The Marks of Christian Gratitude, Part 1 | The Marks of Christian Gratitude

Selected Scriptures

It’s obvious, but it’s important to make the point, people are thankful. Human beings possess an innate need to express gratitude to someone, whether religious or irreligious, whether acknowledging or denying God’s existence, people know instinctively, they need to give thanks. And that shows that they know instinctively, as well, that they know there is a God and that God, Acts 17:25, is the one who “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” They recognize that. Whether people worship God as God, or whether they treat him with insult and indifference by bowing to idols, people know that they owe gratitude to somebody.

That brings up a second observation. People are thankful, but rarely do they acknowledge God as the object of their gratitude, much less that they owe him gratitude, that gratitude is a duty, an obligation. Giving thanks to God is a moral duty that it’s impressed upon all mankind. Why? Because we are receivers. We didn’t earn this life that we have. We were brought into the world and given breath. Everything we have is a gift. To fail to thank God, then, is a serious, serious sin. To deny God the gratitude that we owe him from a sincerely thankful heart, that is to exhibit a heart of arrogant pride and idolatrous rebellion that bows to the self instead of to God.

And if that judgment seems harsh, remember that judgment comes from the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1. It says there that God’s wrath has been revealed for precisely that reason, man’s ungodliness and unrighteousness is manifest in this, Romans 1:21, “That although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” So since God is the source of every good thing, James 1:17, we all owe him gratitude as a moral duty. Whenever someone says, “Thank you,” he testifies to this instinctive sense of this need to express gratitude, this moral duty that he has, that’s impressed upon his conscience. But so often, the gratitude falls short of thanking God, the one to whom we must give thanks.

While people are willing to enjoy relationships with other creatures, they reject entering into relationship with their Creator. That’s the highest relationship for which God designed us, to relate to our Creator as his grateful, worshipful God-glorifying creatures. In sinful rebellion, we deny him his place. We refuse to know him and, thereby, we fail to honor him as God or give thanks to him. We have to know him to honor him. We have to know him to give him thanks. That’s why I said from the very beginning it’s only the Christian, only the one who has been properly aligned with his Creator by salvation in Jesus Christ, only the Christian is able to express a true heart of gratitude.

As Christians, we have experienced the love of God in Christ. We have been regenerated to new life and now we are in relationship with him, we’re able to worship God in spirit and in truth. I want to show you just the Christian sense of gratitude just by looking at the basics of thanksgiving from a single verse of Scripture. Turn in your Bibles to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and the fifth chapter. There are really many places we could turn, but in Ephesians 5:20, we find essential ingredients here for gratitude. Ephesians 5:20 and let’s read the verse in its context. I’m going to start in verse 17. Reading that section, the subject of this entire section here from verse 17 to 21, is really the Spirit-filled life. That’s the subject. This is the characteristic pattern of Christian living. This is what every Christian should look like.

Paul writes starting in verse 17, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 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 music, making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Notice in that section I read there are two positive commands in those verses. One in verse 17 and one in verse 18. And then the rest of those verb-sounding words, those are participles, and they modify those main verbs.

First command, understand what the will of the Lord is. And then, secondly, be filled with the Spirit. Those two commands, they come together when we realize it is the will of the Lord to be filled with the Spirit. So focus on being filled with the Spirit and you will also understand what the will of the Lord is and how to fulfill it, okay? It’s that simple.

Now as you can see from verses 19-21, the Spirit-filled life looks a certain way. There are certain characteristics to the Spirit-filled life. It consists of several things, pious speech, joyful music, sincere gratitude, and then reverent submission. For this morning, we’re just going to focus on one of those, gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude is one of several marks of a Spirit-filled life. And it’s absolutely essential because it is a characteristic evidence of a converted person. This is what a converted person does. If you find someone who professes to be a Christian and that person is not grateful, but rather has a grumbling and complaining spirit, there’s good reason to question the legitimacy of that person’s profession of faith.

Genuine Christians are grateful people. They are those who are overflowing with thanksgiving. Christians are marked by gratitude. They are to be known for giving thanks. There ought not to be a more thankful people on the planet than us, beloved, because it’s distinctively Christian to give thanks. And in verse 20, it says, being thankful, it’s marked by being “thankful always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Those are the marks of Christian gratitude. And it distinguishes us from the rest of the world that also give thanks, but not like this. Not like this. The unbelieving world has its own way of expressing gratitude. It must. As we already said, they innately know they must give thanks to someone for things. They fall far short of this right here in this verse, just one single verse.

So what is Christian gratitude? What are its distinctive marks? What distinguishes Christian gratitude from any other expression of gratitude?

We’re going to get to the heart of this. And we’re going to start with a definition. Put simply, to give thanks is to express appreciation for what you’ve received. Okay? That’s as simple was we can get. That’s down to the brass tacks. To give thanks is to express appreciation for what you have received. Now obviously, that starts with an inward thought. It starts with an inward acknowledgment. But it does not remain as a thought, as an inner thought. It’s an expression. The appreciation comes out. It’s, in most cases, it’s verbalized. It’s possible to express silent appreciation to God where no one but God hears it, but it’s expressed, nonetheless. And it’s not just a vague notion that floats in the head and floats out. It’s something that’s captured and articulated whether in silent praise or vocal praise.

On a human level, thankfulness that is not verbalized, that is not expressed outwardly, that falls short of true gratitude because gratitude is expressed appreciation. To fail to express appreciation to God, to fail to express appreciation to other people for what you’ve received, for what you’ve benefited from, that’s call ingratitude. You’re an ingrate. Ugly word, isn’t it? It’s really the height of self-centeredness, the height of indifference, the height of inconsideration. That’s unfitting for a Christian.

That verb there, translated, giving thanks, it’s the verb eucharisteo, eucharisteo. And imbedded in the root of that word is the word charis. Charis, which is the Greek word for grace. Grace is at the heart of thankfulness. Grace is a word that means, you guys are all good Protestants, good Evangelicals, you know the word grace, right? It means unmerited favor. It means, unearned blessing. So to give thanks is to express appreciation for favor or blessing or kindness that is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. Okay? Giving thanks acknowledges the fact that we have received grace from God, that God has poured goodness upon us that we did not deserve. So gratitude, then, it’s a response. It’s a required response to blessing, to grace.

Paul expressed that in 1 Corinthians 1:4 right at the beginning of the letter when he told the Corinthian believers. He said, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.” Interesting he’s not even thanking God for the grace given to him, but for others. Paul is utterly selfless in his thinking. He’s selfless in his gratitude. He’s looking around at grace to Christians and he’s so grateful to God to see grace poured upon Christians. His thanksgiving acknowledges that the grace has come from God, that it spilled down from heaven.

My grandpa before praying for a meal, before praying over a meal, he would call us all to prayer by saying, “Let’s return thanks.” I love that. Let’s return thanks. It’s a pretty accurate way to express our duty to give thanks to God. God initiates, pouring out his grace upon us, and we respond to his kindness by returning thanks to him. It seems a meager expression, but it’s all God asks for. It’s exactly right. It’s our duty to return thanks to him.

Let’s think about this for a moment, okay, just to get to the essence of this. What does thanksgiving require from us on the inside? Let’s go beyond the definition and get to the essence of Christian gratitude, here. Thanksgiving requires first that you recognize that you have what you have because you received it. You didn’t earn it. You received it. Whatever you have, you have because of grace. You think, well, by the might of my arm, I built my business. Who gave you the arm? Listen, this is the indispensable Christian virtue called humility. The failure to be thankful, it’s a clear indication of self-exalting pride.

When Paul confronted the fundamental sin of the Corinthian church, which was pride, pride explained every sin, every error that came up in that church, and when Paul confronted that sin of pride, Paul asked them, 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” It’s a very good question. Farmers take pride in their crops. Businessmen take pride in building successful business. Public servants, they take pride in doing good deeds for the public good. What have you accomplished that the Lord didn’t enable you to accomplish by his grace? If you built a business, if you built a career, if you did marvelous things here in the world, great! I rejoice with you, but don’t boast as if you didn’t receive that from the Lord. You’ve been given it as a gift.

What you’ve accomplished is what the Lord allowed you to accomplish. What he gave you gifts and strength and mental capacity to accomplish, if by his grace then, why do you take pride in your achievements? Ugly self-exalting pride, that’s the expression of an idolatrous heart, not the heart of a Christian. And that’s what the Lord sees in an ungrateful person is unvarnished idolatry. The humility to acknowledge God’s grace, that’s the product of a changed heart, one that profoundly and sincerely appreciates and loves the grace of God. That, folks, is the heart of worship, humility, profound appreciation for God’s grace.

And that’s why you’ll notice that two of the qualifying phrases there in verse 20, look at it there. It’s giving thanks to, “God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Those phrases connect our expressions of thanksgiving directly to God, not to man. It’s a vertical issue. The essence of giving thanks is worship. Okay? So thankfulness requires us to acknowledge that all we have comes from God. We receive it. We are receivers. And that promotes humility. We recognize we didn’t earn any of it and if we want to talk about what’s fair, what we deserve, well let’s start talking about that ugly, scary, frightening doctrine called Hell because that’s what we deserve. Anything less than hell, it’s grace. Grace. It’s patience from God.

So thankfulness starts with acknowledging everything we have comes from God. It starts with humility. Secondly, again, just getting to the essence of gratitude here, expressing thanks requires us to be content. Content. To find contentment in what God has given, not what you think you want, not what we’d always hoped for, not what we wish we had if only…, but taking pleasure, finding contentment in what God has actually provided for us. Finding contentment in what God has given. It’s a very, very close relative to this virtue of humility. Humility and contentment are then going to combine to overflow to an unstoppable stream of gratitude to God. When those two virtues are absent, you will find a self-centered person poisoned by his own ingratitude, poisoned, really, by his own idolatry. But gratitude, it’s the expression of a humble heart that is content in God.

Well, that’s a very quick look, very short look, too short of a look at the essence of Christian gratitude. There’s so much more to say, but we need to keep moving. To give thanks is to express appreciation to God for his manifold grace in our lives. So when do express this gratitude? Here’s a second mark of Christian gratitude, the occasion of Christian gratitude. What does the text say? Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks,” you got it, “always.” Always. Do you give thanks always? At all times? Paul did. He confessed, Ephesians 1:16, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” And in 1 Thessalonians 1:2, he wrote, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers.”

Sadly, I’m afraid, there are too few Christians who know that kind of gratitude, who follow Paul’s example. We express thanksgiving in church, before mealtimes, once a year at the Thanksgiving table over turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and all that stuff. That’s become the cultural norm, hasn’t it? For many in our country, this issue of gratitude has become a once-a-year thing and that’s very, very sad because they’re robbing themselves.

I’d imagine that for most of us Christians, we’re not so profane as to eat meals without expressing gratitude to God. We receive our meals with gratitude, according to 1 Timothy 4:3-4. “For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” We practice that. That was Jesus’ habit. He thanked the Father before partaking of the miraculous loaves and fishes, didn’t he? He also gave thanks when he broke bread with his disciples at a Passover meal,

Very appropriate to use mealtimes to remind ourselves of God’s goodness, to express our thanks to him verbally, to teach our families to show gratitude. It’s good to give thanks at the mealtime. It’s a great reminder, token goodness of God in the food, his kindness and goodness manifest right there on the table. Give thanks for it. Regular times of coming together, as Paul said, 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” That’s one occasion to give thanks we should never ever, ever, ever neglect. But how many of us do not cease to give thanks to give thanks to God? How many of us, like Paul, are constantly finding occasion to express gratitude to him? Because that’s the pattern, beloved.

We should strive to thank God unceasingly. Here’s why. The more you strive to understand the will of the Lord for your life, that you’ be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, that you drink deeply of his Word, that you obey Jesus Christ and serve the saints in his church, listen, the more you do all that, the more you will get outside of yourself and you’ll use every occasion you can find to give thanks to God. And that’s for your good, beloved. That’s for your pleasure and your joy. You need to escape this small-minded, worldly perspective into which you were born and transcend all that and look at life from God’s perspective. Look at life from God’s point of view. All times, every occasion will become times and occasions to express gratitude to God. That’s what we were designed for.

You’ll being to see life differently, not in terms set by an unbelieving world, its politics and it’s economics, its fears, worries, anxieties, its ambitions and pleasures and pursuits, all of it vanity, a chasing after the wind. Its definitions of success and failure, you’ll transcend all of that and you’ll see life as one continuous opportunity to express worship and gratitude and praise to our God.

And that brings us to a third mark of Christian gratitude. Third mark, it’s the subject of Christian gratitude. What’s the subject of Christian gratitude? What causes us to give thanks to God? For what reasons? And notice Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always and for,” what? “Everything,” right? For everything! “Always for everything,” those are pretty comprehensive terms. It doesn’t leave anything out.

As we just said, always, refers to the occasion of our gratitude. But for everything, that refers to the circumstances of our gratitude, the circumstance. We give thanks in all circumstances, in all situations, whether positive or negative. In another place, Paul said the same thing, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Listen, folks, this is a very significant distinctive of Christian gratitude, totally separate from the rest of the world. At every occasion and in every circumstance, we give thanks. That is something the world simply does not, simply cannot understand.