Bible verses about

Bible Verses About Gratitude

12 verses · ESV & King James Version

Gratitude has been thoroughly colonised by self-help, where it is a technique for feeling better. Scripture uses the word differently, and the difference is worth knowing.

Here thanks is almost always a thing you do rather than a thing you feel, it is usually addressed to someone rather than kept private, and it turns up most insistently in circumstances nobody would describe as fortunate.

Twelve passages below, quoted in full in both translations. The one in 1 Thessalonians is the one people argue about, and there is a note explaining why the preposition matters.

12 verses for when you need them

  1. give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

    1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV

    In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

    1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV

    In every thing give thanks — the preposition is doing the work. Not for everything, which would ask you to be glad about the worst thing that has happened; in everything, which asks you to keep giving thanks while it goes on.

  2. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 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.

    Colossians 3:15-17 ESV

    And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

    Colossians 3:15-17 KJV

    In the ESV thanks lands in all three verses running — be thankful, with thankfulness, giving thanks; the KJV has it in two. Either way Paul is being emphatic, and it sits inside instructions to a community that was not getting along.

  3. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

    Psalm 100:4 ESV

    Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

    Psalm 100:4 KJV

    Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Thanks is described as the way in rather than the response on the way out — you arrive giving it, before anything has happened in the room.

  4. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

    Philippians 4:6 ESV

    Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

    Philippians 4:6 KJV

    With thanksgiving let your requests be made known. The thanks is attached to the asking, not to the answer, which means it happens before you know how the thing turns out.

  5. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

    Luke 17:15-16 ESV

    And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

    Luke 17:15-16 KJV

    Ten were healed and one came back. The gratitude is not what produced the healing — all ten got that — it is what produced the return, and Jesus notices the absence of the other nine out loud.

  6. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

    Psalm 107:1 ESV

    O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

    Psalm 107:1 KJV

    O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good. The reason offered is his character rather than your circumstances, which is why the same line can open a psalm that goes on to describe hunger, prison and storm.

  7. giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

    Ephesians 5:20 ESV

    Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

    Ephesians 5:20 KJV

    Giving thanks always for all things. The always is what makes this hard, and the verse before it is about singing — the two are placed together as habits of a household rather than as moods.

  8. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

    1 Chronicles 16:34 ESV

    O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

    1 Chronicles 16:34 KJV

    His mercy endureth for ever. The clause is a refrain, repeated all through the Old Testament — gratitude here is liturgical, something said in company and by heart, not composed fresh each time.

  9. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

    Psalm 103:2 ESV

    Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

    Psalm 103:2 KJV

    Forget not all his benefits. The instruction is against forgetting rather than for feeling, which is a memory discipline — and the psalm goes on to list the benefits, because he is doing the thing he just told himself to do.

  10. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

    2 Corinthians 9:15 ESV

    Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

    2 Corinthians 9:15 KJV

    Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Unspeakable is an odd word to write down, and Paul knows it — he is conceding that the sentence cannot carry the thing it names.

  11. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

    Jonah 2:9 ESV

    But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

    Jonah 2:9 KJV

    I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. Said from inside the fish, before anything has been resolved. It is the least sentimental gratitude verse in the Bible and the most useful when nothing has changed yet.

  12. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

    Psalm 118:24 ESV

    This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

    Psalm 118:24 KJV

    This is the day which the LORD hath made. Often quoted as a mood-setter; in the psalm it follows a stretch about being surrounded and pushed hard, so the rejoicing is a decision made against the evidence.

The verse people stumble on is 1 Thessalonians 5:18, and usually because of one word.

It says in every thing give thanks — not for every thing. That is a real distinction and not a dodge. You are not asked to be grateful that the worst thing happened; you are asked to keep giving thanks while it is happening, which is a different and more possible instruction.

The rest of the list backs that up. Paul writes thanks from prison. The psalmist gives thanks and then, in the same breath, describes distress. Jonah gives thanks from inside the fish, before anything has been resolved.

Which makes gratitude here a practice rather than a verdict on your circumstances. And Luke 17 is the quiet sting: ten were healed, one came back, and Jesus asked where the other nine were. Noticing is apparently rarer than receiving.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.