Why are we supposed to give thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18)?

But we are still in the body and in the world, as they were. Therefore is the word "pray unceasingly;" just as we see those who returned with great joy from Olivet, all with one accord continuing steadfastly in prayer with Mary the mother of Jesus, not yet the abomination of prayer to her or to His brethren. Yet this due expression of increasing dependence on God should never be without thanksgiving, but as we are in everything, which otherwise might make us anxious, by prayer and supplication to let our requests be made known to God (Phil. 4:6), so are we here exhorted to "give thanks in everything." And as a constant spirit of thanksgiving is the very reverse of nature's querulousness, because of manifold suffering and chagrin and disappointment, the apostle fortifies this call with a reason subjoined, "for this is God's will in Christ Jesus toward you." Otherwise it would soon in the declension of Christendom have been counted levity and presumption. How truly does the apostle say in his second Epistle, "all have not faith."

These two scriptures, often classed together, are yet very different in their significance. The latter is plainly an exhortation: "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." It is not, as the reader will observe, for every thing, but in every thing, give thanks. And there are few Christians who would not acknowledge, we will not say their obligation, but rather their privilege, to render thanksgiving to God in all their circumstances and trials. They may be passing through deep sorrows or severe sufferings, and yet, viewing these in the presence of God, they will find abundant cause for praise. Not only so, but, as the apostle here says, "it is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us." This puts the matter on another ground, revealing what is acceptable to God, and, if it may be so expressed, how grateful to Him are the thanksgivings of His people. Turning now to the former scripture, it will be as plainly seen that it is not an exhortation. Let the reader note well the context. We are bidden not to be "drunk with wine, wherein is excess," but to "be filled with the Spirit;" and then three things are indicated as the consequence. First, our hearts will be overflowing with praise, "speaking," as it is said, "to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;" then we shall, besides this, be "giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and, lastly, we shall be "submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God."

But more. Though in tribulation, there could yet be a positive rejoicing, not intermittently but evermore, consistently, which is really only normal when the Lord Jesus Himself is the Object of our joy. And prayer too is to be as constant. At all times the heart may be lifted up to God, so real a habit that every occasion of need, of difficulty, or of distress will find us voluntarily and immediately crying to Him from the heart. This too is to he attended with thanksgiving "in everything." We cannot of course give thanks for what is sinful, but in the midst of whatever evil or good this thankful spirit is to be ours. The importance of this is pressed upon us in the fact of its being "the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." If we are honest in saying we desire the will of God, then here it is, and no excuse can be accepted for lack of giving of thanks.

Nothing is to quench the believer's joy for it is occasioned by that which is eternal. Prayer is to be unceasing for the need is continuous, and access to the throne of grace is never closed on God's side. Prayer, and that attitude of soul of which prayer is the expression, is to be habitual. As for thanksgiving it should be rendered to God "in everything," inasmuch as we know that "all things work together for good to them that love God." Moreover it is God's will that we should be a thankful people, so that He may "inhabit" our praises, according to the spirit of Psalm 22:3. These things are all intensely individual.

50 So we read in 1 Thessalonians 5, "In everything give thanks." How is this to be done? Did Paul give thanks for the thorn - the very thing he supposed would hinder his usefulness? Not whilst looking at the thing itself: it was only when his eye was fixed on the heart and the hand that had done it. There are many things in themselves that we cannot give thanks for - the snapping of the cord nearest the heart, or the cutting to pieces of what our affections are set upon. We must see the love that has ordered it, and the hand that has appointed it; and then we can give thanks.

"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ver. 20.)

This is the portion on which I purpose to dwell this evening. A man must be conscious of having a good portion who can rejoice always in all things, who can give thanks always for all things. The natural man cannot receive such a word as this. The joy which marks such a spirit is not joy in the flesh; so far. from its being dependent upon prosperity, it is found in highest exercise under afflictive circumstances. God seems to say in this passage, My child, you will never be in any circumstances, or in any position, in which you have not cause to give thanks. Giving thanks is the response in us for what we see in God: it is the happy expression of our sense of what we have found in God! This giving of thanks, — it is not one or two links of a chain, as it were, and then broken off; no, it is continuous and unbroken, and enduring.

Our blessed Lord Himself is our great exemplar in this as in all else. He could and did give thanks in the hour of deepest trial. In Matthew 11 and Luke 10 we see Him rejected of men, grieving over the cities in which His mightiest works had been accomplished and which had yet refused His message, with the dark shadows of the cross already falling athwart His path, and we read: ‘At that time’ — mark it well: at that time when all was darkest and He had anguish unutterable to look forward to — ‘Jesus rejoiced in spirit’ and said, ‘I thank thee, O Father’. Oh, for grace to imitate Him in this attitude, not only of subjection to the will of God but in receiving the heaviest trials from the Father’s hand, knowing that all is for eventual blessing.

Verse 20. "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Redemption has set the saint in a position of eternal obligation to the God of grace. Having come to the knowledge of God as the Father, the believer is to settle in his heart the sweet conviction, that goodness and mercy can never cease to follow him All things are, therefore, to be acknowledged thankfully The thing received, whether good or evil, is less to be regarded than the hand which gives it (Job 1:21; 2:10; Heb. 12:5-11). Knowing that all things work for good to those who love God, the simpleminded Christian can find nothing in the changeful experiences of his pilgrimage which can rightly encourage him, though both faith and patience must be tried. It should be noticed, that there is an emphatic precision in the language of this verse, the manifold intention of which is to preserve us from descending, in the expression of our thanksgiving, below the true pitch of spiritual worship. It is, as it were, a prescribed formula of spiritual praise, thanks being given to Him who is our God and Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The heart which God fills is bound, indeed, by no form of words. At the impulse of the Spirit, as He shows us one feature or another of the Divine perfection which is revealed to us in Christ, we bless the Father, or the Son, or both together, even as our fellowship is with both. But the Apostle would preserve us, by such words as these, from forgetting that we know no longer any man after the flesh; that our standing is in the light and power of the risen Christ; that while, consequently, we share with men around us those unnumbered mercies which the lavish hand of God pours out upon His creatures, we owe Him thanks after a different fashion from the natural man. While "providential goodness" may be recognized by those who know not our God, it is the joy and glory of the saint to receive all mercies and sanctify all blessings by the name of the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our thanks belong to God for ever, as the Giver of His unspeakable gift (2 Cor. 9:15).

Indeed the Apostle had every ground to expect a blessing through that which Satan was perverting to injure souls. It had already issued in good fruit as regarded the work of the gospel; and he looks for just as good fruit as to all that concerned himself, either in the present or in the future, whether by life or by death. Such is the confidence and joy of faith. It overcomes the world; it realizes Christ's victory over the enemy. What can man, what can Satan, do with one who is careful about nothing, but in everything gives thanks? What can either avail to disconcert one whose comfort is in God and who interprets all circumstances by His love, with unshaken reliance on His wisdom and goodness?

Accompanying this musical melody is a spontaneous giving of thanks, in addressing God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (v.20). "Always for all things" reminds us that there is no time at which one is not free to address God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This constantly thankful spirit will have both a preserving and fruitful effect, and it will simplify for us the character of submission one to another in the fear of God (v.21). Thus we will recognize God as being in control rather than the will of man dominating.