WHERE DO YOU THINK
YOU ARE GOING WITH THAT?
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32
Who are we fooling? Not God. Not our fellow church members, family and friends. We come to church each week, sometimes on Wednesday too, we hold offices, we stand up in business meetings and give our two cents all the while we are behind the scenes taking time to hurt others by our words and actions. We smile in one another’s faces and when out of sight and in the
company of “like minds”, we bad mouth and slander. Some are even too evil to fake a smile but instead give out scowls, roll eyes and glare with hatred. Where do they think they are going with that? Not to heaven.
This sounds harsh yes, but the passage above does too. This portion of a letter written to the church in Ephesus meant serious business. Obviously the church members there were hating on one another, going off on each other, fighting, backbiting, backstabbing, spreading vicious gossip and rumors to hurt reputations, mean, walking by not speaking, rolling eyes, cutting eyes, shaking fists, you name it.
My question is, “how can this be?” How can there be, in the midst of church, church service, church activities and fellowship, such hatred and meanness? How can and why do we allow Satan to use us so? Don’t we realize that when we do anything hurtful or say anything negative to or about one of God’s children, the devil has us doing his dirty work? I don’t know about you but
I’d prefer not to be one of the devil’s own while claiming or acting like Christ’s.
Some of us hold grudges for days, weeks and years. Don’t we know that holding a grudge is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will die? Some of us are sitting around dwelling on what someone is doing or has done that has nothing to do with us personally. But we just want to be up in other people’s business causing havoc.
The devil has some of us in his total control and we don’t even know it. Instead thinking we are good just because we go to church and have a few friends on our side. Those friends that support the wrong are following the devil too.
All evil and wrong actions toward others will accompany consequences so beware. It is time to wake up and consider our actions, thoughts and behavior. Ok so we believe we are faithful church members. Do we love everybody no matter what just like Christ says we must? (Matt 5:44) Or are we just filled with the wrong spirit? If we persist and insist on doing things and saying hurtful and harmful things to others then we have the wrong spirit. There is no way
around it; there is no acceptable excuse for it. This behavior is of the devil.
The right spirit is described in Galatians 5:22, 23. This is the spirit of Jesus Christ which is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, humble and has self control.
There is hope. We can turn away, repent and ask for God’s Holy Spirit to take over. If we have hurt or caused any harm to our brother or sister, we can go to them and sincerely apologize.
Today is the day to forgive and love.