1 Thessalonians 5:16

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.

Rejoice always ... Few things about the New Testament are more remarkable than this continual stress on joy."[28] The whole of the letter to the Philippians is dominated by it, and extensive attention to it was given in the commentary on that epistle.

Pray without ceasing ... This cannot mean the constant and unintermittent utterance of petitions to God, but means "maintain the good habit of frequent prayers."

In everything give thanks ... For an entire sermon on this text, see in my Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, under Philippians 4:6.

These brief, hammer-blow admonitions carry the full authority of apostolic power and have been greatly honored and appreciated in all generations since they appeared. Barclay spoke of them as "a chain of jewels of good advice."[29] Moffatt declared that "To comment adequately upon these diamond drops would be to outline a history of the Christian experience in its highest levels."[30] Here in bas-relief, chiseled into the granite face of history, are these mighty virtues of the "new man" in Christ Jesus, without whom the world would never have survived as long as it has.

[28] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 101.

[29] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 206.

[30] James Moffatt, op. cit., p. 41.