{"id":915,"date":"2008-11-27T08:06:32","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T12:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godandculture.wordpress.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2008-11-27T08:06:32","modified_gmt":"2008-11-27T12:06:32","slug":"happy-thanksgiving-from-colossians-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/happy-thanksgiving-from-colossians-3","title":{"rendered":"Happy Thanksgiving from Colossians 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving is not a day. It’s a frame of mind, an attitude of the heart. But a grateful attitude does not come naturally. Our human nature inclines more to grumbling and complaining (Colossians 3:13) than it does to being grateful. It takes work and discipline to truly be grateful (“Put on,” “Let,” “BE thankful” – Colossians 3:12, 15, 16), but short of a supernatural act of grace, even our hard work at being grateful is futile. Where does this grace that leads to thanksgiving come from?<\/p>\n

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  1. It comes from being supernaturally deposited by the grace of God into a community of faith where you can rub up against others who have been chosen by God (Colossians 3:12).<\/strong> Christianity is not a faith system for individuals to live out in isolation. Though we ARE individuals, we have been called in ONE BODY (Colossians 3:15). Our identity as Christians comes not from our individually living out the teachings of Jesus, but in our practice of gospel principles within the context of others who share the same call to salvation, holiness, and sanctification. The Christian life is a shared life animated by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12). So one of the first sources of grace that leads to Thanksgiving is the communion we share as fellow pilgrims on the journey.<\/li>\n
  2. It comes from allowing the peace of Christ to be the decider or “the umpire” in the conflicts you experience with other believers and in the world in general.<\/strong> When Paul says in Colossians 3:15 that we are to LET the peace of Christ RULE in our hearts, he doesn’t mean “reign” or “take authority.” The Greek word he uses means “decide, discriminate, or judge.” Having just spoken of quarreling and our need to forgive one another (Colossians 3:12-13), he makes it clear that it is not our feelings, our emotions, or our rights that decide whether or not we will forgive, but rather “the peace of God,” and specifically the peace which Christ secured for us when he forgave us (Romans 5:1). So whether or not we are ever vindicated in the disputes and disagreements that are part and parcel of human nature; whether or not I feel like the other person sees things from my point of view, the grace to be grateful comes from HIS PEACE deciding and judging, not my futile efforts to get you to see things my way. “The peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).<\/li>\n
  3. It comes from letting the word of Christ take up residence in your heart so that your attitude is shaped by the gospel rather than by the context in which you find yourself at any given moment (Colossians 3:16).<\/strong> “The word OF Christ” has two possible meanings: 1) it could mean the words which Christ actually spoke, meaning his word as it is revealed and recorded in Scripture, or 2) it could mean the word ABOUT Christ. It certainly means both, even in this context, but given the context of the entire letter to the Colossians, the meaning leans more to the second idea. In the first chapter of this epistle Paul speaks to the Colossians of their hearing the word of truth<\/em> – the gospel, and the spiritual results it has had in their lives since the day they heard it<\/em> and knew the grace of God in truth (Colossians 1:3-6). So what Paul means when he says that we are to let the word of Chrtist dwell in us is that we are to let the gospel – the good news of what Jesus in his death and resurrection has done in making us new creatures in himself – be that which shapes the attitude of our hearts. The gospel is not just for the lost. The gospel is for saved sinners. The source of our spiritual life is this gospel that we first heard and now live, and we need the gospel to take up residence in our lives in such a way that it is not merely a truth we proclaim (though it is certainly that) but more importantly the very air we breathe and the life we live. And it is with this gospel that we “teach” one another and we “admonish” one another, a practice reflected in the very songs we sing – as we sing them from a heart of gratitude to the Lord.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Paul wraps it all up in Colossians 3:17. When God’s grace comes to me through the communion I share with fellow pilgrims on the journey, and through the peace He uses to decide the disputes I have with those fellow pilgrims, and through the gospel that not only saved me but is saving me by sanctifying me so that my relationships with fellow believers are characterized by the gospel and not my feelings, my attitude will be one of graciousness and gratefulness because I recognize that all I have and all that I am is a result of God’s grace in my life. In everything – whether in my words or in my actions – I will give thanks to God because of the grace to give thanks that has been given to me in the person of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

    It is the gospel that makes a happy Thanksgiving possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Thanksgiving is not a day. It’s a frame of mind, an attitude of the heart. But a grateful attitude does not come naturally. Our human nature inclines more to grumbling and complaining (Colossians 3:13) than it does to being grateful. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}