While there are multiple places in the Word of God where thankfulness is spoken of, there are relatively few that specifically mention the lack of it — the state of being unthankful. However (as with everything in Scripture), the few times that such a condition is mentioned are important for us to notice. There are at least three occasions in the Word of God where unthankfulness is specifically mentioned and our attention drawn to it.
First of all, our Lord Himself exhorted those who wanted to follow Him to “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:3535But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. (Luke 6:35)). Here the Lord manifests both the heart of God and the heart of fallen man. Sad to say, it is characteristic of the natural man to be unthankful and to take for granted the goodness shown to him, whether by God or his fellow man. When man receives some benefit, initially he may give thanks for it, but then very quickly he assumes that he is entitled to it and expects it as a matter of course. Then, when perhaps at some future time he does not receive it, he becomes angry and resentful.
No Claim
But man in his sinful state has no claim on God’s goodness, for he has, first of all, spoiled His creation and then proceeded to dispose of it as His own. When God sent His Son in love, man cast Him out and crucified Him, saying, “This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours” (Luke 20:1414But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. (Luke 20:14)). But the heart of God remains the same, for He loves man in spite of his sin and wants to bless Him. One prominent sign of God’s love to His creature, one which all may notice, is His goodness in creation. Barnabas and Paul call attention to this while speaking to those in Lystra, mentioning “the living God, which ... left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:15,1715And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: (Acts 14:15)
17Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17)). God in His goodness has kept the world from the full effects of the fall, so that the beauty of creation and the bounty that it yields for man’s food continue to be a powerful reminder of God’s kindness and love.
In general, man remains unthankful, but this does not deter God’s goodness, although He may at times withhold His goodness to remind man of his responsibility to God. Believers are called to show this same goodness to a wicked world, for in doing so, we display God’s character as “the children of the Highest.”
Unthankfulness and Idolatry
Another reference to unthankfulness is found in Romans 1:21-2221Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:21‑22), where we read, “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Here we find the condition of things that developed in this world after the flood of Noah. After the flood, it seems that Satan became especially active in turning men away from God. He could not deny the power of God exhibited in the awful devastation of the flood, but then he began to use his own power under the guise of false religion, seeking to make men believe that it was God’s power. His success in this area is evidenced by the prevalence of idolatry in the world since then.
But the witness of creation remained the same, for God displayed “His eternal power and Godhead” in “the things that are made” (Rom. 1:2020For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20)), so that man has no excuse for denying the existence of God. But in this willful departure from the knowledge of God, one of the characteristics that especially took hold of man was unthankfulness. Instead of realizing the goodness of God — a goodness that promised man “seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night” (Gen. 8:2222While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)) as long as the earth remained — man became unthankful. Another has aptly put it, “Man gave up the knowledge that God was holy and made gods of his lusts; he gave up the knowledge that God was good and attempted to appease an angry God.” The gifts bestowed by God were taken and used by the receiver as a warrant and means for independence and pride; this culminated in ease with a deepening forgetfulness of their Giver and ended in a denying of the claims of God.
Again, all this has a voice for us today, when we see that an unthankful spirit is connected in man’s history with idolatry, lust, and every kind of wickedness that can be described.
The Last Days
Finally, we find that one of the characteristics of the last days is that “men shall be ... unthankful” (2 Tim. 3:2). It should be noted that the sordid description of these last days is not a depiction of the heathen world; rather, it is the portrayal of Christendom that has given up the light it once had. Once again, unthankfulness is connected with every other kind of evil that we see around us today, and it is a solemn voice to all of us. We see this character of things particularly in western Europe and North America, where the brightest testimony to God’s grace has shone for centuries. Truly, as Peter reminds us, “it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment” (2 Peter 2:21). Coupled with this abundant testimony to God’s grace has been unprecedented material prosperity, which, when God was given up, fostered a spirit of independence, pride and entitlement. As another has said, “Man argues from the effects of light to deny its necessity.” A similar condition of things existed in Sodom and Gomorrah before God’s judgment fell on them.
Again, all of this is a warning to each of us, for the spirit around us can easily affect our own outlook. While we can scarcely imagine true believers falling into the full-blown iniquity described in 2 Timothy 3, yet some of these same entities can take hold in our minds, if we are not watchful. Let us, with our Lord’s help, cultivate a thankful spirit.
W. J. Prost