By Debbie Christopher—You may have been asked about your favorite verse about Thanksgiving. I’d like to dig into the verse I claim as my Thanksgiving verse. I even wrote it as my November verse in my planner.
“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.“
1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV
The under-lying meaning of this verse could go two ways—although both are basically synonymous and both are discussed throughout Scripture.
Does the phrase “for this is the will of God concerning you” mean it is God’s will for us to be thankful…or…
Does it mean all things—all circumstances—everything that takes place—are God’s will concerning you…so be thankful for them?
Yes, it is God’s will for us to be thankful, and yes, all things are part of His plan for our lives. So which thought was Paul actually stressing to the believers in Thessalonica?
So, I asked my Greek Linguist husband which thought the original writing leaned towards.
He checked it out and shared with me that the pronoun ‘this’ is a gender-agreement pronoun and refers to ‘all circumstances’.* In other words, the original writing indicates that all circumstances are part of God’s plan for our lives, and we should be thankful for each of them. Ouch and on my!
I chose T.H.I.S. as the title for my Thanksgiving blog because T.H.I.S. Is what it’s truly about…the word ‘this’.
Now, let’s take a moment to consider that Paul wrote this letter long before Thanksgiving became a National holiday…and thus, goes way beyond listing the things (usually blessings) that we are thankful for before we dig into our holiday meal.
After doing additional research into the verses surrounding this verse of thanksgiving, I recalled from previous studies that verse 18 falls in a paragraph that includes verses 16-18ff.
Note: Recall that the original writing of this letter did not include chapters and verses, but, was written in everyday paragraph form…
Weirsbe—one of my favorite theologians who always included simple, every day application to his commentary—stated that verse 18 falls in a section of the letter where Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to regularly spend time in personal worship. He defined this time of worship to include prayer (vs 17) and thanksgiving (vs18)—doing so with a joyful heart (vs 16)
Rejoice always,
Pray unceasingly
Give thanks in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
Part of their worship included a time to express thanksgiving for the circumstances that surrounded them daily! As an additional note here, the Thessalonian church was facing regular and severe persecution.
I leave you with this quote from Charles A. Wanamaker that the editors of the Holman Illustrated Bible Commentary included in their commentary on this passage…
“To rejoice always is to see the hand of God in whatever is happening…Without such conviction, joy would not be possible in the face of affliction, suffering, and death”.
(and, may I add bumps along the way.)
Being thankful for our ‘bumps’…
~Debbie
References:
*Gregory T. Christopher, Ph.D, University of Texas Arlington, 2000.
E.Ray Clendenen and Jeremy Royal Howard, editors, Holman Illustrated Bible Commentary, Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2015.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary NT, Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007.
Love this! (Sorry for the pun!) =]