sought, to make the profession of godliness a source of gain; and under such circumstances no respect is due. But such circumstances are not to be assumed without cause. We are rather to assume that he who stands up in the Church to speak in God’s name has had a word of God entrusted to him; it is not wise to despise it before it is heard. It may be because we have been so often disappointed that we pitch our hopes so low; but to expect nothing is to be guilty of a sort of contempt by anticipation. To despise not prophesyings requires us to look for something from the preacher, some word of God that will build us up in godliness, or bring us encouragement or consolation; it requires us to listen as those who have a precious opportunity given them of being strengthened by Divine grace and truth. We ought not to lounge or fidget while the word of God is spoken, or to turn over the leaves of the Bible at random, or to look at the clock; we ought to hearken for that word which God has put into the preacher’s mouth for us; and it will be a very exceptional prophesying in which there is not a single thought that it would repay us to consider. (1 Thessalonians 5 Commentary)
1 Tessalonicenses 5:23
Guzik comments that "The idea behind the word sanctify is “to set apart” - to make something different and distinct, breaking old associations and forming a new association. For example, a dress is a dress; but a wedding dress is sanctified - set apart for a special, glorious purpose. God wants us to be set apart to Him...In all that he told the Christian to do in 1Thessalonians 4:1 through 1Th 5:22, he never intended that they do them in their own power. More Christians are defeated on account of self-reliance than on account of Satanic attack. (1 Thessalonians 5 ) Morris agrees with Guzik writing that "The way in which he effects the transition... indicates that it is only in the power of the God on whom he calls that his exhortations can be brought to fruition. ‘I have been urging you to do certain things, but it is only in God’s strength that you will be able to do them. (Morris, Leon. The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians. The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957)
1 Tessalonicenses 5:23
Guzik writes that the trichotomist view has "some merit, but also has problems. One might say that Mark 12:30 divides man’s nature into four parts (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and that 1Corinthians 7:34 divides man’s nature into two parts (body and spirit). In some passages the terms soul and spirit seem to be synonymous, other times they seem to be distinct and hard to define precisely. It seems that there are indeed these three different aspects to the human person, yet the specific meaning of spirit or soul must be determined by the context. (Ibid)