Overflowing with Gratitude

            The above title comes from Col 2.6-7. If we skip over the intervening participle clauses, reading only the main and final clause, we have: “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…overflowing with gratitude.”  This helps us to see that the final clause (“overflowing with gratitude”) modifies the main clause at the beginning (“…as you have received Christ…so walk in Him”). It makes it really stand out that our daily walk in Christ ought to be not only characterized by gratitude and thanksgiving, but be overflowing with it.
 

The Greek word for “overflowing” means “to be in excess” or “to superabound.” How many of us can say we have an excess of gratitude? The proof will show in our lives, in our words, in our demeanor. If our gratitude overflows, then it will spill out around the brim and run down on the table and onto the floor. If we have an excess of gratitude, then we have more than we need, allowing us to spread it around to others. Are you so full of gratitude in your life that it just continually spills out and spreads to others?
 

If not, then you need to read the intervening clauses that we earlier skipped over: “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed.” If you are not overflowing with gratitude in your daily walk in Christ, perhaps it is because your life is not firmly rooted in Christ. That is the key to living a grateful life. Let your daily walk be deeply rooted in Jesus the Lord. Be built up in Him and established in your faith in Jesus, and the gratitude will spill out.
 

While I normally do not delve so much into grammar, it is instructive to point out that of the four participles in the sentence, only the final one (“overflowing with gratitude”) is in the active voice. The rest (“firmly rooted”, etc.) are passive. God roots our lives deep into Christ; God builds us up in Him; God establishes us. We then must actively respond in gratitude. That’s not to suggest that we have no part in the rooting, building and establishing. The third clause tells us how these things occur: “just as you were instructed.”  It is through the word of God, fellowship, worship, and prayer that God roots, builds, and establishes (cf. Acts 2.42; 20.32). Gratitude naturally follows upon being rooted and built up in Christ, but there is still an active choice on our part. We must choose to be grateful. So be firmly rooted in Christ, and then choose gratitude. Let it overflow and spill out and run down off the table into everyone else’s lap, so that they go away from your presence being grateful also.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            © 2006 Randy Hohf