Colossians 3:12-17
Being Thankful

As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 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.

New Revised Standard Version

This week, we in America will celebrate the Thanksgiving Day holiday, an admirable reminder of how our nation was founded and how blessed we have been. The traditions of this holiday call for families to gather for a large feast featuring turkey, and as most families gather around the dinner table, they will remind each other that they all have much for which to be thankful. It is a good holiday, with a noble sentiment, and our nation needs this reminder to be thankful for our blessings.

As Christians, we must be guided by more than American tradition in our spirit of Thanksgiving. Paul's letter to the church in Colosse gives us a more complete description of the gratitude God wants from us, in the context of a passage where Paul describes how radically different the life of one who has accepted Christ becomes, compared to the life they lived as an unbeliever.

In describing this new life, Paul uses the words "thanks" or "gratitude" three times in this brief passage. The first comes just after Paul's admonition to clothe ourselves in God's love and let the peace of Christ rule our hearts. This spirit of thankfulness completes a reinforcing cycle in our lives that encourages us to give ourselves more to love, and to face worldly difficulties with greater reliance on Christ's peace. Thankfulness redirects our attention from ourselves and focuses us on our Source of peace and love.

The second reference describes our service to God; with the Word in us, we are to instruct and encourage others, and to sing to God with a spirit of gratitude. Again, we see the spirit of thankfulness as the balance that keeps us from becoming too authoritative and self-absorbed in teaching others by humbling ourselves joyfully before God. We cannot teach the fullness of God's Message without having the spirit of thankfulness that urges those listening to us to listen instead to God.

When a New Testament writer repeated something three times, the writer intended us both to pay close attention, and to think of the holiness of the Trinity--the perfect Three-in-One. In this third repetition of thankfulness, Paul commands us to be thankful in whatever we do, that every routine task in our lives is cause enough to give thanks to God. For Paul, thankfulness was a mind-set, a core to our Christian faith, and a practical exercise.

As some families gather around their holiday dinner tables this week, one of the adults will begin the dreaded "Thanksgiving Quiz." The first child will be asked to name one thing for which they are thankful, and then the child next to them will be asked to name something different, and so on around the table. The first child has it easy--he answers "my family," cloyingly playing up to the adults in the room. The next few are pretty easy, things like "our food", "our toys," "our house." Then the game rapidly gets harder, and each child searches more desperately for something that won't sound embarrassingly strange and evoke groans from the other children. Soon, they'll be offering thanks for the grass on the baseball field, the asphalt on the street, and the shiny stuff that makes mirrors work, until some adult puts an end to the misery for another year.

Note that Paul does not write about the "things" for which we are to be thankful. Indeed, to focus on things would have been foolishness to the believers in Colosse. Their town had seen better days, but that had been many decades earlier. Colosse had long been declining in size, wealth, and status as nearby towns like Laodicea flourished. The church in Colosse struggled to survive just as the people did; our only evidence this church existed is that Paul wrote to it. Compared to the rest of the region, these unfortunate people were poor, disadvantaged, and in hopeless circumstances. What around them would give them reason to be thankful?

This is the difference between the traditional view and the Godly view of thanksgiving. The traditional view seeks reasons to be thankful; the Godly view completely satisfies the reason for thankfulness solely with the love of God that overflows in us. We are God's children; in comparison, nothing on earth matters. The greatest earthly blessings cannot compare with God's love for us; the most desperate earthly circumstances are opportunities for God's love to work miracles in us. This spirit of thankfulness Paul describes points us to and draws us closer to God's love, no matter our circumstances, until we give ourselves completely and continually to the only Perfect Reason for thanksgiving.

Don't simply giving thanks. Continue the habit of thankfulness until it pervades your life. Live and breathe thankfulness--be thankful.