Chapter Ten: Unthankfulness
CHAPTER TEN
Unthankfulness
In Bible times, leprosy was a loathsome disease that ostracized its victims from family and friends. In fact, the Mosaic Law required that anyone with leprosy must continually cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” as he walked along the road, lest any passerby be contaminated by his disease (see Leviticus 13:45).
Luke records that Jesus was once met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and cried out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (who were the ones who could officially pronounce a leper cleansed from his disease), and as they went they were cleansed. Of the ten cleansed, one, a Samaritan, when he saw that he was healed, returned to Jesus, praising God and thanking Jesus. Jesus then exclaimed, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except for this foreigner?” (see Luke 17:11-19).
We read this story and we think, “How could those nine men be so ungrateful as to not even turn back and say a word of thanks to Jesus?” And yet far too many of us are guilty of the same sin of unthankfulness.
Spiritually, our condition was once far worse than the physical disease of leprosy. We were not diseased; we were spiritually dead. We were slaves to the world, to Satan, and to the passions of our own sinful nature. We were by nature objects of God’s wrath. But God, in His great mercy and love, reached out to us and gave us spiritual life (see Ephesians 2:1-5). He forgave us our sins through the death of His Son and covered us with the spotless righteousness of Jesus Himself.
Christ’s giving us spiritual life is a far greater miracle, and its benefits are infinitely greater than healing from leprosy. Yet how often do we give thanks for our salvation? Have you stopped today to give thanks to God for delivering you from the domain of darkness and transferring you to the kingdom of His Son? And if you have given thanks, was it in a mere nominal way, much like some people give thanks at a meal, or was it an expression of heartfelt gratitude for what God has done for you in Christ?
The truth is, our whole lives should be lives of continual thanksgiving. Paul told his audience at Athens that “[God] himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). That means that every breath we draw is a gift from God. Everything we are and everything we have is a gift from Him. If you have intellectual or professional or technical skills, those skills are a gift from God. It’s true you probably studied diligently in college and perhaps endured long hours of professional training, but where did the intellectual ability and innate talent that you have come from? They came from God, who created you with a built-in aptitude and then in His gracious providence directed you in the path of developing those skills.
We need to heed God’s warning to the Israelites in Deuteronomy:
“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God. … Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (8:11-14,17-18)
Most people who read this book acknowledge that everything we have comes from God, but how often do we stop to give thanks to Him? At the end of a workday in your profession or job, do you ever take time to say, “Thank You, heavenly Father, for giving me the skill, ability, and health to do my work today”? Do you ever physically or mentally go through your house, look at your furnishings and various items of home decoration, and say to God, “Everything in the house and the food in the cupboard and the car (or cars) in the driveway are gifts from You. Thank You for Your gracious and generous provision”? And if you are still a student, do you ever give thanks to God for the intellectual ability and financial provision that enables you to prepare yourself for your future vocation? When you give thanks at mealtime, is it routine and perfunctory, or is it a heartfelt expression of your gratitude to God for His continual provision of all your physical needs?
Taking for granted all the temporal provisions and spiritual blessings that God has so richly bestowed on us, and so failing to continually give Him thanks, is one of our “acceptable” sins. In fact, far too many Christians wouldn’t think of it as sin. Yet Paul, in his description of a Spirit-filled person, said we are to “[give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Note the words always and everything. That means our whole lives should be ones of continually giving thanks.
Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do — it is the moral will of God. Failure to give Him the thanks due Him is sin. It may seem like a benign sin to us because it doesn’t harm anyone else. But it is an affront and insult to the One who created us and sustains us every second of our lives. And if, as Jesus so clearly stated, loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind is the great and first commandment, then failure to give thanks to God as a habit of life is a violation of the greatest commandment.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul gives a vivid description of the downward moral spiral of pagan humanity of that day, as God gave them up more and more to the wicked inclinations of their evil hearts. Near the beginning of that description, Paul writes, “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” (verse 21, emphasis added).
So their ever-increasing wickedness actually began with their ungodliness (failure to honor God as God) and their unthankfulness to Him. Their actual moral degradation was a result of God’s judgment on them as He progressively gave them up to greater and greater perverse forms of immorality and other evil expressions. We can easily discern from this section of Scripture that unthankfulness is a serious matter. It may seem like a small sin to us, but God takes it seriously.
Failure to honor God or give thanks to Him is obviously characteristic of present-day culture. And so is the increasing decadence of our age. In fact, the description of moral depravity (see Romans 1:24-32) could be applied to our age with hardly a change of words. One wonders if again it is God’s judgment for failure to honor Him and give Him thanks. Surely, as believers we do not want to contribute to the occasion of God’s judgment. But we do contribute if, along with society at large, we fail to give Him the thanks due Him. In fact, we may be more guilty because as believers we should know better. Jesus said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). Because we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, we are more responsible to obey it. And part of our obedience is giving thanks to God always and for everything.
There is no question that the increasing moral decadence around us is appalling and scary. We often wonder how bad it will get. But the next time we judge these people we need to ask ourselves if we have in some way contributed to their downward spiral into moral corruption through our own failure, along with theirs, to honor God and give Him thanks.
So we should give thanks always and for everything. We should especially give thanks when we have experienced an unusual provision from God or deliverance from some difficult circumstance. I have already confessed my temptation to anxiety when I face the possibility of missing a flight connection. A related air travel temptation to anxiety occurs at the baggage claim area when I wonder if my checked luggage arrived with me on my flight. I have had so many delayed-bag incidents that I never assume anymore that my bag has arrived with me. That’s why the temptation to anxiety occurs. So I have to review the truths about anxiety in chapter 8 every time I go to baggage claim.
While working on this chapter, I flew to São Paulo, Brazil, for some ministry opportunities. Upon arrival, and after clearing immigration control, I went to the baggage claim area along with more than 150 other passengers from my flight, where once again I had to deal with my anxiety temptation. The pressure began to build as more and more bags came along the conveyor belt, and mine was not among them. (A delayed bag can especially become a problem in a foreign country.) After about two-thirds of the passengers had retrieved their luggage, mine finally appeared. As I pulled it off the conveyor belt, I lifted a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving to God. And then as I unpacked in my hotel room, I again thanked God that I had the bag there to unpack.
A delayed-bag incident may seem trivial to you, and, in the course of a lifetime, it is. But when you have to wear the same clothes for two or three days and have to buy replacement toilet articles, it doesn’t seem so trivial at the time. But the truth is that life is full of events that delay us, inconvenience us, or obstruct or block some plan of ours. In the midst of these events, we should fight against anxiety and frustration. But when God does bring relief, or when we see Him deliver us from the possibility of such an event, we should make it a special point to give Him thanks.
IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES?
Let’s pursue the baggage claim scenario a bit further. Suppose my bag had not arrived with me on the flight, or even suppose it never arrived. Am I to still give God thanks? Before we look at the answer to that question, mentally insert into this story some predicament of your own, either an actual event or some imaginary one you hope never happens. This will help keep the following answer to the question from being theoretical; that is, in your own situation, whether real or theoretical, should you give God thanks?
So the question is, Are we to give God thanks when the circumstances do not turn out as we had hoped? The answer is yes, but for a different reason. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul writes, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
This command is different from the command in Ephesians 5:20, where we are to give thanks to God for everything. I believe, considering the context, that in Ephesians, Paul is exhorting us to develop a habit of continual thanksgiving for all the blessings God so graciously pours out on us; that is, one characteristic of a Spirit-filled life is a thankful heart.
In the Thessalonians passage, however, Paul is instructing us to give thanks in all circumstances, even those we would not feel thankful about. Is Paul asking us to give thanks through gritted teeth by sheer willpower when in our heart of hearts we are truly disappointed? The answer to the question lies in the promises of God found in Romans 8:28-29 and 38-39:
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. … For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verse 28 tells us that for those who love God, all things work together for good. The meaning is that God causes all things to work together for good; for “things” — that is, circumstances — do not work together for good themselves. Rather, God directs the outcome of those circumstances for our good. The “good,” however, is defined in verse 29 as our being conformed to the image of God’s Son. In other words, Paul is telling us that God intends all our circumstances, both good and bad (but in the context Paul has in mind, especially the bad ones), to be instruments of sanctification, of growing us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
So in situations that do not turn out the way we hoped, we are to give God thanks that He will use the situation in some way to develop our Christian character. We don’t need to speculate as to how He might use it, for His ways are often mysterious and beyond our understanding. So by faith in the promise of God in Romans 8:28-29, we obey the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in the circumstances.
Further, as we are in the midst of the difficult circumstance, we have the promise of verses 38-39 that nothing, including the situation we are in, can separate us from the love of God. Again we must cling to this promise by faith. So we have a dual assurance to enable us to give thanks in the circumstance. First, by faith we believe God is using or will use the particular difficulty to conform us more to Jesus. Second, we have the assurance that even in the midst of the difficulty we are enveloped in God’s love.
So the giving of thanks in a disappointing or difficult situation is always to be done by faith in the promises of God. It is not a matter of doing it by sheer willpower. If we do that, we are giving thanks with our lips but not with our hearts. But as we cling to the promises of God, we can say, “Father, the circumstance I am in now is difficult and painful. I would not have chosen it, but You in Your love and wisdom chose it for me. You intend it for my good, and so by faith I thank You for the good You are going to do in my life through it. Help me to genuinely believe this and be able to thank You from my heart.”
So in summary, we should seek to develop the habit of continually giving thanks to God. We should above all thank Him for our salvation and for the opportunities we have for spiritual growth and ministry. We should thank Him frequently for the abundance of material blessings He has provided. And then, when circumstances go awry and do not turn out the way we had hoped, we should, by faith, thank Him for what He is doing in the circumstances to transform us more and more into the likeness of His Son.
As an application of this chapter — to develop the habit of giving thanks — I suggest memorizing Ephesians 5:20 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and regularly praying over them, asking God to work them out in your life. This way you will grow more and more in the habit of giving thanks always and for everything. Then in your time with God each day, spend part of the time giving thanks for specific temporal and spiritual blessings.
Now let’s return again to the primary purpose of this book. As the subtitle suggests, it’s to help us honestly confront the subtle sins we tolerate in our own lives so that we will tend to walk more humbly before God and with respect to the unbelievers toward whom we may be so judgmental. This purpose will be met only to the extent that we all, including myself, prayerfully examine our hearts and lives before God, asking Him to show us our own subtle sins. In fact, I hope you did that at the end of chapters 7, 8, and 9, and will continue to do so in the following chapters.
If by now you are already discouraged about your sins, remember the gospel. Though your obedience to God’s law is defiled and imperfect, Christ’s obedience is perfect and complete. And God has not only forgiven you your sins (both the subtle and the not-so-subtle) but has also credited to you that spotless obedience of Christ. God does want to work in you and with you to deal with your sins, but He does so as your Father, not your Judge.
If you’ve not been fazed by anything in these four chapters, then you need to look back through them again. While you may not be temperamentally prone to anxiety, frustration, or discontentment, are you sure you are not to some degree ungodly? Is your life entirely focused on God, so that you see all of life from that perspective? What about unthankfulness? Do you thank God always and for everything, and do you thank Him in the difficult circumstances you experience?
Hopefully by now all of us have realized we do have some “respectable” sins, perhaps attitudes and actions we’ve never regarded as sin or realized their seriousness. If you have been humbled to some degree and your heart made more tender, then you are in a good position to continue on, because the sins we look at from here on will probably be more “ugly” than the ones we’ve examined so far.