Be Filled with the  Spirit—part 2 (5:18b-21)

20

but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.(5:18b-21)

Following His command to be filled with the Spirit, Paul gave a summary of the consequences of obedience to that command.

THE CONSEQUENCES

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (5:19-21)

Consequences of the Spirit-filled life (which greatly enrich our understanding of its nature) are mentioned throughout the remainder of the epistle, and in these verses we are given three of the most significant ones: singing, giving thanks, and submission. When God’s Spirit controls us he will put a song in our own hearts and on our lips, give us thankfulness to God, and make us submissive to others. The first is initially inward, the second upward, and the third outward. The filling of the Holy Spirit makes us rightly related to ourselves, to God, and to others.

THE CONSEQUENCE WITH OURSELVES: SINGING

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; (5:19)

The Spirit-filled life produces music. Whether he has a good voice or cannot carry a tune, the Spirit-filled Christian is a singing Christian. Nothing is more indicative of a fulfilled life, a contented soul, and a happy heart than the expression of song.

The first consequence of the Spirit-filled life that Paul mentioned was not mountain-moving faith, an ecstatic spiritual experience, dynamic speaking ability, or any other such thing. It was simply a heart that sings. When the believer walks in the Spirit, he has an inside joy that manifests itself in music. God puts music in the souls and then on the lips of His children who walk in obedience.

When missionaries began evangelistic work among an Indian tribe I visited high in the Andes of Ecuador, they were frustrated for many years by lack of results. Suddenly the Spirit of God began to move and a large number of Indians were converted within a short time. In addition to a hunger for God’s Word, one of the first evidences of their new life in Christ was a great desire to sing His praises. I listened as they stood for hours in their thatched-roof church and sang hymn after hymn. The song from their hearts was the most inescapable characteristic that set those believers apart from everyone else in their pagan village.

The Spirit’s music is not hindered by a monotone or enhanced by a musical degree or magnificent voice. Spiritual joy will shine through a song sung with the raspy, off-pitch voice of a saint who is rejoicing in the Lord, and it will be absent from the song sung with technical skill and accuracy, but with a voice that rejoices only in self.

One of the greatest distinctions of Christianity should be in its music, because the music God gives is not the music the world gives. In Scripture, the word new is used more frequently in relation to song than to any other feature of salvation. God gives His new creatures a new song, a different song, a distinctive song, a purer song, and a more beautiful song than anything the world can produce.

“Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones,” says the psalmist; “praise is becoming to the upright” (Ps. 33:1). It is because we have been made righteous, purified from sin, and have become partakers of God’s own holiness that we sing. No one but a Christian has any legitimate reason to sing. God Himself puts a song in our mouths, “a song of praise to our God” (Ps. 40:3). Because we have salvation we sing songs of salvation. “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day” (Ps. 96:1-2; cf. 149:1).

One day the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders will fall down before Jesus Christ, the Lamb, and sing “a new song, saying, ‘Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:8-9). God’s new song is the song of redemption.

When God delivered Israel out of Egypt, all the people came together and sang a song to the Lord (Ex. 15:1-18). After they finished, Moses’ sister, Miriam, led the women in further singing and dancing (vv. 20-21). After Deborah and Barak delivered Israel from the Canaanites, they “sang on that day” (Judg. 5:1). Of the 38,000 people who ministered at the Temple in Jerusalem, 4,000 were musicians; and in Nehemiah we read of antiphonal choirs (Neh. 12:31, 38). Throughout the Old Testament, and particularly in the Psalms, we read of many kinds of musical instruments that God’s people used to praise Him.

The last thing Jesus and His disciples did after the Last Supper was to sing a hymn before they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested (Matt. 26:30). While they were imprisoned in Philippi, “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). On the heavenly Mount Zion the 144,000 who will have been purchased from the earth will sing “a new song before the throne” of Christ (Rev. 14:3).

In Ephesians 5:19 Paul explains among whom, from where, with what, to whom, and how Spirit-filled believers are to sing.

Among whom do believers sing? The primary audience for our singing is to be fellow believers, one another. Throughout Scripture the singing of God’s people is shown to be within the fellowship of believers. No music in the Bible is ever characterized as being or intended to be evangelistic. God may use the gospel content set to music to bring the truth to the lost and thus lead them to Himself. Since the message is so powerful, the open heart may receive it even though it comes with a melody. But that is not the intent for music, and when emotions are played on without a clear or complete presentation of God’s truth to the mind, such music can be counterproductive by producing a feeling of well-being and contentment that is a counterfeit of God’s peace and that serves to further insulate an unbeliever from the saving gospel.

It should be noted that the many contemporary entertainers who think they are using their rock-style music to evangelize the lost are often doing nothing more than contributing to the weakening of the church. Evangelizing with contemporary music has many serious flaws. It tends to create pride in the musicians rather than humility. It makes the gospel a matter of entertainment when there is not one thing in it that is at all entertaining. It makes the public proclaimers of Christianity those who are popular and talented in the world’s eyes, rather than those who are godly and gifted teachers of God’s truth. In using the world’s genres of music, it blurs the gap between worldly Satanic values and divine ones. It tends to deny the power of the simple gospel and the sovereign saving work of the Holy Spirit. It creates a wide generation gap in the church, thus contributing to the disunity and lack of intimacy in the fellowship of all believers. It leads to the propagation of bad or weak theology and drags the name of the Lord down to the level of the world. The music of the gospel is certainly not a legitimate means for making money or seeking fame, and it must never be allowed to cheapen what is priceless, or trivialize what is profound.

The songs of faith are not for the world to sing or really even to hear. The unsaved person has no comprehension of the praises we sing, because he has no presence of God’s Spirit within him. He cannot sing the song of redemption because he is not redeemed. Christian singing is an expression of individual and corporate worship, of celebrating life together in Jesus Christ.

For over a thousand dark years of its history (c. 500-1500) the church in general did not sing. From shortly after New Testament times until the Reformation, what music the church had was usually performed by professional musicians. The music they presented could not be understood or appreciated by the average church member. In any case, they could only sit and listen, unable to participate. But when the Bible came back into the church during the Reformation, singing came with it. Martin Luther and some of the other Reformation leaders are among the greatest hymn writers of church history. Where the true gospel is known and believed, music is loved and sung. God’s Spirit in the heart puts music in the heart.

How do believers sing? When they are filled with the Spirit, they are to be speaking … in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody. Speaking comes from laleo, is an onomatopoeic word that originated from chatter or babble, probably of little children first learning to talk, saying sounds such as “la, la, la.” It was also used of the chirp of birds or the grunts and other noises of animals. In its most basic sense, the term simply meant to make a sound.

Trumpets (Rev. 4:1) and even peals of thunder (10:4) are said to be speaking. The psalmist called God’s people to join all the earth in shouting “joyfully to God” (Ps. 66:1). Speaking here includes any sound offered to God from a Spirit-filled heart. The music from an organ or choir is no more acceptable to God than the sounds of a guitar or home-made flute. The sound that pleases Him is the sound that comes as a result of a heart submissive to His Spirit and that sings or plays to His glory.

Psalms refers primarily to the Old Testament psalms put to music, but the term was also used of vocal music of any sort, such as solos and anthems. The early church did most of its singing directly from the psaltery, using various tunes familiar to the congregation—a pattern followed for hundreds of years by many European and American churches, and still used in some congregations today. The psalms primarily speak about the nature and work of God, especially in the lives of believers. Above everything else, they magnify and glorify God.

Hymns refers primarily to songs of praise, which in the early church were probably distinguished from the psalms, which exalted God, in that they specifically praised the Lord Jesus Christ. Many biblical scholars believe that various New Testament passages (such as Col. 1:12-16) were used as hymns in the early church. Spiritual songs were probably songs of testimony that covered a broad category that included any music expressing spiritual truth.

In the church today we could classify renditions of Psalms 23 and 84 as psalms, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” and “The Old Rugged Cross” as hymns, and “O How He Loves You and Me” and “I’d Rather Have Jesus” as spiritual songs. The intent of the writer here, however, is simply to give latitude for all kinds of musical expression to exalt the Lord.

Singing is from ado, which simply means to sing with the voice. But in the New Testament it is always used in relation to praising God (see also Col. 3:16; Rev. 5:9; 14:3; 15:3).

The human voice is the most beautiful of all instruments. Its various tones, inflections, and moods seem almost limitless. Because it is itself human, it can speak to us as no other form of music.

Yet the sound God is looking for in His children is the sound made out of a Spirit-filled heart—whether the voice that makes the sound is rough and unpolished or smooth and highly trained. That is why every believer is just as capable as any other believer of singing the praises that God puts in his heart.

The gift of a good voice or of other musical talent does not demand, as many argue, that it should necessarily be used for performing special music in the church. The gift of music no more demands public display than does the gift of carpentry, cooking, medicine, or any other. That which is done to glorify God is done for that purpose alone, and its being noticed or unnoticed is secondary and incidental. Whether we sing alone in our home or car, sing with a few friends around the piano or with guitars, or sing in a large choir leading hundreds of people in worship, we should do it from a Spirit-filled heart that seeks no glory but God’s.

Psallo (making melody) is related to the term from which we get psalm and literally means to pluck on a stringed instrument, particularly a harp, with the fingers. The word, however, came to represent the making of any instrumental music. The Spirit-filled heart expresses itself in any sort of vocal or instrumental music, in both singing and making melody.

Much music in the church today truly honors God and blesses those who hear it. And whether given as psalms about God’s greatness, as hymns of Christ’s redemption, or as spiritual songs of testimony of God’s power, help, or comfort, such music is to be an expression of the Spirit-filled church. Whether given through the voice in singing or through instruments in making melody, that is the music that honors, glorifies, and pleases God.

Our Lord Himself will sing one day, and in our very midst. He said to His Father, “I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Thy praise” (Heb. 2:12). But even now, when our hearts are filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus sings songs of praise to the Father through us. Therefore when we quench the Spirit, we quench the song of Christ to the Father in our life.

From where do believers sing? The songs of salvation originate with your heart. The Greek form of this phrase allows for several meanings. There is no preposition here in the Greek, and in such cases the preposition is determined by the case of the noun—which here has several possibilities, all of which seem appropriate to the context. If the case of heart is taken as an instrumental of cause, the idea is that our hearts cause us to sing and make melody to God. As an instrumental of means, the idea is that our hearts are the channels through which we sing praises. As a locative, the idea is that the singing is centered in our hearts.

A person who does not have a song in his heart cannot sing from his heart or with his heart. He can only sing with his lips, and neither his music nor his message will have the power of the Spirit to bless others in Christ’s name.

Even as Christians we will not have a true song in our hearts unless we are under the Spirit’s control. It is possible to sing for pride, to sing for acclaim and fame, and to sing for money—but such singing is Spiritless singing. A person who comes to worship while bitter toward God, angry with a loved one or friend, or in any other way is out of harmony with God’s Spirit should not participate in singing God’s praises. Hypocrisy can neither praise nor please the Lord. When peoples’ hearts are not right with God, He has a way of turning their “festivals into mourning” and their “songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:10). Through the same prophet God said, “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (5:23-24). “Stop your songs until your hearts are right,” he was saying.

Our music cannot be like the music of the world, because our God is not like their gods. Most of the world’s music reflects the world’s ways, the world’s standards, the world’s attitudes, the world’s gods. To attempt to use such music to reach the world is to lower the gospel in order to spread the gospel. If the world hears that our music is not much different from theirs, it will also be inclined to believe that the Christian way of life is not much different from theirs. Christians cannot honestly sing the world’s philosophies nor can the world honestly sing the Christian’s message, because they sing from utterly different hearts. The Christian’s heart and music belong to God and His righteousness, while the world’s heart and music belong to Satan and his unrighteousness.

Because the Christian’s music is God’s music, it will be sung in heaven throughout all the ages to come. And because the world’s music is Satan’s music, it will one day cease, never to be heard again. The sounds of the world’s “harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard … any longer” (Rev. 18:22). To those who make music that is not His, God declares, “I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more” (Ezek. 26:13). In hell, the ungodly will not even have their own music.

The pulsating rhythms of native African music mimics the restless, superstitious passions of their culture and religion. The music of the Orient is dissonant and unresolved, going from nowhere to nowhere, with no beginning and no end—just as their religions go from cycle to cycle in endless repetitions of meaningless existence. Their music, like their destiny, is without resolution. The music of much of the Western world is the music of seduction and suggestiveness, a musical counterpart of the immoral, lustful society that produces, sings, and enjoys it.

Rock music, with its bombastic atonality and dissonance, is the musical mirror of the hopeless, standardless, purposeless philosophy that rejects both God and reason and floats without orientation in a sea of relativity and unrestrained self-expression. The music has no logical progression because it comes from a philosophy that renounces logic. It violates the brain because its philosophy violates reason. It violates the spirit, because its philosophy violates truth and goodness. And it violates God, because its philosophy violates all authority outside of self.

Not only the titles and lyrics of many rock songs but the names of many rock groups shamelessly flaunt a godless, immoral, and often demonic orientation. The association of hard rock with violence, blasphemy, sadomasochism, sexual immorality and perversion, alcohol and drugs, and Eastern mysticism and the occult are not accidental. They are fed from the same ungodly stream. A leading rock singer once said, “Rock has always been the devil’s music. It lets in the baser elements.” Another testified, “I find myself evil. I believe in the devil as much as God. You can use either to get things done.” Putting a Christian message in such musical form does not elevate the form but degrades the message to the level already established in the culture by that form.

A great majority of young people in modern Western society are continually assaulted with a philosophy set to music that simultaneously destroys their bodies, short-circuits their minds, and perverts their spirits. A young man who was converted out of that involvement once said to me, “Whenever I hear rock music, I feel a tremendous urge to get drunk or go back on drugs.” The association was so strong that simply hearing the music triggered his old addictions.

Many of the physical and emotional effects of rock music can be demonstrated scientifically. Howard Hansen of the Eastman School of Music once wrote, “First, everything else being equal, the further the tempo is accelerated in music from the pulse rate toward the upper limit of practical tempo, the greater becomes the emotional tension.” He says further that “as long as the subdivisions of the metric units are regular and the accents remain strictly in conformity with the basic patterns, the effect may be accelerated but will not be disturbing. Rhythmic tension is heightened by increase in dynamic power.”

Several years ago a college in Colorado made a study of the effects of music on plants. Plants exposed to beautiful, soothing music thrived and turned toward the speaker. In an otherwise identical environment, another group of the same type of plant was exposed to acid rock. Those plants turned away from the speaker and within three days had shriveled and died. Further experimentation proved that the sound waves of the rock music had actually destroyed the plants’ cells.

Whether or not human cells are destroyed by rock music, things of even greater value are destroyed. When fast tempo, unrhythmical beat, high volume, and dissonance are coupled with wild shrieks, blasphemous and lewd lyrics, and suggestive body movements, the brain is bypassed, the emotions are mangled, the conscience is hardened, and Satan has an open door. Even the ancient pagan Aristotle wisely observed: “Music represents the passions of the soul, and if one listens to the wrong music he will become the wrong kind of person.”

Scripture’s admonition that “all things be done properly and in an orderly manner” (1 Cor. 14:40) applies to music as well as to everything else. God created an orderly universe, and anything that is confused and disorderly is out of harmony with the universe and with its Maker. “Watch over your heart with diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). Paul commanded believers: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

The Spirit-filled Christian is happy, peaceful, assured, and productive regardless of the circumstances. Whether he is freely worshiping among fellow believers on Sunday morning or sitting in painful stocks in a dungeon at midnight like Paul and Silas (Acts 16:24-25), his heart will always be singing and making melody.

In his great allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan pictured the pilgrim, Christian, falling into the slough of despond, straying into doubting castle, and enduring many other hardships, frustrations, and failures. And though the expression “filled with the Spirit” is not used in the story, each time Christian is delivered we see him going on his way singing. Every time he came back under the Spirit’s control he had a song in his heart.

To whom do believers sing? Although believers sing among themselves, their songs are to be directed to the Lord. Our singing and making melody is not for the purpose of drawing attention to ourselves or of entertaining others but of rejoicing in and praising God. Whether we are singing a solo, singing with a choir, or singing with the congregation, our focus should be on the Lord, not on ourselves or other people. He is the audience to whom we sing.

At the dedication of the first Temple, “all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord” (2 Chron. 5:12-13). Because the Lord was pleased with their heart-felt and harmonious worship, “the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (vv. 13-14). It should be the heart desire of all Christians that their praise of God in music, and in every other way, be “in unison” and that they “make themselves heard with one voice to praise and glorify the Lord”—because that is the only way God’s people can acceptably praise and glorify Him.

Johann Sebastian Bach, probably the greatest musician of all time, said, “The aim of all music is the glory of God.” In his own life and work the great composer and organist sought to live out that aim, and through the music he dedicated solely to God countless generations of believers have been blessed.

The words of every Christian song should be biblical—distinctly, clearly, and accurately reflecting the teaching of God’s Word. It is tragic that much music that goes under the name of Christian is a theological mishmash, often reflecting as much of the world’s philosophy as of God’s truth. Much is little more than personal sentimentality colored with Christian words.

Music that honors the Lord also blesses his people. A beautiful, soothing piece of music can calm nerves, remove fear and anxiety, reduce bitterness and anger, and help turn our attention from ourselves and the cares and problems of the world to God.

David not only was a man of God but a skillful musician. We are told that “whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him” (1 Sam. 16:23). The music blessed Saul emotionally (he was “refreshed”), physically (he was made “well”), and spiritually (“the evil spirit would depart from him”).

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century physicians often prescribed music for mentally disturbed patients. They even recommended certain types of music to treat certain types of disorders. Music does have “charms to soothe a savage breast.” Working from a more scientific basis, modern behaviorists have proved those ideas to be sound. They have determined what kind of music makes a person more relaxed in a dentist’s chair, what kind helps production in an office or assembly plant, what kind helps reduce impatience in an elevator, and so on. Music has been found to affect the muscles, nerves, and the flow of body fluids, including blood, saliva, and lymph. It can influence metabolism, heart rate, and pulse for either benefit or harm.

It is not possible to submit the spiritual effects of music to scientific testing, but it is beyond question that music that focuses the heart on praising God can help heal the spiritual ills of His people.

THE CONSEQUENCE TOWARD GOD: GIVING THANKS

always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; (5:20)

People may have one of three possible attitudes about thanksgiving. The first is that it is unnecessary. Some people are not thankful simply because they think they deserve every good thing they have—and more. The rich farmer of Jesus’ parable who was presumptuous about his future prosperity was also ungrateful for his past prosperity. As he looked around and realized his land was so productive that he did not have enough room to store all his crops, he decided to build bigger and better barns. After that he would say to his soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19). He did not take God into consideration. Because he gave God no credit for his blessings, he saw no reason to give Him thanks. And because of his thankless presumption, God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (v. 20). Within that judgment lay the truth that the farmer could no more protect his possessions by his own power than he had produced them by his own power. The Lord gave, and the Lord took away. Not feeling the need to thank God is much worse than ingratitude; it is rank unbelief. This attitude is a form of practical atheism that fails to acknowledge God.

A second attitude about thanksgiving is that of the hypocrite. In another parable Jesus told of a self-righteous Pharisee who stood in the Temple and “was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get’” (Luke 18:11-12). As Jesus made clear in the words “praying thus to himself,” although the man used God’s name, his thankfulness was to himself and for himself. The Pharisee used God’s name only to call further attention to his false piety. And because God had no part in that prayer it was totally worthless. The humble, penitent tax-collector “went down to his house justified,” whereas the proud, self-righteous Pharisee did not (v. 14). Like the rest of his life, the Pharisee’s prayer of thanksgiving was hypocritical sham and pretense.

The third attitude about thanksgiving is that of the truly thankful person. Of the ten lepers Jesus healed on His way to Jerusalem, the only one who returned to thank Him was a Samaritan. But his thankfulness was genuine, and Jesus said to him, “Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). The other nine lepers had sought Jesus’ healing only for their own benefit. The Samaritan also sought it for God’s glory (v. 18). His thankfulness was an expression of his trust in Jesus, his recognition that he was helpless in Himself and that his healing was undeserved and entirely by the Lord’s grace. As a result, he received salvation. That is the thankfulness, the only thankfulness, that pleases God and that the Spirit-filled saint will offer.

A medieval legend tells of two angels sent to earth by the Lord to gather the prayers of the saints. One was to gather the petitions and the other the thanksgivings. The angel responsible for petitions was not able to carry them back to heaven in one load, while the angel responsible for thanksgivings carried his back in one hand.

That legend developed from the sad fact that God’s children are more prone to ask than to thank. The Psalms are instructive in this regard, in that they contain more praise than petition. Believers come into their Father’s presence through thanksgiving. We “enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise” (Ps. 100:4). William Hendriksen picturesquely commented that “when a person prays without thanksgiving he has clipped the wings of prayer so that it cannot rise.” In Ephesians 5:20 Paul tells when, for what, how, and to whom the Spirit-filled believer is to be thankful.

When are we to be thankful?—always. To be thankful always is to recognize God’s control of our lives in every detail as He seeks to conform us to the image of His Son. To be thankless is to disregard God’s control, Christ’s lordship, and the Holy Spirit’s filling. Nothing must grieve the Holy Spirit so much as the believer who does not give thanks. In King Lear (I.ii.283, 312) Shakespeare wrote, “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend!… How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” When God brings trials and difficulties into our lives and we complain and grumble, we question His wisdom and love as well as His sovereignty.

Just as there are three attitudes toward thanksgiving there are also three levels of thankfulness. The first is to be thankful when we are blessed. When things are going well or God grants an especially welcome benefit, we are happy and grateful. When getting a job, being delivered from sickness, being reconciled with our spouse, or experiencing other such pleasant things, it is easy to be grateful to the Lord.

It is right to be thankful for blessings, as the Bible continually commands us to be. The song that Moses and the children of Israel sang after being delivered from Egypt (Ex. 15:1-21) was a beautiful and genuine expression of gratitude that pleased the Lord. That song will one day be partly repeated in heaven as a testimony of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ, the Lamb, for delivering His people from the beast (Rev. 15:1-4). But thankfulness for blessing is easy and requires little maturity.

The second level of thankfulness is that of being grateful for the hope of blessing and victory yet to come. The first level is after the fact, the second is in anticipation of the fact. Thanking God before a blessing is more difficult than thanking Him afterward, and requires more faith and spiritual maturity. This second level is where faith and hope begin, because it involves the unseen and the yet unexperienced. As He stood over the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus prayed, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me” (John 11:41-42). Because He knew His heavenly Father always heard and answered His prayers, in total confidence He thanked Him in advance for what He knew would be done.

The believer at this level of thankfulness looks forward to victory before it is achieved, knowing that he will “overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). He looks forward even to his own death or the death of a loved one and gives thanks to God, knowing that His grace is sufficient for every sorrow and every testing (2 Cor. 12:9) and that glorious resurrection awaits those who die in the Lord. He lives in hope.

As Judah was about to be attacked by the more powerful Moabites and Ammonites, King Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast and prayed before all the people, earnestly proclaiming the Lord’s power and goodness. He acknowledged Judah’s weakness and their sure defeat if the Lord did not help them. “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee” (2 Chron. 20:1-12). Then the king led his people out into the wilderness of Tekoa and instructed them to put their trust in the Lord and His prophets. At that point he commanded the Levitical singers to go out before the army and” ‘give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.’ And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mt. Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed” (vv. 20-22). Judah thanked God for victory before the battle was even begun.

The third level of thankfulness is thanking God in the midst of the battle, while we are still undergoing trouble or testing—and even when it looks like we are failing or being overwhelmed.

When Daniel heard that King Darius had signed the decree forbidding the worship of any god or man but the king himself, he immediately “entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously” (Dan. 6:10). Though his life was at risk, Daniel thanked God because God deserved his thanks, regardless of his threatening circumstances.

Even the prejudiced and disobedient Jonah ended his prayer from the stomach of the fish with these words: “But I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). Nowhere in the prayer does the prophet ask for deliverance. Instead he praises God for past deliverance, acknowledges his own sinfulness and unfaithfulness, and closes with a declaration of thanks for the Lord’s goodness.

After Peter and some of the other apostles in Jerusalem had been flogged and ordered not to speak again in the name of Jesus, “they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). In his prison cell, probably in Rome, Paul awaited trial and possible execution. While there he wrote his letter to the Philippian church, in which he gave thanks for their faithfulness and for the work God was continuing to do in them (1:3-6).

If we can only thank God when things are going well, our thankfulness is on the bottom rung of faithfulness. If we can thank Him in anticipation of what He will do in the future, we show more spiritual maturity. But to thank God while we are in the midst of pain, trials, or persecution shows a level of maturity that few Christians seem to know but that our heavenly Father wants all His children to have.

Being thankful is not a Christian option, a high order of living that we are free to choose or disregard. As Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic author, has observed, “Giving thanks is not a matter of feeling thankful, it is a matter of obedience.”

For what are we to give thanks?—for all things. The greatest gift we can give to God is a thankful heart, because all we can give to Him is simply grateful recognition that all we have is from Him. We give Him thanks for all things because He has given us all things and because giving thanks in everything “is God’s will… in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). Understanding “what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17) includes understanding that He wants His children to be thankful. The Spirit-filled heart sees God’s gracious hand in every circumstance and knows “that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). The spiritual believer sees God’s wise and loving care in the difficulties and trials as well as in blessing and prosperity. He thanks God for a job even if it is demanding and unfulfilling. He thanks God for his health, even if it is far from being what he would like it to be. He thanks God even when his dearest loved ones die, saying with Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

In Christ, all things are for our sakes, in order “that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15). The ultimate goal is the glory of God, the means of giving Him glory is thanksgiving, and the reasons for thanksgiving are all the things He has done in the believer’s life. To glorify God is to thank Him no matter how much we may hurt or be disappointed or fail to understand. The Spirit-filled Christian is “overflowing through many thanksgivings to God” and continually gives thanks to Him “for His indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:12, 15).

As God’s children we are to be thankful first of all for the Lord Himself, for His goodness, love, grace, salvation, and every other blessing He gives. We are to be thankful for all men, for blessings and difficulties, for victories and defeats.

The only person who can genuinely give thanks for all things is the humble person, the person who knows he deserves nothing and who therefore gives thanks even for the smallest things. Lack of thankfulness comes from pride, from the conviction that we deserve something better than we have. Pride tries to convince us that our job, our health, our spouse, and most of what we have is not as good as we deserve. Pride was the root of the first sin and remains the root of all sin. Satan’s pride led him to rebel against God and try to usurp God’s throne. The pride of Adam and Eve led them to believe Satan’s lie that they deserved more than they had and that they even had a right to be like God.

Believers are still subject to the temptations of pride. The only cure is humility, which comes with being filled with the Spirit, since being filled with the Spirit is to die to self. When we cease with selfishness, the consequence is to put Christ and His will above all else. Humility dethrones self and enthrones Christ, and in doing that it thankfully acknowledges that every good thing—including many things that do not at the time seem to be good—are from His gracious hand.

How are we to be thankful?—in the name of Jesus Christ. To give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is to give thanks consistent with who He is and what He has done. We can give thanks always and for all things because no matter what happens to us it will turn out not only for our ultimate blessing but, more importantly, for His ultimate glory. When we sing, it is Christ singing through us, and when we give thanks, it is Christ giving thanks to the Father through us.

Were it not for Christ, it would be foolish to be thankful for everything, because apart from Him all things do not turn out for good. But because we are in Christ, the good things and the bad things all have a part in God’s conforming us to the image of His Son. A person who is not a Christian does not have Christ interceding on his behalf at the right hand of God or indwelling his life. He does not have the promise of heirship in God’s family and citizenship in God’s kingdom—or any other of the wonderful promises of Christ. He does not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and cannot have His filling. He cannot be thankful for everything because for him everything does not give a reason for thanks. He sees only the present, not eternal glory.

But the child of God is indwelt by Christ, is a joint heir with Him, and does have the Son interceding for him at the Father’s right hand. He has all of Christ’s promises made certain through the Holy Spirit who indwells him. And as the Spirit fills him, he is cleansed from sin and made more and more into conformity to Christ.

The mature Christian, the Christian who is filled with the Spirit, becomes thankful as Christ Himself was thankful. Jesus was continually saying thanks to His Father. Before He multiplied the loaves and fish to feed the four thousand, “He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them” (Mark 8:6; cf. Matt. 15:36). As mentioned above, He gave thanks before He called Lazarus from the grave (John 11:41). Even as He instituted the Lord’s Supper, in anticipation of His soon-coming crucifixion, He thanked His Father for the bread that would become a memorial of His sacrificed body (Luke 22:19).

Jesus was ridiculed, despised, scorned, rejected, spat upon, blasphemed, beaten, and finally crucified. Yet because of His great humility He always gave thanks in all things. He deserved glory but received humiliation, deserved love but received hate, and deserved honor but received dishonor. He deserved praise but received scorn, deserved riches but received poverty, and deserved holiness but was made sin on our behalf. Yet He never lost His thankfulness to His heavenly Father, because He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8).

Because Jesus emptied Himself to the point of giving His own life, He is able to fill us with everything of which He emptied Himself, including life. We deserve humiliation, but in Christ we receive glory. We deserve to be hated but instead are loved, and deserve dishonor but receive honor. We deserve scorn but are given praise, deserve poverty but are given riches, and deserve sin’s curse of death but are given righteousness and eternal life. For what can we not give thanks?

To whom are we to be thankful?—God the Father. The thanks that we give always, for all things, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are given to God, even the Father. We thank our heavenly Father just as our Lord Himself did on earth. The giver of “every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift” (James 1:17) is the Receiver of every genuine and heartfelt thanksgiving. The beneficent Father is to be thanked for all things because He has given all things (see on 1:3).

Even those things that come through others come from God. We should be grateful for what anyone does for us, and we should thank them for it. But thankfulness to others will likely be little more than flattery if we do not acknowledge that the true source of the gift is God.

A mark of the unsaved person is thanklessness to God (Rom. 1:21), but a mark of the Spirit-filled believer is always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. He is “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [lets his] requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). He is “overflowing with gratitude” (Col. 2:7) and he continually offers “up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:15).

A city missionary in London was called to an old tenement building where a woman lay dying in the last stages of a terrible disease. The room was cold and she had nowhere to lie but on the floor. When the missionary asked if there was anything he could do, she replied, “I have all I really need; I have Jesus Christ.” Deeply moved, the missionary went home and penned these words:

THE CONSEQUENCE TOWARD FELLOW BELIEVERS: SUBMISSION

and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (5:21)

The filling and control of the Holy Spirit will lead us to a spirit of humility, to the spirit that gives us the desire to seek the welfare of others before our own and to be mutually submissive. The rich details of this verse will be discussed in the next chapter, since the verse provides a transition to the coming section.

In the rest of chapter 5 and through 6:9, Paul expands on the principle of believers’ submission as it controls the relationship of husbands and wives, children and parents, and slaves and masters.