I Thessalonians 5:19
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Do not extinguish the Spirit.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Quench not--the Spirit being a holy fire: "where the Spirit is, He burns" [BENGEL] (Mat 3:11; Act 2:3; Act 7:51). Do not throw cold water on those who, under extraordinary inspiration of the Spirit, stand up to speak with tongues, or reveal mysteries, or pray in the congregation. The enthusiastic exhibitions of some (perhaps as to the nearness of Christ's coming, exaggerating Paul's statement, Th2 2:2, By spirit), led others (probably the presiding ministers, who had not always been treated with due respect by enthusiastic novices, Th1 5:12), from dread of enthusiasm, to discourage the free utterances of those really inspired, in the Church assembly. On the other hand, the caution (Th1 5:21) was needed, not to receive "all" pretended revelations as divine, without "proving" them.
Open source ↗The apostle, having spoken in the end of the foregoing chapter concerning the resurrection, and the second coming of Christ, proceeds to speak concerning the uselessness of enquiring after the particular time of Christ's coming, which would be sudden and terrible to the wicked, but comfortable to the saints (Th1 5:1-5). He then exhorts them to the duties of watchfulness, sobriety, and the exercise of faith, love, and hope, as being suitable to their state (Th1 5:6-10). In the next words he exhorts them to several duties they owed to others, or to one another (Th1 5:11-15), afterwards to several other Christian duties of great importance (Th1 5:16-22), and then concludes this epistle (Th1 5:23-28).
Open source ↗5:19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit: Paul exhorts the Thessalonian believers not to put out the Spirit’s fire (Matt 3:11; Acts 2:3; 2 Tim 1:6) by prohibiting prophecy in the church (Jer 20:9; 1 Jn 4:1-2).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you through the prophecy spoken over you at the laying on of the hands of the elders.
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.
So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.”
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And if a revelation comes to someone who is seated, the first speaker should stop.