Young People's Group

The Challenge to Relate Well with Each Other

by Mitchell Tan
August 05, 2020

SEEKING TO BE MORE LIKE THE LORD

Becoming more like the Lord Jesus is one of the great endeavours of being a child of God. Salvation is more than just having a genuine hope of going to heaven. There is also the personal lifelong goal of being transformed from glory to glory so as to reflect the image of God in our lives. Paul had vigorously challenged the Ephesians to put off the old man and to put on the new man. We are to lay aside our old ways of walking in sin and to seek to walk in true righteousness and holiness.

SETTING ASIDE ALL SINFUL WAYS AGAINST OTHERS

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”
Ephesians 4:31

1. DIFFERENT SINS TO DEAL WITH

These are sins that reside and swell within the heart. Bitterness is seen as a sense of animosity that grows within the heart. Wrath has the idea of rage. It is like being hot-tempered and it can express itself in vehement outbursts. Anger is a strong sense of displeasure that swells within the heart. Clamouring and evil speaking are more observable sins. Clamouring is loud shouting against another person and evil speaking is to speak against another in an abusive manner.

2. DEALING WITH ONE SIN AT A TIME

In the English NKJV translation of this verse, it seems like there is only one connective conjunction “and”. However, in the Greek, each sin, from wrath to evil speaking, has a connective conjunction written in front of them – “and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking”. The use of the “and” is to help us see each sin as a separate sin. Each one has to be dealt with separately. They have to be dealt with one at a time. We are to cast them away and totally eradicate them.

LEARNING TO RELATE TO EACH OTHER WELL

“And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32

1. A HEART OF LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE

This list of items is meant to be seen as a cluster. In the Greek version, there are no connective conjunctions joining the list of items. They are meant to be worked on and applied together. We are to learn to have a heart of love and compassion. The Greek idea of being “tender-hearted” is to feel for people from our “bowels” (which has no English equivalent). We are to learn to show deeply compassion towards others.

2. EXPRESSION OF COMPASSION TO PEOPLE

A. BEING KIND TO EACH OTHER

We are meant to show love and kindness to those who are in need. We are to show our care and concern for each other.

B. LEARNING TO GRACIOUSLY FORGIVE EACH OTHER

There should also be a deep appreciation of God’s grace in how He has forgiven us of our sins in Christ (Ephesians 1:7). Even as the Lord God has forgiven us, we too should forgive others. Let’s learn to be gracious in forgiving those who may have done evil things against us.

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