“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were
sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and
clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has
forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:30–32, NASB95)
These instructions were written to believers dealing with
other believers. Knowing that these were written to believers, we are to be
continually reminded that we have both individually and corporately been sealed
by the Holy Spirit of God. This is not something that we did, and it is not in
our power to destroy it. But we sure can make it muddy. God brought us together
and this togetherness is to endure until we enter His presence. We are to do
nothing in our lives to cause Him grief as we relate to one another. Verse 29
may be viewed as an individual directive, but it is certainly to be worked out in
a collective framework. These words speak to how we are individually to respond
to who we are in Christ as members of His body, the church, and then
collectively as we practice them and encourage one another to do likewise.
The stark contrast of a church that causes those outside the
church to recognize us as Christ’s disciples and the church that does not is
really found in our love for one another. Jesus set the example for His
disciples and He gave them the directive of love, telling them what an example
it would have on the watching world. This is what we read in John 13:34-35. “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35, NASB95) This is
Christ’s way for the body to function as one united by the Spirit. It is a
difficult thing to be in or around a group of believers who for one reason or
another do not evidence this oneness of love toward one another, and who maybe
even have given a bad taste to those watching from the outside. One of the
common excuses given for not accepting Christ is a past hurt someone
experienced from a supposed Christian or their cold or harsh treatment received
at a church. We all stumble, but our stumbling is never to become an excuse for
walking on a lower road than the one established by God. As we think about the
hurt we may have seen or experienced in the church, imagine how much more
intently God is grieved when His believers contend with one another or when one
of His beloved children strays. Paul tells us to consider God and what He has
done in us through His Spirit as we work to preserve the oneness we have in
Christ.
Going back to the first 4 verses of this chapter, we are
instructed, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being
diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one
body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;”
(Ephesians 4:1–4, NASB95) In light of this and consistent with the instruction
given in verses 22-24, Paul writes, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and
clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has
forgiven you.”
The “put off” is bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and
slander. These things represent both attitudes of the heart and mind and
actions of the mouth and hands. Our bitter hearts, our vengeful thoughts and
our anger lead to unrest and talk. This talk leads to putting others down
through speaking badly of them or slandering them which then leads to malice
which is synonymous with wickedness or malicious and wicked acts. It is a
horrible spiral that hurts the body. It is one that is important enough that in
his letter to the Philippians, Paul singled out two women and called upon the
church to help them to put their differences to rest (See Philippians 4:2-9).
Instead of these things we are to put on kindness,
tender-hearts, and forgiveness. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted,
forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” It is very
easy to respond in unkind ways when you are treated unkindly. It is easy to
become hard-hearted towards others when they treat you callously or without
thoughts toward your own feelings. And it is easy to nurse the hurt when it has
been dished out so unkindly or harsh. As Christians we are to preserve the
unity that we have in Christ and respond in ways that don’t make sense to the
world.
We are to be kind to others even when they are not kind with
us. This does not mean that we also don’t at some time seek to correct them or
let them know how their words or actions came across, but that may be a
discussion for another day. We are to respond with kindness. In a largely
parallel “put on” passage in Colossians we read, “So, as those who have been
chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each
other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so
also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond
of unity.” (Colossians 3:12–14, NASB95)
We are to be tender-hearted even when we have been treated
with not so tender a heart. What this means is that we continue to keep our
hearts soft toward God and that we continue to rely on Him to go before us in
all situations. This does not mean that we don’t deal with the situations at
hand, but even in dealing with them that we reign in and put off those ways
that might have marked us before and put on the ways that God has called us to
respond now. Having a tender heart reflects faith. The Greek word from which it
comes has to do with having bowels that are well or in good shape. It reflects
an inner compassionate strength that comes from God and His Spirit working in
us. We may have to walk through tough situations with other people, but this
does not mean that we have to allow our hearts to become hardened in the
process.
And the last “put on” in this passage is forgiving each
other. Paul put the cap stone on this by adding that we are to do this, “just
as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” This one is pretty hard to get around.
There is nothing greater than God’s forgiveness of us. Our perfect God sent His
Son to lay down His life for us so that we might have the forgiveness of sins
and to take it back up again so that we might have the assurance or proof of
eternal life. He forgave every single sin we have and ever will commit knowing
fully what they were before we were ever born. We tend to worry about the “what
if’s” of forgiveness, thinking about how many times something may have happened
previously or how it might happen again. Every single one of us has sinned
repeatedly against God, and He calls us to forgive in the same way that He
forgave us through His Son.
In Ephesians 5 we have the contrast to living in such a way
that grieves His Spirit. We read, “…walk as children of Light (for the fruit of
the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to
learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8–10, NASB95)
No comments:
Post a Comment