Christians – Test everything!

A post of Christian concern.

This week I finished teaching a group study in 1 Thessalonians 5 and the practical importance of this verse was made clear to me not only from the study but by many things I have seen in the “Christian world”.

1 Thess 5:20-22 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

This is a call to be discerning – right in the middle of that statement – TEST EVERYTHING.

The standard

For every test there must first be a standard against which we test so that we can rightly interpret the results.

What do we have as a standard, well Paul writes that the aim of the test is to find that which is good so that we may hold fast to it.

Everything that is good comes from the Lord – therefore Paul says test everything to determine what comes from the Lord – God has given something which we can use as that standard, his word of truth – we must test all things by it.

Gods word as the standard is not just a saying for you to carry around, it is an absolute by which you MUST LIVE.

Lip service

I see false churches, with false teachers (many coming from the USA to bring it to Wales) who pay lip service to Jesus and to his word but then they base everything they do on the visions of their mind and fresh words of revelation into their ear from “the spirit” – certainly not God’s Spirit. I saw today, a video of a revivalist and a tv personality talking for 20 unbiblical, self serving minutes about his “revival” and then afterwards urge people to trust the bible – by ignoring it and following their visions.

The worst thing is that droves of people run in to the exciting and emotional movement of preachers shouting nonsense and telling jokes and never rightly dividing the word of truth or even opening their bibles!

Put your belief, the crowds you follow and particularly those claiming revivals, miracles and anointing’s to the test of scripture. Not against a verse or 2 out of context but to the test of the canon, the whole counsel of God!