PRINCIPLES
28th Jun 2017
Paul was not afraid to boldly address the way we should live if we want to please God and have a life of blessing and peace. I was reading Ephesians 4 in the Message and found his direct and uncompromising style refreshing and challenging.
Verse 26 says “Go ahead and be angry.....but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry.” Joyce and I, in our marriage have lived by the principle, expressed in the King James translation, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” It has not always been easy, but when we have let the anger remain overnight we find it has grown horns! To obey the word is best.
Paul continues in verse 29, “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Loose talk, gossip, criticism and things that undermine are like a disease, we need to purge them and speak only encouragement, blessing and faith. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death.”
Verse 30 continues, “Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.” We were never meant to live out of our own resources, we need a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, at every moment of every day. Jesus told His disciples, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” The same is true for us.
The final two verses of the chapter say, “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.” We need to live such lives that others may see Jesus in word and action through everything we do and say.
Paul’s words are not to rebuke us, but to help us live blessed lives and to be a blessing to others.
by Charles SibthorpePaul was not afraid to boldly address the way we should live if we want to pleas
