In our Wednesday Bible Study, we are studying "Battling Unbelief", a study put out by John Piper and the Desiring God organization. Last week, the topic of gratitude came up in the lecture, and Mr. Piper said something to the effect that gratitude is not a motivating power in living a holy life, and that faith, not gratitude, is the source for obedience. (He did backtrack that statement to a degree, emphasizing that faith and gratitude do work together). I wasn't able to write down exactly how he phrased it, but it was such that it sent both Rob and I reaching for our Psalter-Hymnal, where remnants of Lord's Day 1 and other liturgy in our memories seemed to be in direct contradiction to Piper's statement.
Mr. Piper quoted several texts clearly indicating that we live by faith, not gratitude. "The just shall live by faith", not "The just shall live by gratitude". Romans 1:17. See also 1 Tim 6:12, 2 Tim 4:7-8, Phil 1:25-26.
The form for the Lord's Supper actually comes closest, in stating that "Let everyone examine his conscience whether he is minded henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life, and to walk sincerely before His face..."
Q&A 1 of 'The Compendium' (found in the Psalters) states:
Q:How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou enjoying real comfort mayest live and die happily?
A: Three: first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
I think it is possible to read these and understand it to say that out of gratitude for what God has done for us, our desire is now to serve and honour Him. I think that is a good thing. Mr. Piper's concern was that thankfulness may morph into a "pay-back" mentality, which is dangerous, and not to be our motivation toward holiness and goodworks. He gave three reasons:
1) We can never pay God back. 1 Cor 15:10 reads "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Any good work we do accomplish only deepens our debt towards God.
2) A pay-back mentality nullifies grace. Grace is free by definition, and if we pay it back, then it isn't grace anymore.
3) We need fresh grace today to be obedient today. "You can't run your car on gratitude for yesterday's gas".
John Piper's statements originally made me and others in our discussion group think we disagreed with him. However, once we discussed it, went back to our treasured forms of unity, reviewed the verses John Piper quoted, we realized that it was how he had phrased his statements that made us sit up straight. It was also very worthwhile to think about gratitude and the pay-back mentality, and what an easy trap that is to fall into. It has made for some interesting and provoking pondering in the past week. I've been asking myself, what is gratitude? What is thankfulness? Merriam-Webster defines 'thankful' as "conscious of benefit received" and 'grateful' as "appreciative of benefits received". If someone does something for me, for which I am grateful, sometimes I want to express my gratitude by doing something for them. Is this a pay-back mentality on my part, or merely an expression of gratitude on my behalf? Similarly for our great God, who has done so much for me - I so often wish I could do or did do more for Him - is this a pay-back mentality or an expression of gratitude?
As part of the lecture, John Piper referred to Psalm 116:12-13: "What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD."
John Piper explained this as the psalmist asked what he should do to God to show his gratitude, and the answer was to hold up his cup to have more blessings given to him from the LORD. As I said, this has made me think about gratitude in general, but if that is how we can thank God - by asking for more! - then how willing He is to give us grace, strength and peace to face and overcome by His power, the temptations, the trials that come with each new day.
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