16Be
being joyful always. 17Be praying constantly. 18Be being
thankful in everything, for this [is] [the] desire of God in Christ Jesus into
you.
This has been an unusual study. If I simply focus on v18 and
the “Be thankful in everything,” there are mountains of very helpful,
practical, encouraging thoughts to scratch down – and I probably will – but,
what has caught my eye is the final phrase “for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.”
At first I simply wanted for a minute to consider the “this.”
“This is the will of God.” What “this?” Is it specifically the thankfulness, or
is it the “Joyful always, praying constantly, thankful in everything”? Or is it
the whole array of admonitions from (at least) v14 on?
What I found is no consensus (even in my own heart) to pin
it down. Some note that the “this” is singular and assert therefore that it
points only to the immediately preceding phrase, “Be thankful in everything.”
This line of logic would say, had it been intended to include more, instead of the
singular “this” it could have been written with a plural “these” to read “For these things are the will of God …”
Others would (legitimately) note that there is some very
deliberate order in Paul’s writing here where vv. 14-15 contain 5 verbal
phrases, vv.16-18 contain 3, then vv.19-22 again contain 5 (followed by it
looks like groupings of 3 in vv.23,24 and again 3 in vv.25-27). This apparent
structure can reasonably be argued to say that our vv.16-18 actually form a logical
triad which should be considered together. In this case the three verses should
be punctuated with commas rather than periods, and the singular “this” is
apparently seeing them all as a sort of singular set of virtues.
Then someone else can suggest it simply refers to the whole
book, that Paul, for whatever reason, simply chooses here to assert the thought
that “all of this is God’s will for you.”
Probably the cleanest, most defensible position would be to
limit the “this” to its own near antecedent “Be thankful in everything.” My
problem is that I said “most” defensible. Especially the argument of letting it
point to the triad is so compelling, I simply cannot dismiss it. The “it points
to everything in the book” makes the statement almost seemingly frivolous to me.
So in my own mind I have to say it is either specifically the thankfulness or
the triad of joyfulness, prayer, and thankfulness together.
My problem is I don’t believe it can be both. When Paul wrote those words, and as the Holy Spirit inspired
him to write them, they didn’t mean both.
They meant one or the other. As Paul wrote, “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” in his
mind, the “this” was very specifically referring to something. For me, the fact that I don’t see clearly which it was
means I don’t really understand thoroughly what he’s saying or exactly what he’s
thinking. Which means I don’t really see the world through his eyes. Which means
I don’t really see the world through God’s eyes.
In a sense, this is exactly why I study the Bible. Of course
I don’t see the world through God’s eyes. That is precisely my problem. “And
when you know the truth, the truth shall make you free!” … And I want to be
free. So I study the Bible and ask Him to open my eyes, to show me the world
through His eyes. “Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and
mighty things thou knowest not.” And He does. And He has. And when He does it
invariably rocks my world. His truth isn’t just, “Oh, yeah, isn’t that cool.”
His truth to me is like an atom bomb that goes off in my soul. It’s a bomb that
goes off in that instant I do understand, I do see the world through His eyes
(in some small new way) and it’s a bomb that always leaves in its wake whole
new vistas of love and joy and peace. It blows away some vestige of my pride
and arrogance and selfishness. It feels like deep in my soul in some way my
world was cold and dark and misty with confusion and suddenly the Day Star
rises in my heart, floods me with light and warmth, gives me hope, and in that
one perhaps even small way, suddenly to me the world makes sense.
Of course that’s the way it is. My heart is desperately
wicked -- But He is a Redeemer. He is a saving God. His name is Jesus “for He
shall save His people from their sins.” For me to go on being “conformed to
this world” is to go on dying with them; but “to be transformed by the renewing
of my mind” is life itself. It is part of the resurrection of Jesus that
invades my dark world and resurrects me.
“Lazarus, come forth!” He calls to my soul, and “when the Son shall make you
free, you shall be free indeed!”
Love, joy, peace. Faith, hope, love. Joyfulness, prayer, and
thankfulness. The cordials of His grace.
I want them all.
And so I go on studying.
And very often His bombs go off.
And sometimes they don’t.
Sometimes I come to verses like here in I Thes 5:18 and
there is something I know I don’t understand. And I know I’ve found a jewel. If
only I did understand – there is something of love and joy and peace awaiting
me that I don’t possess now. And sometimes if I linger and pray over it, He
does reveal it to me.
And sometimes He doesn’t. When He doesn’t I know He knows
that somehow I’m not ready. “He will, but not yet.” And then I love to leave
things like Habakkuk, “I will stand at my rampart and watch and see what He
will answer me.”
In the end, it’s okay if He doesn’t show me (now). Of course
I will die with unanswered questions. The work of redemption must, by
definition, ever continue an unfinished work in this life. “Beholding His
image, we’re changed into that image, from glory to glory.” “He who has begun a
good work will continue it until the Day of Jesus Christ.” “And when we see
Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
So … to what is Paul referring when He says, “… for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you”?
I don’t know.
“You will, but not yet.”
And so the wonderful journey of love, joy, and peace continues.
“For God, who said,
‘Let
light shine out of darkness,’
made His light to shine in our hearts
to
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in
the face of Christ”
(II Cor
4:6).
No comments:
Post a Comment