Deeper Reflection
PAUL’S INSTRUCTIONS, “DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT” (V.19) and “Do not despise prophecies” (v.20), are both interrelated. They are to be observed in the public worship of a community of God’s people.We need to understand “prophet” and “prophecy” biblically in their primary and secondary sense. In the primary sense, the Old Testament prophets and the apostles are “the foundation” of the church, the new covenant Israel (Eph 2:20), in salvation history; they were “organs of direct revelation” from God, and “infallible teachers”³² who were also writers of God-breathed Scripture (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:19-21). In the secondary sense, all God’s people in the post-Pentecost era receive the Holy Spirit and can “prophesy” (Acts 2:16-18).The common but flawed understanding of “prophet” and “prophecy” is defined by the English dictionary, namely, in terms of predicting the future. But biblically, to “prophesy” is to proclaim what God has spoken (Am 3:8). The “primary function” of the Old Testament prophets was not predictors of the future, but “to speak for God to their own contemporaries”³³. “Prophesy” in the post-Pentecost era is “know and speak God’s mind and will”³⁴, for edification, exhortation and instruction for learning in the church (1 Cor 14:4, 19, 31). It “may include various kinds of God-given, revelatory speech, including applied pastoral preaching”³⁵.“Do not despise prophecy” means to treat with respect, to listen to any utterance or message which claims to come from God through the “sovereignty and freedom of the Holy Spirit”³⁶, and not to reject it outright, nor accept it outright.³⁷ Hence, to “despise prophecies” may be tantamount to “quench the Spirit”.

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³² John R. W. Stott, The Message of Thessalonians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 1991), 127 ³³ Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Fourth Edition (Zondervan, 1981, 1993, 2003, 2014), 188 ³⁴ John R. W. Stott, 127 ³⁵ Anthony C. Thiselton, 1 Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Commentary (Eerdmans, 2006), 237 ³⁶ John R. W. Stott, 131 ³⁷ John R. W. Stott, 127, 128