A Holy Charge (18)

 

 

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16 - 18).

 

What do you see in verses 16 – 18? How do you see what you see? That is, how do you read what you see? Often, how we read determines what we see.

 

Is there a difference between reading verses 16 – 18 the way it is written above, and the way I’ll write it now?

 

“Rejoice always.”

 

“Pray without ceasing.”

 

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

 

Read both ways aloud and see if you sense a difference. You might or you might not.

 

There is a sense in which perhaps we ought to read these verses in stereo in order to “see” the fulness of the image; there is a sense in which these verses are a trinity, with three in one and one in three. If we look at them one way we’ll see one thing, if we look at them another way we’ll see another image, a similar image to be sure, an image with the same elements; but nevertheless a different image – we really can’t separate the two images, but we can distinguish them.

 

Now you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, and I appreciate your patience. Perhaps our primary tendency is to read verses 16 – 18 as a list of three things we ought to be doing: rejoicing, praying, giving thanks. When I hear folks talk about this passage I hear them taking in terms of a list. “What is it to rejoice always?” “What is it to give thanks in everything?” And of course, all of my life I’ve heard people discuss what in the world Paul means by “Pray without ceasing.”

 

For sure these are reasonable questions; questions that ought to be explored, commands that ought to be obeyed, practices that ought to be nurtured and cultivated and passed on to others. But is there more? Is there another way to read and “see” this passage?

 

Is this passage more than a list that is to be read number 1, number 2, number 3?

 

I think so. I think these verses are an image of the woman or man or young person who is living in communion with Jesus Christ, in intimate fellowship with Him. To live in intimacy with Christ, and in Christ, is to know, experience, and manifest rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving as a Way of Life, for it is to live in Christ and to know Christ living in us.

 

We might think of rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving as a threefold cord which is not easily broken. These three elements of the Christian life are not so much things we do, but rather who we are as we live in the Holy Trinity. Yes, of course, we “do” these things, but we do them because we are them in Christ. Yes, when we begin this journey we may very well do these things because they are commands, but we may find that as we “do” them we become them, and as we become them we do them and find they are embedded in our Nature in Christ.

 

This is what I meant above when I suggested that we have a trinity in these verses, we can see them as a unity while also seeing their individual characteristics – we see the one image in the three (rejoicing, praying, giving thanks), and we see all three in one (the woman or man or young person living in Jesus Christ).

 

Are not rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks what we ought to experience as our Way of Life abiding in the Vine? Ought this not to be our normal Way of Life?

 

When Peter writes of us having “joy inexpressible and full of glory” he is writing of our love for Jesus and our trust in Him (1 Pt. 1:8). When Jesus is the heartbeat of our lives we will know His joy and will be “rejoicing night and day as we walk the pilgrim way.”

 

When Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4), he writes from prison – and is this not what the Philippians might have expected? After all, it was in Phillipi that Paul and Silas sang praises to God in prison after having been beaten with “many blows” (Acts 16:22 – 30).

 

The Thessalonians themselves “received the word [of God] in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:6).

 

Jesus desires that His joy may be in us and that our joy may be made complete (John 15:11), and He has given us His Word so that we “may have My joy made full in themselves” (John 17:13).

 

This is the Jesus “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” (Heb. 12:2).

 

Have we forgotten that the Kingdom of God “is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17)?

 

Where is our joy today? Where is the joy of the professing church? Where is the joy of the Bride? Where is the inherent joy in Jesus Christ that ought to be flowing from us day after day…at home, in friendships, at work, at school, in our communities…and of course, as we gather as His People?

 

Our joy is greater than this present age, it is greater than our sufferings, greater than our anxieties, greater than the news, greater than economic forecasts – for our joy is in Jesus and it flows from Him, into our souls…and hopefully outward to others.

 

Can we hear the words of Nehemiah?

 

“Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10)?

 

O dear friends, Jesus Christ has given us Himself – is He not the sweet fat of life? Is His Spirit and love and forgiveness not the sweetest waters anyone can ever drink from? Ought we not to be sending the fruit and love and grace of Jesus to all those around us? Wherever we are, wherever they are?

 

The joy of Jesus is indeed our strength – it makes no sense, anymore than does the peace of God keeping our hearts and minds and souls (Phil. 4:6 – 7). O dear ones, we are speaking of something that is supernatural, something we can only know and share in and through the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit living within us can bring forth the fruit of rejoicing, praying always, and giving thanks in all things.

 

Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks are at the core of our intimacy with Christ Jesus – they flow from the throne of God – they do not make sense to the world and to much of the professing church – man cannot produce them, but in Christ we can experience them as our Way of Life…and let us make no mistake…rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks is at the core of credible and life-changing witness…for it is so other-worldly that the hungry and thirsty of the world are drawn to it.

 

Shall the joy of the LORD be our strength today?