Thankfulness

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I think it would be a good idea to take a look at thankfulness. What should we be thankful for? Are there things we should not be thankful for? I’ve insinuated before that material prosperity is not necessarily a blessing. Should we nevertheless be thankful for it?

The first and last beatitudes are for those without prosperity. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 5:2), and “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10). These are blessings which preclude the rich (one would assume that the persecuted generally forfeit their wealth). Obviously there is a special blessing for the poor, but is that a complement to a blessing of wealth, or is wealth not a blessing at all?

The first thing to realize is that there is never a shortage of blessing for the elect. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And shortly thereafter, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). This promise is by no means one for material blessings, but a promise that any and all circumstances will cause the believer to be in the long run drawn closer to God. Nor does this necessarily mean that one will lack material means. Neither richness nor poverty can come between God and His elect.

Christians are called to be agnostic to material circumstances: our behavior and attitudes must be constant regardless of means. “Let … those who mourn [live] as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing” (1 Cor. 7:29-30). And again, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Phil. 4:11-12).

There is an important difference between contentedness and thankfulness. There is a sense in which we are told not to be thankful, because it reveals in us a hypocritical heart:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men–extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess’. But the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 18.10-14

In this story the Pharisee is thankful, and the tax collector, whom we can assume to be relatively wealthy (it was a rather lucrative job), makes no mention of thanks for his ill-gotten wealth. Yet the Pharisee was condemned, while the tax collector was justified. Why?

Thankfulness is the valuation for something on its own merit. “Thank you that I am not like other men” is thankfulness, but it is also pride. “Thank you for this raise” is thankfulness, but it is also materialism. Truly the pharisee was not like other men, and surely God has given the raise, but these are rather things we are to be content in: thankful for the true blessing that the circumstance provides (Rom. 8:28), but with the realization that these things themselves are not the blessing – rather a means to a blessing – as a vehicle by which God works good for His elect. Contentedness is a disinterested thankfulness – being wealthy as if one were not wealthy. This is the spirit of the tax collector: he knew his wealth meant nothing were he to forfeit his own soul as a result (Mark 8:36). God had given him the wealth, but was it a blessing in itself? Or was it a blessing in the sense that it caused him to cry out “Be merciful to me, a sinner!”?

This is the sense in which we are to be thankful: not for the circumstance itself, but for the circumstance in its God-crafted goal, whether or not we know how that goal plays out through the circumstance. Thus the contented man is not to pray “Thank you for a good family and plenty to eat”, but “Thank you for a family that has encouraged my faith, and sustenance with which I may devote my energies back to You”. Not “Thank you for placing me in a country with political freedom and free of persecution”, but “Thank you that You have made the Gospel available to me and to others through the means of political freedom”. God works good to those whom He has called both in prosperity and poverty, and over all the things we possess. This is the blessing for which we are to be thankful.