Thankfulness: The Heartbeat of Christian Living
Your heart is beating right now…thud, thud, thud. It is squeezing and nourishing your body circulating vital oxygen and nutrients to your tissues each moment. Without this constant activity, your body would shut down in a matter of minutes. Much like the heart which fuels the body for activity, thanksgiving fuels the Christian for Christ-like living. In Colossians, Paul exhorts the believers, “As you have 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” (Colossians 2:6-7). Paul’s central command through these verses is to walk in Christ. In Colossians 3:12-17, Paul explains what the Christ-like life looks like. While describing the qualities of Christian living, Paul returns to thanksgiving three times in just five verses. Throughout these verses, Paul makes it clear that thankfulness is central to Christian living because it reorients our affections toward the Savior.
The Object of Christian Thanksgiving
Because of our sin, we were dead, lifeless, and without hope. Our future was eternal destruction in the lake of fire. We were like one born with a cold, lifeless heart and it was all because of our sin. But our sinless Savior took our place. By Christ’s death for our sins, we were miraculously made alive. Our future is secure, and our inheritance is rich. “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he [Christ] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Colossians 1:21-22). We had nothing to offer him, but he gave us life, hope, and an eternal inheritance. We give thanks because the Father “qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14). The only proper response to our great salvation is thanksgiving.
The Outworking of Christian Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving motivates us to adorn ourselves with Christian virtues because it reminds us of our perfect Savior and great salvation. True thanksgiving sees the mercy of Christ and moves in action. With this grace before us, our only proper response is to live “in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Colossians 1:10). Thanksgiving reminds us that Christ was humble, meek and patient. He had all wisdom and power. Therefore, we should put on humility, meekness, and patience toward one another (Colossians 3:12). When Christ was reviled on our behalf, he did not revile in return, but forgave and entrusted himself to the one who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:23). As we remember how Christ forgave us even when we were against him, we can freely and cheerfully forgive one another (Colossians 3:13). No pocket of our lives can be untouched by our Master. “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” (Colossians 3:17). As Christians, every word, thought, and action must honor Christ flowing from thanksgiving for our Savior and his salvation. As our human hearts constant circulation allows our bodies to live, so continual thanksgiving positions us to honor Christ in word and deed. Thanksgiving is the heartbeat of our Christian lives because it refocuses our hearts on Christ’s conquering death which paid for our glorious inheritance.
Christ took our death. He gave us life. Let us give thanks.