Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil
speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you. – Ephesians 4.31-32
One
of the things that saddens me most about the church is our proclivity to fight
each other at the drop of hat. There are some things that we just should not do
and Jesus tells us that the world will know that we are His disciples by the
love we have and manifest to each other.
I
hate to keep bad mouthing social media, because I do like it and I use and I
think it can be useful for the ministry, but at the same time I have seen it
destroy friendships because for some reason folks seem to think it is okay to
say things on social media that you would never say anywhere else. There is not
such things as level headed discussions. Every post seems to become a fight –
even among believers. Things seem to be posted to antagonise or provoke or
cause a row so it gets plenty of comments and plenty of likes.
And yet
here the church has to be told to put away or lay aside bitterness and wrath
and clamour and evil speaking and malice. We are told to replace it with
kindness and tender-heartedness and forgiveness. Any why?
Because,
after all, God has forgiven us.
When
I think of how God has forgiven me how can I not forgive my brothers and sisters
in Christ? How can I not have a tender heart and not be filled with kindness?
Honestly,
is my life marked by bitterness and anger and wrath and those kinds of things,
or is it marked by love and kindness and forgiveness? It’s pretty clear cut,
isn’t it.
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