1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 page 1
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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 page 1 |
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16 Be joyful always; Always. Continually. In all circumstances. Can Paul really mean those words literally? Think about it for a moment and it seems daft: Always joyful? So you can go round with a silly smirk on your face, meeting all the stereotypes of a happy-clappy Christian, grinning inanely even in the darkest moments of life? Surely not, and especially when Paul also wrote elsewhere that we should 'mourn with those who mourn' [Romans 12:15]. I wouldn't say Debbie and I were particularly joyful this last week when for the second consecutive week baby Mark ended up one night at the emergency doctor's. Were we being unfaithful by not being joyful through that experience? Continually praying? Hmm. "Sorry, officer, I know you say I should have been driving with due care and attention but I was praying." I think of the friend of mine who went for a meal with church friends. Like many Christians this couple wanted to 'say grace' before the meal - to offer a prayer of thanks for the food before eating. Well they said a prayer and my friend was ready to tuck in. But the couple kept mumbling and mumbling. Eventually my friend could take no more - she wanted her dinner! - and asked the couple what they were doing. "Oh, we're saying grace in tongues," was the pretty unbelievable response! I mean, how daft is that? How did they know that what they were saying in tongues was thanks for the food without an interpretation, let alone the fact that such an action seems to be hyper-spiritual showing off? And then giving thanks in all circumstances? Some Christians have taken that extremely literally. In the 1970s the books of an American author called Merlin Carothers such as 'Prison To Praise' became very popular. Carothers took this verse and said that giving thanks in all circumstances meant that you even gave thanks for the bad and evil things that happened, not just in the midst of the circumstances. But how you can push this to being thankful for evil is pretty preposterous, and I only wish I'd thought of that when I was a zealous teenage Christian reading these books! So what do we make of the 'always', 'continually' and 'in all circumstances'? Surely we're to understand that this kind of language must be about our general disposition and the habits of the heart. Anything more would be cruel. Given that understanding, let's explore the three injunctions from the apostle, but let's see them as encouragements to us.
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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration. |
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