Thanksgiving for our God
“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
- Ephesians 5:4, 1-2
Thanksgiving for our God
This is where it all comes together. We give thanks for our everyday blessings and we give thanks for our family/Family and friends around us. But we know that none of it means anything without our greatest blessing – our God.
He isn’t just God. He is our God. Not because of anything we have done, but because of what he did. When Jesus gently speaks with Mary after he has been gloriously raised from the dead, he says, “‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’” (John 20:17) Jesus made it possible for his God and Father to be our God and Father. He isn’t just our Creator; he loves us.
It puts Ephesians 5:4 in context. It starts by listing the things of the world, things that true followers of Christ would find completely against who they’re trying to imitate. Instead, the opposite is… thanksgiving. That is what is shown as the alternative to filth and crude speech. Thanksgiving is speech that is wholesome and humble. It should be natural for us, because it’s being like Christ. Which is how this chapter started.
We are imitators of God. Our God who made a way for us to be his beloved children. We are beloved! We don’t walk as the world does, we walk in love. And this love is not what the world calls love. It shouldn’t be confusing. Christ showed us exactly what it is – he loved us and gave himself up for us. He made himself a sacrifice for God on our behalf, knowing it’s the only sacrifice God could’ve accepted for the sins that we did.
There is no other love like it. A love that would make a King submit and undergo physical and spiritual torture so we could be saved. So we could be God’s. He sanctified us, he cleansed us, so he could present us to himself as pure. He nourishes and cherishes us. We have become one with Him (Ephesians 5:25-32). It is the greatest gift we could ever receive.
And so, in imitating Christ, with true humility and love, we give thanks – for our God.
