1 Thessalonians 5:16 - Rejoice Always

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Target Date: Sunday, 14 May 2023 (Mothers’ Day)

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Rejoice - χαίρω chairō – joyful, in some cases, even celebratory.

to be “cheer”ful, i.e. calmly happy or well-off; impers. espec. as salutation (on meeting or parting), be well:— farewell, be glad, God speed, greeting, hail, joy (- fully), rejoice.

Related stem to the words for grace (cháris) and thanksgiving (eucharistía), which derive from this word.

For the Stoics chará is a special instance of hēdonḗ. Since the Stoics regard emotions as defective judgment of the lógos, they tend to view chará negatively. But they mitigate this verdict by classifying it as a “good mood” of the soul rather than an emotion (páthē).

Always - πάντοτε pantŏtĕ – evermore, “every-when”, from now on

This is an indication of time, not circumstance.

Thoughts on the Passage:

These three verses are a set of things we believers must constantly do. All three of them are “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

All three are done with the eager expectation of our Lord’s return.

All three of these are examples of the outworking of faith in God through Jesus Christ.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. – Romans 12:15

This is one of approximately 70 New Testament commands to rejoice. This volitional choice is extremely important for the Christian. We can always rejoice if we remember what God has given us in Christ (cf. Phil. 4:4). Incidentally, this is the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament, not John 11:35.

Rejoicing is not the trite and trivial pronouncement of lip service in the midst of trouble;

Not trying to talk ourselves into happiness in exchange for our difficult circumstances.

Nor is it the dispassionate fatalism of stoicism.

Rejoicing is about having joy that rises above circumstances.

About having a joy that springs continually from you evermore.

Rejoicing can have only a single source – faith in God the Father to do what is good in His sight.

Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. - John 16:20-22

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippian 4:4-7

You will not rejoice nor have complete joy if you are simply looking at your circumstances and trying to find the good in them;

The reason is because your eyes are on your circumstances, not upon God, the unending fount of joy for His children.

Joy is not a reaction to your circumstances, but a response to the grace of a loving Father.

But you can also find joy in your circumstances if you keep the PURPOSE in mind.

Any work can become grinding and toilsome, but when you keep in mind the glory of God in what you do, there is joy.

Moms: it is not uncommon to see women online complaining about their workload as a mother. So why do you do all that work?

If you are doing it so other people will acknowledge you as a great mother, you are probably exhausted and joyless.

If you are doing it out of your abiding love for your family, and that is your FIRST thought when I asked the question, you are probably finding joy even while you do the same amount of work.

We fail to rejoice when we would rather be doing something else than what we should be doing.

When we wish we were somewhere else than where we are.

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. – 1 Timothy 6:6

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. – 1 Corinthians 7:17

Following Christ is not meant to be a heads-down, stone-faced, gut-it-out grind to the finish. It is work that has hope, work that is no longer toilsome.

In that great list in 2 Corinthians 6 that contrasts the appearance of things to the reality, Paul says this:

in everything commending ourselves as servants of God… - 2 Corinthians 6:4

…as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. – 2 Corinthians 6:9-10

Applications:

For the Christian:

In your life, what times have you found yourself joyless or depressed? At the times when you were in close fellowship with God, obeying His commandments, and spending time with Him at every moment you could?

No – those are the times when the joy flows unabated.

The times we lose our joy are when we succumb to sin, when we walk away from God’s command, when we count our treasure here on earth. It is those times where the spring of joy gets clogged, and we feel still and stagnant.

And child of God – it is not an accident. The Holy Spirit will use those joyless times to train us to crave His constant joy, His constantly-felt presence.

This has nothing to do with the emotional manipulation of churches or preachers; this is the work of the Spirit, using His rod and staff to comfort us.

How good is a parent that indulges every whim of the child, even when that child is rebellious or disobedient?

Does a good parent provide without limit to a child who has grown ungrateful, who feels entitled to only good things?

God does not OWE you joy; you have joy when you are in fellowship with Him.

Sermon Text:

This morning we will take a look at the shortest verse in the New Testament in the original language: Rejoice always.

This instruction is the first of three instructions in verses 16 to 18 in this final chapter of 1 Thessalonians.

Rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances.

And they are all summarized in the second half of verse 18:

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now, if you remember from last week, I gave some warning about artificially linking verses in order to weaken their message.

But we can see immediately these are MEANT to be linked.

In the first place, we have a parallel construction of these reminders.

Each command is a duration and a command.

Always rejoice.

Unceasingly pray.

In everything give thanks (one word for “give thanks”).

This construction is done so that we WILL associate these with one another.

Secondly, the REASON for these commands is given once – after all the instructions are listed.

We can legitimately distribute this reason to each of the commands:

Always rejoice, For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Unceasingly pray, For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In everything give thanks, For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

But also by including the reason only once at the end, the apostles are showing a well-rounded Christian life.

Not just joy, but prayer and thanksgiving as well.

Because in the life God wants you to have in Christ Jesus, all three of these things are important.

That is, not incidentally, one of the reasons we will look at each in detail, God willing.

So today we will look at the first command: Rejoice always.

And I will say at the outset there are two primary ways people can think they are obeying this command, but get it entirely wrong.

For some, it is about living a life of fatalism, like the Stoics.

To simply DENY the existence of anything that is uncomfortable or unjoyful.

There ARE difficulties that come into people’s lives, into YOUR life.

There are things that will bring tears and dim the joy that is in your heart.

There are times when you don’t FEEL joyful.

The Bible never tells you to DENY those events or seasons of life;

The entire POINT of rejoicing is to carry you through those times.

There is a balance, a level-headedness and calm-heartedness that comes from a joyful spirit, but it is not simply a product of the great will you have inside you.

Like you can will-away trouble or tribulation or even persecution.

Wouldn’t that be a ridiculous message to this persecuted church?

Just DENY that you are being sought out and singled out because of your faith.

The other way to falsely rejoice always is to only change your speech.

To try to talk ourselves into being happy, and trying to convince everyone around us we are joyful.

And yet all the time coveting the lives other people have that we think are less troubled than our own.

We see this in people who are “joyfully judgmental”, resenting in their hearts what they dare not speak with their lips.

This is a particular problem for those churches that teach that WORDS have real spiritual power.

Who believe that if they speak something negative, their words will create that negative thing.

What nonsense.

Words do have power, but not the power to create reality. Only God’s words may do that.

The power words have is the ability to encourage or tear down.

And often those who falsely rejoice with their words also live in perpetual dissatisfaction and judgment of others.

So if those are two ways we can get this verse wrong, let’s look at what the verse is telling us to do right.

The first thing is to get the verse right. Rejoice always.

It doesn’t say “Rejoice in all things”, although that is the way we often hear it, isn’t it?

You just lost your job? Rejoice.

Your beloved pet just died? Rejoice.

Your child was just diagnosed with cancer? Rejoice.

This isn’t the wrong interpretation simply because I don’t think anyone is capable of doing this.

It is just wrong.

The word “always” has NOTHING to do with the idea of circumstances; we see that later in verse 18 with thanksgiving.

The “always” here in this verse is an indication of TIME.

I rather like the way the King James, instructed by the Geneva Bible, translates this same verse: Rejoice evermore.

Rejoice from this point to forever.

From now until eternity, rejoice.

Not “in every circumstance, rejoice”.

Because there are some circumstances that are not joyful.

Otherwise, Romans 12:15 doesn’t make any sense:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. – Romans 12:15

If we are supposed to rejoice in every circumstance, Paul would have told this church something else to do with those who weep.

As Jesus was comforting His disciples on the night He was betrayed, He said this:

Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:20-22

There is certainly more in this passage than we can touch on today.

But notice what He tells His disciples:

There are things that are not joyful.

Labor pains – that is what Jesus mentions. Not joyful.

But the joy that comes with the birth of the child, when it is accomplished, overcomes the pain and distress of her labor.

So too with all the pains you may experience in life, no matter how heavy they may be.

In Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17ff:

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Notice one more thing: it is the presence of Christ that changes our perspective.

He was speaking to His disciples of the joy that would come on the other side of the cross and the tomb, when He was alive from the dead.

But in the flow of the fifth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the expectation and anticipation of our Lord’s return can create in us that same joy.

Because your joyfulness, your rejoicing, has everything to do with your GOAL.

The writer of Hebrews (12:2-3), encouraging us to press on and not lose heart, says this about our Lord:

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. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

For the JOY set before Him ENDURED…

For the JOY set before you, ENDURE…

So we see that to rejoice ALWAYS means to continue to rejoice.

So please do not take anything I have said so far as thinking it is right to be a dour, depressed Christian.

It is not ok.

Joy is that calmness that only faith in Christ can provide, that peace that surpasses all comprehension, bypasses all conscious thought and worry.

It is the state of having more faith in Jesus Christ than we have fear in our circumstances.

Two incidents are recorded in the gospels where the disciples went out on the Sea of Galilee in a boat when a storm blew up.

In the first, Matthew 8 (among other places), Jesus fell asleep in the boat while the experienced sailors panicked.

Do you remember what Jesus said? Peace, be still.

And not only the disciples calmed down, the wind and the waves did also.

And then in the second incident (Matthew 14 and others), the disciples had gone across without Jesus in the boat, and a storm blew up.

And in the middle of the night, they saw Jesus walking toward them, and they thought He was a ghost.

But Peter recognized him, and he asked Jesus if, in the middle of the waves and wind, he could come out to Him.

And he WALKED OUT TOWARD JESUS.

But, as we have heard many preachers say, he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on his circumstances.

He saw the waves and felt the wind, and his fear overcame his faith.

But even as the waves pulled him under, Jesus was right there, lifting him out of the waves and into the boat.

There is a calmness in faith, a joy that comes from knowing that God is in control of your circumstances.

But there is also the peril of paying more attention to your circumstances than you do to Him.

We so often live in worry over our circumstances, our situations, and we find we cannot rejoice there.

The believer doesn’t rejoice simply because he is a believer;

He rejoices because the grace of God has been lavished on us in Jesus Christ.

And even when pleasant circumstances come, being happy over that benefit is not necessarily rejoicing.

More people have been lured away from Christ by pleasure than have been driven from Him by pain.

Rejoicing always is stepping off that roller-coaster of emotions based on your circumstances and experiencing the quiet calmness of God from deep inside.

Rejoicing doesn’t start from the outside and work its way into you;

It begins inside you and works its way out.

Rejoicing, like prayer and thanksgiving that follow, proceed directly from faith, and that faith is given by God.

Anything you do, any situation you find yourself in, if it is not borne from faith, will become grinding and toilsome.