It seems that whenever we go on vacation there are always last minute items that we need to tell someone about or take care of before we leave. Someone needs to know where our keys are. Someone needs directions for getting the church ready on Sunday. Someone needs to be reminded to water our plants. Now that Paul is coming to the end of this letter it seems that he is clearing up any last important items for the Thessalonians before he concludes it.
And in these final remarks he notes last, three sets of items that we, as believers in Christ, need to continually remember. The reason that I say that these are aspects we need to continually remember to put into practice is because in every single one of these verb tenses he uses the present tense. In the original, the present tense verb always means an ongoing and continuing action. So when you see Paul mention these here, he is not speaking of a one time or occasional event. He is describing something, that for the believer, is to be continual.
The key idea of this passage is that there are certain aspects of our Christian life that we must continually remember to put into practice.
1. Continuing Attributes of the Christian
In verses 16-18, first we see that Paul outlines for us the continuing attributes of the Christian. And he mentions three.
These three attributes that Paul describes here are not hard to understand. They don’t require some great amount of exegetical skill to comprehend. Scholars have not debated through the ages what these have meant. There is no mystical meaning behind them. They are, however, difficult to put into practice. And, for the love of comfort and ease, we would desire to reinterpret them (or maybe misinterpret is a better word) for our own selfish reasons. But if we are going to be true to the text of Scripture then we cannot and must not understand them in any way other than what is written. For to do so would be to minimize the impact of Christ and the power of God in the life of an individual. To say that Paul doesn’t mean us to go as far as these attributes clearly portray is to deny that God both calls us to and equips us for a life that is reliant upon Him who saved us from our sin. For the God who saved us from our sin wants us to rely upon Him to overcome our sin.
And so we look to these attributes this morning in light of the power that God grants to us in Christ to live a life in conformity with godliness. Otherwise we are merely the people that Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy 3 who have an outward form of godliness but deny its power. That, my friends, is religion, not a living relationship with the risen Christ. And with that let us look at these three continuing attributes of the Christian.
In verses 16-18, we see these three continuing attributes of the Christian. Here Paul says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The last phrase, “For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” tells us that this is the will of God for every Christian. I hear people say often, “I want to know God’s will.” Well go no further. And in fact, if you are not doing that which God clearly lays out as His will then why are you looking for something else in His will? This is the fundamental portion of the will of God for you. Don’t get all bent out of shape that God isn’t showing you what you should be doing if you are not thanking Him for the situation in which you are currently. Don’t ask Him to show you what else you can be doing for Him if you are not rejoicing in Him throughout your day.
God’s will for your life isn’t some tomorrow plan that He will lay out for you if you ask hard enough. God’s will is found in doing what He has called us to do today. And in doing His will today He leads us into His will tomorrow. He may or may not make clear to us what we are going to be doing five years from now. But He has made it clear what we should be doing today. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough troubles of its own.” So what are these continuing attributes of the Christian that encompass God’s will for us?
A. Rejoice always
The first of the three is rejoice always. This first abiding attribute seems a little odd to the ear at first. Rejoice always? Did Paul expect these Thessalonian believers to rejoice while in the midst of the persecution that they endured at the hand of their own countrymen? Did he suppose that while friends and family rejected them for their newfound faith in Christ they could really celebrate in the midst of difficulties? How could Paul expect them to behave in such a way? Obviously this isn’t natural or normal.
Paul described how he can say that they should rejoice always when he spoke of their conversion to Christ in chapter 1. There he says, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the Word of God in much tribulation, having the joy of the Holy Spirit. It is not anything that Paul calls these believers to work up. This joy is produced by the Spirit of God living within them and they have already experienced this. He is calling them to continue to rely on the Spirit of God to be able to rejoice. Why are we able to rejoice? It is because God’s Spirit substantiates the fact that we are no longer under God’s condemnation. When we are able to recognize the fact that God has given us eternal life through faith in His Son we can rejoice. And we can go on rejoicing. This is Peter says in his first letter, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable though tried by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” Peter describes the paradoxical joy that the believer can experience in the midst of tremendous trials. The truth that we deserved nothing but death but are receiving nothing but heaven, made clear by the Holy Spirit to our minds, is what gives us great joy, joy that Peter says is, “inexpressible and full of glory.” One commentator says, “Christian joy is not dependent upon external circumstances; it springs out of the fact that the believer is ‘in Christ’ and is rooted in the unfathomable blessings flowing from that union.”
So when we rejoice we are not rejoicing over our difficulties but in the fact that these difficulties are light and temporary in comparison with the greater weight of glory that they will work out in us. This life is amazingly brief and ugly in comparison with the next. And in living our lives today with our focus on the next we can rejoice. Paul says, “rejoice always.”
B. Pray unceasingly
The second of these continuing Christian attributes that encompasses God’s will for us is to pray unceasingly. Again Paul’s command to us seems utterly ridiculous. How is it that we can pray without ceasing? Here Paul is not calling for a 24/7 prayer vigil by the believer. But he is describing what should be our uninterrupted communion with God. The deep and close fellowship that a believer experiences with God should cause him or her to recognize when a rift has developed between them and their Savior. Our life should be one in ongoing communion with God not in indifference to that communion.
If our fellowship, as a believer in Christ, is sweet then shouldn’t we recognize when it is broken? Even when we notice that it isn’t what it had been, shouldn’t that drive to pray all the more and seek the face of God? This is the experience of which the psalmist described in Psalm 27 when he declared, [Lord] “when you said, ‘Seek my face,’ my heart said to you, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’” God calls each of us to seek Him with all our heart. And our heart should respond, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
Paul is telling us here that instead of crowding our minds with so many other things we ought to have a consciousness of our close relationship with our Father. This is not a burden that we take upon ourselves. But rightfully it overflows out of our great love for God and for all that He has done for us in saving us from our sin and giving us victory over the power of sin. And it likewise flows from the recognition of our deep dependence upon Him. If you do not see yourself as needing God each moment then you will not seek His face diligently. But in light of what we know the Scripture teaches us about our need of God, we might ask ourselves, “How we could ever think we could not pray without ceasing?”
C. Give thanks in everything
In verse 18, Paul says, “in everything give thanks.” For the Christian, this life isn’t, “You win some, you lose some.” This life for the believer in Christ is as Job says, “Yes, the Lord gives, and yes the Lord takes away, but in either case, blessed is the name of the Lord.”
Into every circumstance that God directs us, we are to give thanks. We are to give thanks because the situation is good for the believer. Though we may not see it as “good,” yet we know that Paul says in Romans 8:28 that God works all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. The reason that these things are good is because He uses them to conform us into His image. In that same passage Paul goes onto say, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.” If your goal is to be like Jesus, then whatever happens to you, God can use to make you like Christ.”
Joseph never became bitter when his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. Joseph never became bitter when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him and had him sent to prison. Joseph never became bitter when Pharaoh’s servant forgot about him in jail. No, Joseph saw these events in his life as God’s stepping stone to fulfill His plan. Joseph said to his brothers many years later, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” The Scripture also said, “The Lord was with Joseph.” It was evident to all around him that the Lord was doing a work in his life. I think it was Joseph’s calm assurance that the Lord was with him that caused those around him to see that here was a man directed by God. Be thankful for everything that comes your way because God really IS in it.
While on a short-term mission’s trip, a pastor from North Carolina was leading the worship service at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. There was time for one more song, so he asked if anyone had a request. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around. “It was the most hideous face I had ever seen,” the pastor recounted. “The woman’s nose and ears were completely gone. The disease had destroyed her lips as well. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing, Count Your Many Blessings?’”
What kind of perspective did that woman have? She understood that in every situation we are to give thanks. Really, if God is in your life, then everything that happens should give us cause for thanks. What kind of impact for Christ could you have at work if you gave thanks for everything that happened to you? This isn’t difficult, it’s impossible without allowing the Lord to work in your life and strengthen you to do this.
Perhaps there are circumstances in your life that are keeping you from rejoicing and praying and giving thanks. If these are causing you to turn your focus from your heavenly home then let me encourage you to seek to do as the apostle says in Colossians chapter 3. “Therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.”
2. Continuing prohibitions to the Christian
Next we see in verses 19-20 the continuing prohibitions to the Christian. Not only are there aspects of our life to remember to continue but Paul lists two things in our lives from which we must continually refrain.
A. Don’t put out the Spirit’s fire
In verse 19, Paul says, don’t put out the Spirit’s fire. Verse 19 reads, “Don’t quench the Spirit.” Paul relates the Holy Spirit to a fire that burns within us. What Paul wanted the Thessalonians to know here was they needed to continue in reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. If they were going to rejoice always and pray without ceasing and give thanks in everything they needed the work of the Spirit of God in their lives. Without it they would simply have the form of godliness without its power. Should we try to fool ourselves in saying that we are living in a manner pleasing to God when we are relying on our own strength instead of the strength of the Spirit of God? Should we go through each day only seeking after the Lord when the difficulties are too great or the pressure becomes too intense? God doesn’t want us to rely on Him only when things are going wrong. Otherwise, how will God get glory out of the whole of our lives? Too many think of God as the foxhole God. He is the One upon whom we rely when we are in a dire predicament. Yet the Psalmist says, “Let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach Him.” God asks us to call out to Him at all times not just the hard times.
God wants us to be led by His Spirit in an ongoing basis. This is of what Paul speaks when he describes the benefit of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was merely written on stone tablets. But in the New Covenant God Himself comes to live within us and He writes His law upon our hearts. He gives us the promise of His Holy Spirit to direct us daily. He is the one upon Whom we are to rely. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.”
Of what is Paul speaking when he says that we are to walk in (or by) the Spirit? There is a battle going on each moment of each day. As believers God directs us through His Spirit to do what is right. And it is in these very areas that Paul mentions in Galatians 5. Either we are going to follow our flesh into sin (and it begins subtly) or we are going to follow the Spirit into living out the actions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And Paul ends Galatians 5:23 with the difficulty (the sheer human impossibility) of it in these words; “Against such things there is no law.” There is no law that tells you how to love. There is no law that says, “be joyful.” It is only the Spirit of God, working in your life, that can direct you. You can’t come to me and say, “Pastor Dave, how do I love my spouse today? In what ways am I to be gentle to others? How can I be patient with so and so?” Usually people who ask me these kinds of questions are really only looking for ways out of their Spirit following duty anyway? So how should I answer these kinds of questions? “Walk in the Spirit.” When we are truly seeking to daily walk in the Spirit we won’t be walking over the Spirit. We need be sensitive to the Spirit’s work in our hearts and not seek to put out His fire by dousing it when we give ourselves over willingly to desires of the flesh. And if you are not sure about what they are Paul gives a starter list in Galatians 5:19-21.
Let me encourage you along with the Apostle Paul; don’t put out the fire of God’s Spirit in your heart. Be sensitive to your need to rely on His guidance in your life.
B. Don’t despise the revelation of God’s Word
Now this next prohibition closely follows the one we just covered. So closely, that I considered linking them together in this message. This prohibition is, “don’t despise the revelation of God’s Word.” In verse 20, Paul says, “Do not despise prophetic utterances.” Now without going into the why (because Paul doesn’t discuss it in this passage) let it suffice to say for now that I see that this as the revelation of the Word of God, called the Bible, whether that comes in the form of preaching or reading or memorizing and meditating upon it. Paul says do not think lightly of the Word of God.
The reason I think that these two prohibitions go hand in hand is that throughout the Bible, the Spirit and the Scripture are portrayed as working together. In Ephesians 5 where Paul says to be filled with the Spirit, the companion passage to that says, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
I have heard too often from people that the Spirit led them to do something contrary to the Word of God. It does not happen. Some spirit may have led them to do something contrary to the Word of God but not the Holy Spirit. And if we are going to let the Spirit of God fill us and direct our lives then we must have the Word of God dwelling in our lives. Don’t expect the Spirit of God to be working in your life if you are not allowing the Word of God to transform your life.
And we can despise the revelation of the Word of God if we are not willing to take the Word of God at the place where it intersects our lives and costs us. We can hear the Word of God all day long but if we are not willing to allow it to cut into our lives and obey it then it will do no good at all.
We may have some disease that our doctor tells us we need to have cut out of our bodies. And we may listen to him all day long tell us about the bad consequences of this disease but if we will not allow him to insert the scalpel we will not have that junk removed from our body.
In the same way if we are not willing to allow the Word to cut out the sin in our lives then don’t expect to see results. Don’t expect to see change. When we do this we despise the Word of God. O we may not use those terms but we do it nonetheless.
As I was reading a book called “He’s God and We’re Not” this same thought came across well in the final chapter of the book. There the author says, “The truth shall make you free . . . but it will hurt you first. [As I heard that statement, he says] I realized why most people have trouble growing spiritually. It’s not because we don’t know the truth. We’ve got so much truth it’s running out our eyeballs . . . No, the problem runs deeper than that. We know the truth, but we don’t want to let it hurt us, so we deflect it, ignore it, deny it, attack it, argue with it, and in general avoid it in any way we can. We hear the truth – we know the truth – but we deflect the truth so it never gets close enough to hurt. Therefore we are not set free. And that’s why . . . We’re still angry. We’re still stubborn. We’re still bitter. We’re still greedy. We’re still arrogant. We’re still filled with lust. We’re still self-willed. We’re still unkind. We refuse to let the truth hurt us.”
If you keep turning off the Word of God for something else, something that seems easier you will find that it is not easier. For you see the Word of God hurts first and then heals. But the wisdom of the world feels good first but then kills. This is why the author of Proverbs says, “the way of the transgressor is hard.” Don’t despise the revelation of God’s Word.
3. Continuing admonitions for the Christian
Thirdly, in verses 21&22, we see the continuing admonitions for the Christian. Paul gives these final admonitions in how to process the information that constantly bombards us in our lives. I want to just touch on this briefly.
A. Use discernment in what you collect
In verse 21 Paul tells us to use discernment in what you collect. Here he says, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” Paul describes this discernment in two parts.
i. Test everything
Paul notes that the first part of using this discernment is test everything. This word, “test,” meant to try something in order to approve it. It was used of the testing of coins to ensure that they were not counterfeit. And Paul says that whatever comes past our senses, whatever we take in ought to be discerned as to its value. Many today lack any discernment in their minds. The Television has seen to that. The TV is a medium that has struck dumb the major portion of the civilized (or previously civilized) world because its method of operation normally calls for a desensitization of the mind and not for its heightened awareness. As I recall one individual describe it, “pabulum (baby food) for the mind.”
But the Scripture says that we are to test everything. We are to put everything that comes into our minds through the grid of Scripture and process it accordingly.
ii. Keep only what’s good
And this brings us to the second part of discernment. Keep only what’s good. Paul says, “Hold fast to that which is good.” We are not to be spiritual junk collectors. We are not to have a dab of this philosophy and a bit of that. We are to keep that which pertains to godliness in Christ. This is what Paul says in the book of Colossians. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
We are to cling to that which causes us to be built up in the faith in Christ, not to that which sinks our mind into worldliness. Keep what is good.
B. What you can’t collect reject
Finally, Paul says, “What you can’t collect, reject.” There in verse 22 he notes, “Abstain from every form of evil.” If after passing something through the biblical grid that we are to maintain about all that comes our way, what we see, what we hear, what we say, what we do, if it cannot fit into this biblical grid that we are to be building in our minds through the study of the Scripture then Paul says get away from it. Abstain from it. Why should you even entertain the idea that might bring shame to the name of Christ? Paul says, abstain from every form of evil.
Perhaps you know someone with a penchant for collecting things. We knew someone in Minnesota whose aunt was maybe a little extreme in this. Our friend described her aunt’s house as filled with all kinds of things piled 5 or 6 feet high throughout her large house with only a small winding pathway in it. Nothing else could be put in her house, except on top of another pile. Friends, has your life, your thoughts, your actions become cluttered with the results of your lack of discernment? We have a continuing obligation as Christians to use discernment in what we collect. And what we can’t collect we are to reject.
I hope that Paul’s caution to us today to remember what we are to be doing and what we are to be avoiding has caused us to say, “Yes” to God. Yes God I will rejoice, pray and give thanks. “Yes, God” I will not quench the Spirit’s fire nor despise the revelation of Your Word. And “Yes, God” I will use biblical discernment to guide how I live my life.