Three Sacred Duties

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I Thess. 5:16-18

It is likely that vs. 16-18 were constructed in such a way that “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” is connected to all three exhortations, not just the last. Here are three important things in the will of God for us: rejoice, pray, and give thanks.

“Rejoice always” is the shortest verse in the Bible in the original languages. (“Jesus wept,” Jn. 11:35 has 4 fewer letters in English, but the Greek words are longer.) There is, however, a lovely connection between these two passages. Look at it this way: The Lord Jesus bore sin’s sorrow and suffering for humanity so that we might rejoice forever!

Note too how the exhortation to rejoice is followed by an exhortation to pray. We have that association in Philippians as well: “Rejoice in the Lord…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:4, 6). Rejoicing in the Lord and bringing glory to Him is our purpose. And prayer addresses the matter of our inability to do so consistently. It lays hold of God’s resources to accomplish His purpose for us.

We are to “pray without ceasing.” Not that we consciously verbalize prayers 24-7. “Without ceasing” translates a word used in Paul’s day of a nagging cough. It is not that the person coughed continuously, without a break. But he had a chronic condition that just didn’t seem to go away. Just so, Christians need to be infected with chronic prayer! Praying that won’t go away, in spite of time pressures or the Lord’s delay in answering.

Where are the prayer warriors today–those who will devote the time and energy to labour in prayer? In vs. 25 in the context of our passage, the apostle expresses his own sense of need in this area, using a present continuous tense in the Greek language: “Brethren, pray, and keep on praying for us.”

Thanklessness or ingratitude are a problem for us all. Twice in his epistles Paul notes that this is characteristic of the unregenerate mind (Rom. 1:21; II Tim. 3:2), but it ought not to be so of Christians. I have often wondered though, whether the incident in Lk. 17:12-19 can be applied as a general principle. There, the Lord heals 10 lepers, and only one returns to say “thank you.” Could it be that only a tenth of us are as thankful as we should be? Or that each of us is only thankful one tenth as often as we ought to be?

Today, let’s rejoice, pray, and give thanks to the Lord!

Rejoice, ye pure in heart,
Rejoice, give thanks and sing;
Your festal banner wave on high,
The cross of Christ your King.