Ephesians 4:31-32 / 31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
What a challenge this is for the church world today! We don’t like when people talk against us – well, Jesus promised us in John 15:18 – “18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. I don’t want to say that Jesus is telling us to “get over it”, but in a nice way, he is. He was preparing us to understand that when we chose to follow God, we had no promise that the world would like anything that we were about. We once were gamblers, drinkers, fornicators, liars, thieves, etc…and the world loved us! They had a great time with us – we partied till the sun came back up. Why did things change? At the time, we were doing the same things they were – and we loved it too. Those that love sin will love those who sin – you were in good company. But now – now you have left behind the things that ultimately will destroy you (sin) and chosen a better path. The world cannot stand that path, because it stands for everything they do not stand for.
Those who once used to be your close friends will have trouble connecting with you if they stay in the old ways, and some will even turn against you, telling you that you have changed, or that you are a hypocrite, etc. Anyone who has made a serious attempt to go on for God has heard all of these before at some time or other.
The question is – how do we handle these things? What do we do when someone treats us hateful? Should we do as Jesus taught in Matthew 5:39 – “39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”? Or should we do as the disciples asked Jesus in Luke 9:54 – “ 54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”
Truthfully, if God was into casting fire down on people every time they spoke against Him, not one of us would be alive! There is not one of us who at one time have said something against God that we should not have! YET – God has been very forgiving, and very patient with us. Even God Himself regularly has to “turn the other cheek” on His Heavenly throne as He listens to people regularly chew His name into the ground.
My wife mentioned an old saying earlier in the week – “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. It is not in the Bible, but it is a very strong proverb with a lot of meaning wrapped up in a little sentence. It basically says kindness gets you much more in the end than bitterness. And this is where we begin into the word “kind”.
Taking a look at the scripture mentioned above, among other words, Paul
taught us to be “kind”. What does that word mean? According to its original
Greek meaning, we see that “kind” means “1)fit, fit for use, useful
a)virtuous, good 2)manageable a)mild, pleasant (as opp. to harsh, hard
sharp, bitter) b)of things: more pleasant, of people, kind, benevolent”. How can we go around helping anyone if we are constantly ready to fight? Just as fish are easily scared away by disturbances on the waters, so are people when they hear about drama.
Let’s take a look at the scripture mentioned at the top, and look first at the words that are the opposite of “kind”. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking, malice…sounds pretty bad when you put it all together! But let’s take a look at what these words mean, so we can reflect and see if these are issues that we deal with in our own lives.
“Bitterness” comes from a Greek word which means “extreme wickedness, bitter hatred” and comes from a root word meaning “to fasten together, to build by fastening together”. In a modern-day translation, we could look at it as a byproduct of unforgiveness. When we have been done wrong, and we choose to hold back forgiveness, it wounds us more than anyone else. As the root word implies, we build a stonewall castle in our hearts – a hardened fortress of protection from the wiles of the outside world. We refuse to let others in that fortress. On top of this, our mind is permeated with thoughts concerning the thing that we withhold forgiveness from. Maybe it is from our family, or our boss, or a spouse – whoever it is, their thoughts will dominate our minds. We become entrapped by our own bitterness. We might even get to the point of fantasizing terrible things happen to them, but the truth is certain – we are the ones trapped in the prison of bitterness, and don’t even realize it yet! Bitterness will affect our emotions, robbing us of happiness, and feeding us frustration. It is good to forgive others to be released of this terrible prison. Sometimes it takes spending alone time with God to be set free from these chains.
“Wrath” comes from a word which implies “boiling” and it is very accurate in its description. Proverbs 16:32 teaches us that “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Wrath is a result of us being in bondage to things “setting us off”. We have created certain conditions in our spirit that set off these triggers (not being talked down to, not getting our own way, being treated unfairly, someone speaking evil of us, etc). For instance, if a person has purposed in their heart that no one is going to tell them what to do, when someone tries, their anger will begin to boil over. In the end, they may have won a battle, but they are losing in the war of self-control. In short, they are also a prisoner to their emotions.
Anger is described as “agitation of the soul” in the original Greek – a very befitting concept! It is, in a way, the lesser form of the word “wrath”. If wrath is a boiling pot, anger is certainly a simmering one. However, God doesn’t want our emotions to be governed by everything that goes on. How can we truly be following the spirit of the Lord if we are governed by our feelings? James 1:26 speaks about a bridle of the tongue – we also need a bridle for our emotions. This bridle comes from forgiving others, and from realizing that sometimes, as Jesus said in Luke 23:34, “they know not what they do.”
“Clamour” comes from a root word which means “the crying of the raven”, and it implies a bunch of squawking! How can we say we are peaceful Christians when we are always causing a bunch of uproar? Sometimes people will go so far as to create disturbances just so they have something to “squawk about”! However, God wants peace, not disturbance. It takes getting alone with God to be healed of these feelings.
“Evil speaking” comes from the Greek word “blasphēmia” (“blasphemy”) and it means “slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another's good name”. We might say, “I am not a blasphemer” – but do you go around always tearing someone down with your mouth behind their back? That would make you a blasphemer – a slanderer, a person who uses injurious speech for personal gain. We need God to open our eyes to these things, so we don’t fall prey to a spirit of gossip, looking for opportunities to belittle others.
“Malice” means “malignity, malice, ill-will, desire to injure”. Do we have a genuine desire to see others fall into mischief and harm? If so, we have malice operating in our lives, and it will spread like a spiritual cancer throughout our spirit-man, defiling us. We need Dr. Jesus to come in with His blood and wash away all the iniquity and stain!
Finally! We are through verse 31! Someone might say, “I thought this message was on kind – but we spent the whole time talking about the opposite of kind!” Unless we deal first with the bad things, we cannot really get into the good things as well. We may have a level of kindness, but God wants to help us grow up into a greater level of kindness. To get there, it is going to take some spiritual growth, some spiritual plowing, some repentance, and some humility.
“…kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving” - this is the focus of the lesson today. Granted, for time’s sake, we don’t have as much time to focus on the meanings of the words in verse 32. However, we can come back to them next week. So, to wrap this up, let’s take a quick look at the meaning of the word “kind” here – we can continue next week on this same message.
“Kind” means “1)fit, fit for use, useful a)virtuous, good 2)manageable a)mild, pleasant (as opp. to harsh, hard sharp, bitter) b)of things: more pleasant, of people, kind, benevolent”. Simply put, being kind is treating someone the way you would truly want to be treated – with love and respect. God expects this out of us as Christians – to treat people with kindness. That includes people that you may not like! And if you find that that last sentence struck home, you may have some bitterness to deal with! ;-)
Next week, we will come back to the topic of “kind” – I hope we can walk away from this message with a good understanding of what the opposite of “kind” is, and reflect upon those things. God bless!
11-19-11 – “Kind” Part 1
Ephesians 4:31-32 / 31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
What a challenge this is for the church world today! We don’t like when people talk against us – well, Jesus promised us in John 15:18 – “18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. I don’t want to say that Jesus is telling us to “get over it”, but in a nice way, he is. He was preparing us to understand that when we chose to follow God, we had no promise that the world would like anything that we were about. We once were gamblers, drinkers, fornicators, liars, thieves, etc…and the world loved us! They had a great time with us – we partied till the sun came back up. Why did things change? At the time, we were doing the same things they were – and we loved it too. Those that love sin will love those who sin – you were in good company. But now – now you have left behind the things that ultimately will destroy you (sin) and chosen a better path. The world cannot stand that path, because it stands for everything they do not stand for.
Those who once used to be your close friends will have trouble connecting with you if they stay in the old ways, and some will even turn against you, telling you that you have changed, or that you are a hypocrite, etc. Anyone who has made a serious attempt to go on for God has heard all of these before at some time or other.
The question is – how do we handle these things? What do we do when someone treats us hateful? Should we do as Jesus taught in Matthew 5:39 – “39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”? Or should we do as the disciples asked Jesus in Luke 9:54 – “ 54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”
Truthfully, if God was into casting fire down on people every time they spoke against Him, not one of us would be alive! There is not one of us who at one time have said something against God that we should not have! YET – God has been very forgiving, and very patient with us. Even God Himself regularly has to “turn the other cheek” on His Heavenly throne as He listens to people regularly chew His name into the ground.
My wife mentioned an old saying earlier in the week – “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. It is not in the Bible, but it is a very strong proverb with a lot of meaning wrapped up in a little sentence. It basically says kindness gets you much more in the end than bitterness. And this is where we begin into the word “kind”.
Taking a look at the scripture mentioned above, among other words, Paul
taught us to be “kind”. What does that word mean? According to its original
Greek meaning, we see that “kind” means “1) fit, fit for use, useful
a) virtuous, good 2) manageable a) mild, pleasant (as opp. to harsh, hard
sharp, bitter) b) of things: more pleasant, of people, kind, benevolent”. How can we go around helping anyone if we are constantly ready to fight? Just as fish are easily scared away by disturbances on the waters, so are people when they hear about drama.
Let’s take a look at the scripture mentioned at the top, and look first at the words that are the opposite of “kind”. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking, malice…sounds pretty bad when you put it all together! But let’s take a look at what these words mean, so we can reflect and see if these are issues that we deal with in our own lives.
“Bitterness” comes from a Greek word which means “extreme wickedness, bitter hatred” and comes from a root word meaning “to fasten together, to build by fastening together”. In a modern-day translation, we could look at it as a byproduct of unforgiveness. When we have been done wrong, and we choose to hold back forgiveness, it wounds us more than anyone else. As the root word implies, we build a stonewall castle in our hearts – a hardened fortress of protection from the wiles of the outside world. We refuse to let others in that fortress. On top of this, our mind is permeated with thoughts concerning the thing that we withhold forgiveness from. Maybe it is from our family, or our boss, or a spouse – whoever it is, their thoughts will dominate our minds. We become entrapped by our own bitterness. We might even get to the point of fantasizing terrible things happen to them, but the truth is certain – we are the ones trapped in the prison of bitterness, and don’t even realize it yet! Bitterness will affect our emotions, robbing us of happiness, and feeding us frustration. It is good to forgive others to be released of this terrible prison. Sometimes it takes spending alone time with God to be set free from these chains.
“Wrath” comes from a word which implies “boiling” and it is very accurate in its description. Proverbs 16:32 teaches us that “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Wrath is a result of us being in bondage to things “setting us off”. We have created certain conditions in our spirit that set off these triggers (not being talked down to, not getting our own way, being treated unfairly, someone speaking evil of us, etc). For instance, if a person has purposed in their heart that no one is going to tell them what to do, when someone tries, their anger will begin to boil over. In the end, they may have won a battle, but they are losing in the war of self-control. In short, they are also a prisoner to their emotions.
Anger is described as “agitation of the soul” in the original Greek – a very befitting concept! It is, in a way, the lesser form of the word “wrath”. If wrath is a boiling pot, anger is certainly a simmering one. However, God doesn’t want our emotions to be governed by everything that goes on. How can we truly be following the spirit of the Lord if we are governed by our feelings? James 1:26 speaks about a bridle of the tongue – we also need a bridle for our emotions. This bridle comes from forgiving others, and from realizing that sometimes, as Jesus said in Luke 23:34, “they know not what they do.”
“Clamour” comes from a root word which means “the crying of the raven”, and it implies a bunch of squawking! How can we say we are peaceful Christians when we are always causing a bunch of uproar? Sometimes people will go so far as to create disturbances just so they have something to “squawk about”! However, God wants peace, not disturbance. It takes getting alone with God to be healed of these feelings.
“Evil speaking” comes from the Greek word “blasphēmia” (“blasphemy”) and it means “slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another's good name”. We might say, “I am not a blasphemer” – but do you go around always tearing someone down with your mouth behind their back? That would make you a blasphemer – a slanderer, a person who uses injurious speech for personal gain. We need God to open our eyes to these things, so we don’t fall prey to a spirit of gossip, looking for opportunities to belittle others.
“Malice” means “malignity, malice, ill-will, desire to injure”. Do we have a genuine desire to see others fall into mischief and harm? If so, we have malice operating in our lives, and it will spread like a spiritual cancer throughout our spirit-man, defiling us. We need Dr. Jesus to come in with His blood and wash away all the iniquity and stain!
Finally! We are through verse 31! Someone might say, “I thought this message was on kind – but we spent the whole time talking about the opposite of kind!” Unless we deal first with the bad things, we cannot really get into the good things as well. We may have a level of kindness, but God wants to help us grow up into a greater level of kindness. To get there, it is going to take some spiritual growth, some spiritual plowing, some repentance, and some humility.
“…kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving” - this is the focus of the lesson today. Granted, for time’s sake, we don’t have as much time to focus on the meanings of the words in verse 32. However, we can come back to them next week. So, to wrap this up, let’s take a quick look at the meaning of the word “kind” here – we can continue next week on this same message.
“Kind” means “1) fit, fit for use, useful a) virtuous, good 2) manageable a) mild, pleasant (as opp. to harsh, hard sharp, bitter) b) of things: more pleasant, of people, kind, benevolent”. Simply put, being kind is treating someone the way you would truly want to be treated – with love and respect. God expects this out of us as Christians – to treat people with kindness. That includes people that you may not like! And if you find that that last sentence struck home, you may have some bitterness to deal with! ;-)
Next week, we will come back to the topic of “kind” – I hope we can walk away from this message with a good understanding of what the opposite of “kind” is, and reflect upon those things. God bless!