1 Thess. 5:22 Often "Used As a Bully Club to Keep People in Line with the Group’s Expectations"

As a kid I remember hearing the “appearance of evil” clause invoked a few times in sermons. There seemed to be a problem I couldn’t put my finger on. Later it clicked: appearance in who’s eyes? It wasn’t until years later that someone pointed out what the verse really means.

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Thanks for linking to this post. I’ve been working on it for a while, glad to see it finally posted. Hope it is a blessing to others as well. Thanks again!

Striving for the unity of the faith, for the glory of God ~ Eph. 4:3, 13; Rom. 15:5-7 I blog at Fundamentally Reformed. Follow me on Twitter.

Light = clicked on. It had been flickering since I read it in the ESV and started chewing on what the difference between “appearance” and “form” meant in practical application. Wonder if we can chalk this up to words changing meaning over 400 years? (I really don’t mean to turn this into an English Bible debate. Bob did a great job explaining the Greek and why that word was used. But part of me wonders if 17th century Christians then read it the way Bob reads it today.)

In any case, thanks for your work. I always saw tension between this passage and Matt. 23:25-26 (for example). Seemed strange that the end goal of this passage would be fixated on the outward appearance.

Thanks Mounty, you bring up a good point. I almost mentioned this in my post. It’s possible the word shifted meaning, but I checked Webster’s 1828 dictionary, and also an entry in an Etymological dictionary and that didn’t seem conclusive. In fact Calvin seems to argue for appearance rather than kind or form. It’s unclear if he had the idea of “semblance” in mind or not. Anyway, it’s not clear enough to just be an English translation issue. I would guess it’s a matter of us understanding the history of the term and seeing its usage in Greek more than was known/seen in 1611. But we don’t want to open a can of worms, like you say.

Thanks for the feedback.

Blessings in Christ,

Bob

Striving for the unity of the faith, for the glory of God ~ Eph. 4:3, 13; Rom. 15:5-7 I blog at Fundamentally Reformed. Follow me on Twitter.