MESSAGE 17 - 1THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 5:22 – ABSTAIN FROM EVERY FORM OF EVIL
THE INTRODUCTION
{{1Thessalonians 5 v 22 “Abstain from every form of evil.”}}
The KJV is “Abstain from all appearances of evil.” NIV is “Reject every kind of evil.” NASB and ESV is “Abstain from every form of evil.” The Holman version says, “Stay away from every form of evil.”
This is not an easy message, and it is a difficult passage to speak on I think. I might go a bit slower because it contains items to concentrate on. Now at the outset, we need to be clear here on one thing. The KJV translation is wrong. It says “all appearances of evil”. To preserve oneself from all appearance of evil is not within the power of man. There are two words for “evil” in Greek – and the one used here, signifies “harmful or mischievous” (so designating “the Evil One”).
“Abstain from every evil sight” (or show of evil), from all that is evil in the outward show of things about you. F.B. Meyer, the great Greek scholar, has said, “the sense must also be of an abstinence from that which is ACTUALLY evil.” There is a difference between appearance of evil, and the form of evil itself. A godly Christian should be able to recognise forms of eviI, but I think ungrounded Christians may confuse being evil with what seems to be evil – and for that matter, so do most of us. It is not easy separating appearance from form when speaking of this subject.
NOW INTRODUCING THE MATTER OF LUST INTO THIS STUDY
{{1John 2:15 “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1John 2:16 All that is in the world, the LUST of the flesh and the LUST of the eyes and the boastful PRIDE of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”}} Those verses gather up all points of failed human nature in sin. The third one, pride, is what dominates ambitious man, the importance of who you are, and the desire to control and ride over others. The word closely associates with arrogance, superiority and belittling others. It means having an exalted opinion of yourself, of your achievements and of your position, and becoming smug about all that. It is THE sin that causes conflict then divisions and much hurt to others. We see this pride in all walks of life, especially in Parliaments, very much so in question time. It is this pride that keeps a person quarantined from God. It creates a no-go zone around the person and keeps the salvation of God remote.
The first two lusts are related (the eyes, the flesh) and both tick the box for appearance of evil, that form of evil that appears to you, or you become aware of it. It is the eyes that see and desire. It is the flesh that hankers after sin and craves for satisfaction. You can trace the damage right through scripture, of the lust of the eyes and the flesh when that lust conceives. It began with Eve who saw the fruit that it was a delight to the eyes and good for food. Her hankering after it caused her to submit to the devil’s clever reasons and she took it in her hands, and fell into sin.
For her, it began with appearance – there was nothing wrong with the appearance of the fruit, but it became the form of evil for the prompting to do wrong. It was the devil’s appeal to appearance, that was the problem. He took the innocence of appearance and built a lust into it. Eve could have walked away from that lust but she did not. She let it hatch, to conceive and to develop. The devil promised good, but gave evil. The crucial point though, was the form of evil she did not abstain from, which was the departure from the spoken word of God. Appearance, lust – they must be put in their place decisively. Do not let action arise from them.
We did a series on Lot before (they are on Sermon Central) but he looked around and spied Sodom. His first reaction should have been that Sodom must be rejected because the people were godless, but appeal was too strong for him and he succumbed to that form of evil. When Abram gave him the choice of land, his already dulled senses and conscience were defeated. The appearance and form of Sodom’s evil was known to him, but it was too strong for him and he succumbed. Then he chose Sodom and just escaped with his life, but wifeless. It was a simple enough decision he should have made because Sodom was known by reputation and practice, but something in Lot was hankering after the exploits of Sodom. He may not have been a participant in the evil of the Sodomites, but the appeal of evil grew to take him into that place for a defeated and perilous life. Paul said to abstain, and in Lot’s case abstain should have meant going the other way, but he did not.
ADDICTION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORM OF EVIL
When it comes to addiction, some people just grasp the appearance/form of evil with both hands. We all know how bad alcoholism is, one of the worst forms of evil. Even caffeine is addictive and a Christian must be a judge over the potential form of evil there when it leads to addiction. Gambling is a root of many forms of evil and Christians should have no part in it for it does not glorify God.
Then we have David with Bathsheba, and I wonder if this was one example Paul may have had in his mind when penning this short command. We do not sit in judgement on David. In fact we do not sit in judgement on any man or woman of God who has fallen, having been ensnared by the wiles of the devil, beginning with the appearance of what might have been innocent and not known to be evil. Evil was the development from what might have been the innocent. That is the mess we get ourselves into, which more to the point, is NOT abstaining from ALL forms of evil.
One timely reminder from Paul to us all is this, “You who think you are strong, take heed lest you fall.” Bathsheba was not evil, so she was not the appearance of evil, nor a form of evil, and what she was doing was normal and fine. David’s perchance noticing of her was fine too. What happened after that was not. The devil used that situation to develop a craving of evil that then took its own course. David did not abstain from even that form of evil, as he was dulled to the harm and mischief of it. “LUST WHEN IT HAS MATURED BRINGS FORTH SIN.” {{James 1:15 “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”}} It is that next step which is always the problem. The appearance can easily become “some form of evil”, and it is at that point that God asks us to abstain. To continue with it, is to pack your bags and move with Lot into the evil place, that place of harm and mischief where the evil one holds sway.
Achan saw the gold and the silver and the Babylonian garment (appearance) and something pagan in its evil form was too much, (form of evil) and it was there for him to take it for himself which he did (action of evil) and he did not abstain and leave the accursed goods there that were under the ban. Annias and Sapphira promised to God, but in the last step, the appearance of that money worked on them to bring about deceit and lies. It became to them, the form of evil, and they could not abstain from the path it led them on.
Judas had the temptation, to betray the Lord. Betrayal would be a form of evil if he had pursued it, but the appearance to him of the covetous picture before his eyes, was of silver and what he could do with it. The “appearance” of possibilities of the money was the evil that encountered him and he had two choices – either to abstain from that form of evil, and refuse to betray the Lord, or to submit himself to the outcome. The son of perdition chose to embrace the form of evil in action.
THE LORD FACED THE BATTLES WE DO WITH LUST
We have looked at people who failed, but now we shall look at One who did not fail. I speak of the Lord on the Mount of Temptation. To Him, were presented three appearances (more correctly, “three forms”) of evil in three temptations, but He showed us how to abstain from every form of evil. He answered the devil through the scripture and that was how He abstained. The scriptures are the best, and only effective way to depart from evil and to abstain from entering into it.
A man may walk past the tent of a strip tease in a fair ground. He may even stop and look at the entrance and ponder. Then the Holy Spirit may prompt him as to the danger, and certainly will do so if he is walking with God. God may open in his mind a scripture for him. He knows that it is not right for him to engage in that so he continues on. In that way, he has abstained from that form of evil. We are slow and dull and often too careless to become aware of the situation that can catch us out and cause us to sin until it has happened, but the Lord was instant in replying to Satan, and precise in rejecting the temptation. What is the difference between us and the Lord? Well it is simple. He was fully saturated with the word of God. As I said recently, the old saying is that this book (the bible) will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. Remember, “It is written.”
Who was it in the bible who said, “Get behind me Satan”. Yes, it was the Lord. What was the circumstance?
{{Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day, Matt 16:22 and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You,” Matt 16:23 but He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Matt 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.”}}
Now who would ever have thought that one of the disciples could have unwittingly been doing the devil’s work. This must have been a serious thing for the Lord to have responded in that way, but He saw that form of evil and abstained from it. This teaches us that the form of evil can come from within as well as from without. We must be on our guard, and armed, but our weapon is the sword of the Spirit. I urge you over and over, to know the bible and use it as the sword to slay the giants of every form/type of evil, and every form of evil before those forms overcome you. Remember Joseph? {{Genesis 39:9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?”}} He had to abstain from that evil day after day. In God’s power he did that. He paid for it!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ABSTAIN?
Now we will look a bit more carefully at the passage in Thessalonians. What does it mean in the original writing of Paul “TO ABSTAIN?”
That Greek word means “I abstain from, to hold yourself off, to abstain”. In Thessalonians 5 v 22, the best way of expressing it is “I WILL HOLD MYSELF OFF FROM . . . , OR ABSTAIN”.
The word for form or kind is e?d?? = visible form, shape, appearance, kind. Definition: visible form, shape, appearance, outward show, kind, species, class, type. (It especially means outward appearance). It is the word used at the baptism of Jesus when the Spirit in the form of a dove came to Jesus. e?d?? ("visible appearance") refers to the outward form taken on by each of the three Persons of the tri-person God: (a) the Holy Spirit in {{Luke 3:22: "and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily FORM like a dove,"}}; (b) Jesus, in {{Luke 9:29: "and while He was praying, the APPEARANCE of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming,"}}; and (c) the Father, in {{John 5:37: "You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His FORM."}}
The best understanding of this verse comes from considering it this way – [[“Hold yourself off, and apart, from every matter that has the form or the (definite) appearance of being evil.”]] One has said, [[“We should abstain from sin, and whatever looks like sin, leads to it, and borders upon it. He who is not shy of the appearances of sin, who shuns not the occasions of it, and who avoids not the temptations and approaches to it, will not long keep from doing sin.”]]
The following quotation is taken from one of the commentaries by Barnes, and we must keep in mind that he is using the KJV when he wrote almost 200 years ago:- [[Abstain from all (appearances) forms of evil - Not only from evil itself, but from that which seems to be wrong, or good reason to be wrong. There are many things which are known to be wrong. They are positively forbidden by the laws of heaven, and the world agrees in the sentiment that they are wicked, but there are also many things about which there may be some reasonable doubt. It is not quite easy to determine in the case what is right or wrong. The subject has not been fully examined, or the question of its morality may be so difficult to settle, that the mind may be not quite established in regard to it. There are many things which, in themselves, may not appear to us to be positively wrong, but which are considered wrong by large and respectable portions of the com-munity; and for us to do them, would be regarded as inconsistent and improper. There are many things, also, in respect to which there is great variety of sent-iment among mankind - where one portion would regard them as proper, and another as improper.]]
(Albert Barnes was born in Rome, a district of New York in 1798, long before modern liberalism in society that openly promotes all forms of evil as being desirable and proper. He was a noted Bible commentator who was a Presbyterian).
[[There are things, also, where, whatever may be our motive, we may be certain that our conduct will be regarded as improper. A great variety of subjects, such as those pertaining to dress, amusements, the opera, the ball-room, games of chance and hazard, and various practices in the transaction of business, come under this general class; which, though on the supposition that they cannot be proved to be in themselves positively wrong or forbidden, have much the "appearance" of evil, and will be so interpreted by others. The safe and proper rule is to lean always to the side of virtue. In these instances it may be certain that there will be no sin committed by abstaining; there MAY be by indulgence. No command of God, or of correctness, will be violated if we decline complying with these customs; but on the other hand we may wound the cause of religion by yielding to what possibly is a mere temptation. No one ever does injury or wrong by abstaining from the pleasures of the ball-room, the theatre, or a glass of wine; who can indulge in them without, in the view of large and respectable portions of the community, doing that which has the "suggestion" at least of "evil?"]]
I have another quote from by Walter Russell from May 13, 2011:- [[“Abstain from all appearances of evil” (KJV); “Abstain from every form of evil” (ESV). I confess that whenever I encounter this verse, I picture old, withered saints shaking their bony fingers in younger believers’ faces and exhorting them about some questionable behaviour. In this recurring scenario, the godly, mature Christians find it necessary to exhort the younger saints, not because they have done something that is evil, but simply because they behaved in a manner that could have the appearance of being evil.
This understanding of 1 Thessalonians 5 v 22 can be traced back to the King James Version of 1611. The KJV chose the word “appearance” for the Greek word eidos, which means visible form, outward appearance or kind, sort. Since this translation appeared, well-intentioned Christians have focused on the out-ward appearance aspect and concluded that we are not only to avoid evil, but we are also to avoid anything that could outwardly appear to be evil.
Moreover, did Jesus “avoid every appearance of evil”? I think not! One of His constant criticisms at the hands of religious people was that He spent time with “defiled people” like tax gatherers, swindlers, irreligious people (“sinners”), and probably even prostitutes. By their standards, He seemed regularly to have the appearance of evil. But perhaps this is the accusation we must bear along with Jesus, rather than inappropriately withdrawing from the sin-scarred people in our lives. Perhaps this is also part of the rebuke many receive at the hands of those who don’t read 1 Thessalonians 5 v 22 in context. My advice? Topple this faulty moral pillar!]]
I close with a quote that C.H. Spurgeon used, taken from what Manton had written a long time ago:- Manton says: [[“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” "A man that would keep out the cold in winter shuts all his doors and windows, yet the wind will creep in, though he does not leave any open hole for it." We must leave no inlet for sin, but stop up every hole and cranny by which it can enter. There is need of great care in doing this, for when our very best is done, sin will find an entrance. During the bitter cold weather we list the doors (make them fit better), put sandbags on the windows, draw curtains, and arrange screens, and yet we are made to feel that we live in a northern climate: in the same way we must be diligent to shut out sin, and we shall find abundant need to guard every point, for after we have done all, we shall, in one way or another, be made to feel that we live in a sinful world. Well, what must we do? We must follow the measures which common prudence teaches us in earthly matters. We must drive out the cold by keeping up a good fire within. The presence of the Lord Jesus in the soul can so warm the heart that worldliness and sin will be expelled, and we shall be both holy and happy. The Lord grant, it for Jesus' sake.]] (C. H. Spurgeon.)
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