A Wordin Season: We give thanks (Colossians 1:3-4)

The Apostle Paul’s Spirit of Thankfulness

The Apostle Paul was a man distinctly marked by a spirit of thankfulness. It's striking how often in his various writings that theme comes up, it's prominent, it's rich and developed, it's evident even in the narrative of his life and labours in Luke's Acts of the Apostles or Acts of the Risen Christ, tracing the work of the Apostle and the spirit in which he carried it out.

In fact what's interesting is how often what you might have thought of or what one of us might have easily just made a brief aside develops into a rich and intense flow of appreciation. Paul's thanksgivings even in his shorter letters rarely last a line or two but they tend to roll on and on.

Thanksgiving in Colossians 1:3-4

So for example in Colossians and chapter 1 starting in verse 3 he says we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints.

Now while there's a natural break in the thought at that point or at least a pause, Paul actually rolls on for another few verses in our translations because of the hope that you have, the hope which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, what has come to you, what's bringing forth fruit in you since you'd heard and knew the grace of God in truth, what you learned from our dear fellow servant, a faithful minister of Christ.

Faith, Love, and Hope as the Root of Gratitude

There are just so many things that make Paul smile in gratitude and bring his praises and his thanksgivings to God and while there is richness, breadth and variety in the expressions of thanksgiving it's easy to trace them all back to the same root and the same immediate fruit.

Yes there are many times when Paul gives thanks for the gifts that are evident among God's people. Yes there are many times when Paul gives thanks for the works that God's people do but you notice where it always begins.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. What lies at the root of Paul's gratitude to God is the gift of life in Christ, their faith toward him and their love for the saints.

These are typical of those fundamental realities of the new life and it's these basic ordinary in some ways and so extraordinary in other features of Christian living that Paul just delights over. You have faith he says, you've come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got love for God and for his people and then you've got that hope, that certain prospect of the glory which is to come.

Now there's much that flows out of that, there's many details surrounding that but it's the wonder of what God has worked in the hearts of those who were by nature lost and undone that always moves Paul to these heights of appreciation and delight for the divine work.

Looking Up to God for the Mercies of Salvation

He traces back all of those mercies to the great work of God in Christ Jesus. He's always looking up to the the heart of God and the hand of God by which these good things have been dispensed to those who have received them and that's a wonderful example then for us who know the grace of God and see that grace at work around us.

It's very easy for us to be complainers and resenters, it's easy for us to concentrate on the things that we lack and the things that don't happen and the things that haven't taken place and the difficulties that we face.

But what about if we looked not just in our own lives but in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ and traced out the faith that they have in Christ Jesus and the love that marks their lives for others who know the Lord and the hope that characterizes them.

Would it not be good if we could give thanks to God for those who enjoy such mercies and notice again it carries us back heavenward, it turns our hearts and our eyes back towards God the good and the gracious giver.

So let's be thankful and if we want to be and remain thankful then we should always start at the very heart of those saving realities looking for the faith and the love and the hope that characterizes God's people as gifts from heaven and then turning back to the God who gives them and praising him for what he gives and for their demonstration in the lives of all God's people.