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Apr.
1998
Today we are completely surrounded by the message that people
have "rights". "Rights, Rights, and more Rights."
Everywhere you turn today you hear of people talking or fighting
about their rights. Person X "believes in fighting for the
rights of patients..." Under various human agreements or
sets of rules such as the US Constitution, legislation, administrative
regulations, private contracts, people feel they have been granted
rights. The courts are jammed with people contending over rights--who
does or does not owe something to someone else. We live in a society
of "rights". What are "rights"? They are what
somebody else owes us or what we believe we are owed. We paid
Social Security Taxes. We now have a "right" to the
benefits. We paid for the car; now the dealer should not keep
possession of it from us. In a society made up of human beings
arrangements such as constitutions, laws, private contracts, etc.
do function as order-keepers the way rules keep a particular game
from becoming a free-for-all where everybody does his or her "thing"
as he or she see fit. But are these "rules"--rules which
human beings have devised to maintain some semblance of justice
and order in society--the standard that God would have his children
live by? Or, to express the thought in different words, Does this
attitude concerning "rights", or entitlements, or obligations
that other human beings may have to us belong in the "mind-set"of
Christianity? Is the belief in "my fair share" compatible
with the Christian response which flows out of the remembrance
of the historical fact that the Son of God was obedient to the
point of laying down his life for sinners-and that we are to be
like him? (Philippians
2:3-8; See also 1 Peter 4:1; Romans 5:8,10; Hebrews 12:4)
Rights, Rights, Rights. That is what the people of this world
are concerned with--getting their rights, getting what they believe
they deserve, getting what they believe is their "fair share."
But the concerns, the thoughts, the language of Christians is
so different. The response that characterizes the life and thinking
of those people the Lord has called out of darkness is a response
of joy, thanksgiving, happiness. The Bible records over and over
again the joy and thanksgiving that has filled God's children
as they responded to the truths and the saving works of God. This
response partakes of the very nature of the kingdom of God which
salvation makes us citizens of. "The kingdom of heaven
is like treasure hidden in a field. When man found it, he hid
it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought
that field." (Matthew 13:44)
To the believers at Thessalonica the apostle Paul wrote, "You
became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering,
you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."
(1 Thessalonians 1:6)
There are so many places in God's word where the theme or thread
of joy keeps on appearing in the purpose and tapestry of Christianity.
The apostle Paul and Silas were in jail and were singing. There
was an earthquake which left the doors of the prison open. The
jailor was full of fear and asked Paul and Silas 'what must I
do to be saved.' After hearing their explanation about 'believing
in Jesus'-- "The jailer brought them into his house
and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he
had come to believe in God--he and his whole family"
(Acts 16:34) The apostle Peter in
his letter addressed "to God's elect, strangers in
the world," (believers) describes the basic emotion
that colors (or should color) the life and thought of believers:
"Though you have not seen him [God],
you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe
in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,"(1 Peter 1:8)
When the disciples of John the Baptist pointed out to him that
Jesus was receiving more recognition and acclaim than he was this
was John's response: "The bride belongs to the bridegroom.
The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him,
and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That
joy is mine, and it is now complete."(John
3:29) Jesus spoke many words to his disciples saying, "I
have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your
joy may be complete."(John
15:11) Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the
very night on which he knew he was going to be betrayed and arrested.
The 25th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew contains a
parable of Jesus showing different servants doing different things
with God's gifts ("the talents"). At the end of the
parable, to one of the servants the "master replied,
`Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful
with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come
and share your master's happiness!'" (Matthew
25:21) [In the NIV the Greek word that is translated "happiness"
in this verse is translated in other verses by "joy"
44 times, and in the KJ or "Authorized" version it is
translated by "joy" even more times than that.]
Over and over again in the Old Testament joy and thanksgiving
is the experience of the redeemed of the Lord: "This
is what the LORD says: ...there will be heard once more the sounds
of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the
voices of those who bring thank-offerings to the house of the
LORD, saying, 'Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD
is good; his love endures for ever...'" (Jeremiah
33:11) In the book of psalms, the hymnbook of Old Testament
saints, we hear the words or thoughts of thanksgiving and praise
repeated over and over again--"Let them give thanks
to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for
men. Let them sacrifice thank-offerings and tell of his works
with songs of joy."(Psalms
107:21-22) In Psalm 28 a faithful
person's witness rings out: "The LORD is my strength
and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart
leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."(Psalms 28:7)
In a biblical phrase (a doxology) that is often quoted at the
end of sermons we are told what the condition of believers will
be at the judgment-- "To him who is able to keep
you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence
without fault and with great joy--"(Jude
1:24) Joy is not limited to this world. Jesus informs his
disciples: "I tell you that in the same way there
will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."(Luke 15:7) Jesus himself is "included"
in it. In the first chapter of Hebrews the author tells us about
God' relationship to his Son: "But about the Son
[Jesus Christ] he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last
for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your
kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore
God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing
you with the oil of joy." (Hebrews
1:8-9) Knowing the joy that lay ahead of him was part of
our Lord's motivation (Hebrews 12.2).
Joy is one of the elements that is part of the very nature of
the kingdom of God: "For the kingdom of God is not
a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans
14:17)
Joy and thanksgiving is oriented to what we have, not to what
we seek after because we believe we can acquire it-especially
when we feel it is ours by "right."
While the people of the world have their sights, their hearts set on what they can get--especially their "fair share" and what they think they have a right to, Christians have (or should have) a totally different view of this creation and their position in it. They know it is God's creation. They know they are only a part of God's choice and creative activity. They know that when God is in the picture their worth (my worth) or stature is too small to be even seen.
Many times and in many ways the Bible describes or sets forth
the relationship which exists between God and his creation. The
Bible says of God and his world, "In his hand is
the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."
(Job 12:10) "Hear, O
my people, and I will speak... I am God, your God... every animal
of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know
every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are
mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is
mine, and all that is in it." (Psalm
50:7,10-12) And again,."This is what God the
LORD says--he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives
breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it...."
(Isaiah 42:5)
This same knowledge of reality is repeated in the New Testament:
"The God who made the world and everything in it
is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built
by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that
they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times
set for them and the exact places where they should live."
(Acts 17:24-26)
The relationship between God and his creation is stated very
clearly in the Old Testament book of Daniel: "All
the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He [God]
does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of
the earth. No-one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What
have you done?'" (Daniel 4:35)
The prophet Isaiah addressing the people (or perhaps their leaders)
who thought they were God's people puts the truth this way: "You
turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like
the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did
not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'"?
(Isaiah 29:16)
This truth about the world ("whose world it is")
appears in many forms like a thread that holds a tapestry together.
In the New Testament in James' letter (addressed to believers)
the idea is expressed this way: "Now listen, you
who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend
a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not
even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are
a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead,
you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and
do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting
is evil." (James 4:13-16)
Knowing these truths about reality am I going to say of my
creator, am I going to say of the "potter" that he "owes"
me what I think is a fair share? What a nerve!
What an upstart! What presumption!
It is ridiculous to think that I or any creature of God could do anything that would put God in my debt. What could any creature of God do for God that would put him in the position of owing that creature some benefit or being obligated to fill a right which that creature believes is his? The Bible puts the matter very bluntly: "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" (Romans 11:35) Jesus told a story or parable to illustrate how the child of God should view himself/herself in relation to his or her "master" (the same word as "Lord"): "Suppose one of you had a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"(Luke 17:7-10; See also 1 Corinthians 4:7) If I had lived a perfect life from the minute of my birth until now I would be doing no more than my duty. Who can say he or she deserves or has a right to a reward for doing more than his or her duty, more than God in his revealed will asks for? (James 2:10; Galatians 3:10) To think that God owes me, or is obligated to me! How audacious, how brazen, how full of self-importance can I be!
God's holiness, the standard of his being is beyond comparison.
My imperfections can't add to God's perfection and glory! "If
God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are
not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is vile and corrupt,
who drinks up evil like water!" (Job
15.15-16)
Because of what our position in God's creation is our thinking
about that world and our position in it must be different too.
Therefore we devote our attention not to "getting our rights"
but to thinking about what we have been given, and also to thinking
about how different what we have been given is from what we deserved
(or had a right to) At least our living and thinking should show
an entirely different orientation, as the faithful in the Bible
expressed the Christian view.
While the people of the world are concerned with "rights",
that is, with grasping at what they don't possess or trying to
hold onto what they think they do have the Christian should be
spending his or her time being engaged in a different activity--
"giving thanks to the Father." It is
he "who has qualified [us] to share
in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us
into the kingdom of the Son he loves..." (Colossians 1:12-13) On the judgment day
Jesus Christ will be sitting on the throne--"Then
the King will say to those on his right,`Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world.'" (Matthew
25:34)
Many times God spoke of the marvelous inheritance which God
has in store for believers. To the people whose everyday vision
or hope ends when physical death intrudes the course of events
on the night of Jesus' betrayal and arrest and prospective crucifixion
seemed very ominous, very discouraging, very foreboding. But that
was just the time when Jesus' words about the glorious destiny
of believers would stand out as the comforting assurance it was:
"In my Father's house are many rooms [or"mansions"-KJV];
if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may
be where I am." (John 14:2-3)
The Bible tells each believer that that inheritance is being kept
for him or her: "Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new
birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith
are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time."
(1 Peter 1:3-5)
The following words were spoken by King David yet they have
the ring as the words of the Son of God: "I said
to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'
I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right
hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my
tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will
not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see
decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill
me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right
hand." (Psalms 16:2,8-11;
quoted in Acts
2:25-28) The apostle Peter speaks of the believer's destiny
this way, "In keeping with his [God's]
promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth,
the home of righteousness." (2
Peter 3:13)
A subject of the apostle Paul's prayers is that believers may
have a greater understanding and appreciation of the inheritance
that they have been made heirs to. To the believers to whom the
Ephesian letter was addressed the apostle says: "I
pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order
that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches
of his glorious inheritance in the saints." (Ephesians 1:18)
It is easier to be full of thanksgiving, to be full of emotion
if we are looking forward to our inheritance.
Not only should thoughts of our inheritance move us, but thoughts
of what we deserved--but didn't get--should also fill us with
a desire to give thanks.
Earlier when we were showing part of the reason why it is ridiculous
to think that God owes people anything we pointed out how great
God is and how insignificant people are. But after saying all
this, yet it is true God does owe everybody something. He owes
us--what he says our behavior deserves. And what is that?
Death. That is what the Bible says.
This is not a truth which only came into play recently but
has been "in effect" from the beginning, since Adam
and Eve (Genesis
2:17; Romans 5:12): "The wages [or reward]
of sin is death."(Romans
6:23). "If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm
130:3) The answer is nobody. "There is not
a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins."
(Ecclesiastes 7:20) "For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23; Galatians
3:22) This is as true of the condition of believers as of
anybody else. The apostle John reminds those believers to whom
he was writing that "If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
(1 John 1:8)
What does the sinner have a "right" to? --death. Yes. God does owe everybody something. But that everyone does not receive what his or her mental and overt behavior deserves, that everyone does not have to suffer the consequences which are rightfully his (or hers) is because of God's mercy--and that is more than enough reason to be thankful.
While everyone, including those individuals who later became
believers, deserved the penalty for their unholy behavior--not
everyone is left under that sentence of death and condemnation--"All
of us [believers] also lived among them at one
time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects
of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich
in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions --it is by grace you have been saved."
(Ephesians 2:3-5) This is the gospel.
And again, "Once you were not a people, but now you
are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy." (1
Peter 2:10)
What favor, what mercy, God has shown us by not dealing with
us according to our rights! The Bible says, "He
[God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us
according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above
the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; As far
as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD
has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are
formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are
like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind
blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those
who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children--with
those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts."(Psalms 103:10-18) What we deserved our
God laid upon his only begotten Son: "But he [the
Son of God] was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep,
have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the
LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
(Isaiah 53:4-6; See also Romans
8:3-4)
Because of what God did those who are in Christ (that is, believers)
are in a blessed category: "Blessed are they whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
(Romans 4:7-8 quoting Psalm
32:1-2) "Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans
8:1) This is the gospel. "For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). God made
us heirs to the same inheritance as Jesus Christ-- "Now
if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs
with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that
we may also share in his glory. I [the apostle Paul]
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans
8:17-18) This is the gospel.
What do Christians have to be grateful for? Plenty. Especially
when we remember that we were not treated according to our rights
but according to what the sinless Son of God deserved. It is no
surprise that the mark that sets apart the Christian view of the
life that God gives is thanksgiving--gratitude for an inheritance
we didn't deserve.
We all know from experience that great rescues or deliverances
from situations considered very dangerous or catastrophic "produce"
strong emotional responses. When somebody pushes me out of the
way of oncoming traffic or pulls me out of a pool that I am about
to drown in I am full of emotion. Call it gratitude. There is
no thought of rights. There is no thought of deserving. Just relief.
This same relationship exists between God's acts and Christian
responses--great deliverances result in great joy and thanksgiving.
Jesus himself gave an illustration of how this relationship that
exists between the magnitude of the response and the magnitude
of the cause (that produced that response) comes to expression
in Christian behavior. When Jesus was at a dinner a woman known
as a "sinner" (perhaps, what we would call a "woman
of the streets") came in uninvited (by the host). She continued
to wash Jesus' feet with her tears, pour expensive perfume on
them, and dry them with her hair. Jesus pointed to this relationship
between the effect and the "cause" that produced this
response. He declared in the presence of his host and everybody
present, "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have
been forgiven-- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven
little loves little." (Luke
7:47) The account of this event and Jesus' teaching is
recorded in Luke
7:36-47.
It was after the woman demonstrated her response to Jesus and
after Jesus told a parable which illustrated the relationship
between cause and effect, a parable in which two debtors had been
forgiven their debts, one with a very large debt and one with
a small debt, that Jesus verbally pointed out the connection that
exists between "many sins forgiven"
and the strength of her response--"much love"--as
quoted in the preceding paragraph.
How grateful we feel (and act) depends upon how great we consider
the mercy and deliverance and inheritance that we have received
from God to have been. In the above mentioned incident in which
the "sinful" woman displayed her strong response to
Jesus by anointing his feet, her emotion was not smothered by
other peoples' rules of etiquette or conceptions of what is socially
proper. As heat is an invariable product of fire so is the response
of thanksgiving an invariable product of God's great deliverances.
The presence of thanksgiving in response to God's acts of mercy
is not the result of a choice any more than the heat that a fire
produces is a result of a choice. Thanksgiving is not just a precept--
a conforming to a set of rules (etiquette or diplomacy). Thanksgiving
is an inevitable response. If that response--the emotion of gratitude
is not present perhaps it means the person has not yet been delivered
from the dominion of sin; at least it means he or she is not fully
aware of the extreme and terrible destiny that God's action has
delivered him (or her) from.
Jesus told another parable that made the eternal consequences
of not responding with gratitude to God's gift of salvation very
clear. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like
a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he
began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents
was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered
that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold
to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be
patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.'
The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let
him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants
who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke
him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. His fellow-servant
fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will
pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the
man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other
servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and
went and told their master everything that had happened. Then
the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said,
`I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't
you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?'"
This instruction on how we should respond to the deliverance
of God is not the end of the parable. God is not indifferent to
the way we respond to his mercies. The parable goes on-- to described
the action of the master (the same word as "Lord").
"In anger his master turned him over to the jailers
to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed."
Jesus then said, "This is how my heavenly Father
will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your
heart." (Matthew 18:23-35;
See also Ephesians
4:32; Colossians 3:13) There is no reason acceptable to God
for not responding with thanksgiving and "thanksliving."
Not only is the only valid response to God's gift of deliverance
and eternal life thanksgiving but it must be genuine. If our "thanksgiving"
is just the mouthing of words (to impress ourselves, God or others--as
God describes in Matthew
6:1-2) it is a compounding of sin --adding the sin of deception
to the sin of ingratitude. The form or appearance of thanksgiving
without the emotion is even more of an abomination to God (a hypocritical
act). God described this compounded sin in the Old Testament."The
Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and
honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their
worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'"
(Isaiah 29:13; See also Ezekiel
33:31) Jesus himself repeats these words and observes how
they applied to the people to whom he was speaking. When Jesus
(who could see what was in people's hearts) was speaking to some
Pharisees and teachers of the law in Israel he said "You
hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you."
Then Jesus quoted the exact words of Isaiah that we just read
(above) (Matthew
15:7-9 or Mark 7:6-7). O Lord, may this description never
be true of me....
How easy it is to be ungrateful for the mercies God has lavished
upon us and to cover our coldness of heart with perfunctory mouthings
of expressions of gratitude! It is so easy to take God's mercy
and his gifts for granted! To repeat what God says through James:
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today
or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there,
carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what
will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears
for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say,
'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'
As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil."
(James 4:13-16)
Thanksgiving must be genuine. As one saint expressed God's
standard: declarations of thanksgiving must come from the bottom
of the heart, not from the roof of the mouth.
God's acts on our behalf --giving us what we didn't deserve--
was not according to the world's standards of justice and the
proper distribution of rights. Neither are the standards of his
kingdom--to which God desires his redeemed children to conform
to--the same as the ideals that the world of unbelievers looks
up to. The world's standard of right and wrong which is partially
summed up by the ideal of a "just" distribution of rights
is not the same as God's standard.
The fact that believers even in the early church were looking
to the world, looking to the courts of unbelievers, to guard "their
rights" or give them "their rights" gave the apostle
Paul the occasion to remind them (and us) that God's standards
are different.** The apostle
in his letter to a congregation of believers points out how unchristian
their behavior was in that "...one brother goes to
law against another--and this in front of unbelievers! The very
fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely
defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be
cheated?" (1 Corinthians 6:6-7)
How did Jesus act in a world of sinners? "When they
hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered,
he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him
[God the Father] who judges justly." (1 Peter 2:23) How different are God's
standards! Christians are told to live in the environment of God's
values. "Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this
wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you."
(Proverbs 20:22; See also Romans
12:19) Christians are told: "Consider him
[Jesus Christ] who endured such opposition from sinful
men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle
against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
your blood." (Hebrews 12:3-4)
And again, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or
vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also
to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as
that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped." (Philippians 2:3-6)
(** To see many verses which indicate
the the Christian attitude toward the earthly gifts of God and
also the apostle Paul's own attitude towards his use
of his rights as a Roman citizen and as an apostle click on "rights")
God's standards for his people do not have to fit into the
world's conceptions of how to behave. "If you love
those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners'
love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are
good to you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' do that.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what
credit is that to you? Even `sinners' lend to `sinners', expecting
to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them,
and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then
your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High,
because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."
(Luke 6:32-35) In the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great
is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you." (Matthew
5:11-12)
The bible tells believers of the awful significance of being
caught up in the world's values: "Do not love the
world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the
cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting
of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the
world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does
the will of God lives for ever." (1
John 2:15-17)
Let us be thankful that we are no longer "of" this
world (John
15:19; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 1:13) and that its values
no longer have dominion over us.
Rights, Rights, Rights. Oh, how grasping at our rights is contrary
to the mind-set of Christianity and the mind-set of God's children
whom in God's mercy he has called out of darkness and transferred
in the kingdom of his beloved Son. The Bible doesn't say "grasp
for your fair share." Instead it says, "Therefore,
since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let
us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence
and awe." (Hebrews 12:28)
Could there be any greater witness of person's faith than was
said: "I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices
in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and
arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns
his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her
jewels." (Isaiah 61:10)
What response other than thanksgiving (in word and/or deed)
is possible for anyone who realizes what God has done for him
or her? "Therefore," says the apostle
Paul to his Christian brethren, "I urge you, brothers,
in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship"
(Romans 12:1) A rather succinct way
of speaking of this behavior is to call it "thanksliving."
What does the Bible exhort believers to do? --"Speak
to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and
make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to
God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
(Ephesians 5:19-20) And again, "Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish
one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever
you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
(Colossians 3:16-17)
Do Christians think about rights? Do Christians remember that they deserved or had a right to death? Can those individuals whom God has rescued from the domain of darkness, from the death they deserved and brought into the kingdom of his Son--who were made heirs to the most marvelous inheritance think or speak of the works of God, of salvation, of the redemption Christ earned with his blood, of forgiveness, of God's mercy, of God's blessings, without breaking out with exclamations or shouts or songs of joy as is recorded in almost every book of the New Testament? (Romans 11:36; Galatians 1:5; Ephesians 3:21; 2 Timothy 4;18; Hebrews 13:21; 2 Peter 3:18; Jude 24; Revelation 1:6; 5:13; 7:12) See also the verses about joy and thanksgiving at the beginning of this meditation)
Who has to be told to be grateful for what he or she is excited
about? Who has to be to told to have enthusiasm about something
we are rejoicing about or looking forward to with great anticipation--events
such as an upcoming wedding, passing the Bar examination, picking
up our winnings from the Lottery, getting the promotion or coming
into a marvelous inheritance? Who has to be told to feel grateful
for being rescued from a burning building or from a fatal disease--and
at the same time being made heir to the greatest inheritance?
(1 Peter 1:3-4)
Thanksgiving or gratitude is not a mechanical method for getting what we think we have a right to but is an emotional and deliberate response to having gotten what the Bible tells us we had no right to. The opposite of taking matters for granted is to feel indebted. The opposite of feeling I have rights or that there is a "fair share" that I deserve is to feel I have received something I did not deserve: forgiveness and eternal life. The result is thanksgiving, not grasping for our rights. Christ did it all on the cross.
If you appreciate what you read here please tell your friends about this URL and sign my guest book on the homepage. Also, if, as you read any of the meditations, you feel you know of a situation that beautifully illustrates any of the points made I would be delighted to learn of it. I might incorporate it.) Click the following: camppp21355@comcast.net
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