Healthy Christians - 17

Are you a spiritually healthy Christian? And how do you know?

It's a good question. Last week in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 through 15, we examined Paul's information about how to have a healthy church. And one of the things we learned is that healthy churches are made up of healthy Christians. But what is a healthy Christian?

What exactly does that look like? People have all different kinds of ideas about what that means, but like everything else, we need to go to the Word of God to find the answer to that question. How do Christians develop good spiritual health? And today's text in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 22 will help us as we endeavor to understand this question. In a series of rapid-fire staccato commands, Paul shows us the way to healthy Christianity.

And he indicates that there are two primary areas for healthy development. One is personal godliness, and the other is spiritual discernment. And so, how to develop a spiritually healthy personal Christian faith? Number one, develop personal godliness. What does that look like?

Many people have different ideas about what is godliness, what constitutes a godly Christian. What does that look like? Listen to the inspired words of the Apostle Paul.

Here's what it looks like. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Personal godliness. Now, Paul only touches on three areas, and there are others that are also needing our development as well, and we find them in other parts of God's Word. But these three are mentioned in this text, and they are prominent.

And if we'll get these in place, I'm sure many of the others will fall into place much more easily as well. Three areas for personal development. Number one, choose joy. Number two, cultivate prayer. And number three, practice thanksgiving. Choose joy.

Rejoice always. Let me see if I can break down that short phrase. I point out to you, first of all, that it is a command. It is not a suggestion.

It is not a recommendation. It is not simply an ideal. It is, in the Greek, an imperative. That means a command. Be joyful always.

Rejoice always. It is a command of God. That means, therefore, that it is at least in part based upon a decision, an act of the will, a choice to either obey or disobey this command. God says, do it. We will either obey or we will disobey.

We will neglect to do what God has commanded. But I hasten on to say that on the basis of other texts, we know that this also depends upon enablement by the Spirit of God. In fact, in this very passage, as we get into the items that come a few verses later, we get smack dab into the work of the Spirit of God. So it's not far from the verse that we're looking at now in verse 16. But nevertheless, we are specifically told elsewhere that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love.

And then what's number two? Joy. And then peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. So when Paul says rejoice always, he's talking to those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And he says this comes as a result of the new birth. It comes as a result of the presence of the Holy Spirit within. It comes as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit who enables you. It comes as a result of your yielding to that work and not, as we will see in a few verses, quenching the Spirit.

You are following what the Spirit is teaching you to do. It is an enablement of the Holy Spirit of God. As Paul also makes clear in Romans 14 17 when he says, For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God.

What's it look like? What if you if you got citizens of God's kingdom together, what would you find? What would be what would characterize that great gathering of people, this kingdom of God? Well, he tells us here it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, enabled by the Spirit of God. So it is a command.

Rejoice always. It is a decision, a choice that we make to obey or disobey this command. It is, however, an enablement that depends upon the work of the Holy Spirit, who is indwelling every born again Christian and is there to enable every Christian to obey every command that God addresses to us. It is an enablement. Number four, it is a lifestyle, because not only is this an imperative verb, but it's also a present imperative.

It goes on continuously at all times, which is indicated by that word always. Be rejoicing continually. Be rejoicing always. Be joyful always at all times.

Are you getting the idea that Paul is a spokesman for God, directed by his spirit, is telling us that Christians are expected to be joyful at all times? Well, now wait a minute. I don't think that. I don't see how.

That really isn't possible. Says who? Not the Spirit of God, not the word of the living God, not the inspired apostle who speaks to us.

He's not under the impression that this is not possible. Christians are expected to be joyful at all times. Christians are responsible to be joyful at all times. Christians are responsible to choose to be joyful at all times. Christians are responsible to make this being joyful always a reality in our lives at all times, because, you see, perpetual sadness demonstrates mistrust in God.

Those who are perpetually sad evidently don't trust God's power. They don't think he has the power to protect them and to meet their needs. They mistrust God's providence. They don't think he's wise enough to guide their lives in fruitful ways. They don't trust his forgiveness in some cases.

They aren't certain that God has really forgiven their sins, even though he has promised to forgive the sins of those who trust in Jesus Christ. On it goes in various areas of mistrust. And when you are not joyful, you are demonstrating that you are not trustful.

You are not believing God the way that you should. And so that brings me to apply this in a couple of areas, and I want to be careful and sensitive but biblical in what I say. When, first of all, I address the condition of depression that weighs down upon many of God's people. Depression is real. Depression is difficult. Depression is debilitating. Depression involves varying levels of difficulty and varying levels of personal responsibility.

And in each individual case, only God knows how much of that depression and that particular person is a result of factors that are physical and are indeed beyond their normal control unless God moves in a special way in their lives. But one thing that our text is making clear to us is that we are never, in this area, we are never totally helpless victims. We have some part to play in our depression because the command that says, be joyful always, doesn't say be joyful always unless you have some kind of special condition in which case you are excused. We are not totally helpless victims.

None of us are. We are the objects of many factors, and there's no question that some of God's people struggle mightily with issues of depression that do not affect others. And it's going to make this command harder to obey, and it's going to make failure more likely to come frequently in those lives. But nevertheless, there must never be the sense that I can only yield to this. There's nothing I can do about it. It has come upon me.

My hands are tied. There is nothing that I can do to help this when the Bible says very clearly, rejoice always, a choice, a command, rejoice always with the help of the Holy Spirit. Choose joy.

Choose to rejoice. Do not succumb to this depression as it descends upon you. There are many of God's choice saints down through the years who have been plagued by depression.

One of the best examples, I suppose, is the hymn writer William Cooper, spelled Cowper but pronounced Cooper, who wrote, there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. If you know anything about the life of William Cooper, you know that his life was plagued by depression. On one occasion, he set out to commit suicide. He walked to the London Bridge, and he was going to cast himself off into the River Thames.

But the fog, London is filled with foggy days and foggy nights, and the fog was so heavy and thick, he lost his way, and he didn't make it there, and he couldn't carry out his plans for suicide. But such was his depression that he struggled with all of his life. In the providence of God, later in his life, he was put into partnership with John Newton, another hymn writer who wrote Amazing Grace, who pastored a church in Olney, England. And Cooper lived right next door, and they became friends, and Newton was a great help to him in praying with him and encouraging him in his depression. God gave him help, but he struggled with that all of his life. Some of you are aware that the great Charles Spurgeon reports that much of his life was spent battling depression. But this is something that, and I've read a number of biographies of Charles Spurgeon, and this is something that I have noticed. His depression, though very real to him, apparently was undetectable to those around him. It was real.

It was within. It bore down upon him that because he was a healthy Christian who called upon the enabling power of God's Spirit, he managed to be joyful and exhibit trust in God and to encourage others and to preach, to carry on his ministry in a way that those around him did not even know that he was suffering from depression, which I think supports what I'm saying, that when we obey the command to be joyful, we can mitigate things like depression, which very well may have a medical source, a medical cause. Depression. But I'm not done. That only affects a few of you, I suppose, but listen to this. This command also speaks to grumpiness, which is also a choice that some of you are smiling and maybe already be getting ready to squirm.

All right, here we go. Grumpiness. That's a choice. The Bible tells us that we are responsible to be joyful, not expect others to accommodate our periods of grumpiness. That's just the way I am.

You have to understand. Just don't expect me to be cheerful before eight o'clock in the morning. Just don't expect me to be cheerful until 10 o'clock. Just don't expect me to be cheerful until I've had at least one or two cups of coffee.

I mean, that's just the way it is. Yes, I'm grumpy. I know I'm grumpy, but you'll just have to accept that.

Oh, no, no, no, no. Yes, you're grumpy. You know you're grumpy. And you're just going to have to change that because the Bible says choose joy. Be joyful always, even before eight o'clock in the morning and your first cup of coffee. Don't be one of those people that when sometimes someone calls you on the telephone, they say, what is the matter with him or her today? Grumpy, grumpy.

If you're feeling down, when you answer the phone, people shouldn't be able to tell any difference between your feeling down and your feeling up. Because you're going to choose to be joyful. Rejoice always. It's a choice. And that choice is enabled by the Holy Spirit when you make the right choice. This may come as a shock to some people, but a dower attitude is not a manifestation of godliness. Godliness is not a long face and a dower spirit. Godliness is not doom and gloom. Godliness is not bearing the weight of judgment upon your shoulders at all times. This is godliness. Rejoice always. That's godliness. According to the Bible, that's godliness.

Choose joy. Number two, cultivate prayer. Pray without ceasing. What is prayer? Very simple. Prayer is talking to God.

That's about as simple a definition as you can possibly have. Prayer is talking to God. And prayer is a practice that, according to the Bible, is important to spiritual health. If there's something going on, we better find out what it is. Debbie Red is having a medical emergency.

9-11 has been called. Let's pray for our sister right now. Heavenly Father, we commit our dear sister Debbie Red to You in prayer, thankful that we can pray to You and know that You hear us. We ask now that You will minister to her in this time of need, that You will give her the help that she needs, that You will strengthen her, that You will fill her with joy even in this time of trial, that You will strengthen her faith, and that You will use this to bring honor to Christ and to be a testimony to those around her, as we ask it now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Cultivate prayer. Prayer is talking to God. And it is very important to our spiritual health that we cultivate a life of prayer. To pray without ceasing does not mean to pray incessantly.

That, of course, is not possible, even for monks in a monastery who withdraw from the world for the purpose of being able to devote many undistracted hours in prayer. But they don't pray 24-7 because that, of course, is not possible and therefore is not what Paul is talking about here. But what he's talking about is living in a constant attitude of prayer, living in a constant attitude of dependence upon God, living in a constant attitude of humility before God, living in a constant attitude of confession of sins before God so that nothing hinders us in going immediately to Him in prayer at any moment of any day, all day long. To pray constantly is to live lives that are permeated by the presence of God, a consciousness that we are never outside of the presence of God, a consciousness that God is only one word of prayer away. And prayers don't have to be long and eloquent for God to hear them and for God to use them and bless them. When Peter got out of the ship and started walking on that water and his faith failed, he didn't say, Now almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, ruler, sovereign ruler of the universe. He said, Lord, help! Lord, save! That was it!

And that was enough. He didn't have to confess his sins first because he lived in an attitude of prayer. He didn't have to prepare his heart to cry out to God for help because he was living in an attitude of prayer and an attitude of being constantly in the presence of almighty God.

And so praying constantly without ceasing is regular communication with God throughout the day as events arise, as needs arise, to just pray to God. It's so natural. It's a way of life. It is a practice of healthy Christianity. It is what healthy Christians develop. And it is a mark of healthy Christianity. We're talking about what is a healthy Christian. This is a healthy Christian.

A healthy Christian is one who prays often throughout the day and lives in this attitude of prayer. We're going to let these men come and tend to Debbie at this time. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming and helping our dear sister. Aren't you thankful for men who serve in this capacity as EMTs, people that we can call in times of need like this. Debbie, we love you. We're praying for you. The next time it may be me or you.

We never know. I've known of men who dropped dead in the pulpit while they were preaching. I'm not making any requests.

I'm just reporting on what can happen. Healthy Christianity is number one, choosing joy. Number two, cultivating prayer. How are you doing so far? I asked you at the beginning, are you a healthy Christian, spiritually healthy?

How are you doing so far? Number three, a healthy Christian practices thanksgiving. Verse 18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. In everything give thanks. Choosing joy and praying without ceasing. Focus primarily upon time, what we are doing at all times. We are at all times.

We are being joyful at all times throughout the day and all events of our lives. And likewise with prayer. This third one, Thanksgiving, focuses upon circumstances. It doesn't say at all times give thanks, though it's hard to separate these two ideas completely. But it says in everything give thanks, in every circumstance, in every event, in every difficulty, in every thing that comes into our lives, we are instructed to give thanks. So the third area of healthy Christianity is to cultivate a grateful heart. And how do we do that?

Let me suggest some things. First of all, we must acknowledge from whom all blessings flow. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Every good gift, every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Acknowledge that God is the source of all blessings.

He is the one who gives them. Number two, and this is very important, acknowledge God's sovereign right of bestowment. God is not obligated to bestow any blessing upon anyone.

That perhaps is the one that comes with difficulty to some people. They've never thought of it that way. We tend to feel entitled, don't we? God owes me this. God owes me that. If God takes my health away, that's not right. God shouldn't have done that. He owes me good health to the end of my life.

Where did you get that idea? And by the way, how will you ever come to the end of your life if God owes you good health forever to the end of your life? Unless you want to go out by way of a tragic accident or something of that nature. But of course, we don't choose, do we? God is sovereign in His bestowments. It's His choice. It's His right to decide what He's going to give to each one.

And He, as the sovereign ruler of the universe, has every right to do that, and we must acknowledge that. We'll have a hard time developing a grateful heart if we're resisting that truth. Number three, we need to acknowledge what we truly deserve. We have no claim on any blessing. We don't deserve any of them. Really, we don't. If we think we do, we don't understand who we are. If we think we do, we don't understand how sinful we are. If we think we do, we don't understand the greatness of our estrangement from God our Maker in our sinfulness. And therefore, we need to acknowledge what we truly deserve, and we need to understand that if we are not in a hell, we have already received God's greatest mercy because that's what I deserve.

I deserve to be in hell, and so do you. Do you understand that? Have you acknowledged that? Can you say that?

That'll strike a blow at our pride, but it's the truth. I deserve to be in hell right now by the goodness, by the mercy, by the blessing of God. I'm not. And by the mercy and blessing of God, I never shall be because I have been saved by the grace of God, and I'm not going to hell, but that's what I deserve. I don't pray for God to give me what I deserve.

I get sick. I don't say, Lord, what did I do to deserve that? I deserve far worse than that.

I have some other difficulty in my life. Lord, what did I do to deserve that? I deserve far worse than that. Acknowledge what you truly deserve, and if you will do those three things, acknowledge from whom all blessings flow, acknowledge God's sovereign right of bestowment, acknowledge what you truly deserve, that'll get rid of the entitlement mentality.

It so seems to permeate our society. I'm entitled to this. I'm entitled to that. You are entitled to eternal hell.

No more. And that'll help us develop a humble spirit of gratitude. Then anything and everything we receive from the hand of God is a blessing and is worthy of praise and thanksgiving and giving glory to God. And so we must cultivate a grateful heart, but more than that, we must cultivate a thankful expression. This doesn't say in everything feel thankful, but it says in everything give thanks. Obviously that is first and foremost to God in our prayers to Him, but it is also to others and in the presence of others. We don't only thank God privately.

We also thank Him publicly. It's a shock sometimes, and I'm sure you've experienced this too, but it happened to me not too many days ago. I was in the store, and I was going through the checkout, and the lady asked me what she probably asked every person who'd come through the line. Are you having a good day or something similar to that? And I said, I sure am by the goodness and grace of God. And she looked at me like I was some kind of a kook.

I think I was the first person who had answered her that way. Yes, I'm having a good day. Thank the Lord.

Yes, I'm having a good day by the mercy and goodness of God, and that's only why I'm having a good day. Give thanks. Cultivate a thankful expression. Learn to say thanks regularly to God in the presence of others. And we are told here to give thanks not for some things, not for the things that we decide are good, but give thanks in everything.

What? Give thanks in sickness? Give thanks in everything. Give thanks in the death of a loved one? Give thanks in everything. Give thanks in tragedy and financial reversal? Give thanks in everything.

Now, technically, it is in everything and not necessarily for everything, and this is a minor difference, but it'll help. We don't necessarily thank God for the difficult event, but for the good that God brings out of that difficult event. We know, don't we? Isn't that what Romans 8.28 says? And we know, know, we know that all things work together for good. And so whatever it is, we know God is working it for our good.

If we're His children, if we're called according to His purpose, we know that He's working it for our good. It is not the tragedy, the sickness, the problem that is of itself a good thing. It's the power, wisdom, and goodness of God that is taking that and making it a good thing in my life. Could I give thanks for that?

I sure can. In everything, not necessarily for everything, but in everything, give thanks. Look for evidences of Romans 8.28 and give God thanks.

You can do that. We've all done that. Oh, I don't know how God's going to bring good out of this. And then in the passing of sometimes, sometimes a few hours, sometimes a few days, sometimes some weeks and months, but we can look back and say, oh, I see the wisdom of God in that. Oh, I see the goodness of God in that. Oh, I see what good things God did in my life in that. Yep, there's the fulfillment of Romans 8.28. Now, the next thing that comes that you haven't seen that yet, can you believe it by faith that that's what God is going to do?

He's faithfully done that every time in the past, and He's going to do that every time in the present. So in everything, give thanks, even for those things that you haven't yet seen the good. It will come. It will be there because God has promised. Believe God for future fulfillments and give Him thanks. Therefore, my heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who bore my pain, who plumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again, who crushed my curse of sinfulness and clothed me in His light and wrote His law of righteousness with power upon my heart. My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who walks beside, who floods my weaknesses with strength and causes fears to fly, whose every promise is enough for every step I take, sustaining me with arms of love and crowning me with grace. My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who reigns above, whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose every thought is love, for every day I have on earth is given by the King, so I will give my life, my all, to love and follow Him. Cultivate thankfulness. That's healthy Christianity. And Paul ends this trio of commands with the phrase, This is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Some attach that just to thanksgiving, but it actually in the Greek is considered by most scholars to be attached to all three. Choose joy, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you. Cultivate prayer, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you. Be constantly thankful, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you. And this is what spiritually healthy Christians look like.

And this is what we need to develop. Sometimes you hear people talk about being a spirit-filled Christian and sometimes what they mean is I've spoken in tongues. This is what a spirit-filled Christian looks like, a heart filled with joy and thanksgiving and prayerfulness, tongues or no tongues. You can speak in tongues and be as ornery as an angry rooster and that is not a spirit-filled Christian.

You can never speak in tongues and have cultivated joy and prayer and thanksgiving in your heart and you are manifesting the life of the spirit within. That's a spirit-filled Christian. But we must hurry on, there's another whole area to develop and that's exercise spiritual discernment.

And so the commands go on. Verse 19, do not quench the spirit. Verse 20, do not despise prophecies. Verse 21, test all things, hold fast what is good. Verse 22, abstain from every form of evil.

This is a command as well, don't quench the spirit. Throughout the Bible the spirit's activity is likened to fire. Matthew 4-11, John said I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And on the day of Pentecost when they were gathered together in one place and the Holy Spirit came with a rushing mighty wind then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one sat upon each of them. There's a lot of other texts where the work of the Holy Spirit is associated with fire. So since the spirit's activity is likened to fire then opposition to the spirit's activity is likened to extinguishing or putting out a fire, to dampen it, to throw water on it, to smother it, to suppress it. And here we are told don't quench the spirit. Don't impede the work of the spirit in your life as he is convicting you of sin. Don't impede the life of the spirit and the life of others around you as the Holy Spirit is dealing with them. Don't impede the work of the spirit in the church as the spirit of God is at work and some people have been guilty of doing these very things. The problem is not everyone knows in every case what is the work of the Holy Spirit and we're going to get a little better insight into that in a moment. But this is a general command for us to give careful attention to by God's help and grace that we not be guilty of impeding the work of God's spirit. But that command is no club to stifle every question or doubt about claims of spiritual power as some people have used it. Don't you question our practice of tongues? You're quenching the spirit.

Don't you question this? You're quenching the spirit and so forth. Actually the next two commands tell us just the opposite and we'll see that. But quench not the spirit is a warning. It tells us that the Holy Spirit's active power is possible to impede or stop. Now it's not because the Holy Spirit is short on power but it is because the Holy Spirit will sometimes withdraw His power, choose not to operate His power when He sees God's children who are resistant to His work. Remember how it tells us when Jesus was in Nazareth that He could do very few miracles there because they didn't believe Him?

Now He had the power to do it but He chose not to. But there is another area of development all in this category of spiritual discernment and that's don't reject prophecy, verse 20. Do not despise prophecies. What is prophecy? Prophecy is the message of a prophet. It's not necessarily foretelling the future though if the prophet is given divine revelation about the future then it will involve that but that's not what prophecy is. Prophecy is the message of a prophet. The Old Testament prophets spoke the word of God as it was given to them.

Many times it was a word of warning to the people right then and not foretelling the future but oftentimes it was foretelling the future. But you see in the New Testament in the early days there were also prophets. There were apostles, there were prophets, there were evangelists, and there were pastor-teachers according to Ephesians 4-11. And He that is Christ gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And what were New Testament prophets? They were the same as Old Testament prophets.

Men and in some cases women who were given divine revelation by God to speak to the people of God. Prophecy is the message of a prophet. And so in the New Testament prophets proclaimed new covenant truth in New Testament assemblies when there weren't any New Testament scriptures.

They had the Old Testament but they didn't have the New Testament to bring the greater light and truth and fulfillment of the new covenant to bear upon the old covenant. And so God gave to the churches men who were prophets to be able to speak divine revelation and God would guide them into new covenant truth. And Paul therefore warns this church in these days when prophets were still active, he warns them not to despise prophecy which means don't treat it as no account, don't reject it with contempt. For evidently the misuse of it by some had caused others to reject the legitimate use of it. In Paul's first Corinthian epistle he indicates that this spiritual gift of prophecy can be misunderstood and misused. And that sometimes people can claim to speak the word of God when in fact they're only speaking their own thoughts.

So yes it is possible to misuse it but that doesn't justify throwing out the legitimate use of it. But there's much evidence that I don't have time to go into now that prophecy ceased with the death of the apostles and the completion of the Bible, the New Testament scriptures. And when the scriptures were given the things that the prophets were saying and the assemblies was all written down for Christians to read and for preachers to preach. They didn't need prophets to give that to them anymore.

And therefore prophecy ceased with the apostles. Today we have prophecy right here. This whole book is prophecy. This whole book is what the prophets have spoken and in this case written.

That's what it is. It is the words of the prophets. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And therefore the application for this today, do not despise prophecies, is don't reject the word of God. To despise or reject prophecy today is to reject unwelcome passages from the Bible.

Because I don't like it, because I don't want to accept it, because I don't want to believe it, I reject it. You are in danger of quenching the spirit of despising prophecy. I'll never forget many years ago now I was at a Bible conference and heard John Riesinger, dear brother in Christ, talking about leading a Bible study through the book of Romans and he came to chapter 9. Most of you will know what he was coming to now. And so in preparation for teaching that day, he read Romans chapter 9. And when he finished, one lady spoke up and said, I don't like what you just said. And he said, well, dear lady, I haven't said anything yet. I just read the Bible. And she said, well, I don't like the way you read it.

I laugh, but I wonder how many times we have done something similar. I don't like what Paul said about the role of women in the church. I don't like what Paul said about order in the home. I don't like what Paul said about this.

I don't like what Paul said about that. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. Don't reject the word of God spoken to us by the prophets of God. So don't quench the spirit. Don't reject prophecy. And number three, don't be gullible, verses 21 and 22. Test all things.

Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Examine every claim carefully. Test all things. Examine, that is, prove.

Test for genuineness and purity. Test everything that claims to be from God, because not all that claims to be from God is from God, which is why John said in 1 John 4, 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets. There's that word prophet again. Many false prophets. There are true prophets. There are false prophets. Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

They need to be tested, don't they? And God's word is the standard, and everything must be tested by it. And so examine claims carefully and embrace truth discerningly. Hold fast what is good.

Hold fast, retain, keep, hold on to. What is good? Whatever is excellent, whatever is genuine. Genuine revelation, divine revelation, must be embraced.

Hold fast, that's a command too, to that which is good. You will be judged someday for your acceptance or rejection of that which was given to us by God. But, finally, reject error decisively. Abstain from every form of evil. Evil is that which is destructive, that which is malignant. It can refer to both doctrine, bad teaching, and behavior, bad living, bad practice. To abstain means to hold at a distance, excuse me, to keep away from. Every form of evil.

Form means an external manifestation of every kind. And here's one of those texts that has been misunderstood because of the translation of the King James Version, which there's really nothing wrong with that translation properly understood, but it has been misunderstood and misapplied. When the King James says abstain from every, what, appearance of evil, some have taken that to mean you not only abstain from what is evil, but even if it looks like it could be evil, or if it looks to somebody else like it's evil, then you've got to abstain from that too. You abstain from evil and you abstain from whatever anybody else decides looks like evil.

And there we go, making rules and regulations like the Pharisees and adding to scripture. And that's not what this is saying. Not avoid whatever looks like evil, even when it's not evil.

That's not what appearance means. But avoid evil of every kind, every type, every variety. That's why you test to find out. And when you find something that is genuinely evil, then you avoid it. Avoid every kind of evil, starting with, in the context, false prophecies.

When you find prophecies that don't pass the test, you reject those decisively. You avoid every kind of evil, every false doctrine, every sinful practice. We are to be alert to the many forms and ways that evil presents itself and keep away from evil in any of its many forms, because many forms of evil have infiltrated churches. And we are to abstain from everything that is truly evil as tested by the word of the living God. Healthy Christianity requires development in two areas to summarize.

Number one, personal godliness, and two, spiritual discernment. Personal godliness without spiritual discernment leads to error and even fanaticism, zeal without knowledge. When you see something that looks like kooky Christianity, it's probably being carried out well-meaningly by people who have developed the personal side but have neglected the doctrinal side, the discernment side. They haven't taken the time to really learn what the Scripture says. And so in their zeal, they keep gravitating to stranger and stranger things out of a desire to be faithful and committed and surrender and willing to sacrifice and willing to be a fool for Christ's sake and so forth.

Believe me, we'll all be fools enough for Christ's sake just being Christians, just living like a Christian, just being joyful and prayerful and thankful in a world of evil and not being entitled in a world of evil will be kooky enough without dressing funny and doing all kinds of strange things that people often do. Personal godliness without spiritual discernment leads to error and even fanaticism. But spiritual discernment, listen to me, in other words an understanding of doctrine, spiritual discernment without personal godliness leads to spiritual pride. Knowledge puffs up, Paul tells us, whereas love edifies. Spiritual knowledge coupled with weak fellowship with Christ, that is orthodoxy without spiritual power or fruit, leads to spiritual pride and lack of spiritual power in our lives, lack of spiritual fruit in our churches. But combining both of these together constitutes healthy Christianity that is both fruitful and effective. Therefore, our prayer ought to be that God will give us an understanding of what is true biblical godliness to develop in our personal relationship with Him and true spiritual discernment to understand the word of God and to get rid of those things that are not true. May God give us a strong desire for this kind of Christianity and the determination to engage in these areas of development, shall we pray. Oh Father, come to us now. We are but children. We need to be taught. We are so easily misled, not only by voices around us that would tell us things that are not exactly true while claiming to be Your word, but we are easily misled from our own wrong thoughts and desires, our own heart that is not yet fully sanctified. And so Father, give us a humility that seeks to know You in joy and prayer and thanksgiving and seeks to understand and apply Your word to every area of life as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.