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We can view every situation of life positively or negatively. We can choose to be grateful or ungrateful.

Dr. Alexander Whyte, (January 13, 1836 – January 6, 1921), is best known as the author of Bible Characters From the Old and New Testaments, was a pastor in Edinburgh and noted for finding good in all circumstances and being thankful for it. On a particularly stormy Sunday morning a member of his congregation thought to himself, the preacher will have nothing to thank God for on a wretched morning such as this. Dr. Whyte began his Sunday morning pastoral prayer in this manner, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.”

What we have learned from the book of Ephesians is that true gratitude is supernatural and not natural. Ingratitude comes naturally.

1. Because we were born selfish according to Ephesians 2:1-3; 4:17-19.

In 2:1-3, sinners, in their spiritually dead condition, are described as being influenced by “the world,” “the prince of the power of the air,” that is, Satan, and “the flesh.” Each of these sources moves us to selfishness. Paul describes “the flesh” that is, the sinful nature in each person, as “the lusts of the flesh.” The sinner who is basically controlled by the flesh does not live purely or with a motive to please God but to satisfy the lower, lustful appetites of his fallen nature.

In 4:17-19, the sinners is further described as being totally depraved as a result of the Fall of Adam. Paul focuses on “the flesh” in his autopsy of the sinner’s cadaver. That fall adversely affected each of us completely. So that now we are selfish in our thinking, our feeling, and in our choosing.

When we were just small children and someone would give us a piece of candy, our parents would coach us , “Now what do we say?” And some of us would reply, “Can I have another piece?” Then our parents would try to apologize, “It is just a stage he is going through.” It was not a stage, it was our sinful condition that made us self centered. The reason we are not appreciative is our selfish, sinful, fallen condition.

2. Then you are supernaturally saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ according to Ephesians 2:4-9.

But does our conversion automatically make us grateful? Apparently not because Paul admonishes believers many, many times to be thankful as in Ephesians 5:3-4.

There is an Old Testament example of this truth in Numbers 11-21. In this section are “The Seven Murmurings” of God’s Redeemed People. The book of Numbers picks up the metanarrative of God rescuing His people where the book of Exodus left off. The people of God have been miraculously delivered from Egypt when God supernaturally parted the Red Sea so they could pass through unharmed and be saved from the pursuing Egyptians. Remember the scene from The Ten Commandmenst with Charleston Heston? Now God is spectacularly providing for them daily with manna from heaven. Their clothes are not wearing out. Any yet they complain seven times:

1) They murmured about the Food in Numbers 11:1-9

2) They murmured about God’s Leaders in Numbers 12:1-16

3) They murmured about God’s Will in Numbers 13-14

4) They murmured about God’s Authority in Numbers 16:1-40

5) They murmured about God’s Judgment in Numbers 16:41-19:22

6) They murmured about Life in the Desert in Numbers 20:1-13 by second generation

7) They murmured about Food in Numbers 21:1-20 by second generation. What is the difference between the People of God in the Old Testament and today? Their names and addresses. “Complain not one against one another” James has to write in James 5:9. It is impossible to murmur and be thankful at the same time. It is like worrying and trusting God. They are mutually exclusive!

3. Paul next teaches that believers must be, not only converted, but filled with the Spirit to be thankful in Ephesians 5:18-20. In this one verse, Paul answers some important questions about giving thanks.

I. When Do We Give Thanks? (Ephesians 5:20a “Giving thanks always”)

A. We give thanks after a difficulty as in Exodus 15:1-19 when God delivered Israel from Pharaoh and his army.

Israel sang God’s praises for His deliverance. This is easy. This kind of thanksgiving is like the thanksgiving you give to God after you total your car in a wreck and you look around and no one in you family is injured. This kind of thanksgiving is still appropriate to thank God for healing you your sickness, providing you a new job, or reconciliating you with a friend or family member.

B. We give thanks during a difficulty as with Paul in prison when he writes his Prison Epistles.

This is harder. For example, to the Philippians (1:3-4), Paul wrote: “I thank God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you making requests with joy.”

“ A diving accident in 1967 left Joni Eareckson Tada a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Today, she is an internationally known mouth artist, a talented vocalist, a radio host, an author of 17 books and an advocate for disabled persons worldwide. Joni Eareckson Tada observed, ‘Giving thanks is not a matter of feeling thankful, it is a matter of obedience’” (McArthur, Ephesians, 266). We gives thanks “always” by faith even before God has healed, provided us with a new job, or reconciled us with friends or family.

II. For What Do We Give Thanks? (Ephesians 5:20b “All things”)

A. “All things” is one of Paul’s favorite expressions.

In 1 Timothy 5:17 Paul writes, “Nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” But these “things” richly bestowed upon us are not to be idols we adore because of the pleasure they bring us. These “things” are to be tools to minister to others. Paul qualifies “enjoy” in 5:18: “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.”

B. Certainly “all things” includes the “spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” beginning in Ephesians 1:3. This is Paul’s Doxology in Ephesians 1:3-14:

1)  The love of God the Father in eternity past in Ephesians 1:3-6 for which Paul gives praise in verse 6: “To the praise of the glory of his grace.”

2)  The death of God the Son for our sins in Ephesians 1:7-12 for which Paul gives praise in verse 12: “to the praise of his glory.”

3)  The sealing of God the Spirit for our eternal security in Ephesians 1:13-14 for which Paul gives praise in verse 14: “unto the praise of his glory.”

When I read these verses I want to sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

C. But “all things” must include “all things” or the trials, problems, and the heart breaks of life.

Read Paul’s perspective while in prison in Ephesians 6:18-20. He is not selfishly consumed with his problem but rather he is concerned for the Ephesians for whom is praying. He requests that they pray for him to have opportunities to witness while in prison, not that his lawyer might get him out on some technocality. In essence Paul communicates: I’m not a prisoner, I am an ambassador for the King of Heaven. This is not a prison but a pulpit to preach the gospel. I’m not impounded but empowered to be a witness.

A biologist tells how he watched an ant carrying a piece of straw which seemed a big burden for the tiny ant. The ant came to a crack in the earth which was too wide for it to cross. It stood for a time as though pondering the situation, then put the straw across the crack and walked over upon it. Once across, he pulled the straw across and continued on his way. His burden became his bridge for his progress. We can give thanks for “all things” because in Romans 8:28 “we know that all things together for our good to them that love God.”

III. To Whom Do We Give Thanks? (Ephesians 5:20c “unto God and the Father”)

A. In other places Paul indicates that we give thanks to people such as Paul does in Romans 16:4 when he personally thanks Priscilla and Aquila for their sacrificial service for him.

B. Here Paul states clearly that we give thanks to God the Father. There are two very opposite attitudes of thanksgiving.

1) The first is to not give any thanks to God as practiced by the Rich Fool in Luke 12:19. He thought all his business success was totally his accomplishment. To him Jesus said, “You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be which you have provided?” That night the bottom not only dropped out of the stock market for the rich fool but out of his life. Then Jesus applied His story to all of us: “So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

 2) The next attitude does give thanks to God in order to glorify Him in Luke 17:11-19. Jesus healed ten lepers and one returned “and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.” This is the attitude of thanksgiving that glorifies God. James 1:17 says, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights.”

When I was little I lived on the farm with my grandparents and we would feed the chickens. We would throw out the chicken feed on the ground and the chickens would peck away but never look up to see from where the feed was coming.

That is the way too many of us live. God rains on the just and the unjust and most people never look up to see from where does “every good and every perfect gift” come. God’s most perfect gift was His Son whom He sent down from Heaven to die for our sins that we might have the eternal gift of salvation. Sinners need to look up and thank God for that gift and receive Him.

IV. How Do We Give Thanks? (Ephesians 5:20d “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”)

Paul states “in the name of OUR Lord, Jesus, Christ.” We must know Christ as our Savior before we can genuinely give thanks to God. Of course the “name” represents who Jesus is and He is the only way to God.

Acts 4:12 makes very clear, if God’s Word is the final authority in your life, that “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Even Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.”

The only way to be thankful according to Ephesians 5:20 is know Chirst as your Savior and Lord by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit.