1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16–18. Πάντοτε χαίρετε, ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε, ἐν παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε. Always rejoice; unceasingly pray; in everything give thanks. The adverbs, emphatically prefixed to the three imperatives, continue the strain of 1 Thessalonians 5:15 in its wide inclusiveness; see the note there on πάντοτε. The command to “rejoice always” is notable in a Letter addressed to a suffering people (see 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 Thessalonians 3:2-4); it must have struck the readers as a paradox. St Paul had learnt the secret, which he thus virtually teaches—as he does expressly in Romans 5:3-5—that sorrow endured for Christ’s sake opens a new spring of joy: cf. 2 Corinthians 12:10; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:12-14; also the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:10-12. St Paul’s subsequent Letter, dated from prison, to the neighbouring Philippian Church (see Philippians 4:4 f., also Philippians 1:29) is a descant on this theme.

The Christian’s constant joy puts him in the mood to “pray without ceasing.” Twice the Apostles have used the adverb ἀδιαλείπτως concerning their own grateful remembrance of their readers before God (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13): a crowd of other objects occupied their minds through the hours of each day; they could not be continuously thinking of this one Church, nor presenting it distinctly to God in every act of devotion; but they felt that it was never out of remembrance; thankfulness on its account mingled with and coloured all their thoughts at this time. In like manner Prayer is the accompaniment of the whole life of Christians—a stream always flowing, whether sensibly or in the background of consciousness; it forms the undercurrent of thought, which imparts its direction and tone to everything upon the surface. This unbroken course of prayer belongs to the “life hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).