Summary
Gratefulness in Service
"And what do you say?" Every parent has used that prompt with a child who tore open a gift and forgot the giver. It is worth asking whether God ever stands over us with the same admonishment when our thanks is delayed or absent. The answer Paul gives in Colossians 3 is surprising—and it reframes the whole relationship between gratitude and Christian service.
Paul's exhortation in Colossians 3:12-14 clothes the believer in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, with love as the belt that binds these virtues together in perfect harmony. Then comes the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts—the peace won at the cross and the empty tomb, the peace described in Colossians 1:20, where God reconciled all things to himself "by making peace through the blood of his cross." That vertical peace with God is meant to flow horizontally into the one body, the Church, shaping every relationship within it.
At the end of Colossians 3:15 the command lands plainly: "And be thankful." Read alone, that could sound like the dreaded thank-you note after Christmas—obligation, delay, a "have-to" that drags into February. Scripture does link service tightly to thankfulness (Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 6:7; 1 Peter 4:10; Matthew 4:10). But if "be thankful" is merely a divine demand, gratitude collapses into duty, and service into burden.
The sinful woman of Luke 7 shows the better pattern. She washes Jesus' feet with tears and anoints them with ointment—not to earn forgiveness, but because she has already received it. "Your faith has saved you; go in peace," Jesus tells her. Her actions are not the basis of forgiveness; they are the overflow of it. Worship at the feet of Christ becomes service from the hands of the forgiven.
That is precisely the movement Paul traces next. After "be thankful" comes Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly... singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Worship is where the gospel is heard again, where reconciliation and peace are received again, and where gratitude is born anew. God himself births in us the very thanksgiving he calls for. Then Colossians 3:17 carries that gratitude outward: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
So God does not stand over the believer asking, "And what do you say?" He keeps lavishing his gifts, and the lavished are changed. As “Gratefulness in Service” 11-13-22 puts it, grateful service is not born of "have to" or "ought to" but of "get to"—it simply is. God writes his own thank-you note in our lives, turning duty into delight and obligation into worship that cannot help but serve.
Video citations
- “Gratefulness in Service” 11-13-22 — What you open up your Bibles, please, to Colossians III chapter. If you're using a few additional Holy Scripture, you're going to find that on page 178 in the New Testament. Colossians III chapter…