QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT

A study of 1 Thessalonians 5:19.

The work of the Holy Spirit is sometimes pictured to be like that of fire (See Isaiah 4:4; Revelation 4:5.). On the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came in His fullness upon the believers who waited, "there came a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house . . . And there appeared to them tongues as of fire . . ." (Acts 2:2-3).

Fire has many uses in life. It provides warmth in the winter. It allows for the preparation of food, or driving an automobile. In fact, fire is essential to life. Without the continual burning of the sun, the universe, as we know it, would die a cold death. So when the "tongues as of fire" appeared on the believers that first Pentecost, that event indicated that the sovereign God was infusing into the church new life from above. Having been received however, the maintenance of that life then became the individual and collective responsibility of the church. Thus, in his letter to the church at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul commanded, "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

As a young boy I remember summer days when along with a couple of other friends from the neighborhood, we would take long hikes down the railroad tracks into the country. We carried our BB guns, canteens and knapsacks, usually of World War II vintage purchased from a local Army surplus store. The hike involved making a day camp near a pond or a creek, and lighting a fire over which we would cook a can of beans, fry burgers, or roast hot dogs and marshmallows. When it came time to break camp and return home, we doused the fire with water, either poured out from our canteens or dipped from a nearby pond. The sight and the sound of the dousing are vivid in my mind to this day--the hissing of hot coals, the steam, and the rancid smoke. That's the sense of the word "quench." It means to put out, to extinguish the flame. We see in this command that the activity of the Holy Spirit can be suppressed, even extinguished in the life of a local church. Then how is it that individuals or local churches extinguish the work of the Holy Spirit?

We note in 1 Thessalonians 5 some of the newer translations (ASV, NASB, NIV, RSV) place a semi-colon between verses 19 and 20, indicating that in the translators' view, the thoughts expressed in the two verses are not separate, but complimentary. This is further indicated by the fact that the negative "not" precedes both imperatives ("do not quench" and "do not despise"). It is then fair to understand that verse 20 provides one example of how the Holy Spirit can be quenched. Christians and churches can quench the Holy Spirit's ministry when they despise "prophetic utterances" (1 Thessalonians 5:20).

In the early church, prophecy involved a prophet's announcement of God's unmediated Word. Through the prophet God's Word came directly to the people. It came in the form of "prophetic utterances". Now that God has finished speaking to His people in that way (1 Corinthians 13:8), it may be viewed that preaching takes the place of prophesying when the preacher preaches the Bible, the mediated prophetic Word. Mediate preaching involves heralding the Scriptures, line upon line and precept upon precept. If this is not done in the local church, then the pastor who will not preach the Bible, and/or the people who will not listen to it, "quench" the work of the Spirit who inspired the Word (See 2 Peter 1:21.).

As pastors in America refuse to preach the Word, or as congregations refuse hear the Word, churches die a steaming and smoking death. Churches that "quench" the Spirit in this way become burned over relics, the charcoal ashes being the only testimony to what was, once-upon-a-time, the Spirit's vital flame in their midst.

Dear friend, that is why we along with many of our congregations do not experience authentic spiritual power or revival. It may be that the Word is not central in our private lives as busyness distracts us from spending quality time reading the Bible on a daily basis. Or it may be that the Word is not central to the church's public worship (See 2 Timothy 4:2.).

Populist and mainstream evangelical religion these days seems to hold biblical preaching to be either secondary or unnecessary. Many churches either depreciate or ignore that ministry as people get excited over excitement, as worship teams, drama and dance become more important than heralding the sacred text. Emotion, motion and commotion attempt to provide the impression that a fresh work of the Spirit is being experienced. But emotional catharsis neither compensates or substitutes for a genuine working of the Spirit. Either way, the fallout of ignoring the preached word is that the Spirit's work in our lives is not fueled, but quenched.

By Pastor Larry DeBruyn