Thursday, September 9, 2010

I Have to Give Thanks for What?

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Here we go again, everyone! One more time back to the well of the Word in a glorious howbeit brief challenge from the heart of the Apostle Paul! And this time we encounter an issue over which much confusion seems to have reigned within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we really supposed to give thanks when bad stuff happens to us?

D. Edmond Hiebert has labeled Paul's exhortation here "a startling injunction." For many believers it is more of a "struggling" injunction, one in which they have assumed that they are expected by God to quite literally give thanks for everything that comes along, no matter how painful or heartbreaking it might be. What we discover, however, is that it is in coming to better understand the qualifying term "in everything" that the cloud of confusion is lifted and our muddled thinking and erroneous conclusions are cleared up. The Greek preposition en ("in") points to the actual circumstances in which we find ourselves when called upon to be thankful. I prefer the translation "in connection with everything" when it comes to understanding just what the apostle is saying. Very simply, beloved, Paul was not exhorting the Thessalonian believers to give thanks "for" every circumstance that they encountered, but rather "in the midst of" those circumstances.

And how is it possible for us to be truly thankful whenever we face mountainous obstacles in life that threaten our peace of heart and mind? I can almost hear someone somewhere saying, "You just have no idea what I have been through!" Nor is what the apostle is saying here trying to minimize anyone's suffering, beloved. What his exhortation seeks to do is to draw our attention away from staring at the particular issue we face, like Peter on the water not looking at the waves but at Jesus, and onto the glorious promise of God concerning whatever it is that we face:

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28)

So it will not be in the removal of the particular trial of life that we will find the ability to give thanks, beloved, but rather in the realization that, whatever it is, God is at work in and through it for our good and for His ultimate glory. As Hiebert has so wonderfully written about such a prospect:

"When we realize that God works all things out for good to those who love Him and are yielded to His will, thanksgiving under all circumstances becomes a glorious possibility" (The Thessalonian Epistles, p.242)

Genuine gratitude is the response of the redeemed heart, then, to the realization that God is in control and is working through all of life for our good and His glory. Be thankful in everything, beloved! A wondering world is watching.

Ron