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1Th_5:18. Christians ought not only to pray to God, but also to give thanks to Him, and that ἐν παντί ] in everything, i.e. under every circumstance, in joy as well as in sorrow; which is different only in form, but not in meaning, from περὶ παντός , for everything. Incorrectly Estius: in omnibus sc. bonis; and Flatt: ἐν παντί , sc. καιρῷ .
τοῦτο ] sc. τὸ ἐν παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖν . This is the most natural meaning. Yet it were not incorrect, with Grotius, Scholt, and Bloomfield, to refer τοῦτο to 1Th_5:17, as prayer and thanksgiving form a closely connected unity; comp. Php_4:6; Col_4:2. Also to refer it even to 1Th_5:16 (Cornelius a Lapide, Alford) may be justified from the same reason. On the contrary, there is no reason to refer it to the whole passage from 1Th_5:14 onwards (Musculus, Calovius, and others), as then ταῦτα would require to have been written.
θέλημα ] (sc. ἐστίν ) denotes will, requirement, as in 1Th_4:3 : the article is here wanting, because the will of God comprehends more than εὐχαριστεῖν : this is only one requirement among many. Otherwise Schott, who finds in θέλημα Θεοῦ the divine decree of salvation indicated. According to him, the meaning is: “Huc pertinet sive hoc secum fert decretum divinum (de vobis captum, itemque in Christo positum), ut gratias deo pro omnibus agere debeatis. Vos enim, huic servatori addictos, latere amplius non potest, quaecunque Christianis acciderint, deo volente, eorum saluti consulere aeternae, Rom_8:28 ff.” But (1) the ἐστίν to be supplied cannot denote: huc pertinet or hoc secum fert; (2) the article τό would not be wanting either before θέλημα or before ἐν Χριστῷ ; (3) the reason alleged is introduced contrary to the context, and so much the more arbitrarily, as τοῦτο γὰρ θέλημα κ . τ . λ . is a dependent clause which is founded on the preceding, not an independent point which requires a reason of its own. Storr also takes θέλημα as the decree of redemption, but he understands τοῦτο in the sense of τοιοῦτο , which is contrary to the Greek.
ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ] Christ is, as it were, the vehicle of this requirement, inasmuch as it is made known through Him.