1 Thessalonians 5:19

1 Thessalonians 5:19. Quench not the Spirit. The Spirit being first revealed as a cleansing fire and an enlightening flame, is spoken of as being extinguished, when His influence is resisted either by sensual and worldly living, or ‘by a studied repression and disregard of its manifestation, arising from erroneous perceptions and a mistaken dread of enthusiasm' (Ellicott). The succeeding clause, ‘despise not prophesyings,' shows that it is the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit's operation which Paul chiefly has in view. Writing from Corinth, where the gift of prophesying was not uncommon (1 Corinthians 14), he was alive to all the dangers which accompanied these spiritual gifts. Especially he saw that there was a tendency to undervalue the exhortations given by those who were under an extraordinary spiritual influence. These ‘prophesyings' (i.e. not predictions, but utterances of this supernatural kind) might be undervalued either by those who heard or by those who uttered them. Afraid of being singular, afraid of the sneer of unbelievers, afraid of the responsibility of taking a lead in the Church, they might repress the Spirit in them, for ‘the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets. And this inspired preaching might be undervalued by those who heard it proceeding from the lips of men they knew to be uneducated or weak in business affairs.