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The sixth-century church leader, Gregory the Great, is often credited with listing the “seven deadly sins,” which include pride, anger, envy, greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust. In 2005, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) conducted a poll asking respondents if this list was still relevant for today's society. Of Gregory's original list of seven sins, only greed was still considered a “relevant sin.” The survey then asked respondents to identify which so-called modern sins should be on the list instead. Respondents listed cruelty, hypocrisy, selfishness, wastefulness, dishonesty, bigotry, and adultery.
While we probably don't agree with the trend away from seeing pride and lust as sinful, we can note that the “modern” sins are also blameworthy. In fact, there's significant overlap between these lists and the one in today's passage. What is surprising, is the appearance of “ungrateful” in the middle of this passage. We've already seen the unexpected connection between ingratitude and those sins we're tempted to consider more serious in Romans 1. Like that passage, 2 Timothy 3 also shows that failing to be thankful ultimately indicates a failure to worship God.
Today's passage is set within the context of the end times, when the true nature of those who have rejected the Lord will be even more apparent. Notice that this passage really concerns love, specifically loving oneself more than loving God. Because these individuals have turned away from the true God, they have placed themselves at the disposal of the Evil One. With this in mind, it is not surprising to find that failing to give thanks to God is associated with more serious evil. We also saw this in our study on Genesis 3.
It follows logically from this passage that those who love God will be characterized by gratitude. This is exactly what we'll see in our studies for the next few days. We will also find that being grateful is one of the primary ways that we can deepen our love for God.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
For the past few days we've been considering just how serious a sin of ingratitude is. Now might be a good time to go back to the list that you made at the beginning of our study and see if your thinking has changed regarding those things for which you are not thankful. How might you give thanks to God for even these items? Are there now things for which you are thankful that you hadn't thought about before? Has your understanding of ingratitude changed?
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