Thankfulness —John Calvin

“Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things (or in heavenly places) in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:3

“The chief sacrifice which God requires at men’s hands is that they should acknowledge His benefits and be thankful to Him for them…

For if a man asks us why we are found in this world, why God has such a care for us, why His goodness feeds and cherishes us, and finally why He, as it were, dazzles us with the great number of benefits He bestows upon us, it is in order that we should yield some acknowledgement of them to Him. For (as it is said in the psalm) we for our part cannot profit him at all, neither does He require anything else of us in exchange, but thanksgiving, according as it is said in Psalm 116, ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits which I have received from Him, except to take the cup of salvation at His hand and to call upon His name?’…

It is true that the Holy Spirit often sets forth other reasons why we should magnify God’s name, as (for example) the order of nature, the fruits which the earth yields, the aid and help which God gives us, and other such things. And these are sufficient matter for which to praise God. But St. Paul leads us higher here, and will have us to glorify God above all things. He thinks it is not enough to own that God has placed us in the world and that he nourishes us here, and he provides all things needful during the passing of this transitory life, but he also says that God has chosen us to be heirs of His kingdom and of the heavenly life.

We are then doubly bound to God, and that, much more closely then ignorant and unbelieving wretches are. For although they are sufficiently indebted already, yet the good He has done us in Jesus Christ is beyond all comparison more excellent and noble, because He has adopted us to be His children.”

—John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians

patience comes as a deliberate act of humility — Timothy Keller

"A lot of people say, “Oh, I wish I could,” as if … What do you mean, “I wish I could”? “I wish I had patience,” as if patience is like a germ you catch or you don’t. Actually, as far as I understand, the Bible says patience comes from a couple of deliberate actions. First of all, patience comes as a deliberate act of humility. It’s a deliberate act of humility. Patience is always an act of humility. For example, in James 4, we read this.

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. […] Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ ” (James 4:13-15) It says you have your plans and you know how things ought to work, but you don’t know. You say, “This is going to happen. That’s going to happen.” But you don’t know. You ought to say, “Well, if it’s the Lord’s will.” (James 4:15)

What does that mean? When things go wrong, we think of our anger. We think of our despair. We think of our worry and our fear as feelings we can’t help. But this is saying those feelings arise out of an assumption of your own omniscience. There’s an assumed omniscience. When you’re really saying, “Oh, this is awful …” “What? Why?” “Because X, Y, Z is not happening. That will be a disaster if X, Y, Z doesn’t happen.”
Oh, you know, huh? You know X, Y, Z has to happen for life to mean … How do you know? It says you don’t know. You’re upset, but you don’t know. Please lay down the melancholy burden of assumed omniscience. It’s such a relief. Even the wisest people do not see all ends. When you are just freaking out because, “This has to happen,” that means you think you know. You’re not omniscient. The freaking out is coming from your certainty that you know. You don’t know. Be humble. It’s a deliberate act of humility. That’s one way to be patient."

—Timothy Keller (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

the teachings of Jesus — James Montgomery Boice

“The third part of Peter’s summation of the gospel is the public ministry of Jesus: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38). This ministry involves two things: good deeds and special acts that demonstrated Christ’s power over Satan.

The significant thing about this summation of the public ministry of Jesus is that, as in his previous sermons, Peter does not mention Christ’s teaching. In the Gospels we find whole chapters filled with Christ’s sayings, parables, and discourses. In Matthew the Sermon on the Mount takes three chapters and the Olivet Discourse takes two. Chapters 14–16 of John contain what we call the final discourses. The reason for this omission is that until people come to understand what Jesus Christ accomplished by his death, turn from sin, and follow him, they are incapable of responding to his teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that his disciples are to be poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, and peace-makers, to live by the teaching of the Scriptures, and to follow a standard higher even than that found in the Old Testament. These teachings are important and necessary for those who are Christ’s. But if they are taught to those who are not yet converted, to those who are incapable in their unconverted state of doing them, these teachings are misleading and harmful.

If we speak about the teachings of Jesus without first speaking of the need for repentance and faith in Jesus as our Savior from sin, people quite naturally begin to think that Christianity is merely about doing good. It is learning what Jesus taught and trying to put it into practice. This only encourages self-righteousness, a trust in human righteousness, which is harmful. Whenever Christianity has fallen into that pattern of teaching it has made a great mistake.”

— James Montgomery Boice (1997). Acts: an expositional commentary (pp. 183–184). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Here Christ is hungered, here He is athirst, is naked, is a stranger, is sick, is in prison… — Augustine

"Here Christ is hungered, here He is athirst, is naked, is a stranger, is sick, is in prison. For whatsoever His Body suffereth here, He hath said that Himself suffereth; and at the end, severing off this His Body to the right hand, and severing the rest by whom He is now trodden under foot to the left, He will say to those on the right hand, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which hath been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” For what deservings? “For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat;” and so He goes over the rest, as if He had Himself received; to such a degree that they, not understanding it, make answer and say, “Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, a stranger, and in prison?” And He saith to them, “Forasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of Mine, ye have done it unto Me.” So also in our own body, the head is above, the feet are on the earth; yet in any crowding and throng of men, when any one treads on your foot, does not the head say, “You are treading upon me?” No one has trodden on your head, or on your tongue; it is above, in safety, no harm has happened unto it; and yet because by the bond of charity there is unity from the head even to the feet, the tongue does not separate itself therefrom, but says, “You are treading upon me;” when no one has touched it. As then the tongue, which no one has touched, says, “You are treading upon me;” so Christ, the Head, which no one treadeth on, said, “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat.” And to them who did not so, He said, “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat.” And how did He finish? Thus; “These shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal.”

— Augustine of Hippo. (1888). Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

apostolic doctrine ― Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“There is such a thing as apostolic doctrine. I am a preacher for one reason only, and it is that I have believed the apostolic doctrine and teaching. I have no other teaching. I do not stand here to say what I think. I am simply repeating what I find in the Gospel. I am expounding the Scriptures, the apostolic doctrine. But the importance of doing this is seriously questioned today. Indeed, it is not only controverted but ridiculed and dismissed, and I must of necessity deal with this criticism…

My dear friend, have you believed? Have you received this apostolic doctrine? I can test you simply. If you have believed this and received it, you have new life, spiritual life, and that will show itself in this way: You will be hungering and thirsting for more. It will become the greatest interest of your life. You will still be interested in other books, but you will find, as I find and I say this to the glory of God that there are many books I would like to read, but I just do not have the time. I am too busy reading the Bible and books that help me understand it.

Now I am not criticizing the others. I like to read books on history. I like reading biographies. I like reading about music. I like reading about medicine, aspects of science, psychology, philosophy, and so on. But my problem is to find the time. I find life here in this Book. It moves my heart. It melts me. It fills me with righteousness. It strengthens my feeble will. I want this. And men and women who have spiritual life in them, the life of God in their souls, will be like newborn babes, desiring ― the sincere milk of the word‖ that they might grow (1 Pet. 2:2). If you do not have that desire, you are dead. Whether you are a church member or not, if the Bible is still boring, if you find prayer difficult and a task, you are dead, and therefore you have one thing to do: Go to God, repent, confess your sin, tell Him you realize you are dead, and ask Him to give you life anew, to breathe His Spirit upon you and give you new life from among the dead.”

― Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity