Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
Paul wrote three short imperatives in a row, and people have been tripping over the middle one for two thousand years.
In everything give thanks. Not for everything. That single preposition protects the verse from becoming monstrous. Paul is not asking a grieving parent to be grateful for a death, or a betrayed spouse to thank God for the betrayal. Scripture never asks us to call evil good.
What he does ask is that no circumstance be exempt from our search for God’s presence within it. The thanks is not aimed at the pain. It is aimed at the One who promised never to leave. Written by a man who had been beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned, this is not naivety. It is testimony.