Ephesians
4:1–2 (NKJV) 1I, therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which
you were called, 2with all lowliness and gentleness, with
longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.
As believers
who have been called “out of darkness to His marvelous light”, we have a manner
in which we should live. Paul calls us
to this lifestyle when he calls us “to walk worthy of the calling with which
you were called.”
He then
begins to describe some of the characteristics of this lifestyle, “lowliness
and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” Al Broom described this concept in this way,
“The word ‘bear’ in Ephesians means to be tolerant toward Christians: to bear
with them; to patiently endure their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses; to have a
forgiving spirit toward others who may sin against us.”[1]
In
Colossians 3:12–13 (NKJV) it says , “12Therefore, as the elect of
God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
longsuffering; 13bearing with one another, and forgiving one
another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you,
so you also must do.” We are to clothe
ourselves with these traits. We forgive
those who wrong us remembering the manner in which Christ forgave us. He forgives completely. He forgives and does not remind us of our
sin. He forgives and never brings it up again.
When we get a true understanding of the forgiveness that we have in
Christ Jesus we can more easily forgive others in the same way.
What Paul is
describing here is sanctification, the ongoing process by which a sinner is
made holy, separated, by God. Forgiveness
is just one aspect of that. As we are
granted a fuller and fuller knowledge of what God has forgiven on our behalf we
should find it easier and easier to overlook the shortcoming of those around us
and reach out to others with “tenderness, kindness, meekness, and
longsuffering.” And may others do the
same for us.
This lesson
is a final installment from “Putting Value in the Local Church.” If you would like to be challenged on many of
the other “one another” commands of Scripture look back to episodes 32-36 and
43-46.
The video version of this can be viewed at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton FW # 55
The video version of this can be viewed at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton FW # 55
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