Parents spend a lot of time explaining how children should behave, especially towards other people. Towards their friends and classmates. Towards siblings and wider family. Towards adults in general. And especially, towards their parents too.
Paul has written to encourage and further teach the church in Thessalonica in their Christian walk. In recent verses, Paul has spoken of how the church should treat their leaders, and how they should treat one another. Now, Paul turns to how the Thessalonians should treat God. These instructions encourage the Thessalonians, and believers today, to rejoice and give thanks for their relationship with God, through good times or bad, and to not resist the Spirit’s work in their lives. We too should do the same.
Paul’s first set of instructions for how the Thessalonians should behave towards God is very concise. This probably reflects the fact that Paul was reminding the Thessalonians rather than introducing a new subject.
Firstly, they were to “rejoice always” (v.16). We wrongly equate joy with bubbly emotional feelings, but joy is actually a deeper sense of well-being and contentment which exists in good or bad times. That joy would come from recognising that their sins were forgiven in Jesus just as God had promised, and that they now had peace with God, not from emotional hype or everything going well all of the time.
Secondly, they were to “pray without ceasing” (v.17). This has been misinterpreted as suggesting 24/7 mystical prayer by some, but is actually referring to attitude to prayer. Prayer is not limited to specific times, such as the middle of a church service, but something they could and should reach for at any time, every day. Praying without ceasing meant constantly bringing thanks, concerns, and rejoicing before God all the time, whether idle or working.
Thirdly, they were to “give thanks in all circumstances” (v.18). Not just good times, but bad times as well. How were they to give thanks in bad times? By remembering God’s sovereignty over all things, and that he works all things together for the good of those who love God and whom God calls according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).
These three responses to God’s presence with the Thessalonians was “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (v.18). God’s desire was for the Thessalonians to grow in love and grace, maturity, and trust in him. By rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to God, they would behave rightly toward God and receive what God desired.
The next set of commands relate to embracing the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. They were to “not quench the Spirit” (v.19). The Holy Spirit was sometimes compared to a fire (eg, Acts 2:3), so resisting the Spirit’s work is like throwing a bucket of cold water on a fire.
The Thessalonians could quench the spirit by worldly pursuits and indulging sin, as Paul has already warned them against. But they could also do so by neglecting God’s Word. For the Thessalonians, who did not have the complete New Testament yet, this could be by “despis[ing] prophecies” (v.20) which they were not to do.
Instead, they were to take a leaf out of the Bereans and “test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (vv.21-2). In other words, discern whether the message was from God or contradicted God’s revelation (for instance, in the Old Testament and what parts of what is now the New Testament that they had), and treat it accordingly. They were not to fall into the trap of assuming every dream or utterance someone had was from God, especially if it led them into sin or away from God.
These days as believers we have the complete Bible – Old Testament and New Testament. We do not need prophetic utterances from God as we have God’s complete revelation. But the Spirit still speaks prophetically to us through God’s Word, convicting us of sin and revealing the path which pleases God. The preacher serves in place of the prophet, revealing God’s will to us today.
By refusing to listen to God’s Word preached and heed its conviction on our lives, we throw cold water on the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. But at the same time, by not testing the words of any teacher of God’s Word against God’s Word, we fail to exercise spiritual discernment. Sadly, there is plenty of false teaching dressed up in misquoted scripture to draw us astray into sin.
Instead, we should abstain from every form of evil. We should embrace the Spirit’s leading and conviction in our lives, and let it shape the way we think and act.
By embracing the Spirit’s flame and the revelation of God’s Word, we will be strengthened to behave rightly towards God. We will find the strength and contentment to rejoice always, in good or bad times, to seek God in prayer any time of any day, and to give thanks to God in any circumstance. This is God’s will in Christ for us.