Giving Thanks Always (항상 감사하라: 한어 번역이 없습니다. 양해하여 주십시요)

Ephesians 5:20

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

On New Year's Eve, people typically are looking forward to the new year as they formulate their resolutions. But it is also an appropriate time to give thanks for all the good that our Lord has provided for us as we close out the year. For what do we give thanks for as we look back upon 2023? Have we ever considered giving thanks for everything? If we are believers and in Christ today, our text teaches us to give thanks “always and for everything to God the Father”. For the things that are obviously good, pleasant, and comforting, yes, but also for the things that are difficult, painful, and even grievous. Always and for everything, give thanks to God our Father. We are taught to give thanks like this, “ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. What does this mean to give thanks always and for everything to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? I think what that means is this: When we give thanks to God always and for everything, we are acting in a manner that is in accord with the truth of the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

When we, as believers, are unwilling to give thanks to God always and for everything, that is because we are forgetting who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished for us. We are forgetting that through His saving work, Christ has brought reconciliation between God and ourselves. We are forgetting that through Christ's saving work, we are no longer objects of God's wrath but now objects of God's grace. And the expression of God's favor is summed up in a passage like Romans 8:28-29 which many of us know so very well: 

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29)

If we are saved in His Son, God's supreme purpose for us is to conform us to the image of Christ. One day that conformity will be perfected when we are raised and glorified when Christ returns. But already that process has begun since God's favor is manifested in His working all things together for our true, spiritual good – to make us more and more like His Son. So, when we, as believers, are grieved by trials, remember that our God is treating us with His loving favor. We get a sense of the reality of this fact in 1 Peter 1:6-7: 

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7) 

“...though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,” Those trials that grieve us now, they are necessary for us. They are sent by God to test the genuineness of our faith. That is for our benefit since God already knows if our faith is genuine. One of the reasons God sends us trials is to show us that our faith is genuine. It doesn't just fizzle out at the first sign of serious trouble. For so many, their so-called faith evaporates in troubled times because their faith was not genuine. Their profession was empty – a mere human commitment and not the product of new birth. In contrast, our faith endures, grows stronger, is preserved by the power of God, and is thereby shown to be genuine. Only a genuine faith will result “in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). And so, as our trials prove our faith, we gain greater assurance that we really are children of God and heirs of the promise. This assurance, in turn, becomes our source of patience, peace, joy, and thanksgiving, and in these ways we display the likeness of our Lord. 

If we trust in Jesus Christ, let us remember at the cusp of a new year, the name of our Lord – all that He is and all that He does. Let us remember that because of who He is and what He has done for us for our salvation, we stand in God's grace (Romans 5:2) always and forever. He favors us as His adopted children and so works all things together for our good. Our trials are for our good. They are necessary for us. The genuineness of our faith is proven as we endure them and as a result, we gain greater patience, peace, joy, and thanksgiving because we know, with greater conviction, that we have “...a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1). For this reason, on this New Year's Eve Sunday and all throughout the new year, let us give thanks always and for everything to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.