In the first post in this series, I started with the motivation for detecting and correcting doctrinal and practical error. It needs to happen, but it won’t happen if you don’t know something’s wrong. If you know something’s wrong, it’s probably because you know what’s right, so you also know the correction. Scripture is clear that detection must occur. The Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 writes this:
21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
There are three commands in these two verses and they all relate to this subject. The first part is most important, because you can’t obey the other two without obeying the first one. First you prove everything, which is to test everything, the Greek word, dokimazo, which is a metallurgical term. Metals are tested for impurity and then purified.
I like to call the “testing,” “keeping my grid up.” The grid portrays a kind of mesh that catches error. Error can’t get through. The grid represents some kind of criteria by which judgment is made. Why would I think this “proving” relates to doctrinal or practical error? The flow of the chapter indicates it, considering the previous verse, which says, “Despise not prophesyings.” Prophesying or preaching, forthtelling of the Word of God, should not be despised. It should be proved though. It presents a balance for the listening to preaching.
Once something has been proven or tested, if you don’t despise it to begin with, you will hold fast that which is good. Paul starts with the positive. True doctrine and practice should be embraced. It reminds me of the part of 1 Corinthians 13, “Love rejoiceth in the truth.” “Good” is morally good.
The second command is what someone does with doctrinal and practical error. He abstains from it. The language is “all appearance of evil,” and “appearance” is not something that looks like something or appears like it. The Greek word and the English word mean “form.” It’s simple. “Abstain from all form of evil.” “Evil” is the opposite of “good,” so morally bad or wicked.
The Apostle Paul commands the members of the church at Thessalonica to do what this series is about. Doctrinal and practical error is not good. It is evil. It first must be detected by having the grid up. The good must be embraced and the evil jettisoned.
What is the standard for detection and correction? Jesus in Matthew 22:29 said, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures.” Error comes from not knowing the scriptures, according to Jesus. The standard for detection and correction is scripture, and that is the grid that is kept up in order to prove all things. When Paul spoke about the error in Jerusalem in Acts 13:27, he said the reason was that they knew not the voices of the prophets that they read every Sabbath. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter says that error comes when unstable and ignorant men wrest the scriptures to their own destruction.
This is great. I appreciate the scriptures you brought up in the last paragraph. I’m also thinking about the last two verses of James about a believer helping a fellow believer who errs from the truth. There is such a responsibility for each of us to know God’s words so we can properly test everything and show others how to test everything.
On the definition of “evil,” I’ve been puzzling over this for awhile. I know God’s Word is true and pure, so I had to understand the ancient use of “evil,” especially when it is related to what God does.
I found a dictionary of the KJB where the author is thinking that the biblical use of the word may mean “destruction and loss.” A broader understanding of the word. Immoral behavior causes destruction and loss, but also God sometimes causes destruction and loss in an act of judgment, but He is not the opposite of good and He is not immoral.
For instance, I read 2 Samuel 24:16 recently, “…the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand…”
I’m using the word “wickedness” to describe the opposite of goodness.
Does that make sense?
Hello Anonymous,
Thanks. The word translated “evil” in the OT is very often different than the Greek word translated “evil” in the NT. I agree that sometimes it is something God does, like a cataclysmic weather or astronomical event that kills people. There is a wide range for the NT Greek word, including worthless, bad, etc., but none of them good. It is moral evil in this case. In the context, it’s also the opposite of good.
There were many more verses that I had that related to this subject, such as James. Just didn’t include all the work in order to keep it short.
Thanks.