Verse 22
22. But while ye grasp the good, abstain, that is, hold yourself away from evil. When your test, your prove, has proved the spirit or doctrine not good, but evil, then avaunt! away! abstain!
All appearance Rather, every form or kind of evil. It is wide of the mark to interpret this, Avoid exhibiting to others any appearance of wrong in your own conduct. That may be, if sensibly and cautiously applied, a very good precept. Hence a saying of the Rabbies, “Keep far from baseness, and from every thing that has the appearance of it.” Yet often the apparent evil may be a real good, or evil only in a narrow and foolish judgment, which should not be encouraged but corrected. But such a rendering of this verse breaks the connexion. The evil is the antithesis of the good in the last verse, which signifies the good spirit or doctrine we hold fast.
Appearance Rather, form, or species. The meaning is: Withdraw yourself from every form or kind of evil of doctrine or spirit detected by your prove in 1 Thessalonians 5:21. The reader should be careful to combine the whole of 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 into one paragraph.
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