As I dove into this study on thanks I was struck by the fact
that the word “Thanks” has to a certain degree, begun to lose its meaning. Not quite to the extent that words “love” and
“believe” have been stripped of meaning, but stripped enough that when we use
it, often times I’m not sure we are all on the same page. For instance, and I use this example quite a
bit with the word love, but I think it holds true here as well: I am thankful
for pie. I am also thankful for my
wife. If I mean the same thing in those
phrases I am going to be looking for a place to sleep tonight that is not my
bed. And it is vital that we understand
what is meant by the word because scripture is clear in how it uses the
word. For instance, let’s look at
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At the end of 1 Thessalonians, Paul gives some
final instructions to the reader including 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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Twice in Ephesians 5 Paul mentions thankfulness
o In
Ephesians 5:1-4: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or
covetousness must not even be named among you, as I proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk
nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be
thanksgiving.
o And
in Ephesians 5:15-21: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as
wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand
what the will of the Lord is. And do not
get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for
everything to God the Father in he name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to
one another out of reverence for Christ.”
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And in Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord
always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let
your reasonableness be known to everyone.
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God. And the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.”
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And then there is the letter to the Colossians
in which thanksgiving is referred to six times and implied at least one other
time. Here are a few of them,
o Colossians
2:6-7: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were
taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
o Colossians
3:15-17: “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you
were called in one body. And be
thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to
God. And whatever you do, in word or
deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
Father through him.”
o Colossians
4:2: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
While we could camp and spend hours on each of these verses,
I think something is glaringly obvious in these passages… An attitude of
thanksgiving defines those who belong to Jesus Christ. I mean look at the 1 Thessalonians passage,
the will of God in Christ Jesus for you is that you rejoice always, pray
continuously, and give thanks in all circumstances. And Ephesians 5, throughout the entire
chapter, Paul contrasts the attitudes and actions of the immoral, unregenerate
people with those whose hearts have been changed and the characteristic which
defines those who belong to Jesus Christ is thankfulness. It would seem from scripture that an attitude
of thanksgiving is almost synonymous with being a Christian. Moreover, scripture defines ungodly men as
those who are not thankful. Look at
Romans 1:18-22
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“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. For
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to
them. For his invisible attributes, namely,
his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since
the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not
honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their
thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling moral man and
bird and animals and creeping things.”
So Paul tells us that men who know that God exists but do
not honor him or give thanks to him become foolish in their thinking. Paul also will go on to list lack of thanks
as a characteristic of men in the last days in 2 Timothy 3:2. Thus, thanks, thanksgiving and thankfulness
in scripture mean so much more than just gratitude. It is not just saying thanks for the
food. It is not just saying thank you to
your spouse for putting up with garbage.
It is a way of life. It is an attitude toward life that defines
the Christian and dictates how you act and respond in all circumstances of life
and it flows out of a heart that has been transformed by seeing the manifold
beauty of Jesus Christ.
Now, when I say that thankfulness is more than just mere
gratitude and is rather an attitude that defines the believer, we move into a
realm that most of us are not comfortable in.
We aren’t comfortable there because most of us are linear people. We want a checklist of things to do, of
things and people to be thankful for, and then we want a list of how to
actually express that gratitude. It
would be easy for me to get up here and say, “This week is thanksgiving. Make sure you are full of gratitude this
week. You can do this by helping your
wife do the dishes on Thanksgiving, or taking time before you gorge yourself to
thank God for the food. Or, you can take
time after you gorge yourself on food to thank God for the money you are about
to waste on Friday.” And then we could
walk out of here feeling good about the fact that this week, we are going to
focus on thankfulness and be truly thankful for everything and everyone we
have. But that eventually fails us,
doesn’t it? And it isn’t the type of the
thanks that is described in Scripture.
No, thankfulness in scripture, that attitude towards life
that defines the follower of Christ, means so much more. I think there are two things to look at that
will help us understand this meaning.
First, and I only put this reason first because it will help us
understand the nature of second better, is that the Greek word group that is
translated as thank, thanksgiving, be thankful, etc. all share the same root
which expresses the feeling of joy. The
word that is used in scripture that we translate as thanks literally means how
we express joy. And this concept
shouldn’t be that earth shaking for most of you. We express ourselves when we take joy in
something. Thanksgiving is a natural
expression of the joy we take in people and things. My example earlier of the pie isn’t too far
off. I am excited about Thursday night
because I like pumpkin pie. I will be
expressing my thanks and gratitude to my mother on Thursday night because of
the pumpkin pie she will have either made or bought (and mom if you are
listening to this podcast later don’t forget the whipped cream).
But remember, thankfulness is an attitude that defines our
life, in all circumstances, good and bad, so our thanks, our joy that is
expressed in all circumstances, must be rooted in something other than
pie. And this is the second reason we
must look at. In the New Testament, far
and away Paul is the one who uses the words for thanks and thanksgiving the
most. The majority Paul’s uses of the
word for thanks, thankfulness, and thanksgiving, are grounded in the nature and
character of God, not in God’s stuff. This
is why we are in a realm that is so uncomfortable for us. Because we are getting to the core of what it
is we take our ultimate joy in. It is
easy to be grateful for things that we want.
It is easy to be grateful for people that make us happy. But in order to give thanks in all
circumstances, our thanks has to be rooted in something deeper than a mere
gratitude for things we like. Things and
stuff will fail us, and if our thankfulness is not rooted in a deep and
unshaking joy in Jesus Christ, then it is impossible to be truly thankful.
So the question then becomes, how do I know whether I am
thankful or not? How we know whether an
attitude of thanks defines our lives can be answered in looking at what it is
we take our maximum joy in. Is our
thanksgiving an overflow of the joy that we have in Jesus Christ or is it an
idol in which we place supreme value on the gift, rather than the giver.
Jonathan Edwards put it this way:
“True gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a
foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself; whereas
natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of grateful affection
to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the
heart, established in the first place on other ground, on God’s own
excellency.” In other words, true
thanksgiving that is pleasing to God is not first and foremost a delight in the
things God gives, but rather is rooted in something that was there before God’s
stuff, namely delight and joy in the manifold beauty and perfection of God’s
character.
For example, my wife would not be
honored in the least if I thanked her often and profusely for all she does for
me all the while having no deep and spontaneous regard for her as a
person. No amount of words could make
her feel honored if I do not take joy in being around her. So it is with God. If our thanks is not founded in the manifold
beauty and perfection of God’s character displayed in Jesus Christ, then all of
our declarations of thanks are like the thanks of a wife to a husband for the
money he gives her to go and have an affair with another man. Our thanks and gratitude must be an echo of
the joy we have in the excellency of God.
And so our thanks must be an attitude
toward life that defines the Christian and dictates how we act and respond in
all circumstances of life and it flows out of a heart that has been transformed
by seeing the beauty of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, thankfulness is not an optional trait for the Christian. And yet I fear that we live in quite possibly
the most thankless society in history, which should at a minimum cause us to
stop and question how it is we consider ourselves the godliest society in
history with a straight face. There are
so many things in this world that are vying for our attention that it is little
wonder we are so thankless. In a
country where 83% of the citizens consider themselves Christians, we will spend
447.1 Billion dollars between this Friday and Christmas. And the sad part is that most of that stuff
we buy will be in the trash within 1 to 3 years if not sooner, only to be
replaced by the next best thing.
Our insatiable love for stuff is destroying our capacity for
God. 1 John 2:15-17 is pretty clear when
it says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in
possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its
desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Our love for the world and the things in the
world are destroying are ability to be thankful, it is destroying our ability
for our thanks to be an echo of the joy we have in the excellency of God.
And the only conclusion I can reach when I see so many
professing Christians have a deep and abiding love for the world is that we
don’t really know who God is. I fear
that too often we do not consider God the ultimate good thing to have. We do consider God to be the most beautiful
thing in the universe. Not when there
are iPads and cars and houses and cameras and whatever else it is we want out
there that we think will make us happy and content. For if we had but a glimpse of the eternal
goodness and beauty of Jesus Christ the things of this earth would become
strangely dim, and our hearts would sing for in praise and thanksgiving, echoing
the joy we have in the manifold beauty and perfection of Jesus Christ.
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