Having arrived in the final section of Paul’s message to the Thessalonians before his benediction, we are prompted to ask a question: What is the purpose of the church? This question is closely linked to Paul’s exhortations, since from the beginning of this letter he has identified the Thessalonian congregation as a good church. Paul has not written to correct a major doctrinal error, as in Galatians, or to rebuke major moral lapses, as he will later do in 1 Corinthians. Instead, Paul has written to express his joy over the Thessalonians’ faith, love, and hope, to address questions about Christ’s second coming, and to deal with minor concerns. As he concludes his letter, he gives his general pastoral encouragement for them to press on and fulfill their calling together.

So, what is the primary calling of the church? Some people say that the main purpose of the church is evangelism (Matt. 28:19). Those who think this way look on the church as an army conquering the world through its witness. Others answer that the church’s purpose is to do ministry in the world (Matt. 25:35). On this view, the church is mainly a social-service agency. Still others think of the church as a safe place where we can escape the damage occurring in our world. Those who think this way look on the church as a fortress and a refuge.

According to Paul, none of these is the primary calling of the church. Certainly, the church must evangelize, minister, and protect, but these are not God’s main purposes for the church. According to Paul, the purpose of the church is that we, God’s people, should grow spiritually so that we increasingly attain to Christlike holiness and maturity. This principle is perhaps most clearly expressed in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, a letter that is widely regarded as the most fully developed expression of Paul’s pastoral philosophy. There, he writes that we are to attain “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:13-15).

This definition challenges the kind of Christianity that is common today. For many church members, Christian faith resides in the background of their lives. They think little about the Bible or God or their own spiritual condition, and they draw from very little of the power for godliness that is available to them in Christ. For many, Christianity is mainly the comfort that we can dial 911 to heaven and make an emergency call when needed.

If this describes your Christianity, then you should realize that it is very far from the conception not only of Paul but also of Jesus Christ. “And this is eternal life,” Jesus prayed, “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The essence of salvation is knowing God in a personal relationship that grows continually in this life until, in eternity to come, we are “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

As Paul concludes his first letter to the Thessalonians, he is concerned to direct the new believers to a spiritual maturity in which their relationship to God has grown and been strengthened. Here, as elsewhere, Paul conceives of our relationship to God in terms of the doctrine of the Trinity. There is only one God, but God is known in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul’s concluding exhortations clearly follow this biblical pattern: through our relationship with God the Son, believers are brought into communion with God the Father, through the power provided by God the Spirit (Eph. 2:18).

Paul’s exhortations in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 open up further dimensions of the Trinity by teaching us how to relate to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that while the Son accomplishes our salvation, the Father plays the role of ordaining His saving will for us. Paul describes in verses 16-18 “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” in terms of living consciously in the Father’s love. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has the role of applying God’s saving work in our lives. Therefore, in verses 19-22, Paul urges us to walk intentionally in step with the Holy Spirit.

Since our study of verses 5:14-15 considered Paul’s charge to imitate the servant ministry of God’s Son, we progress in verse 16 to living consciously in the presence of the Father’s love. Paul expresses this principle in terms of a threefold exhortation: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (vv. 5:16-18). All three of these responses – joy, prayer, and thanksgiving – are by-products of a life consciously opened to the Father’s love.

When speaking of Christian joy, we must first differentiate between true spiritual joy and the giddy emotionalism of the world. Unbelievers are happy when their circumstances are good. Christian joy, in contrast does not depend on how well things are going, but is able to flourish even amid great afflictions. This was the setting in Thessalonica: “Rejoice always.”

So, if pleasant circumstances are not the cause of a Christian’s happiness, then what are the sources of our rejoicing? First, Christians rejoice in the Father’s gift of His Son to be our Savior. A second source of Christian joy is the relationship with the Father that Jesus has secured by His saving work – what Paul described in Romans 5:1 as “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” A third source of the believer’s joy is the Bible’s testimony of God’s saving promises. God’s Word assures us that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

In addition to joy, Christians are to live in an attitude of continual prayer. Pray without ceasing,” Paul says (v. 17). He is not suggesting that Christians stop all our other activities so as only to pray, but urges a heart that is always open to God. Paul advocates prayer not merely as an action but also an attitude. The prayerful attitude that Paul seeks was lived by Enoch and Noah, who according to the Bible “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24; 6:9).

The third leg of Paul’s call to live in God’s presence is to “give thanks in all circumstances” (v. 18). How are Christians to be thankful for trials and tribulations? The answer is that our faith turns us away from ourselves and unto God. Just as David faced giant Goliath without fear by his faith in God, Christians face all threats and dangers with gratitude to the God who they know is sovereignly ruling for His glory and our salvation.

Paul notes that these gracious responses to God’s loving presence are “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (v. 18). God does not necessarily will that we should have good health or earthly riches, faithful friends or successful careers. God does something better than these for us: He gives us His Son to be our Savior, and in His Word He promises us eternal life in glory. It is His will that we should grow into the maturity of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving, because of and “in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s final exhortations concern the believer’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Just as Christians are to enter sacrificially into the servant ministry of the Son and live consciously in the Father’s love, we are also to fuel the flame of the Holy Spirit. Along these lines, Paul urges his readers, “Do not quench the Spirit” (v. 19).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to a fire (Matt. 3:11; Acts 2:3), so resisting the Spirit’s ministry is similar to dousing a fire with water or ashes. Presumably, this quenching takes place when believers crowd out God’s Word, prayer, and corporate worship with earthly pursuits or sinful pleasures. The result is that the effects of the Spirit’s work are diminished, like the flickering flames of a fire that has been deprived of oxygen.

Paul’s particular concern focuses on neglecting or rejecting God’s revealed Word. “Do not despise prophecies,” he writes (v. 20). Paul occasionally mentions the New Testament prophets (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph 3:5; 4:11). We need to remember that these early churches did not yet possess the written New Testament, so God provided prophets to declare God’s Word concerning salvation in Jesus Christ. These prophets might also foretell future events, but their main job was to “forth-tell” the gospel: they were preachers of the New Testament message before that message was recorded in writing. These gifted men belonged to the foundation-laying era of the apostles, and once the canon of the Bible was completed, their foretelling function ceased in the church (see also Eph 2:20).

Today, the analogy to prophecy is the preaching of God’s Word. This means that to fuel the flame of God’s Spirit, we must devote ourselves to the ministry of the Bible, in personal reading and especially in the preaching ministry of the church. Either the Word of God will shape our thinking or the message of the world will drown out God’s voice and quench the ministry of God’s Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 Study Questions:

What are the sources of our rejoicing?

What does “pray without ceasing” mean to you?

What does it mean to “give thanks in all circumstances?”

What is God’s will for us?