Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

The Duty of GratitudeBy Rev. Glenn McFarlandPastor of Santa Ana, California R. P. ChurchGratitude is always in fashion, so it is logical for us tothink of the subject of gratitude. And yet our subject is aparadox, a seeming inconsistency, because we usuallyassociate gratitude with voluntary heart response. How thencan we say that gratitude is a duty or owed? Nor do we findany help to our dilemma in Webster's dictionary definitionol gratitude which is: "The state of being grateful: appreciationof favors received; thankfulness."I believe we can only understand gratitude as a duty ifwe understand the ' 'old nature'' of man. In our home we arecontinually teaching our primary and younger children thetwo magic words, "please" and "thank you." We find wemust constantly remind them that it is courteous to respondwith a "thank you" when a gift is received. Thus commonexperience shows us that it is against man's old nature to benaturally grateful.Also the history of even God's chosen people in theOld Testament shows us the tendency for man to beungrateful. Many of the Old Testament feasts were commandedby God to remind His people that He gave themdeliverance and their harvests so that they would be grateful.Exodus 13:8 is a demonstration of this. "And thou shaltshow thy son in that day, saying, This is done (the Passover)because of that which the Lord did unto me when I cameforth out of Egypt.'' The Psalmist in Psalm 81 makes a pointof Israel's lack of gratitude for God's deliverance of themfrom slavery and tells them that their ungratefulness closedthe door of more blessings to them. Isaiah follows this in5:1-7 by scoring Israel for not producing the fruit ofgratitude after God had planted Israel in Canaan and madeabundant room for them to grow in righteousness.Jesus Himself in the parable of the ungratefulhusbandman emphasizes the Jews' rejection of God's Sonwho should have been received with gratitude. Jesus alsomade the point of man's ungratefulness in the account of theSamaritan leper who returned to give thanks, though he hadalso healed nine other Jewish lepers as recorded in Luke17:15-17The situation had not changed in man's nature in theNew Testament or later times according to Paul in his letterto Timothy. (II Timothy 3:1-5) In fact in the "last days"(which we are further in today than Paul was in his day) weseem to have more ungratefulness than ever. Most everynewspaper shows young people fitting Paul's description to atee. (vv. 2-4) We of the next generation deplore the riotingon tax supported university campuses where students aredestroying public property showing no gratitude for thealmost free education that they are receiving. I think the"law and order" theme that both major parties adopted inthis last election shows the conscience of America is beingawakened by God to an awareness of our lack of gratitude asa society. This is a gratitude that all generations should havefor the abundant and high standard of living God has permittedus to have in America which should be used to freemen for more concern for spiritual values. But instead, ourungrateful hearts have prostituted this wealth to our ownselfish and lustful pleasure. The rate of alcoholism andentertainment of an immoral nature even to advancebusiness success illustrate this. We have also forgotten to begrateful for the freedoms of democracy which most nationsknow nothing about. Our ungratefulness is shown by ourcourts, even our highest, misusing them to our own selfdangeras a society with criminals being permitted freedomfrom laws that protect the innocent so that organized crimeand drug abuse abound. We have wasted and polluted ournatural resources and beauty through exploitation so thatthey are ugly and poisoned as further evidence ofungratefulness to God as a society. What we see in manyyoung people today is the whirlwind of the wind which oldergenerations have sown. Our ungratefulness for God'sblessings, evidenced by our misuse of those blessings, hasbrought God's judgment upon the whole nation in the formof lawlessness and riots which we see today.It isn't too hard for us as Christians to see this lack inour godless society in America and to point the finger at theungratefulness of our society in general. But as Christiansare we sure we have always been grateful to God? Rememberthat when we point our finger at them, our other threefingers are pointing back at us. The same Paul, who byinspiration described godless society today, also wrote of thespecial kind of gratitude that Christians owe to God.In Ephesians 5:20 and I Thessalonians 5:18 we arecommanded to give thanks or be grateful for all things. Thismeans we are to be grateful also for things that don't seem tobe "good" for us now — things that may hurt us now, butwith the eye of faith God will use for good later for His glory.That is, the Romans 8:28 variety of blessing. "For we knowthat all things work together for good to them that love God,to them who are the called according to his purpose." If webelieve these verses then we should be grateful for these giftsor experiences too. This is our special task or duty realizingthat like bitter medicine they are for our good.Henrv Ward Beecher told of an old gardener whoSec page 5