In every thing give thanks. — To the Christian who really trusts his Father’s providence, and believes that his prayers are heard, every moment’s occurrence will be just that which he has prayed for — the fulfilment of our Father’s will. It is for this reason that thanksgiving is so inseparably joined with prayer. (See Philippians 4:6; Colossians 4:2.)
This is the will of God — i.e., that you should be always full of thanksgiving. This clause hardly enforces thanksgiving as a duty, “Give thanks always, for you recognise the duty of doing God’s will, and this is His will;” but rather encourages the Thessalonians to see that thankfulness is always possible. “Give thanks always, for God has no wish to give you cause for sorrow: His will towards you is to fill you with thankfulness.” “Towards you” seems here a more exact rendering than “concerning you.”
In Christ Jesus. — This kind and loving will of God for our good was most abundantly manifested in the life and death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, and even to this day it is chiefly manifested in what Christ Jesus still is for us (e.g. Hebrews 6:19-20).