There is no more theologically-demanding instruction in the New Testament than we find in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:

¹⁸in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

By “theologically-demanding” I mean this command makes us think theologically. I makes us move from our experience and life “under the sun” to a biblical perspective founded on God’s Word. We must bring sound “theology” to this command to properly understand it. Not doing so might ensure we misunderstand it.

Not Trivializing Your Suffering

“in everything” includes our trials and tribulations. It includes our highs and our lows, and sometimes the lows are overwhelming. The universal command stated in 1 Thes 5:18 includes the very deepest troubles we encounter. It includes the “valley of the shadow of death” times that may make us despair of life—not whether we will live on but whether it is even worth it to proceed? The fires of torturous pain in this life, usually in the form of loss of life or love, must come to mind when we consider the summary “in everything” of this sobering instruction. That God the Son suffered for us in His humanity makes us avoid the common but shallow error of trivializing our suffering. God’s Word equips us to deal with the problem of pain, but it does not remove it. Pain is bearable in the Christian frame of life, but it is also inevitable.

Not “Christian” Masochism

Another error that will at times be proposed though not stated out-right is that of embracing pain or suffering itself as a good thing. This is to turn reality on its head and say that evil is good and good is evil. If suffering itself—not its salutary effects—were good, then we could anticipate an eternity of suffering as we enjoy all good things with our Creator in His ever-expanding Kingdom (see Isaiah 9:6-7). But we are told that suffering is abnormal. Death is ultimately a perversion of God’s design, and the troubles of this cursed world are a temporary aberration which God’s justice is working history to rectify. We feel like the wheels turn too slowly sometimes (see 2 Peter 3), that pain and suffering are the norm, and as such must be embraced as inherently good in themselves. This caricature of the Christian view of pain is destructive to the Gospel message, which says sin and pain are abnormal, and One died to provide eternal relief from their ravaging. By the way, the opposite message, that Christian experience will not include suffering if we are getting it right is just as errant and detrimental to the Gospel message as “Christian” masochism.

Not Petulant Contrariness

Perhaps it goes without saying that there is more to the Christian message than “counter-intuitivism.” The Christian message is not “cute,” designed merely to cut against the grain of our common experiences. The Christian message is wholly-other and beyond what we would conclude from mere sense perception and reasoning alone. Nevertheless, this command does run contrary to what we might conclude from our unaided observation of life’s troubles.

Real Christian Thanksgiving

Enough of what a Christian attitude of thankfulness is not. What is it?  This command calls us to a proper response to all of life. All of life is not encompassed by what we experience in the ups and downs of life. In fact most of life is beyond our sensory experience. In addition to our experiences our lives include the promises of God’s special revelation. The realities of our position in Christ with its resulting destiny are far greater than our day-to-day highs and lows. The frame of life in which you most occupy your time will determine your access to a true attitude of Christian thanksgiving. It is tempting to drift along through our experiences of people, processes, enjoyments, disappointments, etc., without benefit of God’s Word to enlighten us to the greater reality of His eternal plan for us. This common approach to life in the times in which we live will deliver a fairly uniform attitude of hopelessness and despair which must dominate an existence which ends, inevitably, in physical death. Only if God has done something about death is there a reason for joy, a potential for peace, and a basis for hope.

My appeal here comes directly from the second half of 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” These words take us outside the realm of our experiences and into the reality of God’s plan. Whether you feel like God has a purpose for your life or not is irrelevant to the revealed fact that He is indeed working the details of history to a glorious conclusion. This is why Christian theology is indispensable to successful Christian living. Alongside our sorrows and pain in this life we must recall to mind God’s disclosure of His wondrous provision for us. This is not to diminish the pain but to contextualize it such that, when all inputs are finally tallied, the balance is overwhelming joy.

The math is simple, but the emotions are complicated. We must consider Romans 8:32 when we experience the crushing pain of loss in love or life:

³²He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

The mindset thus prescribed by 1 Thessalonians 5:18 is contextualized by verses like Romans 8:32. It requires a future-orientation as we trust in God’s promises despite our troubled present experience. This orientation is the key to staying power in intensified suffering. One of the most foundational passages to combine a future-orientation for contextualizing present suffering is Hebrews 12:1-3. Verses 2-3 establish Jesus as the focus of our attention so that He becomes our example and pattern in suffering:

²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Only through a perspective of faith in God’s eternal promises which are ours in Christ does “in everything give thanks” have any real traction. It is nonsense to the closed-system thinking of naturalism which sees the finality of death as ultimate and the inevitability of death as a cause for ultimate despair. The Christian message deals at its core with the real problems of life and death, and the enduring Christian attitude must rest on joy and thanksgiving because God has promised that life will win eternally. In Christ we are victors, and our constant attitude is thankfulness for God’s eternal provisions on our behalf.