Grieving or Quenching the Holy Spirit

By Chris Good

1 Thessalonians 5:19-20
19Do not put out [quench] the Spirit's fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Ephesians 4:30a
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Often these verses are quoted to prevent people testing claimed prophecies. The implication is that this verse clearly tells us not to 'despise prophecies' by testing them - that to do so is to quench the work of the Holy Spirit. No Christian wants to be guilty of that! Often such an argument is linked in with the accusation that doing this grieves the Spirit. Let us look at these passages to see if this is indeed what the Holy Spirit says.


1) 'Quenching' the Spirit

Reference to the quenching the Holy Spirit occurs once in Scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. First, one must take account of the preceding context. Paul is at the end of the letter and is giving exhortations to the Thessalonians to honour faithful leaders (v12-13), showing kindness to each other (v14-15) and offering joyful and continual prayer (v16-18). When Paul states that we are not to 'put out' or 'quench' the Spirit in this context, he includes the idea of not hindering the sanctifying work of the Spirit in the wider life of the church. 'Quenching' then, is not referring only to the gifts of the Spirit. Verse 19 acts as a transition from this general work of the Spirit to the specific issue of prophecy. Let us look at this passage again with more context:

1 Thessalonians 5:19-20
19Do not put out [quench] the Spirit's fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt.
21Test everything. Hold on to the good.22Avoid every kind of evil.

Note that by calling us to 'test everything', Paul implies that we despise prophecy if we don't test such claims. Far from preventing prophecies being tested, we will quench the Spirit if we don't test prophetic claims - especially in light of the many warnings about false prophets. The test here is one of true doctrine and inerrancy (cf Deuteronomy 5:16-18). That which stands the test is good. That which fails is not some harmless mistake but a positive evil - that someone should dare claim ones' own words as God's (see Jeremiah 23:25-40)! Verse 22 also closes this section of exhortation from verse 12, so that, like with the quenching, is a general principle that also applies to the wider life of the church.


2) Grieving the Spirit

Mention of 'grieving' the Spirit also occurs in only one passage:

Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

In this verse, we are said to grieve the Spirit if we fail to live out a life of consistent Christian obedience - namely doing away with anger, bitterness and other sin. Holiness comes about through the work of the Spirit bringing us into greater conformity with Christ's commands. Christ has clearly commanded us, among many other things, to test charismatic claims lest we are deceived by false teachers or prophets (see Matthew 24:23-25). If we fail to do so - it follows we would be disobeying Him and thereby grieving the Holy Spirit!


Conclusion

Those who accuse people of 'quenching the Spirit' when they are simply seeking to obey the Spirit's scriptural command to "test everything" are in fact quenching Him themselves! By attempting to persuade people not to obey Christ commands in this area they thereby grieve the Spirit and quench His fire by discouraging obedience to His Word. The faithful believer should not be intimidated by such accusations but should instead obey the Spirit's command.

[ Back to Criticisms index ]

© 2007 by

Page last updated:
October 2007