Have you ever read a verse in the Bible and thought that God would have done better not to include it in his word? For example, when he says, " love your enemies, " or " support one another, " or " bring all the tithes to the treasure house," " submit to one another "?
There are some verses for which I told myself more than once: "What is this verse in the Bible?" For example, I have always had problems with Ephesians 5.20:
....give thanks continually for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I have read and reread this verse thousands of times during my Christian life and each time, I felt that something was wrong with this verse. Indeed, do I really have to thank God for all things? It is also what many brothers and sisters in the faith advise us when we go through heavy trials: "Thank the Lord for that". I can not catch that. It must be said that I do not have a vocation to be masochistic and therefore, when I am a victim of a disaster or that I have a problem, because of my nature I do not have any desire to thank God for these things.
But very often, it is not the verses of the Bible that should not be included, but rather we should pay attention to how we interpret these verses.
If we take this verse literally and out of the context of the Word of God, it would seem that we should indeed thank God for all things. So, we should thank him for the earthquakes, for the famine that killed thousands of Ethiopians in 1984, or for Hitler and his millions of victims; not forgetting the Tsunami, which in 2004 killed nearly 250,000 people; or for the fact that the mother-in-law died the day before, and why not because a child died prematurely. Do you really think the Lord expects us to thank him for that? Of course not.
A fundamental principle of Scripture interpretation is what is called "the analogy of faith," or in other words: speech is interpreted by the Word. Each passage is confronted with others in order to make sure of its good interpretation.
For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, it says, "Give thanks in all things, for it is your will for God in Christ Jesus. " This verse does not say to thank God FOR but in ALL things, or in all circumstances. In other words, we do not thank the Lord for everything that happens to us, because it would be pure fatalism, but in all circumstances, despite the situations, we are going to thank God - not for the situations, but for the fact that He is our God and that He has all the solutions for all situations. So, if I drive on the highway and a tire breaks, I will not thank the Lord for this flat tire, but for the fact that God has a solution to get me out of this problem.
Likewise, it is clear that the Lord does not ask us to thank Him for what He did not do, or for what the Devil does. In fact, to thank God for all things would be to attribute to God all things, including what the Devil undertakes. We know, moreover, that Jesus came to bring abundant life, and that it was the devil who came to steal, slaughter, and destroy ( John 10:10 ). Thus, all that can be placed in these three categories does not come from God and it is certainly not necessary to thank Him for that.
In addition, Hebrew 11.6 says that God is the "rewarder of those who seek Him". But let us read this verse completely: " But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to us must believe that God exists and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him ". Here is a rather exceptional definition of faith. Faith is believing that God exists AND ... that He is the remunerator ... Faith is more than believing, it is believing that God is, and it is also believing that He is FOR US. He is the remunerator. Remunerate means add, reward, pay ... Another translation says that he is the one who rewards. Remunerating always means adding, never taking away. Thus, if a man is to have his arm amputated due to gangrene, he must not "thank" God because he has his arm removed. God does not remove, he adds! Similarly, if someone has to get a kidney removed because it is no longer working, it is useless to thank God for it, it is for nothing. The disease does not come from God, it is the direct result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The disease comes from our enemy.
By misinterpreting the Word of God and thanking the Lord FOR ALL things, we develop in ourselves a mentality of passivity. We begin to resign ourselves, to accept all things, and ultimately to believe that everything comes from God. But this is not the case ! The Bible clearly tells us what comes from God: abundant life and all that contributes to life and godliness (1 Peter 1.3)
So when Ephesians says to give thanks to God for all things, the context is clear: first he says do not get drunk with wine because it's debauchery - so do not thank the Lord because one of your loved ones are drunk with wine !!! - but to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then the passage says how to be it: "speak to yourself by psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and celebrating with all your heart the praises of the Lord" (Notice, these are always things that come out of our mouth when we are filled with the Spirit) and he continues by exhorting us to thank God for all things. Which things? All things that we say under the influence of the Spirit and that are in accord with what the Lord has given us in Christ.
In closing, I would like to insert part of a commentary by Kenneth Wuest that puts this passage very well: "Many commentators read in the" all things "what can be more extensive, namely the good as bad things. The Epistle to the Ephesians does not speak of the suffering of the believer, but on the contrary of what the believer receives from the Lord (Ephesians 1: 3: we are blessed with all spiritual blessings), and his response as a result of what 'he received. It is thus much more correct taking into account the context of the whole letter to the Ephesians to understand the "all things" as referring to all the blessings of the Christian, all the good that comes from God."
Amen. The Christian must thank God IN all things, in all circumstances, but he certainly must not thank God for all things that are contrary to His Word and His nature. God is light and he can not do the works of darkness.
Thanks for eading,
God bless you.
Shalom.
Image by mary1826 on pixabay.
