Daily Verse 1 Thessalonians 5:16 | Daily verse by Faithlife
- Thread starter SC Facilitator
- Start date
Cross References:
Php 4:4 | Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Ro 12:12 | rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, being devoted to prayer,
2 Co 6:10 | as grieving, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing, and possessing everything.
Lk 18:1 | And he told them a parable to show that they must always pray and not be discouraged,
Php 1:18 | What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. But also I will rejoice,
Lk 18:1; Ro 12:12; 2 Co 6:10; Php 1:18; 3:1; 4:4
N.T. Wright
1 THESSALONIANS 5:12–22
Final Exhortations
We all learn our mother tongues without realizing that there is such a thing as grammar. By the time we are three or four, we are using nouns, verbs, prepositions and the rest to make complex and intricate sentences—just like baby birds flying at an early age without ever having studied the laws of aerodynamics.
But when you learn another language you normally have to learn at least some grammar. And, to begin with at least, most teachers have clever little ways of getting us to remember how the new language works. When I was learning French, there was one teacher who used to make up little rhymes to help us remember tricky bits of grammar. We used to sing them in class, feeling very stupid (fancy a bunch of thirteen-year-olds singing ‘all pronouns come before the verb’ at the tops of their voices). But when it came time for the examination, we were in good shape. Even if we hadn’t got the language into our hearts by then, so that it all came naturally, we could think of the tune and the rule would come back. English spelling was another place where rhymes and songs would help. ‘I before E except after C’, the teacher would remind us.
Early Christianity had many little rules. Indeed, thinking of Christian behaviour as a type of language, with its own grammar, is a helpful way of understanding what teachers like Paul were trying to do. Most of us learn a kind of mother tongue of behaviour: we watch how our families and close friends behave, and assume that this is how we should act as well. If we grow up with people shouting at each other and using violence to settle quarrels, we assume that is how one should behave. If we see people cheating each other, we expect to do so ourselves. If people around us are kind and considerate, there’s a good chance we will pick that up. And so on. But supposing there are other languages of behaviour, other grammars? How are we going to learn them? How will we get them into our systems?
Of course, the Christian ideal is that we should get to the point, as with a language, where we don’t need to think about it at all. If you are a native speaker of, say, Swahili, and want to learn Chinese, your aim is to be able to listen and speak in Chinese without ever thinking of grammar. To the extent that you are still racking your brains about which words to use and how to form sentences, you are not yet fluent. But, as you practise, the rules will steadily become, as we say, ‘second nature’. That is the aim with learning the new language of Christian behaviour.
For most of us today, as for Paul’s converts, it is indeed a new language. Some people suggest that this new language will only mean anything at all when it becomes like a mother tongue—when we don’t think about rules at all, but simply behave in the Christian way from the heart. Paul, they remind us, warned against justification by works of the law. Surely he can’t have wanted to give us a new set of rules, which would simply replace the commands of the law?
To think like this is to miss the point. Of course the ideal is that we should have the new language of Christian behaviour written on our hearts. Paul does indeed say in various places that this is what God’s spirit will do (e.g., Romans 2:25–29). But it doesn’t happen overnight. Indeed, the way in which God’s spirit does this is not simply by working secretly within the individual heart or mind, without any other intervention and without conscious effort by the person concerned—though this may and does happen in some people to some extent. Rather, God’s spirit brings us to fluency in the new language of behaviour in three ways, each of which is mentioned here.
The first is through careful Christian teaching and leadership (verses 12–13). In several places Paul urges his converts to give attention, affection and appropriate financial reward (that’s probably what ‘love’ means here; compare 4:9–12) to those who lead and teach in the church. This is, of course, the more remarkable in that the leaders and teachers themselves in Thessalonica had only been Christians a short time. Already there were some whom God had called and equipped for this work.
The second is through the mutual influence of the whole community (verses 14–15). Each Christian, and each Christian group or family, has the responsibility to look out for the needs of the others, to give comfort, warning, strengthening and example wherever necessary. It isn’t enough to avoid trouble and hope for the best. One must actively go after (the relevant phrase here means ‘pursue’) what will be good for other Christians, and indeed for everybody.
Third, there are the equivalents of the little rules of grammar, the rhymes and memory-aids which nudge the mind in the right direction. Verses 16–22 may well be a list of these, designed for easy memorization, which Paul has put together so that his young churches will quickly learn the language of Christian behaviour. When we speak of ‘learning by heart’, we often mean ‘by mind’, with an effort of memory; but, once that effort has been made, the heart takes what is learnt into itself until it becomes second nature, like a mother tongue. That is what Paul intends with this list.
The list itself is full of joy. The early Christians knew a lot about suffering; Paul wanted them to learn how to celebrate in the midst of it. Learning to thank God for whatever he gives is sometimes difficult, but it goes with celebrating the lordship of Jesus over the world in advance of its being made public and generally recognized. And then, the simplest but most profound of basic moral rules: when you find something good, hold it fast with both hands, but keep well clear from anything that even looks as though it might be evil. Learn these lessons—as relevant today as ever they were—and you have taken the first steps to mastering the grammar of Christian behaviour.
Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 129–133.
When people ask if one speaks a langauge 'fluently' it means one can think in the language, not specifically that you speak it properly.
But John the Baptizer speaks of the language of truth, the language of Christ: From the Dutch Translation Basis Bijbel (Basis Bible) In John 3:31 The Man who came from heaven is more important than all men. John 3:32 I am from the earth and speak the language of the earth. The Man who came from heaven is more important than all men. He tells of what He has seen and heard. But no one believes Him. John 3:33 Whoever does believe Him, thereby says that God is the truth. John 3:34 For the Man sent from God speaks the words of God. For God has given Him endlessly much of His Spirit. John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given Him power over everything. John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever disobeys the Son will not live forever. He remains guilty and God must punish him."
Jesus said: 'Follow me'. When we think and act like Jesus, we can say we are christian.
But John the Baptizer speaks of the language of truth, the language of Christ: From the Dutch Translation Basis Bijbel (Basis Bible) In John 3:31 The Man who came from heaven is more important than all men. John 3:32 I am from the earth and speak the language of the earth. The Man who came from heaven is more important than all men. He tells of what He has seen and heard. But no one believes Him. John 3:33 Whoever does believe Him, thereby says that God is the truth. John 3:34 For the Man sent from God speaks the words of God. For God has given Him endlessly much of His Spirit. John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given Him power over everything. John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever disobeys the Son will not live forever. He remains guilty and God must punish him."
Jesus said: 'Follow me'. When we think and act like Jesus, we can say we are christian.