Ephesians 4: 17 – 32

January 16, 2023

17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But ye have not so learned Christ;

21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

27 Neither give place to the devil.

28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

To my mind, the biggest word in any language is ‘if’. Immediately after comes the word ‘forgive’.

How in the world are we going to forgive when the firey glow of ‘grudge’ keeps us warm and toasty and gives us plenty to say and think. But that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? We who are Christian are no longer ‘in the world’; we are of it but not in it. At our baptism, we became new creatures, no longer bound by the old ways.

What we do is have a conversation with Jesus. It could go something like this: “Lord, I don’t understand why this situation happened or even fully understand my part in it, but please, Lord, take this bad feeling I have in regard to (insert name here) and create in me the ability to tear away these bad feelings and replace them with the love You would have us bring to each other. Help me to follow You more closely and wipe out the memory of the bad feelings as if they never existed – just like You forgave not only the Romans who nailed You to that tree, but us, too, in Your redemption of us. Help me to forgive like You do. In Your Holy Name I pray. Amen.”

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