Have you ever read a verse in the Bible and thought that God would have been better off not including it in His word? For example, when he says: “love your enemies”, or “bear with one another” or even “bring into the treasure house all tithes”, “submit to one another”?
There are a few verses where I have more than once said to myself, “What is this verse doing in the Bible?” For example, I’ve always had problems with Ephesians 5:20:
Ephesians 5:20
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 throughout my Christian life and each time I have had the feeling that something is wrong with this verse. Indeed, do I really have to thank God for everything? This is also what many brothers and sisters in faith advise us when we go through heavy trials: “Thank the Lord for this.” I can’t grasp this. It must be said that I do not intend to be a masochist and therefore, when I am the victim of a catastrophe or when I have a problem, due to my nature I do not at all want to thank God for these things.
But very often, it is not the verses of the Bible that should not be there, but rather we should be careful how we interpret these verses.
If we take this verse literally and out of the context of God’s Word, 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; without forgetting the Tsunami which in 2004 killed nearly 250,000 people; or even 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 this? Of course not.
A fundamental principle of the interpretation of Scripture is what is called the “analogy of faith,” or in other words: the word is interpreted by the Word. Each passage is compared with others to ensure its correct interpretation.
For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “IN everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 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 that would be pure fatalism, but in all circumstances, despite the situations, we will thank God – not for the situations, but for the fact that He is our God and has all the solutions for all situations. So, if I’m driving down the highway and a tire blows, I’m not going to thank the Lord for the 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 has not done, or for what the Devil does. In fact, thanking God for all things would be tantamount to attributing all things to God, including what the Devil does. We know that Jesus came to bring abundant life, and that it is the devil who came to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). So, not everything that can be placed in these three categories comes from God and there is certainly no need to thank HIM for it.
Furthermore, Hebrew 11:6 says that God is the “rewarder of those who seek him.” But let’s read this verse completely: “Now without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes near must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” This is a rather exceptional definition of faith. Faith is believing that God exists AND….that He is the rewarder… Faith is much more than believing, it is believing that God is, and it is also believing that He is FOR US . He is the rewarder. To remunerate means: to add, to reward, to pay… Another translation says that he is the one who rewards. Remuneration always means adding, never subtracting. So, if a man has to have his arm amputated due to gangrene, he should not “thank” God because his arm is taken away. God does not take away, he adds! Likewise, if someone has to have a kidney removed because it no longer works, there is no point in thanking God for it, it is for nothing. Disease does not come from God, it is the direct result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Disease comes from our enemy.
By misinterpreting the Word of God and thanking the Lord FOR everything, 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 everything 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 not to get drunk with wine because it is debauchery – therefore, do not thank the Lord because one of your loved ones get drunk on wine!!! – but to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then the passage says how to be filled: “converse in psalms, in hymns, and in spiritual songs, singing and celebrating with all your heart the praises of the Lord ;” (note, these are always things that come out of our mouths when we are filled with the Spirit) and he goes on to exhort us to thank God for all things. Which things? All things we say under the influence of the Spirit that are consistent with what the Lord has given us in Christ.
To conclude, I would like to insert part of a commentary by Kenneth Wuest which explains this passage very well: “Many commentators read into “all things” what can be as extensive as possible, namely the good things as well 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 of his response as a result of what ‘he received. It is therefore much more correct, taking into account the context of the entire letter to the Ephesians, to understand “all things” as referring to all the blessings of the Christian, all the good that comes from God. »*
