What does 1 Thessalonians 5:20 mean?

Before the completion of the New Testament, God gave some believers the gift of prophecy, which was the ability to reveal the future (Acts 11:28) and to declare God's will (Acts 13:2). Ephesians 4:11 states that God gave prophets to the church to help build believers up in the faith.

However, false prophets also existed in the first century, and they proclaimed corrupt messages. The believers at Thessalonica lived before the New Testament was completed, so they often depended on prophets to reveal God's will for the church. However, some prophets were masquerading as genuine prophets, so their message must have caused some believers to regard prophecy unfavorably, so Paul instructs his readers not to despise genuine prophecy. The following verse will support this idea, telling us to "test" what we see and hear.

Today, believers do not need prophets, because we have a complete Bible that provides answers to life's big questions and guides our actions. God gave the Bible to us so we would become what He wants us to become and do what He wants us to do (2 Timothy 3:16–17).