1 Thessalonians 5:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Thessalonians 5:18

Comments

Thankfulness is one of the life-transforming duties of the Christian life; it is immensely formative. The sense of the Greek is ‘in all circumstances give thanks’, in hard circumstances and in good circumstances. Of course, you cannot thank God for cruel things and deeply disappointing and grievous things, but you can thank him that you can call upon his name, and for his strength to endure. Thankfulness is the basis of worship. It is implicit in almost every psalm of praise and worship, in every expression of worship in the Scripture. When David appointed Levites, he appointed them to record and to thank and to praise God. We have the example of the Saviour – ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.’ Paul, speaking of unbelievers, says, ‘Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.’ Yes, but if God in his justice deals with the unconverted in that way, do you think he is going to bless us if we are unthankful? First of all, thankfulness, recognition of God’s goodness and blessing, humbles us. It was not we who sought the Lord on our own initiative. Nothing would ever have been further from us. It was God who did it. It was he who first put concern in our hearts. It was he who opened our eyes and brought to our minds the truths of salvation, the atoning death of Christ, and our own needs. The more thankful: the more humble, the more acceptable not only to God but to others. People will listen and be affected by what we say, there is no doubt. Allied to humility is indebtedness which comes from thankfulness. We feel our great debt to Almighty God. And, of course, thankfulness strengthens our love for Christ, as shown by that woman came to Jesus and anointed his feet with the hairs of her head. And then thankfulness increases our happiness and our assurance and our contentment. David says, ‘My heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth: and with my song will I praise him.’ You will be more spurred to witness by thankfulness. Even the lepers who were healed in Samaria could not continue to be silent about the abundance they had found.

Application

What are some reasons for thankfulness? Thank God for himself, for his mighty attributes. You learn very early in life that human beings are unreliable. You cannot trust human promises. Life’s pathway will be strewn with disappointments. But thank God and praise him that he is absolutely reliable, that his Word is sure, that all his promises are kept. You pray for some people for years and you may be inclined to give up hope. Thank God that he is sovereign. Maybe after you have gone, he will change the heart. He is sovereign, and if he determines to save, he will save. Praise him for his discipline. The disciplines may hurt, but the outcome is deliverance. Thank God for every discovery in his Word, for all the light and understanding you have been given at conversion. Praise and thank God for family, for friends, for the children you look after in Sunday School. Praise and thank God for opportunities of service and witness. Praise him that the opportunity was given, that there was a hearing ear. And it may well bear fruit at some time. Praise him for safety – long journeys, driven even in the last few days. Praise and thank him for the church where he set you. Praise and thank him for the things that you read in his Word anywhere. Thank him for beautiful sights. Natural and beautiful things, praise him. If you praise him and thank him, he may give you more. Thank him for every endorsement and confirmation of your faith. Praise and thank him for every sinner saved, people known to you, people not well-known to you. Thank him for every temptation rejected. The Holy Spirit stirred your conscience. You were about to say that terrible thing, that unkind thing, that barely honest thing, and your conscience was checked. Praise and thank him you have still got faculties and strengths and a measure of health, and can live for him and serve him, and when that moment comes, praise and thank him that you will step straight into glory, that you will not know death in your soul, that you will find yourself gloriously in the presence of Christ.

There are some people these days, and one or two books on happiness from Christian authors, and they are not bad in some ways but the modern tendency is to think that happiness for Christians is just the same as a sensation produced by nice things. But spiritual happiness is nurtured in the mind, and it is a response, a recognition, a thankfulness for all that is revealed, the truth of God, and for all that is revealed to you in your experience as God deals with you and answers your prayers.

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1 Thessalonians 5:18 Commentary and Bible Study