Well, once more, may God be pleased
to bless us as we conclude this fourth chapter of the Epistle
of Paul to the Ephesians, reading the last two verses, 31 and 32,
which read, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake. hath forgiven you." As we read such statements as
this, surely we must conclude that if everybody was given grace
to heed these words and to walk them out, the world would be
very different. Indeed, the Christian church
would be very different, because we would be seeking those things
which are good and right and God-honouring, and we should
be turning away from all that which is our old nature, which
comes often to the fore. Of course, in the earlier part
of this chapter, we read about that situation, the difference
between the old man, the old nature, our old sinful nature,
and the new man, our new nature, which we received when we were
born again by the Spirit. And in the 21st verse we read,
if so be that ye have heard him, that's the Saviour, and have
been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. So the Apostle is
directing us so importantly to this great truth that if we are
those who have heard him and have been taught by him, then
surely the outcome should be to follow the words that we've
already meditated on in this chapter, and then coming down
to these last verses, which really appear to sum up that which has
gone before. Of course, it's very striking
words, aren't they? Let all bitterness. It doesn't
say, well, just the boundaries, it says let all bitterness. The Word of God is very complete,
isn't it? It doesn't give any room for
manoeuvre at all. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice." It's a very great statement, isn't it? And
how we need to pray individually that this may be our experience
every day, that we may not be left to any bitterness in our
spirit. And bitterness really is generated
by jealousy jealousy is often generated through pride we see
how these things work together and the devil very readily stokes
these fires so they spring up and become that which is evil
so we should be very concerned that there may not be in our
lives any bitterness and we conclude this chapter with these wonderful
words, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you. And so we have the example of
the Saviour set before us and we should always desire to follow
the example of the Saviour. And when we think what he had
to endure, and yet you see he wasn't bitter, He had to endure
bitterness himself. But you see, he wasn't bitter
to those who were against him. We have therefore a glorious
example for us today. And we should be thankful that
we have words like this just to remind us of the relevance
and importance of the Christian life. Because we are on this
earth for a purpose, a divine purpose. We're not on this earth
just to roam around pleasing ourselves. We are to be a good
example. We are to be a witness of those
things surely believed among us and to, by the grace of God,
put on Christ as that wonderful blessing. And so let all bitterness
and wrath and wrath and anger, you know, it's so easy, isn't
it? to become cross. It's so easy for wrath to spring
up, especially if we think we're right. And the people perhaps
we're dealing with, perhaps the person we're dealing with, we
think he's wrong and we can't understand why they don't understand
the rightness of the situation or the rightness of the argument.
And we can very easily become cross and indeed we can easily
become angry and also the result is wrath and anger. Well, again,
it's important, isn't it, to have a calm spirit and to be
blessed with that, that Christ-like spirit. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he went about doing good, but he was reviled, he reviled
not again. And that's the benchmark for
us today. So let us not, then, let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour, as we consider that,
clamouring after things which perhaps are not necessary. We make a great fuss about things
and clamour and evil speaking. Again, that means we mustn't
speak evil. against people. It's not good,
is it, to be a tittle-tattler, speaking about evil. It's good
to speak about good. We ought to look for the good
in one another. We're not to highlight the evil. And therefore the apostle tells
us to put away these things and, evil speaking, be put away from
you with all malice. That's really concluding word
malice, and necessary it is that we don't have malice one toward
another. We don't bear a grudge against
one another, but that we desire to walk before one another in
love and union. Always remember the love of Christ
toward us, amazing as it is, and therefore how relevant and
important it is that we by the grace of God are able to come
and to love one another, love the brethren, whatever the situation. Sometimes we can be very awkward,
sometimes we can be very difficult. It doesn't mean to say or to
act any differently to such people. We are to love one another and
we are to put away from us all these things, however justified
we may feel. Is it in accordance with the
word of God? Well, it's good when God gives
us grace to not respond, to not be tempted to retaliate, but
to be calm and desiring to do those things which God would
have us to do. And then we have the other side
of things. And this is equally important. and be kind one to another. Kind, go out of our way to do
good, to be kind. It may be costly, sometimes these
things are, but don't forget what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done and has always had his wonderful example before our eyes to convince
us and to instruct us in the right way and how to live our
lives, to be kind one to another, not just the people that we like
and the people that we get on with, but the household of faith,
the whole Church of God. There are some crooked sticks
amongst us individually. We are ourselves perhaps, but
how good it is if we are concerned to be kind one to another. That
means to not say unkind things, to be kind, not do unkind things. but to be kind, and be kind one
to another, tender-hearted, to be tender. It's a nice expression,
isn't it? Tender one to another. We're
thankful, aren't we? The Lord is tender-hearted toward
us. He doesn't deal with us, does
he? As our sins deserve it, if he
did, we wouldn't be here. And to realise the Lord understands
us. tender-hearted. So we have this
gracious admonition. It's tender-hearted. Be kind
to one another, tender-hearted. Then he says, forgiving one another. This is so essential, isn't it,
really? I firmly believe that no true
child of God will ever go to glory with an unforgiving spirit. And the reason, very simply,
is this. If Christ has forgiven us, and we never deserve to be
forgiven, because we've often gone against light and knowledge,
if Christ has forgiven us, we should willingly forgive one
another. However difficult that may be,
and again, as I've said, we may think we're just, we may think
we're right, and we may be, but we are still to forgive one another. And he gives, of course, his
final statement that I've already referred to, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Well, may we all know the
blessing of forgiveness. And I'm sure if we do, by the
wonderful Spirit of God, that must influence us in the way
that we respond to one another, that we forgive people. And that
constantly, and of course, we're reminded, the Lord was asked,
how many times should I forgive? And the Lord said, I say unto
you, 70 times seven. That really means a continual
forgiveness. If people would forgive someone,
and they come and do the same thing against us again, are we
to respond? We are to forgive them. Christlike
spirit. It's a good example, as I said
when I began, if the Church of God was able to keep these two
verses as they are written, what a wonderful place the Church
would be. Unity, Christ-like, Christ-exalted,
and there would be that unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. Well, may we pray for it, may
we strive for it, and may God grant it to us, if His holy will.