ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5.18

Book: 1 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

16. Rejoice always; 17. pray without ceasing;

18. in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.

  1. Quench not the Spirit; 20. despise not prophesyings; (1 Thessalonians 5:16-20, ASV)
WEB

16. Rejoice always. 17. Pray without ceasing.

18. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.

  1. Don’t quench the Spirit. 20. Don’t despise prophesies. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-20, WEB)
KJV

16. Rejoice evermore. 17. Pray without ceasing.

18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

  1. Quench not the Spirit. 20. Despise not prophesyings. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-20, KJV)
YLT

16. always rejoice ye; 17. continually pray ye;

18. in every thing give thanks, for this [is] the will of God in Christ Jesus in regard to you.

  1. The Spirit quench not; 20. prophesyings despise not; (1 Thessalonians 5:16-20, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul, writing with Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who are named as co-senders in the opening (1 Thess 1:1).
  • Audience: The church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia; a largely Gentile congregation of recent converts (1 Thess 1:9) founded on the second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
  • Location: Written from Corinth, shortly after Timothy returned with news of the young church (1 Thess 3:6).
  • Time period: c. AD 50-51. The Gallio inscription from Delphi fixes Paul in Corinth around AD 51-52 (Acts 18:12), which makes this letter either the earliest or one of the two earliest surviving Pauline writings, roughly twenty years after the crucifixion.

Theological reading

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

The third of three staccato imperatives. Verses 16-18 run: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks. They are the shortest commands in the letter and are grammatically bound together, with the "this is God's will" clause most naturally covering all three rather than the last alone.

"In everything," not "for everything." The Greek is en panti, in every circumstance. Paul is not instructing the church to be thankful that bad things happen; he is instructing them to give thanks within whatever happens. The distinction matters pastorally, and it is preserved in most English translations. Ephesians 5:20 has the broader hyper pantōn, and even there the object is God's action rather than the evil itself.

Who is being told this. A church under active persecution (1 Thess 2:14), recently bereaved (1 Thess 4:13), and anxious about the future. The command is not addressed to comfortable people, which is the usual reason it is quoted and the usual reason it is resented.

"This is God's will for you." One of very few places where Paul states God's will directly and concretely. The others in this letter are equally practical: sanctification and sexual integrity (1 Thess 4:3). Paul locates the will of God in character and response rather than in circumstance or guidance, which is worth weighing against the way the phrase is usually used.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.