Test everything and keep what is good
Series: Follow me | Bible text: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–22
With the sentence «Test everything and keep what is good» (1 Thessalonians 5:21), Paul first challenges the church community in Thessalonica at the time, but also us, to a trusting openness towards the Holy Spirit. The listeners are also allowed to be critical throughout and have the task of testing what they hear. What are suitable criteria for this examination?
«Test everything and keep what is good» (1 Thessalonians 5:21 EU) – this is the Lord’s Watchword for 2025. The advice makes sense immediately. Nobody thinks that we should naively believe everything or seriously scrutinise nothing. What sounds banal at first becomes special with its context: In the biblical context, it is about the testing of Spirit-empowered prophecy.
The first letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest letter in the New Testament. It was probably written around 50 AD. Thus, in this letter we find the oldest references to the work of the Holy Spirit in the early church. The major disputes about the Christian approach to questions of the Torah, circumcision or the coexistence of different people in the church have yet to be settled. Thus the letter contains only three topics: 1. the election by Christ, 2. the expectation of his imminent appearance and 3. the common identity through a practice of love (discipleship).
Trusting openness to the Holy Spirit
Paul is interested in an open, fearless, expectant and curious attitude towards the Holy Spirit and his good gifts. In the immediate context, it is about the spiritually determined life of the congregation: «Always be cheerful. Do not stop praying. Whatever happens, be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.» (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NLB). With rejoicing, praying and giving thanks, Paul emphasises the Spirit-led basic features of the Christian faith.
And then Paul explicitly refers to the Holy Spirit and his utterances: «Do not suppress the Holy Spirit. Do not despise prophetic speaking» (1 Thessalonians 5:19f NLB). In Thessaloniki, members of the congregation were obviously prophetic and claimed to speak in a spiritually gifted and inspired manner. Apparently, ecstatic experiences were common. Shouldn’t we first maintain a critical distance? When Paul warns us not to suppress the Holy Spirit, there was at least one group that was getting too colourful and would perhaps prefer to do without the supernatural work of God’s Spirit.
What does the instruction «Examine everything and keep what is good» to do with us in a well-settled Swiss church like the seetal chile? Moreover, unlike the Thessalonians, we have the whole Bible including the New Testament at our disposal, where everything is written for you.
First of all, the message to us is not to suppress the Holy Spirit, not to extinguish the fire (cf. Ephesians 4:30). Wouldn’t it be nice and right if things were sometimes a little more enthusiastic and enthusiastic among us? The Spirit inspires and God (Theos) makes us enthusiastic. The effects and manifestations of God’s spirit are manifold, and we must learn to endure and appreciate this. It would energise our church life and our personal relationship with Jesus if the Spirit of God were given a little more space among us. The motto for the year does not want to close us off, but rather open us up. It wants to open us up to the good things that life, the Spirit of life, has to offer us.
The openness to the Spirit of God recommended by Paul is significant for us today. Because our attitude towards someone or something determines what we experience. With fearful scepticism, we cut ourselves off from certain experiences of God’s presence of mind from the outset. If the phrase «test everything» inhibits our experience, there will soon be nothing left to test.
This year we experienced how the Holy Spirit gave some people the impression that in seetal chile we should focus on the topic of Forgiveness should accept. We took up the impulse and a lot of good has come out of it.
The motto for 2025 encourages us not to be afraid of new and unfamiliar things, but to look at everything with an open mind, examine it carefully and stay in dialogue. This keeps our faith alive and creates freedom. I hope that we can discover both the old and the new with fresh eyes.
Critical trust
«Checks everything […]» When I build a new machine and want to know how long it will last, I have to take the relevant components to the Empa materials testing centre. There, the material is put through its paces. However, they can only test components that are delivered to the laboratory. If they get stuck in reception, there is no testing process. Even in a spiritual sense, we can only test if we first receive what we have heard. This requires an advance of trust. With fearful scepticism, we cut ourselves off from certain experiences of God’s spiritual presence from the outset.
It is challenging that Paul does not demand blind submission to the spiritual speech of God. With him, the Spirit-led examination by the congregation takes precedence over the Spirit-led utterance. Every religious claim to validity must be subjected to common scrutiny. No one can presume to say unequivocally and universally what is good or bad, neither Paul nor the prophetically gifted nor anyone else. What is decisive is a spirit-led joint process. Discernment of spirits is just as much a spiritual gift as prophetic speaking.
Paul trusts the Thessalonians to be able to examine what has been said, even though they do not yet have the New Testament. He also refrains from specifying in detail what is right and wrong. He trusted that the Spirit of God would help them to make the right judgement in the community.
Today, we have a huge religious market of books, podcasts and sermons at our fingertips. When we consume such media, we should also do so with critical trust. We do not have an important New Testament test criterion at hand, namely an insight into the life of the preacher. Representatives of deconstructionism and post-evangelicalism are currently very popular and very active. Both movements share an interest in the critical examination of traditional religious concepts and the reformation of faith. Although the questioning of traditional positions is always desired, the question of the «inalienable», the reliable foundation, the absolute truths remains.
Suitable test criteria
Spirit-empowered speech without reasonable responsibility is a rapture. Just as, conversely, a dogmatism that is fully understood and secured remains a powerless shadow. The following therefore applies: «[…] keep the good.» The continuation in verse 22 links the motto of the year with the contrast between good and evil: «Avoid evil in any form!» (1 Thessalonians 5:22 NLB). There is good and evil – but how can we tell the difference?
When it comes to testing, we find ourselves between two poles: On the one hand, Solomon already said that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). It is very suspicious when someone brings a revolutionary new teaching or characterises himself and his movement with absolute terms, such as Last Reformation. On the other hand, we should always get out of our «echo chambers» and allow ourselves to be challenged by new ideas. Echo chamber means that we prefer to expose ourselves to speakers or doctrines that represent our own opinion. We feel comfortable when our established opinion is confirmed and hardly allow ourselves to be challenged by other thoughts. I grew up in an environment where things to come were clearly organised and recorded: First comes the great apostasy, then the rapture, the great tribulation, the second coming of Christ, the 1000-year kingdom and then the final judgement. For years I believed that this was biblical truth shared by the entire world. The motto of the year would like to encourage us to embrace new things with great openness and to test them.
What are suitable test criteria?
- Gift of discernmentIn Thessaloniki, this was the most important testing instrument. My experience in this regard is that people often claim this gift of the mind for themselves who do not even take the components to be tested into the laboratory.
- Jesus at the centre: «And this is how you recognise the Spirit of God: everyone who confesses that Jesus Christ really came to earth as a man has the Spirit of God» (1 John 4:2 NLB). The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus Christ, the incarnate God. It is not for nothing that the Spirit of God is also called Christ in us (Colossians 1:27).
- God’s word as a standardUnlike the Thessalonians, we have a great advantage: we have the Bible, God’s Word. Every impression and every prophetic utterance needs the backing of the Holy Scriptures. Unfortunately, the Bible knowledge of the followers of Jesus is not at its best in our environment.
- Confirmation in the communityPaul gave the whole church in Thessalonica the task of testing and keeping what is good. He did not say: Only those who have the gift of discerning of spirits should judge. The impression that we as seetal chile should concern ourselves with forgiveness has been confirmed and brought to us from various sides.
- Taking bold stepsA person I know once had the firm impression late at night that she should go to Teufenthal station. I was contacted and we discussed what to do. We came to the conclusion that it was good to follow this impulse. Either it was an impression from God or it is a good training ground to better hear the voice of God.
- Take your timeDuring my theological studies we had a guest lecturer from China who said several times: «The devil is in a hurry.» He proved the truth of this statement with impressive examples. God allows himself the luxury of time, he also created it. If you are unsure whether something is good or evil, you should take your time to make a judgement.
- Corresponding to the nature of GodSometimes it is very helpful to look at the matter from a meta-level. Does the thing to be tested correspond to the character and nature of Jesus? We follow Him. If we remain in Him and He in us, we will recognise the truth.
The motto for 2025 challenges us to scrutinise everything and keep what is good. To prepare ourselves for this task, we will be organising an event next spring together with the pastors in our region. We have invited a theology lecturer for this purpose. The aim is to improve our theological maturity so that we can better scrutinise the many doctrines that are thrown at us. We would like to offer more evenings like this afterwards to look at other topics in more depth.
A new year lies ahead of us. I would like to make a wish for us as seetal chile: I would like us to open ourselves courageously and trustingly to the Holy Spirit in the spirit of the motto for the year, to examine impressions received and prophetic speech as a community on the basis of suitable criteria and thus, in the dust of our rabbi, to follow Jesus closely.
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–22
- Paul says that the Thessalonians should not suppress the Spirit or despise prophetic speech. How and in what context could these things be encouraged among us?
- Where could you personally contribute to a spirit-fuelled life?
- Where do you get the teaching for following Jesus?
- How do you test what you hear? What are the criteria you use?
- Do you tend to be open and tolerant or critical and dismissive? How could you better attune yourself to today’s Bible text?