“Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22 KJV).
Based upon this verse, it would appear that we’re supposed to abstain, not just from evil, but also from even the appearance of evil. But that’s not what Paul meant. This is a mistranslation in the Kingdom James Version.
Every Form not Appearance
Almost all other translations translate this as the New Revised Standard Version Updated Version does, “abstain from every form of evil.”
For example, it is translated exactly the same in the American Standard Version, the New King James Version, the Berean Study Bible, the English Revised Version, the World English Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the Legacy Standard Bible, the Amplified Bible, the New Heart English Bible, and the Worrell New Testament.
Bible Commentaries
As Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers explains:
“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” –This translation cannot stand. Possibly it might be rendered “every form of evil,” but the most natural version would be, “Hold yourselves aloof from every evil kind”–i.e., evil kind of whatever you may be testing.”
Whereas the pulpit commentary explains:
“The word translated “appearance” has been differently rendered; it denotes form, figure, species, kind; so that the clause is to be rendered, “Abstain from all form of evil” (R.V.), or, “of the evil,” the word being an abstract substantive.”