Deeper Reflection
PAUL’S THREE EXHORTATIONS TO THE THESSALONIANS – “rejoice always”, “pray without ceasing” and “in everything give thanks” (vv.16-18) – are written in one sentence in Greek. This shows that the three exhortations are interlinked together, forming a triad. It is a discipleship triad in the presence of God. It is in the presence of God, because we are to “rejoice” – not expressing joy in general or having an emotional high consisting of feelings,²⁶ but “in the Lord” (Phil 4:4), and it is to God that we pray and give thanks.Paul does not intend “rejoice”, “pray” and “give thanks” to be practised and experienced in a progressive order. Rejoicing in the Lord, praying and giving thanks to God are dynamically interlinked. This means that in practice and experience, we do not have one without the other two. We are to have all three of them together in us. And as we rejoice, pray and give thanks in this dynamic interlink, the three actions dynamically build up each other in our lives.All the three actions are commonly modified by terms that give the idea of comprehensiveness, totality and absoluteness: “Rejoice always”, “pray without ceasing” and “in everything give thanks”. And the word order in the Greek sentence – “always rejoice, unceasingly pray and in everything give thanks” – emphasises “always”, “unceasingly” and “in everything” in the three actions in and to God. The call to constancy is clear. Constancy is developed over time with conscious continual disciplined practice, until this constancy becomes character in us. And it is God who develops this in us as we walk with Him constantly.

---

²⁶ G. K. Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (IVP Academic, 2003), 167