Forgiveness and Kindness = A Christ-Like Life

In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (vss. 31-32).

There are some folks who hear those words about living a life of love and think to themselves, “What mush. That’s too soft. Don’t you know that you have to be tough to survive in the real world? Compassion and kindness are for wimps, not for real life.” That was pretty much the attitude of most of the people in Paul’s culture.

But if you take a long, hard look at the life of Paul and Jesus, you will see that neither of them were wimps. They were men of courage. They knew how to stare danger, and even death in the face. And yet, they also knew that little is to be gained by escalating anger and malice into a more serious situation. They knew that if you live by an “Eye for an Eye” philosophy, it can only produce a downward spiral of revenge and resentment. In fact, someone has said that if the world adopted the “Eye for an Eye, and Tooth for a Tooth” philosophy, we would all be toothless and blind.

The best way to defeat a perceived enemy is to make them your friend. That is precisely what Christ has done for us. Though we have done wrong against him, he forgave us and calls us his friend. This is not a justification for being a wimp. It is not a call to be soft. It is simply a recognition that hatred breeds hatred. Anger breeds anger and it is very possible for us to turn a minor disagreement into a major conflict simply by the way we handle our anger.

So, let us not “Grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (vs. 30) by handling our anger wrongly. Instead, let us “be imitators of God and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us” (5:1-2).

Tim Hobbs, Pastor

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