1 Thessalonians 5:15-22
Rules for Living

See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

New Revised Standard Version

As Paul reached the end of this letter, he left his readers with these pithy instructions for living the Christian life with an attitude that shows and draws from God's love.

If we work from the middle of this set of verses, specifically the directive to "give thanks in all circumstances", we might be put off by such an unrealistically optimistic view of life. We might also have met people who have tried to live life with an emotional intensity of happiness, trying to manufacture this thankfulness, no matter what the circumstance.

This reminds me of watching young boys playing with a football. They're not very good at passing or catching the football, they haven't really figured out how to hold the thing when they run, and they are guessing at how to block or tackle. In contrast, they are very good at their celebration dance once they have scored a touchdown! That's because they have spent much of their play time doing the fun part, practicing the celebration, and very little of their time learning the disciplines of the game.

Paul isn't talking about the "celebration dance" of Christianity, he's talking about the disciplines of living the Christian life. Paul acknowledges that we will be confronted with evil, and that we need to measure our responses so that we do good instead of retaliating and sinning -- this is not an emotional response, or a "happy" response, but a small dose of the strength that Jesus showed on the cross when he prayed for forgiveness for his executioners. Our response to evil demonstrates that we are God's. Paul instructs us to be wise in our actions, testing everything, to discern what is the Spirit-led response in difficult times -- and Paul certainly knew difficult times!

What I read from this passage is a spiritual discipline. We are to follow the Spirit's guidance faithfully and with all our being. Our intellect works to measure what we see and hear and know, subject to how the Spirit is guiding us. Our emotions are in check so that neither our happiness or our despair will lure us off course. Our actions are measured against what God would have us to do.

To paraphrase this passage, we act out of God's goodness. We stay in constant contact with God by a continual state of prayer -- always open to hearing God, always lifting ourselves up to God. In this, we observe and sense God's presence and power in any circumstance, so that we can rejoice and give thanks. We guard against complacency or habit to make sure we don't "quench" and hinder the work of the Spirit and of those people God is using to lead us, just as we guard against following emotions or temptations that would lead us away from God. Yes, we celebrate, but not an imitation of the dances of others, but a genuine, selfless response as God commends and blesses those who have "fought the good fight."