Ephesians 4:31-32. 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. As we move into the final week looking at these Scriptures I think we all understand that in order to practice verse 32, we must first perform verse 31. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour (loud and confusing noise) and evil speaking are weights and sins that easily beset (hinder) our Christian race that has been so set before each child of God. Of a truth, if we are going to live a life pleasing to the Lord and encouraging to our brothers and sisters in Christ, Ephesians 4.31 must be performed, many times on a daily basis. We simply need to seek the direction and guiding hand of our Lord and Savior each day to assist us with removing these things from our lives in order to practice the art of being kind one to another, being tender hearted and forgiving one another.
Now, the actions the Apostle Paul provides, by inspiration of God unto the church at Ephesus as well as unto all of the saved world, a formula is given for success in this area. After we have put off the negative we are to put outwardly the positive, starting with “be ye kind one to another”. I have found that if I start my day looking for opportunities to cause someone to smile, the day in and of itself becomes much more rewarding. When I say smile I do not mean laughter of foolish jesting, although there is nothing wrong with a good laugh, brethren we need that! Yet, causing someone to smile can be by simply placing a tract into a clerk’s hand in the middle of the day. Furthermore, causing someone to smile many times I have found results from a simple text message or phone call letting that person know you are praying for them and love them. For several years, a great preacher of the gospel in FL would phone me up ‘out of the blue’, just to say “I love and praying for you!” He would then dismiss the phone call. That happened for years on end. Several times he would call late at night to just share with me that souls were saved at church that night or their commitment to faith promise missions for the year. Friend, he was an encourager to say the least and one of the great reason, was because he was ‘kind one to another’. He is now with the Lord and I have found myself many days and months longing for that call, missing it immensely. His testimony of encouragement has been a blessing, one that I took to heart and desire to pass on to others. This week, months and years to come, if the Lord lays someone on your heart - send them a text or call them personally and let them know you love them and that you will pray for them (make sure you pray for them too). You may never know the benefit that message from afar, will have in that persons life, I promise you it will not be in vain.
Tenderhearted, (having a kind, gentle, or sentimental nature) there are certain people in our life that exemplify this quality better than others. One of the qualifications of a pastor is that of being ‘given to hospitality’, now also, there some that exemplify this quality better than others as well. Nevertheless, it is a characteristic externally experienced that is a quality of internal origin. We have all heard the cliche ‘you can catch more flies with sugar’ (maybe it is bees with honey - but you get the picture), tenderheartedness becomes a fruit or byproduct of setting our intentions of being kind one to another. Tenderheartedness is the willingness to understand what someone else is experiencing in order to help them through a situation or comfort them in a time of need. Some may be simple, others are quite difficult. Yet, when our minds are set to be kind one to another our heart becomes tender to the needs of others.
The foundation of the former two are built upon that of forgiveness, ‘forgiving one another’. In life we deal with humans, thus having to deal with human nature. People are going to offend and be offended. The key is to not allow these offenses form a wedge in the way we live our life (this is where performing v.31 enables the practice of v.32). Many may say ‘well preacher, you don’t understand what he or she did to me’, and you are correct I don’t understand. Just remember, the Lord has never given us a task that He has not also given us the capabilities to fulfill, nor without the needed instructions.
With that said, how are we to forgive one another so that we may be kind one to another and tenderhearted? “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” The same way that God forgave us, because of the great sacrifice paid on the cross, is the same way we are to forgive others. Sure people are going to hurt, harm and attempt to hinder you. The greatest ‘weight loss’ method in all the universe is that of forgiveness. As Christ hath forgiven me, thus releasing me from the bondage of my own offenses, we forgive others also. In doing so, we not only lay aside the weights, that can eventually become sins, besetting our race, but we also are set free to be kind one to another and tenderhearted. In turn pleasing our Lord and encouraging the brethren.
My challenge to you this week is to set your mind to be kind to those you come in contact with, becoming tenderhearted for their soul. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
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