1 Thessalonians 5:16 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Rejoice evermore. — The remaining commands are more simply spiritual, and hardly form part of the same paragraph as 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, which related to discipline; though from 1 Thessalonians 5:19 et seq. we see that St. Paul was still addressing the Church in its corporate capacity, not only the individual members. The Christian who remains in sadness and depression really breaks a commandment: in some direction or other he mistrusts God — His power, providence, forgiveness. The command is specially good for a persecuted Church like that of Thessalonica (Matthew 5:10-12).