In every thing give thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:18

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

What we have before us is a command by God Himself. This is not a suggested way of life, or a recommendation for the Christian. It is a matter of obedience or disobedience. Adherence to His will or deviation from it. We must take it soberly as from Him, and not from a man. For Paul was the instrument through which this came, but was not the originator of it. God has good reasons for each of His commands, and if we will just love Him enough, we will obey His commands, and will find that His commandments are not grievous. For He says here, “In every thing give thanks.”

How, we are liable to misinterpret and misconstrue this command if we interpret it through the lens of our own natural thinking, and through the worldly tenor of our lives. For you see, we may say that we are to give thanks whenever good things take place. But this is grossly wrong. For we are to give thanks in every thing! This means that there is nothing in which we are not to give thanks. We give thanks in all! If we do not do this, we are in disobedience to the divine injunction. How is it so that we are to do this? This is doubtless so because the Lord is guiding, directing, orchestrating, and supervening over the very circumstances of our lives. Things are not taking place by accident. Chance may occur in the world. But not for the Christian! Things are ordered by His hand, and, as long as we are living in accordance with His will, we can be sure it is for our good. See Romans 8:28. If we are living in utter disobedience to the Lord’s commands, it may be difficult to believe that all is for our good. We have forfeited that promise. But I may venture on a guess. You, today, are reading this because you desire the Lord, His Word and His ways. Therefore, you know God is with you, helping, leading, working. He is weaving a thread through your life. He is handling the machinations of our complex lives for our good. Therefore, we have but one responsibility. Yes, I say, one! To give thanks! And we are to give thanks in every thing!

Here we are told that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Therefore, we have a great decision to make, a great question to answer. Will we live according to God’s will, or disregard it altogether? Will we live in obedience to the Word of the Holy One, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Shepherd? Or will we continue living in blatant disobedience and selfish arrogance as we have done? For there can be no doubt but that we have done this! We have not given thanks in every thing, but only in some things. We have only thanked Him when the pull of our hearts and the thrill of our minds have tended towards it. We have only praised His name when we could see that what He was doing was good, all the while not considering that it was good even when it did not look good. Oh, let us obey this command at once! Thank Him now! You have much to thank Him for. And while you are thanking Him, thank Him for the trials and “bad” things that He has brought you through to purge you, purify you, and prepare you. Oh, praise Him now! For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

“Father, we take this moment to thank you for every thing in our lives that you have allowed for your glory and our good. We most certainly do not understand it all, and should not expect to. But through our feeble lips, we want to say thank you. We trust your working behind the scenes of our lives. And because we know you are working for our good, we want to thank you. Most of all, thank you for the wondrous Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, Amen.”